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Religion
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006
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PAGE B3
Page edited by Justin D. Beckett
Ask the clergy
Committed
Eddie Madera, owner of ‘The
Cause’ clothing company,
poses with his 1958 Lincoln
Continental outside his
Hesperia home with an
assortment of his clothing
designs.
By Rev. Dr. Jim Dallas
Gospel
differences
can expand
understanding
to The
Cause
Q
A
: “Why are there differences in the story of
Jesus’ birth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke?”
: The Gospels are evangelistic books written by
four authors proclaiming to different people that
Jesus is the Christ.
At Christmas, the accounts
of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and
Luke take center stage because
Mark and John don’t deal with
that event. Today, we combine the
birth narratives, but embracing
their differences can enlarge our
understanding of Christianity
and for Christians, enrich their
faith about the meaning of Jesus’
arrival in the world.
Consider a few of the differences: Matthew begins his story with
the holy family in Bethlehem
(Matthew 2:1). Jesus is born in a
house, during the reign of Herod
the Great, a puppet king of the Roman Empire. Wise men from the
east follow the star to where Jesus
is to be found. Herod orders the
slaying of Bethlehem’s children.
The family escapes to Egypt.
Learning of Herod’s death, Jesus’
parents intend to return home
but upon hearing that Archelaus
is on the throne, get scared, go to
Galilee and settle in Nazareth.
In Luke’s rendition, the family
already resides in Nazareth (Luke
2:4). Caesar Augustus orders a
census. Joseph of King David’s
lineage whose home was Bethlehem, takes his wife, Mary, and
goes there for enrollment. Jesus is
born in a manger during the visit,
something not mentioned in Matthew! Luke claims shepherds and
angels were present, but says
nothing about wise men. Eight
days later, as in the Hebrew
tradition, Jesus is circumcised,
presented to the temple to be
blessed by Simon and the family
returns to Nazareth.
In short, Matthew was addressing fellow Jews suggesting
Jesus was the Messiah and
Luke was writing to Greeks for
the same reason.w
Different metaphors and accounts were used by both writers
to get that conviction across thus
showing their vision of how God
operates in the world. Biblical
scholars acknowledge these differences and attempt to discover
when the stories were written, to
whom they were addressed, what
they meant in their ancient context and what they mean today.
Doing that with Luke’s Christmas would look something like
this: Rome was the dominant
superpower, like the United
States, and when its leader spoke,
everyone listened. Augustus announced a census. Luke claims
there was another announcement
at the same time. It came from
God to peasant shepherds who
were objects of injustice showcasing the arrival of one who would
operate differently than Rome.
Thus, the evangelist is contrasting two types of power in
the world: Caesar’s, which is
coercive and brutal and God’s,
which is compassionate and persuasive. Caesar tries to sustain
peace through victory and God
tries to sustain peace through
justice. One brought some order
to the Empire but was deeply
flawed and ultimately unworkable because it was based on
preserving the Empire for the
privileged elite. The other,
enfleshed in Jesus, was about
bringing peace by balancing the
scales for the powerless.
Local teen
combines
punk,
fashion and
Christianity
E
By ERIK DERR
Staff Writer
ddie Madera searched
for a better way to
wear his Christian
faith on his sleeve, and
found a lot of his peers
were looking for the same thing.
“I, myself, wanted to wear
Christian clothing — it feels better to wear something that has a
good statement,” said Madera, 25.
The problem was that Madera,
who lives in Hesperia, couldn’t
find any Christian apparel “cool”
enough for his tastes.
“I kind of realized nobody was
making anything like that.”
Madera is an avid fan of punk
rock music and pretty much everything else that goes with that lifestyle, including piercing, tattoos,
multicolored hair — half the mane
on his head was recently painted
green — and, of course, clothes
that reflect the bold, often starker
images evoked by the genre.
Madera set out to make his
own shirt, and ended up launching The Cause, a clothing line
that has garnered international
attention in only about three
“I, myself, wanted to wear Christian clothing — it
feels better to wear something that has a good
statement.”
