Page 1428 – Christianity Today (2024)

“This is going to sound bad,” I tell my therapist, “but I almost wish I had Tay-Sachs.” I get a funny look from her, and of course I don’t dream of having a disease that slowly peels away the layers of my faculties to the point of blindness, deafness, paralysis, and an eventual, often welcome death. What I mean, in my couch contemplation, is that I want the silver lining of having this genetic disorder as an infant. Nonetheless, this sounds equally perverse. Emily Rapp, whose son was born with the disease, writes of it more eloquently:

For Ronan there was no sense to be made, no change to seek out, no potential to actualize. His life was a collection of singular, unrepeatable moments that were not analyzed, remembered or regretted ….

Pure experience without editorializing by the intellect.

Because Rapp’s son never had the time on this earth to develop any understanding, she imagines that he lived in a state of first wonder. “Was Ronan unhappy? No. He had no label for that,” she writes. Similarly, I find it difficult to attach a label to Rapp’s second book.

The Still Point of the Turning World could be classified as a memoir, a self-help guide, an instruction manual, and even a primer on the recessive genetic disorder known as Tay-Sachs. However categorized, it’s nothing short of profoundly poignant. This isn’t the first time Rapp, a Harvard Divinity School graduate, Fulbright scholar, and creative writing professor, has publicly reflectedon a disability. Her first book, Poster Child, chronicled her experience growing up after having her left leg amputated due to a congenital birth defect. The experience left her with “[t]he notion that happiness and fulfillment hinge upon radical transformation,” and she writes that the fortitude she developed as a child with a disability prepared her for a struggle that has proved more difficult by orders of magnitude: “How do you parent without a future?”

When Rapp’s son, Ronan, was nine months old, a doctor told her and her husband that Ronan had Tay-Sachs, “a rare, progressive and always fatal condition with no treatment and no cure.” The news couldn’t be readily assimilated. “How could I still be alive … having been given this knowledge?” she ponders. “It was grotesque and absurd and could not be happening.” After crying, screaming, doubting, hallucinating, and medicating, Rapp began to write.

Often on a couch with her arms stretched around Ronan, she would type on her laptop—”grief … demands so much work that what comes up must be heaved onto the page immediately; otherwise it might eat the thinker alive, drown them.” She quotes Seamus Heaney: “It steadies me to tell these things.”

The books on grief she consults frustrate her because they do not rise to the level of her suffering, and she guides the reader down a track of logic we’ve all likely attempted to justify.

My initial reaction to these books … assumed the existence of a ladder of loss and a method for placing a person’s sadness on a particular rung. So … what, on the lower rung the loss of a pet fish? On the upper rung the loss of a parent, a spouse or a child? … What if the parent or spouse or baby was suffering for years or months or even for just one minute, then what? This … hierarchy … was obviously ludicrous.

Rapp writes what she thinks and what we think but are too afraid or embarrassed to say.

This carefully curated assemblage of memories, conversations, poems, and literary passages provides a commentary on the anxiousness that haunts all of us, the unrest that grinds deeper the more we fight it, by pointing out Ronan’s ability to escape it without even trying. “Everyone needs to be pursuing something, right? Otherwise, who are we?” writes Rapp. But Ronan “could stay a beautiful acorn; he didn’t need to grow into a tree or realize this potential. He disproved Aristotle’s teleological theory that potential is the key to life.”

Despite Rapp’s claiming to be “a former Christian,” God and her own theological ruminations play a large enough role in her story to make the reader question whether “former” truly applies. Her realization that “this great capacity to love and be happy can be experienced only with this great risk of having happiness taken from you ” evokes the tale of another parent losing His son. She also discovers solace in Simone Weil’s “notion of waiting for God, not as a passive action but as a patient practice”:

If Jesus were alive and I jostled up to him in a crowed with Ronan in my arms and touched his cloak, … Ronan would not start walking and talking and holding his head up without assistance. But as a result of the teachings of Jesus, people might regard Ronan … differently, and with respect: the outcasts, the outsiders, brought into the communal fold.

Writing as therapy, attending awareness conferences, and learning from parents who have let their children go or are in the parallel process of doing so: all this helps Rapp deal with bringing blissful love into this world only to lose it before the recipient can acknowledge it. But perhaps the most powerful, and least employed, force in the everlasting fight for dealing with the certainty of death is facing it. Andrew Sullivan, commenting on a review of Christopher Hitchens’ Morality, notes,

We will all die. We should not seek it. But we should not flee from it for ever …. [A]t some point what seems to me to matter more is not the length of our lives but the content of them and the manner of our deaths. At some point, medicine is a function of a social disease of modernity: the flight from our own mortality. But fleeing it does not defuse it. Only facing it does.

Writing “with blood,” Rapp never ceases to face death—a very particular death. But in the midst of this drawn-out encounter with a “grief that would hijack a part of our day for the rest of our lives,” she keeps circling back to the deceptively simple question that set this book in motion: “What can be learned from a dying baby?”

Win Bassett is a writer, lawyer, and entering Yale Divinity School student who has written for The Huffington Post, Patheos, and other publications. He has forthcoming pieces for The Paris Review and Publishers Weekly. Find him at winbassett.com and on Twitter at @winbassett.

Copyright © 2013 Books & Culture. Click for reprint information.

