时事与真理

又有税吏来要受洗，问他说：“夫子，我们当作甚么呢？” 约翰说：“除了例定的数目，不要多取。” 又有兵丁问他说：“我们当作甚么呢？” 约翰说：“不要以强暴待人，也不要讹诈人，自己有钱粮就当知足。” （路加福音 3:12-14）

他们离弃正路，就走差了，随从比珥之子巴兰的路。巴兰就是那贪爱不义之工价的先知。（彼得后书 2:15）

我们必须尽最大的努力避免寻求自己的利益，可是我们的本性在这方面不能帮助我们，因为它总容易使人只爱自己，而不关心他人的利益。（加尔文《基督徒生活手册》）

For a break from the news of the financial meltdown, The Times on Saturday offered a page one story about Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, a prominent psychiatrist at Emory University, who violated federal research rules regarding conflicts of interest and made millions of dollars consulting for the pharmaceutical industry.

Yet the story of Nemeroff, who earned $2.8 million in fees from 2000 to 2007, and had at one point consulted for 21 drug and device companies simultaneously, wasn't really a departure from the news of the week – or of this whole benighted era – at all.

It was, rather, yet another iteration of the ever-unfolding saga of greed and how the deregulation of absolutely everything has brought our country to this painful season of reckoning. Because Nemeroff's story – which is hardly unique – belongs uniquely to this time in our nation's history.

Excerpts from Diagnosis: Greed, by Judith Warner, New York Times, October 9, 2008

A Christian View of the Economic Crisis

Is the economy really driven by greed?

手懒的，要受贫穷；手勤的，却要富足。（箴言 10：4）

不劳而得之财，必然消耗；勤劳积蓄的，必见加增。（箴言 13：11）

殷勤筹画的，足致丰裕；行事急躁的，都必缺乏。
用诡诈之舌求财的，就是自己取死；所得之财，乃是吹来吹去的浮云。（箴言 21：5-6）

人有恶眼想要急速发财，却不知穷乏必临到他身。（箴言 28:22）

不要仗势欺人，也不要因抢夺而骄傲；若财宝加增，不要放在心上。（诗篇 62：10）

The economy is a moral reality. Human beings actualize their moral selves in making economic choices and through participation in the economic system — and we are all participants.

Christians should look at the economy as a test of our values. The Bible values honest labor and dedicated workers, and so should we. The Bible warns against dishonest business practices, and we must be watchful. False valuations are, in effect, lies. Dishonest accounting practices are just sophisticated forms of lying. Insider information is a form of theft.

The Bible honors investment and thrift, and Christians must be wary of the impulse for short-term gains and pressure for instant profit. Over the long-haul, the entire economy must prosper if the vast majority are to do well and realize a responsible gain.

Source: A Christian View of the Economic Crisis, by Al Mohler, 9/29/2008. Al Mohler is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Heresy of Positive Thinking

耕种自己田地的，必得饱食；追随虚浮的，却是无知。（箴言 12：11）

耕种自己田地的，必得饱食；追随虚浮的，足受穷乏。（箴言 28：19）

我未曾贪图一个人的金、银、衣服。我这两只手常供给我和同人的需用，这是你们自己知道的。我凡事给你们作榜样，叫你们知道应当这样劳苦，扶助软弱的人，又当记念主耶稣的话，说：“施比受更为有福。” （使徒行转 20:33-35）

... 要立志作安静人，办自己的事，亲手作工，正如我们从前所吩咐你们的，叫你们可以向外人行事端正，自己也就没有甚么缺乏了。（帖撒罗尼迦前书 4:11-12）

从前偷窃的，不要再偷；总要劳力，亲手作正经事，就可有余分给那缺少的人。（以弗所书 4:28b）

GREED — and its crafty sibling, speculation — are the designated culprits for the financial crisis. But another, much admired, habit of mind should get its share of the blame: the delusional optimism of mainstream, all-American, positive thinking.

As promoted by Oprah Winfrey, scores of megachurch pastors and an endless flow of self-help best sellers, the idea is to firmly believe that you will get what you want, not only because it will make you feel better to do so, but because “visualizing” something — ardently and with concentration — actually makes it happen. You will be able to pay that adjustable-rate mortgage or, at the other end of the transaction, turn thousands of bad mortgages into giga-profits if only you believe that you can.

