In the book “The Rule of Saint Benedict”, Saint Benedict “writes” on page 11 that all in the monastery need to be consulted when something important is being considered, and that the reason is “that the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger”  And if it’s less important it’s acceptable to counsel only with the seniors. 

My opinion would be that it wouldn’t be something so hard and fast like, “young people are more creative and imaginative, and older monks are jaded by life and by rules”.  If they somehow thought that God always revealed what was better to the younger, then they would have shown favoritism towards the younger, and if the thought was truly that the older monks were jaded by life and rules than they would not be given much consideration when making any decisions.  What seems more consistent is the desire for equality and fairness.  I believe age would have been a common basis for discrimination.  On page 11 it does go on to say everyone should express their opinions with humility and that ultimately the decision is completely left for the abbot to make.   The final sentence in that paragraph is “…it is becoming for the master on his part to settle everything with foresight and fairness.  

In chapter 63, a completely different point seems to be made that might cause us to see page 11 as not referring to age at all, “Absolutely nowhere shall age automatically determine rank.”  It goes on to say that “Someone who came to the monastery at the second hour of the day must recognize that he is junior to someone who came at the first hour, regardless of age or distinctions.”  Thus, it appears that when it mentions later on that same page that the “younger” monk must respect their “seniors”, and the “seniors” must love their “juniors”, age isn’t even being considered.

Thus, page 11 could then be interpreted as saying that the Lord often reveals what is better to the monks that “came the second hour”or more recently entered the monastery.  The abbot desires a different perspective in order to reach the best possible decision, he would elicit the input from those with “fresh eyes” or a more objective perspective.

There are SO MANY passages from this book that could be applied to LEADERSHIP! Here are just a few that jumped out at me when I read and read again through the book:

In the Prologue, “First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.”p.3

Chapter 2 “Furthermore, anyone who receives the name of abbot is to lead his disciples by a twofold teaching: he must point out to them all that is good and holy more by example than by words… And also this… The abbot should avoid all favoritism in the monastery.”p.9

“He must know what a difficult and demanding burden he has undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving and encouraging them as appropriate.”p.10 

Chapter 62, “He (the visiting monk) may, indeed, with all humility and love make some reasonable criticism or observation, which the abbot should prudently consider; it is possible that the Lord guided him to the monastery for this very purpose.” P.59

Chapter 68, “A brother may be assigned a burdensome task or something he cannot do.  If so, he should, with complete gentleness and obedience, accept the order given him.  Should he see, however, that the weight of the burden is altogether too much for his strength, then he should choose the appropriate moment and explain patiently to his superior the reasons why he cannot perform the task.  This he ought to do without pride, obstinacy or refusal.  If after the explanation the superior is still determined to hold to his original order, then the junior must recognize that this is best for him.  Trusting in God’s help, he must in love obey.”pp.66,67

I would also have to note that chapter 7, which happens to be the longest chapter, covers a topic most crucial to leadership; that being Humility.  A wonderful paper written by Corne J. Bekker, that highlights the topic of humility can be found by following this link:  http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/innerresources/vol1iss3/bekker_inspirational.pdf

It quotes a book by the title “The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: Classic Management Secrets You Can Use Today,” written by Galbraith and Galbraith.  They translated the Rules’ twelve steps of humility in a very modern and simple way, beautifully applying them for leaders today:

I strongly encourage everyone to check out the above mentioned paper and the book, which portions of can be found here: THE BENEDICTINE RULE OF LEADERSHIP

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oral Roberts University President Mark Rutland says the sale of a 9-acre presidential compound where the late evangelist Oral Roberts and his son, Richard, once lived is another milestone for the school.

Investors Roger and Brian Broach purchased the compound and its six houses adjacent to the campus for $1.55 million. Brian Broach said Thursday they plan to lease the homes until the Tulsa housing market improves.

Rutland, who is the first school president who wasn’t a member of the Roberts family, says he’s excited about the university’s future.

Oral Roberts founded the school in 1963 and was president until Richard Roberts took over in 1993.

