What is postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a separate but similar philosophy to modern atheism. In fact, postmodernism as a philosophy is inherently difficult to nail down. If we take the broadest possible definition of postmodernism, then it can be applied to modern atheism – especially the pop-atheism that is promoted among young adherents.

Modernism was a 20th century movement whose proponents felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated. Postmodernists have gone a step further in the rejection of traditional philosophy begun by the materialists, existentialists and modernists by also rejecting anything that resembles a traditional belief system.

Postmodernism is a philosophy that emerged from the 1960s characterized by experimental thought that is not bound by absolutes. Postmodernism can be seen as a spin-off philosophy from earlier materialism propounded by Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Marx. It can also be seen as a form of existentialism, essentially an attitude of liberation from traditional philosophy. Postmodernism rejects outward reality as meaningless and absurd, preferring the reality of the inward experience.

Most young postmodernists don’t know what the word means and are epistemologically unaware that this is their worldview. It’s seeped into their consciousness through their miseducation in our failing socialist government schools, their insipid reliance on the vapid Internet and cable-television media to provide them with all knowledge, and the banal cult-hero worship of their atheist gurus.

Atheists see themselves as being rationalists. In reality, they are the most irrational people I've ever encountered. There are the several related ironies here.

1. They claim to love reason and logic, but are unreasonable and overly emotional.
2. They claim that Christians cling to blind faith, and yet their propagation of lunatic conspiracy theories is endless.
3. They are obsessed with logical fallacies, but don’t know what a logical fallacy is and commit them constantly.
4. They claim to respect research and authority, but don’t have a clue on how to do proper research and will abandon a debate when faced with solid scholarship that refutes them.
5. They start endless arguments, but quickly change the topic when they have no rebuttal and resort to ad hominems and strawman arguments when they have no other place to run to.

These are all part of a pattern of mock dialogue I’ve noticed when dealing with atheists on the Internet.

“You need to read some books” and “You need to do some research,” are common replies. Despite the fact that I have read some books and not only do research, but teach it as part of a graduation requirement, these young postmodernists haven’t read any books. They’ve watched a video such as Zeitgeist that references amateur sources that borrow ideas from each other and recycle these same silly arguments over and over.

Accusations of “lying” and “dishonesty” are also common. They reject that ultimate truth actually exists, but assume someone is knowingly lying when they simply disagree or hold to opposing presuppositions. There are frequent incidents of “begging the question” or assuming their conclusion within the premise to the argument. In short, it’s difficult to argue with someone who says that you need to “do some critical thinking” who himself hasn’t learned to think critically.

I’ve come to the conclusion several times that it is a bad idea to begin a dialogue with these people. After viewing some of the nasty web wars among atheists themselves, I realized that the goal can never be to prove something to be true with these people. Only Christian compassion can be a motivating factor,

A while back I had an interesting commenter named “Thomas” on one of my YouTube vlogs, who succinctly hit the nail of the postmodernist syndrome on its head. I wrote Thomas and told him I had a difficult time defining postmodernism. I wanted to study it in order to devise a strategy to poke holes through the arguments of these “20-something” postmodernists.

I replied:

Thanks for your comments on postmodernism. I am looking for a way to be more articulate on this topic. Most of the atheists who respond to my vlogs are thoroughly postmodern. They proclaim themselves as a voice of reason, but are most unreasonable and anti-rational. I try to explain to them that they are motivated by emotion and then use cynicism (not true skepticism) they have heard elsewhere with no real critical thinking on their own. But for some reason postmodernism is hard for me to pin down. Maybe because it is so irrational? Do you know of any good resources on this that would help me to study it.

I copy here Thomas’ first reply, which is obviously written off-the-cuff, but is useful and could become a blueprint for dealing with postmodernism if it were to be developed. What he describes here is not simply just a way of dealing with atheists, but all liberals, some neo-conservatives, and especially liberal theology in the guise of popular Christian movements, including everything from the Jesus Seminar to the Emerging Church movement.

I’ve edited and rearranged the material in a few places. At the end is a reading list of books I’d never heard of. In return, I suggested that he read Van Til and Bahnsen, whom he had never heard of. I always find it interesting when I discover people who come to the exact same conclusions I do on esoteric subjects using a completely different road map.

What is Postmodernism?

1. Anti-Reason - The very nature of Postmodernism is anti-reason. They make lots of claims yet cannot live up to them because it's a cult of ignorance. I'm not kidding. It's really that bad.

Postmodernism abandoned reason for "feeling" which is why their first line of argument is ad hominem, strawman fallacies, and non-sequiturs. Unfortunately for their cause, their arrogance makes them believe they are the voice of reason.

2. Anti-Realism - They choose faith over truth. A useful historical example is that the grand failure of Marx is found in his claim that Marxism is a "scientific socialism" whereby he laid bare four predictions. He was wrong in each case. Marx was a buffoon. He said Marxism was scientific yet Hegel denied reason for spirit (feeling) and evidence for faith. Marxism is based on an anti-realist, anti-reason philosophy.

The very nature of Postmodernism, going all the way back to Rousseau, denies the achievements of the Enlightenment. This is why every Leftist revolution has failed. To the Left, they've chosen to use feelings and faith to guide their economic and moral principles since the French Revolution. Ancient Christians knew that this wouldn't work. Jesus said, "My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight." There was a strong case in Christian morals for Reason. Of course, as much criticism as the Left heaps upon Christians, I was surprised myself when I found the contrary to be true (I was studying Islam and comparing it to Christianity and Judaism). Christian scholars from the beginning believed in moral judgment through Reason. This is echoed in Cicero (more clearly I'd say) and predated by the Greeks.

Why morals? To the Postmodern collectivist (followers of Rousseau and Kant), morals are only valid when we all reach a consensus (a democratic majority or a collective will). This is a logical fallacy. Morals are often taught as lessons. Why? The purpose of morals are to instill us with the judgment to determine the better behavior.

Therefore, it's fallacious to suggest that we can change the outcome of a behavior simply by agreeing that it's good (argumentum ad populus). And this is why all collectivist societies are the worst human rights violators. Because morals are based on whim rather than principles. It suggests that if we get enough people to agree that misogyny is good, slavery is good, homophobia is good (all hypersensitive leftist subjects) then the nature of collectivist morals, or morals by consensus demands it to be true. Typically, I'll trick them (because they're arrogant) by pretending to agree that morals are based on consensus. I'll say it and nod my head (it's an old trick to gain trust through body language). Then I'll prove it wrong. The disconnect with morals and principles and the Postmodern Left is found in their unhealthy obsession with collectivism, Nietzsche in particular. Everything was reduced to "values."

Values are another sticking point for the Postmodernist. To drive something home I'll remind him, ad nauseum, "Those are your values, not mine. That's what you do. That's what you love. Not me." To the Postmodernist, they believe (again wrongly) that values are a social construct (BTW, if anyone ever says “social construct” you can pretty much call that nonsense). They say this because they're anti-realist. Divorcing from both reason and reality the Postmodernists are morally bankrupt. Morals require us to discriminate, to choose the better of available options based on principles and evidence. The Postmodernist denies that either are valid. To the Postmodernist then, all behaviors have equal outcomes (I point this out just to get them to scratch their heads). Because without reason or the mind being able to reliably and accurately interpret the world then all behavior is mere chance. I'm just as likely to get hit crossing the street with my eyes closed then looking both ways. Which brings us to relativism.

The most pernicious feature of Postmodernism, and the one that sends real scientists on the warpath, is relativism. The Postmodernist, denying reason and evidence, also categorically denies that any truth can be found. It's interesting to note that Jews and Christians both believed (Christians more so) that God created the Universe with immutable laws, so perfect that God could not break them. This is why Muhammed said, "the Jews have fettered Allah." To the Muslims, Allah can do anything, including be wildly inconsistent. To the Christians and Jews this was not so. The Laws of Nature are immutable, therefore, it's possible to discover and interpret them. Human beings are imperfect but the universe is not. Thus the Western World was ready to embark on a journey of scientific discovery with Jews and Christians leading the way. To the Postmodernist, however, the universe itself is a matter of opinion. This is the most baffling but if you read all of their literature you'll find evidence time and again they believe that reality is a matter of opinion. This is why you'll state a fact and they'll say, "That's your opinion." This is the slipperiest and most intellectually detrimental characteristic of Postmodern anti-rationalism. It can destroy a person's ability to function in modern society. Interestingly enough, their collectivist interpretation (that is, cultural or group awareness suggests that reality is a social construct) is also found in Islam. Another oppressive, totalitarian, murderous ideology that explicitly states (like Rousseau to Marcuse) anyone who does not convert is either killed or subjugated. That's collectivism for you. The ways I've found to deal with relativism is to be irreverent, sarcastic and mocking.

To the Postmodernist, language is not a form of communication, but a weapon to deliver intellectual force (whatever that means). The Postmodernist will attack for no reason, then change subjects just to keep attacking. When they're losing ground they'll resort to value-relativism or what Eagleton would call theoretical pluralism. An example would be if you said, "You're indoctrinated," they'll say "We're all indoctrinated." Well, not we're all not indoctrinated. But they say that because in a relativist world, there is no right or wrong and everything meets in between. Of course, it's only relativist when they're losing an argument. So I point this out. I make it explicit. I'll tell them straight up they're retreating into theoretical pluralism. Invariably, because these elitists are impressed with obscurantism, they'll ask, "What's that?" Then I'll tell them, correct them, and continue with reason, evidence and logic.

If there is a rule #1, I guess it would have to be - never initiate the conversation. The reason is because talking to a Postmodern self-defeatist is a waste of time. If they initiate the conversation it's because they have a grievance to monger. It means they care because their feelings are being broadcast. Use that. Then challenge their knowledge about it. For some reason, I have yet to know why, but these Postmodernists tend to crumble when you give names and dates to support your arguments. I think it's because they're just a bunch of name-droppers. They don't know Oedipus from Homer. They learned him from Freud. Use specifics and remind them they're wrong and they don't know. They need to be broken down shotgun style and stuffed with double-ought. The only thing they have is faith, break it.

Reading List

Here's a list of books I've read to understand Postmodernism (Read in this order):

1. Higher Superstition - by Levitt and Gross - this is the book that started it all. The Postmodern Left failed to gain ground in the hard sciences during the communist revolutions at various colleges (a strategy developed by Marcuse). They did manage to dominate the humanities (much to my dismay). After years of establishing hegemony (a Postmodern watchword) they sought to expand their sphere of influence. These frauds met began meeting fierce resistance. It started with this book.