I've been a part of numerous churches that celebrated American Independence Day with abandon: 80-foot flags hanging from the ceilings, singing the "Star Spangled Banner" and "I'm Proud to Be an American" and even— most disturbing to me as I reflect back—saying the Pledge of Allegiance during our corporate worship.

If some visitor had asked us on those Sunday just what we were worshiping, I think that might have been a very perceptive question.

For many, the Fourth is about gratitude for the blessings of freedom. And as far as that goes, I'm in complete agreement—though to see only the "blessings" of freedom and not also repent of all the many varied and creative ways we've abused it might be a bit short-sighted. Still, yes to gratitude.

For others, these celebrations go beyond merely the gratitude and obedience that Scripture commands, into something else, something entirely absent from the God's Word: Patriotism.

Patriotism, defined as "devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty" makes little sense to a people called to live as aliens and strangers, as exiles. If I am—as Scripture tells me I am—a "citizen of another country," where should my "national loyalty" lie?

And as for my "devoted love"what does it mean to say I "love my country"? I love and feel called to the people in it? Yes. But should I ever love the people of America more than the people of Canada or Mexico, of Haiti or Ghana? Probably not. To say "I love America" is to say I love a political system, a set of laws and arbitrary boundary lines that history will eventually erase and more: I think it might be saying more than I ought to say as a follower of Jesus.

Tony Campolo puts it this way: "America may be the best Babylon the world has, but it is still Babylon nonetheless."

We are exiles living in Babylon, folks. Our corner may be called "America," or "Canada," or "France," but it's still all a part of the same thing: a world system that transcends borders, is dominated by materialistic consumerism and exploitation, and is fundamentally opposed to the Kingdom of God. And while love and affection for the people living in that system is entirely necessary, and while we should certainly pray for the peace and well-being of the place where God has set us, we need to avoid the mistake we see over and over in Scripture: becoming so enamored with our temporary dwelling—whether that's called Egypt, Babylon, or even America—that we lose sight of what Hebrews calls "a better place."

I may carry an Oregon driver's license, but I try hard to remember where my identity is really rooted. It's rooted in Jesus, the One whose claims of Lordship will always challenge Caesar's.

And that means that nationalism, in any degree, is misplaced affection. If Jesus really is our Peace who has broken down every dividing barrier between us, to celebrate the arbitrary lines and political distinctions which divide us is, in a sense, anti-gospel. Jesus expressed anger a number of times in the Gospels, but the most famous was when He saw what should have been "a house of prayer for all nations" turned into something else.

And my fear is that by highlighting ideas of America and patriotism so heavily in our Fourth of July services, we do just that. At best, we fail to see how waving the American flag in a worship service looks to the Brits and Kenyans and Malaysians sitting in our pews and what it communicates to them. And at worst, we give to Caesar what really belongs to Jesus.

Is it okay to celebrate the Fourth with neighbors, families and friends? Absolutely. If we really want to love people to Jesus, we live in line with the rhythms of the places where God puts us. When we show them the Gospel lived out in a culturally contextualized way we demonstrate that Jesus is for all people. So, grill some burgers, dogs, or the vegetarian alternative of your choice. Set off the firecrackers and watch the fireworks. Don't dare be a stick in the mud during a national celebration.

But in your worship this Sunday, steer people towards gratitude and obedience, and stay far, far away from nationalistic pride. But most important, be careful what you pledge allegiance to this Fourth of July. Caesar is owed your obedience, your prayers for his health and well-being, and, as Jesus and the IRS both agree, your money… but your allegiance belongs to Someone Else.

[Comments below from Bob's original post. All spelling/grammar errors are in the originals.]

"Your premise seems to be that American nationalism is just a worship of our political system, and that we are a "better Babylon". But that is false. This country was founded as a Christian nation, born out of the providence of God. "No King but Jesus" was our revolutionary battle cry. I love this country, and have strong nationalism, but at it's core, my love is because this country loves Jesus. To know why you love what you love tells you what you really love. And I love America because it is founded on the Christian God. Just because this country is falling away from that, doesn't mean we should fall away too. We should be working to restore our nation's reliance on Christ." – Rob

"It is a very helpful paradigm to see the USA as Babylon and not Israel.

Nations are not Christian; people are. Our nation was certainly influenced by the Christian faith, but many of our founders had just fled the oppression of a Christian nation/kingdom. They desired a political nation with the freedom of religion without the establishment of a State religion. And IMHO, this is the best Babylon." – Derek

"The Pledge of Allegience states, ‘one nation, under God…' Why cringe at that?" – Paul

"If you go and read American history we were founded more so on the drive to make money than the drive to serve God. Our pledge can say "One Nation Under God" but we speak in our actions, not in our words. God's name is vainly attached to each and every political campaign to "prove" that they're championing a higher cause

Patriotism is pride at the core and pride leads to death of the soul. When we become so enamored with America that it affects the way we view others then we haven fallen prey to the sin. No one is immune from it. I'm guilty as any, but Bob does a great job to help open eyes to what is at the heart of our patriotism and the danger of it bleeding into our worship of God. Good work Bob." – David

"One of the first acts of congress was to print and distribute bibles. Our nation was born during a time of religious revival, Christian religious revival. When we turn from having pride for our heritage and thankfulness of our uniqueness in the world we turn from the model set forth by God.

The government is here to protect us and restrain evil. The church is here to minister God's grace. To worry about offending another because of national pride is to say that we should be offended of the divine providence which set forth our nation.

