Spiritual Mothers: A Guest Post

Today I'm happy to feature Kat Armstrong here as a guest post-er. Kat is a former student and savvy business woman (Baby Bow Tie) who co-founded Polished Ministries, an outreach to young business women. When I read this post she wrote on her own blog, I asked if I could run it again here: 

My heart feels like it’s going to burst through my chest. I’ve tried working on other projects this weekend, projects I’m really excited about with looming deadlines, and yet I keep coming back to this keep-me-up-at-night message: We need all Christ-followers intentionally investing in younger generations now.Maybe it’s the Irish/Latino mix I’ve got in my blood, but I tend to get fired up about lots of things. But make no mistake, this is not your average Kat-plea to see again afresh the gospel of Christ, in general. This is urgent and specific.Although I am a young woman myself, I hope my voice will always be used to speak for the younger women under represented in our community of faith. The fire I feel in my belly for the young generations rises up and then brings me to my knees almost daily. All my chips are in. Everything I have I will pour out for their sake. Some would label me a “lifer” and that would be fair, but I’d prefer to see it as an inescapable result of being a Christ follower. I’ve seen the cross and it demands my life. Speaking for the voiceless is my calling. Yours, too.So it is on behalf of the Millennials, Gen X, and Gen Y women that I’m standing at the gate. And this is my petition: YOU’RE NEEDED. NOW. No matter your age, ethnicity, titles, losses, failures, hang-ups or deficiencies, you’re needed now.Your pastor, the podcasts you’re listening to, the online sermons, conference-junkie-highs, the book/blog skimming, they are influencing your spiritual life. No doubt and praise God. But I bet you can trace your greatest spiritual impact (besides someone in the Holy Trinity, because that’s a given) back to a person. Andy Stanley calls these “catalytic relationships.” It will be the same for the generations coming up behind us that are less engaged with religion and church than any other generation before them. We will win them with catalytic relationships. God will win them back by the power of the Holy Spirit through you.In the beginning it was Becky and Kari and Steph. And then it was Joan, Julie, Michele, Betty and Vickie. And now it’s Kay and Linda and Lisa. They are some of my spiritual mothers. Only one of those women scheduled regular meetings with me and followed a curriculum. (I love you, Kari.) So don’t for one second write off my petition for a lack of time or theological education. These soul-winners and disciple-makers mother me with their occasional and loving presence and kind words. Only now do I have Brennan’s Sacred Companions in view to process my own catalytic relationships. They changed everything for me. But now I see more clearly than ever before YOU’RE NEEDED NOW.Until my dying breath or until things change, you will hear me repeat:

• Women are the newest U.S. mission field.

• Women feel little to no emotional support from our churches.

• Most women are working, and most of our church's women's ministry efforts have not adapted to that change.

Daily I’m on the front lines with our Polished leaders caring for wounded souls, disillusioned and disconnected Christians, and women without faith. And we need backup support. YOU’RE NEEDED NOW.Their needs cannot and will not be met solely through Polished. The Church is the answer. And for my beloved demographic, our church mothers are the answer.You can no longer ignore the "nones" with exasperation or drown out their voices with a breakout session about reaching the youngers. You will have to actually listen to their voices while looking into their eyes, and then you will have to act with an outpouring of yourself into their lives. YOU’RE NEEDED NOW.My ears cannot and will not accept another excuse from the middles and olders about our lack and the generation gap. Our excuses have merit, but they cannot keep us from pouring out our lives for the sake of the gospel. The cross demands it, and love compels us. Or it should.

Pastors: Are you opening doors for our spiritual mothers? You must. Set them loose on the newest U.S mission field. We need an army that is accountable. You burden the needs of a diverse fellowship of believers (at least I hope you do) and your job is impossible. Let's invoke the Spirit of God to do the impossible through us and feed all the sheep with little pieces of broken bread.

Middles: Are you intentional at work, in your neighborhood, and with your friends to reach out and down into a younger generation? It’s full of risk and great reward. You’ll risk befriending your competition only to realize this lowering of self IS being a Christ-follower. There is no middle way, middles. Look up from your desk and zero in on the intern and ask them to lunch. Walk outside and knock on the door of the youngest woman on your block and ask her over for a cup of coffee. Leave the comfort of your peers and go sit with the youngest woman in the room, then point her to the cross and empty tomb.

Olders: Your time is now. We've never needed you more. Do you need an invitation?? Because that’s the sense I get. You’re waiting for an invitation and pitying some sense of lost relevance to the nones, Millennials, and youngers. While they are dying. And I mean the eternal damnation death of unbelief and the slow eroding death of a faith not planted. Your invitation came with your salvation. Share your love, your very lives with us and with them. Go and make disciples. The way an orphan cries out for a parent, the youngers are crying out for spiritual mothers. Reuse our Savior’s words: “I will not leave you as orphans.”Every generation of Christ followers insists their needs are the greatest while forgetting all of our needs are met richly in Christ. We cannot forget that the gospel points us to embrace the most vulnerable. Most of us refuse to see the unchurched, dechurched and overchurched as vulnerable. But what else do you call a child of God without spiritual parents?The margin for Team Armstrong is zero. We’re at max capacity over here, and I know you share the feeling. That is life for everyone. So let’s not disengage for fear of caring for the youngers will consume our lives. And I hope that fear is about time-margin and priorities, not about being actually consumed by God's calling because that is our goal. Right?To those reading who sense the Holy Spirit nudging you to step forward, maybe that means you take the first step and reach out to a younger woman and ask her to lunch. It’s just lunch. You don’t have to stay up all night writing your own theological thesis or Bible study curriculum to share your LIFE. They are going to spin out in fangirl emoticons that you reached out in the first place.Co-opting my time is the only way it will work in this season for our family. So every time I get a speaking gig, I ask if I can get paid less and get a free ticket for a younger woman or two to attend as my sidekicks. Or I pay for their tickets to attend myself. Either way, I get them in the car on the way to and from, and we get to experience something together. I almost never sit alone for anything unless I’ve tried calling and inviting youngers to join me.Interns used to be my co-opting strategy. I wouldn't attend anything for Baby Bow Tie or Polished without a younger by my side. All I have, everything I do, I am sharing with the youngers, because they need us, because it’s our mission. Sydney, McKenzie, Allison, and Sara occupy my thoughts almost daily because now their faces have replaced any fear I had about investing in the youngers.God’s strategy between the ascension and his return is to empower unique Christ followers with his Spirit to participate in his restoring of all things. So of course the way I am reaching youngers may not work for your unique life.I’d suggest you’ve got thinking to do to figure out what your unique participation will look like, but we don’t need more of your thoughts, we need you to act.

