An interesting video was posted on You Tube on Monday, September 12 called “Caring for the Lost at Vanderbilt.” If you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to before you read the rest of this.

The video opens with a young family driving around the fraternity houses near Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to the narrator, they are looking for a place to preach the Gospel. While dad drives, mom describes the scene as they drive past party after party with swarms of college students and grounds littered with beer cans. It is obvious that she is worried about the students’ safety as well as their souls.

Her heart is clearly in the right place. But then it gets a little weird. She describes the students as “drunk with the wine of this world” and states that if parents are planning on sending their children to this university, that they should repent.

About two minutes into the video the mom uses a microphone to shout out to the students that “no drunkard will enter the kingdom of heaven – you must repent.”

As you can imagine, the students aren’t very impressed. Most ignore the couple, but a few engage in conversations, but not conversions. I was relieved to see that they actually did park the car to talk to the students, but every other word they said was “repent.” The message was correct but the delivery was terrible or so it appears.

At the end of the video, there is a link to a website, cheapmissiontrips.com. When I visited there today, there was no mention of this particular video, however other videos were posted there and they all seem to feature Tabitha Lovell, an International Travel Specialist.

By visiting the website, you can tell that she, and her husband Kevin, really love the Lord and really believe in missions. She and her company, MKI Group Travel, provide missionaries discount airfare. The site has tips on how to become a missionary, on traveling and testimonies.

They have a heart for reaching the lost and they are doing a huge service in helping missionaries go abroad affordably. However, I suspect that they have better success reaching the lost overseas than in their hometown.

The scenes on this video reminded me of a local town’s Fourth of July parade that I attended this year. Before the parade began, a small crowd set up microphones and speakers on the corner sidewalks to tell the crowd that they would be going to hell if they didn’t repent of their sins.

The group wasn’t obnoxious, but I don’t think anyone was moved by their actions either. In fact, a few people clapped when they finished because they wouldn’t have to hear them preach anymore. In contrast, another church group offered up their church grounds after the parade in celebration of the holiday. They gave out hot dogs and had “bounce houses” for children to jump around in.

No preaching was involved, just a fun and friendly atmosphere. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect that the latter was more impactful in reaching others for Christ.

At the end of the video a verse is posted from Ezekiel 33:9: “Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked from his way, he shall die in his iniquity’ but you have delivered your soul.”

I guess the Lovell’s and others are doing that, and this isn’t to say that Christians should just stand and watch the world go to hell in a hand basket, but I think God had something better in mind than just dumping the truth and running away.

Another verse in the Bible says, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” (Ephesians 4:15) and that some “perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) I wonder how many of those students “felt the love” as that couple drove by. How many are moved when they see the “Turn or Burn” bumper sticker on our cars? Is this is the good news?

So, what do you think? What’s the answer?

Originally here.

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The producers of “South Park” complained recently that Comedy Central censored a portion of their popular cartoon after they had received threats from a radical Muslim group.

Producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone expressed disapproval after their bosses bleeped out a portion of the usual wrap-up speech of South Park character Kyle.  The speech didn’t mention Muhammad.

The censorship was done in response to threats from Revolution Muslim, a fringe group which complained that `South Park’ insulted their prophet by depicting him in a bear costume in last week’s episode.

Many Muslims believe that Islamic teachings forbid showing images of Muhammad.

The Muslim group didn’t explicitly threaten the producers.  However, they warned that Parker and Stone could end up as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh did, who was slain six years ago for making a film that criticized Islamic society.

Their Web site, revolutionmuslim.com also published Stone and Parker’s work address.

The Web site said, “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show.”

A photo of Van Gogh’s body lying in the street was included with the original posting, which has been unavailable to some Web users since news of the item broke earlier this week.

The extremist group is relatively small with about a dozen members.  It was formed in 2007 and is based out of New York.

It is mostly known for posting inflammatory and often threatening comments on its Web site, including a poem last October during the Jewish High Holy Days asking God to kill all the Jews.

Its members also stage protests in front of New York mosques, advocating a more fundamentalist form of Islam, said Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

South Park, in its 200 shows, has satirized Christianity, Buddhism, Scientology, the blind and disabled, gay people, Hollywood celebrities and politicians of all persuasions.

Some of those who were satirized protested, or threatened to boycott.