Richard Roberts resigned in 2007.

___

Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com

Read more: http://www.newsok.com/compound-of-late-okla.-evangelist-son-sold/article/feed/170017#ixzz0sZ1Hx92S
]]> http://picklinginhispresence.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/oral-roberts-university-compound-sold/feed/ 0 esparza http://picklinginhispresence.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/elmer-gantry-was-drunk-written-by-cliff-dunn-and-pier-angelo-guidugli/ http://picklinginhispresence.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/elmer-gantry-was-drunk-written-by-cliff-dunn-and-pier-angelo-guidugli/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:29:12 +0000 esparza http://picklinginhispresence.wordpress.com/?p=443 Continue reading →]]> That’s the opening sentence of the novel Elmer Gantry—the most scathing satire Sinclair Lewis ever wrote.

It tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who becomes a Methodist minister and spends his life as a false prophet, until his “con act” finally leads him, and many followers, to misery.

The novel, written in 1926, created a public furor. The book was banned in several states and denounced from pulpits across the USA. One cleric suggested that the author should be imprisoned for five years. And like with the ayatollahs’ “fatwa” against Salman Rushdie for his 1988 book, The Satanic Verses, there were also threats of physical violence against Sinclair Lewis.

The novel could easily have been written today. It satirically represents, and brings to life, the hypocrisy behind the multimillion-dollar industry of religion. Elmer Gantry remains unpopular with most evangelical Christians to this day.

It hits too close to home.

SFGN has compiled “The Hypocrisy A-List.” It features preachers and Republican politicians who get caught in unholy scandals of one type or another—preferably of a sexual nature.

These people tend to be extremely homophobic in their sermons and their politics.

“The Hall of Shame”

Part 1: THE PREACHERS – FALL FROM GRACE

(Part 2: The Politicians will follow)

BILLY JAMES HARGIS, early 1970s. A prolific author and radio evangelist. Formed American Christian College in 1971 in order to teach fundamentalist Christian principles. However, a sex scandal erupted at the college, involving claims that Hargis had had sex with male and female students.

JIMMY SWAGGART, 1987. The Self-Appointed Judge of America’s Televangelists found himself the penitent when he was caught patronizing a prostitute.

MIKE WARNKE, 1991. A popular Christian evangelist and comedian during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991, Cornerstone Magazine turned up damaging evidence of fraud and deceit. The investigation also revealed the unflattering circumstances surrounding Warnke’s multiple marriages, affairs, and divorces.

JIM BAKKER,1991. The founding father of the Praise the Lord Club was involved in a sex scandal with Jessica Hahn. Around the same time, various improprieties in the business dealings of PTL were uncovered. He wound up being sentenced to a 45-year term in prison for fraud. His wife Tammy became a favorite gay icon.

ROY CLEMENTS, 1999. Prominent figure within British evangelical Christianity. In 1999, he revealed he was in a homosexual relationship, resigned as a pastor, and separated from his wife.

JOHN PAULK, 2000. Former leader of Focus on the Family ’s “Love Won Out” and former chairman of the board for Exodus International.  In September 2000, Paulk was found and photographed in a Washington, D.C. gay bar, and accused by opponents of flirting with male patrons at the bar.

EARL PAULK, 2007. (no relation to the above) was the founder and head pastor of Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Decatur, Georgia, from 1960 until the 1990s. A number of women from the congregation came forward during the 1990s claiming that Paulk had sexual relations with them. Some of these claims have subsequently been proven correct.

PAUL CROUCH, 2004. Founder and president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world’s largest evangelical television network. In September 2004, the LA Times published a series of articles raising questions about the fundraising practices and financial transparency of TBN, as well as the allegations of a former ministry employee, Enoch Lonnie Ford, that he had a homosexual affair with Crouch during the 1990s.

TED HAGGARD, 2006. Was the pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Haggard’s position allowed him occasional access to President George W. Bush. In 2006, it was alleged that Haggard had been regularly visiting a male prostitute who also provided him with drugs. Haggard admitted his wrongdoing and resigned.