Eddie Madera
Creator of ‘The Cause’ clothing
years and enjoys growing popularity in the Christian punk/
hard-core music industry.
Most important, the clothing
operation gives Madera, the line’s
main designer, an opportunity to
tell people about the teachings of
Jesus, which is all he really wanted to do in the beginning.
The idea for his first design
— the words “Jesus Christ” in
Gothic script — came to him a
few years ago, soon after seeing the movie, “The Passion of
The Christ.”
The movie, he said, “opened
my eyes. I felt the presence of
the Lord.”
But when Madera took his
single-shirt order to the silkscreeners, he was told he had
to print at least 36. No problem,
he thought, since he could recoup the money if he kept his
one and sold the rest.
After two weeks, he sold out and
had to run off another 100 shirts
to keep up with the orders. And
people were asking to see what
else he could come up with.
At that point, Madera realized his success was due to a
higher power.
“I think God uses different
people in the world — he uses everyone he needs to reach others
and preach to the homeless, the
wealthy,” or today’s youth, many
of whom feel alienated from traditional Christian representations.
He and many other younger
believers feel the Christian path
is inclusive, and embraces everyone — despite the fact that
more-conventional churches have
historically suggested otherwise.
“I’m kind of just at one with
God, one with the Lord,” he said.
“It’s all what’s inside.”
Since that first run, Madera has
Photos by Michael Stenerson / Staff Photographer
Various designs from ‘The Cause’ clothing line, a local company with a
Christian theme based out of Hesperia.
developed 32 separate punk-oriented designs, for both men and
women, that couple punk-rock
motifs with Bible-inspired text
and images.
One of his most popular designs illustrates half a human rib
cage with the word “Eve” imprinted on the lowest rib, a reference to
the creation story of Adam and
Eve in the Book of Genesis.
Madera originally peddled his
shirts outside local concert venues. Now, he’s established promotional deals with those same
companies and almost 30 Christian rock bands, who wear his
shirts throughout the world. He
also maintains two online stores,
at www.thecauseclothing.com and
also www.myspace.com/thecauseclothing, and sells his merchandise
at several specialty shops throughout the Southland, including Pharmacy Boardshop and Havoc Obsession in the High Desert.
Eventually, Madera wants to
open his own brick-and-mortar
clothing outlet. Until then, he’ll
continue to tweak his merchandise, hoping his take on the Word
continues to reach as many as
possible.
“I can speak their language,”
he said.
Erik Derr can be reached at 955-5358
or [email protected].
Kosherland, Holy Huggables race into hearts and homes
Religious game and toy makers
look to grow, hit untapped market
BOSTON (AP) — The “crazy, crazy Jewish
fun” of Kosherland looks a lot like the board
game Candy Land, except gefilte fishing substitutes for visits to the Ice Cream Sea.
In Catholic-opoly, like Monopoly, the job is
to bankrupt your opponents. The difference
is it’s done “in a nice, fun way.”
And role-playing can get pretty realistic
with the Biblical Action Figure of Job, which
comes complete with boils.
The market for religious board games and
toys like these is tiny, and a bit quirky. But
sales numbers indicate demand is growing
as families demand wholesome entertainment, selections expand and the Internet
gives greater access to retailers.
Abe Blumberger of Jewish Educational
Toys said people are much more willing to
buy religious toys since he helped create Kosherland in 1985. His game is now offered on
UrbanOutfitters.com.
“I think there’s a recognition there’s a
small niche out there,” Blumberger said.
Statistics on sales of religious games are
hard to find. However, retail sales of inspirational gifts and merchandise, which includes
religious toys and games, were an estimated
$1.9 billion in 2005, an 11.8 percent increase
from the previous year, according to an April
report by Packaged Facts, the publishing
arm of MarketResearch.com.
The report projected 26.3 percent growth to
$2.4 billion in sales in the gifts and merchandise sector by 2010.
