This week I am in Nashville attending the National Collegiate Summit for college ministers, and I just got word that Nashville has seen its first school closing due to the swine flu.

Upon hearing this news, I went back to my hotel room to investigate the reason for the school closing, and apparently there are two suspected cases of swine flu in the state.

What’s interesting is that the school here in Nashville has not closed its doors for just one day, or even two. It’s going to be closed for 7 whole days! I’m assuming that there is a scientific reason behind this specific amount of time, but 7 days seems a bit on the cautious side.

In light of stories like this, I’m starting to wonder if this whole swine flu thing is getting overblown. Just consider these statistics:

- The World Health Organization says there are 109 confirmed cases with 1 death in the U.S., out of a population of more than 300 million people

- Contrast that percentage with the more than 13,000 people in the U.S. who have died of complications from seasonal flu since January. Seasonal flu is expected to continue killing hundreds of people a week. In total, about 36,000 people a year die from the flu in the United States and worldwide. The annual death toll is somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 (Statistics taken from cnn.com)

If anything, the pandemic we should be fearing is the old school flu that we grew up getting shots for. If the regular flu kills so many people, why don’t we see more Americans wearing masks each year during flu season?

While I don’t want to be foolish and underestimate the potential devastation of this virus, it seems plausible that the swine flu is being a little over-sensationalized.

What is ironic about the timing of this “pandemic” is that it coincided with a seminar I attended earlier today on a similar topic. Only, this seminar addressed the escalating panic surrounding church decline. In the same way that news outlets are inundating their listeners with hourly updates of the spread of swine flu, pastors across the nation are frightening their congregations with statistics about Christianity’s decline.

And just like the swine flu, it’s not altogether clear whether the statistics match the rhetoric. While I do not know the plans that God has for this country, current studies do not indicate the need for such a frenzy.

The seminar I attended was led by Ed Stetzer, the President of Lifeway Research, and his organization has conducted numerous studies on the un-churched demographic of America. His findings are quite remarkable. (You can check them out at his blog, edstetzer.com)

What Lifeway has found is that the younger un-churched generation, aged 20-29, tends to be more spiritual and more open to conversations about Christianity than the un-churched generations that are 30 years and older. Here is just a sampling of what Lifeway found:

- Does God or a supreme being exist? 81% of 20-29 year-olds said yes, while only 79% of 30+ year-olds answered yes

- Do you believe Jesus died and came back to life? 66% of 20-29 year-olds said yes, and only 54% of 30+ year-olds said yes

- “I would study the Bible with a friend if they asked”: 61% of 20-29 year-olds said yes, and 42% of 30+ years-olds said yes

In addition to these numbers, Lifeways studies indicate that there has been very little decline in church attendance over the last decade. Though there has been some decline, the numbers are not extreme.

What’s more, there has not been a significant rise in the percentage of American atheists. Currently it is at 4%, which is not much different from past trends.

All of that to say, if you ever hear a statistic that 88% of evangelical children leave the faith when they graduate from high school, that simply isn’t true. Many do leave the faith, but not nearly to such an extent.

With that in mind, why are Christians so quick to quote exaggerated statistics about the decline in American Christianity? Because fear works. Scaring people results in action, as evidenced by the number of school closings and face masks that you see around the country right now. If anything, we should have been protecting ourselves more effectively from the seasonal flu, but the media didn’t hype it up so we didn’t get scared, and we subsequently failed to act with the same measure of caution.

Now to offer a slightly less cynical perspective, pastors also use this strategy because Christians need to care about the lost more than they do. Many Christians are certainly apathetic, and if we continue in this complacency the Church will decline.

What is problematic about the scare tactic is that we shouldn’t need to sensationalize the Gospel. While we should care about the health of the Church in America and we should feel a burden to reach the lost, it shouldn’t take dramatic statistics to motivate us. We shouldn’t be waiting for the situation to reach its worst before we finally get off our butts and do something.

Regardless of the statistics, regardless of whether Americans churches are growing or dying, we should be preaching the Gospel. After all, the word “gospel” literally means “good news,” and if you have good news, TRULY good news, you spread it! You tell the world, every person around you that you can possibly get to listen, about the good news that has changed your life and can change theirs. That is the call of every Christian regardless of context or circumstances, so we shouldn’t sit back and relax simply because the numbers aren’t dire yet.

