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Dangerous Times
| Cali's on fire, Georgia's praying for rain and Nagin's New Orleans is flooded again. Healthcare and public education are in crisis and jobs have been NAFTA'd overseas. Gazillionaire Bill Gates actually recommends we farm our brain talent off shore to India. Our children's futures are at great risk. Diversity, racial tolerance and justice are on the decline while crime rates and police brutality are on the rise - or, shall we say, the exposure of brutality is on the rise. Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, is now nicknamed Killadelphia. How can I talk about CDs and Grammy Awards when over a million people have been evacuated from their California homes? How can you think about buying a CD or attending a concert when you and the rest of America are waiting for the Feds to bail out your banks so you can avoid foreclosure? Marvin and Teddy began their careers singing love songs and went on to sing "What's Going On" and "Wake Up Everybody." I have to talk about what's going on. Coltrane started out playing pop tunes and later found himself lost in a Sidd-harthalike spiritual sojourn that transformed his music for the remainder of his career. The thought of standing in the town square playing my violin, oblivious to the world around me, seems selfindulgent and reminiscent of Nero fiddling the day away while he watched Rome burn - all the while, blaming the fire on the Christians. These are dangerous times. Our troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater is not helping matters. Bush warns a nuclear Iran would mean WWIII. "If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," he said. Russian President Vladmir Putin said, "Not only should we reject the use of force, but also the mention of force as a possibility." Speaking of Russia, I recently attended an ordination service where the new Archbishop identified his new diocese as the descendent of a diocese in the Ukraine and in Russia. The bishop and the four bishops he ordained were all African American. Confused yet? I was! Israel warns WWIII may be the Biblical war of Gog and Magog. (See: Ezekiel 38:18; also the Al-Qur'an 18:94, 21:96) This really gets deep. The prophecy of Gog and Magog predicts a great war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem. There are Israelis who suggest the alliances will be the U.S., England, France, Germany and Israel versus Russia, China, Syria and North Korea. By the way, did you know that Judaism is practiced by less than one half a percent of the world's population as compared to Christianity's 30-plus percent, Islam's near 20 percent and Hinduism's 14 percent? President Truman made the United States the first nation to recognize the state of Israel in 1948, and every American president since has made aid to Israel a foreign policy priority to the tune of billions of dollars each year? Truman admitted that he went against the advice and counsel of cabinet members because of his Christian beliefs. Ironically, years later Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman denounced the New Testament of the Bible as anti-Semitic. Truman must be turning slowly in his grave. This may be a good time to rosin my bow. Anti-Semitism notwithstanding, the Catholic Church cannot seem to close the chapter on its molestation cases while prominent TV ministers are embroiled in their own scandal stew. You may, in fact, find a lot more in common between the Roman Catholic Church and your Protestant denomination than scandal as you familiarize yourself with the term Apostolic Succession. Apostolic Succession is said to be an uninterrupted, two-thousand year documented succession of bishops beginning with the Apostle Paul, (some Catholics say it was Peter), the first Bishop of Rome, continuing with some of your most popular celebrity bishops of today. It's worth a Google or two. If you're a member of a mega-church, you should be interested. Next Bible study class, ask about the church's governing body. Also, be mindful if new practices begin to appear - particularly if they have a pagan slant to them - rams horns, swords, and language you're not familiar with. These are dangerous times and religious practices are not immune to attack. You might want to pay attention to what it is and who it is you are worshipping not to mention what your money is really supporting - another election campaign or Christians for Israel. As multi-national corporations/ministries, interest in emerging markets goes beyond economies of scale and profits to conversions. You may be converted if you're not paying attention. Few things excite Christian leaders more than conversions - Islam to Christianity or anything else to Christianity - for that matter. China is today's most coveted conversion opportunity in the world. Only one question remains. How soon should you begin to study Chinese? It's estimated more than five million people attend church services regularly and another 10-15 million attend occasionally all bringing in roughly seven billion dollars gross revenue annually. If China and India come on board in the next several years that seven billion will be a drop in the bucket. Perhaps that alone is worth cross denomination cooperation. Is this the next step to what the first George Bush referred to as the New World Order? Proverbs 24:5 says, "Wise people have great power, and those with knowledge have great strength." I pray for wisdom and knowledge for us all because we're going to need it - these are dangerous times. Article published in Dallas Weekly |