Giving Tuesday

Each year on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we have Giving Tuesday— a global day of generosity to kick off the charitable season.As you consider the best use of your giving dollars, please consider making a gift to our work with East-West Ministries in East Africa. Your gifts go to taking the gospel to unreached remote tribal areas, supporting widows and orphans (the latter placed in loving homes instead of orphanages), and training new believers in their faith in pre-literate areas.Here's a link to the Glahn page with more info. You can find a "donation" link in the upper left corner once you access the page. Thanks!

Thinking about Freezing Your Eggs?

In this video, WFAA-Dallas explores the emotional and technical process of women freezing their eggs to ensure future fertility. What do you think?

Black Friday: How to Shop Like a Christian

My piece on this subject ran on the Pastor Resources site recently: 

The USA is the only place where people express gratitude on Thanksgiving for all the stuff they have and spend the next day shoving people over to get the stuff they don’t. Sadly, Black Friday is only the beginning.Maybe we won’t fight with another dad for the last pair of Nikes’ Prime Hype DF 2016 sneakers or push over a grandpa to get the Sky Viper V2400. But most of us still fall short of Christlikeness when it’s time to make Christmas purchases. To watch us, people might think we believe 'tis the season to be greedy and grumpy.So here are some suggestions for how to shop like a Christian:

Decide to make Christ your focus. Pray for wisdom and ask God to help you honor him during this holy season. Set aside ten minutes this week to decide what reading plan you want to use for spiritual reflection. Do you need to order a Bible study or devotional book? Determine what Bible book you will read? If you love going to your city’s production of Handel’s Messiah or the Christmas production for a church you don’t normally attend, get tickets soon.

Stay out of debt. Be a good steward. How twisted is it that we honor the birth of the one whose Word says to avoid the slavery of bills by accumulating debts that leave us begging for his provision in January? If necessary, sell some books or that synthesizer you’ve neglected for two years, but stay within your budget.

Avoid last-minute gift panics. If you haven’t done so already, pencil in a date on the calendar for when you will make gift lists and shop. Ask loved ones for guidance on what they really want.

Give gifts that honor. Access the Samaritan’s Purse or East-West Ministries’ catalogs and consider donating gifts in honor of people on your list who already have everything and would appreciate the gesture. Cheer up wounded soldiers, help bring water to a village needing a well, or provide chickens to a family wanting to be self-sustaining. Proverbs 11:25 says, “The one who provides water for others will himself be satisfied.”

Determine to support what is good. Ask yourself if the gifts you plan to give will contribute to what is true, honorable, and right. Or will they include CDs with nasty lyrics and books that undermine the truth? Use your dollars to invest in uplift rather than to oppress.Give as you go. Collect your spare coins, and encourage that shivering Salvation Army bell ringer by dumping handfuls of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in the kettle.

Be patient and joyful. Patience and joy are fruits of the Spirit. So ask the Lord to control you. Imagine you’re that clerk who’s served a long line of impatient people for three hours. Suddenly someone who’s not in a hurry stands in front of you with a smile and a greeting. You know that person has waited as long as everyone else, but he’s still cheerful, understanding, and calm—even when you mess up his order. Before that customer departs, he tells you to have a Merry Christmas. What a difference!

Be honest and just. Avoid buying products from companies that exploit workers. If you’re in a bartering situation, stop pushing hard for a better deal if you know your low price will rip off a worker. If a clerk gives you too much change, give it back. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Pay attention to the music. Yes, you’ll hear “Frosty, the Snowman” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” But loaded on the play lists among the secular holiday songs will also be “O, come let us adore Him” and “Chr-i-ist, the Savior is born.” You’ll pass choirs singing “Jingle Bell Rock,” but they might also include “Away in a Manger.” Savor those moments. Others may miss the point, but you don’t have to. Christians of all people have reason to believe ’tis the season to be jolly!

Thanksgiving: Let's Actually Give Thanks

A number of countries set aside one day every year for their people to gather and give thanks. I live in the USA, where we will celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. But no matter where we live, we are called in everything to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:18). So let's actually take time to do what the day is set aside to encourage—give thanks. That may seem like a no-brainer, but often we're so caught up in turkey and gravy and pumpkin pie and football and family togetherness and Macy's parade-watching that we actually forget to give thanks beyond the table blessing.Here are some prompts to get us started. Even if you lack some of these, you probably have an overwhelming number of them:

Inner wealth

• Knowledge that you are made in God’s image and therefore have dignity and worth.

• Recognition that the Father loves you; that Christ came for you, died for you, and intercedes for you; that the Spirit of the risen Christ grants you peace and gives you assurance.

• Appreciation for your future hope when Christ returns and makes heaven and earth one.

• Access to a printed Bible in your mother tongue.

Physical wealth

You have some degree of …

• Health. You can walk, breathe, and digest food.

• Senses. You can see Christmas lights, smell turkey and dressing cooking, feel the hugs you receive, taste the pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and hear music.

• Access to care. If you need it, you don’t have to fly to another continent to get good medical care.

• Pharmacies. You have legal, accessible ways to alleviate pain.

• Food and clean water and sanitation. You probably even have access to these inside your own home.

  Family and social wealth

• You have a family. Perhaps you even have both a spiritual and a physical family.

• You have friends who care and mentors and others who have given you wise counsel.

Work

You got an education—consider yourself blessed. Much of your education was probably even free to you. In addition, you probably make more than $1.50 per day.

Financial wealth

You know what it’s like to be able to spare a quarter or more. You have ways to save money that are quite secure. You or your government or your family or friends have enough money that you know you’ll have a roof over your head, even if you don’t have work. And if your house burned, you would not have to go naked. That is not true of everyone. Go to globalrichlist.com, plug in your annual income, and see how rich you are compared to most people on the planet. Then give thanks.

Creativity and transportation

You have access to art supplies, iTunes, libraries, and relatively expensive travel to get a change of scenery—even if it’s only to the local free museum.