Ceaser – the government – is to protect us and restrain evil, administers God's justice, provide peace The government is national.

The Church – Ministers Gods grace, exposes evil, leads the great commission. The church is international.

As established by God they should work harmoniously. This is the uniqueness of our government that we celebrate every 4th of July. Good people need to speak up and show patriotism. There is nothing wrong with it, read David's Psalm 137:5, this portrays an allegiance to a faithful nation." – Victor

"And Victor, as long as you continue to think of America as Jerusalem (Psalm 137:5) all of that will make perfect sense for you." – Bob

"Our last church had, and continues to have, a "patriotic service" each year on Sunday around July 4th. It was, and is, in my view, idolatrous. We generally skipped it.

I don't believe for a second that America or any other nation can claim to be Christian, and to make that claim is to misunderstand scripture, and in particular to misunderstand and subvert the Kingdom Jesus talked about and told us to seek first. We are to render unto ceaser and to render unto God. But by no means are we to render unto ceaser in a place and a setting in which we ought to be worshipping the One true God. That practice leads to idolatry." – John

"It is absolutely revisionist history to claim that this country was founded as a "Christian" nation. There were a few colonies which were founded on Christian principles. One might be able to make the argument for Plymouth and perhaps the very early years of Massachusetts Bay Colony. However, to lay claim that the southern colonies were founded on anything other than capitalistic greed is sophom*oric at best and blind at worst." – Sonja

"… it doesn't really matter what ideals this country was founded on. We are strangers in a strange land, whether that is America or Iceland. We are exiles and to place our hope in our country or the government that runs it is idolatry. The Kingdom of God is the only thing Christians should be in alliance with." – Michelle

"My life is hidden in Christ before God. My home is wherever my Savior dwells, so…heaven it is. I have citizenship in the not yet. Still I live in the now, I make a home (albeit a temporary one) in this nation – wonderful and horrible as it is all at once.

In this Sunday's worship, which just so happens to land on the U.S.A.'s Independence Day, I will celebrate the freedoms my God has given within this nation, even if it is but a dim reflection of the freedom Jesus Christ fought to win for me and you. Our church will sing Battle Hymn of the Republic, God of Our Fathers, and God Bless Our Native Land, but we will begin with Lift High the Cross.

We will hold up the tension we stand in between the now and the not yet, between allegiance to a temporal government while living here and the allegiance to the eternal God that trumps any allegiance to anything here.

Luther's understanding of the two kingdoms is very helpful here. My God reigns – in heaven and on earth. In heaven, without an intermediary; and on earth, through the mediation of the governing authorities He put in charge to provide peace and freedom within which His Gospel can be shared, which transcends borders, classes, ethnicities, and nationalities. God bless America – so the Christians within her can spread the Gospel throughout the world." – Brian Larson

"Scripture is clear: the common outcome of devotion expressed toward anything that is corruptible or temporal is idolatry.

Karl Barth knew well the dangers of nationalistic fervor in the life of the church, when Caesar is made welcome and honored. He warned against such "alien prophecies" incorporated into what only is properly Christ's alone. Sooner or later, he writes, such prophecies "will make an open bid for sole dominion—the prophecy of Jesus Christ asks to be excused and avoids such incorporation. If it is subjected to such combinations, the living Lord Jesus and His Word depart, and all that usually remains is the suspiciously loud but empty utterance of the familiar name of this Prophet. ‘No one can serve two masters' (Mt. 6:24). No man can serve both the one Word of God called Jesus Christ and other divine words" (Barth, Church Dogmatics IV, 102)." – Rob

"In all these posts as well as in the original article, I don't see any disagreement that our allegiance to Christ is ultimate while allegiance and devotion to anything else must be secondary and conditional. But I think that Hyatt goes too far when he says "…nationalism, in any degree, is misplaced affection".

I love my wife more than I love other people. That does not mean I worship her or think she's perfect, but I'll wave her flag any day and defend her against all comers.

No analogy is perfect, but it is OK to love your own country more than others. You have to be realistic about the failings of your country, but the critics need to honestly give the US credit for some huge accomplishments and many good things. Freedom of conscience is not the least. The combining of freedom and the rule of law contrasts favorably with history and much of the rest of the world. Where other countries have done well, give them credit, but this is the country to which we owe a combination of appreciation, allegiance and responsibility. Call that pride if you will, but it's enough reason to fly the flag." – Wayne Shockley

"The fact that a clear call to understand the fundamental character of the Church as a supra-national body who proclaims a better day and way is coming gets turned into "You hate America" and "You don't get the beauty of our Christian nation" only demonstrates one thing … if this article "gets your goat" you had a "goat" to be got. Why not just own it and do some soul searching about what is, at best, only a murky exercise in "gratitude" that tends to veer to a silly belief in American "exceptionalism"?" – Nathan

"As a missional and incarnational Christian, I should represent Christ to the community in which I am placed. And that community is diverse. There are many sociopolitical tribes in the U.S. Some tribes wave flag more than others. I happen to live in a liberal university town where most people are loathe to wave the flag, and a flag in church would be an abomination. But drive a few miles out of town and you will see the flag displayed prominently everywhere. I want to understand and respect both points of view, because I think that they both have something to offer. Perhaps some of the out-of-towners do cross over the line with too much nationalism. But plenty of in-towners cross over another line by placing themselves apart from – nay, above – the culture in which God has placed them by pretending that they have no special relationship to it. The patriotism-by-definition-crosses-the-line language just seems unnecessarily dogmatic, and I'm not at all surprised that the article sparked strong reactions." J.L Schaefer

"You said, "And that means that nationalism, in any degree, is misplaced affection." Really? I have to root for the Christians in the Olympics or the World Cup. I can't proudly cheer for my fellow Americans.

