Durante três anos, Wilmer foi o pastor da Igreja Rios de Água Viva, em Belén Rincón, localizada num bairro violento, controlado por paramilitares e formado por muitas pessoas que abandonaram suas casas em outras localidades por causa das ações de guerrilhas.

Durante a posse dele como pastor, Wilmer havia iniciado vários programas sociais, incluindo um clube de esporte e um projeto que oferecia comida, ajuda médica e econômica para os mais necessitados.

Evangelismo incomoda

Em 2006 ele começou a realizar atos evangelísticos semanais de meia-hora, em que tocava música cristã ao ar livre, nas calçadas, e fazia um pequeno sermão, enaltecendo as mensagens do amor de Deus. O último evento evangelístico aconteceu durante Semana Santa, quando teve início uma série de dois meses de ameaças consecutivas.

Por volta das 20h30 do último dia 19 de março, a esposa de Wilmer, Beatríz Bermúdez, atendeu o telefone da casa da família. Uma voz masculina lhe perguntou se aquela era a casa do "pastor gordo de Belén Rincón."

Quando ela respondeu que era, o homem disse: "Fale para o pastor deixar de fazer lavagem cerebral nas pessoas do bairro, deixar de orar pelas pessoas e assim ele manterá sua saúde como está."

Cinco minutos depois o telefone tocou de novo. Beatríz atendeu. A mesma voz repetiu a ameaça, dizendo que Wilmer estava "livre para fazer tudo o que ele quisesse na igreja dele, mas que do lado de fora ele deveria ficar quieto, caso contrário algo ruim aconteceria a ele”.

Quando Wilmer chegou em casa, contou à esposa que o vigia da igreja também havia recebido uma ligação ameaçadora exigindo que ele deixasse de orar e pregar no bairro.

Informante?

Wilmer Ribón levou sua preocupação e pediu oração para a liderança da igreja dele, que decidiu interromper com as atividades evangelísticas nas ruas até que as tensões no bairro esfriassem. Mas as notícias sobre as ameaças a ele se espalharam e o pastor começou a achar que havia algum informante entre a própria liderança da igreja.

No dia 29 de maio, paramilitares que controlam o bairro lhe perguntaram se ele havia recebido chamadas ameaçadoras. Wilmer confirmou.

Os paramilitares lhe disseram para que não se preocupasse, porque não estavam por trás das ameaças, e se ofereceram para descobrir os autores. "Eu lhes disse imediatamente que não fizessem isso”, disse o pastor.

Outro telefonema

Os paramilitares lhe falaram que precisavam descobrir quem era responsável pelas ameaças, porque eles achavam que algo no bairro estava saindo do controle. Alguns dias depois, alguém o telefonou novamente:

“Senhor, lembre que eu só queria que você deixasse de pregar a Bíblia nas ruas e parasse de fazer lavagem cerebral nas pessoas", disse o desconhecido. "Mas você ignorou e agora eles estão atrás de mim e eu o advirto que se algo acontecer comigo, algo também acontecerá como você."

Wilmer ficou com tanto medo que foi parar no pronto-socorro após fortes dores no peito. Ele tentou registrar uma ocorrência policial, mas os oficiais exigiram que ele revelasse quem estava por trás das ameaças. O pastor não tinha idéia. “Espero no Senhor e tento ser prudente em minhas ações”, disse ele.

No dia 3 de maio, o mesmo homem telefonou exigindo encontrá-lo no Parque Santo Antonio, no centro de Medellin, mas o advertiu a não levar a polícia, paramilitares "ou "qualquer outra pessoa, porque ele só falaria a sós com ele”.

O pastor, entretanto, achou melhor comentar com um policial sobre a reunião planejada no parque. Como o homem não voltou a estabelecer contato, Wilmer pediu ao policial para que o escoltasse até a sua casa, mas o oficial disse que não podia e que nenhum outro estava disponível.

No dia seguinte, o homem ligou para o pastor e descreveu o contato que ele havia feito com o policial, repetindo as ameaças. "Isso preocupou minha família, até mesmo meus pais, e nós começamos a pensar em deixar a cidade", disse o pastor.

Ameaça frente a frente

Na noite de 8 de maio, ele estava saindo de uma clínica de saúde no centro de Medellin quando dois homens armados em uma motocicleta disseram ser primos do homem que o telefonava.

“Eles só quiseram me advertir que se alguma coisa acontecesse ao primo deles, algo também aconteceria a meus filhos, disseram que eu não deveria dizer nada aos paramilitares, caso contrário ele poderia ser expulso do bairro e perder a família", disse o pastor.

Depois disso, Wilmer resolveu sair da cidade com sua família.

"Expulsão comum"

Um trabalhador cristão na Colômbia disse esse tipo de "expulsão" está acontecendo em outras partes do país devido aos esforços de novos paramilitares que tentam recuperar o controle das mãos de guerrilhas rebeldes em áreas que haviam sido abandonadas pelo próprio governo.

"Pastores sempre estão na mira desses grupos porque os pastores oram pedindo pela paz e não concordam com a ação desses grupos", disse um trabalhador.

