I am sometimes suspicious of how we employ our faith. Don’t get me wrong, faith is important to me, and I have given my life to it. But sometimes I treat my faith like it is a medicine cabinet or a pharmaceutical, going to it only when something is wrong, or if I am looking for a quick remedy.

My head hurts,” so I go to the medicine cabinet looking for a pain reliever. “I have a stomach ache,” so I reach in for a spiritual antacid. “I feel so uncertain,” so I explore my therapeutic options. “I’m feeling a bit anxious,” so I look for something that will serve as divine Prozac.

Certainly I am not the only one who does this – it is a common practice – and I’m not the only one to make this observation. Strangely enough (strange because rarely goes a Christian writer reference this man), it was Karl Marx who popularized this view, and this analogy would be incomplete without referring to his legendary quote.

Marx said, “Religion is the opiate of the people,” and it appears he understood the medicinal, tranquilizing effects of religious faith fairly well. Now, before you write that letter to the editor or attempt to get your pound of flesh from this simple columnist, understand that I am no Marxist – not even close – I detest anything that smacks of coercion.

But that doesn’t mean that some of Marx’s observations about religion were incorrect, even if his means of modification were suspect. Marx felt that religious faith did very little to actually help people. Rather than drilling down to the source of a person’s trouble, he claimed that religion only treated that person’s symptoms. It was a barbiturate that had a numbing influence, instead of resulting in empowerment.

Faith in God, according to Marx, keeps the believer trapped in his or her current state, incapacitated, and prevents him or her from experiencing real, personal, substantial change. In short, Marx criticized the false relief that faith can bring – false because nothing ever really changes – and I find it difficult to argue with his conclusion.

The faith that is peddled by many pulpits today is little more than a sedative. It helps people to forget their pain and suffering, helps them sleep at night, and keeps them hanging on for next week’s dose of tranquility; but it does very little to move people to a place of growing, spiritual health.

Thus, we can easily succeed in converting our faith into a first-aid kit, only turning to it when something hurts, and leaving it in the cabinet otherwise. Yes, when life hurts I want relief. Yet, the real power of faith is not its ability to magically stop our pain or to provide a fix to get us through a rough spot. Faith simply doesn’t remove our troubles and worries, offering bubble-gummed-flavored baby aspirin and cartooned-band-aids.

Rather, faith offers us a new way to live, an opportunity to change our lifestyle. It does more than medicate our boo-boos or make us happy when we have been made sad. On the contrary, faith has the power to transforms us, to shape and fit us for life, making us whole and well.

It would do us and Marx well to hear some of the earliest words of Christian faith, written by the Apostle James. He said to some of the first believers, “My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Faith that does not lead to change is a faith that is dead.”

It is possible to find great inspiration in our faith; to be comforted, reassured, and soothed, that feeling that, yes, we believe all the right things. Yet, if such beliefs do not have transformative power in our lives, then we do not have faith at all. Instead, we are addicted to a spiritual tranquilizer that blinds us to the reality of our world and the renewal God seeks to produce in our lives.

Was there ever a time when the holidays were not busy? Probably not. I suppose if we went back to the very first Christmas we would find a great deal of hurried busyness: Joseph was out sitting in the garage on the donkey, honking the saddle horn, doing his best to hurry Mary along just a bit.

She was inside packing one more bag for the holiday trip to visit Joseph’s neurotic family inBethlehem. Of course she was moving as fast as she could. A woman better than eight months pregnant, who was planning an excursion over field and fountain, moor and mountain, was moving nowhere very quickly.

But there were places to go, people to see, and history to be made. So Mary and Joseph hurried on their way into the throngs of people who had gathered in the famed City ofDavidfor the census demanded by the Roman authorities.

The story is as familiar as our own children’s names. Upon their arrival there was no room for Mary or Joseph at the local Econolodge. So they checked theFairfield. Strike out. The Motel Six? Nope, not there either. The young couple was forced into being squatters at the local KOA campground. There Jesus was born, ignominiously into a Palestinian backwater. All the while the counting of people, taxes, sheep, and profits went on unhindered. The world was too busy to note his arrival.

Several Christmas seasons ago I was very busy at the hospital where I worked. There was a high census of patients. There were extraordinary cases in the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department. The entire staff was attempting to coordinate help for patients who would not have a Christmas for their families.

