So, now we walk through the season of Christian unity. We lift our voices as one to lament the secularization of Christmas. Fa-la-la-la-la; la-la-la-splat.

Friends, it’s past time to take your mama’s standard advice: “Get. Over. It.”

Christmas has been and will continue to be co-opted by secular society. And with good reason, if you think about it.

Editor Marv KnoxFirst, Christmas delivers all the feel-good emotions people crave. Even stripped from its faith-full story of the Savior’s birth, Christmas is all about songs and celebration, altruism and good cheer, bustling crowds and serious shopping, festivities and family.

The other day, I heard an atheist talking about how he enjoys “celebrating” Christmas. And even though we don’t agree on the core meaning of the day, I couldn’t refute why he loves it, too.

Second, Christmas gives us a break. This far into the year, we’ve had our fill of bad news and calamity, and we’re dog-tired of work and responsibility. So, Christmas provides an excuse for news clips and TV shows with sappy endings. It offers a cultural break from the daily grind. And most folks even get a little time off the job or out of school.

Third—and this may be the most enduring cultural reason the season has “legs”—Christmas is vital to the economy. If Christmas could cease to exist, the government and business community, Republicans and Democrats, Texans and the rest of Americans would unite—a miracle in itself—to create some kind of out-sized, outrageous holiday to generate not goodwill or joy, but tons and tons of shopping.

Don’t fret yourself

So, go on. Get over it. Don’t fret yourself about how others miss the point of Christmas. They do what they do, and you can’t change them.

Instead, as followers of the Babe of Bethlehem, let’s do what we can do. We can prepare for a deeply spiritual and meaningful Christmas by practicing the ancient discipline of celebrating Advent. Depending on when you read this, we’re just on either side of two weeks in already.

For years, many Baptists resisted Advent because they felt it was “too Catholic.” However, it’s the perfect antidote to the secularization of the Christmas season. Advent helps us turn our hearts and minds toward the true meaning of Christmas and enables us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It gives us peace to share the truth of Christmas with folks who might otherwise miss it.

Advent begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Christians who celebrate Advent join with millions of sisters and brothers around the world as they anticipate the coming of Jesus. They mark the Sundays leading up to Christmas by lighting candles representing the themes of Advent—hope, love, joy and peace—reflected in daily devotionals. They sing songs of anticipation. They look past the trivial distractions and look ahead to Jesus.

For all ages

Advent blesses Christians of all ages. But it’s a special gift to families whose children live at home. When they gather around an advent wreath  night by night, reading devotionals of anticipation, singing songs of hope and praying prayers of gratitude, they create memories that last a lifetime. And they instill Christmas in young hearts.

In sacred moments of Advent, Christians rise above shallow secularism. We cast our hope on God, express our love for Jesus and others, secure our joy in eternity and experience peace on earth.

On Dec. 6, 1888, the first newspaper that became known as the Baptist Standard rolled off a printing press in the North Texas hamlet of Honey Grove. If you’re keeping score at home, that means we will celebrate our 125th anniversary this week.

Editor Marv KnoxSometimes, in my mind’s eye, I see that first edition gripped in the calloused hands of a mustachioed cowboy. He’s reading the paper by the light of a campfire, his trusty steed looking over his shoulder. His cattle munch grass and moo across the prairie. And somewhere up in majestic clouds, angels sing.

But that’s just my historical/spiritual imagination getting all tangled up with my love for Texas Baptists’ newspaper.

No matter who read the first copy of that first edition, its publication marked a historic milestone. In order to counter discord and provide a conduit of information about and rallying point for the young Baptist General Convention of Texas, Lewis Holland, pastor of First Baptist Church in Honey Grove, launched The Baptist News at the end of 1888. Four years, two ownership sales and two name changes later, that newspaper moved to Dallas and began publishing as the Baptist Standard.

A force for good

From its beginning, the Standard sought to exert itself as a force for good in Texas and among Baptists. An editorial in the first edition stated: “It is the purpose of the management to make a paper equal to the demands of the great field it is intended to cultivate. We are in the enterprise for the glory of God, in it to stay, and in it with all our souls, minds and strength.”

