I am also looking for input on what agency the Office of Social Justice (OSJ) falls under, as I will use that as input to my donation decision.
On World Renew, I know there is a lot of controversy and the scientists don’t agree if man is causing any global warming or cooling. In the face of this unsettled science, with at least 31,487 scientists (Source: http://www.petitionproject.org/ ) saying man is not causing global warming, can anyone please relate what side, if any World Renew has taken on this issue? I am hoping they have not taken any side, and just let the scientists figure it out and the politicians decide what to do, with World Renew just helping people affected by floods and hurricanes. They do excellent work there.
I appreciate this heartfelt prayer for all the good gifts God gives us, including coal, oil, and natural gas. I will continue to praise God and thank him, and I appreciate the reminder that:
“Every time we turn on a light switch, start our car, feel the heat of our furnace, the refreshing cool of our air conditioner, or eat nourishing food may we remember and give thanks that God has provided for us.”
I also thank God every day for the hard work of scientists who, using their God-given gifts of intelligence and curiosity, discovered these gifts of God in nature, and how to use them for His children’s benefit (keeping us warm, giving us light and heat and health, freedom and travel).
And I pray for these scientists as they research and discover even more about the amazing planet God has created for us, and what is beneficial to the natural plant and animal environments of God’s great earth: http://www.petitionproject.org/
Doug, thank you for your thoughtful post about how we as individual Christians should welcome the stranger, and how governments should act to protect its citizens from harm.
Let’s say a church group wants to take a group of believers on an evening boat trip on the ocean, to fellowship and pray together, maybe have a meal together and get to know each other. They book a boat that holds 50 people safely, and publish the date and time on Facebook. The smart thing to do would be to ask for RSVPs, then count and vet the people who want to join in and make sure they do not have any ill intent. For example, if you get a request from someone who is on the run from the police for recent train and boat robberies, you would respectfully decline their request to join, and probably should work with police to arrest the person and get them the justice and restoration they need. But we don’t do that restoration on the boat. We would have guards or walls at the entrance to the marina or boat, and verify the identity of those who want to board. We would use force to keep the criminals off the boat, if they tried to sneak in or bust through the check-in desk at the gangway.
So the first thing a group of Christians would do to keep their participants safe is make sure no one who has ill intent comes on board. The only way to do that is to find out who wants to board, and check them out.
If this group of Christians did it the wrong way, they would just post an invitation, “anyone who wants to join, meet us at the dock at 5pm!”
Then, what if 100 people showed up? Should we “welcome the stranger” and let any and all board the boat? What if the overcrowding caused children and others to get pushed off the side of the boat while underway, killing or injuring them? Did we really do the right thing by letting any and all board without vetting or controlling the numbers?
What if the additional weight of the people causes the boat to sink or capsize, killing all on board? Can we say the organizers of the outing implemented the right, caring policy for all by “welcoming all the strangers onto the boat”?
The Gallup polling organization did a poll of half a million people in 152 countries between 2015 and 2017, and found that nearly 120 million foreigners would migrate to the United States if they are allowed to enter. The current US population is 328 million, so that additional 120 million would overwhelm our social safety nets and cause the country and current citizens severe, perhaps unrecoverable problems. Is open borders really the best, caring policy for a country to have? Or should we have strong walls, and a big beautiful door for those who want to join us to go through, get vetted and authorized?
Checking the prospective boarders of a boat, or prospective migrants to a country, and limiting the numbers for the safety of those already on board, is the moral and Christian caring thing to do. We have walls around our churches, with doors that are open during worship times, but even then, we have walls around the pastor’s office, walls around the church safe that holds the collection money, and walls around our nursery care area. We vet people who want to enter past these walls to the pastor’s office, the safe and the nursery, and for good reason. Should we “welcome the stranger” into the walk-in safe, or “welcome the stranger” into the nursery care area where our children are? Of course not. So the “welcome the stranger” exhortation is not absolute and mindless. It does not mean we should throw out common sense or put those we love in danger.
