Showing posts with label Morality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morality. Show all posts

Dec 3, 2011

Like a thief in the night

Wilson Ramos
Image via Wikipedia
On November 9, Wilson Ramos, Washington Nationals catcher and former member of the Minnesota Twins, was abducted from his family´s home in Valencia, Venezuela. Two days later, he was “happy to be alive” after a police raid on his captors´ hideout.
 
So the possibility of being kidnapped (or worse) was on our minds Sunday evening, November 13, as Luz Maria and I were attacked and robbed in the comfort of our own home. As I have written previously, in recent weeks we have been robbed of various items, most notably the water pump we bought for the well on our property. But this face-to-face confrontation was a first-time experience for both of us.

Well, it wasn´t exactly face to face, as our attacker was masked. Luz Maria had thought she heard something and got up to investigate, when suddenly he appeared, threatening us with the jagged edge of a broken whiskey bottle.

_MG_5242.ppm It was at a moment when we had been lulled into a false sense of security, and has gotten a little careless about locking all our doors and gates. We had just gotten a new watchdog (a purebred Dalmatian named Kyra). She has since proven to be a wonderful dog, but we found out later that she had been drugged that night, probably with some form of inhalant.

We were caught completely unprepared, although both of us later thought of many things that we could have done. All that I could think of was trying to grab our attacker´s wrist before he could harm Luz Maria with the broken glass. I am not sure what she was thinking, but she would not run out the back while I was trying to do this.

Finally we retreated into our bathroom where we were able to slam and lock the door. While I kept peeking through the keyhole and making some noise to keep the intruder distracted, Luz Maria climbed up to the roof and forced an opening in the fiberglass panels. Then she jumped from the roof onto some sponge rubber padding that we had stored outside, scaled the wall on the other side of the house, and ran across the street to where she could call the police.

The police arrived promptly, but still the thief managed to escape. We lost a cellular phone, a laptop computer and my Canon Digital Rebel camera, but that was all. However, we will have to revise our construction plans to take into account additional security measures.

It is tempting to try and explain this crime wave in terms of the social and political unrest in the country, continuing economic problems and so forth. However, no such theories are complete without considering the darkness of the human heart without the light of Christ.

I vividly remember traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1973 for the funeral of my cousin, David Hammes. My cousin had been 20 years old and a student at Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, Illinois (now it´s called Concordia University Chicago). He and Robert Erfourth, his roommate and fellow student, had surprised an intruder in their off-campus apartment. Apparently thinking they were dealing with an ordinary burglar, the two young men had allowed themselves to be tied up, at which point they were tortured and brutally killed with an axe.

Not all poverty-stricken people commit violent crimes, and sometimes horrifying acts may occur in the prosperous suburbs of Chicago as well as the slums of Caracas.

Perhaps it is fitting that the Sunday morning Scripture lessons for November 13 dealt with the Last Judgment. As St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11:

“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Our experience illustrates the need to be constantly sober and alert, not only for the possibility of physical attack, but spiritual trials and temptations, and to be spiritually prepared for our last hour on earth, whether because of our own physical death or the world´s final end.

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Jan 22, 2009

Alonso Franco joins us as vicar

David Ernst, Alonso Franco and Eduardo Flores
Alonso Franco was installed as vicar at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church on Sunday, January 18, 2009. He will serve in Barinas and La Caramuca for three months before being transferred to Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life) Lutheran Church in Puerto Ordaz.

Alonso Franco and Eduardo Flores
Alonso led the Service of the Word, Pastor Eduardo Flores preached the sermon, and I led the Service of Holy Communion, with Alonso assisting in the distribution of the sacrament. For the next three months, Alonso will preach at least two Sundays per month and lead Bible studies at Corpus Christi. I will be responsible for reviewing his sermons and Bible studies and lending him whatever counsel and aid he requires.

Alonso's father, Pastor Alcides Franco, served as president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela for 14 years, and also as pastor of La Santa Trinidad (Holy Trinity) Lutheran Church in Caracas, and La Ascensión ( Ascension) Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana before becoming pastor of La Reforma (Reformation) Lutheran Church in the same city.

