"Talking guns, politics in church by Stephen M. Miller" Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller. for Tuesday, 9 February 2016
"Talking guns, politics in church" by Stephen M. Miller
POLITICIAN PACKIN’. This looks like the perfect time for a reporter not to ask the hard question at a news conference. Sen. Tom Connolly, Democrat from Texas, shows off his rifle in 1938. More Americans are feeling less comfortable with our lax gun laws, polls confirm. Some pastors are taking up the topic in their sermons. Photo by Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress.
MY PASTOR HAS GUTS. Some would say more guts than brains.
But those are generally folks who haven’t been agreeing with him during this controversial series of sermons called “Facing Issues that Divide – Building Bridges and Tearing Down Walls.”
He tackled four topics that pretty well split the congregation in half.
- Immigrants in the Bible
- Christian response to Islamic extremism
- Christianity and healthcare
- Christianity and guns
I hope the pastor fared better than I did. I got my rear end handed back to me.
Basically I asked just one question: “What’s the Christian principle at work that says it’s okay to tell the six million Middle Eastern refugees ‘No, you are not welcome here’?”
For that, people who call themselves Christians called me everything but. I’m a hypocrite. I’m a traitor. I’m a corpse – I had to report that Christian to the FBI.
People get really upset when you don’t agree with them on certain topics. I mean REALLY upset.
The whole point of my pastor’s sermon series was to try to find some common ground. I’m not sure the pastor accomplished that. But he at least got people talking about the topics.
The gun control matter is especially pertinent to our congregation.
On the one hand we live in the state of Kansas, which allows any angry ex, former felon, or immigrated terrorist to go online and buy a gun from an individual selling it on one of the many websites. I believe that says something about the people in a state who would allow their representatives to get by with permitting loopholes like that. I’m not sure what it says. Perhaps that they’re afraid. Perhaps brainwashed by misinformation. Perhaps not paying attention.On the other hand, a grandfather and his 14-year-old grandson from our own congregation were shot dead in the head (grandfather with a shotgun) while they sat in a car at the Jewish Community Center two years ago. The killer, Glenn Miller, a former leader of a white supremacist group, wrongly took them for Jews. They were there for an audition; the grandson was competing in a singing contest. I wrote about that when it happened:
Miller was a felon. By law, he was not allowed to buy a gun. He found someone willing to buy one for him. The man who did that bought the shotgun at Walmart, signed federal forms saying he was buying the gun for himself. Then he sold it to Miller, who used it a few days later to kill the grandpa and his grandson, along with a Christian woman he thought was a Jew. He wanted to kill Jews, but he killed nothing but Christians.
His aim was as misdirected as his prejudice. Miller was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
The man who sold him the gun worked out a plea bargain. Our pastor showed a video clip of his interview with Tony Corporon, son of the murdered grandfather. Tony told everyone what the plea bargain was: Two years of probation and $100 fine.
When he said that, I heard the congregation gasp – which is saying a lot since this is Kansas.
The point the pastor was trying to make is that both sides should be able to agree that there is room to do much more than simply enforce the laws on the books. There is room to strengthen those laws. This was an example that our congregation can certainly relate to.
I think some people feel that topics like this don’t belong in church or in a blog article by someone who covers the Bible beat.
The pastor defended his right to make gun control the topic of one of his sermons by pointing to Bible passages such as the one about Jesus telling one of his disciples, “Put away your sword… Those who use the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
Passages like that are certainly appropriate. But I wonder if there’s a broader principle that we can apply not only to the topic of gun control, but to other controversial topics as well, such as immigration, helping fugitives, providing healthcare, and helping provide college education to people who could not otherwise afford it.
We look out for the little guy. The weak. The unprotected. The folks most at risk. It’s what God’s people do.
In Bible times, the people most at risk were orphans, widows, and strangers in the land. Those are the ones the Bible tells us over and over that we’re supposed to help and never mistreat: “You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way….You must not exploit a widow or an orphan” (Exodus 22:21-22).
Today, there are lots of people in other categories who are most at risk. Among them, folks who find themselves at the wrong end of a gun.
I feel at risk in the state of Kansas, where just about anyone can be carrying a gun – without training or without even a permit as of July 1, 2015.