In our busyness, we were on the verge of overlooking the old “reason for the season.” Then, one of the hospital volunteers, unknown to her, brought us a much needed reprieve and put a smile back on everyone’s face. She came rushing into the Pastoral Care office with the panicked words, “Jesus is missing!”

At first, I thought someone had taken a crucifix out of one of the hospital rooms when they discharged to go home. It happens more times than you might imagine. As a person packs their bags, sometimes Jesus finds himself among a patient’s personal belongings. But no worries; the hospital keeps a whole box of Jesuses in a hidden cabinet to replace the stolen ones. Such theft doesn’t bother me. I figure if a person needs Jesus enough to steal him off the wall of a hospital, then by all means, take him.

But the missing Jesus this volunteer spoke of was the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene. Everyone was there: Mary, Joseph, the magi, shepherds, sheep, donkeys, angels – all the usual suspects. Except for Jesus. The manger was empty. Our volunteer concluded that he had been stolen from his crib while sleeping. The Christmas carol says the shepherds were watching and guarding Jesus – but apparently not in the hospital chapel.

To the volunteer’s relief, it was quickly clarified that Jesus was not missing. He simply hadn’t arrived yet. Baby Jesus was wrapped, not in swaddling clothes, but in shrink wrap and stuck in drawer. He was safe and sound waiting for Christmas Day before making his grand entrance. We, along with all the Nativity scene characters, wait for him until then.

In your own heart Jesus may be locked away, collecting dust in some dark little corner. You may have grown so busy that you have not even thought of him since last year (or at least since Easter). If so, I think he’s do an unwrapping, don’t you?

Break the packaging. Knock off the dust. Get him out of the drawer. Let him take his place at the center of this Advent season, and at the center of your life. We may be busy, but not so busy that we forget to “glorify and praise God for all we have heard and seen” in this child born in Bethlehem.

Question: “If I am saved and all of my sins are forgiven, why not continue to sin?”

Answer: The apostle Paul answered a very similar question in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The idea that a person could “trust in Jesus Christ” for salvation and then go on living just as he/she lived before, is absolutely foreign to the Bible. Believers in Christ are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit changes us from producing the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) to producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The Christian life is a changed life because the Christian is changed.

What differentiates Christianity from every other religion is that Christianity is based on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ—divine accomplishment. Every other world religion is based on what we must do to earn God’s favor and forgiveness—human achievement. Every other religion teaches that we must do certain things and stop doing certain other things in order to earn God’s love and mercy. Christianity, faith in Christ, teaches that we do certain things and stop doing certain things because of what Christ has done for us.

How could anyone, having been delivered from sin’s penalty, eternity in hell, go back to living the same life that had him on the path to hell in the first place? How could anyone, having been cleansed from the defilement of sin, desire to go back to the same cesspool of depravity? How could anyone, knowing what Jesus Christ did on our behalf, go on living as if He were not important? How could anyone, realizing how much Christ suffered for our sins, continue sinning as if those sufferings were meaningless?

Romans 6:11-15 declares, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

For the truly converted, then, continuing to live sinfully is not an option. Because our conversion resulted in a completely new nature, our desire is to no longer live in sin. Yes, we still sin, but instead of wallowing in it as we once did, we now hate it and wish to be delivered from it. The idea of “taking advantage” of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf by continuing to live sinfully is unthinkable. If a person believes himself to be a Christian and still desires to live the old, sinful life, he has reason to doubt his salvation. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Recommended Resource: Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen.

Question: “What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus?”

Answer: All people are accountable to God whether or not they have “heard about Him.” The Bible tells us that God has clearly revealed Himself in nature (Romans 1:20) and in the hearts of people (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The problem is that the human race is sinful; we all reject this knowledge of God and rebel against Him (Romans 1:21-23). If it were not for God’s grace, we would be given over to the sinful desires of our hearts, allowing us to discover how useless and miserable life is apart from Him. He does this for those who continually reject Him (Romans 1:24-32).

In reality, it is not that some people have not heard about God. Rather, the problem is that they have rejected what they have heard and what is readily seen in nature. Deuteronomy 4:29proclaims, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This verse teaches an important principle—everyone who truly seeks after God will find Him. If a person truly desires to know God, God will make Himself known.