His older brother, Pastor Jonathan Franco, served for a number of years as leader of the national Lutheran youth organization, and is currently treasurer of the national church. Jonathan also has been chosen to go to Argentina for advanced theological study at Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires. Of course, this means someone else will have to be selected as national church treasurer, but we cross every bridge when we come to it.

We loaned Alonso a microwave oven to use while he stays in the pastoral residence at Corpus Christi. Luz Maria saved up some money and bought the microwave last year, but about that time the wiring in our kitchen died and we have yet to replace that. So up to now we had not even taken the microwave out of the box. I should add that the preschool has its own, separate kitchen where the wiring still is more or less okay.

Luz Maria has been working very hard on completing her thesis for the fifth-level teaching degree. She will finish by the end of this month. However, since the semester does not end until July, she will have to wait until then to receive her degree.

Christian art workshop a success

Twenty-three people attended the Christian art workshop that Luz Maria organized in Caracas on January 9, 2009, including myself, Luz Maria, and Luz Maria's daughters, Yepci and Charli. The emphasis was on visual art (rather than, say, music) in the form of liturgical vestments and paraments, banners, crosses, crucifixes and the like. The attendees included clergy and laypeople from Barquisimeto, Barinas, Maracay, Caracas, Barcelona, Maturin and San Felix de Guayana.

Yoxandris Marcano shows paraments that she made
Yoxandris Marcano of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturin gave what was perhaps the best presentation. In fact, it was a well-organized PowerPoint presentation highlighting not only her own work, but that of several other members of Cristo Rey. She had stored presentation on a USB flash drive (which are everywhere in Venezuela now, one gigabyte costs about $20 to $25, two gigabytes about $40 to $50). To show it, we used my laptop computer and a projector borrowed from Elsy de Machado (there was no screen, we just used a blank wall).

This may only mean something to my readers who have been to Maturin on short-term mission trips, but Yoxandris is a niece of Dagnys Marcano, who is now married to Pastor Francisco Cabarcas, and Oveida Marcano, former manager of Tierra de Gracia Lutheran Farm. Oveida recently married, but I do not know her husband's name. Yoxandris' father restored the walls and put a new roof on what is not the pastoral residence at Tierra de Gracia. It is rather exciting to have lived in Venezuela onl five years, yet to see already a new generation of leadership emerging within the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

Eduardo models purple stole
Yoxandris made the red stoles that were presented to Eduardo Flores, Sergio Maita and myself upon our ordinations. She has also made for me a purple stole for use during the seasons of Advent and Lent, and paraments for our altar in La Caramuca. Our altar consists of a green plastic table about the size of a card table, but without foldable legs. Nevertheless, it looks fairly impressive when covered with the white altar-cloth bearing the alpha and omega symbols in front.

Others who made presentations at the workshop included:

  • Natasha Sanchez of La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay, banners and vestments;
  • Luis Miguel Silva, La Fortaleza, wooden crosses and other items crafted from wood and leather;
  • Pastor Luis Moya of La Reforma Lutheran Church, San Felix de Guayana, speaking on behalf of his wife, who makes banners and vestments;
  • Yepci Santana, Corpus Christi Lutheran Church of Barinas, banners.
Abel Garcia models chasuble
In addition, I presented slides of the wrought-iron version of Luther's seal incorporated into the gates of our mission in La Caramuca and the work that inspired it, the windows of Roca de Eternidad (Rock of Ages) Lutheran Church, Quebrada Seca, Monagas. Like many buildings in rural Venezuela, the church in Quebrada Seca does not have glassed windows, but rather ironwork on the outside of the windows to keep out intruders. And the ironwork in every window in Roca de Eternidad has symbols of the Holy Trinity, Baptism, Creation and other themes.

I also showed a picture of the beautiful Advent wreath made for Corpus Christi by Ludy de Tarrazona (the one that caught on fire).

Yepci shows banner
Everyone was excited by the talent and resources on display. There were four major concerns:

  1. That Christian art might give members of Lutheran congregations an avenue to use their God-given talents;
  2. That promotion of Christian art might preserve Venezuelan folk arts and crafts, which some fear are in danger of disappearing;
  3. That artistic expression through liturgical tradition might help the Lutheran Church of Venezuela develop a distinctive identity in Venezuela and a sense of solidarity with other confessional Lutheran church-bodies throughout the world.
  4. That liturgical art might serve to express and teach Lutheran doctrine.