People enraged on the road now have more than a horn they can push. They have a trigger they can pull. And they do. Last summer a bicyclist, Jonathan Newcomb, got 59 months in prison for shooting out the left eye of a driver who made him mad. He was ordered to pay $19,600 in restitution, but only $1400 went to the victim. The rest went to the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Fund, which helps pay families for unexpected costs resulting from violent crime – but apparently not so much the victim of this particular crime.
I don’t even feel safe walking my dog in the woods, knowing I can come across someone who is having a bad day and is carrying a gun. I actually have the habit of taking my hands out of my pockets when I approach someone who is walking toward me. I want them to know I don’t have a gun that I’m reaching for.
The idea that allowing everyone to have guns will make you feel safer – well, it doesn’t work for me. I feel safer when the only ones permitted to carry guns are the people identified in the Second Amendment as the “well regulated Militia,” which it seems to me is the military, the police, and the National Guard. Certainly not groups like those guys in Oregon.
Others interpret the Second Amendment differently than I do. But then I don’t even see the need for the Second Amendment now that we no longer live in the 1700s era of muskets, musket balls, and a ragtag army that no one could fully depend on. We have an armed, well-regulated, dependable militia, made up of the likes of us to defend the likes of us. It doesn’t seem safe to have people on bicycles packing guns. But that’s just me. However, I do ride bicycles. And I do carry a penknife.
As Christians, we might feel as though we have a right to hunt. And perhaps that’s true. But even more so, as the Bible teaches it, we have a right to protect people who far too often in this country find themselves at the wrong end of a gun. And we probably shouldn’t try to do it by providing them with guns of their own. Refer back to the quote from Jesus.
We might give some thought to finding another way.
Maybe that’s the first step we need to take in bridging the gap between the two sides of this particular issue – to acknowledge that there is a gap that people are falling into and getting shot as they drop.
For more about guns
If you haven’t gotten a free copy of a book from me before, I have some review copies of my newest release A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible.
Send me a note and if I still have copies available, I’ll send you one at no cost to you.
I get author copies of books from my publishers, and I don’t sell them. I give them away to help get people into the Bible who might not otherwise go there.
The post Talking guns, politics in church appeared first on Stephen M. Miller.
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His aim was as misdirected as his prejudice. Miller was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
The man who sold him the gun worked out a plea bargain. Our pastor showed a video clip of his interview with Tony Corporon, son of the murdered grandfather. Tony told everyone what the plea bargain was: Two years of probation and $100 fine.
When he said that, I heard the congregation gasp – which is saying a lot since this is Kansas.
The point the pastor was trying to make is that both sides should be able to agree that there is room to do much more than simply enforce the laws on the books. There is room to strengthen those laws. This was an example that our congregation can certainly relate to.
I think some people feel that topics like this don’t belong in church or in a blog article by someone who covers the Bible beat.
The pastor defended his right to make gun control the topic of one of his sermons by pointing to Bible passages such as the one about Jesus telling one of his disciples, “Put away your sword… Those who use the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
Passages like that are certainly appropriate. But I wonder if there’s a broader principle that we can apply not only to the topic of gun control, but to other controversial topics as well, such as immigration, helping fugitives, providing healthcare, and helping provide college education to people who could not otherwise afford it.
We look out for the little guy. The weak. The unprotected. The folks most at risk. It’s what God’s people do.
In Bible times, the people most at risk were orphans, widows, and strangers in the land. Those are the ones the Bible tells us over and over that we’re supposed to help and never mistreat: “You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way….You must not exploit a widow or an orphan” (Exodus 22:21-22).
Today, there are lots of people in other categories who are most at risk. Among them, folks who find themselves at the wrong end of a gun.
I feel at risk in the state of Kansas, where just about anyone can be carrying a gun – without training or without even a permit as of July 1, 2015.
People enraged on the road now have more than a horn they can push. They have a trigger they can pull. And they do. Last summer a bicyclist, Jonathan Newcomb, got 59 months in prison for shooting out the left eye of a driver who made him mad. He was ordered to pay $19,600 in restitution, but only $1400 went to the victim. The rest went to the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Fund, which helps pay families for unexpected costs resulting from violent crime – but apparently not so much the victim of this particular crime.
I don’t even feel safe walking my dog in the woods, knowing I can come across someone who is having a bad day and is carrying a gun. I actually have the habit of taking my hands out of my pockets when I approach someone who is walking toward me. I want them to know I don’t have a gun that I’m reaching for.