We might also consider viewing these statistics as a kind of encouragement. For those of us who labor, we have not labored in vain! God IS faithful and He IS using our hard work, so we must press on. God does not need scare tactics to compel people to care about the Gospel–the news is good enough on its own.

And as the statistics seem to indicate, the un-churched are ready to hear it.

Monday night I happened to tune in for an intriguing episode of MTV’s hit show “The Hills.” I haven’t seen the show in a long time, so it was ironic that this particular episode featured an awkward interaction between the main characters and some evangelical Christians.

In case you don’t follow the show, the episode went like this–one of the main characters, Heidi, is in a volatile relationship with her live-in boyfriend Spencer. However, her ex-boyfriend comes into town to visit, so the tumultuous duo decide to have dinner with the ex and his own current girlfriend.

Now here comes the plot twist: the ex-boyfriend is now at Bible college. He and his girlfriend are conservative evangelicals, so the interaction doesn’t involve the typical ex-boyfriend awkwardness that one might expect. Instead, the episode follows the Christians’ noble attempt to witness to Heidi and Spencer.

After a few scenes in which the Christian couple takes various moral stances, such as refusing to drink alcohol at dinner because “nothing good comes of it”, they eventually convince Heidi and Spencer to join them in a Bible study. And that’s when things get really interesting.

Prior to the study, Spencer had asked them, “Is there really a verse in the Bible that says premarital sex is wrong?” Initially they didn’t seem to know the answer to this question, even though they had just defended their decision to remain abstinent until marriage. But now that they’d had the time to do some research, they had an answer.

The Bible does address the issue of premarital sex, they respond. Then the Christian girl explains to Spencer, “In the Bible, the word used for it is ‘fornification.’”

And with that, my heart immediately sank.

Now I’m going to be honest with you–I generally hate scenarios like this on television, because the Christians almost always come out looking like idiots. But in this case I was genuinely cheering for these two! They seemed very sincere in their desire to honor God and be a witness to Christ, and I was rooting for them. I wanted them to succeed!

And to some extent, I think they did. They’re honesty and integrity seemed to have quite an impact on Heidi, despite the pronunciatory slip-up. They certainly did their best, and God will bless their efforts.

However, such stories are all too common within the Church. Christians will be uncompromising in their beliefs, morals, and lifestyle choices, all in the name of Christ. But when pressed in the slightest bit, it quickly becomes apparent that they haven’t the slightest idea about what Scripture actually says.

In the instance I just described, the young lady was a stalwart defender of sexual abstinence, yet she seemed to be encountering the word “fornication” for the first time. Given that this particular word serves as one of the strongest statements against premarital sex in all of Scripture, her unfamiliarity with it is worrying. In Greek, the word clearly refers to extra-marital sexual relationships, but her belief in abstinence did not appear to be based upon this information at all.

If we are to have any credibility in the world around us, we need to know why we believe what we believe–not vaguely, or even philosophically, but Scripturally. Especially if we are going to be outspoken or dogmatic about an issue.

If you are a strong proponent of the pro-life movement, then you need to know the Scripture supporting it. If you are going to avoid clubs or drinking alcohol, then you need to have the related Scripture readily available. If you’re not going to sleep with your boyfriend, then be sure you know what Scripture has to say about it when your friends ask you why.

If we fail to back our beliefs with Scripture, then our beliefs aren’t particularly “Christian” at all. They are instead abstract moral philosophies, no different from any other ethical or religious system in the world.

But our beliefs and behaviors ARE different. We are not to obey the Word of God out of obligation or because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We follow the Word of God because it not only honors Him, but because it provides us with the only path to freedom from the trappings of this world.

When we defend our positions with Scripture, as opposed to opinion, we may still be met with rejection. For some, the truth of God will be foolishness no matter how it is presented. But we are not responsible for them. We are only responsible for ourselves, and as long as we bear the name of “Christian,” we better well know what Christ actually said.

I’m starting to think the phrase “That is SO high school” is kind of a misnomer. We have somehow gotten this crazy idea that catty, dramatic, over-obsessing about minuscule, superficial matters is somehow a uniquely high school behavior.