How many of these forms of wealth do you have? What else can you add? Give thanks with a grateful heart! Happy Thanksgiving!

Two Exhibits in Dallas

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition Reopens

Thirty-four photographic reproductions of art from the Sistine Chapel have returned to the Dallas Women’s Museum and will be on display through January 8, 2017. The exhibit features enormous panels that allow viewers to gain a close-up view of Michaelangelo’s masterpieces. The most famous of these are The Creation of Adam and a 40x41-foot rendition of The Last Judgment.The photos were taken by Austrian-born Magnum photographer Erich Lessing during the 1980–94 cleaning and restoration of the chapel. The now-enlarged images, exhibited on brilliantly illuminated panels have outstanding resolution, clarity and color.To aid viewers’ understanding are fully narrated audio tours (available in English and Spanish) that provide narrative and insight behind each panel on display.Nov. 1, 2016 through Jan. 8, 2017 – Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.Adult tickets – $16 eachChildren 7+/Students with ID/Seniors – $12 eachFamily 4-packs – $45 per familyGroups of 10+ – $10 per personAll Children 6 and under – free admissionAudio guides available at Box Office for $2 per personThe Women’s Museum building is located at 3800 Parry Avenue, Dallas, Texas, 75226 (map). Parking is available outside the fair grounds on the west side of the Music Hall at Fair Park through Gate 3. More information is available at www.chapelsistine.com. 

Art and Nature in the Middle Ages

December 4, 2016 to March 19, 2017

Chilton II Gallery at the Dallas Museum of Art

Spanning the 12th to early 16th centuries, "Art and Nature in the Middle Ages" explores the diverse modes of expression and variety of representations of nature in European medieval art, whether plant or animal, sacred or profane, real or imagined, highlighting the continuities and changes. The exhibition, organized by the Musée de Cluny, musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris, and on view exclusively at the DMA in the United States, presents more than 100 extraordinary objects, rarely before shown in the United States, that reflect the wide range of styles, techniques, and iconography that flourished during this period. The featured works of art—which include an astonishing array of media, from stained glass windows to illuminated manuscripts—emphasize the fundamental bond between humans and nature, and nature’s constant presence in the immediate environment and spiritual life of men and women in the Middle Ages.Art and Nature in the Middle Ages will require a $16 special exhibition ticket.  

Wesley Hill on Christianity, Same-Sex Attraction, and Spiritual Friendship

Wes Hill has written two books I read and loved, Washed and Waiting and also Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian. On the Table podcast, Darrell Bock interviews him about the realities that led him to write both.

"Malestrom" on sale this week

A word from author Carolyn Custis James, author of Malestrom, whom I previously featured here:

Like many of you I am trying to make sense of the election. As I reflect on these developments, I am persuaded that it has revealed deeper, more profound issues. If the pundits are correct, and I think they are, white working class men, including a large percentage of self-described “evangelicals,” have played a central role in this election.These males are outraged by their declining place of prominence and privilege in today’s America. They feel threatened by strong currents of change—the rise of women, globalization, and seismic shifts in the economy and culture—and are determined to regain what they have lost. For many, their vote was a vote for a revived American patriarchy.This is all too familiar to me. The macho posturing and oppressive, demeaning treatment of other subgroups is at the heart of what I wrote about in Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World. It is as hurtful to the men themselves as it is to those who suffer from their actions.I believe the hope-filled message of Malestrom is particularly relevant to this crisis and more urgent than ever. I feel a burden, indeed a responsibility, to get this message out to as many people as possible.So starting Monday, November 15 through Sunday, November 20, the folks at Zondervan are offering the eBook version of Malestrom on sale for $3.99. Malestrom is listed under SEX, GENDER & CHURCH. 

An interview with a birth-mom who made an adoption plan: Christine Lindsay

November is Adoption Awareness Month. So I'm featuring here an author who has a book that considers all sides of the adoption triad. 

SG:You are a reunited birth-mom—a woman who made an adoption plan for her baby who has met her biological child as an adult. Was the the day you met your birth-daughter a happy one?

Christine: Sadly, no. It was as painful as the day I said goodbye to Sarah as a three-day-old baby in 1979. In fact, more painful. At least on the former day, I was filled with faith that she and I would be reunited one day when she became an adult. For the next twenty years as she grew up as another couple’s child, I prayed for the time when I would see her again. But on that day, Sarah’s mom and dad were extremely upset by my desire to meet the now-adult Sarah. They couldn’t bear the thought of meeting me nor understand why I would want to meet them. In fact her dad was very much against the whole idea of our meeting.This put a lot of pressure on Sarah, and the day we met again, she came across as very distant to me. This broke my heart, taking away all the faith that I had that she and I could develop a close birth-mother/birth-daughter relationship—one different from what she had with her adoptive parents, but special none the less.

SG:So how did you feel about adoption after you met your birth-daughter?

Christine: For the first twenty years after I said goodbye to Sarah, I considered her and her adoptive parents a package deal—something God had put together. I loved them as much as I loved her, and I wanted a relationship with them as much as I wanted a relationship with Sarah. Discovering that they did not feel the same way about me brought back all the emotional pain of the initial decision.As a birth-mom, I was already struggling with the losses of that, and the delicate but subversive ways my psyche had been affected by making an adoption plan for my child—even though I’d made that sacrifice in her best interests. Seeing my grown birth-daughter and all that I had lost, I believe I realized for the first time the full extent of my choice.The emotional pain brought on a clinical depression that lasted two or three years. I began to look at Sarah’s adoption through fractured lenses. All the joy I’d felt about giving my child a better home life than I could have offered her back then dissolved into bitterness. I suddenly felt hood-winked by God, feeling that He had tricked me into giving Sarah up. I thought He obviously gave Sarah to her adoptive parents because He didn’t consider me good enough to raise Sarah. And if I wasn’t good enough to be Sarah’s mother, I must not be good enough for the children I had with my husband.Naturally this wasn’t the truth, but when we are depressed we don’t see things clearly. At that time, I wished I could turn back the clock and keep my baby.Jealousy grew inside me at a frightening rate. There always had been a tiny bit of jealousy that someone else was raising my child, but it grew into a monster. As a Christian I was turned inside out, hating myself for this jealousy, and yet unable to pull myself out of my emotional tailspin.

