A Visit to Harvard

I just got back from a medical conference in Boston. I've been there 3-4 times before but I had never visited Harvard. It is in the western edge of Cambridge, MA . . . I would guess about 7-8 miles from downtown. But the subway, the red line, has a stop right in Harvard Square.

Because my daughter Amy was with me on this trip, I decided to take her to Harvard.

This school, in my Evangelical days, had always represented evil. I mean, some of the greatest proponents of evolutionary theory were Harvard professors. Timothy Leary, the psychologist who advocated drug taking, was a Harvard professor. So, we were always led to believe that it was a liberal, rich-kid, anti-Christian Mecca.

My impressions, just as a tourist, was very different. Besides being a beautiful campus, other things struck me in a very positive way.

One of my moving moments on campus was standing beneath the large cloth banners with the Harvard shield (pictured above). There motto is Veritas. In Roman mythology, Veritas was the goddess of truth and the mother of virtue. Of course, Harvard's motto is simply the pursuit of truth.

The school, Harvard, is named after John Harvard. He was a Puritan minister and a lover of truth and education. He came to Cambridge, MA from England and only lived one year before dying from tuberculosis. So, Rev. Harvard didn't have the chance to teach at Harvard . . . but he did leave his huge library to the school's foundation and gave half of his estate. He saw the great importance, as a Christian living in the real, wonderful world, of seeking truth at all cost.

Of course pursuit of truth can lead you astray at times, as I believe was the case of Timothy Leary. But the pursuit itself is a noble pursuit and godly in itself.

Evangelicals are often distracted from truth by dogma or sub-culture conformity. This is a tragedy. We should not fear truth nor the pursuit of it. The "liberal boogie man" is not going to grab you the very second you question your dogma.

So I left with a positive feeling having seen Harvard first hand and reflecting on its great history (just think of the number of presidents, Supreme Court justices that graduated from that relatively small school). I would find it an honor for one of my kids to go there.

The last thing that gave me some satisfaction was seeing a poster on campus by a philosophy group. The group was advertising a meeting about Plato's great role in the Renaissance. I have been teaching a course at church based on Francis Schaeffer's film series.

I've spent the past two years studying the Renaissance and had become very convinced that it was entirely based on the purposeful (via the Medici family) base of Platonic teaching. Schaeffer had accidentally (I say accidentally because I really think he knew better) that the Renaissance was based on Aristotelian humanism . . . it was not. People didn't seem to believe me, but I was happy to see that others, experts at that, agree with this simple fact.

I think I'm going to do a posting on George Carlin. With his death last week, I read a Christian blog in his honor as well as two of my professional (medical blogs). It started me thinking. I knew very little of him or his work. I was led to believe that he was the human incarnation of pure evil during my evangelical days, so I never listened to him. But last night I listened to abut 2 hours of Carlin including his "Religion is Bull Shit" piece. But, there is some truth to Carlin's observations on human life. He does hold a lot of logic, between the "F" word and some wrong conclusions. It should be interesting.

Gone to Boston for a Week

Out of town for a week. See you later.

In Search of the Holy Grail (Real Miracles)

To even question the existence of miracles is a sacrilege in the eyes of many Christians. Woven into the very fabric of Christendom over the ages (but not every where and all the time) is the concept that not only do miracles occur, but they are quite common.

When I was with The Navigators and in many of the Evangelical churches that I attended, it was assumed, even anticipated that miracles would occur every day . . . well, at least once a month. When I was involved with charismatics, we believed that miracles occurred in every minute of every day. To even question whether or not something was a miracle was to appear as a very “unspiritual” person or a “babe in Christ” and questioning God himself.

First I must define what I mean by miracles. Miracles are where God works directly outside His laws of physics.

Next, I want to define my perspective. I am not questioning whether or not COULD God do a miracle. Evangelicals often mistake me for a “liberal” or “materialist.” I am not at all. The materialist (speaking philosophically here) does not believe that there is even a spiritual realm, and certainly not in a divine creator. Therefore, according to them, nothing can ever happen outside the laws of physics.