Yet the older I get, the more I realize it’s not. Such behavior only begins in high school. For many people, the phase never really ends.

No matter the age, you can always find people who thrive on drama. It’s almost as if some women don’t know how to function without it. Maybe a woman’s best friend is hanging out with a guy she don’t like, or maybe she dislikes another woman because she looked at her the wrong way in the hallway or she didn’t say “hello” or her tone of voice always “seems fake.”

This even goes on in churches….correction: it especially goes on in churches! Several girls may have a crush on the same guitar player, so they pick apart the woman he chooses to date. Small group Bible studies morph into exclusive cliques. A woman’s devotion to Christ is questioned by those around her because of the size of her house, or because her parenting style doesn’t fit the typical Christian mold.

The list goes on and on. If you are a woman, chances are there is chattering of this sort happening in your immediate vicinity. We women feed on it.

Even though we’ve probably all contributed to this nonsense at some time or another, many of us feel more like prisoners of war than willing combatants. The substance of these arguments is often so ludicrous and inconsequential that you just want to bang your head against a wall!

But in response to many of the young ladies who come to my office and complain about the drama going on around them, feeling completely frustrated and helpless to stop it, I usually have one thing to say: You have drama in your life because you choose to.

Proverbs 26:20 tells us, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” In short, drama only survives if you feed it. Bickering, quarreling, back-biting and gossip–drama–is like a fire that will consume whatever it can. It will consume your time, your conversations, your thought life, all your energy, and eventually your community as well. And like a fire, the trick to extinguishing it is to cut off its nourishment. To end drama, you have to starve it.

This strategy has 2 key applications–

Number one: Don’t participate in an argument that isn’t your own. If one of your friends comes to you with a problem about another girl, feel free to listen, but don’t reinforce her self-righteousness. Every story has two sides, so it’s very dangerous, if not counter-productive, to give advice when you’ve only heard one perspective. Instead, encourage your friend to go directly to the person involved. If it is between two people, it should stay that way.

I have a roommate who is particularly good about this. She is perhaps the most discreet person I know, and she has no tolerance for drama. After having lived with her for 2 years, I now know better than to try and gossip about someone in her presence. If I do, she will offer nothing to the conversation, and she’ll eventually change the subject. Her discretion has served as a safeguard against drama in our house, and our surrounding relationships.

Number two: If you are directly involved in the drama, don’t involve anyone else in the situation. Go straight to the person or people who have hurt you, and gently communicate your feelings. If they refuse to listen, then you need to forgive them and move on. Don’t talk to other people about it. Don’t try to get other people on your side. Just leave it behind you in God’s hands, and consider whether there might be a better friend group for you.

I know this last part may seem extreme, but if you have friends that are constantly producing drama, beware of their influence on you! Just as Scripture tells us that a little bit of yeast ruins the whole batch of dough (1 Cor. 5:6) your friends’ behavior WILL pull you down. It is only a matter of time.

So if you have drama in your life, consider whether you are contributing to it. Not all drama is a result of your own actions, but most of us contribute at least a bit. And the greatest tragedy of all is that while we waste hours, days, months and years arguing about cliques, fighting over guys, and gossiping behind one another’s backs, we ignore the dying around us. Instead of bringing hope to the lost, we are focused on ourselves and our own problems. People are going to Hell, but we are so concerned with how short Jennifer’s dress was at church this morning, that we lose sight of the things that truly matter.

That is the real problem with drama–it’s nothing but a distraction from our true calling–to be ministers of the Gospel. So consider how you spend your time. Is drama preventing you from sharing the light of Christ with a dark and dying world? If so, it doesn’t have to stay that way. If drama only survives when it is fed, then you have some choices to make.

You know it’s not very often that a man will commend a woman for her modesty. In fact, it is not often that women hear spiritual praises of any sort from the men in their lives. Instead, women will hear about the importance of being pretty and having a good body or a good sense of humor or not being high maintenance. Even in the company of men who have an active relationship with the Lord, women will still find themselves hearing about how hot or cool the other girls are, often feeling completely overlooked.

Commendations about our own modesty, passion for the Lord, or prayer life–those come few and far between.

