Once again, Holly impresses me with her Christian maturity. Check out her post on prejudice in the church. (You may have to highlight the text to read it.)

In relation to my previous post about the French riots…

Here’s an insightful blog post from someone who lived in one of the “suburbs” (read: slums) were “youths” (read: Muslim terrorists) are causing “civil unrest” (read: war).

Please don’t think that I’m some kind of anti-Muslim bigot. I’m not. I’m not anti-Islam any more than I’m anti-Hindu or anti-Mormon which is to say, I think they are on the wrong path, but through the love of Christ, I yearn for their salvation. I don’t think we (meaning America) should spray paint slurs on the houses of our Muslim neighbors. I just think we (meaning the media) should stop trying to cover up the truth about militant Islam and the “religion of peace”.

It took me a while to figure out the riots that are tearing France apart. I read a few news blurbs trying to discover the reason behind the civil unrest, but all that was reported was that a couple of “youths” were “accidentally” killed by police. That just didn’t register with me.

That was until I finally found this piece which gives us a peak at the truth behind the riots. The “poor suburbs of Paris were set ablaze” by North African Muslim immigrants.

France has long been courting the Islamic community and welcoming any immigration that might “diversify” France. Now, according to Paris’ police union, the mostly Muslim “ghettos” around Paris are in a state of “civil war”. I am not making this up! The violence has spread to other cities with large Muslim populations and, if you can believe what you read on the internet (yeah, I know), there is currently an influx of illicit money and guns into France with the purpose of arming this “unrest”.

Why is it that mainstream media continues to call this “civil unrest” and the perpetrators “youths”? How can they continue to insist that all this “unrest” was caused when “two youths jumped over the wall of an electrical substation and died, thinking they were being pursued by the police”?! Can someone explain to me the difference between the “unrest” in Paris and the “war” in Chechnya? Could some on clear up the distinction between French “youths” and Iraqi “terrorists”? Yyyeah. That’d be great.

I’ve got a long line of articles and wit queued up to share with you, but today all that takes a back seat to something bigger; something true.

There’s a girl in our youth group who is so tuned in, so sold out to God, so in love with Christ that it inspires me. Being a Christian is not about going to church or saying a prayer before you eat Sunday dinner. It’s not about doing anything. It’s about being. It’s about being in love with your Savior. It’s about having a passion that drives you to live for God. Yes, there are “good deeds” that come as a result, but that’s the “ends” rather than the “means”.

Please do me a personal favor and take the time to read this article about being a Christian in a lost world. (You may have to hi-lite the text to read it.) This is from a fifteen year old girl who has more wisdom than 90% of the academics in this country (and probably 99% of the world in general).

From the mouths’ of babes…

(Way to go Holly!)

This just in…

Madonna (the “entertainer”, not the mother of our Lord and Savior) has declared that, “Most priests are gay.”

In other news…

Most “entertainers” are stupid.

We now return you to your regular programming.

(via Drudge)

Whew… I’m back and I have just about caught up.

Sunday, July 10th, after church, the middle school kids from our church loaded up in three buses an SUV and a pick-up. If I remember right we had 42 seventh and eighth graders and 22 sponsors (many of whom where high schoolers). We headed out for San Antonio, Texas. Six hours later we were settling in to our digs for the week, a church gymnasium with some temporary classrooms on one side (divided by those slidy wall/curtain things). The smart few (including myself) brought air mattresses as we spent the week sleeping on the hardwood floors.

We split up into three VBS groups and one work crew. All but a couple of the seventh graders were on the work crew and spent the week cleaning, scraping and painting a small church building. The VBS groups did small Vacation Bible Schools at various inner-city housing projects. We were working with kids from three to twelve years old teaching them songs (from “Herman the Worm” to “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”), doing crafts, teaching Bible lessons, and (most importantly) playing with and loving on the kids in the hood.

Click to see my pictures from the mission trip.

It was a great experience. Yes, it was brutally hot. Yes, we were all pretty far from our comfort zones. Yes, we spent several days washing out hair with dog shampoo (after learning that some of the children had head lice). But ultimately I will carry the lessons I learned with me for life. God is so big. Watching God use broken vessels like us to pour out his love on kids who don’t get much love anywhere else was an honestly life-changing experience. Do me a favor and pray for the summer missionaries who spend months down in the trenches, sharing the love of Christ all over the country with kids in need.

On Friday, Tammy came down and picked me up to go to a family reunion at my folk’s ranch in La Grange. We were there a day and a half and had a blast getting to know distant family members we’d never met before and catching up with those that we don’t get to see often.

Click to see my pictures from the reunion. (The directory called “Big” is just for Uncle Robert. It’s the high-res versions.)

We left La Grange Saturday around noon and made it back to Arlington in time to catch the “One Voice” concert at Six Flags. Super Chick, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Third Day were all phenomenal! The Third Day set alone was worth the cost of the tickets. I am just now getting my voice back.

So (*pant pant*) there you have it. My week of vacation in 500 words or less.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to be out of town all next week. I am going on the “Mission Tour” with our church’s middle school youth. (Don’t ask me the difference between a mission tour and a mission trip, because I haven’t figured it out myself yet.) Yes, I’m going to spend all next week in Munchkin Land. It should be a great time to build some relationships with the younger kids in the youth group. I’m looking forward to it, even though it will be hard work.

We are going to San Antonio and our middle schoolers will be leading Vacation Bible School in several inner city churches and doing some community out reach. All I really know so far is that it’s going to be really really hot and we’re going to be sleeping on the floor. So, yeah, it’s pretty much what you’d expect while serving in God’s army.