2. The Sokal Hoax anthology - this isn't exactly the best book but there are so many essays to explicate it helps you develop an instinct for their nonsense. Spoiler Alert!! Sokal wrote an essay that was utter nonsense. You might say, "So what?" which would be very Postmodern, but only the thesis was Alan's. The rest of the essay was quotes from Leftist luminaries. In other words, they can't even understand each other.

3. Fashionable Nonsense - by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont - the best part for non-scientists (like myself) are the intermezzo chapters which breakdown the nonsense into logic for laymen, explain their faults, exposing their frauds, and illustrating their fallacies.

4. Liberal Fascism - by Jonah Goldberg - not a great piece of scholarly work but it familiarizes you with the various political movements, philosophers, and movers-n-shakers of the Left that were Fascists. What this book lacks is a strong voice to carry its message. What it has is a plethora of quotes from Fascists and the Leftists today whose own politics are indistinguishable.

5. Explaining Postmodernism - by Stephen Hicks - Easily the strongest work to date. Hicks tracts a philosophic line from Rousseau to Rorty, explaining their various assertions, their weaknesses, and why successors were desperately needed. Hicks book is remarkably lucid, candid, and funny. More importantly, it's brutally honest. Postmodernists are in serious denial and Hicks throws it in their face. He explains why they choose the tactics you've described (though, if you've read everything up to this you'll have figured it out for yourself anyway). The most compelling features of this book are the three theses, which are laid bare, then thoroughly supported, and cogently argued. This is a MUST!

Enjoy your readings,
Thomas

P.S. The best book to explain the descent into ignorance (though not entirely Postmodern but the Western World as a whole) is The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, Hating Whitey by David Horowitz and Illiberal Education by Dinesh Desouza are good companion pieces.

The Evolution of Jesus Mythicism

Here's a ministry idea. Someone with a YouTube account ought to read this on video. Do a rant in your own inimitable tone. Make sure you cite the author because when it goes viral he'll be wanting royalties. I didn't write this. This is from a guy named Vinnie, who obviously has some kind of gift. Don't ask me what it is though.

Just a note for people who don't get this. I constantly get responses to my Real Jesus video series from young postmodernist atheists who insist there is no proof that Jesus ever existed. I know that makes no sense, but welcome to the 21st century. If you do get it, then you agree with me that this guy Vinnie is brilliant.

Mythicism in 27 to 30 A.D.

Yes, mythicists go back to the first century where they were constantly arguing with Jesus about whether or not he existed. Nothing he could do would prove his existence to them. They asserted and reasserted that he did not exist.

One guy who was a real "Freke" traveled to Australia and came back and told Jesus triumphantly "No one has ever heard of you in Australia. Ergo, you do not exist."

Many of Jesus friends (maybe even 500 of them!) testified that this man was in fact Jesus of Nazareth to them but the mythicists accused the men of fabrication and mass hallucination. They were stubborn and unrelenting and would not give up their hyper-skepticism.

Men and women came claiming to be Jesus' family but the mythicists argued that their testimony was invalid unless backed by a scientifically controlled and carefully conducted DNA testing.

Jesus invited the mythicists over to his house one night for supper and when he was done entertaining them he tried one last time to prove his existence to them. But not even the wine they drank loosened them from their hyper-skepticism. Led by their leader "Doherticus ben Earl" they dogmatically asserted that unless he could show them a valid driver's license with his picture on it they would not accept his existence.

Since he had no clue what a driver's license was he was silenced and his opponents assumed victory and taunted him with drunken slurs like "Na na na na na. You don't exist. Na na na na na."

Mythicism in 30 to 70 A.D.

Many who who knew Jesus of Nazareth and followed him during his lifetime believed he was an actual person and they found him to be a great teacher and they continued to follow him after his death and carried on his message.

But the mythicists kept arguing against his existence. They now asserted that the Christians invented the story and they accused them of being Christians! "Because you are followers of this man you are clearly biased and nothing that you say he said or did can be considered as evidence. What could a follower of Jesus tell us about Jesus?" they retorted.

One day during this time period some Gentile converts interpreted something they heard attributed to Jesus to mean that shellfish and pork were now clean. But this only fueled the debate as popular mythicist "Petros ben Gandy" used this material to argue against the historicity of Jesus' existence. He stated, "I lived next door to Jesus and ate with him often. He never declared shellfish and pork clean. You or whoever you heard this from are clearly making this material up just as you make up these claims that Jesus was a real person. He could never provide us with a valid picture I.D. and I doubt you can do any better!"

Jesus' brother James become quite popular and continued to argue that his brother was a real person during this time period but he could never provide the mythicists with their required evidence of a DNA test as he knew not what a DNA test was.

Mythicism from 71 to 95 A.D.

Jesus' original followers were all dead and the mythicists ran rampant during this time period. Anything anyone said about Jesus was considered hearsay because no one was actually there to witness it. The mythicist's mythicist-children now demanded primary-contemporary source data. Anything less than that would not even be considered!

One Christian brought forth some documents that contained a lot of material on Jesus. He said these documents should constitute evidence for the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. Much material inside them was embarrassing and there wasn't really any valid reason to think that all stuff was woven from whole cloth (let along the really embarrassing stuff like Baptism by JBap) but the mythicists were not swayed. At first they weren't sure how to treat them and they argued that no one ever heard of these documents and they have no name on them so they must not exist. Christians then decided to name them and the mythicists changed their argument. Many of them now speculated that these documents were late second century documents that wouldn't be written for another 100 plus years. This position became central to the mythicist case. It was canonical you could say. "Do you really expect us mythicists in the year 83 A.D. to accept these 2nd century documents that won't even be written for about another 100 years as evidence? What do you take us for? Idiots?" That quickly became their standard response.

Mythicism from 96 to 2000+ A.D.

Nothing has changed and Jesus is now sitting in heaven laughing in heaven at the sight of this nonsense.

Hollywood: Tearing Down the Idols of the Entertainment Industry (Russian language video documentary)

In 1999 and 2000, I spent several weeks working with the staff of LOZA-TV, the first Christian video ministry in Russia. I proposed that their first video should be a critique of the many videos coming from the west into Russia. Hollywood: Tearing Down the Idols of the Entertainment Industry is an examination of the American entertainment industry, particularly the western films that are immensely popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Few Americans realize the influence of our art, music and film on Russian culture. To many Russians, American freedom means nothing more than financial affluence coupled with sexual promiscuity, drug use, and criminal activity. This is exactly what they see portrayed on American television shows such as Beverly Hills 90120, Santa Barbara, and Dynasty. This is what they see in music videos and a myriad of films. Many Russians believe that this is an accurate portrayal of the American lifestyle. Yet freedom comes self-control and a responsibility born from a strong faith in God.

Hollywood was produced in Vladimir, Russian in the summer of 2000, and later won “Best Documentary” at the Christian Broadcasters Awards in Moscow. The pastor of Loza Church and Ministries, Victor Victorov, narrates a script that has been translated and adapted from Reel to Real’s Hollywood series written by Eric Holmberg. I’ve included the entire video here with the script that was translated from English into Russian.

You can view the video series with the entire script in English at my website:

http://forerunner.com/predvestnik/hollywood.html

© Video cover artwork is by Erik Hollander and was used by permission.

R.J. Rushdoony's Influence and Legacy

I'll tell you a funny story.

About 14 years ago, I was driven about an hour outside of San Juan, Costa Rica up into the mountains by a missionary friend of mine to speak to a church group of college students.

When I got there I met a guy who happened to be visiting the church. His name was Oscar and he was a young pastor from Nicaragua, which was still communistic at that time.

I told him I was from Florida and he asked me, "I know two pastors, Joseph McAuliffe and Colonel Donor, and they are from Florida. Do you know them?"

I told him that as a matter of fact I had just been at one of several "Florida Reconstructionist Society" conferences we held in the 1990s and they were two of the speakers along with Rushdoony.

(The DVD, God's Law and Society, came about because of the video interviews we did at those conferences.)

Oscar told me he had been reading a book called Law & Liberty by Rushdoony. It was all about neo-platonism's destructive influence and it was challenging his worldview.

I reached into a black leather bag I used to carry with me and guess which book I pulled out?

“Do you mean this one?” I asked.

And then I thought: "Wow, what are the chances of that?"

True story.

In the mountains of Costa Rica no less.

This was probably the only person within miles who had ever heard of Rushdoony. Was it a random coincidence or a divine appointment? You tell me.

A few years after this time, I stated to hear some of the well-known leaders of the Christian Reconstructionist movement publicly say that the movement was "dead." I disagree. I am now discovering more seminary students in their 20s than ever before who are influenced by Christian Reconstructionist thought. We are on the front slope of a tidal wave that will be felt in full force in the next ten to twenty years.

EXPELLED: Loved by viewers, hated by critics

I was looking at Yahoo user reviews of the movie Expelled. One wrote:

As an observer, I have never seen so many extremes in reviews. Virtually either an "A" or an "F". No middle ground. This makes me really want to see this movie. Especially the F reactions are so extreme and closed minded that Stein must really punch their button. I gotta see this baby !!!

It's amazing that so many reviews here run in one or two directions. The ability to make a certain segment either hate or love a film is a sign of a good film. It just reveals the worldview that you are coming from -- if you hate it, it is because it exposes your worldview in a negative light, not because it's a bad film.

Below is a clip from one of the most powerful and controversial parts of the film.



Now here is atheist Richard Dawkins responding to the one of the film's premises that social Darwinism was at the heart of Nazi eugenics and the Holocaust.

.. natural selection is a good object lesson in how NOT to organize a society. As I have often said before, as a scientist I am a passionate Darwinian. But as a citizen and a human being, I want to construct a society which is about as un-Darwinian as we can make it. I approve of looking after the poor (very un-Darwinian). I approve of universal medical care (very un-Darwinian). It is one of the classic philosophical fallacies to derive an 'ought' from an 'is.' -- Richard Dawkins

Note that Dawkins doesn't deny that Hitler's attempt to breed a "master race" isn't logically derived from Darwinism. He simply says that we must not be Darwinists in this one instance. He doesn't explain how his rejection of Darwinism based on ethics is any different from the criticism of Darwinism by Christians who reject the idea of evolution as a random process without a Designer. At least the Christians are logically consistent.

A Documentary Film Record - EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED on 1000 screens today!

The movie EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED opens today in the USA.

I saw a preview screening of it and it's excellent. It is opening on a limited release of 1000 screens around the country. For a documentary, that's a record. It even beats Algore's and Michael Moore's films for the largest weekend opening. Christians who believe in the inerrancy of scripture are duty bound to support it by buying up a lot of theater tickets to ensure it gets a wider screening and a longer run.