The problem is “there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11). People reject the knowledge of God that is present in nature and in their own hearts, and instead decide to worship a “god” of their own creation. It is foolish to debate the fairness of God sending someone to hell who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ. People are responsible to God for what God has already revealed to them. The Bible says that people reject this knowledge, and therefore God is just in condemning them to hell.

Instead of debating the fate of those who have never heard, we, as Christians, should be doing our best to make sure they do hear. We are called to spread the gospel throughout the nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). We know people reject the knowledge of God revealed in nature, and that must motivate us to proclaim the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Only by accepting God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can people be saved from their sins and rescued from an eternity apart from God.

If we assume that those who never hear the gospel are granted mercy from God, we will run into a terrible problem. If people who never hear the gospel are saved, it is logical that we should make sure no one ever hears the gospel. The worst thing we could do would be to share the gospel with a person and have him or her reject it. If that were to happen, he or she would be condemned. People who do not hear the gospel must be condemned, or else there is no motivation for evangelism. Why run the risk of people possibly rejecting the gospel and condemning themselves when they were previously saved because they had never heard the gospel?

Recommended Resource:  What About Those Who Have Never Heard?: Three Views on the Destiny of the Unevangelized (Spectrum Multiview Book Series Spectrum Multiview Book Serie)

Question: “When is civil disobedience allowed for a Christian?”

Answer: The emperor of Rome from A.D. 54 to 68 was Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known simply as Nero. The emperor was not known for being a godly person and engaged in a variety of illicit acts, homosexual marriage being among them. In 64 A.D., the great Roman fire occurred with Nero himself being suspected of the act of arson. In his writings, the Roman senator and historian Tacitus recorded: “To get rid of the report [that he had started the fire], Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace” (Annals XV).

It was during the reign of Nero that the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans. While one might expect him to encourage the Christians in Rome to rise up against their oppressive ruler, in the chapter 13, we find this instead:

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor ” (Romans 13:1–7).

Even under the reign of a ruthless and godless emperor, Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells his readers to be in subjection to the government. Moreover, he states that no authority exists other than that established by God, and that rulers are serving God in their political office.

Peter writes nearly the same thing in one of this two New Testament letters:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:13–17).

Both Paul’s and Peter’s teachings have led to quite a few questions from Christians where civil disobedience is concerned. Do Paul and Peter mean that Christians are always to submit to whatever the government commands, no matter what is asked of them?

A Brief Look at the Various Views of Civil Disobedience
There are at least three general positions on the matter of civil disobedience. The anarchist view says that a person can choose to disobey the government whenever they like and whenever they feel they are personally justified in doing so. Such a stance has no biblical support whatsoever as evidenced in the writings of Paul in Romans 13.

The extremist patriot says that a person should always follow and obey their country no matter what the command. As will be shown in a moment, this view also does not have biblical support. Moreover, it is not supported in the history of nations either. For example, during the Nuremberg trials, the attorneys for the Nazi war criminals attempted to use the defense that their clients were only following the direct orders of the government and therefore could not be held responsible for their actions. However, one of the judges dismissed their argument with the simple question: “But gentlemen, is there not a law above our laws?”

The position the Scriptures uphold is one of biblical submission, with a Christian being allowed to act in civil disobedience to the government if it commands evil, such that it requires a Christian to act in a manner that is contrary to the clear teachings and requirements of God’s Word.

Civil Disobedience – Examples in Scripture
In Exodus 1, the Egyptian Pharaoh gave the clear command to two Hebrew midwives that they were to kill all male Jewish babies. An extreme patriot would have carried out the government’s order, yet the Bible says the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh and “feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (Exodus 1:17). The Bible goes on to say the midwives lied to Pharaoh about why they were letting the children live; yet even though they lied and disobeyed their government, “God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them” (Exodus 1:20–21).

In Joshua 2, Rahab directly disobeyed a command from the king of Jericho to produce the Israelite spies who had entered the city to gain intelligence for battle. Instead, she let them down via a rope so they could escape. Even though Rahab had received a clear order from the top government official, she resisted the command and was redeemed from the city’s destruction when Joshua and the Israeli army destroyed it.