The games and toys cover a variety of
faiths, from Islam to Mormonism, and
Religious Perspectives
By THE REV. TOM MORRISON
Many pastors and elders today
institute in worship that which is
pleasing to the creature and not
necessarily to the Creator. As I have
argued, however, instituting in worship that which God pleases God
and that which He commands will
be pleasing to the redeemed creature
— not the unredeemed creature.
What should be instituted in worship, the essentials, is described as
the elements of worship. Based on
passages such as Acts 2:42 the elements of worship are the preaching of the Word, the administration
The Associated Press
Kaitlyn Rockwood, 5, reacts to hearing a Holy
Huggable’s Biblical verse in Tyngsborough,
Mass. on Thursday as her father, Cliff Rockwood,
looks on. Cliff developed the Biblical
talking dolls, from left, Moses, Esther and
Jesus, because he wanted dolls for his daughter
that reflected his family’s spiritual values.
A variety of religious board games and toys is seen at Merrimack College in North Andover,
Mass. on Wednesday. The market for religious toys is tiny, and a bit quirky. But sales
numbers indicate it’s growing as families demand wholesome entertainment, selections
expand and the Internet gives greater access to retailers.
include Risk-style games such as Missionary Conquest and talking plush dolls, including the smiling and sneaker-wearing
Pray-With-Me-Mantis.
In the Muslim “Race to the Kabah,” players advance by learning the meaning of the
99 names of Allah. Kosherland teaches about
Jewish dietary law, requiring, for instance,
that players move backward if they mix milk
with meat. In the Mormon game Mortality,
good decisions help a player acquire “testi-
monies,” which strengthen his faith and help
him endure life’s trials.
Many of the games were made by people
with little or no toymaking experience who
were inspired by deep religious conviction
and an idea that wouldn’t let go.
Cliff Rockwood of Tyngsborough, developed “Holy Huggables” because he wanted
a doll for his daughter that reflected his family’s spiritual values. Using informal gatherings with friends as market research,
The Associated Press
he and his wife developed talking Esther,
Moses and Jesus dolls, and have sold “tens
of thousands,” though Rockwood declined
to be more specific.
Thasneem Ahmed, creator of the Muslim board game “Race to the Kabah,” wanted to promote family life after being deeply
affected by the 1999 Columbine massacre.
She paid $40,000 to produce 2,500 copies
herself in 2001. Last month, she sold the
last game of that batch.
Entertaining worship, part three
of the Sacraments and the prayers.
These are bor ne out in such specific activities such as the call to
worship, corporate confession of
sin, absolution of sin, the sermon,
administration of baptism to infants and adults, the Lord’s Supper,
prayer, the singing of Psalms and
hymns and the benediction.
While many would agree with at
least some of these elements they
would argue that it would be helpful to add to the elements using
lights, PowerPoint, a proliferation
of instruments using catchy, mod-
ern tunes and illuminating sermon
points with dancing and drama.
In working through whether these
things are appropriate or not, the
ch u rch h i s t o r i c a l ly h a s d i s t i n guished between elements, circumstances and for ms. The elements
are the essentials that God requires
such as preaching. Circumstances
are particulary common tohuman
actions and societies such as the
issue of whether it is appropriate
to use a microphone or not. Forms
relate to the content of what the
elements should be; for example,
should the church pray the Lord’s
Prayer or some other prayer in the
service?
The issue in such an evaluation is
not to see how traditional a church
can be but rather how the church
may glorify God in instituting a
worship service that pleases Him.
For the Reformed, the payoff, if you
will, is honoring God by speaking
with a clear voice to human sinfulness and the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. A properly
constituted worship service will be
used by God to comfort poor sinners
as they hear about the doctrine of
justification, which is central to the
service. If you confess to be a Christian but do not understand that doctrine and its forensic nature, then I
rest my case.
