Should We Be Allowed to Deny Services When They Conflict With Our Moral Beliefs? (One-Hour Seminary Tonight at 9)

In 2012 cake maker Jack Phillips told a gay couple that he could not bake them a cake that celebrated gay marriage.

He was sued, and the state of Colorado ruled against him.

Phillips took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it now awaits a second hearing.

How should I, as a follower of Jesus, understand and respond to this?

I'll answer that question on One-Hour Seminary tonight, Facebook Live, 9-10 PM EST. Thirty minutes of live teaching, and thirty minutes of live Q&A.

Join Me for Three Nights on Leading the Presence-Driven Church

(Session 1 was cancelled today due to ice and snow. See date change below.)

Please join me for a three-night seminar on The Presence-Driven Church.

Sundays, Feb. 18, 25, & March 11.

5 - 6:15 P.M.

Redeemer Fellowship Church
5305 Evergreen
Monroe, MI

For Feb. 11 read chapters 1, 2, and 3.

1. Introduction
2. The Case for Experience
3. The "Presence Motif"

Leading the Presence-Driven Church is available on Kindle for $7.99.

Paperback - $13.38.

This is a book about the primacy and centrality of God and his unsurpassable presence, and what this means for the Church. The presence of God is the core, the sine qua non, of mere Christianity. God’s presence is what is needed to win the day over the present powers of darkness. This book shows what it means for a church to be presence-driven, and what leadership looks like in the presence-driven church.

johnpiippo@msn.com  

Leading the Presence-Driven Church - John Piippo (Introductory Video)

You may have to scroll back to the video's beginning.

Sorry for the dramatic pose. This is a typical Finnish posture.





My book Leading the Presence-Driven Church was published January 2018.



My first book is:
















I have begun writing book #3 - How God Changes the Human Heart (A Phenomenology of Spiritual Transformation).

Break the Cycle of Hostility

Two pastors at my conference in Eldoret, Kenya

Every leader, every pastor, is disliked by someone. I know I am.

Most of us, I suspect, dislike people who dislike us. At least some of them. Our level of animosity may be in proportion to what the person has said about us, or done to us.

No one is universally loved. Jesus wasn't, in spite of loving his enemies, and giving his life for us all.

Sometimes, it can happen when I am in solitude and praying, the face of a person who hates me enters my mind. I may dwell on what they have done to me. This is never good for my soul, much less theirs. 

Then I remember - I cannot get this out of my mind - what Jesus did for us, for me, for my enemy. And what Jesus asks me and my enemy to do.

But I say to you that listen,

Love your enemies,

do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you,

pray for those who abuse you.

Luke 6:27-28

Richard Foster writes:

"It is one thing to love a friend, a stranger, or the virtually anonymous mass of humanity and another to love and forgive an enemy who hates and hurts us. When Jesus tells us to love, bless, and pray for our enemies and turn the other cheek, he’s emphasizing he doesn’t want us to be people who thrive on aggression and retaliation, who return blow for blow, curse for curse, grudge for grudge, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. He wants us to break the cycle of hostility." (Foster,  Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines, Kindle Locations 1041-1044) 

Why is this still so hard for me? The answer is: I am still in bondage. A chain still fetters me. I have not yet arrived. Christ is in me, but there is part of my heart where I have not allowed him to reign.

I am praying to love my enemies. Foster says, "This is Christianity. It is not an easy thing to do. But following Christ has never been an easy thing to do."

In my praying times, God is reminding me of my enemies. I name them, and force myself to pray for them. I pray for the day when loving my enemies is my habit, my inclination. Then I will be free. Only a free person can love those who are against them.

Much in the spiritual life, and in the Real Church, rides on this. Our worship, my worship, depends on this. Foster writes:

“Whose name should come first [in prayer]? Perhaps the name of our enemies. The injunction of Jesus is plain: ‘Pray for them which despitefully use you.’ He told us that worship is vain if we are embittered; that we should be wise to leave our gifts before the altar, go to make peace with our neighbor, and then worship. Only then can we truly worship. So the first intercession is, ‘Bless So-and-so, whom I foolishly regard as an enemy. Bless So-and-so whom I have wronged. Keep them in Thy favor. Banish my bitterness.’”

***
My recent book is: 



My first book is:

Sexual Identity: A Call for Understanding

A photo, from a long time ago.

When it comes to understanding sexual identity we live in a land of confusion, precious little understanding, and even less mentoring. 

What is lacking is a civil discourse. (For what a civil discourse looks and sounds like, see Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination.)

A true civil discourse on sexual identity will go deep, and lead to understanding. Only when we understand can we evaluate. In America, when it comes to sexual identity, I see 99% evaluation and 1% understanding.

In deep discussion that leads to understanding we get at worldviews. Much disagreement on sexual identity is rooted here, in mostly prethematic and pre-reflective assumptions, especially when it comes to ethical matters and protest. When it comes to worldviews, they are mostly unexamined. This is neither good nor helpful.

I am a Jesus-follower (albeit imperfectly). My worldview is Christian-theistic. The Bible provides me with a narrative, a text, a script, within which many moral issues find their meaning and answers. 

Everyone has a script they live by. Everyone. This means you. The judgments and evaluations you make find their explanations in the deep worldview assumptions you have. 

I'm issuing a call to Jesus-followers: grow in understanding your worldview. This will help you explain your views on sexual identity. This will allow you to civilly discourse, if you can find a non-reactive, thoughtful person who wants to understand you.

Do you want to talk about sexual identity? Then study. How important is this to you? Do you just want to pontificate and spout off your unexamined beliefs? Or do you want to invest in loving God with all your mind?