The book of 1 Samuel records a command given by King Saul during a military campaign that no one could eat until Saul had won his battle with the Philistines. However, Saul’s son Jonathan defied his father’s order and ate honey to refresh himself from the hard battle the army had waged. When Saul found out about it, he ordered his son to die. However, the people resisted Saul and his command and saved Jonathan from being put to death (1 Samuel 14:45).

Another example of civil disobedience in keeping with biblical submission is found in 1 Kings 18. That chapter briefly introduces a man named Obadiah who “feared the Lord greatly.” When the queen Jezebel was killing God’s prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them from her so they could live. Such an act was in clear defiance of the ruling authority’s wishes.

In 2 Kings, the only apparent approved revolt against a reigning government official is recorded. Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, began to destroy the royal offspring of the house of Judah. However, Joash the son of Ahaziah was taken by the king’s daughter and hidden from Athaliah so that the bloodline would be preserved. Six years later, Jehoiada gathered men around him, declared Joash to be king, and put Athaliah to death.

Daniel records a number of civil disobedience examples. The first is found in chapter 3 where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the golden idol in disobedience to King Nebuchadnezzar’s command. The second is in chapter 6 where Daniel defies King Darius’ decree to not pray to anyone other than the king. In both cases, God rescued His people from the death penalty that was imposed, signaling His approval of their actions.

In the New Testament, the book of Acts records the civil disobedience of Peter and John towards the authorities that were in power at the time. After Peter healed a man born lame, they were arrested for preaching about Jesus and put in jail. The religious authorities were determined to stop them from teaching about Jesus; however, Peter said: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). Later, the rulers confronted the apostles again and reminded them of their command to not teach about Jesus, but Peter responded, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

One last example of civil disobedience is found in the book of Revelation where the Antichrist commands all those who are alive during the end times to worship an image of himself. But the apostle John who wrote Revelation states that those who become Christians at the time will disobey the Antichrist and his government and refuse to worship the image (Reveleation 13:15) just as Daniel’s companions violated Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship his idol.

Civil Disobedience – Conclusion
What conclusions can be drawn from the above biblical examples? The guidelines for a Christian’s civil disobedience can be summed as follows:

• Christians should resist a government that commands or compels evil, and should work nonviolently within the laws of the land to change a government that permits evil.
• Civil disobedience is permitted when the government’s laws or commands are in direct violation of God’s laws and commands.
• If a Christian disobeys an evil government, unless they can flee from the government, they should accept that government’s punishment for their actions.
• Christians are certainly permitted to work to install new government leaders within the laws that have been established.

Lastly, Christians are commanded to pray for their leaders and for God to intervene in His time to change any ungodly path that they are pursuing: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1–2).

Recommended Resource: Hard Sayings of the Bible (Hard Sayings Series the Hard Sayings)

Question: “What does it mean that Jesus saves?”

Answer: “Jesus saves” is a popular slogan on bumper stickers, signs at athletic events, and even banners being pulled across the sky by small airplanes. Sadly, few who see the phrase “Jesus saves” truly and fully understand what it means. There is a tremendous amount of power and truth packed into those two words.

Jesus saves, but who is Jesus?
Most people understand that Jesus was a man who lived in Israel approximately 2000 years ago. Virtually every religion in the world views Jesus as a good teacher and/or a prophet. And while those things are most definitely true of Jesus, they do not capture who Jesus truly is, nor do they explain how or why Jesus saves. Jesus is God in human form (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is God, come to Earth, as a true human being (1 John 4:2). God became a human being in the person of Jesus in order to save us. That brings up the next question: why do we need to be saved?

Jesus saves, but why do we need to be saved?
The Bible declares that every human being who has ever lived has sinned (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23). To sin is to do something, whether in thought, word, or deed, that contradicts God’s perfect and holy character. Because of our sin, we all deserve judgment from God (John 3:18, 36). God is perfectly just, so He cannot allow sin and evil to go unpunished. Since God is infinite and eternal, and since all sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4), only an infinite and eternal punishment is sufficient. Eternal death is the only just punishment for sin. That is why we need to be saved.