Workshop participants favored the inclusion of formal art courses in the curriculum of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute and the formation of committees to promote Christian art in every congregation.

International perspective on abortion

This week marks a definite regime change in the United States as well as the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion on demand. Exit George W. Bush, whose record shows him to have been the most pro-life President so far, and enter Barack Obama, who at the very least promises to be the most pro-abortion President ever.

Here is an on-line chart which shows the status of abortion laws in nearly every country in the world as of 2007. You may notice that while abortion on demand tends to be the rule in the United States and Europe, Latin America is something of a mixed bag. Here in Venezuela, abortion is only legal in situations where the life of the prospective mother might be endangered by bringing the baby to term. Neighboring Colombia is more permissive in regard to abortion than Venezuela (although I am told pious, practicing Roman Catholics are more common there), but more restrictive than the United States. Direct abortion is illegal under any circumstances in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile, although the Chilean government in 2006 authorized the sale of the abortifacient "morning-after" birth control pill.

This Sunday Bolivians will vote on a new constitution that, if ratified, would throw open the door to elective abortion. Please pray for Bolivia and also for other nations that are under pressure to change pro-life stands.

Please pray also for the United States and other nations that, hardened in sin, refuse to recognize the sanctity of human life and marriage, and the rights of the unborn, that they may repent before judgment falls.





Aug 21, 2008

Two weeks of vacation Bible school




We just completed two weeks of vacation Bible school.

According to information gleaned from the Web, the first vacation Bible school was held in 1894 at the Methodist Church in Hopewell, Illinois (30 minutes from Peoria) under the supervision of Mattie Miles. A former public school teacher who had married the Methodist minister, she also taught Sunday school, but was frustrated by the time constraints of teaching one morning per week. Forty children enrolled for her first summer event, which ran for four weeks.

Two weeks were enough for us.

We presented the same five-day program in La Caramuca from August 5 to 9 and at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas from August 12 to 16. Closing ceremonies in la Caramuca were held Sunday, August 10, in la Caramuca, and Sunday, August 17, in Barinas.

In la Caramuca, 62 children attended our first day of vacation Bible school. The Scripture lesson was Genesis 1:37 and the theme was how God instituted marriage and family.

Second-day attendance was 63. The lesson was the story of Noah and the Ark from Genesis, chapters 6-9, with the theme being that God preserves families in difficult situations.

We saw our record attendance on Thursday with 69 children. That day we focused on an explanation of the Fourth Commandment ("Honor you father and mother").

Attendance was down a little on the fourth day with 54 children present. The Scripture text was 2 Timothy 3:15 and the theme was the family circle as a place to read and study the Bible.

Finally we had 55 children in attendance. The Scripture text was St.Luke's account of the 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. The theme was the church as God's family and the sacraments (baptism and Holy Communion) as the means by which we become part of this family. The Scripture text was chosen because it represents Jesus' coming of age in the faith and because the children we expect will be ready for confirmation this fall are all about 12 years old.

These older children were involved as assistants in organizing activities for the younger ones. Eduardo and I were responsible for leading opening and closing devotions, while Luz María's daughter, Yepci, was in charge of crafts. Charli, another one of Luz María's daughters was in charge of physical recreation, while Luz María related the Bible stories. In addition, we
also had help from several members of the Corpus Christi congregation.

Our older children from la Caramuca also helped facilitate vacation Bible school in Barinas the following. Attendance at Corpus Christi was not as high, ranging from about 15 children up to 28. Luz María, Yepci, Eduardo and myself also were involved in VBS at Corpus Christi.

Luz Maria at national VBS meetingThe curriculum used in both locations with an overarching theme of "In Jesus Christ we are children of God", was developed at a national church meeting at La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay. Luz María played a leading role at this event because she is the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's national coordinator of Christian education.

The VBS curriculum focused on Biblical teachings on marriage and family because of a concern over the high level of family instability in Venezuela. Part of the problem is a cultural legacy: Unlike European settlers in North America, the Spanish conquistadores seldom brought their wives and children to the New World with them. Rather they sired children with a series of native women. Thus began the tradition of "machismo", which means a really strong, virile man does not let
himself get tied down to one woman and her children. Added to this is the problem of rapid urbanization, which has affected Venezuela as well as other developing countries. People (usually men) leave their families behind supposedly to seek higher-paying jobs in the cities.This weakens existing social ties and leads to a great deal of infidelity.