The principle of “welcome the stranger” is a good one, as Doug mentions we should welcome strangers in our neighborhoods, and welcome them into our churches. But governments are put in place by God to help protect the people and provide justice…and just letting any and all comers into the country is not compatible with those goals. We want to welcome immigrants here, but we must have walls and make sure people come to the big beautiful doors, the official ports of entry, so we can vet their background and make sure they are someone the citizens of the country want to come in.
For years, Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship International has helped redeem broken lives. As Christians, we believe all people have value, deserve mercy, and are loved equally by God—even the most outcast. We as Christians help restore hope and share God’s redeeming grace with prisoners and their families around the world. But we help them and minister to them in the jail. We don’t advocate for opening the walls of the prison and letting them enter freely into our homes, schools and nursery rooms or walk-in safes of our churches.
Similarly, if there are criminals or even non-criminal poor who break the law by entering the country illegally, we are not under an obligation to ignore that law-breaking and “welcome the stranger”. If an escaped prisoner breaks into your house, you don’t “welcome the stranger” and try to rehabilitate him in your house. You call authorities to pick him up, take him back to prison and show him God’s love there, minister to him there and offer the forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration that God brings. If someone sneaks into the United States, we can show Christ’s love for them, help them get rehabilitated and restored in their home country’s prison if appropriate, or help them with food and resources in their home country if they are poor. In addition to the immediate need for food and water the poor need, we should also give them help to fix the harmful political environment that caused them to be poor in many cases. Many countries are living under totalitarian, socialist or communist leadership, which takes all the resources for a few elites and hurts the poor and powerless. We should work to spread freedom, capitalism and the rule of law around the world, to help these oppressed people in their own countries. We are not under any obligation to take people out of their current place and move them to another place to help them.
Posted in: Donation to CRCNA Agency?
I am also looking for input on what agency the Office of Social Justice (OSJ) falls under, as I will use that as input to my donation decision.
On World Renew, I know there is a lot of controversy and the scientists don’t agree if man is causing any global warming or cooling. In the face of this unsettled science, with at least 31,487 scientists (Source: http://www.petitionproject.org/ ) saying man is not causing global warming, can anyone please relate what side, if any World Renew has taken on this issue? I am hoping they have not taken any side, and just let the scientists figure it out and the politicians decide what to do, with World Renew just helping people affected by floods and hurricanes. They do excellent work there.
Posted in: Thank God for Fossil Fuels!
I appreciate this heartfelt prayer for all the good gifts God gives us, including coal, oil, and natural gas. I will continue to praise God and thank him, and I appreciate the reminder that:
“Every time we turn on a light switch, start our car, feel the heat of our furnace, the refreshing cool of our air conditioner, or eat nourishing food may we remember and give thanks that God has provided for us.”
I also thank God every day for the hard work of scientists who, using their God-given gifts of intelligence and curiosity, discovered these gifts of God in nature, and how to use them for His children’s benefit (keeping us warm, giving us light and heat and health, freedom and travel).
And I pray for these scientists as they research and discover even more about the amazing planet God has created for us, and what is beneficial to the natural plant and animal environments of God’s great earth: http://www.petitionproject.org/
Posted in: Does "Welcoming the Stranger" Require Advocating for an "Open Border"?
Doug, thank you for your thoughtful post about how we as individual Christians should welcome the stranger, and how governments should act to protect its citizens from harm.
Let’s say a church group wants to take a group of believers on an evening boat trip on the ocean, to fellowship and pray together, maybe have a meal together and get to know each other. They book a boat that holds 50 people safely, and publish the date and time on Facebook. The smart thing to do would be to ask for RSVPs, then count and vet the people who want to join in and make sure they do not have any ill intent. For example, if you get a request from someone who is on the run from the police for recent train and boat robberies, you would respectfully decline their request to join, and probably should work with police to arrest the person and get them the justice and restoration they need. But we don’t do that restoration on the boat. We would have guards or walls at the entrance to the marina or boat, and verify the identity of those who want to board. We would use force to keep the criminals off the boat, if they tried to sneak in or bust through the check-in desk at the gangway.