PAUL BARNES, 2006. Founder and former senior minister of the evangelical church Grace Chapel in Douglas County, Colorado. He confessed his homosexual activity to the church board, and his resignation was accepted on December 7, 2006   This scandal was notable because it was similar to Ted Haggard’s (above), it occurred in the same state (Colorado), and around the same time (late 2006).

LONNIE LATHAM. In 2006, Latham, the senior pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church and a member of the powerful Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, was arrested for “offering to engage in an act of lewdness” with a male undercover police officer.

COY PRIVETTE, 2007. Baptist pastor, conservative activist, politician in North Carolina, president of the Christian Action League, and a prominent figure in North Carolina moral battles. In 2007, Privette resigned as president of North Carolina’s Christian Action League and from the board of directors of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, following revelations on July 19 that he had been charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution

THOMAS WESLEY WEEKS, III, 2007. Married fellow evangelist Juanita Bynum in 2002, but they separated in May 2007. In August 2007, Weeks physically assaulted Bynum in a hotel parking lot and was convicted of the crime in March 2008. The couple divorced in June 2008 and Weeks remarried in October 2009.

JOE BARRON, 2008, one of the 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the United States, was arrested on May 15, 2008 for solicitation of a minor after driving from the Dallas area to Bryan, Texas, in order to allegedly engage in sexual relations with what he thought to be a 13-year-old girl he had met online. The “girl” turned out to be an undercover law enforcement official.

TODD BENTLEY, 2008. Rose to prominence as an evangelist at the Lakeland Revival in Florida. In August 2008 he stepped down permanently when it was revealed he was separating from his wife, Shonnah, and was in a relationship with Jessa Hasbrook, a member of his staff.

TONY ALAMO, 2008. Federal agents raided Tony Alamo Christian Ministries headquarters as part of a child pornography investigation involving allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse, polygamy, and underage marriage. In late July 2009, Alamo was convicted on ten counts of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes, sexual assault and other crimes. On November 13, 2009, he was sentenced to the maximum punishment of 175 years in prison.

GEORGE ALAN REKERS, 2010. Baptist minister, co-founder of the right-wing Family Research Council, and a member of the notorious National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality, took a 10-day trip to Europe with a 20-year-old male prostitute.

A special entry for wackiness is reserved to:

PAT ROBERTSON and JERRY FALWELL

In 1999, Jerry Falwell suggested that Tinky Winky, ibe of the Teletubby characters, was gay because  “.. it has the voice of a boy yet carries a purse. He is purple, the gay-pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle, the gay-pride symbol..”

After the 9/11 attacks, Falwell said:  “I really believe that the pagans, the abortionists, the feminists, the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’” Fellow evangelist Pat Robertson concurred with his sentiment. Falwell further stated that the attacks were “probably deserved.”

On June 10, 1988, Pat Robertson said Orlando, Fla., should beware of hurricanes, since it and Disney World allowed Gay Days to be held there.

“I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you,” Robertson said on his TV show, The 700 Club.

In the months following the statement, Orlando was spared, but hurricanes Charley and Frances made landfall in Texas, dumping heavy rains, killing over 14 people, and hitting the town of… Corpus Christi. Apparently even God has a sense of humor.

http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/editorial/political-editorial/1606-qelmer-gantry-was-drunkq.html 

The Above Article was first published by SFGN. 

I pray people calling themselves “Christian” and proclaiming to be follwers of Jesus Christ will stop giving various media outlets and individuals fuel for the fire!

Published June 17, 2010

| FOXNews.com

A Tennessee women’s softball team and its coach were banned from a church league after church members learned the coach.was gay, MyFoxMemphis.com reported.

In May, Jana Jacobson’s team, composed of straight and gay players, discovered Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova was allowing softball teams not associated with the church to participate in summer competition.

The season was supposed to begin for the team on June 8. But they never got the chance to play.