SG: Do you still feel that way?

Christine: No, thank God. Depression and emotional trauma do not heal overnight, and we often need professional help. I had a great counselor who helped me move on from those destructive emotions and began to search for the real me. So often traumatic experiences stop people from reaching emotional maturity. My husband was also an amazing help, and one day he brought me a new journal and pen, and said, “Here honey, write your story.”Also, through the verse in Isaiah 49:15, 16 I realized that my crazy love for my children (including Sarah) was nothing compared to the immense love God the Father had and has for me. That was the beginning of healing.It took time, but gradually I began to lighten up on Sarah’s adoptive parents and recognize their right to their private life with Sarah. As I filled up on God’s love for me, I was able to love them again the way I first had when Sarah was a baby.

SG:How do you feel about adoption today?

Christine: I beg pregnant women today to consider adoption as an alternative to abortion. It’s a wonderful choice. But if the pregnant woman is able to keep her baby, I wholeheartedly encourage her to do so. I’ll be honest, making an adoption plan for your baby is one of the hardest sacrifices a woman can make. But I have also found that we can turn to God in our greatest need, and He is there with leagues and leagues of comfort and love, and new joys to replace our sorrows. It wasn’t easy for me, but now I can say, that because I truly love Sarah, I cannot imagine her life without her adoptive parents and brothers.

SG:Will your memoir hurt my feelings as a woman who struggled with infertility?

Christine: Since my book braids the stories of not only birth-moms and birth-families, but also that of adoptive moms and dads, I do not believe anyone will be hurt by this book. All the authors in this memoir tell their own stories in their own words, holding nothing back. So, Sarah’s adoptive mom, Anne, tells it like it was as a woman who could not bear children. She also shares openly that having me in Sarah’s life as her birth-mom is still difficult for her. She adds that if she could, she’d rather that I wasn’t in Sarah’s life at all these day, even admitting that this is selfish.I too, share honestly that I was jealous, angry with her, and selfishly thinking only of my own emotions during the years just after I met Sarah as an adult.Sarah, too, shares her journey both as an adoptee and also as a woman hurting over the loss of eight miscarriages. The pain of infertility is well shared in Finding Sarah, Finding Me.Yet while our honesty is brutal at times, it weaves a bright ribbon of hope throughout for those who might be hurting with the issues of infertility and adoption.

SG:How can your book help the various sides in adoption triads?

Christine: Finding Sarah, Finding Me can help:

• Women who are pregnant, unmarried and afraid, if they want to know the emotional truth about making an adoption plan for their baby—that while it hurts immensely, there can be joy. It is my prayer, that this will encourage more women to consider adoption instead of abortion.

• Infertile people will be encouraged to have their voice recognized.

• Adoptive parents will feel affirmed in their mixed emotions regarding the frightening prospect of adoption reunion. This memoir shows various types of reunions—some that went beautifully well and created unique blended families, and others that did not. People are made up of such different emotional stuff. Not all should go down that road.

SG:You're a fiction writer; why write this memoir now?

Christine: My desire to tell my birth-mother story got me started writing in the first place. But the timing wasn’t right after I met Sarah as an adult in 1999. It took seventeen years for the Lord to work on everyone’s heart, to heal old emotional pain, so that the memoir could be published and no one be hurt by it. During those years of healing however, the Lord encourage me to tell my story in Christian fiction, which has won numerous awards.All the spiritual depth of my heartache and depression are in my novels, in the hope of encouraging others. Life is not easy. 

Book info: Sometimes it is only through giving up our hearts that we learn to trust the Lord.Adoption. It’s something that touches one in three people today, a word that will conjure different emotions in those people touched by it. A word that might represent the greatest hope…the greatest question…the greatest sacrifice. But most of all, it’s a word that represents God’s immense love for his people.Join birth mother Christine Lindsay as she shares the heartaches, hopes, and epiphanies of her journey to reunion with the daughter she gave up—and to understanding her true identity in Christ along the way.Through her story and glimpses into the lives of other families in the adoption triad, readers see the beauty of our broken families, broken hearts, and broken dreams when we entrust them to our loving God.Read Chapter One of Finding, Sarah Finding Me: Click HERE

Author info:Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction with complex emotional and psychological truth. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary and historical romances Londonderry Dreaming and Sofi’s Bridge.A writer and speaker, Christine, along her husband, lives on the west coast of Canada, and she has just released her non-fiction book Finding Sarah, Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.Drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads Purchase links:Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)Barnes and Noble

Election Day 2016: Where Do We Go from Here?

