Ancient Bethlehem seal discovered

Posted on May 24, 2012 by John Hilton

Interesting news from Jerusalem, where archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription “Bethlehem.”

The finding is significant because it would seem to prove that Bethlehem was not just the name of a fabled biblical town, but a real place. Outside of biblical references, there are no other records of Bethlehem from that era.

Ancient seal inscribed with "Bethlehem."

The seal dates back to the period of the first biblical Jewish Temple, between the eighth and seventh century B.C., at a time when Jewish kings reigned over the ancient kingdom of Judah and 700 years before Jesus was born.

The seal was written in ancient Hebrew script from the same time. Pottery found nearby also dated back to the same period, he said.

Shmuel Achituv, an expert in ancient scripts at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University who did not participate in the dig, told The Associated Press that the discovery was the oldest reference to Bethlehem ever found outside of the Bible. Apart from the seal, the other mentions of Bethlehem, Achituv said, “are only in the Bible.”

The find lends credence to those who consider the Bible an accurate history book, rather than a spiritual guide of parables.

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In other news, I am doing a story on the Catholic church’s move to possibly restrict annulments. See the story here.

The U.S. is home to just 6 percent of the world’s Catholic population but accounting for roughly two-thirds of the 60,000 annulments issued by church courts each year.

For my story, I am looking for someone who has received an annulment from the church, or tried to get one.

Contact me at 771-2024, or by email at jhilton@ydr.com.

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Stryper fans unite!

Posted on May 23, 2012 by John Hilton

The 80s were a confusing time musically. I started the decade listening to Kool & The Gang and ended it by discovering Black Sabbath.

In between, I went through a hair band phase and saw Winger, Cinderella, ZZ Top and others in concert. One of the most interesting acts of the time was a four-piece Christian glam metal band from California known as Stryper.

Interesting because the Christian message would seem to be at odds with heavy metal rock and roll. But the music was good, so my friends and I really didn’t care what spiritual package it came in. It was more that yellow-and-black obsession that made Styper a bit uncool, but that’s another story.

Why am I suddenly hearkening back to the halcyon days of Stryper? Because it seems my inbox is suddenly overflowing with Christian books and music.

This afternoon I am meeting with a group of York folks who are set to unleash a stable of Christian gospel acts. They are calling themselves God Nation and include hip hop, rap and gospel singers among their members.

Should be an interesting interview. Look for that in an upcoming edition of the York Daily Record.

Yesterday, I spoke with Randy Thompson of York Haven, who was in Nashville over the winter to record a CD with his father, the Rev. Paul Thompson of Punxsutawney. Many of the songs are Christian-based and the pair are performing across the area.

In addition, the Rev. Jasmin Sculark of Shiloh Baptist Church has a new book titled, “Dancing with Broken Bones: A Guide to Life Challenges” and Kelley Latta of Hanover has penned “Tested by Fire: Will What You Build Suirvive?”

There are many different avenues for the believers to get their messages to the nonbelievers. I’m just interested in how pop culture art tagged with the Christian label is received by the public.

All I remember about Stryper is the music was no different than that of Motley Crue or Journey or any of the other popular bands I listened too in the day. Although I haven’t read them, the books by Sculark and Latta appear to have a lot in common with secular self-help books.

Is the Christian label and plus, or does it carry negative connotations?

Discuss.

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Gay marriage and the Bible

Posted on May 22, 2012 by John Hilton

I find the issue of gay rights an interesting one in the context of religion. I tend to view a commitment to Christ as a commitment to compassion for all. That includes gay people. Obviously, many people within the religion community don’t see it this way. I see them struggling to find a justification to condemn gay people. Sometimes they interpret the Bible to fit this need. Others claim life was created by Adam and Eve, “not Adam and Steve.” Here are a few interesting develops just in the last week on this issue:

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Does Heaven exist?

Posted on May 21, 2012 by John Hilton

Famed Christian scholar N.T. Wright, who made a May 13 trip to Dallastown, is the most prominent voice to date questioning the traditional view of heaven.

Wright, a former Anglican bishop and author of several books on Christianity, is among those skeptical of a comforting heaven that welcomes those to the afterlife. As the Religion News Service reports, “scholars on the right and left increasingly say that comforting belief in an afterlife has no basis in the Bible and would have sounded bizarre to Jesus and his early followers.”

N.T. Wright

Wright explores the topic of heaven more fully in his latest book, “How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels.” He has said that presentations on heaven research at local churches have generated much interest and acceptance.

“An awful lot of ordinary church-going Christians are simply millions of miles away from understanding any of this,” Wright has said.

Of course, it’s not news to question the existence of heaven. I have an atheist friend who maintains that heaven is a man-made creation to avoid the unpleasant confrontation with death.

But Wright, who teaches about early Christianity and New Testament at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, carries plenty of influence within the clergy community. To have a academic like Wright writing books about this issue is big.

He is certainly a believer. One of Wright’s earlier books devoted 800+ pages to prove the resurrection of Jesus, another event questioned by nonbelievers.