...

Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily “visualizing” success.

Source: The Power of Negative Thinking, New York Times, September 24, 2008

Disability or Dishonesty?

以虚谎而得的食物，人觉甘甜；但后来他的口，必充满尘沙。(箴言 20:17)

主日学道德第五课：诚信

To understand what it’s like to work on the railroad — the Long Island Rail Road — a good place to start is the Sunken Meadow golf course, a rolling stretch of state-owned land on Long Island Sound.

During the workweek, it is not uncommon to find retired L.I.R.R. employees, sometimes dozens of them, golfing there. A few even walk the course. Yet this is not your typical retiree outing.

These golfers are considered disabled. At an age when most people still work, they get a pension and tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments — a sum roughly equal to the base salary of their old jobs. Even the golf is free, courtesy of New York State taxpayers.

With incentives like these, occupational disabilities at the L.I.R.R. have become a full-blown epidemic.

Virtually every career employee — as many as 97 percent in one recent year — applies for and gets disability payments soon after retirement, a computer analysis of federal records by The New York Times has found.

...

And it is not just engineers, conductors or track workers seeking disability payments. Dozens of retired white-collar managers are doing it as well, including the former deputy general counsel, employment manager, claims manager and director of government and community affairs.

...

Railroad officials say that as far as they know, most of the disabled workers were able-bodied until their early retirement, and only then filed papers seeking occupational disability payments.

“How is it that somebody is occupationally disabled the day after he retires when he wasn’t occupationally disabled the day before he retired?” asked Gary Dellaverson, chief financial officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the railroad’s parent.

The answer, according to government records and dozens of interviews, stems from a combination of factors, including highly unusual L.I.R.R. contracts that allow longtime workers to retire with a pension as early as age 50, federal rules that let railroad retirees claim disability for jobs they no longer hold, and an obscure federal agency called the Railroad Retirement Board that almost never says no to a disability claim.

...

Walter Kueffner is one manager who didn’t say he was disabled, even though many others around him did.

“People claimed they had back problems and carpal tunnel,” said Mr. Kueffner, a former auditor at the railroad. “I am sure some really did, but a lot of healthy people were doing it.”

Disability awards were being handed out when he started at the railroad in 1968, and the numbers “got bigger as time went on,” he said. “They don’t reject too many for a disability, you know.”

Mr. Kueffner said that while he’s not “a saint,” the thought of claiming disability never crossed his mind for one simple reason: “I didn’t have a disability,” he said. “I was doing a job that people do everywhere. I worked at a desk and I retired in good shape.”

Source: A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroad’s Retirees, New York Times, September 20, 2008

How to Pick a President: Why Virtue Trumps Policy

... 王不可为自己加添马匹，也不可使百姓回埃及去，为要加添他的马匹；因耶和华曾吩咐你们说：“不可再回那条路去。” 他也不可为自己多立妃嫔，恐怕他的心偏邪；也不可为自己多积金银。他登了国位，就要将祭司利未人面前的这律法书，为自己抄录一本，存在他那里，要平生诵读，好学习敬畏耶和华他的　神，谨守遵行这律法书上的一切言语和这些律例。免得他向弟兄心高气傲，偏左偏右，离了这诫命 ... (申命记 16:14-20a)

耶和华对撒母耳说：“百姓向你说的一切话，你只管依从；因为他们不是厌弃你，乃是厌弃我，不要我作他们的王。”

撒母耳将耶和华的话，都传给求他立王的百姓，说： “管辖你们的王必这样行：他必派你们的儿子为他赶车、跟马、奔走在车前；又派他们作千夫长、五十夫长，为他耕种田地，收割庄稼，打造军器和车上的器械；必取你们的女儿为他制造香膏，作饭烤饼；也必取你们最好的田地、葡萄园、橄榄园，赐给他的臣仆；你们的粮食和葡萄园所出的，他必取十分之一，给他的太监和臣仆；又必取你们的仆人婢女，健壮的少年人和你们的驴，供他的差役；你们的羊群他必取十分之一，你们也必作他的仆人。那时你们必因所选的王哀求耶和华，耶和华却不应允你们。”