With that in mind, I’m kickin it back old school today with an excerpt from the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus. Gregory is a Church Father who lived in the 4th century, and he wrote the below words in memory of his sister, Gorgonia, a valiant woman of the Lord. She managed to navigate the potential distractions of the world, and submit every aspect of her life to Christ in an exemplary way.

As you read this, I want you to remember two things. First is for the guys:

Gentlemen, the qualities here described not only constitute the standard you should seek in a wife, but Gregory’s words also serve as a great example of how to affirm your sisters in Christ. Women need to hear this kind of Christ-centered affirmation, or else we’ll be tempted to place our time, effort, and value in other, more superficial pursuits. Over and over he again he praises her love for Christ–that is exactly what we need to hear.

And to the ladies–this is the kind of language you should expect from your husband, as well as your male friends. Just because a man is a Christian does not mean he is a godly friend to you. When it comes to Christian community, do not put up with men who go to church on Sunday but want to go out and get trashed on the weekends, flirt with you without any intention of acting upon it, or talk about other women in a less than honorable way. You deserve much better, and such constant exposure to this behavior will slowly lower your standards for yourself.

So although these words were penned over 1,500 years ago, Gregory of Nazianzus was in love with Jesus and we can all learn from his legacy, as well as that of his sister.

In modesty she so greatly excelled, and so far surpassed those of her own day, to say nothing of those of old time who have been illustrious for modesty, that, in regard to the two divisions of the life of all, that is, the married and the unmarried state, the latter being higher and more divine, though more difficult and dangerous, while the former is more humble and more safe, she was able to avoid the disadvantages of each, and to select and combine all that is best in both, namely, the elevation of the one and the security of the other, thus becoming modest without pride, blending the excellence of the married with that of the unmarried state, and proving that neither of them absolutely binds us to, or separates us from, God or the world…

For though she had entered upon a carnal union, she was not therefore separated from the spirit, nor, because her husband was her head, did she ignore her first Head: but, performing those few ministrations due to the world and nature, according to the will of the law of the flesh, or rather of Him who gave to the flesh these laws, she consecrated herself entirely to God.

But what is most excellent and honourable, she also won over her husband to her side, and made of him a good fellow-servant, instead of an unreasonable master. And not only so, but she further made the fruit of her body, her children and her children’s children, to be the fruit of her spirit, dedicating to God not her single soul, but the whole family and household, and making wedlock illustrious through her own acceptability in wedlock, and the fair harvest she had reaped thereby; presenting herself, as long as she lived, as an example to her offspring of all that was good, and when summoned hence, leaving her will behind her, as a silent exhortation to her house.

On a final note, I should mention that while women do need godly affirmation from the men in their lives, men need to hear such praises from women as well. If you know men who are passionately following Christ and encourage you in your own walk, be sure to tell them!

This past week the Miss USA Pageant has become embroiled in controversy after Miss California gave an unpopular answer to a very tough question. Below is the clip from the pageant that sits at the center of this controversy.

In response to her answer, Carrie Prejean has received an onslaught of criticism. The Miss California board has publicly denounced her position, and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has labeled her a “dumb bitch,” describing her answer as the worst one delivered in pageant history.

Now regardless of where you come down on this issue, the backlash is quite shocking. No, Prejean’s response wasn’t the most articulate defense of same-sex marriage to ever be presented, but she didn’t exactly start yelling homophobic epithets either. She simply disagreed, while also applauding the nation that allows such diversity of both sexual orientation, and opinion, to exist.

So while I agree that “hate speech” should be greatly discouraged, ESPECIALLY among the Christian community, hate speech is a very different thing from respectful disagreement. That is a message that both liberals and conservatives do well to remember.

As Voltaire once said, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

So I say kudos to Miss Prejean! She was put in a very difficult position–stating what she believed, knowing it would be unpopular, and risking her crown–but saying it anyway. And not because she’s brainwashed, but because she’s actually got a lot more courage than a lot of us, whether you agree with her or not.

 What do you think?

Every Fall, the North Carolina State Fair comes to Raleigh, North Carolina for about a week and a half, and every year I go to the Fair to do the following:

1. Look at all the mullets

2. Eat lethal amounts of fried food.

3. Hunt for a baby pig.

While the first two are fairly self-explanatory, let me explain the last one.

