The Church and Indigenous Peoples’ of the World

The governments of planet Earth are making an invitation to churches and other civil society groups to advocate for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples’ in a new six-page document that was voted on in September of 2014 which is basically a reinforcement of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Proverbs 31: 8-9 tells us: "Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, maintain the rights of the poor and needy (Bible, Revised Standard Version)."

I invite you to read more details on this UN document in this article from the World Council of Churches that I am sharing. It is my opinion that we are all children of God, and this is a great opportunity for the Church to do what it is called to do in unity, but even more with the encouragement of governments around the globe. The link to the article is below. Blessings and I hope you enjoy reading!

New UN document opens door for churches to do more for indigenous rights — World Council of Churches

On Criticizing the Theology of the Osteen's or Anyone Else's

I don’t remember if it was last week or the week before it, but everyone was jumping all over Victoria Osteen for saying something seemingly really stupid theologically. I don't understand what the big uproar was about since most of the time neither Joel nor Victoria make much sense to me, theologically speaking...they usually just preach a prosperity gospel, it seems. Well, just because you have the largest congregation in the United States it does not mean you know what you are talking about, it probably just means that you are either popular or the congregants are just as ignorant as their leaders, perhaps. Anyhow, let’s stop criticizing our brothers and sisters because that is ignorant too. Why do I say this? Well, from the Second Lesson today at church, we can learn much from St. Paul's letter to the Romans. Trust me on this, if you think Paul was talking about food in these verses, than you be making a huge assumption. 

Romans 14:1-12 reads as follows:

[1]As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions.

[2] One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. 

[3] Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. 

[4] Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand. 

[5]One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.

[6] He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 

[7] None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 

[8] If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 

[9] For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 

[10]Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God;

[11] for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

and every tongue shall give praise to God."

[12] So each of us shall give account of himself to God.

Reference:

Bible, Revised Standard Version

For All of You are One In Christ

I don’t usually like using verses from the Scriptures out of context, but sometimes I do. This is going to be a very short post because I simply wanted to a share a couple verses from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians which was most likely written anywhere between 40 AD to 60 AD according to scholars. The reason I wanted to share these two verses is because they are evidence that from the very beginning of the Faith, Paul was already exhorting with relevance to ecumenism regardless of whom or what anyone was. Anyhow, I won’t do the research for us this time, but I definitely think these verses are food for thought. The following are the two verses in reference. Blessings and I hope you enjoy!

Galatians 3: 28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (RSV Bible).

Galatians 5: 6

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love (RSV Bible).

Reference:

Bible, Revised Standard Version

Pope Francis' Message “You cannot hate in the name of God”

In light of all the horrific and terrible things happening in our world, I wanted to close out the month of August with a video message from Pope Francis. Pope Francis is not the leader of all Christians around the world. He is the leader of Roman Catholics (Western Church) which is the largest denomination in Christianity, but regardless I believe that this message should be the focus of all Christians around the world at this moment in time with any and all support possible, especially our prayers. Consequently, I am sharing this post on both Arango’s Apologetics Page and on Unifying the Faith.

ROMEREPORTS.COM wrote as follows:

"Pope Francis expressed his concern for the situation in Iraq during the Angelus prayer. He firmly assured that these crimes gravely offend God (http://en.romereports.com)."

Pope Francis said the following in his message:

"Children dead from thirst and hunger during the escape; women who are abducted; people slaughtered; violence of every kind; destruction everywhere, destruction of homes, destruction of religious, historical and cultural patrimonies. All this greatly offends God and greatly offends humanity. You cannot bring hatred in the name of God! You cannot make war in the name of God (http://en.romereports.com)!"

The link to the video is below.

Pope Francis: “You cannot hate in the name of God”

Demand Religious Freedom

Christians and Jews are indeed being persecuted around the world. It is time to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves as Proverbs 31:8 states. The religious right is starting to raise awareness which is strange since they are usually busy politicizing issues that normally should not be politicized.
My problem with people like Ralph Reed is that they will most likely make millions in income politicizing things like this issue of persecution as a "God business." Credits to Frank Schaffer on the "God business" phrase I just used. I am just surprised that they are showing concern for Assyrian Christians in Iraq and Coptic Christians in Egypt because honestly many of on the religious right did not consider that these brothers and sisters where actually Christian based on the limited worldview on that same religious right. Unless, this is just some new scheme to help the Republican party. I personally do not think that our Faith needs to be supporting any one political party, but instead leave that up to the individual as a choice. Our job is to follow Christ. But, I do think the religious right is right on this one or at least on the right track for now. So, the link below is one way of communicating the injustices and human rights abuses being experienced by our brothers and sisters around the world. If anyone comes up with a better idea, please share, and I will try to promote it.