O pastor está aflito por ter de deixar para trás a vida dele e o ministério. Ele fugiu diante de ameaças perturbadoras. Na semana em que ele partiu, um residente famoso do bairro foi morto a tiros na esquina de um restaurante, perto da igreja. Tempos depois, dois juízes foram assassinados em plena luz do dia.

“Nós temos que confiar em Deus", disse o pastor. Mesmo assim, ele lembrou: "A ameaça veio e eu parti. Mas Deus também nos chama a sermos prudentes e eu acredito que qualquer pessoa em minha situação teria feito a mesma coisa."

Wilmer e a família dele vivem agora em um armazém construído pela metade, sem janelas, que eles compartilham com outra família. Ore por eles.

:: Fonte: Portas Abertas

My Pastor Chuck Gordon with the church @ greenbrier is now a blogger (finally)! I think he did like 3 posts in a row :) - The views and opinions of Chuckgordon.cc are that solely of the author and is not endorsed or authorized by Nickcarnes.com - of course I am kidding :mrgreen:

Go check him out HERE.

Chavos es un hecho.... nuestro querido Pastor se retira!!

En mi Blog personal (http://jccamacho.wordpress.com) he escrito unas palabras en su honor y las quiero compartir aqui con ustedes.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Bueno hoy pues son por aqui las 12:23 AM y no tengo una buena noticia, y es que mi pastor casi casi mi padre esoiritual lo podria decir un hombre que ha sido ejemplo e inspiracion para mi me ha dicho que mañana se despide de los Lideres de la iglesia al se retira despues de 8 años siendo pastor de la Iglesia de Dios “Rios de Bendicion”, eso si el sale con la cabez muy en alto de eso estoy seguro… El estoy seguro seguiran siendo ejemplo para muchos otros en otra congregacion ya que es un hombre con una paciencia digna de imitar es de los hombres mas pacientes, inteligentes, humildes y leales que he conocido y no digo estas cosas por alarderar ni por jactancia ya que quizas el no leera estas palabras pero se que el sabe lo mucho que se le respeta y la admiración que le tengo.

De algo estoy seguro y es que nunca podre olvidar sus enseñanzas su ejemplo y es que es un hombre que mas que con palabras predica con el ejemplo, un adorador sincero delante de Dios un hombre humilde que siempre reconoce sus errores y donde se puede ver claramente reflejado el amor de cristo.

A el y a su familia se le extrañaran mucho y hoy hago el compromiso propio de seguir tratando de imitar muchas cosas de Mi Pastor que se que es un imitador de Jesucristo.

Pido a Dios que le bendiga y que logre mayores cosas que las que logro en la obra de la “Rios de Bendicion”.

Pastor si por alguna razon llega a leer esto un día sepa que lo amo mucho en el amor de cristo y que quizas nunca se lo dije pero lo considero un padre espiritual. Mil gracias por creer en mi capacida para manejar un ministerio, gracias por sus palabras de aliento, por su ejemplo, por su confianza, por la oportunidad que me dio en la obra.

Dios derrame millones de bendiciones en su vida.

Dedicado A: Pastor Gamaliel Absalon Moreno

De algo estoy seguro y es que nunca podre olvidar sus enseñanzas su ejemplo y es que es un hombre que mas que con palabras predica con el ejemplo, un adorador sincero delante de Dios un hombre humilde que siempre reconoce sus errores y donde se puede ver claramente reflejado el amor de cristo.

A el y a su familia se le extrañaran mucho y hoy hago el compromiso propio de seguir tratando de imitar muchas cosas de Mi Pastor que se que es un imitador de Jesucristo.

Pido a Dios que le bendiga y que logre mayores cosas que las que logro en la obra de la "Rios de Bendicion".

Pastor si por alguna razon llega a leer esto un día sepa que lo amo mucho en el amor de cristo y que quizas nunca se lo dije pero lo considero un padre espiritual. Mil gracias por creer en mi capacida para manejar un ministerio, gracias por sus palabras de aliento, por su ejemplo, por su confianza, por la oportunidad que me dio en la obra.

Dios derrame millones de bendiciones en su vida.

Dedicado A: Pastor Gamaliel Absalon Moreno

I highly recommend this book, but, this is not why I'm writing this post.

While reading it, I was especially impressed by a comment that Elias made while in seminary.  He made an observation and shared his frustration concerning the church being so "man centered" rather than "God centered".

It was just a few lines.  He didn't even explain what he meant.  I'm not sure what Elias would have defined as being: "man centered" as opposed to "God centered".  In the book, it was a passing comment.  In my mind, it was etched with undeniable emphasis.

It's been nearly two weeks, and I'm still brewing over this concept.  Last night, it came to life.  In II Thessalonians 1:10, it speaks of God being "glorified in His saints..".  That's it!  That's what God centered ministry is all about. 

There is a trend in the church that I have found unnerving.  Most churches are obsessed  with the nice self help topics that are designed to improve the quality of human life.  They have the series on: finances, followed up by the series on family life, followed up by the series on marriage, followed up by the series on sex followed up by the series on leadership, followed up by the series on parenthood...  and so on.  ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE FINE AND GOOD... but, so many of them stop there.  Improving the quality of human life is the end to the means and there is nothing more significant beyond that.  THIS IS MAN CENTERED MINISTRY.