At the State Fair there is a giant compound that houses all the award-winning livestock for that year. As a part of the Fair, attendees can go inside to look at the cows, goats, sheep, etc. but you cannot touch them. Ordinarily, this rule would not be a problem for me, except that one of those pens contains an entire litter of baby pigs. And they are by far the CUTEST thing you’ve ever seen.

Unfortunately, you can’t get anywhere near enough to touch them. You just have to stare at them from afar, only wishing you could crawl in there and hold them. I seriously wanted to kidnap one of those adorable baby pigs. I was so smitten with them that I literally talked about it all year long.

Lucky for me, I am getting married to a man whose father used to be in charge of the State Fair livestock, so he has “connections.” (And no, that is not why I’m marrying him) Early on in our relationship I explained to him my life-long desire to pet and hold a baby pig, maybe even adopt one as a pet, and he told me he could work something out.

When the State Fair rolled around the following year, Ike called in a favor, and one night after the Fair closed we got to go inside the pig pen. Finally, after years of waiting, pining, I got to hold a baby pig.

Tragically, it was not the experience I thought it would be. Looking at a baby pig, you’d think they’d be soft and squishy and cuddly–kind of like a pink puppy. But they’re not. Their hair is coarse, their skin is rough, and the pig I held screamed the entire time like I was murdering it. I felt like one of those mortified mothers whose kid has a meltdown in the grocery store.

After that experience I was pretty disillusioned with the baby pigs. It was a major let down after years of build up.

Now even though my long journey ended in disappointment, I share this story because it actually helped me to better understand a passage of Scripture that I’d always been familiar with. Proverbs 11:22 reads–

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.

As a result of my experience at the State Fair, I have learned one very important thing–no matter how old they are, pigs are nasty. The babies may look cute if you’re standing far away, but if you get close enough to touch them, you’ll see that they’re just mini versions of their mothers–mean, moody, and dirty. They also get obscenely large.

So while a gold ring might be a stunning piece of jewelry, its beauty is lost when placed in the snout of a pig. No matter how exquisite, there is no ring that can over-compensate for the hulking mass behind it. It’s just a tiny, shiny ring on a giant, dirty pig.

This is the visual we are meant to imagine when we read Proverbs 11:22. The beauty of the ring is completely overshadowed by the pig that dons it, and it is the same in a beautiful woman without discretion.

If you look up the definition of “discretion,” you will find the following synonyms: discernment, maturity, wisdom, thoughtfulness, prudence, and care. These all describe the kind of character that honors God, and honors those around her.

With that in mind, a woman could be a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, but if she’s got a sailor’s mouth, she manipulates people with her body , and she throws a fit when she doesn’t get her way, then her beauty immediately pales. Her looks cannot make up for her personality.

Now given the way our culture emphasizes beauty, this may seem hard to believe. After all, beautiful women are allowed to get away with a lot more bad behavior than their “less attractive” counterparts. Is this verse really true?

The answer is an emphatic “yes!” A woman’s beauty might open some doors for her, but it is her character that will be her ultimate success. Beauty may attract a man, but faithfulness and respect is what will enable her dating relationships, and ultimately marriage, to last. Beauty may get her a job opportunity, but her work ethic will allow her to keep it, if not excel. Beauty may give her attention and friends, but it is her trustworthiness that will determine whether they stick around.

When a woman looks back on her life and measures the successes of her beauty, versus the successes of her character, she will find that her character made all the difference. It determines whether or not those blessings will be lasting. And when measured this way, it becomes more clear that the beauty of a woman without discretion does little more for her life than a ring on the tip of a pig’s nose. Both adornments are ultimately fruitless.

As a single woman, I remember going to Christian concerts or conferences or seminars in which I would watch a young, good looking guy on stage who seemed so in love with the Lord, and so passionate and articulate about his faith, that it made my heart flutter. THAT was the guy for me!

I just knew we were supposed to get married, and I day-dreamed about the way that we would meet–maybe he would see me across the lobby later on that night, be captivated by my beauty and just HAVE to talk to me. Or, he would see me in the audience, and I would look so worshipful and in love with God that he would know we were meant to be together. He’d never seen anyone look so beautiful as she worshiped God!