Such commitment echoes through the years. After the Standard came under the ownership of the BGCT in 1914, the Baptist Standard Publishing Company stated its purpose as supporting the Texas Baptist convention. Today, the company’s purpose remains “the operation of a communications organization, using a variety of technologies to support, inform and resource the Baptist General Convention of Texas, churches and faith-based institutions that serve the broader Christian community, and individual people of faith.”

Our mission statement declares, “Baptist Standard Publishing exists to inform, inspire, equip and empower people of faith to follow Christ and expand the kingdom of God.” All four key verbs point to vital tasks:

• Inform: News is the grease that lubricates the gears of democracy. Without solid, reliable information, democratic organizations—such as Baptist churches and conventions—could not function. The members, who collectively make decisions, must know and understand all the issues, ideas, events and developments that shape their common life together.

• Inspire: People of faith rise up to be all God intended them to be when they are inspired. And frankly, this always has been the easiest part of our task. God’s work among Texas Baptists, as well as the passion and commitment of Texas Baptists themselves, is inspiring. All we have to do is tell their stories, and Texas Baptists inspire each other.

• Equip: Competency is a core virtue of the Christian life. For 125 years, the Baptist Standard has been equipping its readers by sharing best practices of congregations, publishing Bible study lessons, distributing information about Baptist distinctives and providing commentary and ideas about living lives of faithful service in the world around us.

• Empower: The gospel is dynamic. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful. Knowledge is strong, too. Across the generations, our readers have been empowered by learning about God’s work in the world and seeing the challenges set before them. A longtime friend and pastor who has gone home to be with the Lord once said of Texas Baptists, “These folks would take on hell with a water pistol.” That’s true, and all these years, the Standard has been providing fresh supplies of water for those pistols.

Throughout its history, the Standard has faced a tenuous challenge. On the one hand, it was founded and has existed as a force of support for the BGCT. On the other hand, in order for its voice to be authentic, it also must be free. So, each of the 13 editors has exercised editorial freedom that has enabled him to advocate on behalf of the convention while also pointing out when the convention—and particularly its leaders—erred.

They also have sought to maintain the delicate balance between speaking for and speaking to Texas Baptists. Famously (or possibly infamously) independent, folks in this state like to proclaim, “No one speaks for Texas Baptists.” They are correct, for where two or three Baptists are gathered together, five or six opinions abound. No one can proclaim, “Thus saith Texas Baptists.”

Reflecting Texas Baptist opinion

Still, more than any other piece of writing, the Standard editorial often has been examined as a reflection of grassroots Texas Baptist opinion. This has been a prickly point, particularly when an editor speaks to Texas Baptists, taking on a sensitive issue and using his page to inform, educate and inspire his fellow Baptists. But editorials and articles in the Standard have sparked lively conversation among Texas Baptists and other readers.

Because the Standard has generated discussion—and sometimes debate—we have sharpened our ideas, focused our passion and strengthened our resolve.

All this has remained changeless across the decades. Meanwhile, of course, the specific ways we have informed, inspired, equipped and empowered our readers have changed dramatically—particularly during the past few years.

More than 15 years ago, we began utilizing the Internet to spread the news. We launched a website—baptiststandard.com—where we posted everything we published in the paper. And since space was no object, we also added other features, such as Bible study lessons, additional articles, blogs and more.

A little more than five years ago, we began preparing for FaithVillage.com, a resources website and social network. FaithVillage went live early in 2012. It meets the communication and interactive needs of Christians—particularly young adults and teens—across the nation and around the world. It also provides an enormously powerful communications tool for congregations and other ministries that simultaneously want to inform and engage their constituencies. We believe history will prove FaithVillage is one of Texas Baptists’ great gifts to the church.

CommonCall Magazine

Beginning in January of this year, we made a major shift in how we deliver news and information. The Baptist Standard became a digital-only publication, delivered via email every Monday. Simultaneously, we also launched CommonCall, a monthly human-interest and inspirational magazine that features people living out their faith, issues important to Christians’ daily lives and best practices for churches.