God centered ministry takes it to the all important next step.  Why do we want to excel in all these previously listed areas?  Ask most people in the hip topic driven churches this question and their answers will validate the "man centered" agenda.  But really...  why?  The answer is found all over the Bible (I Cor. 10:31...  "all to the glory of God"), but it was confirmed for me while studying II Thessalonians.  God wants to be glorified in us.

Improvements to our quality of life should translate directly to our ability and our opportunity to: worship, serve, give unto and speak of our benevolent and loving Father.

Consider the job description of the pastor, (Eph 4).  "To equip the saints for the work of the ministry."  Not..  "to equip the saints for a nice comfortable life in the suburbs with 2.5 children and a golden retriever".  We are equipped for a reason.  That reason, is God centered.

This is both, a challenge for me and for the congregation that I am pastoring.  It can't just be about "me".  It has to go to the next step.  God has to be glorified in us.  Without that, we are pitiful at best.

July 6, 2008
Psalm 145
Chris Cobb, Pastor
Podcast

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.

Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase.

Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close reading of the Jewish history of his day.

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

Given the highly charged atmosphere surrounding all Jesus-era artifacts and writings, both in the general public and in the fractured and fiercely competitive scholarly community, as well as the concern over forgery and charlatanism, it will probably be some time before the tablet’s contribution is fully assessed. It has been around 60 years since the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered, and they continue to generate enormous controversy regarding their authors and meaning.

The scrolls, documents found in the Qumran caves of the West Bank, contain some of the only known surviving copies of biblical writings from before the first century A.D. In addition to quoting from key books of the Bible, the scrolls describe a variety of practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus.

How representative the descriptions are and what they tell us about the era are still strongly debated. For example, a question that arises is whether the authors of the scrolls were members of a monastic sect or in fact mainstream. A conference marking 60 years since the discovery of the scrolls will begin on Sunday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the stone, and the debate over whether it speaks of a resurrected messiah, as one iconoclastic scholar believes, also will be discussed.

Oddly, the stone is not really a new discovery. It was found about a decade ago and bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several due to be published in the coming months.

“I couldn’t make much out of it when I got it,” said David Jeselsohn, the owner, who is himself an expert in antiquities. “I didn’t realize how significant it was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few years ago. She was overwhelmed. ‘You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone,’ she told me.”

Much of the text, a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel, draws on the Old Testament, especially the prophets Daniel, Zechariah and Haggai.

Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language, the text dated from the late first century B.C.

A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the stone’s authenticity.

It was in Cathedra that Israel Knohl, an iconoclastic professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first heard of the stone, which Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur dubbed “Gabriel’s Revelation,” also the title of their article. Mr. Knohl posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering messiah before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But his theory did not shake the world of Christology as he had hoped, partly because he had no textual evidence from before Jesus.

When he read “Gabriel’s Revelation,” he said, he believed he saw what he needed to solidify his thesis, and he has published his argument in the latest issue of The Journal of Religion.

Mr. Knohl is part of a larger scholarly movement that focuses on the political atmosphere in Jesus’ day as an important explanation of that era’s messianic spirit. As he notes, after the death of Herod, Jewish rebels sought to throw off the yoke of the Rome-supported monarchy, so the rise of a major Jewish independence fighter could take on messianic overtones.

In Mr. Knohl’s interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the stone’s passages were probably Simon’s followers, Mr. Knohl contends.

The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19 through 21 of the tablet — “In three days you will know that evil will be defeated by justice” — and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as pathways to justice.

To make his case about the importance of the stone, Mr. Knohl focuses especially on line 80, which begins clearly with the words “L’shloshet yamin,” meaning “in three days.” The next word of the line was deemed partially illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an expert on the language of the Bible and Talmud, says the word is “hayeh,” or “live” in the imperative. It has an unusual spelling, but it is one in keeping with the era.

Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr. Knohl said he believed that he had deciphered them as well, so that the line reads, “In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you.”

To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line says “Sar hasarin,” or prince of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one of the primary sources for the Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of “a prince of princes,” Mr. Knohl contends that the stone’s writings are about the death of a leader of the Jews who will be resurrected in three days.

He says further that such a suffering messiah is very different from the traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a triumphal, powerful descendant of King David.

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the reading and considered it indeed likely that the key illegible word was “hayeh,” or “live.” Whether that means Simon is the messiah under discussion, she is less sure.

Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University, said he spent a long time studying the text and considered it authentic, dating from no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page paper on the stone will be published in the coming months.

Regarding Mr. Knohl’s thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious. “There is one problem,” he said. “In crucial places of the text there is lack of text. I understand Knohl’s tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing words.”

Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and books, “Gabriel’s Revelation” and Mr. Knohl’s analysis deserved serious attention. “Here we have a real stone with a real text,” he said. “This is truly significant.”

Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

But there was, he said, and “Gabriel’s Revelation” shows it.

“His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come,” Mr. Knohl said. “This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.”

