The holiday season is a reminder to be thankful for the many blessings in our lives. We asked RDC employees what they're thankful for.  Here's what they had to say:

• I am most thankful for a wonderful and loving husband, 3 great kids that have been a joy to me since they were born, 3 of the most beautiful and brilliant grandchildren I could ever have possibly been given to enjoy and love and a wonderful daughter-in-law and son-in-law that I love very much.  There is nothing more valuable or important in this life than family and I am so very thankful that God has chosen to bless me with a family like mine!  I am so very proud of them all! - Becky Chasteen, Director, HR/OPM Management
  
• I am thankful for my church, Divine Life. - Jessica Parker, EVUSA
  
• This Thanksgiving season above and beyond being thankful for my Lord, my family, my friends, my church, I am thankful for shoes.  In October I went to Nicaragua on a missions trip to translate for a Doctor.  After meeting a family's medical needs the mother asked for a pair of shoes for her daughter.  She said that the ones her daughter had on were borrowed so she could come to the clinic.  I always take for granted my black shoes, blue shoes, brown shoes, my tennis shoes, my high heels.  But what about being thankful for just one pair of sandals that will probably only be worn on special occasions or when someone else needs to borrow them? - Esther Nix, Stewardship Ministries
  
• Considering the events of this past year, I am especially thankful for good friends who know how to pray us through difficult circumstances. Our lives can be turned upside down and inside out in an instant. These times of trial make us more keenly aware of God's love and the care and support of others. -Shirley G. Spencer, Editor, IPHC Experience
  
• Rabon and I are thankful for the privilege of being here at this time in our lives. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working alongside everyone who makes up the staff, as well as the ministry leaders at the RDC. Special people; special gifts; special memories! - Jewelle E. Stewart, Executive Director, Women’s Ministries
  
• I am thankful for God’s guidance and provision. He has supplied my family’s every need from day one and I thank God for that. He looks over everything from our finances to our spiritual well being. Without God and my family there is no hope for tomorrow.- Mandi Patterson, World Missions Ministries
  
• I am thank for a personal relationship with an Eternal God who embraces the whole world with His love.- Terry Fowler, iWIN Director
  
• I can’t be grateful enough for his saving grace – his loving kindness – and his never-ending provision.- Angela Culp, GSO I am thankful for a wonderful husband, our two children, their spouses, and a granddaughter who still thinks I’m cool (of course she’s not even two yet!). I am extremely grateful to God for sparing my mother’s life at least twice over these past few months. I am also blessed to be surrounded by a devoted team of conference Girls’ Ministries leaders and tons of excited local leaders–all of whom have a passion to wins girls to Jesus Christ and to imprint their lives for eternity. - Irvina Parker, Girls' Ministries
  
• I'm thankful for the ability to love and be loved. - Mayra Watkins, People to People Ministries
  
• I'm thankful that I can always CHOOSE to be thankful!  No matter what season or circumstance I'm in, He is Lord!  I'm also thankful for awesome praise and worship music - lifting His name up lifts me up too. - Debbie Brewer, World Missions Ministries I am thankful for the way God has guided my life. Even when I didn’t want to follow His voice & His path, He always placed the right people in my life to counsel me and give me wisdom. I have an amazing husband, family, friends, job, church, etc. and it’s all because of God’s guidance. - April Arthur, HR/Operations Management

This is Part 4 in a series on the Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey released earlier this year. 
Read [ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ].

The label Christian was first used in Antioch, where Saul (later Paul) and Barnabas were laboring, with the result that large numbers were won over to the Lord (Acts 11.22-25).  It is interesting to note that the name was coined by non-believing opponents of the believers and was probably a term of derision.  The name christian comes from the Greek Christianoi, i.e., “Christ followers,” or “those of the household of Christ”.

Apparently, the early church preferred not to use the new name, as evidenced by the writers of the New Testament epistles.  The word christianoi is used in only three places in the New Testament:  in Acts 11.16 where the name is first given to believers; in Acts 26.28 by Agrippa when he said to Paul,  “With a little more of your persuasion you will make a Christian of me.”; and finally by Peter in 1Peter 4.16 where he wrote, “However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” supporting the idea that the name was probably intended to insult.  The predominant term the writers of New Testament books preferred was the Way.