According to Jacobson, Scotty Shows, the church’s recreation minister told her that because she was a lesbian the team could not play. She was told that the team’s participation would send a message to Bellevue members that the church condoned her lifestyle, the Commercial Appeal newspaper reported.

Jacobson noted that the league rules included: no alcohol, smoking or cursing and no offensive terms on uniforms. Jacobson didn’t recall any mention of a morality clause.

“Finally, in my frustration, I said that I am going to be clear. I am gay, and I find all of this to be absurd and against the word of God as I know it,” Jacobson told the Commercial Appeal.

Bellevue Baptist Church did not return calls made by FoxNews.com for comment. 

Click here for more on this story from MyFoxMemphis.com.

His red  card remorse brought a new look to the World Cup.

“I apologise to everyone. To the Nigerian people, the officials and my team-mates…”

Nigeria went on to lose to Greece 2-1 at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. 

Vassilis Torosidis should get Oscar nod for preformance!

Some would say if you’re going to kick someone… might as well do it like Eric Cantona’s REAL kick!

BUT THIS.

“One of C.S. Lewis’s characters in The Last Battle makes a significant observation regarding Aslan: “Is it not said in all the old stories htat He is not a Tame Lion?”  Sadly, however, many people have inadvertently domesticated God.  By allowing what we want God to be to influence what we thing he is– to predecide what God we will accept and give allegiance to– we put him on a short leash, and the idea of fearing him becomes absurd.  As someone has noted, God created humanity in his image, and humanity has been seeking to return the favor ever since! But we must not confine God to whatever we need at the moment and what we think we can understand on the spur of the moment.  We must let God be God.” -D. Brent Sandy

Preacher convicted of killing wife, freezing body

By MELISSA NELSON (AP) – 2 days ago

MOBILE, Ala. — An Alabama evangelist and former paratrooper was convicted Friday of murdering his wife and storing her body in a freezer for four years.

After deliberating for 1 1/2 hours, a jury in Mobile also found 39-year-old Anthony Hopkins guilty of rape, sodomy, incest and sexual abuse of a child between the ages of 12 and 16.

Hopkins was arrested in 2008 while preaching at a rural revival in Clarke County on charges that he killed 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins, a mother of eight.

He showed no reaction on Friday as deputies handcuffed him and led him from the court.

Children who grew up in his home and who had testified against him stood in front row and hugged each other and cried as the verdict was read.

“There is nothing pleasing about any of this, it is all very disturbing,” Ashley Rich, the prosecuting attorney said after. “A number of children have been harmed and the chances of them fully recovering are slim.”

Authorities said a teenage relative that Hopkins had abused and impregnated led police to the body of his wife in 2008.

Investigators say Hopkins killed his wife in a violent fight in 2004 after she caught him having sex with the teenager. They said he then stuffed the wife’s body into a freezer at the Mobile home he shared with her, the couple’s six children and two of her children from a previous relationship.

In closing arguments Friday, Assistant District Attorney Jill Phillips said Hopkins terrorized his wife and young children, isolated them and used the Bible to manipulate them.

“He was the supreme commander of his own little army,” Phillips said.

Hopkins told jurors Friday that he came home on a December evening in 2004 and found his wife dead on the floor, with the youngest of her eight children, an month-old infant, beside her.

“I was shocked and I began to shake her, and I was like ‘Letha, Letha are you alright?’ I began to shake her, tilt her head back and do CPR,” Hopkins testified.

Hopkins served in the U.S. Army in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s and earned a medal for his service. Hopkins was arrested in Saraland, near Mobile, in 1998 for being absent without leave from the U.S. Army in Fort Bragg, N.C., from June 15, 1995, until April 6, 1998.

He testified Friday that he decided to leave the Army after he got orders to serve in Korea and could not take his family with him.