The prevailing American cultural script is: stay shallow and react on social media. I challenge you to revolt against such superficiality and grow deeper. Understand before you protest.

Study sexual identity, from our worldview perspective.

Begin with these three books. Be prepared to go slow. Be prepared to think. Be prepared to give an answer for the hope you have within you. Be prepared to do so with gentleness and respect. (See here.)

All by Mark Yarhouse:

Understanding Sexual Identity: A Resource for Youth Ministry

Sexuality and Sex Therapy: A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal (Note esp. the connection between worldviews and sexuality; e.g., if one is committed to metaphysical naturalism [atheism].) 

Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture



(My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.)

The Sense of Being Transgendered

Detroit

A few years ago a young man I knew was troubled, and engaged in attention-getting behaviors (cutting, suicidal, etc.). One day I went to his Facebook page and saw he announced himself as a woman. He got a lot of attention. In his case, I think there are reasons to believe that his was a misdiagnosis, rooted in a mental disorder.

One can't take one instance like this and hastily generalize to apply to all transgendered people. But it seems reasonable to believe that, given the current attention, some will misdiagnose themselves.

This is for the open-minded, people who value reading all sides of an argument.

I'll summarize the main points in "Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution," by Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

McHugh writes...

• The felt sense of being transgendered is a mental disorder in two ways: 1) the idea of sex misalignment is mistaken because it does not correspond with physical reality; and 2) it can lead to grim psychological outcomes.
• The transgendered live with the disordered assumption is that "the individual differs from what seems given in nature—namely one's maleness or femaleness."
• Psycho-social conflicts or problems will not be resolved by changing one's appearance.
• The transgendered hold to the idea that the "feeling of "gender" is a conscious, subjective sense that, being in one's mind, cannot be questioned by others. The individual often seeks not just society's tolerance of this "personal truth" but affirmation of it."
• Psychiatrists have the right to challenge the "solipsistic concept that what is in the mind cannot be questioned. Disorders of consciousness, after all, represent psychiatry's domain; declaring them off-limits would eliminate the field."
• Controlled and follow-up studies reveal problems with the transgender movement and support for it. "When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London's Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. Some 25% did have persisting feelings; what differentiates those individuals remains to be discerned."
• John Hopkins University was the first to conduct "sex reassignment surgery." They studied "the outcomes of transgendered people who had the surgery with the outcomes of those who did not. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as "satisfied" by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn't have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a "satisfied" but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs." (But, apparently, Johns Hopkins has changed its mind - see here.)
• This was a wise decision. "A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden...  revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender population. This disturbing result has as yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription."
• "At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. "Sex change" is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder."

***

See also...

"Former Johns Hopkins Chief of Psychiatry: Transgender Movement 'Collaborating With Madness'"

And...  surprise, surprise...  McHugh's analysis is under attack. For example, see herehttp://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/12/15/scary-science-johns-hopkins-university, and here. Just google "McHugh transgender" to see more.

In America it is very, very dangerous to wonder and question. Smells like fascism, "1984," The Gulag Archipelago, "Animal Farm."

The Fine-Tuning of the Universe - Video

For my Philosophy of Religion students.

Hearing God: Step One

Lake Erie shoreline

Our primary goal in life is not to hear God speak to us, but to be in a loving relationship with him and our brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. Only if we are maturing people in a loving relationship with God and others will we hear him correctly.

How weird it would be to want to hear God speak to me while not wanting to be in relationship with him, or in community with God's people. That would be using God for my own self, which would be futility, since God will not be used by anyone.

Dallas Willard writes:

"Only our communion with God provides the appropriate context for communications between us and him. And within those communications, guidance will be given in a manner suitable to our particular lives and circumstances. It will fit into our life together with God in his earthly and heavenly family. Again, this is our first preliminary insight to help us in our learning to discern God’s voice." (Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, p. 42; emphasis mine)

***

My two books are...

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

I am working on #3 - How God Changes the Human Heart
 
You can contact me at: johnpiippo@msn.com.

The Reason You Are Wounded by Rejection

Detroit skyline

We all need affirmation, as well as realistic evaluation. But there is a disease called affirmation addiction, and it is punishing to the soul. The affirmation addict goes up and down with the approval and disapproval of people.

Are you disturbed when someone dismisses you or assaults you on social media? When you get a "thumbs down?" 

I've been upset when someone attacks me. If I did not live for the approval of other people, I would not die by their disapproval of me. I have to choose whose acceptance I will live and die for. (I am writing this as much for myself as for anyone else.)

Bob Sorge says, "Jesus was not touched by the praise of man, so he was not wounded by the rejection of man." (See here.) Sorge is commenting on John 5:44, where Jesus faces his followers and says,  How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Jesus refused to receive the approval of humanity. He didn't rise and fall by what other people thought of him. Instead, he lived and died by the Father's approval, and thus was free to live and die for you and me.

***
My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

I'm working on book #3 - How God Changes the Human Heart (A Phenomenology of Spiritual Transformation)

One-Hour Seminary - On Religious Liberty - Tuesday, Feb. 13, 9 PM EST

My back yard, in warmer times

How should we treat county clerks who do not wish to authorize such marriages, for example; or bakers, florists, and photographers who do not wish to provide same-sex wedding services? 

Should the law give religion and conscience special protection at all, and if so, why? What counts as discrimination, and when is it unjust? 

Beyond the law, how should we treat religious beliefs and practices we find mistaken or even oppressive? Should we tolerate them or actively discourage them?

I'll give my response to questions like these on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 9-10 PM EST, on Facebook Live.