History has shown that to go by the name “Christian” in the first century meant putting your very life on the line.  At a time when Ceasar was deified, being a Christian meant that Jesus was your God, not Ceasar.  By making that statement, tens of thousands of Christians lost their lives to wild beasts as a form of entertainment for unbelievers, while others were tied to stakes, doused with flammable pitch and set on fire to provide lighting for the evening’s festivities!

During medieval Europe, being Christian meant that you went to war against other Christians. “An important turning point came after the Reformation. The split in the medieval church had fractured the religious unity of Christendom, yet both sides continued to hold a territorial view of the church. They simply assumed that everyone living within a certain nation or geographical region should belong to the same religion. As a result, for more than a hundred years, beginning in the late sixteenth century and continuing throughout most of the seventeenth century, Europe found itself embroiled in religious wars.”*

Christians were willing to shed blood over religious differences.  Even in modern times, you don’t have to look very hard for religious conflicts involving Catholics and Protestants.

The name Christian today means whatever the user wants it to mean.  Mostly, it means that a person is not Buddhist or Muslim.  It seems to be a generic term that means a person belongs to a broad cultural group that could include most of western civilization.  Often, you will see the name used with one or more modifiers, like “evangelical Christian,” or “orthodox Christian.”

When you see a survey report that says that XX% of the population is Christian,  the first thing to ask yourself is:  “What, exactly, does that mean?”  In a recent Gallup Poll taken earlier this year, Gallup concluded that 92% of Americans identify themselves with a Christian religion.  In a similar study done by the Baylor Institute on Religion, American Piety in the 21st Century, they found that 81.8% can be classified as having a Christian affiliation.  

Pew Forum’s study U.S. Religious Landscape, released earlier this year, showed that only 78.4% of Americans identify themselves as belonging to a Christian church.  Any of these survey results indicate an overwhelming majority of people call themselves Christian.  And yet there is little agreement in public discussions about critical social issues on which the Scriptures speak clearly like abortion, divorce, sexuality, gay marriage, etc.

Like most unaffiliated non-believers in our secular culture, it appears that many Christians have been duped into building their own personal world-view, regardless of what their church teaches as doctrine or what the authors of the New Testament may have written.  Take a little Pentecostal theology; a little charismatic prosperity doctrine; a tad of the eastern meditation (nothing like an empty head to get one really focused); some scientology self-help; a little bit of mother gaia from feminist mythology; some pop psychology for self-esteem; a dab of tree spirits from the new age; and, last, but not least, some holy war insights from the Koran.  Voilla! A personal world-view unlike any other’s.

According to the Pew Forum reports, American Christians (those who attend traditional mainstream Christian denominations) overwhelmingly (72%) agree that there are many different paths to eternal life.  Only 21% agree that Christianity is the only way to eternal life.  National averages are 70% and 24%, respectively.  Evangelicals show slightly better figures, but still have 57% of its members who believe there are many routes to eternal life; only one-third (36%) believe that faith in Jesus is the only way.   Jesus did say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.” ^   I don’t think political correctness allows us to alter the Father’s intentions. (See table below)

On the issue of abortion, similar results can be seen with one-third (33%) of evangelicals agreeing that abortions should be legal in “All” or “Most” situations.  The average for American Christians as a whole is 57% in favor of abortion in all or most cases.  The national average is 51% in favor.  While the majority of evangelicals still oppose abortion (61%), a minority of American Christians oppose it (39%); the national average opposed to abortion is only 43%. (See table below)

When the Church began nearly 2000 years ago, the opponents of the Way named the Christ-followers Christians; today, in our society, people give themselves the name Christian with little thought to its original meaning.  If opponents of the faith were to give us a new name today, I wonder what it would be?  Whatever it might be, I think it would once again be a name of derision.

(*)Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey. (Crossway, 2004).
(^)John 14.6.

The Pew Forum survey may be reviewed in its entirety online.

This is the third part of a series on the PEW Forums recent survey Religion In American Life.  Read Part 1 and Part 2.

What's in a Name?

Everything! 

Normally, a name should be a simple, clear, literal device for identifying someone or some place.  About one-fifth of the names in Scripture simply identify persons or places:  “the name of the first river is...,” “a city called Nazareth,”  or “his mother’s name was...,”  etc.  Names soon took on a much more significant importance for the preservation of personal identity in cultural and family memories.  The Scriptures include many long lists of names, more than three thousand people, associated with specific events in the history of Israel.  Isn’t that why we often name our children after a great-grandfather, so that his memory will continue into our present family story?

