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The List: The World’s Worst Religious Leaders

Posted April 2008
When Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States next week, he will likely make the case that religion is a force for peace in the world. Unfortunately, clerics from the world’s major faiths have, at times, helped justify and encourage the worst forms of bigotry and violence. This week’s FP List looks at the world’s leading preachers of hate.


http://http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4244

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cats

I have found out that I have a fear of cats, a phobia of sorts. Not that I scream and run when I see one. No, that I am fearful of being scratched and bitten by one. Volunteering with the SPCA is forcing me to deal with this fear and it also revealed that I have this fear.

Still, I will hold to my philosophy..."So many cats...so many recipes."
And, I will still hold to my philosophy to care for God's creation...even cats.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Emergent?

Last night, I went to Calvary Chapel's discussion of Emerging Christianity led by Charlie Campbell. Coming to this event represented either my masochistic side or my desire to get into a fight. I knew where the conversation would lead, because I was carrying my Bible, Generous Orthodoxy, and Velvet Elvis. I knew I would need my Bible to be able to carry on the conversation and I wanted the two texts he would be quoting.

Before the meeting, I prayed to myself that God be willing to allow me to hear what is being said and to be open. Do not put up the defenses right away. I am not sure if I was willing for that prayer to be answered.

However, I began praying for Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren lead voices in the emergent church. Just God encourage them and let them stay focused.

In the end, I realized that I am emergent in viewpoint and theology. Have been for at least a decade. Now, I think I am going to claim that in San Joaquin Valley.

I am emergent in theology. My practice is not Emergent. My worship style is not emergent. But, I practice emergent in my thinking and philosophy it is who I am.

working through

What do we control?
That is the greatest issue in my life, trying to discern what I can control and what I can't.
As a minister sometimes has this moment that she or he are the hands that God is using to bring about the Kingdom of God...then there is this realization that Kingdom and goodness is always welcomed.

At those moments, I have to remember that I do not have to change the world. God is doing thaat. I am here to witness to that fact, because God has changed me.

But, I do wish, hope, and pray to see it happen.
On those days when I feel that the kingdom has taken a step back...I know that I am being claimed by God. So, I hope for others. I try to bring grace and hope all the while trusting God.
I know that this is rambling, but I need to speak this so I can believe it.

Love is not the greatest word....Courage is the greatest word.
May you have courage to trust God and love the world.

Change

How do we change?
That is the question that really is at the heart of life of faith. I preached yesterday a sermon on the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22. The gist of the sermon was that to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God did not depend upon goodness or acts, but a fundmental willingness to change.

I have preached that sermon before, but when I preached that sermon before it has been that others need to change. The question for me is now, what do I need to be willing to change in my life to make myself more useful for the Kingdom.

I need to let go of fear. My life right now is comfortable, and I am fearful of making changes that may jeopardize that comfort. However, the call in my life is to be useful to the Kingdom of God, not to be comfortable. I have prayed the last few days for God to help me be willing to change.
I continue to pray and perhaps this time I will have courage to make the significant changes in my life.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Spitzer

Hmm, the govenor of New York is a sex addict.
Then the hope is that he gets help. He is self righteous, dishonest, and self destructive.
This is not political.
Perhaps, there will be opportunities for others to see how destructive addictions can be. Especially those addictions that are hidden. Gambling, spending, food, etc.
In between, many people will look at as morality. He is weak. He is, but that is not the whole story. He is crazy. He has lost touch with reality and put himself as god.
Well, the temple of Spitzer is closed and if there is grace of God in this. Then Spitzer will find out how to be honest and find God. Then the healing will begin.

The sad fact is that he is not like many others, mostly men, who live dishonest lives. Who think they are in control, but are so out of control that they wind up with prostitutes, looking at pornography, or with anonymous affairs. There has been Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, and now Elliot Spitzer. There are many other folks who don't garner the headlines who have the same problem, they make themselves god and then lose control.