I'm proud that I am an America. I am deeply grateful for the freedom my citizenship affords. I wish (and work so that) those from other countries have the same opportunities I do simply because of who my parents are. I respect those who serve our country. Certainly America, like any other fallen institution/system is full of good and bad. However, I can love it nevertheless without it interfering with my love of Christ.

Loving one's country is like loving one's family. Fallen, yes. Broken, yes. But still my family." – Dave Terpstra

Chime in below. What would you add to the discussion?

It's 5pm on a Friday, and the pre-shift meeting at Cora Jean's Old Skool Café in San Francisco begins with everyone sharing what they're thankful for. The staff is mostly teenagers, with backgrounds ranging from incarceration to probation to domestic violence. When Old Skool founder Teresa Goines walks in, they greet her like a cherished mother.

Goines never imagined that she'd start a restaurant run by youth who have had run-ins with the law, but she's always had a soft spot for the kids who got into trouble. After college she worked as a corrections officer in a Southern California juvenile "boot camp," where she wore military combat fatigues and held her charges to a strict schedule. When she realized how many of them had Spanish-speaking families, she moved to Mexico with three dreams: to work at an orphanage, to learn to dance salsa, and to become fluent in Spanish.

A year and three months later, Goines was fluent, had mastered salsa, and had a dream-job offer to work for an organization helping rehabilitate youth. She moved back to the States and prepared to put down roots in a new city.

Then, two days in, the job fell through.

"I couldn't sleep for two nights," Goines said. "I was livid. I felt like all of my plans for my life had been screwed up. But then I felt God's spirit say, If you're going to be angry, you need to be angry at me, because I'm in control of your life."

At a friend's urging, Goines, an Arizona native, moved to San Francisco and got a job doing after-school gang prevention at a middle school. But a year later, the program's funding was cut, and Goines watched helplessly as her kids joined gangs, got pregnant, or were arrested.

"They didn't understand that the funding was cut," Goines said. "They understood that I was there, and then I was gone just like everybody else in their lives."

Goines felt called to address "the huge, gaping hole that kids were getting sucked into." She saw a population that society didn't even know about—that she hadn't known about before working with them.

"I had never been incarcerated. I didn't know how many children are basically born into it. Many of their dads are in jail, they're dealing drugs to help support their families, and mom looks the other way when they give her money. It's a cycle. That innocent, hopeful kid who might have dreamed of being a fireman doesn't even know to have those dreams."

Goines wanted to create a safe place that didn't depend on government funding. The kids she knew were committing crimes out of economic poverty. Yet they couldn't get jobs because the tough front they'd put up to survive—along with their criminal record—made them unemployable.

Food for Thought

Then Goines started thinking about the Bay Area, a culture of foodies who enjoy quality entertainment. A restaurant could provide the opportunity for these youth to become experienced and employable—not just as servers, chefs, or hosts, but also for jobs in office work, marketing, website, talent recruitment, and management.

Eight years ago, Cora Jean's Old Skool Café was born. For the first seven years, Goines ran it out of her home. She cashed in her retirement and savings, rented out every room in her house, and downsized in every way imaginable.

"It's been a long eight years," said Goines, who just recently began to take a modest salary. "But God is faithful and loves these kids more than I do."

In April 2012, the restaurant opened formally in Bayview, and has already started to affect San Francisco's roughest neighborhood. Old Skool's street was once called "Blood Alley." Today it is lined with street lamps, benches, and hanging flower pots along the plaza outside. People come from all over the area to dine and enjoy live jazz and spoken word. Goines knows the names of the locals who hang around outside. In turn, they make sure her patrons get to the restaurant safely. Goines herself lives in Bayview and was deeply involved in the community even before she started Old Skool.

Inside, the restaurant feels like a 1930s jazz club, with high, red leather booths, burgundy walls, dark wood, and staff dressed to the nines in fedoras and red and black suits.

Goines said it costs $108,000 per year to incarcerate a youth, but for a quarter of that she can provide them with life and job skills, community, self-confidence, and the support that keeps them out of prison. While Old Skool still depends on donations from churches and individuals, the long-term goal is to be self-sustaining. Goines dreams of opening other Old Skool Cafés across the nation and is fine-tuning a model that can be used for future ventures.

Youth come to Old Skool through referrals from probation officers, local churches, and current restaurant staff, who have brothers and cousins and neighbors who they want to help break the cycle of poverty and incarceration. After four months of training, they can apply to be staff.

"Some of them don't make it," Goines said. "I want to help everybody, but we don't help people if we don't hold them to a high standard. In the real world, you don't get to make excuses to keep a job."

Goines, who had no prior experience with food service, solicited help from fine-dining restaurants Dobbs Ferry and The Slanted Door, and is partnering with restaurants that will allow her staff to do externships to learn from masters. You can taste the results in Old Skool's tantalizing, tapas-style soul food that includes everything from ceviche to macaroni and cheese—all of it delicious and beautifully presented.

