Christian Living
Stephen McGarvey is the Executive Editor of Crosswalk.com. He is a World Journalism Institute fellow and has previously worked for BreakPoint with Chuck Colson, and the Home School Legal Defense Association. His articles have appeared in several publications including WORLD, The Washington Times, byFaith, BreakPoint WorldView, and the Union Leader (Manchester, NH).
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Thursday, August 9, 2007More on the Korean Hostages
The Wall Street Journal and The Economist weigh in on the kidnapped missionaries from South Korea. The Journal also provides a fascinating short history of South Korea's missionary efforts of recent years:
The presence of South Korean Christian aid workers is one of the most visible examples of the trend toward "majority world" missionaries--those hailing from continents other than Europe and North America. South Korea, for example, sent only 93 missionaries abroad in 1979, but by 2000 there were over 8,000 and this number doubled by 2006...
South Korea's fervor is unique in that it's a relatively new Christian nation. The example set by the missionaries (mostly American and British) who came to work in Korea is still a recent memory. Like its neighbors China and Japan, the Korean peninsula was traditionally influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism. A small number of Catholic missionaries came in the late 18th century; their Protestant counterparts arrived about 100 years later. But it wasn't until the 1960s that the number of Christians began to increase dramatically. The traumas of the Japanese occupation (1910-45) and the Korean War (1950-53) had left the country reeling, and some see Christianity's growth as a response to those difficult times..
Read the full article: Further Fervor: Why those South Korean missionaries were in Afghanistan.
As their presence around the world increases, however, so do the dangers these missionaries incur. This incident with the Taliban, may be turning public opinion against Christian aid workers/missionaries. Notes The Economist:
[I]nter-church competition for alms goads pastors into one-upmanship, sending their congregations on ever-riskier missions to reap the resulting publicity.
The Korean press has been seized by the crisis in Afghanistan. Broadband is brimming with videos of frightened hostages and unsympathetic citizens admonishing the aid workers for not heeding the government's travel warning...
Read the full article: A clash of faiths
On FrontPage Magazine, Institute for Religion and Democracy's Mark Tooley notes that this in no way should mean that these Christains got what they deserved:
Some media reports about the captive and murdered Korean Christians have emphasized how purportedly irresponsible they were in traveling to strife-torn Afghanistan, where even the democratic government restricts Christian activity. An Afghan Interior Ministry official reported that the South Koreans, most of them from a Seoul suburban congregation, had been “very carelessly” traveling in their chartered bus when the Taliban abducted them about 110 miles south of Kabul.
But perhaps the Taliban’s beastly attacks upon unarmed Christians deserve more attention than any carelessness by the Korean sojourners. Christian missionaries across the centuries, dating to the age of the Apostles, have long been careless about their safety, often to the point of martyrdom. Most especially, church groups in the West might be expected to express more outrage over the abduction and murder of their fellow Christians, 18 of whom are women.
Tooley also points out the shocking lack of comment from America's mainline Christian denominations. He criticizes the "tepid" response from the World Council of Churches:
The WCC pronouncement is tepid and refers to the “negotiations” between the Taliban killers and the South Korean government almost as though it were a labor contract at issue. When Christians are being brutalized specifically because of their faith in Jesus Christ, might not church officials, even those based in Geneva, be a little more spiritually expressive?
After two millennia of martyrs and persecution, the Christian Church is not inexperienced as a victim of targeted brutality. These latest outrages by Islamist fanatics in Afghanistan might merit at least a Scripture citation and some bold words of divinely-inspired encouragement. Instead, the WCC spoke like a low level U.S. State Department official who is working the night shift.
Read Tooley's commentary: Killing Korean Christians
Again we should be asking ourselves, our media and our Church, "Where is the outrage?"
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007Evangelicals Making a Mark in the Arts
Here’s a great piece from AP Religion about Christians who are looking to apply their worldview to the visual arts. Historically, evangelicals have had a shaky relationship with the arts. But more and more these days we are hearing about Christian artists who want to change that. The article features Makoto Fujimura, an abstract painter who lives in New York City and founded the International Arts Movement to help bridge the gap between the religious and art communities. (I interviewed Mako a few years ago for an article on this topic.) From the feature:
By making a name for himself in the secular art world, Fujimura has become a role model for creatively wired evangelicals. They believe that their churches have forsaken the visual arts for too long -- and that a renaissance has begun…
These artistic evangelicals, though still relatively small in number, are striving to be creators of culture rather than imitators, said Dick Staub, a Seattle-based radio talk show host and author of "The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture In an Age of Christianity-Lite." There is a desire, he said, to avoid inventing a parallel arts universe with Christian knockoffs for Christian audiences. "They want to make art that connects to everybody," Staub said. "The call is first and foremost to make good art."
The goal according to Staub, Fujimura and others is not to make “religious” art, but to make art informed by their faith, for God’s glory.
Christian institutions of higher learning are increasingly focusing on the arts:
Craig Detweiler, co-director of the… Reel Spirituality Institute [part of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary], said students are fascinated with finding the sacred in the mundane and exploring life's mysteries. In other words, themes with far-reaching appeal.
"Maybe 20 years ago, young filmmakers wanted to tell stories for their own audience," said Detweiler, a screenwriter. "Today's young filmmakers ... find holy moments within mainstream movies and want to create more of the same.
"For too long, Christian art has implied pale imitation," Detweiler said. "We're trying to get back to the days of the Renaissance, where the church was the patron of the finest art."