And we’d get married and travel the world together telling people about Jesus–maybe he would lead worship, and then I would be the main speaker at arena events. Kind of a Chris Tomlin-Beth Moore combo.

That is how I knew my life would play out. That is, until I made the horrible discovery. I looked down at his hand, and there it was–a wedding ring.

My entire life plans were crushed in an instant.

As a result of experiences such as these, I frequently found myself asking, “Why are all the godly men already married?” I figured that there must have been some sort of fire sale while I was in college, and if you didn’t snatch up your husband then, the supply ran out. All that was left were the guys that nobody else wanted.

As a single woman, it’s very easy to feel this way, and to such an extent that it feels VERY real. In my more sane moments I knew that there were, in fact, plenty of solid, single Christian guys around, but it was on the lonely days that I genuinely feared there weren’t any left.

So in the face of this fear, on those days when it seems as though all the godly men have gone off and gotten married, leaving an over-abundance of single gals behind, how are women to respond?

The first is to open your eyes and look around you. Maybe you don’t know any Chris Tomlin types, and maybe all the pastors at your church are married, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any godly, single men left. Being godly does not equal being on stage.

I have single guy friends who serve in the youth ministry, the college ministry, the children’s ministry, the new members ministry, organizing mission trips, and teaching Sunday school classes. Their jobs may be less visible, but their commitment to serve, even when it’s not glamorous, says a great deal about their character.

So on behalf of all my single guy friends who are totally on fire for the Lord, I’ve gotta give a shout out to them. Ladies, they are definitely out there, and they are DEFINITELY worth waiting for.

But the second thing you need to consider in the face of this fear is its root. Where is the fear coming from? To become so afraid of something that you begin to think irrationally is a clear indicator of a spiritual issue. Even if you are not controlled by this fear, even if you have only had this thought in passing, you need to take a good, hard look at it.

What does this fear say about your belief that God is in control? Are you afraid that God wanted to provide you with a husband, but accidentally ran out of men? Does God only reward those women who go out and hunt for a husband early on? Or another thought I had as a young woman–was I not pretty enough to get married straight out of college?

All of these questions, and there are many more, are rooted in lies and misconceptions about God, and ourselves. We are not trusting that God will provide, and we are wondering if there is something inherently wrong with us. The fear that “all the godly men are married” is just a symptom of this spiritual confusion.

So if you find yourself asking this question, stop yourself and instead reflect upon why you are asking it. No, all the godly men are not married, and even if you don’t know a single Christian man in your entire city, if God wants you to get married then He is certainly capable of making that happen. After all, he pulled a rib out of Adam’s side to give him a mate, so I think God can handle your love life.

So the main question is whether you are being fulfilled in Christ NOW. As long as you allow that void in your heart to dwell, then those fears will continue to creep in on you. But if you fill that void with Christ, then those fears will have no foothold. You will simply have nothing to fear.

*And for further reading on this topic, check out Exodus, and the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Both are stories of scarcity, and God’s over-abundant provision in response. It is a good reminder about the character of the God who created you.

Right at this very moment, I have at least a dozen books on leadership scattered about my house. Probably more.

Leadership is one of the hot topics of Christian ministries today–you’ll find rows and rows of books about leadership at Christian bookstores, conferences centered around teaching leadership, and even ministries whose sole purpose is to train leaders.

Now, to some extent this overwhelming focus on leadership seems warranted. In some measure, ALL Christians are called to be leaders–wherever we are, we lead by example, shining Christ’s light and guiding people toward the path of life, if only by our lifestyles.

However, such a trendy topic can sometimes cause us to overlook other, equally important roles in the Body of Christ. This point became very apparent to me recently when I read a blog post on the topic on The View From Her. The author wrote the following important perspective:

I’m not anti-leadership. I’m just very interested in the curious obsession we currently have with “Leadership.” It seems to have become elevated as more important than the other gifts listed in Romans 12, which flies in the face of the teaching there about being one body with many parts. It’s like the hand saying, “What the body needs is more hands! The future of the body depends on developing hands of influence!” (I Corinthians 12). “But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (v.18).

If you have read my blog for any period of time, you know that I am passionate about equipping women to be leaders. No matter what their spheres of influence, I want to see women rise up and change their world for the glory of God.