"The reviews are in. The food is good. The youth are inspiring," said Huffington Post writer Sonya Denyse in reference to favorable reviews from Edible San Francisco, CNN, Fox News, San Francisco Gate, and elsewhere. Diners seem to agree; Old Skool has a 4.5-star rating on Yelp, Open Table, and Trip Advisor.

Family Meal

But Goines says that Old Skool's real magic is its culture; instead of a program, it's run like a family.

"What changes people is God's love. It's them knowing that they matter, that they have something to contribute, and that they're trusted."

The restaurant's culture—and its name—is a tribute to Goines's 78-year-old mother who spent a lifetime serving Goines's handicapped father and grandmother, and modeling a faith that seeped into everything she did.

"She never preached," Goines said of Cora Jean, who is still living. "She poured so much love into me that I felt like I had love to give."

Goines extends that love to the 150 staff members who have come through the program, but she's also started an adopt-a-chair program. Patrons can make a financial contribution and then commit to praying that the people who sit in "their" chair would feel God's love. Goines hopes to someday have every chair prayed for.

Even with its short history, Old Skool has some impressive success stories. One young man who was on probation for selling drugs is now a chef and manager. Another young woman is saving up to buy her first home in one of Bayview's new condominium complexes.

"I never thought I was going to graduate," Jeremiah, a recent high school graduate, said eloquently at the mic. "Now I'm ready for a new start."

"They're wonderful. They're my kids," says Goines, glowing with pride. "What would you not do for your own son or daughter? If we start to see the kids on the street as our kids—if we show them they are precious, that's when change can happen."

Laura Joyce Davis is an award-winning author based in Oakland, California. She has written for This Is Our City about anti-trafficking activist Betty Ann Boeving. Read more at LauraJoyceDavis.com.

As more Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated, almost half of all adults say the so-called rise of the nones is a bad thing for society.

That's according to new data from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which indicates that 48 percent of adults consider the decline in religious committment to be bad for America. Though another 39 percent said it "doesn't make much difference," only 11 percent of people said the decline is good.

Among white evangelical Protestants, more than 3 in 4 (78 percent) say the trend is harmful. Only 4 percent see it as a good thing.

The data do not specify what "bad" entails, but Pew highlights a surprising finding in its analysis:

Even among adults who do not identify with any religion, only about a quarter (24 percent) say the trend is good, while nearly as many say it is bad (19 percent); a majority (55 percent) of the unaffiliated say it does not make much difference for society.

Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta says that means "even some Nones think it's a bad thing that more people are Nones."

"I don't know what's weirder," Mehta writes, "that there are evangelical Christians out there who are happy that more people are becoming non-religious … or that there are a lot of unaffiliated people who are upset by it."

CT previously covered the dramatic increase in the religiously unaffiliated (as reported by Pew last fall), as well as examined "the end of nominal Protestantism."

Recently, CT also discussed whether or not the concern over the rise of the nones is overblown, and noted that data from Gallup suggests that the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated aren't growing as quickly as we thought.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the homicide conviction of a faith-healing couple who let their 11-year-old daughter die from diabetes.

In its 6-1 decision, the court ruled that, "by failing to call for medical assistance when (their daughter Kara) was seriously ill and in a coma-like condition…the parents were creating an unreasonable and substantial risk of Kara's death, were subjectively aware of that risk, and caused her death," according to the majority opinion by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

The court's decision to uphold a lower court's charge of second-degree reckless homicide comes four years after parents Dale and Leilani Neumann were convicted for their daughter's 2008 death from lack of insulin. The Neumanns argued that the charges violated their exercise of religious freedom protected under the First Amendment.

According to The Associated Press, judge Vincent Howard originally ruled that while the Neumanns were free to believe in faith healing, "'the free exercise of the First Amendment protects religious belief, but not necessarily conduct.'"

The ruling is the latest in a growing number of legal cases dealing with parents who seek faith or prayer healing for their children in lieu of traditional medical treatment. According to the AP, "more than a dozen" states legally protect parents' right to pursue faith healing, but the extent to which this right extends—as, for instance, in the case of a child's death—has not been clearly established in the courts.

In the Neumanns' case, the court's ruling "could create guidelines in an unsettled area of law," The New York Times reported in 2009. The AP also notes that Wisconsin's court has sided with state attorneys, who argued that under the state faith healing law, "parents are immune from child abuse charges but not homicide counts. Once (parents) realize a child could die, their immunity ends."

But previous cases in Massachusetts and Oregon have resulted in conflicting rulings regarding the criminality of reliance on faith healing that results in death. Some courts even have taken convicted parents' other children into state custody to prevent further neglect of medical treatment. CT previously reported on the recent Pennsylvania trial that resulted in a conviction of third-degree murder for Herbert and Catherine Schaible, whose infant son died of bacteria pneumonia and dehydration. The Schaibles had been serving probation for the faith-healing-related death of another young son in 2009.

Happy Independence Day!

Gleanings stayed busy during this short work week, thanks to a full slate of updates to stories that CT previously noted—in addition to reporting the fresh religion news daily, of course.

We tweet the updates. But in case you're not one of our more than 125,000 Twitter followers (and really, why aren't you?), here's what you missed this week:

(Editor's note: This is NOT a roundup of the new blogs we've posted lately, so it shouldn't replace your daily reading!)

Who Qualifies Under New 'Simplified' Contraceptive Mandate Exemptions?Update: The contraception mandate has been postponed until January 2015, but that could mean trouble for business owners with pending lawsuits.