The idea of heaven appears to come from first-century Jews, Wright said, who believed Jesus was Messiah also believed he inaugurated the Kingdom of God and were convinced the world would be transformed in their own lifetimes. However, this required the active participation of God’s people practicing social justice, nonviolence and forgiveness to become fulfilled.

We are still in the process of building the kingdom, Wright said. The idea of heaven developed into its present form during the Middle Ages, he said.

“Our picture, which we get from Dante and Michelangelo, particularly of a heaven and a hell, and perhaps of a purgatory as well, simply isn’t consonant with what we find in the New Testament,” Wright said. “A lot of these images of hellfire and damnation are actually pagan images which the Middle Ages picks up again and kind of wallows in.”

What do you think? Does heaven exist?

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Shorter University campaign targets employees

Posted on May 16, 2012 by John Hilton

Interesting goings on at Shorter University in Rome, Ga.

I had never heard of Shorter University until Monday, but they seem determined to get national publicity. Forcing your faculty and staff to sign a pledge renouncing homosexuality and a few other activities, like drinking alcohol in public, is one way to do it.

Really an interesting move by the university to assert control over employees’ personal thoughts and lives. I thought it was 2012.

Let’s consider some context:

Shorter University has been affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention since 1959. It began having trouble with the convention in 2001, when the organization sought to take more control of the school, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Shorter’s board voted to cut ties with the organization after the convention began to assert more authority. The Baptist group filed suit, arguing that Shorter could not unilaterally become independent, and won.

In 2008, the school joined the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, known for hiring mostly only evangelical Protestants, according to Inside Higher Ed.

The Associated Baptist Press reports that new trustees set out to strengthen the school’s Southern Baptist identity, first by moving professors perceived as too liberal out of the religion department into non-teaching roles and then by electing Don Dowless, a vice president at North Greenville University, as Shorter’s 19th president effective June 1, 2011.

Then came the “personal lifestyle statement.” A Save Our Shorter website lists nearly 60 faculty and staff members who are departing over the statement adopted by trustees last fall.

Michael Wilson, off-campus librarian for professional studies since 1998, has become a symbol for those targeted by the new Shorter forces. A gay man, Wilson signed his statement, but crossed out the following sentence: “I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.”

So far Wilson is still employed, but Dowless has said that staff members who do not sign the statement of faith will not be allowed to keep their jobs.

While I support the right of private organizations to hire and fire and generally associate with whom they want, this is pretty remarkable for 2012. I’m not sure where in the Bible it directs followers to discriminate against any group of people.

What do you think about Shorter’s campaign to assert control over employees’ thoughts and personal behavior?

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I need your Vacation Bible School dates

Posted on May 15, 2012 by John Hilton

Summer means vacation Bible school programs for many area churches.

To have your vacation Bible school listed in the York Daily Record, send announcements to news@ydr.com by June 4 with VBS title/theme, church name, location, times, cost and contact information.

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Girl Scouts in the Catholic Church crosshairs

Posted on May 14, 2012 by John Hilton

Cookie season may have passed, but the Girl Scouts find themselves in the news again through no fault of their own.

The Catholic Church is threatening to cut ties with the GSA over lingering (and largely unproven it seems) allegations of close ties between the Girl Scouts and liberal women’s groups (specifically, Planned Parenthood).

The fallout is being watched as millions of Girl Scouts meet regularly at church facilities. And Catholic girls make up about a quarter of GSA membership.

The net is buzzing with questions about the entire episode. As far as I can tell, the allegations stem from a 2010 Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute complaint that GSA distributed to young girls a guide titled “Happy, Healthy and Hot: A Young Person’s Guide to Their Rights, Sexuality and Living with HIV.”

Leadership of the Girl Scouts adamantly they had any role in the guide. One of the long-running concerns is the Girl Scouts‘ membership in the 145-nation World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

The association, known as WAGGGS, is on record as saying girls and young women “need an environment where they can freely and openly discuss issues of sex and sexuality.” It also has called for increased access to condoms to protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

Also, In 2004, the Great Plains Council of Girl Scouts, representing 11,000 girls, hired Beverly Todd Nolte as their CEO. Previously, Nolte had held marketing and lobbying positions with Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs

Really? An eight-year-old hire? This seems to be the entire dossier against the GSA. Seems a tad flimsy to me.

Coming on the heels of the Vatican crackdown on nuns and threats to tighten annulment rules, it makes it clear which direction the church is heading.

I should have a response this afternoon from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg about its position and relationship with the GSA. I want to know if any local Girl Scout troops have ties with the church and whether those ties are at risk.

Most of all, I want to know where our local Catholic leadership stands on this issue. What do you think? Much ado about nothing? Or is the church right to stand up for its values and keep the pressure on the GSA?

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A softer, gentler Christian culture war

Posted on May 13, 2012 by John Hilton

The author of a new book on faith and politics says young evangelicals are tired of the 30-year culture war and want to make change in more subtle ways.