Did God do miracles? Of course! Scripture documents clearly that miracles occurred in both the old and new testaments. I have no doubt about that. If I had lived at the time of Christ and observed my friend, Lazarus, raised from the dead, I would have observed a real miracle in time and space (verses my imagination or wishful thinking).

My simple question is do miracles occur now and if so how often? It is not a theological question. I’m not stating, that from scripture, somehow I’ve concluded that God was very clear that miracles would cease at a certain time in history. My question is a pragmatic and honest question about observations in real life.

I do know that we are all deeply fallen and selfish. Our hearts (emotions and psychological make up) is flawed and deceitful. I know from scripture and personal experience that people believe very strongly things that are not true, including Christians. Our reason, as well as our emotions and will are fallen. Self-delusion is very, very common because of the effect of the fall on us.

I also know, and Evangelicals should not be in disagreement with this, that while Satan is the lord of lies, God is the God of truth. It IS our responsibility to “test the spirits” if they are true or not. It is NOT unspiritual (unless you are a Dualist) to raise your eyebrows when someone speaks of a miracles happening. In this way, I am more of a fundamentalist than even the most fundamentalists because I believe that we should be very strict with truth . . . not shading it, even not shading it to “honor God.”

There is intense peer pressure in Evangelical groups, especially the really “hard-core” ones like The Navigators, or charismatic groups to see miracles in everything. The reason is that they are Dualistic. They believe that the laws of physics, (which, by the way, God created and said was very good), are inferior to God working outside His laws. So to them, miracles are superior to God’s natural laws of cause and effect. “Joe got better from his cancer because God cured him,” sounds much more spiritual than, “Joe got better because the chemotherapy worked.”

The peer pressure is to look like a strong Christian, to feel good about your faith, to feel that you are doing things for God and He is blessing you . . . so there is a very strong psychological pressure to see miracles.

But, a true Christian wants truth above all else (because we serve a God of truth). It is much more honorable to say that something came from the laws of physics, if they indeed come from the natural laws, than to lie and say that it was a miracle.

Does God do miracles now? I’m honestly not sure. Again, this is not a theological position but an observation of real life. I’ve been a Christian for 38 years. I’ve been around thousands of Christians during this time. I’ve witnessed many, many claims of miracles . . . but ALL OF THEM WERE WIMPY MIRACLES. They were so anemic, that it was in the arena of bending spoons or sawing a woman in half with a trick box. How silly. I mean to relegate the God whom created the 14 billion light-year plus universe with a spoken word to doing silly card tricks? Give me a break!

What do I mean about wimpy miracles? I mean, sitting in on a Full Gospel Business Men’s meeting in 1978 where the leader was “stretching legs” as a miracle. That’s an outrage and insulting to the God of Heaven. Surely if God was going to do a miracle he would not be in the business of stretching legs (which any magician can do with a slight of hand.)

It reminds me of the old movie “Oh God” staring George Burns and John Denver. When God (played by George) appeared in court, the judge asked him to prove that he was God. The fist thing he did was a card trick. He did move on to a disappearing act. But this is how silly this whole pretense is. Is God, the creator of the cosmos, just a circus performer? Does he put people in a box and tries to saw them in half? That’s the idea of the TV faith healer-performers and most of the miracles that we hear about every day.

Does God still do miracles? I do believe that 99.99% of what we call miracles are not. They are wishful thinking, imagination or someone being slight of hand. But lying is not innocent. Lying is sin, even if you are “lying for Jesus.” Then that’s even a worse sin in my book.

This is what a real miracle would look like. Someone died and is buried in the ground for three days (starting to decay) and God brings them back to life, restores them to good health. Someone is missing a leg (from the hip) for 50 years. God causes that limb to immediately re-grow to full condition. That is a far cry than “stretching legs” or being touched on the forehead and falling backwards and now your migraines seem less severe.

What about this. Someone who has never, ever studied Mandarin Chinese, immediately starts speaking fluent Mandarin . . . in the Chengdu dialect. Now that’s really speaking in tongues, not some emotionally induced gibberish.