Rev. Tom Morrison, M. Div., works for
the High Desert United Reformed
Church. He graduated from GordonConwell Theological Seminary with a
M. Div. and is ordained in the URCNA.
Do you have a religious perspective on a current issue to share? If so, please write to Justin
Beckett at [email protected]
Daily Press, Victorville, Calif. PAGE B6
Traces
of Eve on
Christmas
By Tom Schaefer
McClatchy Newspapers
L
ittle is written of Eve,
other than two references to her in the book
of Genesis and two in the
New Testament.
Few think of her at Christmas, when Mary takes center
stage next to Jesus.
Recently, I came across a
beautiful story about Eve in
the January ’07 issue of First
Things journal.
It was written by two
French authors, Jerome
Tharaud and Jean Tharaud,
and is included in the book
“Contes de Noel” (Seuil,
1997).
As Christians celebrate the
birth of Christ, perhaps this
story will deepen your appreciation of what the incarnation reveals, all the way back
to the beginning:
“It was Bethlehem, the end
of a long night. The star had
just disappeared, and the last
pilgrim had left the stable.
The Virgin arranged the
straw: at last the Child could
sleep. But who can sleep the
night of Christmas?
“Gently the door opens, so
gently that it seems more like
the wind was pushing it than
a hand. A woman appears
on the threshold, covered
with rags. She was so old and
wrinkled that you would have
thought her mouth was one
more deep wrinkle in a face
the color of dirt.
“A fearful chill came over
Mary when she saw her, as if
a malicious fairy had come
into the room. Fortunately
Jesus was asleep. The ass and
ox placidly continued munching their hay, as if there was
nothing unusual, as if they
had known her forever.
“The Virgin didn’t take
her eyes off her. The woman
walked slowly, each step
seeming to take centuries.
She continued, the old woman, and approached the manger. Thank God, Jesus was
still sleeping. How can one
sleep on Christmas night?
“Suddenly he opened his
eyelids. His mother was completely astonished to see that
the eyes of the old woman
and his eyes were exactly the
same, they both shone with
the same hope. The old woman sank down on the straw.
One hand disappeared into
her rags, looking for something, taking ages to find it.
“Mary watched her closely,
still concerned. The animals
watched her, too, but always
without surprise, as if they
knew beforehand what was
going to happen.
“Finally, after a long time,
slowly, tiredly, the old woman pulls out of her clothes
a little object hidden in her
hand, and she gives it to the
child. All the treasures of
the Wise Men and the offerings of the Shepherds, what
could this be?
“From where she was,
Mary could not tell. She saw
only the shoulders bowed
down, the woman’s back,
bent over from age, now bent
over even more before the
crib, and the Child within it.
The ox and ass watched, and
were not amazed.
“The woman stayed bowed
before the Child a long time.
Finally she arose, as if relieved from a great weight
which had dragged her to the
ground. Her shoulders were
no longer bowed down, her
head almost touched the low
roof, her face seemed miraculously renewed, as if she was
finding once more the vigor
of her youth.
“She turned from the crib,
smiled at Mary, and went out
through the door into the
dawning day. Finally Mary
could see the mysterious
present.
“An apple, a little apple,
having within it all the sin
of the world, given to the
baby Jesus by Eve, for it was
her, the old woman, who had
come to worship the Child
born of her blood, who would
save her from her sins. The
apple of the original sin,
and the sin of so many who
would follow her.
“And the little red apple
shone in the hands of the
Child, as if it were the globe
of the kingdom and of the
new world which had just
been born with the King.”
religion Saturday, December 23, 2006
Page edited by Justin D. Beckett
Selling closed houses of worship proves difficult
What price to ask for
church real estate
puzzles pastors
forced to consolidate
MILWAUKEE (AP) — For
sale: a charming, well-maintained building with high
ceilings and classic architecture. Enjoy 38,000 square
feet of space on a sprawling
14.25-acre lot. Minutes from
downtown. Altars, bells and
stained glass not included.
Asking price: $4 million.
