Interesting News from South Carolina

In today's Washington Post On Faith section is a column reporting on the approval by the South Carolina legislature of a new Christian license plate. According to the piece, this is not the first action taken by officials in South Carolina with a religious twist. They have also "allow[ed] the Lord's Prayer to be added to civic displays on the "foundations of American law and government," allow[ed] public schools to teach courses in the Old and New Testaments, and allow[ed] legislative bodies to open with sectarian prayers."

South Carolina seems to be particularly open to actions of this kind. It was selected by the Christian Exodus organization in 2003 as the target location for Christians to live in order to secede from the United States and establish a true Christian government. According the Christian Exodus website, "ChristianExodus.org was founded in November of 2003 in response to the moral degeneration of American culture, and the rampant corruption among the powers that be. The initial goal was to move thousands of Christian constitutionalists to South Carolina to accelerate the return to self-government based upon Christian principles at the local and State level. This project continues to this day, with the ultimate goal of forming an independent Christian nation that will survive after the decline and fall of the financially and morally bankrupt American empire. We have learned, however; that the chains of our slavery and dependence upon godless government have more of a hold on us than can be broken by simply moving to another State.

As many like-minded Christian activists pursue independent Christian living without relocating, the scope has expanded to promote "personal secession" though many and various tracks, wherever they can be implemented. The long process of disentanglement from idolatrous dependencies includes such practices of moving towards a home-centered economy, with intentional community, home-schooling, home-gardening, house churches, health-cost sharing, private exchange, unlicenced ministry, and any other way in which we might live free and godly lives in Christ Jesus, without prostrating ourselves to eat from the hand of the imperial magistrate."

So, as you consider this intersection of Christian church and state, how do you feel about a state offering a license plate that is decidedly focused on one religion? How would you feel if the license plate emphasized Islam or Buddhism instead of Christianity? Would you join a movement to form a "Christian based" government in a particular state?

How much happiness have you had?

Buried deep within my files was this quote from a Muslim ruler in Spain in the 10th Century:

I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.

Certainly, by his own description, Abd Er-Rahman, had everything we normally associate with happiness and had it in abundance. Yet, in 50 years, more than 18000 days, he believed that he had experienced only 14 days of "pure and genuine" happiness.

As always, that made me think. How many days of happiness have I had? What criteria would I use to evaluate my happiness? Would my standards necessitate a solid 24 hours of feeling happy or would 12 hours and 1 minute of happiness be enough to qualify as a day? Would a particular feeling define my happiness or would it be based on some more rational process?

What about you? How many days of happiness have you had? How do you evaluate what makes you happy?

Troubling Church

What would you say about church leadership who tells parents to throw their 16 year old son out of the house because he wanted to leave the church? Or, tells a mother to reject her son and her husband because they are not members? Or, refuses to allow two children to attend the church elementary school because their family had fallen behind on the church mandated tithing, even though the father had just lost his job?

The Washington Post has the chilling story of the Calvary Temple church in Loudoun, Virginia where all of these things and more took place. The URL to the story is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/15/AR2008111502626.html.

The pastor, Star Scott, is able to do these things because he has absolute control over everything in the church, including the finances. No one in the church is able to challenge him without being expelled from the church, and that could be considered risky since, according to the story, "In his sermons, Scott teaches that his church is scripturally superior to others and views keeping people in the fold as a matter of their salvation. 'Anything that's other than a member in harmony has to be identified and expelled,' Scott preached in May 2007."

Why do people acquiesce to such treatment? In part, I suspect, because they have convinced themselves that their minister, this charismatic person, has a special pipeline to God.

Would you be part of a church like that? I know I wouldn't, but I have seen and attended some evangelical churches that have come dangerously close to this extreme example of pastoral abuse. In those churches, the 'true believers' see nothing wrong. And, I have seen some church groups that follow similar patterns of discipline and control.

What would you say to one of your friends who was part of a church like this? What would you say if they asked you to visit their services? Is this anyway to be church?