Water supply

Alright.
So today we find out that nation's water supply.
The report only gives pharmaceuticals. Then that begs the question, what happens with illicit and illegal drugs. We know that drugs are caught in urine tests meaning the body does not dispose of the drugs in the system. If the water supply has legal drugs in it, then it reasons to me that it has illegal drugs. Of course, the news is not going to tell us that.

Next question, does bottled water that is just local water tricked up with more purification still have drugs?

Final question, did bottled water companies pay for this study?

oiy,oiy, oiy!!!!

Difference between Moses and Jospeh

I noticed a difference between Moses and Joseph, the guy with the coat with many colors or long sleeves not Jesus' stepdad.

Joseph went to Egypt and he hung in PHaraoh's house. He was wealthy. He did little in his ability to care for others. In fact, it was not until his family showed up starving from famine that he sought to help them. He had the power to help them before they came, but he waited for them to come to him. He cared more for Pharaoh than his family until confronted. So, for Joseph to do good, the people came to him.

Moses was in exile from Egypt and for him to do good he had to go back. He went back and did not wait for folks to come to him. He went to the Burning bush. He went back to Egypt.

Through the eyes of misisonal church. Moses is a missional character. He went and did the will of God. Joseph allowed others to come to him and then he helped. His self interest was not always the interest of God. His will and God's will were at odds at times. Moses was driven to help others. His heart melded with God's heart.

Preparation

We are doing a series on prayer. One of the key reasons to do this series on prayer is that I sense the need in the church to come at prayer differently. Prayer is not something we should do, but we respond to prayer out of a desire to know Jesus.

In my story of faith, I can count many times when my prayer and devotional life was pretty empty. There were weeks when I would go without praying. When the Bible was the last thing I wanted to pick up. Those days are fewer, but I struggle at times with that. What I have learned is that sometimes the way I had been praying in the morning, in my office, or while I run that those methods no longer were able to connect me with God. So, I stop and try to find a new way. Light a candle. Put on a prayer cloth. Change devotional books. Take a walk. But, I claim those moments and do not try to fake it.

The key part of growth in the spiritual life is honesty. Honest with God and honest with myself.
If I am honest then there is nothing between God and me.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Bangalore...customer service hell

I know Thom Friedman lauds the work of India and its role in the flattening of the world and globalization. However, customer service through the world of internet is hell.

I think the issue is that Indian way of thinking is different from the American way of thinking. I process the world differently from an Indian and though technical knowledge may help these folks...there understanding and ability to communicate with the American mind is lacking.

Likewise, I think if America was providing customer support for Mumbai...not so good.

My gripe is this. I have just been asked to reinstall my OS and that was diagnosis first. It seems that with Dell customer support, reinstall the OS is the first solution. When I work with stateside customer support the folks seem to listen and understand the problem. The soution might be...your hard drive is fried.

Curious thing is that I am not down on all Customer support in Bangalore...just Dell's. Their methodology sucks.

Anyways, how about that first episode the Wire season 5. Awesome. True, True, False.

The Golden Compass

I am not a part of that movement of Christians who are telling folks not to go see the Golden Compass. Really, I don't care. I know that the author of the book is an Atheist, but I figure that the folks who made the movie, an interpretation of the book, are all atheists. I don't fear the movie and I imagine that the themes of the movie will shoot over the head of the folks watching it. I saw Grease as a kid...and I caught none of the innuendo...the hot dog jumping into the bun escaped me. So, Grease did not turn me into a dancer, I don't expect The Golden Compass as a movie will turn kids into atheist. If it does, the spiritual formation in churches needs an overhaul.

My review:
Great special effects.
Great story, but it is no different from any other story. It is good vs. evil. How do we overcome evil through violence.

In the stories of Tolkein and C.S. Lewis Christian stories of myth. Good overcomes evil through violence ultimately. Friendship and sacrifice lead to community overcoming through violence. The movie here is the same. The story is not new.

The image of God and religion as closed minded, anti-freedom, and corrupt. I agree that religion is in need of destruction. The god of that tribe needs to die. So, why defend that god?

