Evil Is In The World

There was a senseless tragedy in Connecticut today.  If you've been under a rock and haven't seen any media (at least here in the US), a demented, evil person walked into an elementary school and shot to death 20 children and 8 adults.  We may never know the underlying reasons for his murderous rampage, but nothing in his past could ever excuse such a horrible act.

Think about the parents, family, friends, and other children for a moment.  These children had gone to a normal day of school like so many million do every day.  Newtown is a small community, not what you would ever consider as prone to such an event.  This could happen in any school in the country.  The timing could hardly be worse as we are 11 days away from Christmas.  That means that in all likelihood presents were already bought for those who were murdered.  They may actually already be wrapped and under the tree at this moment.  What must it feel like to find out your child has been killed at their school in a mass shooting, then go home and see the present you bought for them wrapped neatly and awaiting eager hands to open it Christmas Day?  

I heard about the news when I got into my car after having watched The Hobbit with my wife and two children.  My kids are 10 and 11, close to the age of those who died.  I can't imagine having to face what these parents are going through.  As I was running errands my wife was watching the news reports on TV and crying.  My son came in and saw the newcasters talking about the shooting.  "Mommy, why would someone do that?" he asked her.

How do you answer something like that?  Because I don't think anyone has a good answer.  There is absolutely no reason to explain why anyone would murder like this.  Nothing except evil.

I am a Christian and fully believe in Satan as a real entity.  I believe in demons and I believe in pure evil.  Now, I don't think everything bad that happens is due to demon-possessed people.  Humans are quite depraved enough in their own souls to perform heinous acts by their own inner evil and don't need external help.  But I also know that Satan does try to influence people both directly and indirectly.  The only excuse for murdering children in this manner is pure evil, whether internal or external.  And though this may somewhat explain the behavior, it in no way gives credence to it.

We are seeing and hearing more about things like this in modern times.  Remember the shooting at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado this year? There have been others like that in malls, schools, and other public places.  Such mass shootings often make individual murders seem trivial and go unnoticed by the public at large.  But the killing of even one person is a tragedy to those that love them.  Is the sorrow of a parent who has lost their child in a car accident any less than that of one of the parents in Newtown, Connecticut?  We need to remember and pray for everyone who is going through such hardships, not just the ones affected today.

So what can we do?  First of all, put politics aside.  Though I'm a political and social conservative, I really don't want to hear about the arguments for or against gun control on a day like this.  We're not going to solve the problems that lead to tragedies through laws or lack thereof.  The root cause of these evil events is in the heart, not in the legal or social system.  Today if I see a politician using this tragedy to promote their own viewpoint I would want to go up and slap them.  This isn't about politics.

We need to change hearts.  We need to embrace love.  No, I'm not going all "hippie" on you, and I don't believe in the kind of "tolerance" that the American political Left promotes.  We need to have a society that is based on morals and that embraces supporting each other rather than dividing ourselves.  Even just in my lifetime I've seen a breaking down of the family and an acceptance of things that really shouldn't be allowed.  All in the name of "tolerance".  I'm sorry, but there are many things in our society that we should not tolerate. By having a relativistic point of view we no longer tell people that something is "right" or "wrong".  And that leads to a belief that nothing is wrong.

Of course, as a fairly fundamentalist Christian (though non-traditional since I'm also a geek), I'm going to talk about the need for God.  As we have pushed God out of school, business, and the public eye we have also gotten rid of our moral yardstick and the sense of something holy.  We have lost our reverential fear of our Creator and the consequences of our actions.  The idea of loving enemies and supporting those in need seems so far away in much of today's society.  I actually feel sorry for those who don't have Christ in their lives, as in times of tragedy He is the perfect person to go to and rely on.  I know that God wants to comfort the broken hearts, if only people will let Him.  And if more people followed the example of Jesus, we would have fewer events like happened today.

Sorry if I've rambled today.  This entry is a bit more free-form than I usually do, and I plan on leaving it that way.  The events today made me think more than many things I hear on the news, in part because the children killed could have been friends of my own kids.

Stop right now and pray for these people and others like them around the world.  Then immediately find or call your own children, hug them if you can, and tell them that you love them.