But in light of the time I spend talking about leadership, and in light of the words above, I think it’s important that I pause to emphasize the significance of other gifts. You may not have the gift of teaching or preaching or planning and organizing a ministry, but your gifts are no less vital simply because they are less visible.

Whatever your gifts, you owe it to the Body of Christ, and more importantly your Father in Heaven, to hone that gift and use it with excellence. As I said, all Christians are called to leadership in some capacity, but it doesn’t have to fit the stereotypical mold–you can be a leader in prayer, be a leader in patience, be a leader in service, or be a leader in gentleness.

Whatever your gifts, remember that God gave them to you FOR A REASON. There may not be a million books glamorizing your particular calling, but it is no less crucial. As long as my foot acts like a foot, my nose acts like a nose, and my arm acts like an arm, then my body is going to work efficiently, effectively, and powerfully. The same is true of the Church.

I don’t know why, but one of my all-time favorite t.v. shows is the Haunted Destination show on the Travel Channel. It isn’t one of those “reality t.v.” shows in which people go into spooky places and get the mess scared out of them by the producers. It’s a good old fashioned show about haunted houses, mansions, prisons, etc. that includes stories of what happens there, and the theories about why.

However, as much as I love watching these shows, I have to be careful. If I watch them too late at night or when I’m home by myself, I start to get so creeped out that I have to turn the t.v. off or change it to the Disney Channel. I just can’t handle it.

(The same goes for news stories about serial killers)

The reason I’m bringing this up today is to demonstrate how powerful the imagination is, and how profoundly our imaginations are affected by the television we watch and the movies we see. This is something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately.

Like every “good little Christian girl,” I tend to avoid movies that have sex and excessive violence in them (although my reasons have less to do with holiness and more to do with me being a wimp and/or not wanting my fiancé to be looking at naked women). But I’m starting to wonder if there should be more to the discernment process than that. Just because a movie doesn’t involve cannibalism or orgies, does that mean it’s beneficial to watch?

I started to wonder about this when I learned that my fiancé has trouble watching movies in which women are attacked. He said that it causes him to become unrealistically fearful about my safety–he starts worrying about me, wondering if the deadbolt on my door is locked, and being paranoid about my security. I have heard of a similar tendency in parents–some parents can’t watch movies in which children are attacked because it causes them to become irrationally fearful about their own kids.

That leads me back to my love/hate relationship with the Haunted Destination shows. Before watching those shows, I was perfectly fine–I wasn’t afraid of a ghost popping out from around the corner, and little noises in the house didn’t scare me. I could rest in my home in peace. But after having my mind fed with those irrational fears, I wasn’t quite as sure about the world around me. My peace had been taken away.

While this may not seem like that big of a deal, I think it demonstrates the way in which media can compete with a Christian world view. While our faith may tell us that God is in control and we have no need to fear, television and movies flood our brains with worries about terrorism and crime. It’s hard to walk in total peace when you’re bombarded with story lines based on worst-case scenarios.

And this influence isn’t limited to the realm of fear. Media affects our imaginations in other ways as well. I was talking with a student the other day who described her struggle with singleness, and how she had unintentionally filled that void in her life with romantic movies and shows. She would get so swept up in the story that she would later find herself fantasizing about it, wishing the same thing would happen to her.

The only problem was that it ultimately left her feeling even emptier than before. While she enjoyed fantasizing about romance, her actual life seemed boring and empty in comparison. There was no Noah Calhoun building a house for her, waiting for her throughout the years. There was no Prince Charming.

The result was that she found herself even less satisfied and more lonely than before.

Now I am not writing all of this as some sort of manifesto against watching movies or television. To do so would be Pharisaical. BUT, it’s important that we think through what we’re watching and how it’s influencing our mindset. For some women, this is a crucial key to guarding their hearts. For other individuals, it is a matter of viewing the world through the lens of Christ’s truth and security. The media can threaten both, so while we don’t need to be legalists, we do need to be wise.

Several weeks ago the Pope made a highly publicized trip to Africa, and while there he created a great deal of controversy. During his visit, he was quoted as saying that HIV/AIDS is “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem,” and that “a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.”

In other words, it would seem that he told an entire continent devastated by AIDS to stop using any physical protection against it.

