Should a Christian minister perform a marriage ceremony for a non-believing couple? Do I have an opinion on the new movie The Hunger Games? Should Christians financially support Rabbi Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians and Jews?
Hour 1:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: It is really essential that we put down our defenses and we listen to one another. It is essential that we don’t wear our feelings on our sleeves, and if someone has a valid criticism to raise, that we hear it and we grow in the Lord. Truth sets us free.
Hour 2:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: Keep the main things the main things. Major on the majors. Focus more than anything on deeping your relationship with God through fellowship, the Spirit, the Word, worship, and witness. Everything else will fall into place.
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Other Resources:
Interview with Mark Joseph on C. S. Lewis, Narnia, and Hollywood (and an e-question you won’t believe)
November 30, 2009
Engaging Culture, Congress, and the Media w/Pat Mahoney [MP3 CD]: How does the gospel intersect with culture? What is the church’s role in society? How can we take the gospel into the streets and into our communities? How can we influence Congress and the media? Pat Mahoney, who has been on the front lines of cultural engagement for more than twenty-five years, will provoke you to godly action and inspire you to rise up and change your world in the life and power of the Spirit.
I haven’t heard any of this yet as I’m waiting for it to download, but I see the questions as to whether or not a minister should perform a wedding ceremony for an unbelieving couple.
First of all I believe a minister should find out if they believe in Christ, and if they don’t, I would think I would treat them as if they did believe in Christ, telling them the good news and what marriage is in God’s sight, just as he would a Christian couple, and if they were willing to hear it and go along with it, then I think he should go ahead with the ceremony if indeed it seems that God has brought them together for the purpose of marriage and if it seems that they are ready for such a covenant of God.
I suppose this would mean that they do believe in Christ.
If they say they go along with all that he’s been saying so far, but they don’t believe in Jesus, then I suppose he could marry them upon certain conditions of understanding such as, suppose the wife should forget to put the cap on the toothpaste, and the husband should forget to take out the trash, for example, (if that’s the husband’s duty as they have agreed to it) and suppose the husband is irritated at the wife’s constant habit of leaving off the cap from the tube of toothpaste, and she knows that she should put it back on for her husband’s sake, and he says, “I will take out the trash each evening if you will put the cap back on the tube of toothpaste”, and the wife is irritated by that because she thinks that no matter whether she forgets to put the cap on the toothpaste, he should try to remember to take out the trash anyway, then isn’t there a reason to ask for mercy on behalf of the wife, and ask the husband to take out the trash anyway, whether or not the wife will put the cap back on the toothpaste, and if the husband is irritated by that because he thinks the wife should remember to put the cap back on the toothpaste regardless of whether or not he remembers to take out the trash, then isn’t there a cause to ask that the wife extend mercy toward her husband and make every effort to remember to put the cap back on the toothpaste no matter if he forgets to take out the trash or not, and if one remembers that they forgot to do something and that by forgetting to do so, the other one might be irritated by that, then such a one should call or tell the other in person as soon as practical whenever they realize that something they have done is going to or will likely irritate the other, and ask for forgiveness, acknowledging their behaviour which was something less than it could have been toward the other, and when that happens, the other should forgive them just as Jesus said, regardless of whether or not they believe in him or not, and if they both agree to begin walking this way toward one another, in justice, judgment, and mercy, and both agree to keep these things, then shouldn’t the minister agree to marry them, if they will agree to come to him whenever they are not able to work out their differences, willing to forgive the other and being willing to repent of their behaviour which is the cause of some present distress upon the other…for who knows, if they both continue walking this way toward each other and find that it is good, and that by doing so, the air smells fresher, the grass looks greener, the stop lights seem shorter, life seems better, even though for a time there is some dying to some old nature they somehow found themselves with….who knows, if they keep walking this way, they might find that the Lord is good, and by that they will be on their way to believing in Jesus.
Now this I find intersting.
A black man from the Carribean calls in at the top of the hour and talks about how some of his own race and color tell him how he’s not black enough as if what?…a man has to be of the same degree of skin color…or be of the same background of experience in order to see things the way they do, or are they playing the race card even among their own ethnic group in hopes of manipulating the thinking of others, trying to use peer pressure to make others to be like themselves, as if in order to be correct a man has to be in their own image and likeness in order to be right in their own sight? (Gen 1:26)
Isn’t it possible to get along with people even though we don’t have the same color or experiences in life?
I suppose we will only get along if we treat each other right, for even if we do agree on certain things we will not get along if we don’t treat each other right.
We don’t have to have the same likes and dislikes in order to get along, yet in order to get along well with a righteous man, wouldn’t one need to be walking righteously?
If he were righteous he would extend grace and kindness to us and be forebearing giving us time to change and become right either in our behavior or our thinking which will produce good actions which will be in accord with righteousness, but the image he would want us to conform to would not be our own but rather the Lord’s if indeed he were a righteous man.
And so that I found to be interesting.
And I suppose we will have some difficulty understanding each other well because we all have had different experiences in life, even though we have likely experieced much more of those things in common, but mainly because of how we either treat each other, or depending on who’s image and likeness we would like the other to be walking in,
it would depend on how we ourselves walk in the Lord’s image and likeness.
Ray,
You would do well to broaden your scope and look at the hatred heaped on men like Michael Moore for his comments on race. I’ve met many within his own ethnic group who – for all practical purposes – think that he isn’t white enough. I’ve met at least one devout Christian who even hates him because of it.
Also, wasn’t John Brown vilified by his own ethnicity for his stand against slavery…apparently b/c of his ethnic disloyalty?
Finally, whites who either marry blacks or openly oppose wrote conservative racial drivel have traditionally been written off as _______-lovers. Stop and think, the majority has standard profanity for those who resist redundant ethnic loyalty…and your problem is with blacks allegedly playing an internal race card. Is it possible that your perspective is actually handicapped by your own bias? …try not to declare yourself fair and balanced—and actually consider the potential.
You may want to expand your perspective on the race card—unless your ears are itching for evidence that it’s generally a black problem.
I was aghast at the caller who vilified The Hunger Games as “promoting homosexuality” and gratuitous violence. Those are both outright lies. We Christians often think we can lie with impunity about something, as long it is “secular” or “worldly” and that is just fine. It isn’t. It is a violation of the 9th commandment. We can sin against non-believers in that way, and as a people, do it way more than is at all excusable. That man should repent. I understand a conscientious objection to seeing secular movies, though I don’t have such an objection. But lying about them to make them seem worse than they are in a sensationalistic way is lying for the Lord, and it is awful.
Marcus:” wasn’t John Brown vilified by his own ethnicity”
His Own ethnicity? Isnt that just another way of saying “you people”. John Brown was vilified by some of “his” people, but be careful how quick you run to his defence.
The man only armed the slaves with pikes. Read why. And considering what had happened in Haiti, you think people should have embraced that kind of uprising? Things didnt turn out too well in Haiti even for the Haitians. Look at how Louverture and Dessaline treated their own people after their “revolution”. Tens of thousands slaughtered.
Marcus:”hatred heaped on men like Michael Moore for his comments on race”
Excuse you, the man wrote a book titled, “Stupid White Men”. Was there a joke in that? Sorry, I missed it. And his referring to Taliban as noble Minute Men for the Defense of Iraq? Surely corpulent intellects know that the Justice being protected there… well, Michael Moore aint there proclaiming it so I often find that a bit odd. When you are too frightened to preach the happiness of a land because you might find yourself among the many decapitated, you get my point?