Implications of Prop. 8, DOMA Rulings Up for DebateUpdate: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules to allow same-sex marriages to take place immediately.

Egyptian Christians Brace for (and Debate) New Round of ProtestsUpdate: Mass protests to oust Muslim Brotherhood's President Morsi are largest since 2011 revolution.

C. J. Mahaney Leaves Leadership of Sovereign Grace MinistriesUpdate: Former SGM president steps down from Together for the Gospel conference he co-founded.

Turkey Converts Church of Hagia Sophia from Museum to MosqueUpdate: The Turkish parliament now is considering an application to re-convert the smaller church's Istanbul namesake as well.

Renewed Hope for Asia Bibi as Pakistan Acquits Second Christian of BlasphemyUpdate: More acquittals and releases could be good sign for jailed mother of five, Pakistan's first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

'Price-Tag' Attack at Latrun Monastery Draws Condemnation From Israeli LeadersUpdate: Police have arrested one Israeli in connection with last year's graffiti attack.

Founder of Singapore's Largest Megachurch Arrested Over Wife's Pop Music OutreachUpdate: City Harvest Church says it is "saddened" by the resignation of Chew Eng Han, a co-defendant in the church's embezzlement suit.

'Bible' Miniseries Year's Most-Watched Cable TV Show, DVD Sales BoomingUpdate: Sequel set to air on NBC this fall will pick up where 'The Bible' left off "in the dark days after Jesus' betrayal and death."

From Coast to Coast, Lawsuits Duel over Reparative Therapy for GaysUpdate: New Jersey bans professional reparative therapy for minors

Rimsha Masih Receives Pakistan's First Exoneration from Blasphemy ChargesUpdate: Teenage Christian girl and her family now have settled in Canada with help from brother of assassinated minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

puss* Riot-Inspired Anti-Defamation Law Takes Effect in RussiaUpdate: USCIRF speaks out against Russian Duma-approved bill against insulting others' religions.

Oil Militants Threaten Terror Campaign To Defend Nigerian ChristiansUpdate: With president's amnesty committee underway, Nigeria's Muslims emphasize distance from Boko Haram.

Czech Churches Trade State Payroll for Properties Seized by CommunistsUpdate: Highest Czech court reaffirms government plan to compensate churches

Crystal Cathedral Endorses Offer to End Bankruptcy CrisisUpdate: Former Crystal Cathedral congregation swaps properties with local Catholic church.

Euthanasia for Alzheimer's, 'Accelerated Deaths' Considered by European NeighborsUpdate: French ethics committee votes against expanded euthanasia, but president still plans to introduce bill.

We're taking the rest of this week off to celebrate the holiday, but we'll be back next week with fresh news and updates as per usual!

Slovakia will issue its commemorative Euro depicting two Christian saints later this week, nearly two months after the coins were expected to roll out.

First set to be released in May, the coins depicting Cyril and Methodius faced an unexpected delay last winter when the European Commission intervened. The European Commission, which is the EU's governing branch, told the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) last year that it would need to re-design the coins and remove religious symbols, including halos and a cross-adorned stole.

The NBS said it would comply with the Commission's order, though iconography and art of canonized saints traditionally includes halos. The two men, who were missionariesto the Slavs in the ninth century, are recognized as saints by Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches.

NBS says the final design of the Euros, which will begin circulating July 5, "represents a dignified joining of two symbols—the symbol of statehood and the symbol of Christianity. The Slovak double cross on three peaks and the bishop's crozier held by Methodius are depicted as one and the same."

The Slovakian coin design has been in the works for many years, since the design—including the original cross—was one of the finalists when Slovakia issued its coins in 2009.

A statement from the Commission explains that "member states are required to take into account that the coins will circulate throughout the whole eurozone. In that context, proposed designs are shared in advance with other member states so that they can provide any comments they deem appropriate."

CT previously has reported on a similar situation that arose in Italy in 2003, when a judge ruled that classrooms should remove all crucifix imagery. Italians were upset about the decision at the time, and one government official even declared that "'it is unacceptable that one judge should cancel out millennia of history.'"

British churches are under siege—or so says Tony Baldry, who represents the Church of England in Parliament.

According to Baldry in a debate at Westminster Hall last week, churches that "survived the ravages of the Reformation" now are under attack by bats, which are ruining sculptures and artifacts with their urine and feces. Yet, as a result of the European Commission's Habitats Directive, which prohibits the wilfull destruction of bat habitats and breeding sites, churches are powerless to stop these pesky intruders.

Baldry warned that churches are in danger of being overrun by bat roosts—and some churches even face closure over the excessive maintenance costs.

"Importantly, churches are places of worship; they are not field barns," he stated. "I fully appreciate that one of the challenges for bats is that some of their natural habitat is threatened, but there has to be a balance."

British environment minister Richard Benyon responded to Baldry's concerns by saying the Habitats Directive was not intended to "render places of worship unusable to congregations or to impose unreasonable financial burdens to those congregations."

Benyon also told Parliament that the Government currently is testing new technologies that could deter bats from nesting in church belfries. He also suggested that churches contact the National Bat Helpline to obtain advice on how to control the damage.

The history of the American Revolution is, above all, a story about national beginnings, and stories about beginnings are stories that explain. How we understand our origins informs our sense of identity as a people. We look to the past not only to understand who we are but also to justify who we wish to become. And so, as a nation divided over the proper place of religious belief in the contemporary public square, we naturally debate the place of religious belief in the American founding.