While so much has changed, our challenge and commitment have not. We still exist for Jesus, to expand his church by building up stronger believers.

If you would like to celebrate our birthday by subscribing to the Standard and/or CommonCall, click here, and click here  to sign up for FaithVillage. If you want to send us a birthday present (Did we tell you we’re the only Baptist news organization not subsidized by a convention?), click here. 

Above all, please keep us in your prayers.

Here’s a leadoff item for your gratitude list this Thanksgiving: Thank God you’re not a turkey.

If you were a turkey, chances are, you’d only be around to “celebrate” one Thanksgiving. Of course, you would be the guest of honor at the feast table. And you probably would agree with what Mark Twain said about being run out of town on a rail: “Except for the honor, I’d just as soon pass.”

Editor Marv KnoxSince you’re not a turkey and your vocabulary consists of more than “gobble,” you can amaze your family and friends this Thanksgiving by sharing turkey trivia:

• About 88 percent of Americans say they eat turkey at Thanksgiving, according to what appears to be the turkey union, the National Turkey Federation. (My friend George observes that, if the NTF is indeed the turkeys’ union, they need a better union.)

• Americans eat approximately 46 million turkeys at Thanksgiving. That translates to about three pounds of poultry per Thanksgiving gobbler.

• Americans consume turkey all year ’round, not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Americans ate an average of 16.2 pounds of turkey per person in 2011.

• The latest price per pound of frozen turkey is $1.66

• Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to North America and naturally range from northern Mexico to the eastern United States.

• Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state, delivering 46.5 million birds a couple of years ago. Texas didn’t crack the top eight turkey territories.

• While he considered turkeys “vain and silly,” Benjamin Franklin advocated the turkey should be named the national symbol  over the bald eagle, which he called “a coward.”

OK, time to stop. If you recite all these turkeyisms, you’ll probably be asked to leave the Thanksgiving table. And if I don’t quit feeding them to you, you’re likely to stop reading.

So, here’s the second item for your list: Turkey trivia is over for another year.

While you could make a case that Thanksgiving is only the fourth-most-important holiday (1, Easter; 2, Christmas; 3, Independence Day; 4, Thanksgiving; 5, your birthday), its value is enormous.

Saying ‘Thanks’ is good for you

That’s because saying thanks is good for you—and for others. When we express gratitude, we free our souls by gaining at least a bit of separation from want and complaint. Thankfulness provides perspective. When we’re thankful, we realize we’re blessed. We recognize that life, for all its challenges, is wonderful and significant. And when we express gratitude, we place ourselves in proper relationship to another, whether that is God or people. Thankfulness helps us see the value of our dependence upon others and reminds us we’re strengthened by the care of others.

The Apostle Paul advised, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Notice he did not say we should give thanks for all circumstances, but we should be able to give thanks in every circumstance.

Meister Eckhart, a 13th-14th century German theologian, said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘Thank you,’ it will be enough.”

Help! Thanks! Wow!

Anne Lamott, a contemporary American novelist and memoirist, insists gratitude is the crucial central component of the three essential prayers: “Help. Thanks. Wow.”

Last year around this time, Lamott elaborated on thanks in an interview with National Public Radio: “Thanks is the prayer of relief that help was on the way. … It can be (the) pettiest, dumbest thing, but it could also be that you get the phone call that the diagnosis was much, much, much better than you had been fearing. … The full prayer, and its entirety, is: ‘Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.’ But for reasons of brevity, I just refer to it as ‘Thanks.’ It’s amazement and relief that you caught a break; that your family caught a break; that you didn’t have any reason to believe that things were really going to be OK, and then they were and you just can’t help but say, ‘Thank you.’”

Of course, sometimes we don’t feel like expressing thanks. Life is hard and unfair. Especially from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Year’s Day, the busyness and stress of the season compound with reminders of loss, and expressing thanks can become what we want to do least. To the contrary, at precisely this time, it’s what we need to do most.

Focus on gratitude

The only way to survive Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s with our souls intact is to focus on gratitude.