I know that to even suggest that speaking in tongues is not a real miracle makes many Christians mad as hell. But I’ve spoken in tongues before (in 1976). I can honestly say that it is an emotional fraud. Am I a bad guy for pointing that out? It seems like it. Show me one real miracle and I will say, “Hum. God really still does do miracles.”

“Who are you to judge if I’m speaking in tongues?” A well-meaning Christian would ask me. Who am I to judge? I am a Christian and we Christians are in the business of selling truth and only truth. We MUST speak truth at all times. Start speaking Mandarin (having never studied) and I will shout for joy over your miracle. But I can not glory in your pretending. Lying is sin and to shout for joy over sin is not healthy. Pretending is NOT HEALTHY. Pretending does not draw people to the true Christ!

When I say I’m not sure if God still does miracles, it has nothing to do with His abilities. Every time I enter this discussion with other Christians, they start saying things like, “You are trying to dethrone God!” or “My God is tremendous, your God is impotent.” They are totally missing my point. My point is, because God is tremendous and because God is a God of truth . . . then I desire truth over appearance.

Someone could say that I don’t wear skirts. That doesn’t mean that I CAN”T wear skirts or I don’t have the power to wear skirts. I simply mean that I don’t. I think there is a very good reason that God doesn’t do what we call miracles. It is really simple. God created a wonderful universe. The Newton’s Laws are all God breathed. They are wonderful. All the rules of probability, friction, gravity, biochemistry . . . all ARE GOD’s STUFF. So how ridicules it is that we expect God to do something outside what he has done already to prove that he his great. Do you understand?

It is like you build this huge playground (playground=universe) for your son . . . but you son says, “Dad, if you really love me, you will do something different than what you’ve made for me.” HUH?

This whole problem (of favoring pretend miracles over natural events) has its foundation in Platonic Dualism. When you believe that this wonderful world, which God has created, is evil or inferior, then you want things outside of this world to prove that God is great or loves you (miracles in other words).

Does God still do things outside of His wonderful laws? I don’t know. You’ll be the first to know if I ever see a real miracle, but I am really, really happy with the universe which God has made.

Miracles & Magic: Part IV Have We Lost Our Way?

I’m involved with several other blogs, forums etc. On one of the forums, it is a secular, medical forum; I raised this story of Neil Beagley as a medical-ethical discussion. It was interesting. The non-Christian medical providers all agreed that this whole situation was outrageous. A family letting a boy, suffer and die, from a very easy to treat medical condition.

But there was one dissenting voice, an out-spoken Evangelical Christian on that forum. His point, both on the public forum and to me in private was, “Who are you to say that God was not behind this. That the boy’s physical death may be pale in comparison to some spiritual lesson that God wanted to teach the group.”

Have evangelicals lost their moral compass? Only the Evangelical on that forum thought this behavior was okay. Have they lost their freaken minds? Really, so their God is the kind of God that would intentionally created a boy with a small urethra, then allow it to close up, then allow him to spends weeks suffering (from a problem that even I could fix in 5 minutes with a catheter) until he died from uremic poisoning? That this was God’s will to reach someone something like patience?

Have evangelicals lost their moral compass (or minds) to the point that they don’t see Benny Hinn and the many others like him (just watch Daystar for an afternoon) as an incredible, evil, manipulative con-man? Non-Christians sure do. Can we not oppose the evil done “in the name of Christ” because we have this deep fear of, “What if it really is Christ behind it?” If we think that there is even a 1% chance that God is behind Benny Hinn or the Oregan church that allowed this poor boy to suffer, then we really don’t know God at all. We know some Dualistic – Platonic created god, but not the God of the Old Testament.

If you look at these things closely, you would realize the great harm in Dualism. How this world becomes so insignificant, that only that which you can label as “spiritual” has merit.

More to come.

Miracles & Magic: Part III Murder by Dualism

This is a breaking story. This is INSANE! The parents, the whole freaking church should go to prison. Do you realize how easy it would have been to fix this simple medical problem and saved this poor boy's life? Very, very easy. Yet, these idiots allowed him to suffer and die because they believe so much in Dualistic concepts (this world, including smart doctors are evil while the spiritual, supernatural healing is good). I hope people are starting to understand how very destructive Dualism has been to the Christian faith.

