Off to India - 2

Peter, a friend of a friend was waiting for me when I cleared customs in Helsinki. It is a delight to be met by a friendly face in an unknown place!

Peter pastors a church called "Living Word" in downtown Helsinki. Peter and his wife Pia are a little younger than me, and they have three 20-something children. They are "Finn-Swedes", and speak Finnish, Swedish and English....and son Andreas also Hebrew and daughter Cecilia some Russian. They all switch back and forth between languages with agility. I have really enjoyed getting to know Peter and his family and seeing where and how they live. Peter is an intelligent and passionate church leader and we have talked quite a bit about the Church here in Finland and Helsinki. He is a friend of Frank and Leena, with whom I am traveling to India in the next two weeks.

Peter and Pia went two years to the Word of Life Bibleschool in 1987-1989. He was earlier an assistant pastor in a Swedish-speaking pentacostal (pingst) church. This is not the same as the United Pentacostal Church in the USA.

Before the days of nationalism, this part of Finland was ruled by Sweden. ....from the 14th to the 18th centuries. It was captured by the Russians in the 18th century and gained its independence only 90 years ago. The long domination by Sweden is the root reason for the two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, which are very different in their roots. Swedish is no longer as important in the life of the country, but it is still very much in evidence.

As I looked around the room normally occupied by one of the daughters (who is now on a trip), I saw a picture of Starla, a friend from Bibleschool! Starla is a friend of Johanna. It is fascinating to me how these human connections work.

Off to India - 1

This long trip started Monday morning at 6 AM Alaska time. I’m writing this in the Amsterdam airport as I await the flight to Helsinki. My route of travel is Anchorage - Seattle - Amsterdam - Helsinki.

All has gone well so far. The only rough spot was some clear air turbulence over the coast of Greenland that without warning started the large Airbus A330 bucking and snorting…. And some passengers shrieking with fright after 4 hours of calm flight. We directly overheaded south Calgary on the way from Seattle to Amsterdam….I was less than 10 miles from Ryan and Kathy’s house. So it sometimes goes with modern air transportation -- near, yet far.

Wireless access at the Amsterdam airport is expensive. It is €12 for 1 hour…about $18! So, I am typing notes in a Word document for transfer later. Currency exchange is also expensive. I paid $20 for just over €9 for use in Helsinki, including a €3.5 commission. Our diminished dollar doesn’t go so far at the moment.

Four Lethal Misbeliefs that Minimize the Impact of Believers in the Workplace

Here is strong medicine from evangelist and missions strategist Ed Silvoso. These commonly held beliefs are like cold molasses around the feet of Christians who would do the work of the Kingdom in the marketplace:

1. There is a God-ordained division between clergy and laity
2. The Church is called to operate primarily inside a building often referred to as the temple.
3. People involved in business cannot be as spiritual as those serving in traditional Church ministry.
4. The primary role of marketplace Christians is to make money to support the vision of those "in ministry."
   

(From Ed Silvoso, Annointed for Business quoted in C. Peter Wagner, Changing Church)

How much have these non-Biblical attitudes cost in the growth of the Kingdom of God? I believe they have cost plenty.

Muslims are captives

I had a revelation last night about Muslims. It was, simply, that Muslims are captives.

In the lands of Islam they are held captive by political, social and physical systems. Many would become followers of Jesus if they were allowed religious freedom. Just as in the USA, others would become secular given the freedom to do so.

But in the lands of Islam, religious conviction is enforced. Conversion to other religions is punished at the least by social ostracism, and at the most by physical torture or death.

In the lands that Islam seeks to bring under submission, including our own, there may be statutory religious freedom, but for those in Muslim families, rigid social and family ties make conversion difficult.

As I have spoken to Christians who have worked in Islamic countries, it has been very clear in each case that many Muslims would convert if they could do so without losing their family or their lives.

I think that we in the West do not clearly understand these control systems. We see the world through the lens of our freedoms to observe whatever religion we choose....or no religion. While there are certainly social control systems at work in the west, they are weak by comparison.

The effect of this revelation for me has been two-fold. First, I have prayed for a love of Muslims that overpowers my anger over the acts of a few of them. This revelation has helped me quite a bit toward that love. Second, I see more clearly than ever that we must quit treating Muslims as a monolithic block. It is only a few that seek to impose Islam by the sword. Against them we must be implacable foes, but for the majority, love and respect should be the attitude of our hearts.