Somebody give me a narrative where violence is not the way to good overcoming evil.
This is Gladiator, Braveheart, and the Karate Kid. There is nothing fresh to the story, but it is a story that sells. It is good, but not great.

5 things I will miss about JP

Today, we made a decision that JP/ Joepa was going to be put down.
He has a mass near his spleen and his platelet count is abnormally low that could cause danger in a surgery. For the last 5 days he has not eaten and is not even his bothersome self around our oranges. In honor of having been able to care for him and for him trusting his life with us...I have put down the five things that I will miss about JP.
1.) Halloween 1999, JP consumes 2 bags of Tootsie Rolls and 10 Milky Way bars. Then JP hurls at the kitchen door...the floor slopes right there. The slope leads to the door that heads to the basement. We have to clean up Tootsie Roll vomit and let me say I have never seen so much vomit in my life.
2.) Cousins give us a Harry and David basket. I come home and the whole basket is gone. I wonder where the 9 pieces of fruit have gone. Clueless I am until I find a small piece of Royal Riveria Core on JP's bed.
3.) We have a friend Laura S. who stays the night at our house to keep watch on JP. JP spends the whole night gnawing on a Cow knee. He eats the whole cow knee in a week.
4.) I would entice JP to play by acting long Long Duk Dong from 16 candles when I would yell, "Oh, Sexy Girlfriend!" Upon hearing these words, he would get up and be ready to play.
5.) Laying on the ground, JP would come up and laydown next to me. We would spoon.

Bonus story, because he was that damn good of a dog.
The night before we move to Garland. We get a babysitter who knows beans about dogs. She lets him out and he gets away. Somebody finds him and we have to go to the bad part of KC to get him. WIth police back up, I pay a finder's fee to get him back.

JP was the best dog in the whole world. Our family will miss him.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Ryan Shay

I was tremendously bummed on Saturday. Amy had asked me about that guy who ran in KC at the Hospital Hill. Ryan Shay. After Hospital Hill I met Ryan. Ryan had finished an hour or so before me and got money. I got some cheap medal. However, for a couple of minutes we talked about running and Hospital Hill. He was personable and gracious. I followed his career after that. We raced at NYCM together. Again, he finished hours before me.

It was great event on Saturday. Ryan Hall, Rithz and Brian Sell did great. It is just sad, we lost one.

Beyond my cognitive ablities

Moving has introduced me to a new communities and one of those are the folks who run in Visalia. They are fewer than the Dallas folks who I joined at White Rock every Saturday for years. They run faster and longer. This past weekend, two folks I know ran the Javelina Jundred. That is a 100 mile race. Now, this ain't no marathon it is 100 miles. To the left is Marcia who is sporting a devil costume, because the JJ has costume contest to go with the race. I figure, you get beyond a marathon and folks can do anything they want. Behind her is a more traditional ultra runner.

It is pretty incredible. One guy told me all you have to do is run 5mph for 24 hours. It sounds simple and I guess that is a way to get my head around it. However, after 20 miles in Chicago...I thought, no ultra in this body. Who knows?

I got other friends who moved from the 5K to the marathon and are now beyond the marathon. They may coax over the threshold. So, as we were chatting one early morning. The 100 miler is now the new marathon. Everybody is doing them.

Stepping into 3

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood him."

Those words are brutal words and probably the most hopeful words ever uttered.

To turn our will and our lives over to God.

Do you know how hard that is for me? For me, I will only speak of my experience, this step in life is critical and crucial. As I am starting to plant a new church, I must get out of my own way and let God work through me.

Earlier this week, I had come to the conclusion that I was using food to handle anxiety. That is not healthy. I was seeking comfort or pleasure from food. I was not trusting that God would take care of me. I had been heading down that path for awhile, but I decided that I needed to stop. Earlier this month, I had a diabetes scare and found out that everything was alright. However, I do have elevated cholesterol. I workout three to four times a week, my cholesterol should not be that high. So, I need to change my diet. However, that is hard to do when food is not fuel but a tool and means for handling anxiety. So, I just said to God, "This hunger that I feel is really about my hunger for you. I will seek you." It has been hard but in two days I feel healthier. That is good. I am not going to get into the details of how. I am not sure how, but I keep knowing that my hunger pangs are mostly hunger pangs for the divine.