Jesus saves, but how does He save?
Because we have sinned against an infinite God, either a finite person (us) must pay for our sins for an infinite amount of time, or an infinite Person (Jesus) must pay for our sins one time. There is no other option. Jesus saves us by dying in our place. In the person of Jesus Christ, God sacrificed Himself on our behalf, paying the infinite and eternal penalty only He could pay (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2). Jesus took the punishment that we deserve in order to save us from a horrible eternal destiny, the just consequence of our sin. Because of His great love for us, Jesus laid down His life (John 15:13), paying the penalty that we had earned, but could not pay. Jesus was then resurrected, demonstrating that His death was indeed sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins (1 Corinthians 15).

Jesus saves, but who does He save?
Jesus saves all who will receive His gift of salvation. Jesus saves all those who fully trust in His sacrifice alone as the payment for sin (John 3:16; Acts 16:31). While Jesus’ sacrifice was perfectly sufficient to pay for the sins of all humanity, Jesus only saves those who personally receive His most precious of gifts (John 1:12).

If you now understand what it means that Jesus saves, and you want to trust in Him as your personal Savior, make sure you understand and believe the following, and as an act of faith, communicate the following to God. “God, I know that I am a sinner, and I know that because of my sin I deserve to be eternally separated from you. Even though I do not deserve it, thank you for loving me and providing the sacrifice for my sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and I trust in Him alone to save me. From this point forward, help me to live my life for you instead of for sin. Help me to live the rest of my life in gratitude for the wonderful salvation you have provided. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me!”

After Justin Bieber received the “Moonman” award at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, he thanked God and Jesus—making it the leading trending topic on Twitter.

When the Biebs’ name was announced by Kim Kardashian, he stood up, kissed his girlfriend Selena Gomez, then walked onstage to get the coveted “Moonman” award, for which he thanked both God and Jesus.

Bieber, 17, said according to the AP, “I just want to say thank you so much, not only to God but to Jesus. Because I wouldn’t be here without him. He’s really blessed me. He’s put me in this position. So I want to say thank you so much.”

“Also, I want to say thank you to all the other nominees,” Bieber said, according to The Christian Post. “They were amazing. I’m a true fan of all of them, so I want to share this award with all of them. You guys are amazing.”

Afterwards, the words “God” and “Jesus” started trending on Twitter. According to the AP, one person tweeted, “God and Jesus are trending, maybe there is hope for our future.”

Another person tweeted, “I can honestly say that this year’s VMA were the worst so far … but it is pretty cool that God and Jesus are trending because of it,” AP reported. A third said, “God and Jesus shouldn’t trend just because Justin thanked them. They should be trending every day, actually.”

After his VMA the Biebs twitted, “Super grateful and humbled. Very cool night. Kinda shocked,” The Christian Post reported. He said he “blanked up out there,” and thanked his family, team, friends and fans.”

Bieber has more than 12 million Twitter followers, placing him at No. 2 in the ranks of Twitter, second to Lady Gaga. He is followed by President Barack Obama, who ranks No. 3.

Bieber showed up at MTV with his pet snake. He was interviewed by his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, 19, who was hired by MTV to do interviews for the night. The Daily Mirror said Gomez asked Bieber, “Please talk about this,” pointing to the snake.

Bieber told Gomez, “I have a snake,” Seattlepi.com reported. Gomez said, “Stop, I know!” Then she asked, “What’s your snake’s name?” And Bieber replied, “My snake’s name is Johnson.” Gomez kept up a professional front, but when Bieber kissed her, she giggled.

Last year Bieber ranked among Billboard’s Top Artists of the Year, largely due to his song “Baby.” Last Aug. 7, at the Teen Choice Award for Choice Music, he won as Male Artist. Again, he thanked God and Jesus.

Bieber told the crowd, “You gotta keep God first, and always remember to keep family first. Jesus loves every one of you and I wanna say thank you so much, you guys are amazing,” The Christian Post reported.

Bieber became a Christian when he was six years old, and was baptized when he was nine. Last November, Bieber released the song “Pray.” Before he became a big star, he used to upload Christian songs on YouTube.

At the VMA Awards, Britney Spears also thanked God for her Best Pop Video award, the AP reported, saying, “First I’d like to thank God for blessing me so much. My beautiful two boys, Jayden and Preston, mommy loves you so much. My management team, Larry Rudolph … and Jason (Trawick) I love you!”