Now I’m gonna be honest with you–the first time I heard this story, I rolled my eyes and let out a huge frustrated sigh. This sounded like a major set-back in the Church’s “cultural relevancy” department.

However, I’m starting to reconsider my initial judgment, and for several reasons. The first is theological….

1) As a spiritual rule of thumb, it’s not a good idea to choose the most practical option, over and against a Scriptural world view. Sometimes the two options coincide, but from a Catholic perspective they do not in this instance. So in a country where millions of people are dying, why not go for the obvious answer? Why not compromise?

Well the problem is that Jesus wasn’t exactly making suggestions that could be shrugged off in real life scenarios. On the contrary, he presented his teachings knowing full well the circumstances in which we would find ourselves. When He told us to turn the other cheek and love our enemies, there was no “unless” clause.

Even if you don’t agree that the use of condoms is wrong, this principle plays out in a lot of different areas. When someone takes advantage of us financially, do we sue them, or do we “let them take our cloak as well?” If you know that your teenagers are going to drink anyway, do you continue to teach them otherwise, or do you provide them with alcohol in a safe environment? If women are going to have abortions whether it’s legal or not, is it best to legalize abortion and keep it safe?

In the face of all these questions, it can be tempting to choose the “practical” over the Scriptural.

But God’s teachings do not exist in a vacuum. They are not abstract or removed from the world we live in. They are just the opposite, in fact. God’s Word is to be our guiding compass in the world we inhabit because it is more grounded in reality than the practical options we see before us. What we see is only a sliver of the whole picture, but God sees it all. So following God’s teaching is far from being irrelevant–it is the most relevant information we have.

When it’s all said and done, we need to ask whether our choices are determined by sin, or by Christ’s victory over sin.

Now I will admit that that is a belief we often have to take on faith, especially in the face of such an overwhelming epidemic as AIDS, which leads me to the second reason I’ve started to reconsider the Pope’s position…

2. Some researchers might be providing evidence that actually supports the Pope’s stance. Even though it sometimes takes faith to follow the Bible’s teaching, those teachings are occasionally justified by real life experience. Every now and then we discover that God’s teachings may not be so out-dated after all.

On her blog, Carolyn McCulley excerpted an op-ed piece by Edward C. Green that recently appeared in the Washington Post. Green is the director of the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project, and is a leading advocate for evidence-based interventions. In response to the criticism leveled at the Pope, Green responded with the following:

We liberals who work in the fields of global HIV/AIDS and family planning take terrible professional risks if we side with the pope on a divisive topic such as this. The condom has become a symbol of freedom and — along with contraception — female emancipation, so those who question condom orthodoxy are accused of being against these causes. My comments are only about the question of condoms working to stem the spread of AIDS in Africa’s generalized epidemics — nowhere else. …

In theory, condom promotions ought to work everywhere. And intuitively, some condom use ought to be better than no use. But that’s not what the research in Africa shows.

Why not?

One reason is “risk compensation.” That is, when people think they’re made safe by using condoms at least some of the time, they actually engage in riskier sex.

Another factor is that people seldom use condoms in steady relationships because doing so would imply a lack of trust. (And if condom use rates go up, it’s possible we are seeing an increase of casual or commercial sex.) However, it’s those ongoing relationships that drive Africa’s worst epidemics. In these, most HIV infections are found in general populations, not in high-risk groups such as sex workers, gay men or persons who inject drugs. And in significant proportions of African populations, people have two or more regular sex partners who overlap in time. In Botswana, which has one of the world’s highest HIV rates, 43 percent of men and 17 percent of women surveyed had two or more regular sex partners in the previous year.

These ongoing multiple concurrent sex partnerships resemble a giant, invisible web of relationships through which HIV/AIDS spreads. A study in Malawi showed that even though the average number of sexual partners was only slightly over two, fully two-thirds of this population was interconnected through such networks of overlapping, ongoing relationships.

In all honesty, I don’t know enough about this topic to make any kind of authoritative statement about it, nor am I weighing in on the theological debates about condom use either. BUT, I certainly find Green’s argument to be compelling. That said, I am opening up the floor to hear your thoughts. In light of this information, what do you think about the Pope’s words–is he right on, or mind-bogglingly off base?

To view the whole Washington Post article, click here.