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Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Sep 2002

A federal court has recently ruled that the phrase 'under God' in the traditional pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional.

In a case brought by an atheist with children at public schools (equivalent to English state schools) in California, the ninth circuit court has declared that the phrase 'under God' should not be a part of the pledge of allegiance.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2002

Here are some of the more interesting things reported in the press in America. Interesting, that is, from an evangelical perspective.

1. Run DMC famous rap star is shot in recording studio

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Nov 2002

There are two great challenges facing evangelicals in America today. The first is contemporary. How can evangelicals effectively minister in an atmosphere where war is looking increasingly likely? What is their role? Are they to tacitly support the administration, passively ignore the political realities, or actively campaign for a pacifist response?

Each of these approaches have had their supporters in conflicts past. The other challenge is historic. Because the revival of American evangelicalism over the past 50 years has, by and large, been based in para-church organisations, the gut-feeling of many American Christians is one that is thoroughly unused to being committed to a local church. This - as anyone with a moment's reflection could see - might easily transpire to produce enormous problems for the Christian community at large in the future.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Oct 2002

Soon enough, the remembrance parade of September 11 will pass. Right now, as I write, American TV companies and media outlets (and churches, be it said) are gearing up to remember September 11. It's a tricky feat. There are innumerable sensibilities. And the date is still too recent to be able to draw helpful or accurate conclusions about the American response to the terrorist atrocities.

Of course, from a European perspective, America's reaction to September 11 is increasingly looking revengeful. The sabre rattling currently going on with regard to Iraq is controversial, to say the least. In America, statistics of popular support for an invasion of Iraq were until recently highly in favour. Now, even in America, war fever is beginning to give way to the long game and the need for the gathering of allies and all that. There are doves and hawks in the administration. Donald Rumsfield urges immediate action, Colin Powell urges caution, and Bush listens and speaks eloquently.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jul 2002

Finally the moment has arrived. As new terrorist warnings are daily delivered from the various governmental offices of the USA, as Wall Street holds its breath over the fragile economy, and as Osama Bin Laden remains presumed in hiding, now, at last, the excavation has finished. 'Ground Zero', the site where the World Trade Centre once stood, is clear.

Now comes the big question. What to do with it? In typical New York fashion, various developers are already touting the site as a 'fantastic opportunity'. Others pale at the idea of the scene of so much carnage, and emotional trauma, being thought of in terms of expensive square feet. New York needs the office space (The World Trade Centre used to house an acre of office space per floor), but many would rather the glass boxes were stationed elsewhere now.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Aug 2002

When I was an undergraduate at university in England, our college hockey team solicited corporate sponsorship from Arthur Anderson accounting LLC. The team used to sing, in raucous and irreligious fashion: 'Arthur Anderson had many sons' to the well-known church tune of 'Father Abraham had many sons'.

Little did I think at the time that Arthur Anderson would be the syndicated accountancy firm hired by Enron. Enron, famously now, has been caught up in an accounting scandal that destroyed the once corporate giant. Now, bad news following upon bad, WorldCom has declared that it overestimated its revenues by several billion dollars. Fast on the heels of that news, venerable stock-safe-haven Xerox has mentioned that it too has overestimated its revenues to the tune of a few billion dollars.

The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that the gay issue is on the verge of splitting the Church of England. Already serious trouble has been caused among Anglicans in Canada. Here, leading evangelical theologian Jim Packer sounds a vital warning.

In June 2002, the synod of the Anglican diocese of New Westminster, in which Vancouver stands, mandated its bishop to do what he had already indicated his wish to do, namely, to authorise the production of a liturgical form for blessing same-sex unions, to be used in any parish of the diocese that requests it.

The founder and president of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, Bruce H. Wilkinson, has become hooked on a little prayer tucked away in the first book of Chronicles.

The prayer was made by a man called Jabez. His name means pain, and he was given the name because he gave his mother a lot of pain in the process of being born. And, having been saddled with the name, its meaning seems to have preyed on his mind somewhat. So, even though his prayer is basically for more territory to live in, Jabez wants to acquire and enjoy it without incurring personal pain. Who wouldn't?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jun 2002

'The moral authority of the Catholic Church is in jeopardy', Bishop Gregory reported that he said to the pope and other senior prelates at the Vatican, before the Pope's summons of the American bishops to a crisis conference.