A member of the US media tweeted, “Obama's dad dumped him at birth & his mom got rid of him at age 10—did they know something we didn't when we signed up for this guy?” We’re so used to such speech in America that for many of us, it’s doesn't even make us cringe. But such statements are evil on many levels. And they’re in direct disobedience to a command in 1 Peter. Let us as Christians never be among those who would talk this way, even though we live in a world where we hear and read comments like this all the time.The apostle Peter, writing to believers scattered across the Roman Empire, exhorted his readers, as slaves of God to “honor all; love/esteem highly brothers and sisters in Christ; fear God; honor the king” (1 Pet. 2:17). Let’s look closely at the groups he had in view.All. The first group we’re to honor is “all.” No room for rudeness or name-calling or treating others like we think they’re worthless. In a world that had sixty million slaves, it was easy to honor the important and dishonor the minions. Yet Peter exhorted his readers to honor every person. Why? Because every human bears God’s image, and is thus worthy of respect. This is the same logic those of us in the pro-life movement have for the unborn—all are worthy of respect, having inherent dignity. We need to make sure we show such respect not just to the unborn, but to the “born.”Spiritual siblings. Believers are to have a special esteem for one another, because we are progeny of the same heavenly Father. So it should go without saying that our familial relationships must transcend our political loyalties. That means there’s no room for showing anything but love and esteem for believers who voted for the “other” candidate(s), or refused to vote for any candidate, or who wrote in the name of a candidate destined to lose. While some have argued that each of these actions is a moral imperative, such arguments have often disregarded the scriptural imperative about never causing a fellow Christian to violate his or her conscience (see Rom. 14). We increase the love in our spiritual family when we treat fellow Christians with affection despite our political differences. The church is Jesus’s bride. He adores her. This earth will fade away; the bride will not. Our prioritizing of the spiritual family over politics communicates what really matters—certainly what matters most to God.God. Notice that Peter distinguishes here between fearing God and honoring “the king” (v. 17). God receives our highest respect because he has the power over life and death, heaven and hell, while the president has power only in the earthly realm. And God is in control of earthly governments. This election did not take him by surprise.The president. In the days to come it’s especially important that Christ-followers remember and practice the last imperative in Peter’s exhortation: Honor the king. The people in Peter’s world did not technically serve a king; they served an emperor. But Peter’s word for “king” was broad enough to include whatever earthly power was over his readers. In the case of the Roman Empire, that was the emperor; and in the case of the United States of America, it’s the president.Once all ballots are tabulated, American Christians will groan—no matter which way this election goes. So how do we go from guffawing over SNL sketches to talking respectfully? In the power of the Spirit, following the example of those who have gone before us in the faith. If Peter’s readers could honor Nero—who wandered the streets murdering the innocent for sport, had numerous Christians killed, and knocked off his own mother—we can certainly honor the United States president.Our honoring the president can have two results:1. Our respect will show our belief in the sovereignty of God. We demonstrate our trust in God by being respectful, especially of a president we really dislike.2. We'll add credibility to our witness. We risk alienating people from the gospel when we make politics an additional obstacle. But if we demonstrate honor for those who do not deserve it—not just the office but even the person who inhabits it—we show something of what Christ showed to all whom he came to serve.Perhaps you loathe the new commander in chief enough to assign the label “enemy”? If so, recall what Jesus told his followers to do for their enemies: pray for them, and not prayers calling down brimstone, but prayers of blessing. In blessing those whom we might even despise, we show that we belong to a different kingdom with a better ruler.Peter’s exhortation to honor the king came in the context of reminding the powerless Christians of his day that they were destined for a different country to be ruled by a Good Shepherd-king from whom they would receive a massive inheritance. That is our destiny, too. So take heart. In the words of the elderly John, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). This isn’t the end of the story.

7 Views on the Role of Women w/in the Inerrancy Camp

My Engage blog post for October 25:

I'm speaking at an event today at which I'm outlining seven different views on the role of women held by those who hold to the verbal plenary inspiration of scripture:1. TRADITIONALISTSBelieve women are more easily deceived than men, but also masters at deceiving. Women are ontologically inferior to men at created level. “Women are the devil’s gateway.” — Tertullian. Augustine, Aquinas, John Knox, etc.COMPLEMENTARIANS (spectrum of about 4 views)Women equal before God, but in some form of hierarchy w/ men/ husbands. Authority = the issue w/ several views on the public ministry of women:2. Male "headship" – all men = "head" over all women. Speak of "male headship." Innate. At creation. Head = synonym for leader.3. Male "headship" in the church and home – husband head of wife + elders head over women in church and home (not necessarily in business, society)4. Husband "headship" only – husband has headship over wife. Would never apply the word "head" to any other human relationship. Note Koine had only one word for “wife” or “woman”—context determines which. Reference to asking “husbands” at home and “saved through childbearing” suggest wives, not woman, in view. Therefore, verses restricting women actually restrict only wives (e.g., “Let the wives keep silent in the churches…ask husbands at home”; “I am not allowing a wife to teach or have autonomous authority over a husband”)5. Husband = "head" (not headship) – Would not alter the word "head" to add "ship." See "head" as part of a metaphor, not a leadership picture. Oneness picture. But still embrace the idea that husband = authority of wife today6. SOME COMPLEMENTARIANS/EGALITARIANSNo hierarchy, but believe in voluntary submission of wife. Favor agape/submit language vs. head/submit or speaking only of "mutual submission" in marriage, though they see that too. Not head over wife, but head of wife. Note that LSJ Greek lexicon does not list "authority" as a possible synonym/definition for “head.”7. EGALITARIANSA. Those who argue synonym for “head” should be source/origin,* not authority. OR…B. Those who don't try to refute “head” understood as authority, but would view such usage as culturally influenced and not for all time.Speak only of “mutual submission” as the ideal in marriage. No limits on women in ministry.

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Complementarians draw line between themselves and egalitarians at different paces:1. At bishop level. Bishop must be male. Don't necessarily have elders in their structure. The bishop might not even reside in their town. So the church may function with what looks like gender equality. But they still have that one position that must be filled by a male.2. At elder level. Women can preach with men present, as long as women are not elders. Elder board = ruling board. Emphasize that pastor/preacher is a spiritual gift, not an office. Woman may be preachers and speak “under authority” of male elders.3. At women preaching. Anyone who lets a woman preach with men in the room (some exceptions made for women who are famous) must be egalitarian.4. Ordination. “Anyone who ordains women must be egalitarian.”EGALITARIANS DEFINE COMPLEMENTARIANSAt hierarchy. Equality before God has human social ramifications. Reject any authority on basis of sex alone. So complementarian or traditionalist = anyone who believes in male hierarchy of any kind based on sexBoth camps believe in gender differences. Egalitarians believe those differences have no bearing on hierarchy in home/church. Complementarians believe those differences mean men/women have different roles relating to authority in home/church.Where do you fall? Have you worked through the passages and issues so you know where you stand and why?

New Film: New Life

So I made a list of things I miss in a lot of movies these days. Many films have one or two of these elements, but why can’t I have them all? A story that makes me want to keep watching. Good acting. Realistic dialogue. Meaningful content. Solid cinematography. Realism that doesn’t constantly push the envelope of decency. The absence of clichés. Married people who actually love each other, even if they have imperfect relationships. Timeless themes. Racial diversity. Older people who aren't portrayed as complete idiots. The absence not only of gratuitous violence and sex but also of gratuitous religion. I know—a tall order.Still, it's possible. I was delighted recently to find them all in a little gem that releases today, “New Life (Nouvelle Vie)” starring Erin Bethea and Adelaide actor Patrick Moore.When a newcomer from overseas, Benjamin Morton, meets the little girl next door, he has no idea how much she will affect his life. Ava turns out to be the girl of his dreams. From the innocence of a childhood friendship through adolescent attraction, their love grows. And grows.And they end up needing all that love for what life throws at them.“New Life” explores the ups and downs of love and commitment, showing that in good times and bad we can face our circumstances with hope and even anticipation.