A few days ago, I intended to end this editorial with two lists—25 blessings, or things for which I’m grateful, plus five people to whom I intend to express gratitude.

Then I listened to a sermon on thanks by Michigan pastor Kent Dobson. He insisted the moment we share a list like either of these, we’re polishing our images rather than truly expressing gratitude. Good point.

So, I’ll write my lists. And sometime during Thanksgiving week, compile your own lists. The exercise will lift your spirits and heal your soul.

Did Dallas kill John F. Kennedy 50 years ago this week?

You may not have pondered that question lately, if ever. But if you live in or have visited North Texas the past few months, you probably encountered it. Local media—primarily the newspapers and specifically the Dallas Morning News—have mined the memories, facts, rumors and archives of the Kennedy assassination, smelting them for meaning.

Editor Marv KnoxPresident Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Texas in November 1963 with an eye toward the election looming one year on the horizon. Kennedy-Johnson carried Texas in 1960, and they needed the Lone Star State for re-election in 1964. Then as now, Texas cradled conservatism, contrasting sharply with the administration’s liberal agenda. So, Kennedy and his elegant first lady flew down for a charm offensive—a vital early stop on the re-election campaign.

Predictably, Kennedy received a mixed welcome in North Texas. Crowds at the Fort Worth breakfast, on the Love Field tarmac and along the Dallas parade route cheered and waved their greetings on that sunny Friday, Nov. 22. But his adversaries also made their presence known. A “Wanted” handbill circulated, accusing Kennedy of treason. A full-page ad in the Morning News ironically proclaimed “Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas” while asking a dozen accusatory questions.

Then three shots rang out as the president’s black limousine rolled past Dealey Plaza. They stilled the president, but they echoed across the nation and still reverberate through the halls of history.

National pariah

Almost immediately, Dallas morphed into a national pariah. Two days later, angry silence greeted the NFL’s Cowboys—who worked out on a cross-town practice field when the president was shot—as they took the field in Cleveland to play the Browns. Dallas residents soon learned to stop telling people where they lived when they traveled. Americans labeled Dallas the “City of Hate.”

Was—is—that true?

Of course not. At least, it’s no truer for Dallas than for any other city.

To be sure, some Dallasites opposed President Kennedy’s policies and said so. Some even spoke vulgarly of him and eclipsed human decency. But the majority still respected the presidency and did not wish him ill. They were as appalled and shocked as the rest of the nation when he died in Parkland Hospital. If possible, Dallas felt even more anguish than other cities, because the abominable happened in their community.

Stigma lasted years

The stigma stuck on Dallas for years. If you talk to people who lived there in the late 1960s and ’70s, many will recall being told, “You’re from the place that killed the president.”

Never mind the fact most of the Dallas opposition to Kennedy originated among conservatives, while assassin Lee Harvey Oswald embodied the farthest-left fringe of global politics. Never mind the fact even conspiracy theories did not pin the awful deed on normal conservative Dallasites. Never mind the fact regular residents—Democrats and Republicans alike—set their politics aside that Friday morning to go out and greet the Kennedys with cheers and goodwill.

Fifty years later, the stench of stigma still lingers. Not all the time, of course. Most Dallas residents rarely think about that dark day unless, perhaps, it slips into their minds as they drive west on Elm Street or out-of-town guests ask to visit the Sixth Floor Museum. Nobody mentions avoiding the word “Dallas” when they travel. And, obviously, most residents weren’t even born or lived elsewhere in the autumn of 1963.

Lessons learned

Still, as we look back on the Kennedy assassination, it’s fair to ask what we can learn from that moment. On the broad scale, the answer is very little. Other than cast our ballots, few of us ever will do anything that shapes the presidency. And should another assassination attempt occur in our lifetimes, fewer still will be in a position to do anything about it.

But we can learn from the stigma and shame Dallas felt in the assassination aftermath. We can orient our actions so we have no reason to live stigmatized and ashamed. We can …

• Live with no regrets. One reason the cloud of ignominy hung over Dallas was because so many residents felt humiliated by the way they spoke of President Kennedy before he died. Did they wish him harm? Never. But did they speak disrespectfully and insolently? Yes.