The idea that allowing everyone to have guns will make you feel safer – well, it doesn’t work for me. I feel safer when the only ones permitted to carry guns are the people identified in the Second Amendment as the “well regulated Militia,” which it seems to me is the military, the police, and the National Guard. Certainly not groups like those guys in Oregon.
Others interpret the Second Amendment differently than I do. But then I don’t even see the need for the Second Amendment now that we no longer live in the 1700s era of muskets, musket balls, and a ragtag army that no one could fully depend on. We have an armed, well-regulated, dependable militia, made up of the likes of us to defend the likes of us. It doesn’t seem safe to have people on bicycles packing guns. But that’s just me. However, I do ride bicycles. And I do carry a penknife.
As Christians, we might feel as though we have a right to hunt. And perhaps that’s true. But even more so, as the Bible teaches it, we have a right to protect people who far too often in this country find themselves at the wrong end of a gun. And we probably shouldn’t try to do it by providing them with guns of their own. Refer back to the quote from Jesus.
We might give some thought to finding another way.
Maybe that’s the first step we need to take in bridging the gap between the two sides of this particular issue – to acknowledge that there is a gap that people are falling into and getting shot as they drop.
For more about guns
- Q&A: Christians, guns & self-defense
- Christian checklist for after a mass shooting
- Where is God when bullets fly?
If you haven’t gotten a free copy of a book from me before, I have some review copies of my newest release A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible.
Send me a note and if I still have copies available, I’ll send you one at no cost to you.
I get author copies of books from my publishers, and I don’t sell them. I give them away to help get people into the Bible who might not otherwise go there.
The post Talking guns, politics in church appeared first on Stephen M. Miller.
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"What if Luke made stuff up? by Stephen M. Miller Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller. for Tuesday, 2 February 2016"What if Luke made stuff up?" by Stephen M. Miller
WORD ARTIST. Luke paints Mary and Baby Jesus. Actually, Luke’s medium was words. If he wrote the Gospel of Luke, as early church leaders said he did, he was gifted at painting vivid word pictures we can see in our head. Like the story of baby Jesus lying in a manger. But what if he made up some of the details to add a little color to the story?Painting by Maerten de Vos.THAT’S AN AWFULLY NICE SONG MARY WROTE, the Magnificat – don’t you think?
Have you read that thing?
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:46-48).
Words dance on like that for 10 wonderfully lyrical verses.
And Mary wrote that?
Absolutely not some Bible experts say.
They argue that it’s unreasonable to expect lyrics this majestic to flow impromptu from the lips of a farm girl who took her tambourine to town and wowed the judges at Jew’s Got Talent – which is what it would amount to.
The YouTube description would read: “She got four big yeses and made Simon cry.”
I’m studying the Gospel of Luke and I’m reading the theories about where he got some of the songs he reported.
Of course, there are Bible experts who say Luke simply reported what happened, based on the sources he was able to find.
Others say he did something that some Christian writers do in books that are supposed to be nonfiction: he added some color.
The first time I realized Christian writers were doing this – adding fiction into nonfiction books – I learned it from a well-known physician who worked with a nonfiction co-author.
I was interviewing the doctor for an article I was writing, and we ended up talking about one of his recent bestsellers, which he wrote with the co-author.
The doctor told me that his wife was reading a draft of one of the stories in the book and she asked him if he actually did remember the church bell ringing while he was walking down the street on that particular day.
He said he did not, but that his co-author added it as color, on the basis of the fact that the bell did ring once in a while.
Personally, I don’t think once in a while is often enough. If you are saying it rang while he walked down the street, I want to know you’re telling me the truth.
I personally hate that technique of trying to punch up a nonfiction story by adding fiction. It’s the former newspaperman in me, I guess.
If you’re making stuff up, say so. Otherwise, if I find out some other way, I’m not going to believe anything you say. Ever.
Could it be that Luke wrote the Magnificat to add a little color to the story of two women – Mary and Elizabeth – meeting after they became miraculously pregnant?
As if it needs color.
On the other hand, if Luke got the history right, did someone happen to be standing there beside Mary taking down notes on a wax tablet with a stylus in hand?
Maybe Luke adapted the song from a hymn that Jewish Christians sang later, once he saw how well the lyrics fit with what Mary must have been feeling.
That’s one of many theories we can find in thick Bible commentaries. By thick, I’m talking about one like the 2 ½ inch thick book I have on my desk, which covers only the first 10 chapters of Luke.