Introducing "Fathom"

Recently some former students launched a terrific new site called Fathom. I wrote an article, "In the Spirit of Thomas," for their inaugural issue. It's for those like me who have wrestled with existential doubt. It's a tough topic with some gritty details, but I hope it blesses you.

Why Study Church History?

A few weeks ago, Dr. Glenn Kreider (we both teach at DTS) and I were in Austin talking with Jennie Allen, founder of IF:Gathering, to film segments included in the new study they are offering—Anno Domini or "AD." AD focuses on the Book of Acts and what followed—the 2,000-year history of the church, the bride of Christ. You can sign up for the free 8-week course.Below I spend about 30 seconds talking about why I encourage people to study this topic:The following video lasts about five minutes, and we talk more in depth about the value of understanding our history.  This is the intro to lesson one.I hope you'll consider joining in. Click here and scroll down to get started and read the encouraging responses to this video.

"Locker Room Banter": A Teachable Moment

My Engage post at bible.org got a lot of traffic this week. It's not about politics . . . .

The candidate for the US presidency who has received the most enthusiastic support from evangelicals made the following comments, which were leaked recently from a 2005 conversation in which he was talking with a member of the media:"I moved on her like a [vulgar use of term for female dog], and I could not get there, and she was married. And all the sudden I see her and she's got the big phony [vulgar word for breasts], she's totally changed her look.""I'll admit it. I did try to f***her. She was married … and I moved on her very heavily.""I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it's like a magnet. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab 'em by the [vulgar term for female genitalia]."Once the candidate’s words became public, the man who said them offered this: “I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them.”This post is not about whom you should vote for. And it is not about which candidate is more evil. It is about how Christians harm others when we minimize the seriousness of an offense and teach a faulty view of repentance and forgiveness. Again, this post is not about the election or how we should vote. Rather, I want us to focus only on apologies and forgiveness and reconciliation as well as minimizing sin. Because a lot of Christians responded with a lot of falsehood that contradicts the gospel in how they dealt with the publicity of the comments. And our doing so has injured people and brought shame to the name of Christ.The initial response of some Christians to this news was to blame the liberal media, deflecting blame and minimizing the seriousness of the candidate’s actions. The media’s actions are irrelevant in a conversation about the candidate’s behavior. It does not represent Christ well to blame such revelations on “liberal media,” because doing so suggests we want the media to suppress what might damage a favorite candidate. And that is not what a person who believes Jesus is the truth should want. It is the job of media to bring truth to light. Members of the conservative media have released plenty of damaging information on the opposing candidate, and both arms of the media can do a service to our country by helping vet candidates, exposing darkness, even if some individuals who do so are motivated by partisanship.Now then, saying, “That was 11 years ago” and “that was a long time ago” are completely inappropriate responses. The Bible teaches that mere time passed does not bring reconciliation. Bill Cosby is accused of multiple crimes against women, but I know of no believers who argue, “That was a long time ago.” In fact, ask anyone who has been the victim of non-consentual sexual actions, and you will hear that Time + Zero Sincere Apology + Zero Reconciliation ≠ Shalom.When a shady tax collector was sorry, truly sorry for his sin, he said, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." That is what "sorry" actually looks like. When this tax collector said “if I have cheated anybody” he did not mean there was any question of whether he had done so. Rather, he used the word “if” to mean “in every case in which I have cheated someone….”What does repentance look like in this situation? It begins with saying to every victim, “I’m sorry that I spoke that way to/about you,” and/or “I’m sorry that I assaulted you.” Period. Not “I’m sorry YOU were offended when I grabbed you.” And not “I’m sorry, BUT you were dressed provocatively.” No “Ifs” or “buts” should make their way into apologies, which are supposed to do the opposite of minimize sin. They must validate the truth about the injustice in the strongest terms. An apology must also leave out reference to others we consider bigger sinners: “Yes, I did it, but at least I’m not as bad as [insert name of person we consider a worse sinner].” Doing so attempts to redirect the focus elsewhere rather than allowing the spotlight of truth to shine on our own wrongdoing.Additionally, a repentant person follows responsibility-taking words with actions that demonstrate sincerity. And the action must cost something that exceeds the benefit received from the sin. For example, “I’m sorry I violated you. Not only will I gladly pay for the counseling you surely need to help you work through the trauma, but I will make a donation to a rape crisis center that equals three times the amount of your counseling so others can get help too.”When Christians say, “But he apologized, so forgive him,” they imply that mere words are enough. But apologies are hollow without evidence of sorrow over actions. A closer-to-the-truth response is, “Okay, time to find the victims and offer restitution.”Many men who batter their wives apologize with weeping. But the next time they find their toast burned or their favorite shirt wrinkled, they batter again. Forgiveness is not the same as trust. A wife in such a situation may forgive, but that does not mean she trusts him until he has proven himself trustworthy. She sets boundaries to keep herself safe until he proves through actions, not just words, that he has changed. Otherwise she becomes complicit in his behavior.The candidate whom evangelicals have outspokenly supported said of his lewd speech, “This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course . . . . I apologize if anyone was offended.” Three times during the presidential debate, he referred to his “locker-room banter.”Calling his words “locker-room banter” normalizes it. It is not normal. Not even in locker rooms. Athletes took to social media this week to condemn the remarks in the strongest of terms and push back against the caricature as grossly inaccurate and demeaning.The Republican National Committee chairman immediately issued a statement saying, "No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever.” Meanwhile, many Christian leaders made statements like, “We are all sinners who all need Christ's forgiveness”In many cases those who do not necessarily name Christ as Lord did a better job of calling sin what it is and validating victims’ pain than did those who should be doing so.A rape victim wrote, “’It was ten years ago . . . He apologized . . . He’s not a perfect man,’ All of which are deflections. All of which are truly insensitive to victims of sexual abuse and reflect again a rape culture that continually dismisses as petty the many and varied degradations we experience in the ramp up to and the stop just short of rape. Such degradations, coarsely bragged about among men or whispered breath-hot in our faces, are far more than locker room banter. And engagement in it is not harmless. It’s modus operandi for sexual predators. It’s what they do. It’s dialogue they deviantly engage in. And for them, pre-game, post-game, or game time, it is abusive. And it’s intended to be.”Not only are we too quick to call for public forgiveness toward some who show no fruits of repentance, but we often do so only when it serves our ends. It is worth adding that while it is true that we all need Christ’s forgiveness, not once have I seen evangelicals apply this truth to someone who sent and received emails on a private server or who is accused of being complicit in the Benghazi fiasco. So I wonder: Do we pull the forgiveness card for gospel reasons or only political ones? If we are going to have any moral voice, we cannot call for rage against the other candidate’s sins while referencing the biblical mandate to forgive only when applied to our own candidate’s.So to summarize, (1) We need to know how to apologize in our own dealings and in how we assess others’ behaviors; (2) we need to link appropriate apology with repentance, which involves making restitution; (3) and we need to distinguish between forgiveness and easy grace, and apply forgiveness consistently; (4) we must stand on the front lines of exposing and condemning sexual abuse in all its forms.When we minimize such vulgar words and actions, we do the opposite of dignify women made in the image of God. When we refuse to speak out because our doing so might hurt our candidate, we allow our politics to overshadow the gospel.