The lawyer of one of four church bishops who filed a lawsuit against the enforcement of Alabama’s new immigration law said recently that she felt upbeat after the first court hearing.

Augusta Dowd, attorney for Alabama Episcopal bishop Henry Parsley, told Montgomery Advertiser that she would be pleased if U.S. district judge, Sharon Blackburn, determines that the state’s immigration law does not apply to churches.

Parsley is one of four Alabama bishops who sued the state against the new immigration law. The other bishops participating in the lawsuit come from the United Methodist Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

The clergy leaders have aligned themselves with other groups who filed similar lawsuits against Alabama’s immigration law, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Department of Justice.

First amendment

The church leaders expressed concern that some provisions in the law violate First Amendment religious rights, especially by rendering illegal certain religious sacraments and services that might be ministered to undocumented aliens.

In response, Blackburn said she doubts that the law bans religious services, and said that the administration of religious sacraments does not fall under the purview of contract law.

Dowd noted, however, that the law is not specific enough in its definition of harboring, and might provide an opening to broad interpretations. To this, Blackburn replied, “This statute in my view does not violate the constitutional rights of the bishops on the grounds you allege,” Montgomery Advertiser reported.

Blackburn did not rule yet on the request for injunction against the immigration law. It is expected that a decision will be reached before Sept. 1, when the immigration law is calendared to go into effect.

Preemption issues

The U.S. Justice Department also sued the state on the grounds of “field preemption,” noting that immigration enforcement falls under the purview of the federal government, not individual states.

William Orrick, of the U.S. Justice Department said during the hearing, “Once the field is established a state can’t enter into that area.” He added that if each state creates its own immigration laws, it could result in a harmful “patchwork” of laws that delivers a wrong message to other nations.

“It hinders the ability of the government to engage foreign governments on human rights,” Orrick said. “It corrodes the United States’ reputation of openness. It makes it hard for other countries to see the United States speak with one voice,” Montgomery Advertiser reported.

Expansive measures

A lawyer representing the Southern Poverty Law Center took issue against a more expansive measure of Alabama’s immigration law, which requires the state to investigate the immigration status of students who are enrolled in public schools. To do so, the SPLC lawyer argued, is unconstitutional.

Fourth Amendment protections

The American Civil Liberties Union raised the issue of Fourth Amendment protections, noting that the law does not clearly state how long a person can be detained under the new immigration law.

Attorneys for the state of Alabama said that under the new law, individuals could be detained, even if the Immigration and Naturalization Service is not looking for them. The INS does not seek out all undocumented aliens, some of whom are in the process of gaining legal status.

Under the new immigration law, it is a state crime if:

• A person is working without documents.
• A person without documents attends a post-secondary institution.

Citizens can also be punished for:

• Harboring an undocumented alien.
• Renting property to undocumented aliens.
• Bringing an undocumented alien to work.
• Making contracts with undocumented aliens.
• Knowingly hiring undocumented aliens.

A new study reveals that the way a person interprets the Bible can be influenced by the level of education of the co-parishioners in one’s church. 

The study, Education and Religion: Individual, Congregational, and Cross-Level Interaction Effects on Biblical Literalism, is the work of Samuel Stroope, a sociology student pursuing his doctorate at Baylor University.

Stroope’s paper won the Robert J. McNamara Award for Outstanding Student Paper, awarded by the prestigious Association for the Sociology of Religion.

According to the study, which culled data from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey, churchgoers who have a greater frequency of contact with co-parishioners who attended college, are less likely to interpret the Bible literally, regardless of their own educational level.

Stroope explained that when a churchgoer hears a college educated person discussing the Bible analytically as opposed to literally, it can influence his own understanding of the Bible.

Stroope based his study on data that was gathered in 2001 from 387 congregations nationwide, with more than 100,000 parishioners. He examined the effect that the interaction of parishioners with different educational background levels had on each other.

In conclusion, the study noted that regardless of the educational background of an individual, his or her approach to the interpretation of the Bible tends to be less literal when a larger number of co-parishioners had gone to college.

“When you go to Sunday school and everyone is talking about the cultural and historical background of a passage and its literary genre-a way of reading often learned in college-it’s likely to rub off on you,” Stroope said.