Scripture adds a divine dimension to names when God says to Moses, “...I know you by name.” Or when it says the good shepherd calls “his own sheep by name.”  For Bezaleel, David, Isaiah, the apostles and even Cyrus, King of Persia, it meant a divine selection for a special task.  In our tradition, we have a sense of “being called by God” into ministry.  Jesus reminds us that our “names ...are written in heaven.”   The book of Revelation often refers to those “whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world” as a means of separating true worshippers from false ones.

Names have taken on etymological meanings that say so much more than just the name.  For example, we all know the meaning of the names Babel, Babylon, Jerusalem, Bethel and Eden.  In Genesis and Exodus alone there are more than thirty accounts of parents creating a name to fit the circumstances of birth.  Benjamin means “son of suffering,” Samuel means “heard by God,” Ichabod means “no glory,” Noah means “relief,” and Joseph means “may God add.”  Many parents today scour through books of names to find just the right name with the right meaning for their newborn child.  According to my family folklore, I was named for a radio comedian that was popular at the time of my birth.  Those who know me understand what an oxymoron that turned out to be, for I am neither a comedian nor a crowd pleaser.  But in my late teens, as an avid student of the Scriptures, I discovered the Hebrew meaning of my name and my self-perception changed forever.

Ideally, a name should capture the essence of the person.  But how hard is it to know which name will best suit the personality of a child not yet grown?  Only the Creator has such discernment and the Scriptures once again reveal the truth (See Ps 147.4; Is 40.26).  Often, names were changed later in life to reflect a significant change in attitude or lifestyle.  How many can remember the days of Cassius Clay or Lou Alcindor?  In many cultures still today, it is common practice to take a biblical name over a given name to symbolize the significance of the salvation experience.

Abram and Sarai had their names changed by God; Moses changed the name of Hosea, son of Nun, to Joshua; Jacob, Gideon and Solomon are given supplementary names of Israel, Jerubbaal and Jedidiah, nicknames, if you will.  In the New Testament, the practice continued:  Simon to Cephas or Peter; the Cypriot Joseph to Barnabas and Judas to Thomas.  Others were given Hellenized equivalents of traditional Hebrew names, like James for Jacob, Jesus for Joshua, and John Mark had both Semitic and Roman names.  This may be a revelation (literally) for many people, but  according to Rev 2.17, those who overcome will be given a new, secret name written on a white stone!  It seems that there is yet another life-changing experience in our future so dramatic that God is compelled to change our names!

What’s in a name?  Everything.  How we know others, how we are known and how we view ourselves are rooted in our names.  Our name is also important in our relationship with the Lord.  He knows us by name!

In the next segment, we'll take a look at how the names "Christian" and "Evangelical" are taking on meanings never intended.

Like it or not, the press have managed to make Pentecostalism an issue of the presidential elections.  Normally, I would not post news about the political processes, but since we are a 109 year old traditional pentecostal denomination, this particular discussion directly affects all of us who are members. 

I am surprised at the negative caricature being given pentecostals in spite of the fact the World Christian Encyclopedia shows that Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neo-Charismatics are the second largest segment of Christianity behind Catholics.

Here is an excerpt from one published article:

The latest line of attack on Palin is focused on her strong
Christian beliefs. She has been labeled a wacko fundamentalist who
doesn’t believe in evolution. (Interestingly, several polls show most
Americans don’t believe in it, either. A 2006 CBS poll found that just
13 percent of Americans believe in scientific evolution, and most
Americans believe life was created and guided by God.)

 A recent Associated Press investigative report was headlined: “Pentecostalism Obscured in Palin Biography.”

 Her crime, according to the AP?

 Here’s what AP wrote: “Sarah Palin often identifies herself
simply as Christian. Yet John McCain's running mate has deep roots in
Pentecostalism, a spirit-filled Christian tradition that is one of the
fastest growing in the world. It's often derided by outsiders and
Bible-believers alike.”

 CNN on Monday was out with a similar “expose,” citing her former
Alaskan pastor as saying Palin wanted to hide her Pentecostal roots.

 Why? CNN claims she may be embarrassed that Pentecostals “speak in tongues.”