Calvin Worship Symposium

The annual Calvin Symposium on Worship is a three-day conference sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Center for Excellence in Preaching. The conference brings together a wide audience of artists, musicians, pastors, scholars, students, worship leaders and planners, and other interested worshipers. People gather from around the world for a time of fellowship, worship, and learning together, seeking to develop their gifts, encourage each other, and renew their commitment to the full ministry of the church. This is not your typical conference. Attendees also experience much of what they study. You can see one example of the conference's ramifications in the video above.The program for the 2017 event has been posted, and presenters include N. T. Wright.I plan to take a group of students for graduate credit (additional readings and some written assignments required in addition to attendance). We rent a house, share meals, and talk about what we've experienced. Dates are January 26–28, 2017 (we fly out on January 25 and return on January 29, weather permitting). Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"The Student Body": Do Students’ BMI Tests Do More Harm Than Good?

When Bailey Webber interviewed people for her new documentary, The Student Body, she took a set of bathroom scales with her. And every person with whom she spoke, she asked, “Would you be willing to step on the scales so we can get your BMI?” To a person, they balked. Most ultimately refused, though some reluctantly agreed.A lot of kids in our schools don’t get the choice to decline. And then a letter arrives notifying them that they are too skinny or too fat.In the ground-breaking and excellently produced film she made with her dad, Bailey, a young journalist, tackles the heated topic of childhood obesity and misguided efforts to solve our national childhood obesity epidemic.And just what are those misguided efforts? Lawmakers in dozens of states have passed mandates requiring schools to perform body mass index (BMI) tests on students and then send letters stating their results. Coined the “Fat Letters” by students, these notifications go to kids whose bodies fall outside a narrowly acceptable range, essentially notifying children, even as young as kindergarten age, that they are abnormal. Sometimes the results are devastating.When a determined sixth grader in Ohio voiced her protest against the mandatory weigh-ins and the embarrassing letters, Bailey took up the girl's fight. Bailey's investigation is chronicled in The Student Body, the story of how she and a friend took on law-makers for their fat-shaming. But in it she also explores the broader complexities of childhood obesity.Hosted by The National Eating Disorders Association, the award-winning father/daughter team who made this film have been honored by the National Association of University Women. Michael Webber is a motion-picture producer and renowned documentary filmmaker whose film, The Elephant in the Living Room, I reviewed here in 2011.Although makers of The Student Body acknowledge that obesity is a real national crisis, the Webbers’ stance is that requiring kids to reveal their weight at school in addition to receiving impersonal notifications is cruel and bully-like behavior. Good intentions, perhaps, but horrible execution.Webber does interview those who support the BMI screenings/notifications. But the film is definitely weighted toward those who believe the notifications cause damage.The film has excellent production values, a bit of humor, and it'll inspire your faith in the next generation of journalists. Watch it with a young person and have a great discussion. Look for screenings near you this fall (and in video next year) and check out The Student Body web site. 

A Great Film

Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War tells the story of a US couple’s courageous private war against the Nazis in 1939.The Sharps, a Unitarian minister and his wife, are two of only five Americans honored as Righteous Among the Nations in Israel's Yad Vashem. You can watch their story online at PBS until October 5 by clicking on the above link.This film is the latest from Ken Burns, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in documentaries. Defying the Nazis is an incredible story of great personal sacrifice.In this film you will see many similarities to the current social environment in America. How does an unlikely candidate rise quickly to power? How does racism thrive? Why don't people care for refugees? Is national security more important that children's lives? We've been here before.When you finish, read Auden's poem, September 1, 1939. We must love one another or die.

On the ESV's New Rendering of Genesis 3:16 ("Contrary Wives")