The article is reported by Ethan Brunner. The title of the article is "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection." Here's the link to the article at the NY Times website:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

church house (or if you're emergent, faith community house)...

rectory...

vicarage...

manse...

I am a PK (Pastor's Kid) and for about seven years of my life we lived in a parsonage (or any other name that you prefer).  Today I was remembering that house and thinking about missional living (I was pulling weeds at my own house... I guess that made missional living come to mind).

While thinking about all that, the question that ultimately came to mind was: can a parsonage be used as a missional tool?

Here's what I was thinking:

If a faith community wants to be missional...

If they want to be missional in a specific neighborhood or region of their larger city...

If they rent a school or other such facility for a weekly gathering so that money can be spent on other efforts, but currently own no building or property...

Would a house (reasonably priced) be a smart purchase for a faith community to have a brick and mortar influence in their neighborhood?

Is a brick and mortar connection to a neighborhood valuable when striving to be missional?

Would this allow for the "pastor" to build friendships outside of a "church" context?

Would this allow the faith community to be missional in ways beyond "church" (i.e. starting a community garden in the parsonage yard)?

Is a parsonage possibly a cheaper and wiser alternative than purchasing a "church" building?

If the faith community pays the mortgage on the house wouldn't this allow the pastor to receive a smaller income from the community? (Some day the mortgage would be paid off (sooner than a larger "church building" freeing up the funds for other efforts)  Wouldn't the parsonage be a long term investment in a neighborhood for the faith community?

Couldn't that parsonage house people other than "the pastor"?

Is the concept of a parsonage a "old" concept that the emergent church needs to rethink and be creative with?

So... parsonage as a missional tool? Yes or no?

Aquest article es podia llegir avui a http://www.elperiodico.cat (per cert on fan referència a Internet ho he posat en cursiva ... )

6/7/2008 UN LLIBRE BASAT EN UN SUCCÉS QUE VA COMMOCIONAR BARCELONA

Una vampira al Raval

1. • El mosso Marc Pastor novel.la el cas d'Enriqueta Martí, que va assassinar desenes de nens a principis del segle passat
2. • 'La mala dona' va guanyar el premi Crims de Tinta

Una psicòpata de llibre, Enriqueta Martí, va explotar sexualment, va assassinar i va descarnar per fabricar ungüents desenes, potser, de nens, alguns de pit, al Raval de principis del segle passat. La història de la vampira del carrer de Ponent, que havia caigut gairebé en l'oblit, ha tornat. Diversos llibres (El diario de Enriqueta Martí, de Pierrot, i El misterio de la calle Poniente, de Fernando Gómez) han rescatat la primera assassina mediàtica de Barcelona, digna competidora de Jack l'esbudellador. El mosso d'esquadra Marc Pastor, en la seva segona incursió en la narrativa, ha convertit aquest "mite de la ciutat", de qui fa quatre anys li va costar trobar informació i que avui bull a internet, en una novel.la, La mala dona (La Magrana) --que va guanyar el premi Crims de Tinta--, centrada en la persecució d'aquesta assassina per dos policies.

Un 'western' barceloní
En el fons, encara que sembli xocant, es tracta d'un western. Cronològicament, només hi ha un petit lapse de temps entre les aventures de xèrifs i bandits a finals del segle XIX i els tirotejos de policies i gàngsters dels anys 20. I la Barcelona de pistolers i terroristes del 1912 queda just al mig. "El western és un gènere amb unes claus que es poden aplicar per narrar qualsevol història", explica Pastor. Pistoles a la cintura, patrulles a cavall, visites al cap del poblat gitano del Morrot --això sí, prenen un cafè de mitjó, no fumen pas una pipa de la pau--, tavernes en un carrer de Balmes polsegós, un duel al sol... "Em vaig posar el vídeo La muerte tenía un precio abans d'escriure una escena", explica l'autor.
No obstant, el regust local està garantit. "Avui no t'atraquen al carrer en català", explica Pastor. Però en aquella Barcelona els xoriços parlaven en català. En un català que avui ja no existeix i que Pastor ha rescatat de les obres de Juli Vallmitjana. "Fins que vaig llegir La xava no vaig aconseguir trobar l'atmosfera", confessa. Hi ha més d'un homenatge al novel.lista dels baixos fons i de la Barcelona gitana d'aquells temps.
La Barcelona del 1912, això sí, era increïblement moderna: "El casino més gran d'Europa, a l'Arrabassada, el Liceu, molta riquesa d'una banda i molta misèria de l'altra, amb gent que dormia a les tavernes, lladregots...". L'entorn ideal perquè una alcavota trastocada robés nens per oferir-los a depravats de l'alta societat. I una ciutat amb la Setmana Tràgica recent, vigilada per una "policia política", incapaç i corrupta, que no va fer res per evitar que l'assassina actués impunement durant anys, va intentar silenciar l'escàndol i mai va arribar a investigar els fets.
Amb la història explicada per altres, Pastor ha preferit inventar-se aquesta investigació que mai va emprendre la policia que dirigia Millán Astray (pare). Els policies protagonistes, Moisès Corvo i Juan Malsano, tenen fusta d'investigadors amb sèrie pròpia de novel.la negra. Però Pastor ha tallat d'arrel aquesta temptació. "Vull desmarcar-me, picotejar en altres gèneres, a més de la novel.la negra: aventura bèl.lica, ciència-ficció...".
Una manera més de separar la vida professional de la literària, de no convertir-se per sempre en el policia que escriu novel.la de crims. Encara que no és tan difícil separar un món i un altre. Els personatges de Pastor, ell mateix membre de la policia científica, manifesten un notable interès pel rigor mortis, els senyals de descomposició, les taules de dissecció... ¿És potser una mica anacrònic aquest to CSI a la Barcelona del 1912? No, respon l'escriptor: "En aquell temps la policia científica estava en plena eclosió. Però els personatges parlen a partir de l'experiència de qui ha vist molts morts, no actuen com a Grishom".