 Though Palin has clearly demonstrated that her faith does not mix with her public service, it’s a major problem for the media.

 It should be remembered that this is the same media that ignored
Obama’s involvement with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. until video clips
of his pastor condemning the United States made it onto YouTube. The
media continues to largely ignore the fact Obama won’t admit he was
raised a Muslim and later converted to Christianity. (end of quote.  Read this entire article here at NewsMax.com.)

Links to other related articles posted online by major news agencies include:

Associated Press; CNN Political News; National Public Radio; Washington TImes

How surprising that this has become a political issue, especially in a nation that prides itself on Freedom of Religion, guaranteed in the Consitituion.  Apparently, that freedom extends only to those people who are members of religions which are on the media-approved list of acceptable faiths. 

How do you feel about this issue?  Feel free to post your comments below.

This is the summary of Part Two of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum. Their survey found:

• Although many Americans are highly religious, they are not dogmatic in their faith. Seventy percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions - not just their own - can lead to eternal life. Most also think there is more than one correct way to interpret the teachings of their own faith.
• This does not mean, however, that Americans take religious matters lightly. Most, in fact, say they rank the importance of religion very highly in their lives, and a plurality wants to preserve the traditional beliefs and practices of their faith, while only a small minority wants to accommodate their religion to modern culture.

There is tremendous diversity of religious beliefs and practices in the U.S. Important religious differences exist between the major religious traditions, but there are also important differences within religious traditions.

• While more than nine-in-ten Americans (92%) believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, there are considerable differences in the nature of this belief. Six-in-ten adults believe that God is a person with whom people can have a relationship; but one-in-four - including about half of Jews and Hindus - see God as an impersonal force. Similarly, seven-in-ten Americans say that they are absolutely certain of God's existence, while roughly one-in-five (22%) are less certain in their belief.
• Three-quarters of Americans report praying at least once a week, with large majorities among most religious traditions saying they pray on at least a weekly basis. Even among the unaffiliated, roughly one-in-three pray on a weekly basis. At the same time, however, there are those among all faith groups who pray much less frequently; overall, one quarter of the public says they pray a few times a month or less often.
• Almost two-fifths of Americans report meditating at least once a week. This practice is particularly common among Buddhists, but nearly half of evangelical Protestants and Muslims say they meditate at least weekly. About one-quarter of the unaffiliated report weekly meditation. These patterns may incorporate elements of both Christian and non-Christian traditions.

Politics and religion in the United States are intertwined, and religion is highly relevant to understanding politics in the U.S. Yet while the diversity of religious affiliation, belief and practice translates into important differences on many social and political issues, differences on other issues are less pronounced.

• Religion is closely linked to political ideology. The survey shows that Mormons are among the most politically conservative groups in the population. Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, by contrast, are among the most likely to describe their ideology as liberal.
• People who regularly attend worship services and say religion is important in their lives are much more likely to identify as conservative, and this pattern extends to many religious traditions. For example, within the evangelical, mainline Protestant, historically black Protestant, Catholic, Mormon and Orthodox Christian traditions, those who attend church weekly are significantly more likely than those who attend less often to describe themselves as political conservatives. And among Jews, those who say religion is very important to them or pray every day are more likely than others to be politically conservative.
• The connection between religious engagement and political attitudes appears to be especially strong when it comes to hot button social issues such as abortion or homosexuality. For instance, about six-in-ten Americans who attend religious services at least once a week say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while only three-in-ten who attend less often share this view. This pattern holds across several religious traditions.
• On other topics covered in the survey, such as views on the role and size of government and foreign policy attitudes, the role of religion is less clear and there appears to be greater consensus across and within religious traditions. For instance, a majority of nearly every religious group supports stricter environmental regulations and believes the government should do more to help Americans in need. Similarly, most Americans, including majorities of most faiths, say it is more important to focus on problems here at home than to be active in world affairs.

In conjunction with the release of this report, the Pew Forum is updating its online presentation of the findings at religions.pewforum.org. Updated features include interactive mapping by state, dynamic charts and a variety of other tools that allow users to explore the beliefs and practices as well as social and political views of major religions in the United States.

Subsequent releases will include a re-contact survey that delves deeper into the relationship between religious and political identity, issues related to conversion and attitudes toward religious pluralism in America.