GLADSTONE, Ore. — Authorities say a teenager from a faith-healing family died from an illness that could have been easily treated, just a few months after a toddler cousin of his died in a case that has led to criminal charges.

Tuesday's death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley, however, may not be a crime because Oregon law allows minors 14 and older to decide for themselves whether to accept medical treatment.
"All of the interviews from last night are that he did in fact refuse treatment," police Sgt. Lynne Benton said Wednesday. "Unless we can disprove that, charges probably won't be filed in this case."

An autopsy Wednesday showed Beagley died of heart failure caused by a urinary tract blockage.
He likely had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.
"You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible," Nelson said.

Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy's life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.
Related
Stories
Parents Indicted in Child's Death After Alleged Faith-Healing
Oregon Couple Charged in Daughter's Faith-Healing Death
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Benton said a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family's home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray Sunday when his condition worsened, Benton said.
In March, the boy's 15-month-old cousin Ava Worthington died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection.
Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, also belong to the church. They have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminal mistreatment, and their defense attorneys have indicated they will use a religious freedom defense.
After earlier deaths involving children of Followers of Christ believers, a 1999 Oregon law struck down religious shields for parents who treat their children solely with prayer. No one had been prosecuted under it until the Worthingtons' case.
Members and former members of the church in Oregon City have told The Oregonian newspaper in previous interviews that the congregation has 1,200 people. It has no apparent ties to other congregations or any mainstream denomination.

Miracles & Magic: Part II The Christian Con Man (woman)

So this brings me back to the question/issue that is raised in Pete Gall's book. Can we have it both ways? Can we watch a faith-healer, TV evangelist and say, "It's a con, but who am I to judge another Christian?"

To me, that is really moral-relativism. If someone is a "con-man for Jesus" I see it as the worst of sins and we can't just look the other way and say, "Maybe someone will be blessed by it." These are the people (like Jesus in the temple) whom Jesus loathed. He didn't loath the prostitutes or tax collectors, but the religious con man, he treated like dirty pigs.

I really believe that we do have a responsibility to oppose these people at all costs The religious networks are full of these con artist. While Christians have protested at abortion clinics, gay marriages, etc. it is really the Christian con man that needs our loudest voice.

I have a lot of respect for James Randi, who has made it his job to expose cons. He spent a while focusing on Christian con artist. Thank you Mr. Randi! I don't think he is a Christian, and like many non-Christians, he is probably turned off by Christianity because of all the cons. But I suggest you watch this You-tube interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7BQKu0YP8Y with Mr. Randi:

Miracles & Magic: Part I Faith-Healers

I see myself standing at a door, considering if I dare to enter. The reason is, I've entered that door before and it has become like a Pandora's Box. But here I go again.

Why I come to this subject of miracle-workers and faith-healers is because of book I am now reading, My Beautiful Idol, by Pete Gall. I'm not done with the book so I really don't know the direction that the author will take me in. But he did just go through an experience (BTW, it is an autobiography) that brings back to my mind, a personal experience, a long time ago.

First I will start with Pete's experience. He's left his high-paying Chicago advertising job and is seeking what he should do for Christ (in a nut-shell). He is in Utah, working in a Christian re-hab. He meets a hot young girl that he wants to get to know better. He goes to a local charismatic church with her and they have a healing service. In the service, the evangelist is touching people and they are falling down and they are lengthening legs (or at least he refers to leg-lengthening healings). He was called up front, they touched his head, and he fell down. In summary, his conclusion was that he felt bad . . . conned. He felt like the experience was bogus . . . yet, seemed to say that Jesus was there, in the experience. So it makes me wonder . . . how can it be both ways, a con job and a work of Jesus?

I hear too often Christians speaking in those terms. They usually say, irrational things, like, "Well it's not my cup of tea . . . and the guy is a con man, but who am I say that the people participating aren't being reached for Jesus."