Tatuagem = Demônio
Rock = Demônio
Palavrão = Demônio
Algumas pessoas que fazem/fizeram sucesso = Demônio
Eu tentando falar a verdade = Demônio
Até HelloKitty = Demônio

Certo, vamos aos fatos. A religião atraza a evolução científica e social no mundo inteiro, algumas religiões mais que as outras(muçulmanos que por exemplo, não permiti que apareça cachorro na TV haha).

Seguindo as expectativas, a internet não deveria ser considerada coisa do demônio a muito tempo?
A resposta é simples, NÃO!!! Sabe porque? Porque no Brasil por exemplo, esta maldita inclusão digital fez com que até os padres tenham orkut, simples assim.

http://www.orkut.com.br/Profile.aspx?uid=4469734616709642207

E claro, com um monte de padre, pastor, mentirosos, ladrões(existe mais nomes para quem trampa com isso? kkkkk) usando o orkut, a internet nunca será considerada do demônio. O Problema é que, de um tempo para cá(digo 3, 4 meses), as pessoas estão começando a perceber que orkut é perda de tempo, ou seja, quando o ultimo FILHO DA PUTA que se diz AMIGUXO DE DEUS parar de usar orkut, a internet será do demônio.

Deacon: I don't know, shepherd?

Usher - Here are a few that come to mind:

Chief guilt officer, Chief alter caller, Chief wine and bread steward, Chief Membership Pusher, Chief Building Fund Persuader, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Delegator, Chief Manipulator, Chief divorce counselor, Chief curriculum chooser, Chief Finanacial Officer, Chief Idealist (keep the member) officer

Deacon: You better watch it Usher, you're steppin' on toes

It doesn't seem far from reality.

We start this edition off with news that maybe the expanding universe theory is really just a theory...

Here is a nifty little video concerning the emergent church, but I am not sure that I agree with some the 'history' that it speaks to.

Here...but didn't Peter refuse adoration? But the Catholics do have a good stance on social concerns, like torture.

Good quote here...

Example #157, 890 that Rick Warren is really Antichrist Driven and someone else saying something about it.

Remember the Jesus son of Joseph Ossuary that made big news and suddenly faded...here is a good video

Iyov, as always, posting great articles, but here calls attention to something I discovered some time ago.

Another worldy denomination shows it's fruit

And someone is standing up to the Canadians.

And on the need to remember that evil has a beautiful side as well, here. Here is an excellent thought on the 'Florida Outpouring'. And of course, others are calling Todd B. demonic, which is the truth. And if only... but you know, he would still have his 'Christian' supporter, and I guess they would put it on 'God TV' which has seen an enormous surge in viewership. Here is a take on Todd from a fellow charismatic of his. And aren't these the same people that 'commissioned' Todd B.? Of course, when they deviate from the Truth, they will accept any liar. Here is a wonderful site that continues to expose the truth about ole Todd B. Doug at Metacatholic enters into the fray a bit.

I guess Ray Comfort (is Kirk soon to follow?) is finding comfort at the Word of Faithers.

Something I didn't know about Luther. One has to remember that Luther and others were reformers, meaning that essentially they saw nothing wrong with Rome. Shame that. From the same site, here.

A sick thought indeed, but it happens more than you think. What a shame that some political leaders in this country have called it a religion of peace. Muslims care more about postcards then children, it seems.

Why Islamic dating sites just don't work...

A good post, as always, from Fr. Ted, here.

Unicorns and the KJV. And something else related.

He's right, you know, I have never heard it like that! When you begin to put the pieces together concerning Iran's leader, you understand who he thinks he is. And when you do, you have to realize what he thinks he has to do.

HAVE YOU TRIED THIS YET?

Houston, we have a problem...

Ben Witherington is attacking a book that attacks, among other things, Catholics and show us several things. First, bad scholarship will undermine even the strongest truth, and second, that just because you attack Catholics, it does not make your weapons right. It is going to be a multi-part series, so stay tuned to it.

How nice it is to be reminded that we (Americans) don't know everything, but at I know what rotates around the Earth.

Obviously Obama didn't read my post before he did this.

This is pretty funny.

I have been following this developing story for a long time. It has taken a while to get this far, but then again... they have waited about 2000 years since the last temple.

What a shame she must be for her parents and why would her demographic be young girls that age?

Might have to get this book here.

