Billy Graham Makes a Political Ad?

"I realize this election could be my last. I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman," says a full-page ad that will appear today in USA Today and that ran Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

Billy Graham - really? Has this historically non-political evangelist made this statement? The guy is 93 and his son is a tool of the Republicans.

I have been studying and doing my best to live according to the Bible for over forty years, and I can tell you THERE IS NO BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. There are plenty of examples of marriage in the Bible, good and bad, and closest Jesus comes to endorsing any particular form is when he says that from the beginning He (the Father) made them male and female. And I think the Bible is unequivocal in denouncing homosexual behavior as a sin. Fine. I am happy to discuss God's attitudes about sex; but in the United States we have another document to live by, the Constitution, which establishes freedom of religion and the pursuit of happiness as some of our most important social principles. So when we Christians start trying to legislate our personal beliefs, we move into the Taliban's camp. Don't you think God could send ten thousand angels to enforce His wish that we would all behave? He long ago chose not to, and we need to respect that. Let us advocate our ideas of how we ought to live, and then let them stand on their own merit. Hopefully, we will also personally exemplify those ideas and not be hypocrites like the Pharisees.

I think it's clear that President Obama exemplifies marriage as being between a man and a woman, not between a man and a trophy. Many of President Obama's decisions have been made on Biblical principles, the "weightier matters of the Law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness" whereas Romney has spent his life as the servant of Mammon. That's mammon, never mind Mormon - which is indeed a cult deeply flawed in its theology whether the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has taken it off its cult list or not.

So who can you trust to "support the nation of Israel"? I think Romney would throw Israel under the bus in a heartbeat, if he thought he could make some money on the deal. All it would take is a more democratic Arab world saying 'we would support the US need for oil more if we didn't feel so threatened by Israel. That would be good for Business, right?

Dying to Self and Being Crucified with Christ

Rob Bell talks in a video about how death is the engine of life. He reminds us of the parable Jesus told about how a seed cannot bring forth fruit unless it goes into the ground and is buried. Rob pointed out how much we try to maintain a certain public portrait for our own benefit, but that if we are willing to admit we were wrong, apologize, and ask for forgiveness, that is like dying. It's killing a little bit of that fake person we spend so much time maintaining. That, he says, is being crucified with Christ. Makes a great deal of sense to me, and I thank him for the clarification.

And I'll go him one more step. When we are willing to die this way, and go to someone we have wronged and sincerely apologize, and then have that other person refuse or be unable to forgive us, that is even more like being crucified with Christ. Once you expose yourself like that, and the other person doesn't respond in the nice Sunday School way we all assume he or she will, then you are stuck. More like nailed. And all you can do is take it. Like Jesus did.