Also, the civil law in Venezuela does little to strengthen marriage as an institution. A man and a woman may move in together and have children with all the legal benefits of marriage for as long as they want to play house. But if one or the other wants to move out, there are no legal penalties. If they go through the civil marriage ceremony, then one or the other may sue for divorce, alimony and child support. So naturally many people (usually men) try to avoid a legally binding commitment if at all possible.

The result is that many Venezuelan children grow up in an environment characterized by adultery, jealousy, heavy drug and alcohol consumption, physical and verbal abuse, and lack of any solid values and relationships.

This year's VBS program is aimed at teaching the children that their families are a blessing from God, even if the families that they have often are highly fractured.

Pastor Ted Krey, his wife Rebecca, and Edimar BritoSigning the flagWe also were blessed Sunday, August 17, with a visit from newlyweds Pastor Ted Krey and his
wife, Rebecca. She had been a research scientist in their native Canada, but now has committed herself to living in Venezuela for as long as Pastor Krey serves here. They brought a Venezuelan flag for everyone at Corpus Christi to sign.

Luís Gabriel Orellana PinzónThe day before, Saturday, August 16, Lusveidis Pinzón de Orellana, a longtime member of Corpus Christi, gave birth to her first child, Luís Gabriel.

Nov 5, 2007

Children are a blessing

Edgar, Edymar and Mariel"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,the fruit of the womb a reward."Psalm 127:3

Edymar Mariangel Brito, the first child of Edgar and Mariel Brito was born October 16, 2007, and baptized at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas, October 28, 2007.

It was my privilege to hold the basin of water while Edgar baptized his daughter. I wore a white alb and around my neck the pewter cross that the members of my home Bible study group at Michael's Lutheran Church gave me before I left for Venezuela. I did not do much but stand there, but I was dressed for the part.

The parents very much wanted this baby. Mariel had been pregnant twice before, but had suffered a miscarriage both times.

I thought of the rejoicing over Edymar's birth October 23 when a Reuters article appeared in the international press. It quoted Alberto Stella, a United Nations official, as blaming the Roman Catholic Church's stand on birth control for the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout Latin America.

According to the Reuters article, some 1.7 million people across Latin America are infected with the HIV virus. There were perhaps 410,000 new cases in 2006.

Stella told Reuters that condom use "has been demonized" (presumably by the Roman Catholic Church) and that "evidence shows" that abstinance-based sex education "isn't working".

Where to begin? First of all, to make generalizations about a Latin American country like Venezuela based on the assumption that "everyone there is Catholic" is profoundly misguided. As in most parts of the world, the "official" religion does not always play an important role in most people's day-to-day decisions.

Let me be blunt about this: You can walk into almost any pharmacy and many supermarkets in Venezuela and pick up condoms right off the rack. No questions are asked, and actually, it probably would not be that hard to slip out of the store without paying for the product. No one here is having "unprotected sex" because the Roman Catholic or any other church is preventing the distribution and sale of condoms.

Abortion still is illegal in Venezuela except in cases where birthing the baby definitely would endanger the life of the mother. Illegal abortions are performed, but the threat of a two-year prison term does appear to discourage the practice.

Luz Maria and Sunday school children

Luz María grew up with four brothers and two sisters (one brother died at 21 years of age, the rest survive). Back at that time it was not unusual for there to be as many as 10 children in a household. Now the norm is about four to six children per family, much as it was in the Midwestern United States when I was a boy.

In other words, the decline in the birth rate over the last two generations in Venezuela is consistent with the gradual adoption of non-abortifacient birth control without abortion as a backup plan, as was the case throughout the United States from the end of the post-World War II "baby boom" until 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand.

Which brings me to the second point, that opposition to abortion is not an exclusively Roman Catholic position. Actually, neither is opposition to birth control. Until the middle of the 20th Century, there was no difference between Catholic and Protestant teaching in regard to birth control. The great Anglican author and scholar, C.S. Lewis, considered birth control a sin and made that a plot point in his novel, "That Hideous Strength".