As a church planter, I must rely heavily upon God to do it. I must conform my will to His will. I must trust that God will use me. At times there are moments of self doubt, but I work through this step daily to remember that I must turn my will and life over to God.

Working on Step 3, that is where I am. I don't progress beyond this step...I stay here and do it everyday.

Your will, not mine.
Your will, not mine.

Sometime in the midst of those words, I began to quit trusting myself and trusting God. It seems so foolish to say this that is hard. Do I trust that God will get me through? I only do that by moving into those places of discomfort and realizing that God is there with me. I really wish the gospel was not about salvation but comfort. Yeah, but we all would be numb and bloated.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Ministry why?

I think one of the things I have learned is that why do I want to be a minister. One thing is that I really like people and when I trust myself and not give into fear...it is much better. There are those fears of insecurity rumbling inside me. So, I must constantly be vigilant on trusting God and myself.

The key to me is that I believe that Jesus has the power to transform lives. Why? My own life has been transformed. Not transformed at baptism, but transformed later. It took awhile before I allowed myself to experience grace and forgiveness.

Where has that transformation taken place in my life. The shame and dread that isolated me from family and friends and the self loathing that kept me from hearing from people who loved me, friends, family, and acquaintances that I had gifts to share is gone. Not because I thought good about myself. Not that I heard the stories of Jesus' love. No, when I finally believed them and allowed them to rumble in my bowels (good Hebrew word) that was when I was able to see that I am a child of God and my sin was not so great that God could not forgive me. My seperation from my God could only be breached by Jesus who connected with me God. A God who loves me and that allowed me to trust God, myself, and others. It allowed me to connect.

My task in life is to help people get connected. First with God, then with themselves, and then with others.

I know you believe that God loves you...but do you live like an agnostic? Do you live like God hates you? If you do...I pray that you will hear the words of grace and that you feel that love that is found in a god who leaves heaven to come to earth to be with you.

Losing my daytimer

Last week, I lost my day planner. I had gone the way of Franklin Covey and tried to organize and focus my life. Since graduating from seminary, I had tried many paths to organization. In Seminary, my uncle gave me a Day Runner that has been very useful, but it was a little too small. So, I looked a day planner that used 8 1/2 x 11 paper. That was too huge. Then I went electronic using a Palm. The Palm was laborious. Then I used Outlook that was like the palm, but a little easier to use. However, it kept my day planning tied to the computer. Then I had my computer stolen or I had to reformat the C: drive. So, I went for a couple of years without any real organization.

Then in the summer, I decided that I was going to need a better mode of organization. I decided that I was an old school person, I needed paper. I bought "7 Habits for Highly Effective People" to get the philosophy about this program. I agreed with a great deal of it. Created a mission statement and bought into the system. I bought the year of daily planning pages, put all my information into the my day planner, and I had decided to use the Classic size. A little too bulky, but large enough to get the information. I lost the day planner last week in Costco. I was loading groceries and forgot my day planner in the grocery cart

This really sucks. So, I went to Depot de Office and bought another simulated leather binder and am beginning another attempt. I was asked how my week was at church and this moment of losing my day planner tops the week's memories. I think part of my frustration is that losing a day planner is a reminder how finite my organization skills are. How scattered brain that I can be and a great way for shame to creep in. That voice in my head that tells me that I am a failure. However, I decided to quit dwelling on that voice and buy a new planner. Re write my mission statement and come to the realization that keeping my life totally organized is the defining point of who I am. That my salvation is not dependent upon it.

So, I try to be organized to be helpful and useful. I am not working on my organization as way of being perfect. Got to remember that and losing my day planner helped me remember why I am doing this.

