Eugene Cho has a nice commentary on Glenn Beck’s recent remarks about the communist churches in America.

I usually don’t listen to Glenn Beck becuase he gets my blood boiling. Today, I happened to catch a few minutes of Glenn Beck and finally my pressure cooker went off and I need to respond. He was speaking about his remarks concerning the social justice movement in church and he challenged his listeners to find a passage that Jesus supports the redistribution of wealth. Of course, there isn’t any clear cut passage.

Here is the lack of logic in his argument. Can you find a passage where Jesus is against abortion? How about slavery? Can you find a passage where Jesus supports capitalism? Or democracy? Of course you can’t. I could argue, using Glenn Beck’s logic, that God loves chickens more than turkeys because Jesus never endorses turkeys in the gospels. There are many topics that the gospel writers did not write about or that Jesus never spoke about. But we make religious claims about those issues based upon the intent of Jesus’ words or by comparing Scripture to Scripture.

The quick point is that Jesus never explicitly condemns or endorses the redistribution of wealth. But clear arguments can be made that the redistribution of wealth could be supported Biblically and perhaps by Jesus. The Old Testament points to the more equitable distribution of wealth by calling the people to care for the widows and orphans. God when He sent manna sent it in such a way that the ones who had much didn’t have too much. Those who gathered little didn’t not have too little. There was some equity, though not uniformity, in the distribution of food.

Paul elaborates on this when he says that the church has fulfilled this manna call (2 Corinthians 8:13-15). The early church lived in a community that redistributed its wealth (Acts 2:44). Glenn would probably go nuts in the first century church.

Lastly, Jesus taught us to pray: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Is there poverty in heaven? Are there large discrepancies in the wealth of people in heaven? Since there probably are not large discrepancies in heaven, we should work to do the same on earth. Jesus said that some of the last will be first and the first will be last. Does that apply to economics? How about those sheep who looked after “the least of these”? I think a strong case can be made that Jesus had some intent of social justice.

Here are a couple sites talking about Glenn Beck’s latest tyrade:

Wantagh posts their response on their sign

AlterNet talks about the nazi Jesus

Last night I received a call from Pastor Revenel Benoit. Things have taken off suddenly for the various recording projects we were working on. Apparently he has a donor who wants to get things moving musically. Here is what is going on:

Aseline – Aseline’s CD is looking to get printed within the next month, if everything goes as planned. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. It is a very solid CD.

Recording Studio – A recording engineer from Port-au-Prince has relocated in Gonaives due to the earthquake. He has plans for the recording studio. He sees that we have nearly everything to get the studio up and running. Pastor Benoit is going to take a computer back to Haiti when he returns this Wednesday. The engineer hopes to have the studio up and running by mid-May.

We are working on getting other equipment (mics, monitors, jacks, etc.) for the studio. We hope to get the equipment to Haiti in mid-April.

The studio is going to be an answer to prayer in several ways. Most of the recording studios were located in Port-au-Prince and the earthquake damaged or destroyed some of them (I don’t know how many). With the shortage of studios, this studio will have an instant demand for its services. It will provide funds for the LCH and jobs for musicians and technicians that I know.

Patients in ‘vegetative’ state can think and communicate – Telegraph

A very profound article that has lots of implications to the issues of life and death in patients in a persistent vegetative state. For me, it reminds me to never assume that a patient cannot hear or understand you. Even when a patient is unresponsive, treat them as if they are there and respect them as humans.

Claridon Christian Fellowship is partnering with “Mission: Haiti” from Gloria Dei Church in Davie, FL to provide relief supplies to those affected by the recent earthquake. We are now collecting supplies to send to Florida where they will be loaded into a shipping container and sent to Haiti. Supplies will be collected at Claridon Christian Fellowship on January 27, 9 am to 7 pm and January 28, 7 am to 3 pm. The supplies will be taken to Florida where they will leave for Haiti on February 1st.

Please pray for the people of Haiti and for the efforts of those who are helping.

We are collecting the following:

• bottled water
• canned food with pull tabs
• nutritional bars and shakes
• first aid supplies
• antibiotic ointment
• over-the-counter medications (Tylenol, Advil, etc.)
• dishwashing liquid
• bar soap
• washcloths & hand towels
• toothbrushes & toothpaste
• hygiene items
• baby formula with pull tabs
• shovels
• buckets
• bed sheets
• clothing (boxed and labeled)
• duffle bags & tote bags
• cleaning supplies
• tarps
• rope

Monetary donations also can be made. Any funds collected will be used solely for disaster relief, to purchase needed supplies, medicine or transportation. Distribution of relief supplies will be through our accountable partners on the ground in Haiti.

MISSION: HAITI is an IRS recognized 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt and updates on the relief effort.

Address for donations: MISSION: HAITI 7601 SW 39th St, Davie, FL 33328

Personal contact:

Dale Miller, Claridon Christian Fellowship, 440-856-5065, zoelavie@gmail.com

Carrie Miller, Claridon Christian Fellowship, 440-477-0427, c.bear70@hotmail.com

Helen Roenfeldt, Mission: Haiti Treasurer, 954-868-8218, hondee1@aol.com

I have long been frustrated by trying to backup my email in Windows. The files seem buried in hard to reach places. Every time I backup and restore, I seem to loose something. I relied on a lot of various methods to try to secure my data.
Now this newly born Ubuntu evangelist has seen the light. Ubuntu’s default email program, Evolution, has a super easy way to backup and restore files. There are some command line tutorials out there but the most useful I have linked to below. Backup is done right from the program and is only a few clicks to get through. Needless to say, I am again impressed.
Working with Evolution Email Client – Back up data « Taufan Lubis – Ubuntu Linux