Author Jonathan Merritt wrote a USA Today op-ed piece that ran the day before the official May 7 release of his new book, “A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars.”

Jonathan Merritt

Jonathan Merritt is the son of former Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt, and serves on the staff of his father’s Atlanta-area mega church. The younger Merritt said younger Christians are diverging from older Christians on both the right and left who have used the Bible as a political tool and reduced Christianity “to little more than a voting bloc.”

Merritt’s previous book, “Green Like God,” explored the generation of rising evangelicals’ move from concern about just abortion and gay marriage to a broader array of social issues such as creation care.

“Christians are awakening to the ways in which our cultural coarseness has affected their own community,” Merritt writes in his op-ed piece. “They’ve heard their leaders resort to extreme rhetoric, insults and name-calling, whereby those who disagree with Christians are accused of being unpatriotic, pagans, baby-killers and anti-God.”

As a result, this trend has led to 70 percent of non-Christians ages 16 to 29 saying Christians are “insensitive to others,” Merritt said, citing data from the Barna Group.

Another survey, conducted ast month at a gathering of more than 700 young Christian leaders in Washington, found that 61 percent of participants claim they don’t affiliate with either the right or left, Merritt said.
The book is interesting and the hypothesis is supported. But I still see folks like Franklin Graham and James Dobson carrying a lot of influence. Not sure that is going to noticeably change anytime soon.

What do you think?

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That gay marriage thing

Posted on May 10, 2012 by John Hilton

Not sure what to talk about today. If only there were some big news with religious implications like, oh, the president taking a stand on gay marriage.

Yeah, wow, I did not see that coming.

Seems like an odd thing to do right before a political election. Surely nobody favoring gay marriage was going to vote for Mitt Romney, so I am not sure what the president gains from this.

It may even cost him votes from some fence-sitters who believe the Bible is definitively against same-sex marriage.

Speaking of the Bible, it came up yesterday in a House debate on the issue when Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) said the Bible is hardly the the go-to book for public policies. She quoted Leviticus 20:13, which says a man must be put to death if he has sex with another man.

“That’s the Old Testament,” protested Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA).

Here’s a roundup of interesting notes on the gay issue (courtesy of Religion News Service):

* There has been a lot of news in recent years of congregations leaving their mainline denominations over the gay issue. But it is usually because leadership is too liberal. Now comes a California church splitting from the U.S. Presbyterian Church because it isn’t liberal enough.

PCUSA approved the ordination of gay and lesbian lay persons in 2010. Locally, the Presbytery of Donegal, comprised of 58 congregations in York, Lancaster and Chester counties, adopted gay ordination last year. As a result of the move, several congregations in the area have split off as a result.

But the West Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles claims PCUSA hasn’t done enough to embrace gays. The church plans to formally join the ranks of the more liberal United Church of Christ on Saturday.

“I can’t wait” said the Rev. Dan Smith, a gay pastor who has led the progressive congregation with about 57 members since the 1980s. “It’s like being released from an abusive relationship,” he told Reuters. “We’re ready to be set free.”

* Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued the following statement on the president’s announcement:

“President Obama’s comments today in support of the redefinition of marriage are deeply saddening. As I stated in my public letter to the President on September 20, 2011, the Catholic Bishops stand ready to affirm every positive measure taken by the President and the Administration to strengthen marriage and the family. However, we cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society. The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better. Unfortunately, President Obama’s words today are not surprising since they follow upon various actions already taken by his Administration that erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage. I pray for the President every day, and will continue to pray that he and his Administration act justly to uphold and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. May we all work to promote and protect marriage and by so doing serve the true good of all persons.”

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‘Prosperity Theology’ takes a hit

Posted on May 9, 2012 by John Hilton

One of my favorite topics — the so-called “prosperity theology” — was back in the news last night, and not in a good way.

No, it wasn’t about Joel Osteen, although he has a connection to the story.

Ephren Taylor

ABC News “Nightline” ran a story about Ephren Taylor. Who is Ephren Taylor? Apparently he was a favorite of noted prosperity pastors like Osteen and Eddie Long of the mega New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Not that either man is returning Mr. Taylor’s phone calls these days.

Taylor visited both churches (Osteen hosted him at his Lakewood Church in Houston) in recent years as part of his “Building Wealth Tour,” which crisscrossed the country touting his investments and financial advice.

Prosecutors say Taylor had a brilliant scheme (actually they call it a Ponzi scheme): use the pulpit as credibility to attract investors.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Taylor’s scheme was aimed to “swindle over $11 million, primarily from African-American churchgoers.”

“We’re going to show you how to get wealth and use it for the building of his kingdom,” Taylor shouted to the congregation one morning in 2009.

Taylor, 29, has disappeared, hiding out from lawsuits, federal charges and angry, mostly African-American, investors in at least 40 states.

Interesting. Be wary, my friends. Religion isn’t about how much money you have and anybody trying to separate you from your money is no man of God.

Read the full sad story here.

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