I suggest that you make an outing of it and invite your friends this weekend. You can go to http://www.expelledthemovie.com/ to see where it is playing at a theater near you.

You can also watch a clip from Expelled here.

For the past few months, I've been doing a Tuesday night Internet radio show with a few friends on http://christianhillbilly.com/. If you want to come on and discuss controversial issues, it is a fun and profitable way to spend an hour. You just need a Skype account, which takes about two minutes to set up at http://skype.com/. Last Tuesday, we discussed Ben Stein's EXPELLED, showed a few clips, and answered questions and objections. The chat room was packed and we had more listeners than since I started with this.

Or if you'd just like to listen in next Tuesday, the show What Do You Believe? is from 9 to 10 pm EDT.

- Jay Rogers

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RANDOM AFTER THOUGHT: I sent the above email out to a few dozen friends and a couple of them took exception because I wrote that "Christians are duty bound" to see this movie. I suppose I could be accused of hyperbole, but I have always believed Christians are duty bound to support the arts. Back before the separation of church and state, in Christian countries, the church got tithe money directly from taxes collected by the state to support the sicences, the arts, missions, education, hospitals, ophanages, and so on. Now the Catholic Church still supports these things in Catholic countries. The state doles out money to the church's heirarchy who then support the church run institutions.

I don't think the state should be involved in any type of Christian welfare because as they say, "He who pays the piper calls the tune." It's also sinful and tyrannical to force taxpayers to support socialized programs they disagree with -- which is exactly what leftists force us to do today through liberal programs even though "separation of church and state" is their mantra.

Rather this responsility rests solely with churches and Christian individuals. One of the reasons why we are losing our Christian culture in Protestant countries is that the church's view has become that the civil government needs to support these institutions directly. The church does nothing but build the church. Therefore, entertainment, education, the arts and virtually every institution that shapes the hearts and minds of men is given over to crass humanism. But don't let me get up on my soapbox about this. Yes, you are duty bound to support the arts when there is a lone film in a vast sea of filth and anti-Christian degradation that seeks to uphold the truth.

EXPELLED is such a movie.

Christian ethics taught in Ukraine's public schools

I've used here the higher quality embedded video from Current TV. If you haven't see Current, it's a cable TV channel that uses mainly viewer created content -- short pieces about almost everything. The way it works is that people upload their videos and viewers can "green light" the video if they think it should be shown on TV. If a video gets enough green lights it gets shown on the cable channel. This would be a great promotion for this vital ministry to Christian teachers in the public schools of Ukraine. The link is here. You will have register a user name and password to vote, but it won't take more than a minute.
___________________________

For the first time in 90 years, Ukrainian students have the option of studying Christian ethics in the public schools. Christian ethics for the school curriculum was an initiative proposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko shortly after the Orange Revolution in 2005.

The program calls for voluntary participation and is supported by the leaders of Ukraine's largest Christian denominations. One Baptist church association, "Hope to People" of Rivne, Ukraine, sponsors teacher training at several fellowship camps throughout the year.

In the summer of 2007, I attended one of these fellowship camps for teachers of Christian ethics as a public high school teacher from the USA. The camp was held at the Vodogray resort in the beautiful Carpathian Mountain region of western Ukraine.

I asked the principal of a school in Kharkov: "Why is the culture and attitude toward religion of eastern and western Ukraine so different?"

"It's not the same, eastern Ukraine and western Ukraine, because the western part of Ukraine was added to the Soviet Union later on, about 20 years. And this is why they could keep their national culture and national language as well. They resisted the communists who pressured them so that people here might speak Russian only. The Ukrainian language was forbidden as a language at school and even as a language of common fellowship."

If you are interested in more information about the teachers camps or getting involved in missions to Ukraine in general, please email me.

Mission to Ukraine 7/23/2007 - The Flight Home

At the airport, Alexei wanted to take a picture of both of us because he guessed we might never see each other again. I had said I probably wouldn’t come back to Ukraine next year or maybe for a few years. But I am determined to go back again sooner than that even if it is for a shorter time.

My Flight Itinerary

Kiev to JFK/NYC – Flight #89 – 11 am to 2:25 pm EST
JFK to Tampa – Flight #1277 – 4 pm to 7:05 pm

I got to Tampa on time even though the second flight was delayed. It was great to see my wife and be home again!

Mission to Ukraine 7/22/2007 - Last Day in Kiev

I slept very late and then we ate blini (Ukrainian pancakes) with black currant jam from berries grown in the garden. I walked out into the garden and admired the job I did last week in the vineyard rows. The grapes looked nice without the weeds. In the afternoon, we swam in a side channel of the Dnieper, which is near the house. We packed up about 100 more Creeds books and had a supper at Maxim’s house with Nadia and Oksanna.

Later I slept again or tried to while the rest went swimming again for about an hour. We ended up making it back to the flat by 11 pm. On the way we saw a lot of drunk people walking along the sides of the road. Many Ukrainians just drink all weekend long. There is really nothing else to do in the villages, I guess.

As I write the last chapter it is 1:40 am. I have to get up at 7 am to get to the airport by 9 am.

Mission to Ukraine 7/21/2007- Kreshatik, Kiev

Vita wanted to go to the new mall in the afternoon so we drove to Kreshatik and I spent some hours in this new mall. I bought a matryoshka doll for my wife and a few other gifts. When we got back to the flat very late, Alexei surprised me by saying that we were going to the Dacha at 12 am. Here you can see some video of people out in Independence Square on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

At about 1:30 am I was looking at the Milky Way, which is something I don’t see in Kissimmee because of the night glare. I stayed awake a long time looking at the bright stars and I saw a satellite. I was listening to silence. You don’t often hear silence at night anywhere, but this was an exception. I suppose that if I had a few hours of this type of silence that all the noise inside my head might drain slowly away. It’s strange to hear nothing. If you listen hard enough you hear a noise that’s not there. It’s just the blood pressure inside your head – a vague low hum. Rarely can I ever hear silence.

Mission to Ukraine 7/20/2007- World War Two Memorial, Kiev

Here is the second part of 7/20/2007 excursion in Kiev. This is the World War Two Memorial, but in the former USSR they call it the “Great Patriotic War.” The statue of mother Russia is actually taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Mission to Ukraine 7/20/2007 - Monastery of the Caves

I mailed two boxes of Why Creeds and Confessions? books – 80 copies – to Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk. I was excited that I was able to use the post office for the first time. I knew only how to say, “I want boxes,” and “How much is it?” But I was successful. It cost only $5 to mail a big box of 40 books and the boxes were $1 a piece. So some things here are still a bargain.

I also went into the city again one more time to shoot some video. I walked to the Monastery of the Caves and the WWII Memorial, places I’ve visited about eight or nine times before – but I wanted to get good digital video. I still think this excursion is one of the most beautiful places to take a walk in the many cities of the former Soviet Union I have visited.

I love the iconography and architecture of the Orthodox Church. Of course, I don’t pray to images, but it’s amazing that everywhere in the former Soviet Union there are churches. To see a nation that suffered 70 years of atheistic communism that is so rich in Christian symbolism everywhere you turn is a reminder that the glory of God fills the earth.

I liked especially one icon you can see clearly at about 7:10. It is a painting of John the Baptist. It says Sv. Ivan Predtecha (St. John the Forerunner). I was born on the feast day of John the Baptist, June 24th, and my mother actually named me after John the Baptist. I found out about this a few years after I started with The Forerunner. So I like the identification with John, the "burning and shining light" (John 5:35) and I’ve always enjoyed this icon. When we first named the Russian Forerunner, it was called Predtecha (“Forerunner”) – but we renamed it Predvestnik (“Foreteller”) – because it is a more contemporary word in Russian.

Mission to Ukraine 7/19/2007

I felt well enough by evening to take a trip with Alexei and Vita to Gydro-Park. Vita went swimming at about 11 pm. I did not. I love the Dnieper River in the summer time, but I didn’t feel well enough to experience it this time.

You can see some long distance close-up shots of the beaches along the Dnieper in the next video. Some of the beaches are actually very nice especially if you can get away from the places that are packed with people.

Mission to Ukraine 7/18/2007 - Kiev

The next day I was really sick. Since I live in Florida, which is extremely humid in the summer, I don’t notice 85 to 90 degree dry heat as much as I should. We have many 80-degree days in January and February here. But I had become so dehydrated that I couldn’t seem to get enough water to slack my thirst. Since it was the hottest week in Kiev so far that summer, I had tried to get cool by sleeping without my shirt. I woke up at 3 am shivering and had to get dressed into warmer clothing and get under the blankets. Still I couldn’t stop shivering. I woke up in the morning with a fever. We took my temperature. It was 103 degrees, or some equivalent in centigrade, which Alexei said was “impossible.” It was kind of scary for a while.

I slept most of the day and all of the next night. I woke up for a few hours in the evening and could feel my fever starting to break. I was sweating, but I felt better. I had really pushed myself by going two days without sleep when I first arrived. I had gone on excursions almost every day and ate everything. So it’s not surprising I finally got so sick.

Mission to Ukraine 7/17/2007 - St Andrivsky’s Cathedral, Kiev

I walked down Andrivsky’s street. I had never been inside the old cathedral before, so I bought a ticket and went in. My church in Sanford, Florida is St. Andrew’s Chapel, so the connection is interesting. According to legend, the Apostle Andrew preached to the Scythians in this region. Supposedly, he stood on this hill and prophesied that a great city would be built on that spot.

I bought some Ukrainian folk souvenirs for my wife, which we have in our kitchen now. I ate at McDonalds and found the value meal cost about five dollars, which is about the same in the United States. Still it was packed with people.

Mission to Ukraine 7/17/2007 - St Sophia's Cathedral

This was my big day in Kiev. I wanted to take a lot of video with my digital camera. Although I have similar analog video from 1991, 1997 and 2000, it’s not the same quality. You can see some of these on the Predvestnik web page.

I took the metro to Kreshatik and switched stations – went two stops north – when I came out of the underground, I was lost. It turned out that I was not far from where I wanted to be, but I took a roundabout way of getting there. My idea was that I should find the Dneiper River by walking due east and then walk south along the river until I found McDonald’s. This took about an hour. I finally found the tramline that goes up a steep hill to St. Sophia’s square.

I walked around Sophia’s monastery and climbed the bell tower. I took video from the top and figured out the route I’d have to take to get to Andrivsky’s street. There is a huge Hyatt with a glass front in that old square now – horrible! I was thirsty all day, but waited for a few hours to until I found a place to buy water. This turned out to be a big mistake. I had suffered some dehydration and I paid for it later on.