How much is a child worth?

Here is a site that I am interested in exploring and it is free!!!! And this is one that might be interesting as well. And speaking of resources...

Anything about Bonhoeffer will usually get on this blog somewhere.

What would your answer be?

Looking good here.

Break Free

In Your Freedom

You Are My Strength

Lord of Lords

One Thing

To Know Your Name

God of Ages

In the Mystery

You Saw Me

Hosanna

Here in My Life

You Are Faithful
[dailymotion id=x3dedv&related=1"]

Saviour King
[dailymotion id=x3cta4&related=1"]

Our sole purpose, is to cast a reflection of the man in the same mirror that he held up to our country during his now infamous sermon, Confusing God and Government. This sermon has come to be known as the "God Damn America" sermon, hence "GOD DAMN REV. WRIGHT" seemed to be an appropriate title for this forum.

The initial premise of GOD DAMN REV. WRIGHT.COM was one of parody and satire. But that was before the events of April 28th...before the behavior of our subject became so egregious, and the impact of that behavior on the Obama campaign, so potentially devastating. 

The Pathology

We had until recently, been willing to give Senator Barack Obama's former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., the benefit of the doubt. He is after all, an elderly African American man-an angry, elderly African American man.

And he is indeed entitled to his anger. Blacks of his generation (he is 66) endured a more overtly racist society than we thirty, forty, and even early fifty somethings can begin to imagine.  

Comedian Chris Rock in his second HBO special Bigger and Blacker quips, "There's nothing more racist than an old black man. You know why? 'Cause an old black man went through some real racism. He didn't go through that l-can't-get-a-cab s_ _t. He was the cab."

Levity provides a degree of solace. But the long term effects of the indignity and emasculation of Jim Crow, combined with the violence and turmoil of the sixties and early seventies, has been damaging to the psyches of many civil rights era survivors.  

We get that.

We understand how being subjected to such flagrant, systemic inhumanities, can over time, erode the very core of ones being. The experience can dictate the way the victim sees himself and the world around him. It can shape or misshape his perception of events and ideas. And it can inspire hatred, bitterness, and paranoia.

That is why we didn't judge Reverend Wright too harshly when he insulted Italian Americans by referring to the Roman nose as a "garlic nose," and by characterizing the crucifixion as "a public lynching Italian style."

We also for the most part, disregarded his assertion that the HIV/AIDS virus was invented by the U.S. government as part of a sinister plot to annihilate its African American population.  

"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color," Wright has declared. He cites the Leonard G. Horowitz book, "Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola: Nature, Accident, or Intentional?", as his source. 

There is no credible evidence that the HIV virus was created by any governmental entity. However we do know that during the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment conducted from 1932 to 1972, treatment was withheld from 400 black, male syphilis afflicted participants, so that the progression of the disease could be studied.

That travesty gained national attention when Pastor Wright was a young man in his early thirties. The revelation no doubt, made a searing impression on him. It is easy to understand how he may project that experience onto the uncertainty generated by the conflicting theories within the scientific community, regarding the origin of the HIV/AIDS virus.

We also understand the context of the "God Damn America" sermon. We realize that Reverend Wright was not spewing expletives in the pulpit, but rather expounding on biblical law, which promises damnation to the purveyors of injustice. (The same principle of biblical law was also the basis of the September 16, 2001 sermon in which Reverend Wright proclaims that "America's chickens are coming home to roost.")

Certainly, if America was called into judgment, she would have a lot of explaining to do. To begin with, she would have to account for a culture which has tolerated, and in many cases sanctioned, human rights violations based upon race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin. Furthermore, she would be forced to justify her disenfranchisement of the poor, her marginalization of the mentally handicapped, and her abuse of veterans of foreign wars.

We get that too. We struggled however, to come to terms with the issue.

The Issue

America's dysfunctional pathology not withstanding, what exactly was it that we witnessed on Monday, April 28th at the National Press Club?

Continued at www.goddamnrevwright.com

I've decided to take up a home here on the blogosphere to possibly work through some of my own stuff.  I try my best to go for radical authenticity but inasmuch as I'm being me, I still manage to horrify those around me.  So, perhaps it's best to just work through it all here.

So, I'm in ministry.  I've been in ministry for a long time.  I really love full time ministry but it's not been without its struggles.  I'm a depressed individual.  I have a hard time getting through Board Meetings without having a Xanax beforehand.  I am terrified of failure.  I am excited about seeing people get the breakthroughs in the spirit that I know God wants to give them.

But, I'm not in a place spiritually that I can appropriate that kind of faith for myself.  I have faith for everyone in my life and ministry.  I have faith for total strangers.  But, I just can't seem to OWN the healing that I've prayed for others to have.  I've seen people receive their healing through me and my ministry.  But, I've not seen that healing happen in my own life.

Is God trying to tell me something?