Please pray for the kids and me next week and please pray for London. If you are not a Christian, wish me luck (or what ever it is you place your faith in) and pray for London anyway.

To Kraft Foods CEO Roger Deromedi, EVP Marc Firestone, et al.

Dear sirs:

I have been an avid Oreo fan my entire life. I have vivid memories of enjoying their creamy centers when I was barely old enough to sit upright at the table. I knew that my bologna had a first name (It’s O-s-c-a-r.) before I knew my own middle name. There are many Kraft products that have been a part of my life, so engrained that I hardly realized they were there until the day I realized I had to be rid of them.

You see, before I knew that I wished I was an Oscar Meyer wiener, I knew that Jesus loved me (for the Bible told me so). My faith in God comes before my addiction to Oreos. Thus, I must put my beliefs in the precepts of Christian living, including sexual purity, above my reliance on Kraft products.

I was saddened when I learned that Kraft’s leadership stands firmly against the God I worship on the subject of homosexuality. I was surprised to hear the obstinance with which the executives at Kraft have responded to requests to reconsider this policy. And so now, with heart-broken determination, I must inform you that I am laying aside the above mentioned, engrained parts of my life to join the American Family Association’s boycott of Kraft products.

Farewell beloved Oreos. Perhaps when you set aside your blind tolerance of dangerous and immoral practices, we can resume our relationship.

Sincerely,
Trint Ladd

You can read more about Kraft’s commitment to the Homosexual Adjenda at AFA.net.

As you may know, I am the drama leader at Glenview Baptist Church. Having been in contact with my uncle, a Viet Nam vet, and my nephew, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I wanted to do something special for Memorial Day.

Not to be confused with Veteran’s Day (which honors all veterans, living and dead), Memorial Day is a day to pay tribute to those killed in military service. It began as a day on which the widows of Confederate soldiers would go out and lay flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers.

I contacted Uncle Robert, who is a Legionnaire, about some material for my tribute. He sent me a script called “What Is a Vet?” I took this and adapted it for Memorial Day. The tribute was read this past Sunday, May 29th, by Brigadier General Bill Guy. Click the links below to hear the audio from the service. (These files are pretty big, so you may want to right click on the link and choose “Save Target As”.)

MemorialDayTribute.mp3
MemorialDayTribute.wma (Windows Media)

And the script can be found here: WhatIsAVeteran.doc

I’ve received some pretty scathing comments on a post I made a few weeks back regarding homosexual men and the risk they pose. I think I’ve been very fair in that I approved all the posts, didn’t delete any of them, and allowed folks to have a voice of decent.

Today, I ran across this little news gem that seems to back up my “intolerant” point of view. The fellow making the news lately with a seemingly stronger form of HIV falls squarely into the demographic I discussed in my previous post. It seems that, before he was hospitalized, he had “drug-fueled, unprotected sex with more than 100 men…”

There’s the full story.

I’m not taking a stance on this “new” HIV, as doctors can’t yet agree if it’s a new strain or if this guy’s life style left his immune system weaker than normal. All I’m saying is that, as I stated before, there are those in the homosexual community who, by their very lifestyle, endanger other people. Thus, my argument that homosexuality is not harmless even though mass media would have us believe that the gay lifestyle is totally normal and harmless, just … more colorful.

Call me intolerant. That’s fine. I’m a follower of Christ, and He was anything but tolerant. Christ tolerated people but he did not tolerate their sinful lifestyles.

He would have dinner with the tax collectors, but rest assured the dinner conversation centered around their need to come clean of their dishonest lifestyles. He forgave the prostitute, but with that He told her, “Go and sin no more,” not, “Go and remember to use a condom.” And most notably, He had no tolerance for hypocritical religious leaders who where, in his words, “white-washed tombs”, putting forth righteous facades, but living self-centered, prideful, and greedy lives. I don’t pretend to be perfect or righteous. I make no secret of the fact that I am a sinner and I struggle with my inborn desires. But that does not mean that I am blind to the sins of others. That does not make me any less capable of holding others accountable for dangerous lifestyles.

I would not ostracize people because of their sexual choices any more than I would ostracize someone for being an alcoholic or a Jehovah’s Witness (Yeah, I know. I’m just asking for flaming comments now.) God loves everyone, and so I must follow that example. But God is clear that, despite His love, He can not tolerate sin. He has given us an option, through grace, to escape our sin and follow Him, but it is up to us individually to accept that grace. If you are homosexual, I love you as a human being, created in God’s image, but I must disapprove of your sinful choices, just as you, if you are a Christian, would have to disapprove of my pride or lust or whatever weakness I may have.

What I’m getting at here is simply this: Sin is sin and the first step to living a Christ centered life is to recognize sin for what it is, then turn away from it. I’m not a gay-basher. People who go out looking for gay men to beat to death are guilty of murder and hate and will be judged for that. People who say every homosexual is going to hell have no understanding of grace and forgiveness, and their pride will be judged. The sin of the Pharisees was no better and no worse than the sin of the prostitute. I acknowledge the fact that my occasional lie or pride or lust is no better and no worse than the man in the story above. The difference is that I have given my life to Christ and He has forgiven my sin, so that I can strive to live a life free from sin. (Notice I said “strive.” No one is perfect.) That man has the same option. He can turn his life around, come clean and be welcomed into God’s arms when the dies. Or, he can continue to live in rebellion and pay a very dire, eternal consequence.

You don’t have to agree with me. That’s God’s other unique gift to mankind; free will. The comments are open. Be gentle.