Bringing Up New Christians

I grew up "Christian", but it wasn't a real focus of our life.  We went to church on Sunday and attended many church events.  I was raised Lutheran so I went through confirmation classes and regular Bible lessons.  But at home we didn't really make a big deal over it.  We prayed over meals and said bedtime prayers, but it was almost routine and ritualistic.  God didn't permeate our lives and influence our decisions, at least as far as I could tell.  I had a good childhood and good parents, but the importance of Christ was minimal.

Since I became a parent after my salvation, trying to bring my kids up as Christians is important to me.  However, I sometimes feel at a loss because of the lack of this in my own upbringing.  I want them to have a stronger Christian foundation than I did and truly love God.  I want them to have a passion for Christ and involve him in their own lives.  I want them to understand why they do it and not merely follow my own rituals.

That's not always easy.  I often struggle with my own relationship with God and don't spend as much time with Him as I should.  That makes it more difficult to set a great example and lead by doing.  I'll also admit that I'm sometimes so busy with other things that it's easy just to tell the kids to go away and do their own thing.  That's not good parenting in general, let alone acting as a good Christian.

It's important to share Christ with children.  Ultimately everyone is responsible for their own fate and relationship with Christ.  However, parents can influence kids to or away from Jesus.  Obviously I want to do the former.  So we earnestly pray at each meal, we talk about God openly with them, and every night we have a family devotional and prayer time.  We are trying to instill good Christian habits in them.

But it goes beyond events and tasks.  When we need to make a decision, we try to deliberately include prayer and seeking God.  When the kids do something wrong we couch it in terms of the Bible and sin.  Good parenting doesn't have to be Christian-based, but the Bible really does tell us the best ways to act and think so we want to keep that front and center.

It's not always easy.  But it's one of the most important things I will do in my life.

Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving in the US and Canada.  We use this day to reflect on what we're thankful for and celebrate the blessings that we have.  It's a time for family, food, and preparing for the Black Friday sales.  Traditionally we spend a lot of time listing out the things we're thankful for and letting people know how they bless us.

But why limit it to today?

I try to remember to give thanks to God every day.  At least once daily I thank him for my wife, and try to thank him for my job at the end of the day, no matter how good or bad the day was.  I'm not successful at giving thanks as much as I should, but I try to keep it to the other 364 days of the year as much as I do on Thanksgiving Day.

We should be grateful for what we have every day of the year.  I certainly don't mind setting aside a day of special celebration just like we do for Christ's birthday and resurrection day.  But I think many of us forget to give thanks the rest of the year.

Make a pledge to find something to be thankful for every day of the year.  And thank God out loud so that you really make it known.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15 NIV

What's A Christian To Do About Magic?

I have a sad admission to make.  Many years ago I thought that Harry Potter was evil because it promoted "magic", and that's spoken against in the Bible.  As a Christian, I'm supposed to avoid those things and so I condemned those books and movies.  It even got to the point that my mother-in-law, a pastor's wife, got rid of her Harry Potter movies because of what I and my wife (her daughter) were saying.

I was wrong.  And ignorant.

After becoming involved in Fans For Christ I started getting to know people who loved Rowling's works.  Then I broke down and watched the first movie.  I loved it!  And I didn't see anything Satanic or evil in it.  My wife and I began watching the other ones, and then I started reading the novels.  I am now an official Potterhead, and have begun dressing up as characters from the movies and books (mostly myself as Professor Lupin and my wife as Tonks).  This past year at Dragon*Con I even gave a sermon with a Harry Potter theme and preached with my wand, dressed as Lupin.

So why the change?

I realized that the books didn't actually promote paganism or real-world evil spells. In those books you are either born a wizard or you aren't.  If you aren't one by birth, you can't learn how to become one.  It's a form or genetics as well as technology.  The Bible speaks against magic in the real world, but doesn't fully define it.  The idea usually comes about that any supernatural powers not from God are automatically from Satan.  In the real world I can't disagree.  But fiction follows different rules and settings than our own.  In these stories you either have deities other than our God, or you have something like Harry Potter where the power is innate and not reliant on a supernatural being.

That brings me to an article I recently read, surprisingly found on Crosswalk.com.  It deals with this very issue, and states the topic in a way that I can't say any better.  So I'll just highly recommend that you go and check it out.  For any Christian it is an important read.

"What is magic?" by Stanley Ward 

Halloween As A Christian

Last year I wrote an entry where I defended Halloween from a Christian perspective.  It was the first time I really sat down and made my thoughts coherent and even did a little research on the origins of certain holidays.  Recently I went back and re-read that post, and I have to say that I agree with myself even more.