I believe that one of my major gifts, and this borders on the "divine right of kings", is to name those who wander innocently into our company.  While the tendency is to quickly name the new recruits, my method is to "watch" for dominant flaws or foibles that bring much joy to the already flawed group.  The great "glee" is to watch as people surrender to the inevitability of being discovered to be actually human, and then once discovered to learn to revel in their own laughability.  This is therapy at its finest, for we all come as "masters of disguise", having practiced our performances to perfection for the sake of those who never discover their own nicknames. (for lack of questionable company)  Consequently "Murph" is now able to laugh at his tendency to discover new ways to hurt himself.  (Murphy's Law, Runners Corollary 1 - "If there is a way for me to injure myself on a given run, I will do it.")  Or, "Gringo", the name bestowed on our only Argentinian runner.  Now "Gringo" means "white guy".  This is irony at its best.  Gringo is one of our most beloved runners.  It is amazing that in this company, none are over-sensitive to ethnic reference because there is this unusual commitment to one another that makes words irrelevant and relationship supreme.

My name is Pumba.  I never gave myself this name.  It really came to me from my father, . . . not the name but the flaw.  It is an act of Providence that a runner with this particular flaw, should have shorter legs than anyone else.  Aside.  My son recently passed me in height.  I love that.  I was telling someone who had not seen him in some time that he was 6 feet tall.  That insensitive individual remarked that he must have gotten his height from the other side of the family.  Now that was a clever piece of deduction!  I said, "Yes.  On my side of the family our genes were . . . too long.  Get it?  Genes/jeans . . . . . ?

I have never in my lifetime participated in a sport that would be natural to me.  At 5'8", I was a fair basketball player.  I should never have played basketball but on Grand Manan Island, it was that or nothing.  And I became a runner . . . but I am built more like a Humvee.  Now when you try to move 28" inseams to keep up with the more graceful runners in our group, it puts you in one place alone.  That is at the back of the pack.  For 28 years, this has been my accustomed pole position.  This is not flattering but it is what it is.

Providence is rarely flattering.  But most any runner in our group is thankful for my short legs.  A runner gasping for air is better served by fresh air, something that I fear I would spoil for the others if I were a "front-of-the-pack" kind of guy. (remember the nickname now) Truthfully I might never have developed a "following" if this had been the case.  Instead, I have become my own following.  There is a life lesson that I have learned as well.  For people like myself, there is great freedom that comes when you discover that there is more room at the back of the "rat race" then there is at the front.  On the highways, driving under the speed limit will produce a greater expanse of open road than driving over the speed limit.  My wife lovingly tells me that, in this respect, I am weird.  I think she is right.  I also use less gas at the back of the pack.

Pumba

Leia a matéria na íntegra no Tudo Agora Notícias

How do I know this?

Because I had the displeasure of reading the interview today, not from an Internet archive, but from an actual copy of the original magazine.

One of my colleagues retired, and in the clearing of his office he had left, outside his door, for whoever might want them, some old magazines. The Esquire one with the Sartre interview caught my eye, and having long considered myself an existentialist sympathizer, I thought I would like to see what was animating the old intellectual icon way back in 1972. 

Unfortunately, I did not like much of what I read at all. It was a truly dismaying experience, perhaps on a par with Barack Obama's dismay with his old pastor, the Reverend Wright.

I thought I would share a few of the quotes from the interview.

First, I was shocked at Sartre's unreconstituted Marxism, and support for communism, both Soviet and Chinese, which, if this interview is any indication, clearly obsessed him above all other concerns. He seems so one dimensional and dated here, that it is simply difficult not to whince. 

Perhaps this should not have surprised me. I knew Sartre was sympathetic to communism, and I've always held this against him without abandoning the other aspects of his existentialist philosophy that I regard as valuable, but in this interview his Marxism struck me as unnuanced and even cartoonish, a kind of parody of itself. Here, for example, is his critique of French conservative Jean Francois Revel's book, Without Marx or Jesus:

I don't know what he means by revolution. . . . [H]e doesn't speak of a cessation of the division of labor, of seizing the means of production for the collectivity, or of a withering away of the State. (282)

Well, shame on a conservative for not accepting Marxist premises! Imagine that.

And asked why he is not a Maoist, Sartre said:

Because at the present time to be a Maoist in France you can't be over thirty. For physical reasons, first of all: if you're trying to get away from guys who are charging you with clubs, and you're sixty-seven and have arthritis, you stop at the end of fifty yards! Furthermore, the true Maoist is capable of entering a factory and working on an assembly line. I am no longer able to do that. I am too old. (280)

In short, he would be a Maoist if he was young, didn't have arthritis, and had the energy for factory work--none of which, conveniently, applies to Sartre. The great exponent, in the 1940s and 50s, of anti-essentialism (the assertion that our nature is not fixed, that we have choices, and that the future is open to us) now appeals to essentialism to explain his not being a Maoist. I've got bad knees! I'm over thirty! Factory work is not for an old man!

You might argue that this is Sartre acknowledging honestly his "existential situation," and making choices from where he is at, but it seems to me that Sartre was then otherwise oblivious to what other people's limits might be. Sartre wanted to see the whole world set into extremity by Marxist revolution, which would have taxed the limits of many people, young and old, far beyond Sartre's own protests against his own degree of commitment (age, arthritis, unsuited to factory work).

Sartre thus seems glibly oblivious to his own bourgeois hypocrisy. He is like a contemporary mega-church minister driving a Mercedez-Benz and talking about selling all you have and giving it to the poor.