Population shifts, declining Mass attendance and a
shortage of priests in many
areas have forced Roman
Catholic leaders to consolidate parishes and sell off
churches.
But selling a house of worship is no easy task. Pastors
must placate parishioners
upset by the sale and find a
buyer who will respect the
building’s history.
Parishioners in Pittsburgh
were riled in 1996 when the
former St. John the Baptist
Church became The Church
Brew Works, a restaurant
that brews beer near where
an altar once stood.
“The issue wasn’t the
beer,” said Ronald P. Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
“The issue was that we were
told by the parish all sacred
items had been removed
before the sale. We found
The Associated Press
Patrons walk to The Church Brew Works in the Lawrenceville
neighborhood in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Parishioners in
Pittsburgh were riled in 1996 when the former St. John the
Baptist Church became The Church Brew Works, a restaurant
that brews beer near the spot where an altar once stood.
out later they had not been
removed.”
Two of 216 Catholic
churches in the Diocese of
Milwaukee are on the market. Eight have been sold
since 2000. Three of 134 Catholic churches in the Diocese
of Madison are for sale after
parishes merged, according
to Brent King, spokesman for
the Madison diocese.
Churches nationwide are
undergoing similar changes.
The Catholic Archdiocese
of Boston put 60 churches
up for sale in 2004, many of
which were converted into
condominiums. The North
Indiana Conference of the
United Methodist Church
in Marion, Ind., has sold 30
churches in the past 14 years.
Most churches are sold to
other denominations with
growing membership. But
in some cases, religious
leaders have been forced to
seek buyers in the commercial market.
St. Stephen Catholic
Church in Milwaukee, built
in 1847, sits about a mile
from the Milwaukee airport
and faces an adult lounge
and a parking lot. The
Rev. Richard Liska placed a
“For Sale By Owner” sign
in front of his brown brick
church three years ago.
His parish hopes to relocate to a more appropriate
setting, but Liska acknowledged the move could be
hard for families who have
celebrated baptisms, weddings and funerals there for
generations.
“Part of the reason to relocate is to go to more of a
people setting rather than
an industrial or commercial
setting,” Liska said. “Still, I
think parishioners would lament. When something has
been a part of your life for a
long time, there’s lament.”
Also, buyers are often
The Associated Press
The view from the entrance into the The Church Brew Works in the
Lawrenceville neighborhood in Pittsburgh is shown on Wednesday.
intimidated by the cost of
adapting a church for residential or commercial use,
religious leaders said. The
buildings tend to have high
heating and cooling costs because of their towering ceilings and large open spaces.
And sales restrictions can
limit the pool of prospective
buyers, Liska said.
“We would not sell the
property to anyone who
would be using it for a purpose contrary to the nature,
purpose or morality of a
church — an abortion clinic,
maybe, a gentlemen’s club,”
he said.
Church officials typically
hire real estate agents or rely
on worshippers to spread
news of the sale. But one Internet-savvy congregation
in central Indiana used eBay
last year to sell its church to
a Florida man who planned
to convert it into a summer
home. The 7,000-square-foot
church sold for $40,600, delighting Pastor Randy Davis
who expected it would fetch
only $5,000 to $15,000 because
it was in Redkey, a bedroom
community of 1,200.
Liska has worked with real
estate agents, but he’s hoping
his “For Sale” sign will be as
effective as a similar one in
front of the former Shepherd
of the Bay Lutheran Church
in Ellison Bay. Carole Linden,
a retired construction worker
and occasional artist, spotted
that sign as she drove by.
“It just seemed like a great
piece of property,” she said.
“It’s a magnificent piece of
construction.”
Linden persuaded her son
Brian in 1995 to buy the
3,627-square-foot church
for $125,000. He tur ned
it into Linden’s Gallery,
where he sells imported
Asian collectibles.
Virginia bus ads hope to dispel fears of Muslims
Religious rights coalition seeks to
normalize Arabic scriptures in America
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The small beige
signs bearing swirling, black Arabic script
appear all over town on buses and at colleges.