Mission to Ukraine 7/16/2007 - Kiev

On Monday, I decided to take it easy again. I read a book and slept. At night, we went grocery shopping and saw some of the new stores in Alexei’s neighborhood. Kiev now has “Epicenter K” stores, which are similar to our Home Depot. The warehouse size store even has the same orange motif. It’s amazing to see things like that compared to the communist run economy they had in the summer of 1991. That would have made interesting video, but Alexei was starting to wonder why I needed to take video of everything we did.

Mission to Ukraine 7/15/2007 - Independence Square and Kreshatik in Downtown Kiev

The next day, I got up late and worked in the “vineyard” for several hours. This is just a small plot that consists of two rows of grapes. I learned how to use a scythe to cut grass. We cleared all the weeds away from around the grapes and ate lots of cherries and other fruits in the garden. I made just a few video clips of the grapes vines after they had all the weeds cleared away and a couple new fruit trees that Alexei planted. This clip is part of the video for the previous entry on 7/14/07, but it was taken on 7/15/07.

At night I met with Roman Medvid, another former editor of Predvestnik at about 9 pm at Kreshatik in the center of Kiev. We ate sushi in the new mall, drank Jamaican Blue Mountain espresso, and talked about my “Life Without Crime” series. Roman drove me back to Alexei’s flat, but I got us lost twice. Every apartment building and street from the Soviet era looks about the same to me. We had to wake Alexei to come out to the street to find us. It turned out that we were at the right intersection, but I got my sense of direction turned around 90 degrees. In any case, it was the first time in over seven years that Alexei and Roman had seen each other – an odd but good enough excuse.

Mission to Ukraine 7/14/2007 - Kiev

I stayed at the flat of Slavik in Rivne overnight and took a morning train to Kiev. It was a four-hour ride and cost only $10. The total cost of my time in Ukraine was only about $600, which included transportation to Mukacheve and a day trip to Lviv. It is much more expensive than in 1991, of course, when I spent less than $100 in four weeks, but it was still a great bargain.

I arrived in Kiev and met Alexei Salapatov at the main train station where the van lets off. There was a new Orthodox Church on one side of the train station. I saw the odd sight of an Orthodox priest blessing a new automobile with holy water. When we got to the downtown area of Kiev, we took a quick tour of the city by car. There are lots of modern changes since I was there seven years ago. Some have essentially ruined the historic character of some parts, but other areas have been restored beautifully. We drove to Alexei’s flat and then drove out to a village where Alexei and his wife Vita have a dacha (country house).

I spoke to a guy named Maxim for a few hours while Alexei made shashleek. Maxim has a house next door and is a computer technician who speaks very good English. The highlight of the barbeque was when Alexei’s hand held grill broke and he dropped most of the meat into the dirt.

The Salapatov dacha is a 2,000 plus square foot two-story structure still under construction upstairs. It is three times the size of their flat and they spend most weekends there especially in the summer. We stayed up late talking to Maxim and his wife Nadia and her sister Oksanna until about 1:30 am. I understood almost nothing being said, but it was fun.

Mission to Ukraine 7/13/2007 - Evening Service in Rivne

We drove all the way back to Rivne in Roma’s father's Lada. It was the same route I had been on before coming from Mukacheve and I started to recognize some towns. It was a good trip.

I went back to Hope to People and met Slavik who is the director of the Bible Seminary. He told me that in the early 1990s there were very few books for seminary students and a high interest in ministerial training. Now with a little economic prosperity, there are many more books each year and waning interest. I left him with a few copies of my book and all of the DVDs I produced with Eric Holmberg, including the rough version of The Real Jesus. Since that time, we have sent them about 100 copies of Why Creeds and Confessions? From what I understand, it is well received.

There was also a Thursday night church service going on in one of the sanctuary rooms of the Hope to People center. The service was or some of the students who had just returned from a youth camp. They were sharing testimonies about what God had done among them at the camp. Here you will see part of the worship service and communion.

Mission to Ukraine 7/13/2007 - Second Day in Lviv

I slept in a dormitory that is in the Baptist church building that night in a room with it’s own shower. It was my first night in two weeks sleeping in a place with complete privacy so I enjoyed that. The next day, we spent the whole time seeing the old part of the city and the highlights were climbing the “High Castle,” which is actually the highest hill in the city that used to have a fortification in the time of the Turkic invasions. There is no castle there anymore. Roma’s brother told me a funny story about how the mayor of Lviv wanted to spend millions of dollars to restore the old castle as a monument.

The plan was put down by legislators who were pressured by people who pointed out, “There are still people in Lviv without electricity and running water and they wasn’t to rebuild an old castle? What for?”

I thought about it for a few seconds, “Maybe just in case the Turks invade again?”

We also toured the center of the city and climbed the “Bell Tower” the highest building in the city. Climbing all those stairs was a good work out. We ate in a western style cafeteria that had good food and flat screen televisions everywhere showing Russia’s version of MTV.

Mission to Ukraine 7/12/2007 - Two Church Services in Lviv

While we were in the downtown area of Lviv, we went into an Orthodox Church where there was a wedding going on. I later found out that many of these churches are actually Eastern Rite Catholic from the time of Polish control of the area, but I don’t know which ones. To me they are indistinguishable.

We went to a church service at night at their Baptist church. The church building was converted from a Lutheran church after the Soviet Union absorbed western Ukraine. Two Chinese-American pastors from Lexington, Kentucky spoke. One was asked to give a report about the Church in China even though he said his perspective was that of a Chinese-American.

The other pastor told the people that the world is getting worse and worse, Jesus is coming soon, we have a mansion in heaven, and so on. Of course, everyone said “Amen!” But I say, “Bah!" See my articles on postmillennial eschatology if you want to understand why I don’t receive pessimistic teaching about the progress of the Gospel in the world.

In any case, they were precious Christian preachers who were traveling in Ukraine preaching in Baptist churches.

Mission to Ukraine 7/12/2007 - Trip to Lviv

I was able to arrange a rip to Lviv, a city in northwestern Ukraine on the Polish border. I had heard a lot about the city and had always wanted to visit there. We left on a morning train and it rained all morning. Finally, when we arrived in Lviv, it stopped raining. I met the father, brother and grandmother of Roma. The grandmother is a Baptist from the time of communist rule. I have always been fascinated by Christians who saw times of persecution in the old Soviet Union.

She served us lunch and then she grilled me on Presbyterian doctrine for a few minutes. She was the typical brash Ukrainian, but I like these conversations. I gave her a copy of my Why Creeds and Confessions? book and later I found out she really liked it. She received about 50 copies for distribution in her church. The family told me that if she liked my book then it is a big compliment because she's really tough.

We drove into the center of Lviv in an old but well preserved Lada and had a tour of the downtown area. This is the longest video so far, but it has lots of good stuff. Toward the end there are some flash camera stills in old cathedrals where there wasn't enough light for video.

Mission to Ukraine 7/11/2007 - Hope to People Ministry in Rivne

My cold is still raging, but I went into the office early we had a prayer meeting and a staff meeting. I talked to the Hope to People sports director – also named Sasha. (That’s four Sashas to remember now!) He told me about the soccer camps and the need for American Christian kids to come over and spend time with the Ukrainian young people. They had made a

I went with Alyona into the center to get some medicine and we ate some nice cakes. In the afternoon, I was able to talk to Nadia, the mother of Roman, for over an hour about the magazine for teachers. I was able to encourage her a lot by just explaining about my own problems publishing in Ukraine and how we overcame them.

Her story is a lot like Predvestnik in a way – hard work and frustration in the beginning, but the job will get easier.

You’ll see at the end of the video, the Hope to People Center and their bookstore. As someone who was involved in publishing in the Soviet Union in 1991, it’s amazing for me to see the number of books there are now available. I am excited to see classics such as the works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon in addition to the usual contemporary titles.

Mission to Ukraine 7/10/2007 - Hope to People Ministry in Rivne

I woke up with my nose stuffed up. I felt really exhausted. I decided to spend the morning sleeping and reading. I had not really had a day of rest on the whole trip. In the afternoon, we got a ride to Misha’s house and had lunch – mostly vegetables grown in their garden. We talked about Hope to People and what I could do for them.

Basically, they are looking for relationships with Americans who will devote their time to helping with their outreaches. Hopefully, these blog entries will serve to explain to missions minded Christians the great opportunity that is there. You can contact me for more details.

I heard about at least 20 ministries related to Hope to People including three churches, an orphanage, various summer youth camps, a Christian ethics department and the ministry to Christian teachers in the public schools which includes a new magazine. They asked me to write one article base on my experiences as an American at the youth camp. That article I published on my blog last August, “Teaching Christian Ethics in the Public Schools of Ukraine.”

We then went back to the Hope to People center and I spent some time in Alyona’s office checking 10 days of email until we both got a ride home from John Whittemore. I read and wrote some more in my journal and went to sleep early. I spent some more time in the Word today and I felt better.

Again, I didn't take any video, but here is a biography of Pastor Misha Dubovik.

Mikhail Dubovik was born in 1967 in Ukraine (Kharkov). He was brought up in a Christian family. Mikhail has been a member of Evangelical church since 1982. In 1992, he graduated from the missionary department of the Donetsk Bible College, after which he was a missionary in Elista, Kalmykiya, for two years. He was head of the missionary department of the "Hope o People" ministry since 1995 and since 2000 he has been a director of the mission. M. Dubovik is a missionary pastor of the church "Community if Good Shepherd, Rovno. He graduated from the Ukrainian Bible Seminary, master of theology. Mikhail has a wife Inna and three children.

Mission to Ukraine 7/9/2007 - Hope To People ministry in Rivne

Monday was my busiest day in Rivne. Unfortunately, this was the only day I decided to leave my video camera behind. We walked a few blocks from Sasha’s flat to the Hope to People center. I toured the facility with Sasha and then had lunch with his brother Misha, who is a pastor of another church, and Olyona our interpreter. Three churches working together in various outreaches run Hope to People. The center is a huge Soviet era three-story building with three wings. Most of it is gutted and they are slowly working on renovating all of it. They have added a new wing that is going to serve as a larger sanctuary. About 20 ministries, including three church sanctuaries and a Bible Seminary are housed there.

We then drove out to see John Whittemore at the house of Sasha (my roommate at the camp and a church administrator). He runs an orphanage out of their house. He has a beautiful garden surrounding all sides of the house and the boys who live at the orphanage have done most of the work on the house. They did a beautiful job on the house with lots of nice tile and plaster work. He brought me into to a cellar where they had hundreds of cans of pickles. I asked him if they would ever eat them all and he said that in just one church summer youth camp they ate this many.