In light of the volumes written about recent changes in the ESV, I thought I’d offer a few reflections on the interpretation of this text (Gen. 3:16), especially because the verse is foundational to many people’s understanding of gender roles. First, the change:Previous ESV translation of Genesis 3:16: Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.New text of Genesis 3:16: Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.First, an underlying reason for some of the mistrust: The ESV committee had pretty conservative complementarians on it. I’ve identified about five different kinds of complementarians, and many on this committee are at the traditionalist end. And here’s the rub: They included no women translators. And no egalitarians. In a world growing more aware of the blindness inherent in homogenous groups, this seems odd—especially coming from people who acknowledge in their very label, “complementarian,” that God designed men and women to, well, complement each other.Here’s a key question: Is the new translation exegetically justifiable? The word in question is the Hebrew preposition el. And the standard biblical Hebrew lexicon (abbreviated as HALOT) includes “against” as a possible translation of el. Because in English “contrary to” can serve as a synonym for “against,” the translators have determined that "contrary to" is an appropriate possibility.What’s of special interest is that, as Susan Foh observed long ago, we find in the next chapter (Gen. 4) the same combination of the nouns rule and desire present in this oracle, and in that context the writer is describing a power struggle. Also in Genesis 4, the NASB translators rendered v. 8 this way: “And it came about when [Cain and Abel] were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Also relevant.I can see how the translators got where they did on Genesis 3:16. But I’m frankly uncomfortable with translating el as “contrary to” when “for” will do. Elsewhere in translation, or even in teaching, when we morph words like “head” into “headship” and then substitute headship with the synonym leadership, we suddenly have an org chart, and we miss the beautiful picture of oneness. “Leadership” looks more like a husband as president and the wife as his assistant than a head connected to a body as two become one.Or when we translate “flesh” as “sin nature . . . ” We quit thinking of our flesh, our entire selves, as sinful and instead we picture a “sin nature” as being a part of ourselves, as a subset of ourselves—something we possess. The text actually says “flesh, ” not “sin nature.” Why not just translate it that way?These are just a couple of examples where I wish we’d stop using synonyms and use the actual words the biblical authors used. Because such synonyms do introduce subtle changes to the meanings.Now, let’s assume for a moment that the ESV translators got it right and that the curse oracle in Genesis 3 is, in fact, a prediction (not a prescription, but a prediction/description) of what will happen to the husband/wife relationship as a consequence of sin—the wife’s part being contrary to her husband and the husband going patriarchal. The text is not saying that the counterpart of the wife’s response is that her husband must rule her. The text is suggesting a new incongruence in the relationship as a consequence of sin destroying what was intended to be beautiful. Something is wrecked. If so, God via the author of Genesis is not saying they (and by extension, we) should just give up and accept that marriage will stink. We can and should fight the effects of the Fall!A seminary student (thankfully not from the school where I teach) told his wife’s ob-gyn that she could not use pain-killers when she gave birth because one of the effects of the Fall was that she needed to endure pain in childbirth. That ob-gyn called the then pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church for advice on how to answer this young man. The pastor requested a few days’ time to come up with a pithy answer. When the pastor called back, he told the doctor, “You tell that young man he has to quit his cushy desk job in an air-conditioned office and earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.”The reality: We can have epidurals. We can use weed-killer. And we can challenge controlling wives and controlling husbands.Maybe some old-time fundamentalists thought the curse oracle included God’s new “grand design” for how things should be, with ruler husbands keeping in line their resisting wives. But most interpreters who hold a high view of the Bible think God is saying something horrible has happened to both.In the Piper/Grudem text that is the hallmark of complementarian thinking, Dr. Ray Ortlund says he understands the man’s “rule” as described in Genesis 3:15 not as benevolent, agape-love service but as “ungodly domination.” Whereas the woman and man were made to rule the earth together, the man’s rule is now sinfully directed toward his wife.There is not one strictly egalitarian nor one strictly complementarian “view” of how to interpret this verse. Both camps have scholars who are “all over the map” in terms of interpretation. Some egalitarians think the woman will romantically desire the man (as the word is used in Song of Songs) but that he will instead love his work—or something less relational than her. Some complementarians think the same thing. Many, including apparently the ESV translators, think both husband and wife have a bad thing going after the Fall. Complementarians George and Dora Winston point out that the curse affects marriage, but they warn readers to avoid extrapolating “all women” and “all men” from marriage sections of Genesis.One thing we must make sure we include in the recent discussion is this: Jesus changes everything. The veil that was ripped when he died made the all-male priesthood’s limited access obsolete. Instead he changed the priesthood into a kingdom of priests comprised of male, female, Jew, Gentile, slave and free—in which all who believe are priests. And the Holy Spirit gives us the power as new creatures to live in transformed relationships.The Christian wife, Paul warns in his letter to the Corinthians, “is busy with things of the world, as to how she can please her husband” (1 Cor 7:34). The apostle says the same of the Christian husband toward his wife. And this, Paul says, is a reason to remain single—because singles can live undistracted lives focused on pleasing only the Lord. Can we rightfully say Scripture teaches that wives are contrary to their husbands while also saying it teaches these same women seek to please their husbands? Aren’t the two views mutually exclusive? It would seem the clearest understanding, when taking into account the whole counsel of God, is that the former consequence of a power struggle is mostly overturned through yielding to the Spirit when a person becomes a new creation in Christ.

Is Jesus Really a Friend to Women?

I received this question recently: If Jesus was so "for" women, why in Luke 14:25–27, when addressing the crowd (which obviously had women in it), did he basically exclude them or communicate they were not worth considering or addressing when he said "wife" and not "husband"?Great question. First, let's look at the text in question: Luke 14:25–27:^"Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus, and turning to them he said,  ^'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple . . . ."The person who wrote the question wonders why Jesus, when speaking of the cost of following him, exhorts husbands to hate wives, but does not tell wives to hate husbands. Why are wives recipients of hatred, but not husbands? Why is it assumed Jesus' disciples will be men, not women?Now, notice the couplets here:father and motherwife and childrenbrothers and sistersJesus could have indeed said "spouse and children." And doing so would have demonstrated a sense of justice where women are concerned. But if he had done so, male/female equality would have become the focus of his emphasis. And the word on which he wanted to place emphasis was the shocker: hate.Allow me to explain:Let's suppose a person concerned with gays being bullied alters lyrics to emphasize God's love for all people by singing this: “Gay and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” Only one word changes, and the one change is the thing that gets emphasized. Point: God loves everybody, including gays.Someone hearing that might say, “What about people from Semitic backgrounds? If the person singing is so big on loving all people, why not also include “tan” for Arabs and Jews? Our answer would be that Jesus does indeed love all people, but the point of the one altering the lyric is not to stop and add all colors of the rainbow. If they sang, "Gay and yellow and tan and black and white, they are precious in his sight..." we would not know if the point of the change was to emphasize treatment of gays or address anti-Semitic sentiments.The one thing changed is the thing that contributes to the precise point being made . The creator sticks to the known words and alters only one thing for emphasis.In Luke's pericope Jesus is speaking of the cost of following him. And to to so, he uses the common Hebrew speech habit of coupling nouns—of pairing things. And most likely he is quoting a poetic coupling created by someone else from a strictly male point of view. His listeners were probably used to hearing, “love father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister,” so Jesus shocks them by saying to hate father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister in comparison to how much they love him. Doubtless that got their attention, just like it still grabs ours all these centuries later.Elsewhere he does something similar with love/hate, only flipping it the other way:  “You have heard, ‘Hate your enemies…’ (known expression), but I say” (Jesus’ spin on that expression), “‘Love your enemies.””In both sermons, he gets the attention of his listeners, and us by extension, with what he is doing with love and hate. Others hate their enemies and love the people close to them. Followers of Jesus are to love our enemies and hate anyone in comparison to how much we love our Lord.