It was then he said that he had a calling to become an evangelist and began preaching at rural churches and revivals around the rural South. He developed a following because many who heard him preach considered him a prophet who could see the future.   Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

WOW! I think Digital Journal’s Opinion Piece just went from opinion to opinionated! 

o·pin·ion 

//  (-pnyn) 

2. A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert: a medical opinion.3. A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing: has a low opinion of braggarts.4. The prevailing view: public opinion. o·pin·ion (-pnyn)

o·pin·ion·at·ed //  (-pny-ntd) 

Michael Bearak really speaks out against Westboro Baptist Church.  Why so angry?  It’s not like they yelled at your mother or crashed your son’s funeral or something… wait, then again maybe they did? I guess it’s a possibility when you’re talking about Westboro… or as some have said, the “Westboro Wackos”.  I hope they aren’t the next Waco, Texas!  After all, as much as people want to hate on them… they have never incited any kind of violence against anyone other than themselves!  I saw a video on YouTube where they have some little boy picketing for them, and he catches a Slurpee upside his head by some rednecks driving by in their Dodge Duster or something.  I have to say, that was pretty evil as well.

Opinion: Westboro Baptist Church is EVIL

Westboro Baptist Church is a group that is no better than the KKK for their positions, beliefs and most of all their behaviors. 

Unfortunately, as of yet, there were no comments.

“Men were most happy in former ages, content with the yield of fertile fields, and not yet ruined by indolent luxury.  Their hunger was easily satisfied by acorns.  They did not know the potent mixture of wine and honey; they had not learned to color fine silk of Syria with Tyrian dye.  They slept soundly on the soft grass, drank from the running streams, and rested in the shade of the high pines.  (Translated by Richard Green).

Boethius was born about 480 into the distinguished Roman family of Anicii. 

A.D. 510
BOETHIUS (A.D. 475 – 524)
Boethius was a Roman scholar and mathematician and attempts to document the speed of light. In 525 King Theodoric orders him decapitated for treason and magic.

Anicus Manlius Severinus Boethius

V – FREE WILL AND GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE

SHE was about to pass on to other matters, when I broke in, saying, “I am even now experiencing one of the many difficulties which beset the question of Providence. I want to know whether thou deemest that there is any such thing as chance, and, if so, what it is?”

She made answer, “If chance be defined as a result produced by random movement without any link of casual connexion, I roundly affirm that there is no such thing as chance at all. What place can be left for random action when God constraineth all things to order? For ex nihilo nihil is sound doctrine which none of the ancients gainsaid. Now, if a thing arise without causes, it will appear to have arisen from nothing. With our good Aristotle , we may define what men commonly call chance as being an unexpected result flowing from a concurrence of causes where several factors had a definite end. But the meeting and concurrence of these causes arise from that inevitable chain of order which disposes all things in their due time and place.”

“I agree that it is as thou sayest. But in this series of linked causes is there any freedom left to our will, or does the chain of Fate bind also the very motions of our souls?”

“There is freedom,” said she; “nor, indeed can any creature be rational unless he be endowed with free will. For that which has the natural use of reason, of itself distinguishes what is to be shunned or desired. Now, everyone seeks what he judges desirable and avoids what he thinks should be shunned. Wherefore, beings endowed with reason possess also the faculty of free choice and refusal.”

Then I said, “But now I am perplexed by a problem yet more difficult. If God foresees everything and can in no wise be deceived, that which He foresees to be about to happen must come to pass.”

She answered, “Without doubt all things will come to pass which God foreknows as about to happen, but of these certain proceed of free will. The freedom of men’s will stands unshaken and laws are not unrighteous, since their rewards and punishments are held forth to wills unbound by any necessity. God, Who foreknoweth all things, still looks down from above, and the ever-present eternity of His vision concurs with the future character of all our acts, and dispenses to the good, rewards, to the bad, punishments. Our hopes and prayers also are not fixed on God in vain. Therefore, withstand vice, practice virtue, lift up your souls to right hopes, offer humble prayers to Heaven. Great is the necessity of righteousness laid upon you if ye will not hide it from yourselves, seeing that all your actions are done before the eyes of a Judge who seeth all.”

The remains of Boethius are probably in the church of San Pietro Ciel d’Oro in Pavia.