Then we went to see another building project in a village on the outskirts of Rivne. They had bought an old Soviet-era insane asylum campus and are planning on turning it into a youth camp. There were lots of cherry trees on the land and there was a large fellowship hall that is being restored. Misha was saying that American missionaries come over in the summer and work on the buildings.

Then we went to see one of the sister churches of Hope to People. They had a three-story building project going in one of the districts of the region. This was a church with a lot of young people. This pastor – also named Sasha – impressed me the most. He was the one who was most outspoken about being an ardent Calvinist. We went to his home group at his flat. This was the typical Ukrainian home church with people crammed into a small living room with a table in the middle for snacks and tea afterward. I gave my testimony again and answered questions for about an hour. Some of the members of this church have been together since the early 1990s. This went until about 10 pm.

I don't have video of this day, but here is some information about Pastor Taras Prystupa.

Taras Pristupa was born in 1959 in Ukraine (Zdolbitsa, Rovno region). He was brought up in a Christian family. Taras has been a member of the evangelical church since 1976. In 1992, he was ordained for pastoral ministry. Today, he is pastor of the church "Community of Good Shepherd," Rivne, and a chairman of the board of directors of the International Public Charitable Christian Organization "Hope to People." He graduated from the Ukrainian Bible Seminary, master of theology. Taras has a wife Nadezhda and six children.

Mission to Ukraine 7/8/2007 - The Road to Rivne

By Sunday, I had reached the peak of my cold and to make matters worse we had a nine-hour bus ride in the heat – with no open windows due to Ukrainian superstitions about drafts – all the way to Rivne.

Some parts of the bus ride were fun though. We stopped at one spot in the mountains that was beautiful. I talked with Anna because she was one of the only teachers who could speak English. We also stopped in a big farmer’s field and had a picnic lunch.

I arrived at Sasha’s house at about 10 or 11 pm. Sasha is one of the youth workers in the Hope to People ministry center in Rivne. I played a little bit with their young daughter who apparently loves having visitors. We had supper and went to bed.

Mission to Ukraine 7/7/2007 - Vodogray Resort

07.07.07! -- On Saturday morning the team from Memphis left. There are a group of five women who have come to a Ukrainian Christian summer camp a least once a year for the past five years. One of the women, Marilyn, has a husband named John Whittemore who works in Ukraine just about full-time as a missionary.

I took a walk up into the mountains and saw the waterfall that the Vodogray Resort is named for. The English equivalent is something like “croaking water.” I like these shots a lot because I will be able to use them for backgrounds for text graphics in future productions. I already used one shot of the Carpathian Mountains in The Real Jesus DVD.

Later we went to the pool again. I read some literature on this that said in effect: “One of the wonders of Beregovo region is thermal mineral springs which have curative properties and can cure 86 known diseases.” Then it went on to list the diseases and I could recognize most of them in Ukrainian because of the Latin cognates. This time I swam ten laps and soaked in as much of the salt and minerals as I could. Unfortunately, it didn’t cure my cold.

Between laps, I sat on the top of the ropes and I talked to Olga and Oksanna again. They know about as much English as I know Russian, so we taught each other languages in the pool for about an hour. I’ll always remember that. It was hilarious and I hadn’t smiled and laughed like that in a long time.

That night I was completely knocked out. I slept for an hour or two and could not wake up. I heard the campers laughing at a slide show from the week – really crazy laughter. Finally, they woke me up to go downstairs and I got a ceramic medallion from the teachers from Kharkov. It has a relief of the castle in Mukacheve on the front and, “To John from the people of Kharkov – 07.07.07”– written in Ukrainian on the back. I am looking at it hanging from a bookshelf in my office as I type this.

Mission to Ukraine 7/6/2007 - Evening Service

Before the evening service, I passed out about 110 copies of my Creeds book and signed about half of them. You can see the remaining stack on the table at 3:30.

I thought it was very funny being asked to sign the book, but that is a custom with foreign missionaries when they visit churches there. They treat us like celebrities. I had 25 minutes to talk about my work with Christian Youth International and Predvestnik in the 1990s. Then I shared an outline of the first few chapters of my book on the names and attributes of God and worldviews. I applied this to the Apostle Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 in which he outlines the basic worldview of Christianity.

A lot of people were happy with the book. One history teacher told me that he really liked it because it outlines 1500 years of church doctrine and history in just 200 pages. I hope the people who got my autograph will read the book.

Mission to Ukraine 7/6/2007 - Mukacheve Castle

We ate lunch at this outdoor barbeque restaurant in Uzhgorod that had all these funny signs and odd decorations. Here Elena offers her opinion on Ukrainian rap music.

On the way back from Uzhgorod, we stopped at another castle in Mukacheve that is on top of a high hill in the center of the city. There we had a tour of the museum inside and heard about the history of the castle and the Carpathian region. At about this time, I started with my sore throat.

Mission to Ukraine 7/6/2007 - Uzhgorod

On Friday, we had our morning service and we went on a bus ride to Uzhgorod. This is a city on the border of Slovakia about an hour northwest of Mukacheve.

On this trip, I got to talk more to Anna. In one of our conversations, she talked about how her family owns a small potato farm and how hard it is to dig potatoes. You can see that about 90 percent of the teachers in the camp were women. That’s a higher percentage than the typical school in America. Part of that imbalance is due to the income level. You can make a living in Florida as a teacher at about the average income level, but in Ukraine it is less than that.

In Uzhgorod, we went to a botanical garden an outdoor village museum. Part of the time I hung out with Oksanna and Olga again. They are the two who are reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Ukrainian. The village museum is kind of a restored community showing lots of village building styles from the last 200 years.

Mission to Ukraine 7/5/2007 - Carpathian Mountains

The next day, we had our morning meeting and I met a man from Ivano-Frankivsk named Dmitri who is a former deputy major and now leads a Reformed ministry and church in the downtown area. They are evangelists who are concerned with reaching out and treating children who are born with AIDS. Dmitri was holding a conference for people who worked with AIDS victims at the same camp. Their website is www.solidarnist.com.ua. I also talked to a Missionary from a Christian Reformed Church who is working with the Hungarian Reformed churches in Mukacheve.

We then got on a bus and headed off on a three-hour trip to a mountain with a spring fed lake at the top. It was raining and I walked about quarter of a mile up a steep incline in the rain. Then it started to pour when I reached the top. On the way down, I ran into one of the teachers, Anna, who is from Rivne. I found out she is married to a policeman. She was nice enough to let me share an umbrella with her. We had a good conversation about what it is like to teach in America and Ukraine. We had potatoes, bread, sausage and tea in a café at the bottom of the mountain. I got soaked and few days later came down with a cold.

At night, I saw Dmitri again and he attended the service. Pastor Taras spoke on Acts 17 (Paul's Sermon on Mars Hill) and Exodus 20 (Ten Commandments). The theme was how to preach the Gospel to people of pagan backgrounds.

Mission to Ukraine 7/4/2007 - Beregovo

In the afternoon, we went to see a museum in the nearby town of Beregovo, but it was closed. So we wandered around the center for about an hour. This was the Hungarian district and had a lot of old building with plaques in Hungarian and other languages. This part of Ukraine was originally part of Hungary and then Poland. We talked to a few natives who spoke some Hungarian for us.

I talked to Elena the whole time and another interpreter (whose name I forget now) and an English teacher named Anna. Elena is from Izmail, a city on the border of Romania and is a member of a Presbyterian church. She knew Mykola Faryga before he came to the United States. Mykola was a member of my church in Orlando – a protégé of R.C. Sproul, who is now in Kolomyia, a city in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine, getting all of Sproul’s books and many Reformed classics into the Russian and Ukrainian languages.

While waiting for the bus, I took a video of some Gypsy boys who were begging on the streets. Gypsies can be dangerous, but Elena wanted to give them some dried apricots to eat instead of cash.

We had a night service and I had my first full night of sleep in four days.

Mission to Ukraine 7/4/2007 - Morning service

In the morning, we had the Bruce Wilkinson teaching video series – a series on teaching from a Christian perspective dubbed into Ukrainian. Honestly, I only found it tolerable. I say this because most of my summers for the past seven years have been spent in similar seminars for teachers. It was good information on teaching from a Christian perspective and I am sure that the Ukrainian teachers benefited from it. But it just seemed a waste of a few hours in the morning to have to watch a video in a seminar that I could get in the United States.

Before lunch there were discussion groups in which we were supposed to pick up on one of the seminar topics. I was asked to lead one of the groups.

I spoke on Hebrews 10:24,25: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

I said that “the Day” is meant to mean the final judgment, but in the context of the passage it contains a possible allusion to the destruction of the Temple. (Hebrews is written on the occasion when Jewish Christians in Jerusalem wanted to abandon their fellowship in the face of persecution and go back to worshiping through Temple sacrifices.) I said that it is possible for an entire Christian civilization to be destroyed and replaced by a pagan culture. I explained about the social revolution that took place in America once prayer and Bible reading was banned from public schools in 1962.

We discussed how ironic it was that President Yuschenko mandated in 2006 that Christian ethics classes be taught in the public schools in Ukraine – and that we are here in a conference of over 100 public school teachers who are bringing a Gospel witness into the public schools.

It reminded me of how in 1991 I stood in the office of the largest printing house in Ukraine, while Alexei Salapatov talked to the director about how we could print our Christian newspaper, Predvestnik, all the while a larger than life painting of Lenin glared down at me from behind the director’s desk. The painting had Lenin standing at a desk with papers clenched in one hand and the other leaning on the desk with more paper, and ink well and a quill pen.

All during the conversation between Alexei and the director, I understood nothing, but saw only Lenin glaring down at me in absolute anger and defiance at the fact that we were proposing to print a Christian newspaper on his state owned printing press. Later I was surprised to find out that the director helped Alexei to print Predvestnik and even gave him preferential treatment.

As I was sharing some of these things, I had totally forgotten that it was Independence Day in the United States.

Mission to Ukraine 7/3/2007 - Mukacheve

We arrived at the Vodogray resort at about 7:30 am and no one at the camp was up and about yet. We had bread and sausage for breakfast with some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers – the typical Ukrainian breakfast. So in all this was about 36 hours of travel with almost no sleep. After my breakfast I was shown to my room that was shared with Sasha who is one on the Hope to People administrators. Sasha has a great heart for people and is always full of joy.

I have to also interject here that all my previous missions trips have been with charismatic churches and ministries. I don’t see any difference in one group being more “spirit-filled” than the other. Hope to People is a Reformed Baptist ministry, but after spending two weeks with these people, I see that they are no less full of the spirit than Pentecostals and Charismatics in Ukraine. The myth that there are two kinds of Christians – spirit-filled and non-spirit-filled – is nonsense both from a biblical and practical viewpoint.