Regarding Comedy Central’s self censorship, experts call it a dangerous precedent which also stirs up a free-speech issue that, while dormant for years, has now opened again.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh said to the Los Angeles Times that the network has potentially empowered other extremists by how it has chosen to handle the situation.  “The consequence of this position is that the thugs win and people have more incentive to be thugs,” said Volokh, who teaches free speech and religious freedom law.

Sources:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_en_tv/us_tv_south_park_muslims

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-south-park-20100423,0,5940860.story

Charisa Coulter, left, and Laura Silsby are two of 10 missionaries accused of trying to take children after the Haiti earthquake. Photo Source: Getty Images

On Monday, the Haitian judge involved in the case of the 10 American Baptist missionaries who attempted to transport orphaned children out of the country declared that all charges still stand, according to several international news reports.

Although rumors had been circulating that the volunteers would soon be exonerated, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil denied ever suggesting he would drop charges against the group.

Last Friday, Haiti’s top prosecutor in the case, Attorney General Joseph Manes, said that any information suggesting dropped charges was “absolutely incorrect,” according to a report from CNN.

Under Haitian law, the charges are required to stand until Judge Saint-Vil “renders his decision.”

Missionary group leader Laura Silsby is still being held in Port-au-Prince, nearly two months after eight of her fellow volunteers were released on the condition that they would return if there was a need for future questioning.

The ninth missionary was released in March.

Interestingly, Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said via a spokesperson last week that the State Department had informed him that all charges had been dropped against nine of the 10 missionaries (excluding Silsby). Saint-Vil’s statement to the media, however, suggested the opposite.

Reverend Clint Henry of Central Valley Baptist Church in Idaho, where the missionaries hail from, said he received an e-mail from the State Department informing him that all the charges had indeed been dropped.

Manes, however, said on Friday that, based on the confidential documents his office received from Saint-Vil’s investigation, it remains to be seen whether the case will be dismissed or move to trial.

Right now, Saint-Vil has until May to decide if he will release Silsby or arrange a trial.

The Interreligious Solidarity Movement for Peace appealed for harmony after the Abu Sayyaf, a militant Islamic group, set off two bombs in the Philippines Tuesday, killing 14, injuring 15 and destroying a Catholic Cathedral.

The IRSMP joined forces with the civilian Peace Advocates Zamboanga and the Consortium of Bangasamoro Civic Society  in their appeal for peace.

Of the total deaths, seven were civilians, three soldiers, three Abu Sayyaf men, and one policeman.  Another bomb that was found in front of a judge’s house and near a bus terminal was detonated by the military.

Even as the military claimed recently that Isabela, the city in which the attacks took place,  is now clear of Abu Sayyaf terrorists and that life in the Philippine province of Basilan is starting to normalize, questions are being raised as to why the attack took place, and who or what is behind the bombing.

An editorial by the Philippine Daily Inquirer  quoted senior superintendent Antonio Mendoza, Basilan police chief as saying, “Based on some accounts, they were hired, forced to wear the police uniforms and were directed to implement some attacks.  And of course, there’s money involved.”

However the PDI also noted that it is possible the police chief’s sources are at least two captured Abu Sayyaf members who could lying.

Reportedly, the two mentioned prominent political personalities behind the attack, which could be a ruse to conduct terrorism by other means or could be the truth.

Political feuds are not uncommon in Basilan, including the assassination of Rep. Wahab Akbar (himself a former Abu Sayyaf member) in Quezon City which is believed to be traced to political enemies.

Another very plausible possibility was raised by Rear Adm. Alex Pama who speculated that, based on the likely operations plan the Abu Sayyaf attempted to carry out, the objective of the group may have been to replicate the 1995 Ipil raid (now Zamboanga Sibugay) which left 50 people dead, a billion pesos looted from banks and a town center in ruins.

Pama said the Isabela attack was “a major, well-planned attack that luckily went bad in their own hands.”

The Abu Sayyaf started in the 1990s.  It is well known in America as the group that kidnapped American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham.

Upon the Burhamms’ rescue Martin was killed in the crossfire, while Gracia survived and now lives with her children in Kansas.

Sources:

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20100416-264492/Behind-the-raid

http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue9496.html

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=566936&publicationSubCategoryId=200