So the first thing a group of Christians would do to keep their participants safe is make sure no one who has ill intent comes on board. The only way to do that is to find out who wants to board, and check them out.
If this group of Christians did it the wrong way, they would just post an invitation, “anyone who wants to join, meet us at the dock at 5pm!”
Then, what if 100 people showed up? Should we “welcome the stranger” and let any and all board the boat? What if the overcrowding caused children and others to get pushed off the side of the boat while underway, killing or injuring them? Did we really do the right thing by letting any and all board without vetting or controlling the numbers?
What if the additional weight of the people causes the boat to sink or capsize, killing all on board? Can we say the organizers of the outing implemented the right, caring policy for all by “welcoming all the strangers onto the boat”?
The Gallup polling organization did a poll of half a million people in 152 countries between 2015 and 2017, and found that nearly 120 million foreigners would migrate to the United States if they are allowed to enter. The current US population is 328 million, so that additional 120 million would overwhelm our social safety nets and cause the country and current citizens severe, perhaps unrecoverable problems. Is open borders really the best, caring policy for a country to have? Or should we have strong walls, and a big beautiful door for those who want to join us to go through, get vetted and authorized?
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/11/gallup-120-million-want-to-migrate-to-the-united-states/
Checking the prospective boarders of a boat, or prospective migrants to a country, and limiting the numbers for the safety of those already on board, is the moral and Christian caring thing to do. We have walls around our churches, with doors that are open during worship times, but even then, we have walls around the pastor’s office, walls around the church safe that holds the collection money, and walls around our nursery care area. We vet people who want to enter past these walls to the pastor’s office, the safe and the nursery, and for good reason. Should we “welcome the stranger” into the walk-in safe, or “welcome the stranger” into the nursery care area where our children are? Of course not. So the “welcome the stranger” exhortation is not absolute and mindless. It does not mean we should throw out common sense or put those we love in danger.
The principle of “welcome the stranger” is a good one, as Doug mentions we should welcome strangers in our neighborhoods, and welcome them into our churches. But governments are put in place by God to help protect the people and provide justice…and just letting any and all comers into the country is not compatible with those goals. We want to welcome immigrants here, but we must have walls and make sure people come to the big beautiful doors, the official ports of entry, so we can vet their background and make sure they are someone the citizens of the country want to come in.
We should strive to avoid hypocrisy on this issue, where we put up moral, legitimate walls to protect our homes, schools, and churches, but then somehow we for political reasons we want to deny walls that are put up for the same reasons to protect our country. There are many examples of this hypocrisy showing those pushing for open borders with walls around their own houses or businesses: https://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2019/01/14/watch-new-series-walls-across-america-shows-us-democrats-walls-around-homes-starting-george-soros/
For years, Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship International has helped redeem broken lives. As Christians, we believe all people have value, deserve mercy, and are loved equally by God—even the most outcast. We as Christians help restore hope and share God’s redeeming grace with prisoners and their families around the world. But we help them and minister to them in the jail. We don’t advocate for opening the walls of the prison and letting them enter freely into our homes, schools and nursery rooms or walk-in safes of our churches.
Similarly, if there are criminals or even non-criminal poor who break the law by entering the country illegally, we are not under an obligation to ignore that law-breaking and “welcome the stranger”. If an escaped prisoner breaks into your house, you don’t “welcome the stranger” and try to rehabilitate him in your house. You call authorities to pick him up, take him back to prison and show him God’s love there, minister to him there and offer the forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration that God brings. If someone sneaks into the United States, we can show Christ’s love for them, help them get rehabilitated and restored in their home country’s prison if appropriate, or help them with food and resources in their home country if they are poor. In addition to the immediate need for food and water the poor need, we should also give them help to fix the harmful political environment that caused them to be poor in many cases. Many countries are living under totalitarian, socialist or communist leadership, which takes all the resources for a few elites and hurts the poor and powerless. We should work to spread freedom, capitalism and the rule of law around the world, to help these oppressed people in their own countries. We are not under any obligation to take people out of their current place and move them to another place to help them.