I also find it strange that since I haven’t been to Ukraine since 2000, I am picking up this travel diary for the first time in the last seven years. I am looking at most of what I wrote from 1997 onward. It is nonsense. It was focused on how much money we needed to continue the mission and many ambitious plans that never came to pass. Part of the reason is that it was not focused on the Almighty God and what He can do. The lesson learned is to focus more on the “now” that God has given and this exciting adventure called the Great Commission. It isn’t dependent on our finances or plans to complete. I won’t write about how much money I will need to accomplish future plans – I am just happy to serve God with the gift and prophetic message He has given me.

The Vodogray Resort is in the Chynadyevo settlement about half an hour outside of Mukacheve. I took a hot shower for the first time in 36 hours. It felt like I was an animal transformed into a human being. I then slept from about 9 am to 2 pm – very fitfully because Sasha would walk in and out of the room humming a tune. At that point, I hadn’t met him yet, so it was odd to have a stranger in a room where I was trying to sleep. But by 2 pm, I had had enough sleep to wake up and go to lunch.

I ate with Pastor Taras Prystupa and I was really happy to have some hot soup. Taras’ son spoke some English, so we talked. We went on a bus ride to Mukacheve and I had a couple of good conversations with a principal of a Christian school in Kharkov named Sasha who is Taras’ brother-in-law. We talked about the attitude of western Ukraine and how opposed to Soviet rule and speaking Russian they were. He told me that teachers in the time of communism who refused to speak Russian were fired. On the way back, we had a conversation that started with him asking me if I was a Calvinist. That was a memorable conversation. I can still recount most of it, but I won’t do that here.

We arrived at a salt-mineral-hot-spring swimming pool in the afternoon. I later found out that there are only three such springs in the world. Two are in Russia and Ukraine. I talked to Elena from Izmail about teaching in Ukraine. I also met Alyona who works in Hope to People as an interpreter and is a member of a Messianic Fellowship. I went to the pool and swam about six laps. I met Oksanna and Olga in the pool too. They are the young women in the video reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Ukrainian.

In the evening, we had dinner and went to a meeting hall. I was able to give my testimony for about 15 minutes and taught from Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 6:47 – the “Lordship passages.” That night I went to bed at the usual time, but as a consequence of jet lag, I was “up” at 4 pm after only 5 hours of sleep.

Mission to Ukraine 7/2/2007 - The Road to Mukacheve

This is my video log from my trip to Ukraine in the summer of 2007. I shot five hours of video clips in three weeks. My goal was to make a short clip about a Christian teachers conference in Mukacheve from July 1-8, 2007. In the process of doing that, I realized that there are a lot of things about Ukraine and missions work that people who have never been there and done that will never appreciate. Hopefully, this will give people a glimpse into what life is like in Ukraine and what is happening with the “Hope to People” outreach to Christian teachers.

I wrote in a blog entry last summer about the Hope to People teacher’s conference in Mukacheve, a region in the westernmost part of Ukraine in the beautiful foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. The situation is that since the so-called Orange Revolution” the public schools in Ukraine are required to teach ethics classes from a Christian perspective. Many teachers are recruited to teach these classes without having a Christian background themselves. About 100 teachers are invited to come to a one week long camp each summer to connect with other teachers many of whom are evangelical Protestant and traditional Eastern Orthodox believers.



Here is my day-to-day account of what happened on the trip with accompanying video footage. I realize that a lot of this is for my own reflection. I’ve been on 12 short-term missions trips to Russia and Ukraine and have made short video accounts of our missions, which you can see here. But this is the first one done on a more personal and subjective level. I have put just the raw video clips here to illustrate parts of each day and each excursion.

Some of my family have seen these videos of our sight seeing excursions and have asked me, “Was this a missions trip or a vacation?” The format of the camp for teachers was protracted meetings in the morning and evening with teaching workshops and preaching. But the afternoon excursions were the fun part and the most interesting subject for video. In my second two weeks, I wanted to visit some places in Ukraine that I had never seen before. I traveled to Lviv and a few villages outside of Kiev and Rivne. A big part of missionary work is networking with different ministries and developing relationships. I was able to find some good Reformed ministries throughout Ukraine who are helping distribute our books.

What I hope will come out of this is getting more Christian teachers from America to go to Ukraine and take part in these summer camps. If you find any of this interesting or want more information about the camps, you can leave a comment or message me.

My Flight Itinerary – July 1-2, 2007

I used to enjoy these flights a lot more than I do now. They are always hard, but this time the service on Delta wasn’t too good. I prefer European airlines on the flight overseas, but Delta was the cheapest flight this time. I used to get summer flights for around $700-$800 and sometimes as low as $550. Last year European flights were at an all time high. The least expensive flight to Ukraine I could get this time was over $1200.

Here’s the time I spent on jets and in airports:

Departed from Tampa at 12:30 pm, 7/1/07
Departed JFK/NYC: 5 pm, 7/1/07
Departed Amsterdam: 9 am, 7/2/07
Arrived in Kiev at 2:30 pm, 7/2/07

Subtract a seven-hour time change and that is 19 hours of flights and airports! I then waited in the airport for over two hours for my ride to arrive. I met a nice older American who works on airport construction in Ukraine. He showed me how to use my SIMM card cell phone to call my wife in the United States. It’s pretty amazing because in 1991, you were lucky to be able to get a phone call on a landline out of the Soviet Union. Now Ukraine’s cell phone service is everywhere even in remote areas. I later tried it in the mountains and it worked fine.

Just after that my drivers, Roma and Oleg, called to say they’d be late. Right after that Alexei Salapatov, the former editor of the Russian Forerunner, Predvestnik, called to give me the same information. I was really happy the cell phone worked and I didn’t mind having to wait two hours – I’ve actually had worse experiences than that – but I began to get a little impatient after 4 pm. Finally, my drivers arrived at Borispol airport and we drove into Kiev, which is about 45 minutes from the airport.

We met Alexei in Kiev to pick up about 120 copies of my book, Why Creeds and Confessions? which we had printed in the Russian language seven years ago. Part of the plan was to present these at the teacher’s conference and finish distributing the remaining copies. We were finally on the road to Rivne by 6 pm. We needed to stop for gas once and the restroom and, of course, shashleek (shish kabob) on the road. So we got to the Hope to People ministry center by 10:30 pm.

I was asked if I wanted to sleep in Rivne or go directly to Mukacheve, another seven-hour trip, and I decided that since I was already messed up by jet lag another seven hours wouldn’t matter. There would be plenty of time to sleep in the Carpathian Mountains.

Then it took about two hours of waiting and driving around Rivne. We had to take Roma to his house and then Oleg took me to the western district of Rivne where my next driver Vadim lives. Vadim was able to start driving at 12:30 a.m. with his wife Oksanna and son, Tolik, who is about high school age. I was unsure about asking this man to drive all night with no sleep, but he assured me that he was once a professional river and was used to it. We got less than two hours outside of Rivne and Vadim announced that we were 25 percent of the way there. I fell asleep for a few minutes. This was the third time I had had a short sleep in over a day. I had slept for about an hour on the transatlantic flight and for a few minutes on the way to Rivne.

I woke up to see the nice two and four lane highways outside of Rivne had turned into these twisted, half-paved back roads. This shocked me because of the stark contrast. We drove at a slow pace for about three more hours until we came to the south of Lviv.

The last three to four hours of the trip were amazing as we stopped several times in the Carpathian Mountains. I had only coffee and pistachios to eat. The scenery in the mountains in the last two hours was spectacular.

C.S. Lewis on the Liberal Higher Criticism of the Bible

"These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can't see an elephant ten yards away in broad daylight."

C. S. Lewis, "Modern Thought and Biblical Criticism," Christian Reflection, ed. Walter Hooper (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1967), p. 157.

Teaching Christian Ethics in the Public Schools of Ukraine

From July 1st to July 8th, I traveled to Mukacheve in the Trans-Carpathian Mountain region and participated in a “teacher’s camp” put on by Hope to People Ministries of Rivne, Ukraine. Every American knows the Carpathian region, which stretches from Poland to Romania, from the images of Gothic castles that are the backdrop of numerous legends such as Count Dracula. This westernmost area of Ukraine was historically part of Poland and Hungary until it was most recently absorbed into the Soviet Union in the 1940s.

Everyone also knows that prayer and Bible reading has been restricted or banned in American public schools since the early 1960s. I found it ironic that as an American public high school teacher, I was asked to speak to a group of over 90 Ukrainian teachers many of whom teach “Christian Ethics” classes in the public schools of Ukraine. This program was implemented two years ago after the so-called “Orange Revolution.” The new presidential administration of Ukraine now contains a strong evangelical Christian presence. One of its first acts was to take some steps to counteract the negative effects of western materialism among the nation’s young people. The national government decided that Christian ethics classes would be offered in the public schools.

Some school districts in Ukraine are taking steps to see that students are taught biblically based ethics. The program is an elective course and is strictly voluntary. I was told that there is such a demand for these courses that some teachers with no church background are asked to teach the courses.

Not surprisingly, the first studies on the effects of this program have shown a desirable effect in the both the behavior and the academic achievement of the students who have taken these classes. Contrast this with the sharp decline in academic achievement and a rising incidence of numerous social maladies among American young people since the 1960s. In one off our lesson discussions, I had the chance to share on some of the studies that have been done since 1962 when prayer was eliminated from public school that have shown the sharp increase in divorce, single parent families, births to unmarried women, abortion, child abuse, drug abuse, teenage sexual activity, juvenile violent crime, and so on. This is of course coupled with the sharp decline of academic achievement shown in standardized test scores.

I don’t believe that simply the removal of the Bible and prayer from schools was the direct cause of all this, but that these trends were part of a social revolution in America that started at about this time. I said that I see it as a great irony that I was able to talk to teachers in a formerly atheistic country that recognized that moral deterioration was due to the lack of instruction in Christian ethics.

Of the teachers at the camp, about 30 were from evangelical churches. The rest were either Eastern Orthodox or else had no church affiliation at all. However, many of the attendees were superintendents, principals, department heads and leaders in education. Pastor Taras Prystupa began these training camps for teachers and librarians ten years ago. In the beginning most of the attendees were unconverted, yet a relationship has been developed and most of the teachers return each year, for a week of instruction, fun excursions in the afternoons and nightly biblical preaching and teaching.

Some teachers have professed faith in Jesus Christ as result of hearing the word of God preached at these camps. Others have come each year and have developed a relationship with the Christian teachers and have become more open to the Gospel message as a result of this ministry. The focus of the camp is evangelistic in nature.