Stroope added that the findings of his study show that social influences inside a church congregation can shape the way that people read the Bible.

Stroope chose this topic of study because of another recent research paper that indicated that there is a strong relationship between the level of education that a person has, and that person’s view of the Bible.

He is referring, here, to a study by Philip Schwadel, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist, who learned that for every additional year of education one has, one’s likeliness to go to church is raised by 15 percent, and one’s tendency to read the Bible is raised by nine percent.

Stroope noted that based on the Schwadel study, no one had yet explored the impact that the level of education of fellow churchgoers could have on an individual parishioner.

For this reason, he chose to investigate the social dynamics of churches and how it can influence the way that a churchgoer reads and interprets the Bible.

Stroope’s paper will be presented on August 20 at the 73^rd annual conference of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, which will be held in Las Vegas.

The paper will also be published in the journal, Social Science Research. The edition will be released in the fall.

“I am not at all surprised to learn that Sam Stroope has won a national student paper award,” Dr. Charles Tolbert II, who heads Baylor’s department of sociology, told Science Blog.

“It has been a pleasure to watch him develop as a scholar and to collaborate with him,” Tolbert told Science Blog. “You can see the passion he has for his research and the tenacity with which he digs in.”

“This award reflects well … also on the trajectory of our doctoral program,” Tolbert told Science Blog. “For a number of years, our students have been winning paper awards from regional professional associations. Now, Sam’s accomplishments show that we can compete with the very best nationally.”

Dr. Rachel Kraus, chair of the reviewing committee, said Stroope’s paper “examined an interesting topic and had a strong discussion of the findings and implications.”

Kraus, who is also an associate professor of sociology, Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., said Stroope’s paper also had a “strong social structural component to the analysis. [It] moves beyond description in an attempt to explain social phenomena.”

Question: “What does the Bible say about a Christian going into debt?”

Answer: Paul’s charge to us in Romans 13:8 to owe nothing but love is a powerful reminder of God’s distaste for all forms of debt that are not being paid in a timely manner (see also Psalm 37:21). At the same time, the Bible does not explicitly command against all forms of debt. The Bible warns against debt, and extols the virtue of not going into debt, but does not forbid debt. The Bible has harsh words of condemnation for lenders who abuse those who are bound to them in debt, but it does not condemn the debtor.

Some people question the charging of any interest on loans, but several times in the Bible we see that a fair interest rate is expected to be received on borrowed money (Proverbs 28:8; Matthew 25:27). In ancient Israel the Law did prohibit charging interest on one category of loans—those made to the poor (Leviticus 25:35-38). This law had many social, financial, and spiritual implications, but two are especially worth mentioning. First, the law genuinely helped the poor by not making their situation worse. It was bad enough to have fallen into poverty, and it could be humiliating to have to seek assistance. But if, in addition to repaying the loan, a poor person had to make crushing interest payments, the obligation would be more hurtful than helpful.

Second, the law taught an important spiritual lesson. For a lender to forego interest on a loan to a poor person would be an act of mercy. He would be losing the use of that money while it was loaned out. Yet that would be a tangible way of expressing gratitude to God for His mercy in not charging His people “interest” for the grace He has extended to them. Just as God had mercifully brought the Israelites out of Egypt when they were nothing but penniless slaves and had given them a land of their own (Leviticus 25:38), so He expected them to express similar kindness to their own poor citizens.

Christians are in a parallel situation. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has paid our sin debt to God. Now, as we have opportunity, we can help others in need, particularly fellow believers, with loans that do not escalate their troubles. Jesus even gave a parable along these lines about two creditors and their attitude toward forgiveness (Matthew 18:23-35).

The Bible neither expressly forbids nor condones the borrowing of money. The wisdom of the Bible teaches us that it is usually not a good idea to go into debt. Debt essentially makes us a slave to the one who provides the loan. At the same time, in some situations going into debt is a “necessary evil.” As long as money is being handled wisely and the debt payments are manageable, a Christian can take on the burden of financial debt if it is absolutely necessary.

Recommended Resources:

How to Manage Your Money: An In-Depth Bible Study On Personal Finances by Larry Burkett

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey.