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Hinn goes down under.  So I guess I'm not the only one to see the similarity between Benny Hinn's magic show and Simon the Sorcerer's attempts to buy the power of spirit baptism from Peter and John [see Acts 8:9-24]. Hinn's Australia International Crusade will be down under in Brisbane on June 25-26, and the Courier-Mail reported last week on attempts to have Hinn challenged on his ministry's extravagant claims of healing. The problem, according to some Australian mainline churches, is that there is no authorized oversight of his activities. He has no theological training; he hasn't been sent out to minister by any Christian body, and therefore he isn't accountable to any Christian denomination or religious body. And this year Hinn is also bringing fellow millionaire faith healer Kenneth Copeland with him.

Among those weighing in on the fray: St. Paul's Theological College academic dean Reverend Dr David Pascoe, who wants a secular authority to test claims of "miracle healings"; Brisbane Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby, who complained that he couldn't get away with what Hinn is able to do, because "Rome carefully investigates acts of wonder or awe"; and Australian Catholic University theology professor Tony Kelly, who suggested that Hinn's show sold "snake oil" and said, "Any person who is humbly trying to do the work of God needs some money but once self-promotion and amassing huge sums of money takes over, it is not a good sign. The work needs to be God-directed, non-profitable, and carry the spirit of poverty and humility."

The last time Hinn brought his "knock-'em-down" show to Brisbane, in 1998, he tried to prevent the news media from entering the Brisbane Enterntainment Centre.

Dismembership.  Sometimes I feel so incredibly disconnected from contemporary Christianity. Perhaps what I feel is actually the general separations among what makes up what we call the Body of Christ, like bones being cut at the joint. Today my friend Al, a Catholic, and I chatted over lunch about the wide diversity of Christians in Herkimer and how this small rural population has divided itself up along denominational lines, sometimes making up new denominations in the process of separation. In many ways this mirrors what has happened in the US, if not in the history of Christianity in general. In the conversation, Al used the word "dis-membered" for the Body of Christ—and today it is. Surely a body is a system, but what we have now seems not at all to be held together or innervated by the Spirit of Christ.

I got a letter in the mail from Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners, although it was only a form letter and not a personal note to me. But in the letter he mentioned that he had debated the spokesperson for the Christian Coalition at Huntington College in April and at that time learned that the Coalition's top priorities were tax cuts and to have the Ten Commandments in courthouses. See what I mean about feeling disconnected?

It gets worse, at least when we consider the Christian Coalition as a political arm of American Christians: this arm is banging things without any real connection to the Body of Christ. The website for the Christian Coalition of America lists the following issues for its action agenda in the 108th Congress, 2nd Session:

1. Getting a vote on a Federal Marriage Amendment before the 2004 election

2. Making President Bush's federal tax cuts permanent

3. Confirm President Bush's judicial nominations

4. Passing Congressman Walter Jones' Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act

5. Passing Congressman Bartlett's First Amendment Restoration Act (FARA), H.R.3801, which would repeal a provision in the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill limiting references to federal candidates in broadcast ads during the two months before elections

6. Passing Shelby-Aderholt Constitutional Restoration Act of 2004, which would restrict federal court jurisdiction only to what is permitted by the US Constitution

7. Getting a vote on Congressman Henry Brown's "Real and Virtual Child Pornography Ban Constitutional Amendment" in both House and Senate

8. Passing Congressman Robert Aderholt's Ten Commandments Display Act, H.R.2045, giving individual states the right to display the Ten Commandments on or within publicly owned buildings

9. Support Congressman Todd Akin's Pledge Protection Act, protecting "one nation under God" in the pledge

10. Passing the Graham-Wilson "Holy Sites" resolution, protecting religious sites and to their access in and near Israel

And so it goes—and that's just the top ten of the list. And yet I just can't get excited about those things, especially when I feel a genuine unity with Jim Wallis' competing agenda for active American Christians:

• poverty reduction

• protecting God's creation from environmental destruction

• a just foreign policy

• a moral response to terrorism

• unjust wars fought on false pretenses

I think the Body of Christ really is no longer what we've taken it to be.

Torture in the Chambers.  Today I heard the hot interchange between Senator Joseph Biden and Attorney General John Ashcroft and I don't see the gist of it being reported forthrightly in the print media. Ashcroft was appearing before a surly Senate Judiciary Committee and Biden asked him directly if he believed that torture was ever justified. He evaded the question. Biden accused him of being evasive. Ashcroft eventually uttered: "You know I condemn torture." But it didn't answer the question. Ashcroft openly expressed his reluctance to deal with "hypotheticals," meaning, I take it, that he might condemn torture (as a standing policy perhaps), but still Ashcroft would find torture to have some use, sometime, in some circumstances. This is not acceptable. I am thoroughly disappointed with this Christian's evasive, misleading response to the question. Our leading Christians need to be principled believers, not mere utilitarians. Biden let him go finally, but not without reminding Ashcroft why the US embraces laws and treaties against torture—so that our soldiers, when captured, are not also tortured. Expressed in other words, that could very well be the Golden Rule.

What's funny about zero?  One day in 1975 in Hamilton, Ontario, I went to the local convenience store and bought Issue No.1 of Captain Canuck, the comic book. Canadians had a superhero! I had a first edition! If I held onto it long enough, I would be rich! I could afford more exclamation points! The Canadian comic book was in publication from 1975 to 1980, and then disappeared, but reappeared in 1993, with some minor changes to the the superhero's costume. I kept my copy in a file and have carried it around with me for twenty-nine years.

Today I checked a comic book seller, expecting that this might be the time to cash in on my investment of so many years ago. Hey, my first edition is worth $3 bucks! This is why we shouldn't put our trust in material things—not because they may turn out to have little value, but because, seen in the light, they have no real value whatsoever. Our Lord told us:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." [Matt 6:19-20]

So this has reminded me again where my heart really is.

Pretending to be good.  I was in a hurry to get to the College this morning and I did the usual "5 miles over the speed limit," slowed down to 25 mph for the elementary school in New Hartford, and then zoomed into Herkimer. Now here is where I consistently cheat. The speed limit past the high school is 30 mph, but the speed limit for the school zone is 15 mph. Normally the only people who drive that slow are grandmothers in Lincoln Town Cars, so there's some peer pressure to go faster in this short stretch—and it is a short stretch, so it isn't like I'm losing some vast span of time by slowing to 15 mph. And yet there I am: driving 30 mph, thinking to myself that I really should go 15 mph, but I'm in a hurry and no one else goes that slow (except slow-driving grandmothers) and I'm just following the "normal flow of traffic," as it's called. I do this all the while looking out for parked police cars, knowing full well that God sees what I'm doing, recognizes the trick I'm pulling, and knows the spurious logic of my case for cheating. And yet how easily I can still do it. This morning, as I was convicted of my foolish behavior, I thought of Paul's letter to Titus:

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. [Titus 3:1-8]

Heavenly Father, forgive us of these ridiculous sins which we find so easy to commit. Thank you for the Holy Spirit's conviction and the admonishment of your word to remain steadfast in our faith as both Christians and ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Continue to watch over us and protect us from our own foolishness. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.