Slowing and Reversing Global Warming

I have stood at a distance from the man-is-making-the-earth-warm debate because I am still unconvinced one way or another. Just because "most scientists" believe it to be the case doesn't impress me. We humans engage in group-think all the time. The pressure to be PC (right or left) on this issue is immense.

What I am convinced about is that we have been massively extracting carbon compounds from the earth's crust and converting them to gases that are now in the air and oceans and that IS causing demonstrably negative chemical changes in ocean fauna and flora.

According to a Compass article in today's Anchorage Daily News Alaska's US Senators Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens are co-sponsoring the Low Carbon Economy Act designed to approach the problem of reducing carbon emissions in another way. Here is how the act would work:

"The Act creates a cap-and-trade program for U.S. GHG emissions that is modeled on the successful Acid Rain Program. By setting an annual target and allowing firms to buy, sell, and trade credits to achieve the target, the program is designed to elicit the most cost-effective reductions across the economy. The target is set to avoid harm to the economy and promote a gradual but decisive transition to new, lower-carbon technologies."

I haven't studied this in any detail, so I cannot offer any reasonable opinion on it. However, it seems significant that these two conservative Alaska leaders are not only supporting the act, but co-sponsoring it.

Murkowski and Stevens in their Compass article admit that it's going to cost us:

"Alaska's Institute for Social and Economic Research estimates the measure will cost a typical Anchorage household about $173 more for energy in 2030. This is a significant sum for Alaskans, who already pay the highest energy costs in the nation. But it pales in comparison to the potential costs of climate change. A recent ISER study pegs those at more than $6 billion by 2030 -- nearly $9,000 per resident -- just for government infrastructure in Alaska. When it comes to climate change, an ounce of prevention may be worth far more than a pound of cure."

Taxes are probably not a very palatable approach, as demonstrated in the reaction to that suggestion in this forum. The effect of the proposed legislation will be the same in that it would cost us all something, but this upstream approach may be an easier pill to swallow than taxes.

However we do it, we must begin taking some action to put that carbon back in the crust. If we don't our children will pay the price.

Testimony Signed in Blood

It has become fashionable in the West to deny the deity of Jesus. Many say that Jesus was "a good man", but draw the line at saying that He was the Son of God.

The first disciples of Jesus, on the other hand, attested to His deity with their lives. All but one were martyred confessing faith that Jesus is the Son of God. One was crucified upside down, another on an X, another dragged by horses through Alexandria, another stabbed. Others were beaten to death, stoned, shot with arrows or beheaded. Only one died peacefully.

Men do not give their lives for something they known to be untrue. The disciples knew it to be true, and they "signed their testimony in blood," as Alvin Schmidt put it.

Surely there was a time when His disciples must have wondered. When He was arrested and crucified, the remaining 11 must have been terrified. The New Testament records that "everyone deserted him and fled" and that the disciples locked their doors when they met "for fear of the Jews."

What had happened to the miracles and the Kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming, they must have wondered. But something happened to change their terror into faith that sustained them even to the point of death.

That something was that they met the resurrected Christ.

It is possible even today to meet this same Jesus that the disciples believed in so strongly that they were willing to die for. If we repent of our sins, and ask Him into our lives, He will come. He will speak to us, comfort us, heal us, lead us.

He has for me, and He will for you.

A Fishing Trip to Remember

I went on an amazing fishing trip over the weekend. Every fishing trip has some delights of its own, but this one was unusually interesting.

We went to the Coghill River, which empties into College Fjord about 32 miles NE of Whittier in Prince William Sound (PWS). At the mouth were loitering a large number of red salmon. Spawning salmon spend some time at the river mouths acclimating to the change from salt to freshwater.

We weren't there at the peak of salmon return to this particular river. Had we been there would have been thousands 0f fish rather than mere hundreds.

But as it was there were plenty of fish, and all the boats nearby were catching fish throughout the day.

At first we didn't quite know how to catch them, but after a few hours, we started seeing how they were moving around the little bay. Schools of them were traversing the bottom (the sonar told us that) and the top (we could see their wakes and fins). I wonder if the ones at the bottom were the least freshwater tolerant and the ones at the top the most tolerant. Freshwater floats on top of the saltwater.