Chicago Marathon

What a brutal day last Sunday was.

The runner's reports are not overly exagerrated. I arrived at the first two water stops and there was not any Gatorade. The water was low. It took 90 seconds to find water at each stop. At that moment, I realized that I would need to readjust my time. The temperatures were excrutiating with it being 88 degrees and 86% humidity.

Three thoughts.

1.) Volunteers are incredible. Those folks who arrived to hand out water at the aid stations were pretty much screwed. They had a race organization that did not prepare them for the day. They had runners who were jerks. We runners can be very self centered, because well, the whole day is about us. However, I did not meet any volunteers who were bitter, angry, or anything but helpful. Chicago bravo!

2.) Quitting is an option. At mile 14 I was pretty much done. Anything else that was going to happen that day was going to be slow and painful My feet hurt and I was cramping. I quit sweating once. Sometimes it is better to quit than to push on. I was telling myself during the run. My measure as an athlete, person, father, and pastor did not lay upon my ability to run this thing. So, I quit running at mile 15 and just was looking to finish.

3.) I prayed that morning and my prayer was basically, "God I am not asking for a great time, because I am supposed to prepare to run. I am not praying for a day free of pain. Just let me accept the day as it is." That was a hard prayer to live into as the day came about. As the day ended, I met a Nigerian cab driver who said, "I was inspired by you all. I saw 70 year old man, running. I sit on my butt. THere was a 300 pound guy doing 26.2 miles. I can't get around two blocks. You all are heroes, you changed my life."

No Cabbie, you changed my life. It takes perspective to understand life and sometimes it is best seen outside of myself.

Fearless Joy,
Guido

Waiting for salvation

For my devotional time, I use a book called "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants." I have had the book since 1995. I bought it, because it looked cool and simplistic to me. A leather book with a cross on the front. Yeah, I am bit of simpleton...I have bought CD's because of the cover art...oiy bad mistakes.

It is a book that is divided by weekly topics. I have picked up the book off and on throughout my ministry. It is a good friend who does not need constant attention.

Today, the reading was Psalm 25. The Psalmist said this.

"You are the God of my Salvation

I wait for you all day long."

I have been thinking about that. Here is this guy who is has this faith that God will save him, but it has not happened yet. There is no proof, only faith. In my own life, I have thought how I have kept faith even when my salvation has been very far away or even at times when I did not know if I would ever be saved. However, I kept believing and living as if it would or had. Does that make those of us who believe that faith is important hypocrites? I believe in God's goodness even though I have no proof.

In the midst of my own addiction, I prayed for salvation. I preached and believed, but was never assured. I would pray, "You are a good God, and I am waiting for you." I think those who struggle with addictions of all sorts have that feeling of waiting. This is destroying my life, but God is not present. I think what I have learned on this side of my life is this, 'I need to say that God will save and I need to live as it has happened.' Faking it until you make it.

So, I just wanted to share what a friend, a leather bound book shared with me today.

Somewhere this life of faith is about courage in the face of fear.
I have had a great deal of fear. Fearful about failing. Fearful about reaching out. Fearful about what others will think about me. Yada Yada. Somewhere in Garland there is a box of courage that I left behind. I felt it was a courageous move for me to go work at Jos. A Bank. It was admitting that life had gone astray and that I was rebuilding myself. I felt courageous in CPE. I felt courageous in accepting the move.

So, I was at an open 12 step meeting and one of the guys dropped 46 f bombs and basically said, "To be sober is not to be phony. You can fake it and go smoke weed, but I am not one of those folks. You have to find God or you will be in the same f###ing place you are now." It was one hell of a sermon and it convicted me. I have to remember how far I have come. I have to remember that I am doing this for the gospel and that Jesus walks with me. I have to remember that it matters not what anyone thinks, but it matters what Jesus thinks. I have to give this all up, so I can gain serenity, courage and wisdom.

So, as my 12 stepping friend said, "Quit f---ing around if don't want to f----ing do this get out."
I am in, all in.