The following week I traveled to Rivne, which is located in northwestern Ukraine. I spent a few days getting acquainted with the many ministries of Hope to People. In addition to the outreach to teachers, there is also their work with an orphanage, a youth sports ministry, numerous summer camps for youth, a new magazine for Christian teachers, a seminary and Bible school, and some building projects – a future youth camp, a church building and the Hope to People Center – a Soviet era building that is being slowly renovated to house the outreach ministries.

I was told that the main need is for workers and people who will come from abroad on short-term missions trips. Having American Christians stay and work even for short periods of time is a great encouragement to these Christians in a nation where less than one percent of the population is evangelical.

If you have an interest in taking a trip to Ukraine in 2008 to take part in a Christian teachers camp – or if you are interested in working with youth or just seeing what is happening in this vital mission field – you can contact me and I will put you in contact with Hope to People.

Seven Steps to Reforming a Dysfunctional Ministry or Church

I like to focus on my successes, not my failures. Rarely have I written about negative experiences. In my last entry, I defined the “martyr syndrome” as a breakdown in dysfunctional ministry relationships that end with volunteer Christian workers feeling victimized. Wherever there is conflict, there are always two sides that share some of the fault. I’ve always tried to leave relationships on good terms even though there was a fundamental disagreement. A few times I’ve successfully returned to work with the same people I thought were impossible to work with. Don’t burn bridges, that’s my first piece of advice.

I’ve obviously written this for my own benefit as a guide to reform. But maybe this has happened to you or someone you know? I’ve tried to briefly spell out what people can do to avoid the “martyr syndrome” -- that feeling of “victimization” when ministry relationships do not work out.

1. Beware that all people are selfish in some way. Is there a person on the planet that is not selfish? We all share in original sin. No one is exempt from selfish behavior. Most people who are “unselfishly” serving in ministries are actually fulfilling a need for spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Some enjoy the reputation of self-sacrifice. But we should avoid the “martyr complex.” If we blame others every time we willingly sacrifice and yet are taken advantage of or underappreciated, then we have already received our reward. In claiming that all others around us are selfish, we hypocritically exhibit a more extreme form of selfishness. The remedy is to be careful that we not look for our reward from men, but should look to God.

2. Avoid obsessive compulsive behavior. A lot of times the self-proclaimed “experts” are merely those who exhibit obsessive compulsive behavior in one area of expertise. Lots of energy is expended and much gets done in a short time. However, this personality trait almost never stays on track consistently for more than a period of time. The principle of the Kingdom of God is that we must build “little by little” (Exodus 23:30).We must be covenantally faithful with what God entrusted to us over a long period of time (Proverbs 13:11). Then we cannot lose anything if we invest our lives consistently in serving God’s purposes.

3. Avoid unrealistic expectations. A lot of times a ministry project can seem exciting and new to a young volunteer. But be aware that the ones who found and maintain ministries often have to suffer through long periods of what seems to be unfruitful labor before they see any results. Ministries should also be careful not to frustrate and under-appreciate volunteers. Sometimes the encouragement of having some new blood in an organization can lead to a demand for too much from people who aren’t equipped to handle the pressure.

4. Write up a contract of some type. Define the terms of service before any “ministry” work gets done. What is the purpose of the project really? Is it solely to advance the cause of missions? Is it to raise money for a general fund or salaries pertaining to ministry work? Who is in charge of the project? What is the agreement? What happens if the agreement is not followed? Even if there is a written contract, the person in charge will often change the terms when it suits him. In this case, can the worker leave the contract without either side suffering damage? Is there a third party that may arbitrate as a witness if genuine damages occur? These are the main issues to be considered in such a contract.

5. Let God repay you. If we willingly harm other people in our thoughts, acts or words, then God will punish us if we do not repent. I have seen this happen continually in my life. I thank God I am not by nature a vindictive person and God made me somewhat thick-skinned. In every case that I have been wronged, God will always repay me. In any case, we should always seek to reconcile relationships with people we have wronged in any way. At the same time, we need to understand that some people don’t want healing and reconciliation. It’s hard to let that go if you have a heart for God, but sometimes sifting is biblical and necessary.

6. Honor your elders. The people who lead your ministry or church, whether they are ordained or not, likely have more years of experience and wisdom than you do. They are fallible human beings to boot. Yet even when you disagree with them because they are flat out wrong, they still may have something to teach you. Sometimes we even learn by a negative example. Nevertheless, if we persevere in ministry work, God may eventually place us in a position of authority. When that happens God will see to it that people will treat us in the same manner as we treated others.

7. Check your motivation. What are you doing serving a ministry in the first place? Do you want only to please God? Is it for a sense of spiritual fulfillment? Is it to get recognition? Are you there for training purposes so you can benefit in another endeavor later on. If you are looking for a reward, what type of reward do you expect? There is nothing inherently sinful about doing things that will benefit us, but in the end we will get a reward beyond measure if we will only accept what God gives us and be satisfied to do His will.

Is it just me that is dysfunctional or is it my church/ministry?

Let me spell out an all-too-common scenario. A bright young Christian arrives on the scene as a volunteer worker for a small struggling, yet anointed ministry organization. He (or she) gives a few months or a few years of his young life as a “full time worker” and selflessly dedicates his precious time. He sees the ministry make some headway due to his unique set of skills. The founder of the ministry is pleased and gives the young worker a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars to help complete a project. Due to the messy organizational skills of the leader and the lack of a well-defined plan, the project either falls by the wayside or stalls once it is more than half finished. The level of frustration rises on both sides. The young worker realizes that his own financial situation has grown dire due to a growing amount of time spent sacrificially without an adequate salary. He feels he has wasted his precious time and will never see the fruit of his labor. He leaves the ministry he previously admired with a bad taste in his mouth and then slanders the ministry founder to numerous friends and acquaintances.

I’ve seen this scenario -- or something similar to it -- play out a few dozen times in my Christian experience. It is not a syndrome peculiar to a certain type ministry or church denomination. The “martyr syndrome” seems to be everywhere. I would define this as ministry burnout when unrealistic expectations are not met and a “victim” mentality ensues. Here’s a good set of articles from the Emmanuel Research Review that describe this syndrome as being pervasive and makes some good suggestions for reform: “Is it just me that is dysfunctional or is it my church?”

Where does this happen most? Youth ministries that recruit full-time Christian workers that are required to raise their own support are more prone to this than others. The conundrum comes when a worker is responsible for his or her own support, but is nevertheless placed in a situation that demands a high level of commitment. Young Christians have the greatest amount of zeal, but they are also the most naïve. They are therefore prone to spiritual abuse and often place unrealistic expectations on themselves. When things don’t work out exactly as imagined, this is either an opportunity to learn and mature or it can be a pitfall for bitterness as well.

As a high school teacher in a lower income area, I deal young people who come from dysfunctional families all day long. It is not surprising that given the high level of dysfunctionality in our culture that we find this syndrome among young adults who are placed in ministry situations.

Harvard faculty recomends required "Reason and Faith" courses

The full report is available in PDF format at:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Esecfas/Gen_Ed_Prelim_Report.htm

Here is an excerpt:

4. Reason and Faith

Religion is a fact of twenty-first-century life—around the world and right at home. Ninety-four percent of Harvard’s incoming students report that they discuss religion “frequently” or “occasionally,” and seventy-one percent say that they attend religious services. When they get to college, students often struggle—sometimes for the first time in their lives—to sort out the relationship between their own beliefs and practices, the different beliefs and practices of fellow students, and the profoundly secular and intellectual world of the academy itself.

Beyond these private struggles, religion is realpolitik, both nationally and internationally. Wars are fought around the world in the name of religion. Increasingly, policy makers understand that success in international affairs depends on appreciating the role that religion plays in many societies. Here at home, the United States is experiencing a cultural and political tension over religious issues that erupts in debates about the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance, the display of the Ten Commandments on government property, school prayer, and same-sex marriage. Religious beliefs are also shaping vigorous debates concerning issues in science and medicine, such as evolutionary theory, stem-cell research, and abortion. These debates are not simply debates about morality or public policy. They also purport to be debates about the facts. A recent Science article reports that one third of American adults firmly reject the idea of human evolution (a number significantly higher than in European countries and Japan), and the rejection appears to b tied to religious conservatism. The boundary between the secular and non-secular today is confusing and highly fraught.

Harvard is no longer an institution with a religious mission, but religion is a fact that Harvard’s graduates will confront in their lives both in and after college. We therefore require students to take one course in a category entitled Reason and Faith. Let us be clear.

Courses in Reason and Faith are not religious apologetics. They are courses that examine the interplay between religion and various aspects of national and/or international culture and society. Moreover, these courses do not center on ethics per se. At the conclusion of taking a course in The Ethical Life area, students will appreciate the nature of moral dilemmas and understand principled ways to grapple with them. In contrast, at the conclusion of taking a course in the Reason and Faith area, students will appreciate the role of religion in contemporary, historical, or future events – personal, cultural, national, or international.

Courses in Reason and Faith can vary widely. They may take up the relationships between politics and religion, science and religion, culture and religion, epistemology and religious faith, and more. They engage with a wide range of topics, from evolutionary theory and intelligent design to comparative religious cultures.

These courses are not prescriptive: their aim is to help students understand the interplay between religious and secular institutions, practices, and ideas. They also encourage students to become more selfconscious about their own beliefs and values. By providing them with a fuller understanding of both local and global issues involving religious faith, the courses are intended to help students become more informed and reflective citizens. Newly developed courses might include:

Religion in Closed Societies. In what ways do religious movements inform personal, ethnic, and political identities in closed and secular political societies? How does that contrast to religious movements that form the basis of closed political societies? Examples include: the Falun Gong movement in Communist China, Judaism in the former Soviet Union, Catholic liberation theology in El Salvador, and the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Religion and Democracy. How does religion function in open and democratic societies? What role does religion play in the contemporary American political landscape, and how does it compare to the role religion plays in other Western industrial democracies. The history of immigration, assimilation, secularization, and religious freedom are examined in the context of the United States post-September 11, the “Muslim” riots in Paris in 2005, the changing role of the Catholic Church, and the increasing influence of religious political parties in Middle Eastern democracies.

Religion and Science. Since the late nineteenth-century, science and religion in the West have been viewed as unlikely bedfellows and incommensurable epistemologies. At the same time, much natural knowledge has been developed in the service of religious beliefs or institutions, and many scientists profess a belief in God in one form or another. Using contemporary and historical examples (“intelligent design” vs. evolution by natural selection, the origins of life on earth, the Scopes Monkey trial, Einstein’s critique of quantum physics, Galileo’s condemnation, etc.), this course will examine the intellectual and philosophical conflicts between science and religion as a form of a shifting culture war between the spiritual and the secular.