What we eventually figured out to do was watch for the schools of salmon, slowly motor over toward them and cast into them. Sometimes they would take the bait, but other times the large treble hook would just snag the fish (which is legal in PWS saltwater).

What made the trip so interesting was the behavior of the fish as they swam around the top of the bay. Sometimes we would see groups of them swimming by the boat. The beauty of the day and the lack of wind was another real plus. Prince William Sound is a delight on days like this!

We brought 18 fish home -- a real delight for the salmon eaters in our household!

Al Qaeda Gaming the 2008 Presidential Elections?

I have been speculating how Al-Qaeda might be gaming the upcoming USA Presidential election. Here's how I got to this point.

The purposes of Al-Qaeda apparently are "to establish Islamist states throughout the world, overthrow ‘un-Islamic regimes’, expel US soldiers and Western influence from the Gulf, and capture Jerusalem as a Muslim city," according to a Wikipedia article, quoting the US Defense Department.

Getting US soldiers out of Gulf states cannot be done militarily because of superior might of allied arms. Al Qaeda's only real option is to wear us down so that WE bring our troops home. I suspect at least a two-pronged strategy: first, to kill and maim as many allied troops and innocents in Iraq as possible, and second, to minimize terrorist attacks in the USA. All to the good if it looks as if they are still trying to hurt us in our homeland using second string terrorist cells. But surely they know that another 9/11-type attack would kindle American fury, and seriously set back their aims of expelling the infidels from what they consider to be the lands of Islam.

If this theory is correct, to get the western allies out of the Gulf, Al Qaeda will tune its behaviors in the Gulf and in the USA to maximize the chances of electing an anti-war president. This is the unseen hand I am speculating about. Al Qaeda has shown itself adept in the use of media, and their strategists must be just as carefully tracking the USA election as they are events in Anbar province in Iraq.

I fear that once the allies have gone home, Al Qaeda will turn to the next items on its agenda. Just as before the allies went into Afghanistan and Iraq, that will include attacks here at home, and stepped up terror attacks in Israel and Europe. I fear we will see attacks that make 9/11 look like small change in the jihad.

Electing an "anti war" President, of whatever party, could be just what Al Qaeda wants to advance its agenda.

South Anchorage Murder Signals Need for Stronger Deterrence

A vicious Sunday night murder in South Anchorage should telegraph Alaskans that stronger deterrent is needed in our framework of laws. A capital punishment statute followed up by swift executions of the guilty would send a strong signal to those who would end the lives of others: murder someone and you will surely die for your crime.

A dozen studies since 2001 have shown again the obvious: capital punishment deters. In three separate reviews of social data, investigators estimated between three and 18 lives would be saved per execution of the guilty. Swift justice amplifies the signal, the studies showed.

It is clear to me that Alaska law worries too much about the guilty, and by our failure to deal decisively with sociopaths we expose the innocent to slaughter, just as happened on Sunday. Legislators: I call on you to seriously consider this issue and to enact a strong and just capital punishment statute to protect the innocent.

New Studies: Death Penalty Deters 3-18 Homicides Per Execution

Returning the death penalty to active use in the united states is not so much about justly punishing the guilty as it is protecting innocents from slaughter. A recent article on MSNBC News summarized recent findings in social science that demonstrate that executions do in fact deter homicides.

“Science does really draw a conclusion. It did. There is no question about it,” said Naci Mocan, an economics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver. “The conclusion is there is a deterrent effect.”

A 2003 study he co-authored, and a 2006 study that re-examined the data, found that each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting a death sentence means five more homicides. “The results are robust, they don’t really go away,” he said. “I oppose the death penalty. But my results show that the death penalty (deters) — what am I going to do, hide them?”

Critics dismiss this and other studies suggesting that methodologies are flawed and populations are too small to draw useful conclusions. However, the academic attack on these studies seem to me to often be merely defending entrenched positions.

It is incomprehensible that society might defend murderers and allow the innocent to perish. Yet by protecting the guilty from swift punishment, we allow others to die because of our fastidiousness.

Let us be clear: no one, not one single person, need ever be put to death again. All that is required is that no one murder or commit other capital crimes. Just...don't....pull....the....trigger.

In my mind, those who strive against the death penalty themselves have the blood of innocents on their hands.