It's hard not to agree with Bishop Gregory. The recent sex scandals in the Roman church must have dented its credibility. Paedophilia and piety do not make good bedfellows. What's more, there is some extraordinary blindness in this. One local priest got himself on a news radio programme and said that this scandal was not as bad as it seemed because often the victims were over 10 years old. Older children, he explained, recovered more quickly.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2002

It's been quite a year in America. First, there was the 'millennium' (remember that?), then there was the tech-bust, and then (of course) September 11, Afghanistan, the Taliban, and one Osama Bin Laden.

In some ways, you might be forgiven for feeling if you lived in America that despite all this nothing has changed at all. Shopping is still the national sport. Pundits are still predicting a soft-landing for the economy. Microsoft is still selling Apple Mac's software cunningly disguised as Windows.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 May 2002

I found it hard to believe. Americans I mentioned it to also found it hard to believe. But, nonetheless, it was true.

Terrorist Grand Marshall

The Grand Marshall chosen for this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Rockland County, New York, was a convicted IRA terrorist. This celebration - the second biggest in the State - attracts 40-65,000 spectators. It is only outsized by New York City itself which draws two million visitors. The Grand Marshall was to be one Brian Pearson. Brian Pearson is a former IRA member who served 12 years in prison in Northern Ireland for driving the getaway car after the Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks were bombed in 1975. Mr. Pearson came to the US illegally but gained political asylum status in 1997. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) is, apparently, appealing and reviewing his residency status.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Apr 2002

I wonder how many EN readers will recognise that as a quote from the Bible? Ecclesiastes 10.19 'Money is the answer to everything'. While there may be much that British evangelicals would wish to feel that they have to teach their American cousins about, for instance, the integration of the mind and faith or maintaining the purity of the church, in this matter, American evangelicals seem to be far more comfortable with the plain reality of life which the Bible here acknowledges.

If you want something done, it's going to cost money. If you want to hire someone to do a good job it will cost money. American evangelicals on the whole tend to have much more of the attitude that 'you get what you pay for'. They want a healthy, growing church; and they know that one component of that is a godly, Bible teaching pastor, and so they intend to find money to pay for one.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2002

President Bush delivered his State Of The Union address to predictable applause. Bush has become one of the most popular Presidents in American history. His handling of the 'War on Terrorism' has endeared him to the patriotic hearts of Americans. And, of course, State Of The Union addresses are always peppered with loud approval. Their basic theme - America is great and we're going to make it greater - and their tradition combine to make applause all but mandatory. Pity the poor person who has to deliver the opposition party's response in a quiet room, somewhat alone, and with most people switching their TVs to other channels.

One of the most revealing - and encouraging for Christians - aspects of President Bush's tenure so far has been his outspoken faith. Even in the midst of this political speech par excellence Bush managed to make mention of 'God', and the presence of God which he felt many had found to comfort them in their hour of distress and need.

From time to time one of those seemingly eternal chestnuts surfaces in or around this third of the page. Why suffering? Where will it all end? Why are hymnwriters so greedy?

Leaving the first two for a moment, I approach the third with no particular complaint in mind. I write this months ahead, so if the letters column is bulging with outraged pastors, the coincidence is not of my making. Have we any defence?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Feb 2002

There is another war going on beside the war on terrorism. It is the war to decide what interpretation of the events of September 11 will gain general credibility.

A few weeks ago, retiring New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis suggested that Attorney General John Ashcroft, a committed Christian, is as much an 'enemy of decency' as terrorist mass murderer Osama bin Laden. For 'Certainty', says Lewis, 'is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft.'

Bill Edgar is both a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and an extremely talented jazz musician who has spent a lot of his life in France. He is not only very intelligent and cosmopolitan, but uses his gifts to share the gospel in various ways. EN took the opportunity to interview him while he was in Britain earlier this year.

EN: Bill, tell us about your background?

BE: My parents met in North Carolina during the war, while Dad was in the army. That is where I was born. Shortly after, we moved to Paris, France, and I grew up there. Then we spent seven years in New York. But after that, the rest of Dad's professional career until he retired in 1983, was in Geneva. It was not a Christian home, but it was a wonderful home.