Outside of the academy, much of that debate has focused on a simplistic, yes-or-no question: Did religious belief play an important role in the American founding? This makes sense if the primary motive is to score points in the culture wars, mining the past for ammunition to use against secularists who deny that the United States was founded as a Christian country. There's a problem with the history-as-ammunition approach, however. It's good for bludgeoning opponents, but it discourages sustained moral reflection, the kind of conversation with the past that can penetrate the heart and even change who we are.

In contrast, books like Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press) have the potential to challenge us deeply. Granted, author James Byrd inadvertently offers ammunition to readers cherry-picking evidence for a Christian founding. He matter-of-factly contends that sermons were more influential than political pamphlets in building popular support for independence, and he insists unequivocally that "preachers were the staunchest defenders of the cause of America." And yet the question that really interests him is not whether religion played an important role in the American founding but how it did so. More specifically, he wants to understand how colonists used the Bible in responding to the American Revolution.

Toward that end, Byrd went in search of original colonial sources that addressed the topic of war while appealing to Scripture. He ultimately identified 543 colonial writings (the vast majority of which were published sermons) and systematically analyzed the more than 17,000 biblical citations that they contained. The result is by far the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of "how revolutionary Americans defended their patriotic convictions through scripture, which texts they cited and how they used them."

Arguments from Scripture

Byrd relates his conclusions in five thematic chapters, each of which highlights a common scriptural argument in support of the Revolution. Americans found in Scripture "a vast assemblage of war stories" relevant to their own struggle with England. From the Old Testament, ministers drew inspiration especially from the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt (Exodus 14-15), from the Song of Deborah in Judges 5, and from the example of David, the man of war who was also the "man after God's own heart." Ministers analogized each of these stories to the situation with Britain and drew pertinent lessons. The Israelites' enslavement in Egypt resembled their own bondage to British tyranny; ditto for the Israelites' subjection centuries later to Jabin, king of Canaan. The contest between David and Goliath, in like manner, foreshadowed the colonists' righteous struggle with a powerful but arrogant British empire. (That David went on to become a king was a fact that need not be emphasized.)

To the patriotic ministers who declared them from the pulpit, the lessons embedded in these stories were indisputable. God championed the cause of independence. A warrior who liberated his people by means of war, the Lord clearly sanctioned violence in the pursuit of freedom. Furthermore, he would intervene on their behalf, and with God on their side, the ill-trained and poorly equipped patriots would be victorious. This meant that loyalty to Britain was rebellion against God, and pacifism was "sinful cowardice." Had not the angel of the Lord cursed the people of Meroz because they did not come "to the help of the Lord against the mighty" (Judges 5:23)? Had not the prophet Jeremiah thundered, "Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood" (Jer. 48:10)?

If the biblical argument in support of the Revolution was to succeed, of course, patriot ministers knew that they must buttress these arguments with support from the New Testament. This was no simple task, inasmuch as the apostles Peter and Paul both seemed to condemn rebellion and teach submission to rulers as a Christian's duty. Paul enjoined the church at Rome to "be subject to the governing authorities" (Romans 13:1); Peter commanded Christians to "honor the king" (I Peter 2:17b). Neither admonition seemed to leave much room for righteous resistance to civil authority.

Advocates of independence countered that these passages in no way required submission to tyrants. Following a line of argument fashioned by Jonathan Mayhew during the Stamp Act crisis, patriotic ministers noted that in Romans 13 Paul had also referred to the ruler as "God's minister to you for good." Mayhew had concluded from this portion of a single verse that the purpose of civil government was to support "the good of civil society," and if a ruler were not doing that, Paul's instructions to submit to the governing authorities did not apply.

Ministers reassured their flocks, furthermore, by repeatedly citing one of the few unambiguous endorsem*nts of liberty in the New Testament. "Stand fast," Paul had counseled the churches of Galatia, "in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Gal. 5:1). The liberty Paul had in mind was civil as well as religious, ministers insisted. As Presbyterian minister Nathaniel Whitaker instructed his congregation, this meant that the refusal to "stand fast" with the patriot cause was nothing less than "a sin against the express command of God."

Troubling Conclusions

Three overarching patterns emerge from Byrd's study that should trouble Christian readers. First, the influence of political ideology and historical circ*mstance in shaping the colonists' interpretation of Scripture is striking. Traced to its roots, the colonists' conviction that civil liberty is a God-given right owed more to the Enlightenment than to orthodox Christian teaching, and yet the belief strongly informed how colonists understood the Word of God. Reading the Scripture through the lens of republican ideology, they discovered "a patriotic Bible" perfect for promoting "patriotic zeal."

Second, the readiness with which Christian advocates of independence sanctified violence is disturbing. "Colonial preachers did not shy away from biblical violence," Byrd finds. "They embraced it, almost celebrated it, even in its most graphic forms."

Third, and most ominously, the evidence suggests that the way patriotic ministers portrayed the military conflict with Britain morphed rapidly from merely a "just war"—a war originated for a morally defensible cause and fought according to moral criteria—into a "sacred" or "holy war"—a struggle "executed with divine vengeance upon the minions of Satan." Patriotism and Christianity had become inseparable, almost indistinguishable.