If you’ve experienced the untimely illness or death of an adversary, you probably have felt remorse for impolite words and unkind thoughts. Bad things happen, and people die. The only way to avoid contrition is to follow the Golden Rule and treat people with kindness and respect.

• Promote civility. We live in a decidedly uncivil society. The fabric of gentility and respect has frayed. This isn’t new; it was true in 1963. When a gunman slaughtered a president, the nation and world threw incivility back into Dallas’ collective face. If disagreements had been more respectful, the ammunition of embarrassment would not have been so bountiful.

Unfortunately, the culture of impertinence and disrespect is even worse now than it was 50 years ago. For the good of all of us, we need to treat each other better.

• Follow Jesus’ mandate: “You have heard it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven’” (Matthew 5:43-45).

Ezra is growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

His mama (my older daughter, Lindsay) and his daddy (Aaron) teach and model Christ-centered living. They’re terrific parents. Joanna and I feel abundant joy when we watch them train and love our first grandchild.

Part of their parental program involves teaching Ezra, who will turn 3 in January, the catechism.

Editor Marv KnoxThey ask him the first question: “Ezra, who made you?”

He correctly replies: “God made me.”

For his part, Ezra also has been teaching his mother and father. They’ve learned almost-3-year-old little boys and girls think critically about God. Children may not use theological words, but do they ever consider the glory, sovereignty and grace of God—even when their mamas and daddies aren’t asking catechetical questions.

Like the other evening, when Lindsay asked Ezra, “Who made that mess?”

To a theologically astute—and straightforwardly logical—little mind, the answer seemed obvious.

“God made that mess,” Ezra replied.

Amen, Ezra.

Out of the mouths of babes

Truth, if not precise accuracy, proceeds out of the mouth of babes. Although I wasn’t there at the time, I’d be willing to guess that if Ezra answered technically and accurately, he would have said, “I made that mess.” Messes and almost-3-year-old little boys go together like peanut butter and chubby cheeks, like fresh fruit and sticky fingers.

Of course, it’s not totally inconceivable that God, who made the world out of nothing, made a mess ex nihilo in their house. But you could bet next Sunday’s tithe Ezra probably had something to do with it.

Still, Ezra told the truth, didn’t he? At some level, the God who made Ezra had a divine hand in the mess discovered by Ezra’s mama. The nature of small children is to make messes. To begin with, they aren’t born fastidious and tidy. And even if they were, their fine motor skills aren’t fully formed, so neatness is practically impossible. On top of that, making messes engages creative regions of their little brains, and creative activity helps develop their young minds.

So, you could build a case that God, working through a child’s natural intellectual/physical/emotional growth process, made that mess.

Childlike affirmation of a creative-if-messy God

We also know Ezra made that mess. What his mama tried to teach him—if she didn’t fall on the floor laughing at his clever-cuteness and/or childlike affirmation of a creative-if-messy God—is Ezra is responsible for his own actions. Knowing Lindsay as I do, I’d guess she told Ezra, and not God, to help clean up that mess.

Ezra’s “God made that mess” catechism makes me laugh every time I think of it. It’s like the best joke of the week, which I foist upon friends, who either snort in appreciation or chuckle to humor the grandpa in me.

But when I back away, I realize Ezra’s response is a distinctly, universally human reaction to messes. It’s true whether the messes are physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, relational or a combination of all of them.

We find ourselves entangled in something awful, and we ask: “Why did this happen? Why did it happen to me? … Why did God make this mess?”

God holds us responsible for the messes we make

Across the millennia, humans have made messes and blamed God. We know this to be true, because it’s a common theme in literature and scriptures that span time, geography, race and culture. Recoil in horror at a mess, then blame God.

Of course, we could join young Ezra in a philosophical and theological debate over whether the God who made us makes all our messes. Ultimately, however, the Bible tells us we’re responsible. Beginning in Genesis 3 and proceeding through both the Old and New Testaments, we see God holds people responsible for the messes we make.

