Spotlight: What We Learned About Africa
The Pew Forum issued an extensive report on the world's "most religious" continent.
Download a PDF of this article here
Friday, June 4, 2010
John Armstrong on Infant Baptism
I have been meaning to write a post about infant baptism but have not come around to it yet. However I have posted on modes of baptism. In the meantime read why John Armstrong, a Baptist minister and author of newly launched Your Church is Too Small and founder of ACTS 3 on Why he [I] changed his [my] view on infant baptism.
picture source
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Ethics in the Emergency Room
This issue focus on ethics in the ER.
(For best results, view as HTML or request text version from virtualmentor@ama-assn.org)
Virtual Mentor. June 2010, Volume 12, Number 6: 435-516. Full Issue PDF
June 2010 Contents
Time and Resource Constraints in the Emergency Room
From the Editor
Keeping Ethics Alive in the ED
Thomas Robey
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:437-439.
Educating for Professionalism
Clinical Cases
Make It OK That This Life Is Ending
Commentary by Caroline Pace
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:440-443.
Taking No for an Answer—Refusal of Life-Sustaining Treatment
Commentary by Stephanie Cooper
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:444-449.
Resource Allocation Shake-Up
Commentary by Damon Allen Darsey and Robert Galli
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:450-454.
Medical Education
Preparing for the Unexpected—Teaching ER Ethics
Kelly A. Edwards and Thomas Robey
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:455-458.
The Code Says
AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ Opinion on Physician Duty to Treat
Full Text | PDF
Virtual Mentor. 2010; 12:459.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
An African Perspective on the Prosperity Gospel
From the Lausanne Theology Working Group, Africa chapter at its consultations in Akropong, Ghana, 8-9 October, 2008 and 1-4 September 2009
The following article is located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/decemberweb-only/gc-prosperitystatement.html2009 > December (Web-Only)
NOTE: This is a statement, offered as a discussion starter for further reflection (theological, ethical, pastoral and missiological, socio-political and economic) on the phenomenal rise of prosperity teaching around the world at large and Africa in particular. The points below are a digest of many points made in the course of the discussion of three papers at the Oct. 2008 and ten papers at the Sept 2009 consultations.
We define prosperity gospel as the teaching that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the "sowing of seeds" through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings. We recognize that prosperity teaching is a phenomenon that cuts across denominational barriers. Prosperity teaching can be found in varying degrees in mainstream Protestant, Pentecostal as well as Charismatic Churches. It is the phenomenon of prosperity teaching that is being addressed here not any particular denomination or tradition.
- However, we reject as unbiblical the notion that God's miraculous power can be treated as automatic, or at the disposal of human techniques, or manipulated by human words, actions or rituals.
- However, we reject the unbiblical notion that spiritual welfare can be measured in terms of material welfare, or that wealth is always a sign of God's blessing (since it can be obtained by oppression, deceit or corruption), or that poverty or illness or early death, is always a sign of God's curse, or lack of faith, or human curses (since the Bible explicitly denies that it is always so)
- However, we reject as dangerously contradictory to the sovereign grace of God, the notion that success in life is entirely due to our own striving, wrestling, negotiation, or cleverness. We reject those elements of Prosperity Teaching that are virtually identical to 'positive thinking' and other kinds of 'self-help' techniques.We are also grieved to observe that Prosperity Teaching has stressed individual wealth and success, without the need for community accountability, and has thus actually damaged a traditional feature of African society, which was commitment to care within the extended family and wider social community.
- However, we do not believe that Prosperity Teaching provides a helpful or biblical response to the poverty of the people among whom it flourishes. And we observe that much of this teaching has come from North American sources where people are not materially poor in the same way.
- However, we are distressed that much use of the Bible is seriously distorted, selective, and manipulative. We call for a more careful exegesis of texts, and a more holistic biblical hermeneutic, and we denounce the way that many texts are twisted out of context and used in ways that contradict some very plain Bible teaching.
- And especially, we deplore the fact that in many churches where Prosperity Teaching is dominant, the Bible is rarely preached in any careful or explanatory way, and the way of salvation, including repentance from sin and saving faith in Christ for forgiveness of sin, and the hope of eternal life, is misrepresented and substituted with material wellbeing.
- However, numerical growth or mega-statistics may not necessarily demonstrate the truth of the message that accompanies it, or the belief system behind it. Popularity is no proof of truth; and people can be deceived in great numbers.