I have copy of "If God Be For Us", a collections of essays by Dr. Walter Maier, the original "Lutheran Hour" speaker. In one essay he inveighs against the evil of contraception. Also, there is an academic study by Alan Graebner, available for purchase on-line, using the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod as a case study of how and why one Protestant denomination changed its stand on birth control.

Sunday school childrenThere is much room for discussion here, but I want to move on to my next point: Today conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics differ on the extent to which "family planning" methods should be used by married couples. There is no disagreement on abortion and the immorality of sexual relations outside of marriage.

It is sexual promiscuity that kills, not abstinence. There is indeed an increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, but this has more to do with the breakdown of family relationships and increased opportunities for casual sex due to rapid urbanization more than a shortage of condoms. Then there is the fact that world's two greatest multinational evangelistic organizations, the entertainment and advertising industries, are quite active in Venezuela, peddling dreams of sexual pleasure without responsibility.

The question is not whether solutions which emphasize abstinence from sex outside of marriage will work, but rather whether any other approach will. Why are allegedly educated people blind to this?

Well, as I learned many years ago in the bio-ethics course I took in college, there are three presuppositional models that tend to color people's thinking about world population growth, hunger and poverty. Let's examine them in light of these Scriptural principles:

  1. God ordained marriage for companionship, procreation and a safeguard against sexual temptation.
  2. Children are a blessing from God.
  3. God is the true Author of life.
  4. All human life has value in God's eyes.
Pro-natalism: This is the idea that a high level of population growth is necessary for a human society to survive and prosper. With birth rates below the level of replacement in the United States and Europe, this point of view is gaining more respect. The recent movie, "Children of Men", based on a bestselling novel of the same name, is set in a near-future world in which all women everywhere have become infertile with disastrous results. Pro-natalism would seem to be consistent with the Bible's positive attitude toward procreation, but pro-natalist policies can exist without the recognition of God as the creator of life and the inherent sanctity of human life. The Nazis, for example, were pro-natalists, but also favored sterilization and killing of the "unfit" and undesirable.

Marxism: This point of view need not be defined strictly in terms of adherence to the doctrines of Marx, but more broadly as the idea that hunger and poverty are mainly the result of an unjust distribution of the world's resources, goods and services. There is not so much a need to control birth rates in developing countries as there is to control consumption of material goods in industrialized nations. This philosophy has become more and more popular in Latin America, especially in light of failed attempts to implement free-market reforms. The development of "liberation theology" has given Marxists a quasi-Christian vocabulary. Although the Scriptures speak against injustice, including the economic kind, and the responsibility of those blessed with more material wealth to share with the less fortunate, this is seen as a voluntary movement resulting from the restoration of a right relationship with God. The Bible affirms the right of private property and the responsibility to work for a living, while the Old Testament history of Israel portrays a government's desire for higher and higher taxes as a cause for civil war.

Neo-Malthusianism: Neo-Malthusians base their thinking on writings of Thomas Malthus, an 18th-Century economist who was the first think about the big-picture effects of unrestrained population growth. However, the "neo" (Greek for "new") in neo-Malthusianism is due to the fact that neo-Malthusians are rather embarrassed to claim Thomas Malthus as their own. In addition to being an economics professor, Malthus was a quite conservative Anglican priest who considered birth control and homosexuality to be vices, and opposed most government welfare programs as encouraging the poor not to work and to bear children out of wedlock. His solution to the potential problem of population growth surpassing the available food supply was "moral restraint". By that he meant avoiding sexual activity outside of marriage and postponing marriage until one had acquired an education.

Malthus published his views on population and economics in 1798. Less than 30 years later, Sir Frances Place in 1822 published a book using some of Malthus' arguments to advocate birth control. This was the true beginning of neo-Malthusianism, a point of view that has become dominant in the United States and Europe. Neo-Malthusianist ideas have become internalized as the reflexive opinions that "there are too many people in the world" and "reproductive choice (prevention of pregnancy) is a health issue". Sometimes neo-Malthusians attempt a Biblical justification of their ideology in terms of an argument for stewardship of natural resources.

In confronting all these thought-systems which can blind people to the truths of God's creation and revelation, it is important to remember the Scriptural principles above, and that the light of Christ's Gospel is what can truly motivate people to love God and their neighbor as themselves.