Byrd writes with restraint and offers little commentary on his findings, but the implications for American Christians are sobering, and the stakes are high. As Byrd acknowledges in his conclusion, over time the United States has come "to define itself and its destiny largely through the justice and sacredness of its wars." American Christians have played a major role in that process of national self-definition, all too regularly sanctifying the nation's military conflicts as sacred struggles. Historian Mark Noll has lamented that, by the time of the American Revolution, "the thought and activity of the American churches tended to follow the thought and activity of the American nation," not the other way around. With painstaking thoroughness, James Byrd reaffirms that conclusion, showing that the pattern even defined how Revolutionary-era Christians read their Bibles and thought about war.

Robert Tracy McKenzie is chair of the history department at Wheaton College, and the author of a forthcoming book, The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History (IVP Academic). He blogs at Faith and History: Thinking Christianly about the American Past.

"I wish your eyes would light up like that when you talk about becoming a mom."

My husband's words were piercing. We had been discussing a potential future in overseas missions, and the prospect of being a world-changer for Jesus had become more exciting to me than the baby already in my womb.

Like many young Christians, I grew up in a church culture that emphasized foreign missions and certain exciting aspects of the Christian life. Today's church presents a lively and passion-filled message to youth, encouraging them to serve around the world and take up vocational ministries. "To the nations!" is their battlecry.

We see churches growing to serve and mobilize young believers in bigger, more powerful ways than ever before. They plan short-term mission trips for youth during school vacations, and some even offer programs for high school graduates to spend a gap year as a missionary in another country before college. Additionally, countless summer camps and conferences regularly gather Christian youth together on a large scale. The two Passion conferences I attended were worshipful, mobilizing, and beneficial. I know that God has used these kinds of ministries to reach hundreds of thousands of young people like me.

Yet, as young, married Christians seeking God's will one step at a time, my husband and I found ourselves announcing "We're pregnant!" instead of "We're moving to Africa!"

My son was born when I was 19, and we remained involved in our church and faithfully attended a weekly college-age small group. However, since the church structure did not organically integrate our lives with people outside our age group, we sort of fell through the cracks. No one brought us a meal when our son was born, and we almost felt like we had to fend for ourselves as we figured out marriage and parenting.

I couldn't help but wonder what the church's support would have been like if we were serving overseas instead of beginning to raise a family at home. It seemed like loving missions and quoting dead theologians was cool, but starting families and feeding babies was not.

A 2012 Barna study found that only 22 percent of youth pastors in Protestant churches intentionally expose their students to healthy families in the church as a major part of their ministry strategy. Yet, nearly all of these students will find themselves as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers one day. They need to be ready.

"The argument for many family ministry advocates is that adolescents need to have a tangible model of what they should be shooting for later in life: loving, forgiving relationships expressed in the context of a family," said Barna's David Kinnaman.

Churches can no longer assume that students already recognize the value of the family, or that they know how to serve one another even in very basic ways. Alongside our efforts to inspire young people to do "big things" for Christ, we need to teach them to uphold "boring" things like the vital gift of hospitality. If it's not taught in their own homes, how are they going to learn about possibly the best way to interact with the lost and with fellow believers? The Acts 2 model of breaking bread together in homes will one day have to mean more for students than going to IHOP with friends after church.

Churches can help young adults see the value of the family in the context of missional living. The "missional community" model of small groups can promote a more balanced vision of the Christian life and offer practical ways to serve one another. In my current church, these groups frequently eat together at parks or host parties in homes, inviting neighbors to join. Plus, bringing together people from a range of life stages allows older women to get involved with younger women, as prescribed in Titus 2. Such opportunities for relationship-building with each other and with nonbelievers show young people that motherhood and fatherhood can be a door rather than an obstacle to ministry.

In Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman asserts through much scriptural evidence that the primary way Jesus evangelized the nations was through the discipleship of only 12 men (and more closely, three); he reached the many by discipling the few. While plenty of single people agree with this, Jesus' model for evangelism might only inform their view of missions or discipleship within the church.

Young moms like me see how strategies like that affirm motherhood as humbly and powerfully following the ministry model of Jesus. Every day mothers will have an audience to whom we can preach of the tender saving mercies of Jesus…even if that audience is a playgroup or, for a season, just a one-year-old with an appetite for crayons.

Sarah Edwards, the wife of preacher Jonathan Edwards, was featured in Noël Piper's Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God. By the time a longitudinal study on their descendants was published in 1900, Piper found that Jonathan and Sarah's 11 children had gone on to produce a U.S. Vice President, three U.S. Senators, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 65 professors, 66 physicians, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, and 100 missionaries. Also, members of the family wrote 135 books.

Even if we exhausted our own abilities to serve the Lord in our lifetime, we could never do for the world and the kingdom what our families—what our children and their children and their children—will go on to do.

In Luke 13:19, Jesus says this about the kingdom of God:

It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.

As we prepare our students for being agents of massive, earth-shattering revival around the world, let us also remember that Jesus says the kingdom will grow slowly, even subtly, from something seemingly insignificant, like a tree from a seed…and like families. Let us encourage and disciple the young women in our congregations to be moms. Those years of diaper-changing, tantrum-disciplining, and marriage-stretching are investments in kingdom business with a return that the investor-moms will never be able to comprehend.

Hope Henchey lives in the suburbs of Tampa, Florida with her husband Peter and one-year-old son, Stephen. They love being actively involved at Covenant Life Church of Tampa and are expecting their second child in December. Hope enjoys studying theology, learning to be frugal, advocating home birth, and blogging at Recovering Womanhood.