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Archives for May 2015

Empowering those ISIS wishes to eradicate – Part 2

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You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” – Matthew 5:43-44

Jeremy Courtney and his organization, Preemptive Love, are doing that exactly. They have taken this Bible verse literally, and they are changing our world. They are bringing literal healing to Iraq – a place that so badly needs healing, and peace, and love.

***If you are just coming across this blog post, I encourage you to go here to read Part 1 first, and then come back.***

Today Jeremy, Ann Voskamp and Jennie Allen held a live stream discussion about what ordinary people like you and I can do to help the Iraqis who have literally lost everything at the hands of ISIS.

You can view their discussion below:

Jeremy has been in Iraq for 10 years in the thick of that country’s violence, and death, and pain, and yet his passion for Iraqis shines through his eyes. He seems unshaken by the scariness of it all. Today he said, “There are worse things than dying.” And let me tell you, he is living that truth out boldly.

As Jeremy and Ann spoke about Preemptive Love’s work in Iraq, the Bible verse above came to mind. I just kept thinking, “YES. THIS is the Gospel. This is the Good News. This is why Jesus came and this was His message.”

Ann and Jeremy are living out Jesus’ words in Matthew. They aren’t just loving the minorities who have been persecuted by ISIS; they are loving ISIS. Let that sink in for a second.

They are loving their enemies.

At one point Jeremy said something about Ann and the attitude she displayed during her recent visit to Iraq that’s also true of himself, “I’m made in the image of God, they’re made in the image of God, and I’m going to help all people made in the image of God.”

It’s true. No matter how much we may want to hate them, the people that make up ISIS are God’s children too. They are beautiful in His sight, and they are in need of forgiveness, and healing , and love just as much I am.

I pray more of us can learn that lesson and live it out. Oh how different this world could be if we did!

So you want to help, but what can you do?

If you’re moved to get directly involved with Preemptive Love, go here to inquire with them as to their staffing needs.

If you’d like to empower an Iraqi woman by making a donation toward a small business grant for her, go here.

If you’d like to make a general donation to Preemptive Love’s work in Iraq, go here.

And of course, the most important thing we can all be doing — pray.

Christianity in America by the numbers

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Photo credit: Freaktography, Flickr
Photo credit: Freaktography, Flickr

Last week my Twitter feed was buzzing about Pew Research Center’s new Religious Landscape Study which reflects the current religious composition of U.S. adults.

Many news outlet headlines portrayed doom and gloom for Christianity in America, like this New York Times article.

“The Christian share of adults in the United States has declined sharply since 2007, affecting nearly all major Christian traditions and denominations, and crossing age, race and region…” the author writes.

However when you examine the study for yourself, you’ll see that the percentage of people identifying as Christians has dropped from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. It’s a decline, yes, but I don’t think a 7.8% drop over seven years really classifies as a “sharp” decline like the Times states, but whatever.

This USA Today article agrees with me and sheds some realistic light on the study’s numbers.

Rather than predict the impending doom of the church in America, this latest study affirms what many researchers have said before. Christianity isn’t collapsing; it’s being clarified. Churches aren’t emptying; rather, those who were Christian in name only are now categorically identifying their lack of Christian conviction and engagement.”

According to Pew, “Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised as Christians or members of some other religion, but now say they have no religious affiliation.”

“Many of these who have been labeling themselves as Christians are starting to feel free to be honest about their religious affiliation, or lack thereof,” the author of the USA Today article writes. 

In a nutshell = Christianity is not dying. In fact, the opposite is true for evangelicalism in America. The Pew study found that evangelicalism is in fact growing.

According to this interesting read from The Gospel Coalition about Pew’s study, “Approximately 1 in 5 of every generational group identifies as evangelical: Silent generation (30 percent), Baby Boomers (28 percent), Gen X (25 percent), Older Millenials (22 percent), and Younger Millenials (19 percent). Those percentages are higher than for any other Christian group…”

That article lists numerous other facts about evangelicalism’s growth including that more Americans who self-identify as gay or lesbian identify as evangelical (13 percent) than mainline (11 percent), atheist (8 percent), or agnostic (9 percent).

Another takeaway from the Pew study I found noteworthy — The share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths, such as Islam and Hinduism, has grown from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014.

“Muslims now account for 0.9% of the U.S. adult population (up from 0.4% in the 2007 Landscape Study), while Hindus make up 0.7% of U.S. adults (up from 0.4% in 2007),” Pew Research found.

I honestly was surprised at those numbers. I would have guessed that Muslims accounted for much more of the U.S. population, not less than 1%.

Related Reads:

  • One prominent evangelical leader shares his thoughts on the Pew study, “Bible Belt near-Christianity is teetering. I say let it fall.” Go here to read more.
  • Preacher and author John Piper made a now seemingly prophetic statement about the “clarification” of Christianity back in 1992 like the USA Today article above mentioned:

Empowering those ISIS wishes to eradicate – Part 1

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Some of the 12,000 Iraqi Yazidi refugees that arrived at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State militants. The refugees had walked up to 60km in searing temperatures through the Sinjar mountains and many had suffered severe dehydration. Photo credit: UK Department for International Development, Flickr
Some of the 12,000 Iraqi Yazidi refugees that arrived at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State militants. The refugees had walked up to 60km in searing temperatures through the Sinjar mountains and many had suffered severe dehydration. Photo credit: UK Department for International Development, Flickr

How do you just sit on the floor of a shipping container and just let these women carry this kind of terror alone — how do you turn away and go back to your neat little life of Wheaties and news reels and how does the church not stand up and howl?” – Ann Voskamp

Do you feel helpless in the face of the evils ISIS is inflicting? Do you feel like you can’t do anything for the Yazidis, Christians, and other minorities suffering in the Middle East because they’re so far away? Stop. No more excuses. The people ISIS is waging war against are just that — people. They’re not simply news headlines.

There is a way to help defy ISIS. Thank you, Ann Voskamp for helping shed light on the fantastic organization that is Preemptive Love. This one, Texas-based organization is doing more to spread love and healing — literally and figuratively — in the Middle East than any other I’ve seen.

(Full-disclosure: I have donated to Preemptive Love in the past. Also — A fun fact for my Austin-area friends: The organization’s founder, Jeremy Courtney, is from Central Texas. Go here for a recent Statesman feature on him.)

I highly encourage you to read Ann’s blog post. Then I encourage you to go here and join me in doing something to help empower the women and children ISIS is trying to eradicate.

………

UPDATE: On Thursday May 21, 2015, Ann Voskamp and Jeremy Courtney hosted a live stream discussion moderated by Jennie Allen of IF:Gathering. Go here to read Part 2 of this blog post about that discussion and learn more about what you can do to assist Preemptive Love.