It’s encouraging to see these efforts catching the attention of the national media. Read the full article: Evangelicals start push in the arts
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007Christian Booksellers Face Crisis of Faith
I came across this report from a few weeks ago in the Washington Post about Christian publishing and Christian bookstores. The article makes some intriguing, yet not exactly surprising points.
1. Booksellers are no longer the dominant force in Christian retail. Christian “products” of other kinds now fill the aisle of Christian bookstores and the International Christian Retail Show (formerly known as Christian Booksellers Convention).
2. Large secular publishing houses are buying up the smaller Christian publishers, and starting their own Christian divisions to try and find the next big Christian seller like “The Purpose Driven Life.”
3. Christian bookstores are no longer the primary place people buy Christian books. “Online sellers such as Amazon.com, and such "big box" stores as Wal-Mart, account for an increasing percentage of their profits -- and their attention.” So good news, bad news: the Christian message gets much wider exposure, consumers get cheaper product, but the mom and pop Christian bookstores are being eclipsed by the larger retailers.
Says the article:
To many, this is not just any business; it's God's business. To others, it is an opportunity to capitalize on the growing awareness of faith and the powerful political and social force of evangelicals. "The Prayer of Jabez" and the "Left Behind" series are just two examples of tsunami-like book sales that confounded the historically secular publishing industry in the past decade… Michael S. Hyatt, chief executive of Thomas Nelson Inc., the largest Christian publisher, predicts tough times for publishers owned by the major New York houses. "I think we're going to see some of those Christian publishing houses back on the block," he said…
"Christian publishers can be more innovative than the New York houses," he said. "People are seeking meaningful experiences, and we need to find better ways to meet those needs."
It will be interesting to see how the growing influence of newcomers to the Christian market will change the industry.
Read the full article, Christian Booksellers Face Crisis Of Faith: Religious Publishing's Move To the Mainstream Has Invited Mainstream Competition
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Monday, August 6, 2007Who Speaks for America's Evangelicals?
The outspoken, politically conservative James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson may not always be the brand of leader Christian evangelicals are looking for, according to an article in USA Today.
Journalist and author Mark Pinsky (who I interviewed on an unrelated matter years ago) has a great feature on this topic today. Who will lead tomorrow’s evangelicals? Pinsky believes as these enormously influential figures come to the end of their careers, the “emerging face and voice” of the next generation of Christian leaders will be much different than the current guard.
Will it continue to be bombastic, GOP-leaning, Southern preachers, such as the late Jerry Falwell, and strident, hard-line broadcasters such as Pat Robertson and Focus on the Family's James Dobson? I don't think so. From my neighborhood in the suburban Sunbelt, it is clear that a subtle, incremental but nonetheless tectonic shift is under way. And this is more than what Freud called "the narcissism of small differences." The emerging face and voice of American evangelicalism is that of a pragmatic, politically sophisticated, pastor of a middle class megachurch. A younger generation of ministers such as Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life; Bill Hybels, of the pioneering Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago; T.D. Jakes, the African-American pastor of The Potter's House in Dallas, as well as a music and movie producer; and Frank Page, the re-elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
These new evangelical leaders may be different primarily in style rather than substance, but this shift will be significant to the movement. Says Pinsky:
[The future leaders] want to change the tone of the national political debate, making it less confrontational, and to open the movement to tactical coalitions with mainline Christian denominations, other faiths and even liberal secularists on a broad spectrum of issues. True, on cultural touchstone issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research, there is no difference between the Old Guard and the New Guard: All are equally opposed. But the younger pastors want to broaden the evangelical agenda beyond what Hunter calls "below the belt" issues linked to sexuality. For them, people of faith should engage issues such as AIDS, Darfur, economic justice, war and peace, prison reform and human trafficking. For Dobson and Robertson, this represents an unacceptable dilution of focus and a squandering of political capital.
Read the full article: Who speaks for America's evangelicals? “The answer is not as clear-cut as in years past. In fact, a younger generation of ministers is changing the face and voice of this very influential constituency. With the 2008 election approaching, that's no small thing.”
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Thursday, August 2, 2007Christian Hostages in Afghanistan: Where's the Outrage?
Two weeks ago, 23 South Korean Christian missionaries were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan. So far, two have been shot to death, slaughtered to intimidate South Korea into withdrawing from troops from the Middle East. The rest are up for ransom. Why is the human rights community and American media largely ignoring the situation?
In an article yesterday on National Review, columnist Michelle Malkin writes:
Across Asia, media coverage is 24/7. Strangers have held nightly prayer vigils. But the human-rights crowd in America has been largely AWOL. And so has most of our mainstream media. Among some of the secular elite, no doubt, is a blame-the-victim apathy: The missionaries deserved what they got. What were they thinking bringing their message of faith to a war zone? Didn’t they know they were sitting ducks for Muslim head-choppers whose idea of evangelism is “convert or die”?
Read her article: Silently Martyred
Most of these hostages, Malkin notes, are female nurses who traveled to Afghanistan to provide social services and medical relief. “They were peaceful believers in Christ on short-term medical and humanitarian missions.”
The latest from Fox News: South Korean Envoy to Meet Taliban Kidnappers
The latest from CNN yesterday: Families losing hope for hostages
Read the Crosswalk features on the situation:
Taliban Executes 2nd Korean Captive - Baptist Press
South Korea Rethinks Mission Strategy - ASSIST News Service
Update: Taliban Kill One Korean Hostage, Set Final Deadline - Crosswalk.com
Taliban Threatens to Kill South Korean Missionaries - ASSIST News Service