Messes are a price of ultimate freedom, of human free will. In order to reciprocate God’s love, we must be free to accept or reject that love. And with the freedom to love or hate God comes the freedom to act in this world. We can make masterpieces or messes. Our choice.

The future of Christianity in America may be determined by whether there’s enough womb for the faithful.

Pardon the pun. But that’s the truth.

“The most significant variable for determining a society’s secularity is its fertility rate,” historian/sociologist Philip Jenkins told a group of pastors at a retreat sponsored by Buckner International last week.

Editor Marv KnoxJenkins turned the world of missions upside down a decade ago with publication of The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity. He documented how the center of Christianity is shifting from Europe and North America to the Southern Hemisphere. In the meantime, he became a transplanted Texas treasure—distinguished professor of history at Baylor University and a scholar in Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

The fertility rate is the average number of births per woman in a nation or group. If the average woman gives birth to 2.1 children, the society will remain demographically stable. If the births fall below that mark, it will age. Conversely, if the fertility rate climbs, the society will become increasingly younger.

Fertility and secularity

The relationship between fertility and secularity holds across the faith spectrum, Jenkins explained. Whether a nation’s identity is Christian, Muslim or another religion, the lower its fertility rate, the more secular it becomes.

For example, fertility rates are plummeting in predominantly Muslim Iran and historically Catholic Ireland, he said. Within a decade, Iran could become strongly secular, and in time, Ireland could lose its religious identity altogether, he predicted.

The connection between fertility and secularity explains the Southern migration of Christianity, which Jenkins documented in The Next Christendom.

Compare the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, Italy, which is becoming increasingly secular, and Uganda in Africa, where Christianity is booming. The median age in Italy is 42, and the fertility rate is 1.41 births per woman. In Uganda, where the fertility rate is 6.05, the median age is 14.

Africa will be most Christian continent

That explains why, by 2050, Africa will be far and away the most-Christian continent and home to 1 billion followers of Jesus, Jenkins said.

The explosion of Christianity around the world provides reason for abundant joy. But the statistics don’t look promising for America.

The U.S. birth rate fell to a record low  last year. The nation received 63 births per 1,000 women, down from 69 births in 2007 and 127 births in 1909, when the federal government started keeping records.

The U.S. fertility rate now is 1.88—significantly below the level required for stability.

Economists cite troubling implications associated with that number. A shortage of young workers will damage the labor force and weaken the economy. A shrinking working-age population will place additional strain on Social Security and Medicare.

Troubling consequences

But with Jenkins’ findings in mind, the trend forecasts even more troubling consequences. Our already secular society is tilting even further in that direction.

For Christians, the issue becomes a question of economics versus evangelism. Can we share our faith and minister effectively enough to counter the prevalence? Will we articulate the saving grace of God and embody the loving presence of Jesus clearly, passionately and broadly enough to offset the pressures?

We say we believe in the glory of God, the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Surely we won’t throw up our hands and surrender to deterministic economic models. Will we partner with God to turn the trend around?

The faith of the nation awaits our response.

Don’t be creeped out, but Halloween is sneaking up on us.

It should be a hum-dinger this year, what with vampires, werewolves and zombies all the rage on TV and in movies.

Boo!

Editor Marv KnoxOf course, Halloween is the scariest holiday. Nobody knows that better than careful, cautious parents. Black magic, demons and ghouls present paradoxes for moms and dads who try to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord: How can they affirm spiritual values, still let the kiddoes enjoy fun and frivolity with their friends, and refuse to romanticize gore, violence and general creepiness, not to mention voodoo and witchcraft?

No doubt, you know parents who don’t allow their children to participate in Halloween festivities. Maybe they let the young ’uns dress up and attend the “Fall Festival” or “Trunk or Treat” at church. Or maybe they stay home, turn off the porch light, hang out in the back of the house and hold on until Nov. 1.

Other parents—Joanna and I were among them—help the kids pick out costumes, carve pumpkins into jack o’lanterns, stand by the door to pass out treats and, after all the little ghosts and goblins trudge home, try to talk their kids out of a few candy bars. They don’t condone dark arts and evil. But they think the worst result of the night is insomnia brought on by too much sugar, not pagan chicanery.