百姓竟不肯听撒母耳的话，说：“不然！我们定要一个王治理我们，使我们像列国一样：有王治理我们，统领我们，为我们争战。”

(撒母耳记上 8:7,10-20)

Virtue is a suite of values-soaked abilities that in active combination form a person's character and give shape to a life. Our choices and actions both reveal and reinforce our character. You cannot judge whether a person will be a good leader — a good President — without knowing and evaluating his or her character — how life has stamped or marked them. A President is, among other things, a decision maker. Decisions flow out of values and experience, that is, out of character. The classical virtues, embraced by Greeks and Romans alike, are prudence (practical wisdom), justice (fairness), fortitude (courage), and temperance (moderation). They not only thought these desirable and useful, but also believed you could not be fully human without them. Each of the four virtues makes the others possible, and a lack of any one of them renders the others ineffective. Courage without wisdom is mere foolhardiness. Justice not backed up by courage is mere wishing. And any of the other virtues is vitiated if one lacks the self-control found in moderation. Virtue involves the whole person—intellect, emotion, will, values, actions.

The other great source of virtues was Judeo-Christian, especially the virtues of faith, hope, and love. The medieval period inherited both traditions, kept virtue at the center of education, and embraced these seven as "the cardinal virtues."

The greatest fear we have regarding leaders is that they will misuse the power we grant them. The corrupting potential of power is well documented. But power need not corrupt and in a virtuous person it will not. Psychologist Erich Fromm distinguishes between power used for domination and selfish ends, and what he calls "potency" or "generative power." Such power is strength for others (a definition of virtue), and it motivates creativity and service. All the proper policies and ideology and technical competency in the world will not protect a leader from using power corruptly. In fact, the greatest temptation for a well-meaning leader is to use power corruptly in order to accomplish seemingly benevolent ends. The best insurance against corrupt power is to choose leaders with the combination of virtues necessary to use power well.

Source: How to Pick a President, Christianity Today, June, 2008

十万观众，还是一位观众；黯然，还是安然

你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父，你父在暗中察看，必然报答你。 (马太福音 6:5)

我们成了一台戏，给世人和天使观看。我们为基督的缘故算是愚拙的，你们在基督里倒是聪明的；我们软弱，你们倒强壮；你们有荣耀，我们倒被藐视。被人咒骂，我们就祝福；被人逼迫，我们就忍受；被人毁谤，我们就善劝。直到如今，人还把我们看作世界上的污秽，万物中的渣滓。 (歌林多前书 4:9a，12b-13)

杨澜：突然之间（奥运会）都结束了，人慢慢散去了，心里是什么感觉？失落吗？

张艺谋：它还不是慢慢散去，它是哗一下就过去了。失落。你睡觉起来，一想，哎这奥运会就过去了。我觉得这个感受有点像我们8月8日开会的时候，我对他们说：“你们最短的忙了几个月，最长的忙了两三年，我告诉你们，我忙这活我忙了7年多啊。”

杨澜：（在开幕式上）这么多人的运用是不是难度非常大？艺术跟人多有关系吗？

张艺谋：“人”是很重要也是很难的，我觉得人多就会产生一种非常强大的磁场。我们集会、我们纪念、我们庆典，哪一个让我们觉得热血沸腾的瞬间，不是因为有10万人在那里？

引自搜狐体育，2008年9月5日

Church in the Middle of the Marketplace

创造宇宙和其中万物的神，既是天地的主，就不住人手所造的殿，也不用人手服事，好像缺少甚么；自己倒将生命、气息、万物，赐给万人。(使徒行传 17:24-25)

其实，至高者并不住人手所造的，就如先知所言： “主说：天是我的座位，地是我的脚凳，你们要为我造何等的殿宇？那里是我安息的地方呢？这一切不都是我手所造的么？” (使徒行传 7:48-50)

神果真住在地上么？看哪！天和天上的天，尚且不足你居住的，何况我所建的这殿呢？(列王记上 8:27)