If you know me or read through this blog, you'll know that I am a conservative, born-again Christian who believes in the truth and infallibility of the Bible.  I believe that faith in Christ is the only way to get to Heaven and the Bible outlines this path.  I have very mainstream Christian beliefs, even if I am quite a geek.

My involvement in the ministry of Fans For Christ has shown me that God loves people that the average Christian would probably turn away from.  In merging and balancing my love for Jesus with my interest in comic books, sci-fi, movies and so on I have learned that God's love envelops more people than most Christians probably realize.  Christianity is not a single outlook and can include many different "types", even while not straying one word from the Bible.

And that brings us to Halloween.  

I think that many Christians are unintentionally ignorant.  Someone tells them that Harry Potter uses real Wiccan magic and they then condemn the books as being anti-Christian without ever looking into it themselves.  Someone tells them that Halloween originated as a Satan-worshiping celebration and they take it as the truth, never checking out to learn that it was actually the opposite.  There is often a lack of real discernment amongst mainstream Christians.

So as a Christian I do celebrate Halloween.  My kids trick-or-treat, and we have pumpkins and decorations around our house.  Our concession to other Christians is that we avoid decorations that might seem "evil" or demonic, even though we personally see the separation between fun and what God tells us to avoid.  

I don't think it's wrong for a Christian to have fun with Halloween.  After all, in modern times that's all it's supposed to be....fun.

The End Of Civility?

It's political season here in the US and our presidential election is only weeks away.  That means the mud is slinging on both sides of the political aisle.  I'm always open for a good debate on politics, religion, or just about anything else, and so have gotten into a few discussions on Facebook.  Sometimes I get good, reasoned intellectual stimulation.  But more often I see "u suk!" kinds of comments.

It's not been limited to political discussions.  In the four years I've been blogging I will from time to time get hateful comments on posts.  Few of them have been bad enough for me to delete, but some are particularly judgmental without knowing anything about me.  As I stated, I enjoy debate and am willing to go point-to-point on most issues.  But the hateful insulting statements simply are uncalled for.

Where is civility in today's society?  Why do discussions have to quickly devolve into insults and name-calling?  Heck, I've seen many of them start that way!  I honestly don't understand it.  I can disagree with someone's views and beliefs and not hate them.  I have strongly different political views than my father and we often debate the subject, but despite those differences I really love him (hi, Dad!).  While I am very politically conservative I have friends who are quite liberal.  Though I disagree with them I can also see past those issues to appreciate who they are otherwise.

I see so little of these better attitudes nowadays.  People seem unable to disagree without hating.  And they seem even more unable to express their opposition without insults.  I was in a discussion with someone of liberal leanings on Facebook and he kept making quite rude and hate-filled comments.  I challenged him to make one salient point without an insult. He responded by insulting me and other conservatives.  He was literally unable to do so.

When did this happen?  I shouldn't be surprised, though.  It's part of human nature and people are often of very strong opinions which they defend with passion.  I've heard a dramatization of campaign advertisements from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and they are even more directly insulting than anything you'd see in modern politics.

Even so, I'd love to see a return to civility.  Disagree without insult.  And when you're talking to a stranger online, be very careful about the assumptions you make.  It's impossible to really know someone just by reading their words on a computer screen (even when they write over 800 blog entries like me).  

Sometimes old adages are indeed best.  "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Easier Said Than Done

I know that we've all said it.  "I'm going to focus on God more."  "I'm going to pray more."  "I'm going to read the Bible every day."  With all of our best intentions we plan to focus more on our relationship with God.  It might start out good, but pretty soon it tapers off to our old habits of "nothing".  At least, this is the way it happens if you're anything like me.

Why does it have to be that way?

We are flawed, imperfect beings that are constantly having to fight against the influences of the Devil.  One of his most potent weapons is to distract us from being closer to God.  The less time we spend with God the closer we are to forgetting Him.  Satan doesn't have to make us turn towards him, he just has to make us turn away from Christ.

Be warned of this (and I'm warning myself here).  Making the decision to study the Word and spend more time in God's presence is a spiritual battle and puts you on the front lines of such warfare.  Gird yourself and stand firm in the decision to be with the Lord.