“Atlanta megachurch minister Creflo Dollar, reads those Bible verses as a spiritual contract. God will pay back a multiple (often a hundredfold) on offerings by the congregation. ‘Poor people like Prosperity,’ says Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. ‘They hear it as aspirant. They hear, You can make it too—buy a car, get a job, get wealthy. It can function as a form of liberation.’ It can also be exploitative. Outsiders, observes Milmon Harrison of the University of California at Davis, author of the book Righteous Riches, often see it as ‘another form of the church abusing people so ministers could make money.’
“The BBC simply mangled the “key excerpts” and gave a completely different meaning to what the Pope said. Given those excerpts and then the BBC’s version of the Pope’s denial of any intent to inflame or defame Islam, you’d be left thinking ‘riiiight, sure Pope.’ But when you read them in context, suddenly they make a lot more sense and you can indeed understand that his point, or should I say the Emperor’s point, has merit and is, indeed, a seeming contradiction which should be addressed in Islam at every level.”
“While I agree with the sentiment of the minister, I have to disagree with his application of the Sermon on the Mount. This is how individuals are to behave, not nations, or leaders of nations. One of the primary purposes of government is to protect its citizens. If the government “turned the other cheek” when it was attacked, it would be abdicating its responsibility. When you are in leadership, the higher moral imperative is to protect, not submit. It would be akin to a police officer not arresting a rapist because the police office was personally a Christian. His civic duty trumps his personal duty. Whether or not the Iraq war is moral is another discussion.”
“One of the areas of study that has intriqued students of the Bible throughout the ages has been the study of Biblical numerology. Books have been written upon the subject and some individuals tend to make this a major theme in their preaching—being certain to point out any time significant numbers are used and reminding their listeners with certainty of what those numbers mean. … What I have found a couple of times recently … is that not only the numbers in the TEXT of Scripture are being used as a basis of interpretation, but even the numbers that are in the DIVISIONS of Scripture are being used as part of the interpreation.”
- Oregon was down by 13 with less than 1:30 on the clock.
- Oregon made a touchdown at 1:12.
- Oregon recovered a controversial onside kick.
- The kick was reviewed but was upheld.
- Oregon made a touchdown to go ahead by one point at :45.
- OU ran within field goal range.
- With no timeouts, OU spiked the ball to stop the clock at :02.
- Oregon blocked OU’s 44 yd kick attempt!
5-News
I am not encouraging the compromising of one’s convictions regarding Hollywood films with the following response:
There is a great movie that came out in 1992 that portrayed traveling tent “preachers” preying on the innocent. “Leap of Faith” starring Steve Martin and Debra Winger addresses the “give generously to make us rich” scheme that it truly is: making the preachers wealthy at the expense of the Gospel and the souls of the lost. It looks at the issue of preaching from a purely material perspective. Good film, if watched with careful discernment.