One panicked bus rider wondered if they
were secret messages from terrorists. Should
the FBI be contacted? What do they mean?
Actual translation: “Paper, scissors, rock.”
The signs are part of a campaign by the
Virginia Interfaith Center, aimed at dispelling some of the public’s fears about the Muslim community. Organizers hope to eventually expand the program statewide.
“As soon as people see Arabic, they immediately make an association with terrorism,” said the Rev. C. Douglas Smith,
executive director of the interfaith center.
“That’s probably because since 9/11, not
only is fear overwhelming us, but that’s
how we’re being trained to think.”
The signs were placed in all 170 Greater
Photo courtesy of rethinkbias.org
A sign that appears on the side of buses in Virginia in hopes of dispelling misconceptions
about the Islamic religion. The English translation reads, ‘Paper, scissors, rock.’
Richmond Transit Company buses on
Nov. 27 and many buses will continue
to display them at least through the end
of January. The signs, designed by The
Martin Agency, have also been posted at
the University of Richmond and Virginia
Commonwealth University.
Besides the “paper or plastic” sign, there
are two others — one which is the Arabic
version of the “I’m a little tea pot” rhyme and
the other roughly translating to the English
equivalent of “rock, paper, scissors.” Accompanying the translations at the bottom of
the posters are comments such as, “Misun-
derstanding can make anything scary,” and
“What did you think it said?”
The transit company has already fielded several calls from concerned riders,
said Gretchen Schoel, executive director
of A More Perfect Union, a project of the
Virginia Interfaith Center that is spearheading the ads.
One woman Schoel described as a welleducated university employee placed a
frantic call to the bus company’s manager, suggesting the FBI be called in to
investigate. Even after the signs’ English
translations were explained to her, she
remained concerned that they might contain secret messages, Schoel said.
“It’s so great that we’re getting feedback,
even if it is negative, because it shows that
people are looking, they’re thinking,” Schoel
said. “And it really proves the point that this
script right here conjures up certain ideas in
our heads that we have to work with.”
Bias against the Muslim community is a
continuing problem across the country, said
Imad Damaj, president of the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs.
“There’s so many lazy, unexamined assumptions about all of us and how we
react to people,” Damaj said. “We need to
challenge ourselves.”
The ad push is one of the latest efforts to
dispel stereotypes of Muslims and Arabic
speakers. In 2004, the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations launched a nationwide TV
and radio campaign, featuring Muslims from
different backgrounds, each ending with the
slogan, “I am an American Muslim.”
The concept of enough
H
ave you heard about the
man who was feeling
sorry for himself because
he couldn’t afford new shoes until he met a man with no shoes?
And the man with no shoes was
almost overcome with grief
about his lot in life until he met
a man with no feet?
Comparisons can help us
put our lives in perspective
and know what we ought to be
grateful for. But they can also
build barriers to happiness. For
some, it’s not enough to have
something good. It’s important
that no one has anything better.
So the man who was happy to
have a warm place to sleep will
become discontented when he
meets a man who owns a house.
Why is it that our happiness
is diminished when we think
someone else may be happier?
One way to deal with the seduction of comparisons is to develop the concept of enough by
thinking more clearly about the
difference between our wants
and our needs. It’s okay to want
and enjoy comforts and pleasures beyond the necessities,
Character Counts
by Michael Josephson
but when we convince ourselves
we need whatever we want,
we mount a treadmill that can
never take us to happiness.
When we confuse our wants
with our needs, we diminish our
ability to appreciate and enjoy
our lives. And when we feel
cheated in life, we’re more likely
to become cheaters and sacrifice integrity, the one thing we
can all have in abundance. And
when integrity goes, no amount
of material success will make a
difference.
Knowing what is enough need
not sap ambition to get more
than we have. It merely frees us
from the sense of deprivation
that could cause us to be less
than we can be.
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