When I entered college as a freshman, I jumped right into the center of The Navigators (Christian para-church ministry). I actually lived in the main ministry house, off campus, and with the main two leaders who were discipling my friend Bill and I.

The Navigators is not a charismatic group per se, although you could and can find some Navigators who are. Tom, our campus leader favored a charismatic perspective. He is the one, I mentioned much earlier, who God spoke directly too, in a mystical way, telling him to marry this new (hot blond haired-blue eyed) gal that came into the ministry. Since it was “God telling him to do it” the gal, Julie, had no choice but to obey God . . . right?

It was when I was a Sophomore that our ministry took a very charismatic turn. There was an ecumenical environment on campus anyway. Baptist students (although we looked down up on them for being “unspiritual”), hung out with us as well a Campus Crusade, Presbyterians, Methodist and Church of God. But oddly the charismatic revival that swept through campus came from the Episcopalian and Catholic churches. While the main Churches did not practice charismatic beliefs in their services or masses, there was an “underground” charismatic movement spawned by one of the Episcopalian priest in combination with a group called, “The Full Gospel Business Men.”

So, our entire Navigator ministry follow suit and we all became charismatic that second year. I remember Tom telling me that a higher spiritual plane that we should seek was being “Baptized in the Holy Spirit.” The outward sign of that event was speaking in tongues. I remember one by one members of the group would share, in tears and excited voices, that the “spirit had slain them” and they were now “Baptized by the Holy Spirit.”

The social pressure to do the same was tremendous! A non-Baptized by the Holy Spirit person was quickly becoming an inferior outcast. I prayed earnestly for the gift so I would be part of my social group again.

I can remember walking and praying, begging God to “bless me” with such an event. I tried over and over to work myself up into an emotional tizzy, rolling my eyes in the back of my head, foaming at the mouth, grunting until finally the grunts became the “speaking in tongues” that I had wanted so badly. Now, I know beyond a question of doubt that I personally conjured up the emotional event under such social pressure. I knew in my deepest heart of hearts that it was all fake . . . but I closed the closet door on that knowledge because so much was at stake. I too wanted to be spiritual! I am confident, that everyone in the entire group did the same thing as I had done, faked it.

But suddenly everything changed . . . in the direction of extreme Dualism. Nothing in our physical lives mattered anymore, but everything (if it had any value at all) was “spiritual.” Then “miracles” started happening left and right. Engines lights that been on (warning of an problem) suddenly went out! (But the car owner never mentioned that they also had put oil in the car).

Psychosomatic illnesses left and right started to be healed. One of our fellow students, born with cerebral palsy was being prayed for. We were going to throw away her wheelchair. But when it didn’t happened, a “word from God” came to us that she had secret sin in her life that was blocking the healing. Retrospectively, this was very cruel, and even a form of emotional abuse!

We were throwing away our text books for school because God would "give us the knowledge--straight into our brains, without the worldly philosophies attached" or so we thought (btw, my grade-point average plummeted that year).

In summary, this became the most emotional dishonest and dysfunctional time of my life. If you hated some guy because a cute girl (which you liked) gave him more attention, you could say that "God has spoken to you that this man had demonic oppression and every one should be weary of him." You couldn't say the truth, I hate the jerk out of jealously because he's better-looking than me and the girls like him more. So there were all these crazy, manipulative games going on all the time, being covered by this super-spiritual facade.

I think I mentioned once before about a Navigator leader, named David, that sexually pursued me like crazy. It creeped me out. But he was also a master of this spiritual manipulation. He could say things like, "God spoke to me from the word today that I need a special baptism, by water, down at the river and in a pure, unclothed way. God also showed me that he wanted a brother who loved me to go with me." In other words, he was hot for me and wanted me to go skinny dipping with him. I always refused and then he would be "deeply hurt and his spirit grieved." So do you see this horrible nightmare that this time of "miracles and magic" created for us.

I have excepts from a book I'm working on pasted at the very end of this page. I didn't want to post it here because it is so long. I will see if I can figure out how to link to it from here, but just scroll down or use the "ctrl F" and type in From Butterflies and it will take you there.


There will be more discussion on this topic coming in Parts II, III etc.