Demand Religious Freedom

Is Christ Divided?

St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (epistle) was most likely written from Ephesus during his stay there around 53 to 57 AD. About 1, 959 years ago, St. Paul was already confronting the issue of ecumenism in the church. Sadly enough, at the very start of Christianity there was already “quarreling among” brothers and sisters on matters of our common Faith. Moreover, St. Paul appealed “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” that they would “be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”In the latest post in my other blog, Arango’s Apologetics Page, which I consider the older sibling to this one I used several Scripture references; however in this post I plan on using only eight verses from the New Testament. This blog seeks unity among all those that call themselves Christian, as well as all of humanity. One of the questions we must ask ourselves is what can we do to make unity in Christ a possibility, if we truly believe that this was the desire of Jesus? The question St. Paul asked about two millenniums ago in the First Letter to the Corinthians was “Is Christ divided?” The answer to this question is that He is absolutely “Not “divided. I simply wish to share First Corinthians 1:10-17 with you the reader and allow you to ponder on this idea of ecumenism, and why it is so important, and also that you ask yourself why we are so divided as denominations and groups of the same Faith? I Corinthians 1:10-17 reads as follows:

"BRETHREN, I appeal to you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispos and Gaius; lest any one should say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any one else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (RSV Bible)."

Reference:

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible

A Brief Thought I Had Today on Ecumenism

Reflecting today on the subject of ecumenism at breakfast in conversation with one of my oldest best friends who is also a theology buff just like me, I decided to write this post. I have to say that the church, perhaps, has never really been one or united one hundred percent because we are all different, and God created us as such. Moreover, it was evident that from the beginning there was division in the Church, as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1: 11-13: “For it has been reported to me by Chlo'e's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apol'los," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." Is Christ divided (RSV Bible)?” Obliviously, this type of division was not what Jesus intended or else he would not have prayed in John 17: 21, "I pray that they may all be one…."

Indeed, Jesus prayed that we would be one. But, today we have many types of Protestants, other Christian groups, and Evangelicals, and so on. We have Eastern Orthodox, we have Anglicans, and we have the Western Church (Roman Catholic) which is the largest Christian denomination. If one thinks about it, all of these make up the two billion plus humans that call themselves Christian or followers of Christ. Why so many different types? Well, this is a complex answer, but obviously everyone individually thinks that they are right or have the correct understanding of the truth. How right does each think that they are? Is it to the extreme that some think they are right, and all others are wrong? The answer to this is really that it doesn't matter what you are or what denomination you are if you think your right and others are completely wrong then you're probably a fundamentalist. Honestly, the highest probability is that perhaps all of us have a little bit of the truth, but no one has all of the truth, and we can learn from anybody on understanding God’s will. Moreover, there is a not so cute story that sounds cute found in the Book of Numbers 22: 21-34, it is the story of Balaam and his Donkey. In this story God uses a donkey to talk to Balaam to make him understand that he is wrong, although I don’t want to give you too much detail about the story, so you can read it for yourself. But, the bottom line is that we can be as hard headed as Balaam thinking we are right, even in the way we understand Scripture or history, and unknowingly we may be on a collision course with what Christ was and was really saying to us.

I hate taking Scriptures out of context, but a favorite Evangelical verse is found in Romans 3:23, and in it St. Paul said: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” We are all sinners, so deal with it! Also, in 1 Corinthians 10:12, St. Paul said: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” Personally, no matter what denomination you may be, I suggest that if you think that you are standing upright, be careful because if you are promoting division it does not sound like you understand the prayer of Jesus in John 17: 21, "I pray that they may all be one…."Furthermore, I would recommend that you read the story I mentioned about Balaam, and ask yourself if you are on a collision course against the will of Christ?

One of the most ecumenical experiences I have happens to me almost weekly at the church I attend during communion or the Eucharist. I am not an official parishioner, per se, but I do attend regularly to Trinity Cathedral in Miami. One of the things I love to hear regularly is when Dean Douglas McCaleb says before the Lord’s Supper: “what follows is not a Protestant table or a Catholic table, this is God’s table and in God's table all are welcome.” Thinking about it, this is how we should all treat each other always, just like a family that shares a table thanks to Jesus Christ. In John 14: 34-35, Jesus said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (RSV Bible)." I think this blog post is over now, and I will leave it up to you to ponder, as the popular phrase says, “enough said!” Blessings!

Reference:

RSV Bible