Missing John and Karen

I miss John Denver and Karen Carpenter, especially on down days and Karen on many rainy Mondays. What passionate voices those two possessed, and their writing was unbelievable. I never saw Karen Carpenter in concert as that was one of those things I meant to do but alas, never did. I did see John Denver live several times and still remember the experience. I’m not sure if either was of my faith choice, and I don’t know a lot about their private lives. I choose to not read biographies of people whose art inspires me and make me feel better about life. I read one article about Karen’s battle with anorexia and it made me so sad I decided to not read anything else about her. For my money she had the best female voice of all time. John Denver didn’t have a hall of fame voice, but his enthusiasm and love of life made up for any and all vocal deficiencies. I listen to John Denver and I smile. I see majestic mountains and a pure blue sky and the world’s a much better place thanks to John.

Who makes you feel better about things? I’m exempting Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from this endeavor as it’s a given we get much of our life-oomph from scripture and prayer. Feel free to be secular for a moment and focus on music or words or faces. Who makes you feel it’s all worth it? To whom do you turn to feel better or to gear up for another tough experience? How does it help you?

When I was running in road races I would make sure I listened to certain music before each race. I would turn on the music while warming up and would slowly slip into the groove I needed to push myself to my honest limits. I used this to set me apart from my competition; in my mind, it was me against the world (thankfully it was a very, very small world). I’ve been told it’s not good for Christians to allow themselves to be set apart in life. I disagree. God sets us apart from our sin and our base humanity. When we pray we are praying as one individual to our God. There are times we are at our best when we set ourselves apart from the fray. This is especially true if the act of setting ourselves apart drives us to be better at what we do for God…which, by the way, is supposed to be everything we do.

With thanks to the memories of Karen Carpenter and John Denver,

Michael McCullar

What's Your Opinion?

Opinions. People have them on just about any subject that comes up. Some people are very firm with their opinions and others seem to float in and out of various options. Some people make a living sharing their opinions. Many of today’s cable television most-watched programs are led by talking heads who do little more than share their opinions. This is America, so sharing one’s opinion is a freedom we enjoy; there are, however, a few courtesy-based guidelines that should be adhered to when opinions are being debated.

Webster defines an opinion as what one thinks true. Notice it doesn’t read what one assumes to be true, or hopes to be true. One’s opinion is a personally held belief that is held to be true by that individual; thus, differing opinions on the same subject can be true. Obviously every opinion is not true in actual fact, making this a case of relative truth. Say a person believes the Bible to be totally without error and another person believes the Bible is God’s infallible word; but, due to countless translations from one language to another, holds a few errors in date, time, and place. Who’s right? They can’t both be correct as an error is an error no matter who’s defining the word. In the sphere of relative truth they can both be right as it’s a personal matter of belief. The same goes for politics and other oft-volatile subjects. One opinion is as true as another if it’s held by someone.

The takeaway is simply this: opinions are plentiful; but never forget that behind every opinion is a person. If and when we engage in opinion-based discussion we need to separate the opinion from the person holding the opinion. If we don’t hold the person in proper esteem we will convolute the person and their opinion, and the end result is often bad relationships, if not hate. Another word for this is fundamentalism. Fundamentalists see themselves as being the holder of actual truth and as such if you disagree with them you are automatically wrong. Fundamentalists exist in every field and tend to do more damage than good in the long run. Fundamentalists do not encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas. Some fundamentalists even go as far as disallowing discussion, seeing it as unnecessary since they have the answer already in hand. I’m guessing we would not have made it to the moon if this form of leadership had been in place: Forget the Jetsons and Star Trek! Rockets can’t make it to the Moon! This meeting’s over!

This is an equation that works: Mix opinions and respect, and the outcome will be an excellent discussion and sharing of ideas among equals. If you run into a fundamentalist say you have two words for them: George Jetson! Works every time, but that’s just my opinion of course.

Michael McCullar

It's Not about Religion in Egypt

The Arab world has been upended in many ways over the mass protests in Egypt. While it’s easy to read Islamic proliferation into the various Middle Eastern struggles, in the case of Egypt, which isn’t in the Middle East, it’s about the structure and function of government. In a world seared by the fear of radical Islamic terrorism it’s a positive to see Egypt’s internal strife focused on a dictatorship rather than an ayatollah or imam. Egypt, much like Iran, has a young population that seems hungry for a form of democracy. This is about the only similarity between the two countries. Egypt is a Sunni Muslim country without a theocratic element; Iran is predominantly Shia Muslim and is run from the shadows by radical clerics. Sunni and Shia Muslims do not get along with each other, an issue that goes back to the 7^th century. Iran is in the Middle East and Egypt is part of the African continent. Miles apart in many ways, these two countries are poised to define the face of the future for Islam.

No one knows how the acute Egyptian upheaval will end, or what the lasting results will be. The same can be said for the smaller, quieter freedom movement in Iran. The brightest light is that a yearning for some form of freedom and democracy is in evidence among the younger Muslims in each country. Radical Islam can only be stopped from within Islam. If it’s true that 15% of Muslims are on the radical right; 15% form the liberal left; and, 70% occupy the middle, it’s possible that the average Muslim is not intent on the destructive progression of Islam (the end goal of Islam is to permeate the world with Islamic influence). If this assessment is accurate, there is a hope that the huge majority of centrist Muslims will sway both Sunni and Shia Islam away from the Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah and other extremist elements. Obviously this is only a hope as there are no guarantees and thus far, the larger centrist faction has been quiet. But, hope is what makes today’s world go round.

So pray for all Egyptians as this epic uprising continues to unfold. Pray for the Christian church in Egypt and the safety of missionaries and believers caught in the middle of this struggle. Pray also for Iranian Christians, some of whom have faced strong persecution over the past years, and for the amazing progress of the Gospel in Iran. Our close work with Elam Ministries has allowed us to keep up with the growth of the Christian church in Tehran and across the country. And pray for the quest for democracy from within each country. An open mind for democracy signals an opening for other new ideas and practices…and the light of Jesus Christ has an amazing ability to find its way through even the tiniest of openings.

Michael McCullar