... 神的殿是圣的，这殿就是你们。(歌林多前书 3:17b)

你们拜父，也不在这山上，也不在耶路撒冷。时候将到，如今就是了，那真正拜父的，要用心灵和诚实拜他，因为父要这样的人拜他。神是个灵，所以拜他的，必须用心灵和诚实拜他。(约翰福音 4:21a,23-4:24)

The story of National Community Church (NCC) began twelve years ago when an optimistic pastor named Mark Batterson moved his family to Washington D.C. from Chicago to start a church. His plan was conventional: begin with a small group, then meet in a rented public school, and finally buy or build a permanent church facility. But Batterson's plans were dashed when the public school his small church of thirty-five was meeting in was closed for fire code violations.

Frustrated and uncertain about the future, Batterson was walking through the shopping mall at Union Station when he had an idea. He found the manager of the movie theater and asked for permission to conduct a church service there on Sunday morning. The manager agreed. Suddenly, Batterson found himself leading a church located at the center of the most visited destination on Capitol Hill.

After experiencing rapid growth NCC changed its strategy. Batterson no longer wanted a permanent church facility. Instead he saw the benefits of being in the middle of the marketplace. Today, NCC meets in four theaters located at Metro stops throughout D.C., and in 2006 the church opened its first permanent facility—a coffee shop. Ebenezer's, also located on "The Hill," is a popular, award-winning coffee shop that was previously the location of a crack house.

Source: A City Upon "The Hill", Leadership Journal, Summer 2008

On a pedestal! Between the Parishioner and God?

只有一位　神，在　神和人中间，只有一位中保，乃是降世为人的基督耶稣。 (提摩太前书 2:5b)

认识你独一的真　神、并且认识你所差来的耶稣基督，这就是永生。 (约翰福音 17:3)

惟有你们是被拣选的族类，是有君尊的祭司，是圣洁的国度，是属　神的子民，要叫你们宣扬那召你们出黑暗入奇妙光明者的美德。 (彼得前书 2:9)

那召你们的既是圣洁，你们在一切所行的事上也要圣洁。 (彼得前书 1:15)

你们要圣洁，因为我耶和华你们的　神是圣洁的。 (利未记 19:2b)

不可心里恨你的弟兄，总要指摘你的邻舍，免得因他担罪。 (利未记 19:17)

耶稣叫他们来对他们说：“你们知道，外邦人有尊为君王的，治理他们，有大臣操权管束他们。只是在你们中间，不是这样；你们中间，谁愿为大，就必作你们的用人；在你们中间，谁愿为首，就必作众人的仆人。因为人子来，并不是要受人的服事，乃是要服事人，并且要舍命，作多人的赎价。” (马可福音 10:42-45)

"Our clergy persons now have a much better understanding that they have the power," says Melton. "They stand between the parishioner and God in a lot of people's minds, whether the clergy person articulates it or not."

...

When Sharon, a former director of Christian education for her church, was sexually mistreated by her boss, the senior pastor, she learned the dilemma victims face in coming forward with an allegation. "When I finally got up the courage to tell anyone what was happening to me at work, one response I got was, 'Don't say anything; it's a nice church.' Pastors are put up on a pedestal, and no one wants to believe that they could do anything like this," Sharon explains.

...

Sharon quit her job, and for years following her ordeal, she stayed away from church. Gently, her old friends invited her back into fellowship. "I knew there wasn't going to be a perfect church out there," she explains. "All churches have problems. For me, I learned the hard way that I would need to be responsible for setting my own boundaries."

...

A new study of self-described "active Christian women" shows more than a quarter personally experienced sexually inappropriate behavior, and one fourth of those that experienced it said it happened in a church or ministry setting.

...

The survey shows a relatively low number of occurrences of sexual harassment in churches or ministry workplaces. Only two percent of respondents who work in a church or ministry setting say their employment was contingent upon dates or sexual favors. This number goes up sharply in the secular world: 22 percent of women reported "quid pro quo" harassment.

Source: Sexual Misconduct at Church, Your Church Magzine, July/August 2008

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