- Yet it seems clear that there are many aspects of Prosperity Teaching that have their roots in that soil. We therefore wonder if much popular Christianity is a syncretised super-structure on an underlying worldview that has not been radically transformed by the biblical gospel. We also wonder whether the popularity and attraction of Prosperity Teaching is an indication of the failure of contextualization of the Gospel in Africa.
- However, we observe equally that many people have been duped by such teaching into false faith and false expectations, and when these are not satisfied, they 'give up on God', or lose their faith altogether and leave the church. This is tragic, and must be very grievous to God.
- But we deplore the clear evidence that many of them have in practice moved away from key and fundamental tenets of evangelical faith, including the authority and priority of the Bible as the Word of God, and the centrality of the cross of Christ.
- However, there are aspects of the lifestyle and behaviour of many preachers of Prosperity Teaching that we find deplorable, unethical, and frankly idolatrous (to the god of Mammon), and in some of these respects we may be called upon to identify and reject such things as the marks of false prophets, according to the standards of the Bible.
read more
First Draft by Rev. Dr. Chris Wright (Chair, Lausanne Theology Working Group); edited by Rev. Dr. John Azumah (Member, Lausanne Theology Working Group); in collaboration with Rev. Prof. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Chair of the Akropong consultations.
This is a collated digest of points made by many contributors, through the written papers and the discussion that followed them.
also please read my Examining the Theology of the Word-Faith Movement
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Biomedical Ethics Course
Biomedical Ethics & the Contemporary Church (2 credit class)
Dr Alex Tang
18, 19, 25, 26 June 2010
Fridays: 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm;
Saturdays 9.00 am to 4.00 pm
Advances in medical treatment modalities, biotechnological innovations, and genetic-molecular manipulations have brought about unique challenges to issues faced by the church today. In this class, a pastoral-theological approach will be used to examine, reflect and develop responses to difficult moral and ethical issues such as test tube and designer babies, facts and fallacies of stem cell therapies, cloning, abortion, mercy-killing, living will, gene therapy, and aesthetic surgery
Registration
Click here for more details
The Church: A Family Affair
| 2010 > May | Christianity Today, May, 2010 |
THEOLOGY
A Family Affair
What would the church look like if it put we before me?
What if church is a relational entity? challenges Joseph Hellerman, professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He is the author of When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community (B&H Academic).
His definition of church resonances with my thinking on what being church is all about.
Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. Persons who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding. And they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to fellow human beings. This is especially the case for those courageous Christians who stick it out through the messy process of interpersonal conflict. Long-term relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay grow.
read more
Recommendation on Flu Vaccine for Children under 5
Professor Jim Bishop AO
MD MMed MBBS FRACP FRCPA
Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer
MEDIA STATEMENT
1 June 2010
SEASONAL FLU VACCINE REMAINS SUSPENDED FOR
YOUNG CHILDREN WITHOUT RISK FACTORS
After consideration of the results to date of a comprehensive investigation into the safety of the seasonal flu vaccine for young children, I have advised, that as a precaution, the suspension of seasonal flu vaccination should continue for healthy children under five years of age.
Since the first reports of a higher than usual occurrence of fever with convulsions in young children following seasonal flu vaccination in WA in April, investigations nationally have confirmed that a small number of children aged under five across the country have experienced fever with convulsions in the 24 hours after vaccination with the 2010 seasonal influenza vaccine. These reactions have been associated mainly with Fluvax, manufactured by CSL.
The investigation conducted by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), in association with the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance has identified no apparent clinical, biological or epidemiological factors that would explain the higher than expected observed rates of fever with convulsions. Laboratory testing of the vaccine by the TGA and an audit of the CSL manufacturing plant have also revealed no abnormalities to explain this event. However this investigation is continuing.
Nevertheless, to date, epidemiological analyses point to a rate of febrile convulsions in children aged under five years following 2010 seasonal influenza vaccination of about 9 per 1000 children vaccinated, while the expected rate would be less than 1 per 1000.
While I am recommending that healthy children aged under five years not be vaccinated with seasonal flu vaccine this year, where a child aged under five has medical risk factors that would cause serious health effects for the child if they got the flu, parents should discuss with their doctor whether, on clinical evaluation of the risks and benefits, a seasonal flu vaccination would be the best option.
More information is available on the Immunise Australia Hotline at 1800 671 811.
Media contact: Kay McNiece, 0412 132 585
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