Still, Sartre's private excuses for not following through on his highest ideals is somewhat forgivable. We all make excuses, and sometimes even relying on lame ones is good if it stops you from feeling compelled to follow a questionable syllogism to an absurd or self-destructive conclusion (such as becoming a Maoist). Sartre, it appears, still had a healthy instinct for self-preservation and maintaining a bourgeois routine in which he could continue to talk daily, over a pastry, in the sunny Parisian afternoons, with Simone de Beauvoir.

Nevertheless, what is far less understandable is his obnoxious and absurd comments about the Mona Lisa and the jailing of professors in a hypothetical cultural revolution in France. Here's the interviewer's question, and Sartre's full answer:

Interviewer: Imagine a cultural revolution in Paris. Would you try to stop them from burning the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Mona Lisa, etc.?

Sartre: The Mona Lisa, I'd let that burn without giving it a second thought, but I do think I would try to protect some other things. Whether I'd succeed is another question. But I think I would say: let's put this aside, we'll discuss it later.

I wouldn't really see anything wrong with burning professors because some of them are criminals; but actually I would insist that they be left in cellars for a certain time, like paintings and books during the war, and that they be discussed with a clear head once the main action was over.

But when I think of the Mona Lisa! There are some things that really are of no use at all, none at all! For a long time the Mona Lisa's smile has only served as a cliche for bad writers! That smile used to be something, now it is nothing, it is hollow. The best thing that I've seen on the Mona Lisa was a photomonatage: the only original use of the Mona Lisa since I was born! For me, it is absolutely typical of paintings that no longer have anything to say, while other paintings by da Vinci or Tintoretto can still mean something. (284, 286)

In the interview, there is more of Sartre going on in a similar vein. For example, he speaks of literature, after a Marxist revolution, as being thoroughly politicized, and he does so with approval. He thinks, for example, that Madame Bovary might not fare too well in a Marxist future, except as a historical curiousity, and as far as Sartre is concerned, the book could, without regret, be bidden a good riddence.

He also speaks with hope of the day when writing will be a collective product, and not attached to individual authors. In other words, one of the greatest of Western Civilization's cultural products, the assertion of persona onto the stage of existence, is something Sartre wishes to see an end to. How terribly Orwellian. 

For all Sartre's greatness as a philosopher, novelist, and playright, as a public intellectual opining on revolution, art, and literature, such statements are simply unforgivable. Sartre fought totalitarianism in World War II, but in his maturity and old age he seems to have morphed into the crassest of totalitarians himself.

How very, very tragic.

Thankfully, existentialism has a life beyond Sartre, and needn't be chained by his political and aesthetic stupidities. I like reading, for example, the old 1950s books on existentialism by Hazel Barnes, a female academic who was the first translator of Sartre into English, but who, in her own writings, gave existentialism a decidedly American strain, free of anti-capitalist bromides. 

I was speaking recently with one of our parishioners who has his grandchildren visiting for a couple of weeks this summer.  He was telling me about how his granddaughter is writing these elaborate and creative stories completely off of the top of her head!  We both were wondering how it is that kids can be so creative and imaginative and free with their thoughts.  Then, later in the afternoon, it occurred to me that we were asking the wrong question; we should be asking, "what is it that happens between childhood and adulthood that stifles that creativity?"  It’s as if becoming an adult in our culture just takes that creative imagination and stomps it out with all the limitations and rules of society!

Our culture develops at a rapid pace - so much so that we often get caught up in the messages being thrown our way and feel that we have to keep up.  I’m guilty of this when it comes to technology and the newest gadgets!  I love them!  But what I forget is that in the process of learning the latest technological tools to communicate or get online - that I am slowly becoming a slave to them.  How many of us can remember 10 years ago when having a cell phone was a novelty and not even a thought for most people?  Now we feel as if we have to be available to everyone at all times!  

We are victims of our own creation.  We all take part in creating the burden that we carry.  We tend to focus on the limitations that life puts on us (or that we put on ourselves) and we forget the simplicity of childhood and the wonder of having the mind of a child.  In our world of restrictions, rules, boundaries and limitations, it’s a refreshing message to hear Jesus, opening his arms to us to say, “You are welcome here.  Lay your burden down and find rest.  True, simple, restorative rest.  For it is not as difficult as you have made it out to be - but rather - as with the freedom of childhood imagination, it is simple.  Welcome.”

Wishing you peace and joy.   Pastor Derek Harman

My office. My stuff. My brain, hard at work.

entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

The Apostle Paul wrote this to the young pastor Timothy.  The two of them had traveled together as Timothy was being prepared for the ministry that God called him to.  Paul had taught Timothy personally as they journeyed throughout Asia Minor.  As Paul neared the end of his own ministry, he gives the charge to Timothy.  The things that he had heard Paul preach, he was to entrust to other men who in turn will do the same.

Theologians have come to know this as "The Ministry of Multiplication."  It is God's method for propigating the good news of Jesus Christ.

My hope is to do in turn what I've been equipped to do, just as Timothy was charged to do in the first century.