The Wars of Religion. From the Hundred-Years War to the contemporary conflicts between militant forms of Islam and the industrialized West, warfare waged on religious grounds has formed the basis of much of world history. This course will examine the modern history of religious warfare, from the end of World War II to the present. Examples include conflicts between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, Hindu-Muslim tensions in India and Pakistan, the Chinese annexation of Tibet, and the violence in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.

Medicine, Spirituality, and Religion in Modern America. This course examines the intersections and clashes between medicine and spirituality in the contemporary United States. As Western scientific medicine has become more effective, more expensive, and more reductionist, the rise of “alternative” healing practices has grown dramatically. From Christian Science healing, to the scientific study of the efficacy of prayer, to mind-body practices such as yoga and tai chi, spiritual, non-western, and religious healing modalities have flourished in the last two decades. The course examines the philosophical, social, and cultural bases of beliefs about the body, health, and illness in contemporary America in order to understand the apparent contradiction between the parallel growth of scientific medicine and spiritual healing practices.

Reason and Faith is a category unlike any that Harvard has included in its general education curriculum, but even a casual review of the current course catalogue shows that courses in this area already proliferate. To give just a small sample of courses currently on offer that could be, or be modified to become, a general education course in Reason and Faith: History 1491: Religion and Popular Culture in 19th-Century Europe; Religion 1560: Religion and Society in 20th-Century America; Religion 1550: Religion and American Public Life; Government 90jm: Comparative Constitutionalism: Religion and State; African and Afro-American Studies 192x: Religion and Society in Nigeria; Social Studies 98ic: Why Americans Love God and Europeans Don’t; Human Evolutionary Biology 1355: Darwin Seminar: Evolution and Religion; Ancient Near East 138: The Bible and Politics; Religion 1820: Islam in South Asia: Religion, Culture, and Identity in South Asian Muslim Societies; Historical Studies A-27: Reason and Faith in the West. Other topics for courses in this area might include: church and state; history of religion in the United States; the politics of religion in medieval Christendom; religion and the academy; philosophical attempt to reconcile faith and reason; gender and religious practices; global Christianity; the Vatican as a religious and secular institution.

Harvard to reinstate religion in required courses

Seen on FOX NEWS ticker tape Oct. 4, 2006 – "Harvard committee recommends returning religion to the curriculum. The committee said the university founded 370 years ago to train Puritans ministers should require all undergraduates to study religion along side ethics and U.S. History."

For over a year, a group of community students, community people and ministers have been meeting twice a week at Harvard. The group has also been “seeding” the campus with flyers and tracts. A proposed magazine is ready to be printed: The Boston Awakening.

Consider this scripture: Luke 10:1,2: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He Himself would go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’”

Pray about what you can do to help. Contact me for more details: jrogers@forerunner.com

The following flyer was distributed by Christian students at Harvard prior to the announcement. Is it possible that the committee saw the flyer?

September 26, 1642

On this date, 364 years ago, the board of Harvard College declared the purpose of the college was "To train a literate clergy." Prior to the American Revolution, 10 of the 12 presidents of Harvard were ministers, and according to reliable calculations, over 50% of the 17th Century Harvard graduates became ministers. The Rules and Precepts that were observed at Harvard, declared 8 statements. Among these:

“Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of Him (Prov. 2:3).

“Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in Theoreticall observations of Language and Logick, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the Word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

“That they eschewing all profanation of God's name, Attributes, Word, Ordinances, and times of Worship, do study with good conscience carefully to retain God, and the love of His truth in their minds, else let them know, that God may give them up to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate mind, 2 Thes. 2:11, Romans 1:28."

Source: Pierce, Benjamin (1833), A History of Harvard University, from its foundation, in the year 1636, to the period of the American Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Brown, Shattuck, & Co.), 5. <http://education.byu.edu/edlf/archives/prophets/founding_fathers.html>

The Spirit of Massachusetts

About 20 years ago, the state of Massachusetts launched a campaign to compete with "I Love New York" and "Virginia is for Lovers." Since then, I haven't seen too many "The Spirit of Massachusetts is the Spirit of America" bumper stickers and t-shirts. Nevertheless, that statement is a profound truth. For good or evil, the spiritual trends that have taken place in Massachusetts since 1620 have influenced the rest of the nation and even the world. While Massachusetts is thought of as one of the most liberal and therefore Godless states in the union, there are several signs that a Christian Awakening is under way.

A few years ago, Christianity Today published an article on Boston's "Quiet Revival" -- a growing church movement has doubled the number of evangelicals in Massachusetts even while the population of the state has remained the same. The article notes that it is a "quiet revival" mainly because it is occurring among Hatian, Brazilian, Korean and other Asian churches in inner city Boston and Cambridge -- ethnic churches that few in the white mainstream are aware of.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/104/32.0.html

Soon after that the liberal Boston Globe published an article called "The God Squad" about the growing number of evangelical students at Harvard and MIT. One observer noted that there is a higher percentage of evangelical students at Harvard than at any time since the 17th century. While I think that is an exaggeration (the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century had a great influence too)even my native Bostonian skepticism is forced to take leave and I admit that God is up to something in Boston.

God On The Quad

The Harvard Crimson has been running a lot of articles on the topic in the past few years. Understand that with a student population of only a few thousand, just a few hundred evangelicals at Harvard is a phenomenon. Contrast this with ten years ago, when the total number of professing conservative Christians was less than one hundred and you see what some have called an "Awakening" of evangelical Christianity. Some say it is a precursor to something major akin to the Awakenings of past centuries.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=357109

In order to really shake the nation, any type of student led revival will have to deviate from the pietistic movements that have characterized "revivals" in the past 100 years. In fact, every revival that has led to a Great Awakening (The Puritan movement, the First and Second Great Awakenings) have been Puritan or "Neo-Puritan" in character. It was when the majority of American churches rejected Calvinism in the mid-1800s that "revival" began to focus more on individual blessings rather than how the revived saints can be salt and light in the society. But even that is changing. Christianity Today this month ran an article about how more and more Christian youth are getting interested in theology and are rejecting the "seeker sensitive" and "emergent" models of church growth. They are looking for something of more substance and are finding it in Calvinism. After all, America was founded not just on Christianity, but on a Protestant model influenced more by the theology and social theory of John Knox and Oliver Cromwell than any other figures.

The Christianity Today article is not on-line yet, but check back at their site to see it eventually -- or pick up a copy at your local Christian book store. I'll be reviewing the article in a few days.

See a review of : Young, Restless and Reformed

Last month also marked the 200th anniversary of the "Haystack Revival" -- a prayer awakening at Williams College in Western Massachusetts led by three students helped to launch the World Missions Movement in America. Students around the world are being asked to fast and pray for a revival of missionary vision among college students. What is strange about the anniversary is not that Christian groups such as InterVarsity are promoting it, but that it is getting favorable mention even from many liberal groups. That secularists would celebrate the positive influence of Christian Missions inthe world needs some explanation that I cannot explain other than a sovereign act of God.

http://haystack.williams.edu/

Haystack Awakening '06

Of course, I've written about these phenomena since 1989 in The Forerunner, so it is actually exciting to see these movements gain a beach head and get noticed by the national press. It's happening at a time when I had almost despaired of ever seeing an Awakeing in the northeast in my lifetime. In 1989, I started a project called The Northeast Invasion. The plan was calculated to flood the Norteast College campuses and especially the Ivy League where future leaders are studying, with Christian literature.

This month we plan to continue this strategy with The Boston Awakening magazine. I was initially hesitant to take on the project, my skeptical nature rising to the forefront, but then I realized a simple truth. When one aims for great things, we only fail when we do not try.

The Boston Awakening magazine -- Personal thoughts

See: http://forerunner.com/boston/

In the past, The Forerunner was geared toward Christians who understood biblical worldview, revival and reformation. But we also included apologetics and distributed it to college students. Christians supported the publication and it was also used in evangelism. The website has given a lot of the older articles a life of their own. Several popular articles now have more page accesses per month than we printed copies of The Forerunner in an entire year.

While I am happy with the way my publications have turned out, I know that I could have done a lot better if there were a larger team of people who could have contributed something in their own area of excellence -- such as other writers, graphics and design, distribution and so on. My area of expertise is mainly content.

With The Boston Awakening magazine, I now have the vision to produce a seamless media ministry that would begin with a magazine that has an anointed prophetic word combined with smart graphics and attractive photography. And then make this available on the Internet through PDF and HTML. From there I would produce a news magazine DVD that would also be available on the Internet through podcasting, streaming video, and new video technologies just around the corner.

For instance, in doing the magazine, my vision has expanded and I am full of ideas. I see a larger multi-faceted media concept unfolding from this -- print publishing, DVDs, on-line video, web sites, and so on.

1. The Boston Awakening Magazine (print version)
2. The on-line PDF version
3. The web site
4. The Boston Awakening DVD
5. The on-line streaming video clips from the DVD
6. The live multi-media teaching seminar

The list goes on. The optimal plan involves starting several "Media Houses" in various parts of the U.S. and the world, which would be college students who would work part-time on one of the components and freely share their work with the Media House network. My role in this would be traveling and teaching students to preach the Gospel through media.

I don't see it as my project, but something that will grow out naturally of the youth revival -- which will spread world-wide as media technologies become more and more seamless -- one medium being easily converted to another -- language translation becoming easier through technology -- and so on.

I don't have the time here to explain it all and my vision is growing each day anyway. Hopefully, God will give me the energy and inspiration to keep it up.

What you are doing through music is an important part of this and you ought to seek as much as possible to integrate what you are doing with other types of media, in other languages, through many different channels.

More to come ...

- Jay

New Website -- The Boston Awakening

http://forerunner.com/boston/

The Boston Awakening website is now on-line.

The site features .html versions of the articles as well as a screen resolution and a print resolution PDF file of the magazine. A print version is slated to be distribued to Boston university and college students in September.

Email us if you want a print copy or if you are interested in being a part of this project.

- Jay Rogers

The Boston Awakening magazine

The Boston Awakening magazine is now on-line for preview prior to the print date.

http://forerunner.com/boston/bostonlow.pdf (3 MB file)

The publication is also available in a high resolution version:

http://forerunner.com/boston/boston.pdf (28 MB file)

But I recommend downloading the first one unless you plan on printing out a 300 dpi hard copy. I will be making changes and corrections daily so if you would like to review it, feel free. I ask people to take a look and be brutally and honestly critical of anything that you think. This can include anything from copy errors, content, writing style, layout design and theological issues. You can post your comments here or directly to me at:

jrogers@forerunner.com

- Jay Rogers