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A Special Message from Pastor Joe |
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 Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Dear Parents:
I'm writing to you today in response to a number of requests I've received, regarding the availability of CDs or transcripts from a talk I gave recently to students at North Sound Christian Schools and Cedar Park Christian Schools, about Christianity: The Uplifting Force of Civilization.
If you or your student are among those who requested this information, I wanted to let you know the material is available online, in both text and audio formats. I'm providing you with a few introductory paragraphs below, which includes links to listen to or read the material I used as the basis for my talk.
The first message is from a two-part sermon I preached Sunday morning and evening, July 1, 2007, on "Christianity: The Uplifting Force of Civilization". The second message from October 2006 speaks to the question, "Is Christianity Violent?"
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. It is a privilege to serve you and your family.
Yours for the Kingdom,
Pastor Joe
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Christianity: The Uplifting Force of Civilization |
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(Listen to the mp3) By Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten Sunday, July 1, 2006 (full text)
On the Sunday nearest July 4th,
I like to consider Christianity as it relates to our common social and
political life. For Americans, I want us to know our history. For those
who are citizens of other countries, but who live or work in America, I
want you to appreciate what Christianity does in the formation of
culture. In my messages of this morning and evening, I want to
consider the world created by Christianity particularly comparing it to
the world that once was before Christianity began.
The problem with which we are dealing.
As anti-Christian forces have increasingly captured education in
America, they have frequently ceased teaching the history of western
civilization and turned to a multi-cultural model. That model decouples
the study of history from considering the progress of Christianity in
society and treats all cultures as equal as though civilization itself
has no moral measurements. On the other hand, we do not believe that
all cultures are equal. That culture is best which best reflects the
values of Christianity. Some have also tried to shrink
Christianity's role in America. If they can obscure our role in the
past, it makes it easier to diminish our role in the present. Tonight I
will play President Franklin Roosevelt's prayer for our troops as they
entered D-Day. It is a lengthy prayer, unlike most praying today. I was
most taken by his reference to "our religion." It was clearly a
reference to Christianity. Further, it was also clear that he saw
America's role in WWII as a defense of the Christian faith. He was
expressing what we Americans have always felt, that Christianity and
America are meant to be linked. Read more ... |
Is Christianity Violent? |
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(Listen to the mp3)
By Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten
October 22, 2006 (full text)
Is there a moral equivalence of Islam and Christianity especially as it relates to war and violence? It has become increasingly fashionable to view Christianity as evil and the source of great violence in the world.
- a.
"Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a
country like America where we have separation of church and state,"
Rosie O'Donnell said recently. In her view, President Bush is a radical
Christian who is leading America into unjustified wars.
- b.
Rabbi Lerner, in his debate with me, accused Christians of fomenting
war. I reminded him that Stalin killed 20 million in the name of
Atheism. Hitler was a pagan who killed 8 million in his gas chambers
and millions more died in the war itself. Mao killed 30 to 35 million
in China as an atheist. The Moslems have killed millions in the 20th century and show no signs of letting up.
- c.
The imam from Seattle writing in the Seattle Times blamed the Holocaust
on Christians. He conveniently forgot that a number of the Muslim
nations were aligned with the Nazi's.
- d. New York Times Stephen
Holden reviewing "Jesus Camp" said, "It wasn't so long ago that another
puritanical youth army, Mao Zedong's Red Guards, turned the world's
most populous country inside out. Nowadays the possibility of a
right-wing Christian American version of what happened in China no
longer seems entirely far-retched." Killing some 30-35 million people
in the name of atheism is compared to what Christians do at youth camp.
This in the face of all facts: - a. 90%-95% OF ALL THE CONFLICTS ON THIS PLANET TODAY
- INVOLVE
MUSLIMS FIGHTING NON-MUSLIMS OR EACH OTHER! There are many trouble
spots around the world, but as a general rule, it's easy to make an
educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in
"Palestine," Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in
Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the
Caucasus, etc...
- b. Recent history and current events reveal
that common thread. The L.A. Times wrote about Muslims in Indonesia
forcing Christians of all denominations to convert to Islam or get
their throats slit. Thousands upon thousands of Christians were first
converted and, according to rigid Islamic religious dictate, forced to
undergo sexual mutilation of their foreskin or clitoris (with kitchen
knives and razor blades) to make them conform to Muslim standards. Then
they were enslaved to their local Muslim chieftain.
- c.
Algeria is wracked by bitter fighting between Islamic Fundamentalists
and the military.Death toll, 100,000 over a ten year period!
- d. Nigeria is in the midst of a war in which Muslims are murdering Christians
and burning down their churches. Moslems against Christians.The Miss
Universe Pageant was held there at the end of 2002. Muslim opposition
to the pageant boiled over after a local journalist wrote that the
prophet Mohammed would have approved of the contest and might even have
wanted to marry one of the contestants. The ensuing riots in Kaduna
left 220 dead and 400 wounded.
- e. In Kenya the Islamic Party has declared Holy War on the government.
- f. In Turkey the secular Muslim government is being challenged by the militant Refah Islamic Party.
- g.
A civil war rages in the Sudan between Muslims in the north against the
Christians in the south.Sudan's militant Muslim regime is slaughtering Christians
who refuse to convert to Islam. In recent years, more than two million
Sudanese have been killed out of a population of 35 million as its
government used bombings and famine in its war on its own people.
- h. A war also raged between Muslim Eritrea and Christian Ethiopia.
- i.
The result of fighting between Muslim Azerbaijans and Christian
Armenians was 35,000 casualties. Armenia was shrunk because of
territory "gained" by the rapidly growing Muslims population.
- j.
Serbian Moslems looted Christian treasures in the process of destroying
107 churches and monasteries, both ancient and modern.
- k. In
the former Soviet Union, breakaway Muslim republics (and their 55
million Muslims)... Chechnya, Daghestan,Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan... have sparked insurrection against Orthodox Russian.[1]
- l. Uighur Muslim separatist terrorists are active in Western China's Xinjiang Province.
- m. The Philippines is nearly 95% Christian yet the Muslim rebel group called Abu Sayyaf ("Bearer of the Sword") have aligned with bin Laden's al Qaeda and want their own independent Islamic Nation.
- n. We could add Israel and the Middle East to this list.
"Ex-president
Bill Clinton has also fingered the Crusades as the root cause of the
present conflict. In a speech at Georgetown University, he recounted
(and embellished) a massacre of Jews after the Crusader conquest of
Jerusalem in 1099 and informed his audience that the episode was still
bitterly remembered in the Middle East. (Why Islamist terrorists should
be upset about the killing of Jews was not explained.) Clinton took a
beating on the nation's editorial pages for wanting so much to blame
the United States that he was willing to reach back to the Middle Ages.Yet no one disputed the ex-president's fundamental premise."[2] To get the story straight, we need to go back to the seventh century when 95% of the Middle East was Christian. Read more ...
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[1] http://www.masada2000.org/islam.html [2] The Real History of the Crusades, By Thomas F. Madden. http://www.crisismagazine.com/april2002/cover.htm
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Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten is the senior pastor of Cedar Park Church in Bothell, Washington, and he is the former president of Positive Christian Agenda. Currently, Pastor Fuiten serves on the Board of Directors for the Family Policy Institute of Washington, an associate organization of Focus on the Family.
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