I don’t know where the song came from.
I would hate to think that Luke did what some Christian nonfiction writers do all the time.
But even if he did, I don’t think it would undermine my confidence in the basic story.
Still, if Luke did that, and if I had a chance to talk with him about it I would probably ask him the same question I would ask Christian nonfiction writers: if you don’t know what happened why don’t you either take the time to find out or move on to the next thing you really do know that happened?
For more about the Gospel of Luke
Free review books
If you haven’t gotten a free copy of a book from me before, I have some review copies of my newest release A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible.
Send me a note and if I still have copies available, I’ll send you one at no cost to you.
I get author copies of books from my publishers, and I don’t sell them. I give them away to help get people into the Bible who might not otherwise go there.
The post What if Luke made stuff up? appeared first on Stephen M. Miller.
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"It’s not just writing books anymore" by Stephen M. Miller Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller. for Thursday, 14 January 2016"It’s not just writing books anymore" by Stephen M. Miller
“ACTION.” Videographer David Ngugi sets up for a shoot in Nairobi. Video is one of many jobs that writers have to tackle these days. Some of us are not only in front of the camera, but we’re behind the camera, too. Few writers these days can survive by simply writing. They’ve got to help sell their work. Video is one of the ways they do it. Hello YouTube. Photo by Erik Hersman, flickr, CC2.IT FEELS LIKE A LIE when I tell people what I do.
“I’m a writer.”
A writer is what I used to be.
A writer is what I’d rather be.
But a writer is just a shrinking part of me these days.
Times have changed.
I’m not just a writer anymore.For the past week I’ve been a videographer. I’ve scripted, filmed, and edited a six-minute video called “Where NASA and the Bible Agree.” It’s to help promote my July release,
I showed it to an editor. He liked it. But he suggested tips for making it better.
Sadly, they were good tips.
So I’ve got to do something about that. I’ll probably reshoot the video.
I do other stuff, too.
Because I write a lot of illustrated books, I’ve got to get the art. Being a control freak—as most writers are—I prefer to do my own art research. I find it. I negotiate for it. I acquire it.
The illustrated books I write have maps, too. I make my own maps. I bought hypergeek cartography software. I download NASA elevation data. And I create the exact map I want for a particular feature; I decide the elevation, the angle, and the texture of the terrain.
I write blogs, too—often, like this one, after my typical workday is over. That’s because I forgot I needed a blog for tomorrow.
The reason I forgot is because I’m focused on the video.
There are book deals in the works, too. So that’s going on as well.
Over the past several months I’ve also become a Bible paraphraser and a Christian educator.
Both are for the sake of promoting the July release, A Visual Walk Through Genesis. I paraphrased Genesis in what I’ve tagged and trademarked as part of the Casual English Bible, a work in progress. As a Christian educator, I wrote 367 discussion questions that folks can use in Bible study groups studying all 50 chapters of Genesis alongside my upcoming book.
I’ll release both the questions and the paraphrase the same day the book releases. They’ll be freely available on my website. Oh yeah, I manage a website, too.
Sometimes it feels like I’m spinning.
Today, for example.
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Sadly, they were good tips.
So I’ve got to do something about that. I’ll probably reshoot the video.
I do other stuff, too.
Because I write a lot of illustrated books, I’ve got to get the art. Being a control freak—as most writers are—I prefer to do my own art research. I find it. I negotiate for it. I acquire it.
The illustrated books I write have maps, too. I make my own maps. I bought hypergeek cartography software. I download NASA elevation data. And I create the exact map I want for a particular feature; I decide the elevation, the angle, and the texture of the terrain.
I write blogs, too—often, like this one, after my typical workday is over. That’s because I forgot I needed a blog for tomorrow.
The reason I forgot is because I’m focused on the video.
There are book deals in the works, too. So that’s going on as well.
Over the past several months I’ve also become a Bible paraphraser and a Christian educator.
Both are for the sake of promoting the July release, A Visual Walk Through Genesis. I paraphrased Genesis in what I’ve tagged and trademarked as part of the Casual English Bible, a work in progress. As a Christian educator, I wrote 367 discussion questions that folks can use in Bible study groups studying all 50 chapters of Genesis alongside my upcoming book.
I’ll release both the questions and the paraphrase the same day the book releases. They’ll be freely available on my website. Oh yeah, I manage a website, too.
Sometimes it feels like I’m spinning.
Today, for example.
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