Mutual respect?

Now, I’ve always respected parents who look askance at Halloween. They’ve got the sole responsibility for raising their daughters and sons, and they have a right to set the bounds of propriety. If they don’t want their kids to dress up as Spiderman and Snow White and mix and mingle with headless horsemen and Lord Voldemort, that’s their business. I always hoped they showed us the same respect. That hope rarely received confirmation. But one can hope, can’t one?

Halloween reactions create a microcosm of a larger issue: How should Christians respond to culture and “the world” around us? It’s not a simple question, is it? In fact, one of the greatest books ever written—Christ and Culture  by the late ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr—plumbs the depths of that question and offers five major historic approaches.

Ultimately, Christians who believe Jesus came to redeem the world must work to transform it. Ironically, that can provide cover for parents who hide out until Halloween howls over as well as parents who dress up and stand out on the sidewalk while their kids ring doorbells and shout, “Trick or treat!”

Finding common ground

They can find common ground in how they help children navigate the event. Children love make-believe and enjoy exercising their imaginations. This practice is vital for creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity—traits vital for a full and meaningful life. Parents provide interpretation, meaning and boundaries, whether they shun or engage culture.

At Halloween, lessons can be learned by contrasting the negative and highlighting the positive. Children can learn the difference between pretend and real. They can hear that love is greater than evil. And they can appreciate good-natured fun and frivolity.

Whether children dress up and fill plastic pumpkins with candy or stay put at home, learning from cultural events is a treat that doesn’t demand a trick.

How should Christians go about meeting their neighbors’ needs?

That question lies at the heart of this edition of the Baptist Standard. It’s also a dispute older than Christianity itself. The prophets, particularly Amos, railed against well-off religious folks who scrupulously tended to the letter of the Law but overlooked the obvious suffering of people they encountered every day. Centuries later, the scribes and Pharisees repeatedly lambasted Jesus for taking care of outcasts and ne’er-do-wells at the expense of religious rules and regulations.

Editor Marv KnoxTwo thousand years later, we still don’t agree. The lead article in this week’s feature package, “Meeting needs: How can Christians really help the poor?”  presents dueling perspectives offered by compassionate, well-meaning Christians.

On one hand, some Christians advocate a spiritual version of tough love. They disavow one-way support for needy people, citing dependency fostered by a welfare mentality. They reason the long-term solution to poverty and need is self-sufficiency.

In contrast, other Christians point to Jesus’ model of unconditional love. They stress the necessity of taking immediate steps to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked and heal the sick. They realize millions of people suffer because of external conditions, which must be ameliorated and relieved.

Both/And

The most obvious answer to this dispute is both/and. Meeting needs requires tangible, immediate acts of compassion as well as discipline-instilling expectations for self-improvement and personal sufficiency.

That’s why churches and other faith-based organizations work on a broad range of fronts. Especially in hard times like these, we need well-stocked food pantries and clothes closets. But we need tutoring programs to keep children in school and parenting classes to help moms and dads understand how they can raise their children in a competitive, education-based society. We need relief programs that provide rent- and utility-assistance. But we need mentoring and practical training programs to help people understand how to get and hold jobs. We need more GED classes and English-as-a-second-language programs.

But that’s not enough, is it?

Advocate for the poor

If Christians hope to make a broad-based and lasting impact, we must advocate on behalf of the poor and powerless. We must demand quality education and economic justice for all people. We must correct social systems that perpetuate poverty. We must champion both private and public strategies that address all these problems on a scale churches and other faith groups cannot handle by themselves.

Of course, this is controversial. Americans divide over the nature and size of government. So, we similarly disagree over the focus and scope of our activity in the public square.

Some—ironically from both the extreme left and far right—decry the engagement of faith in public issues. The extreme left thinks “separation of church and state” means people of faith should have no voice in public policy. The far right believes government has no business doing “the church’s job” of looking after the poor. Both fallacies don’t hold up. Christians are citizens, too, and have a right to advocate for public policy. And poverty and need are so great, they’re beyond the means of the church alone to resolve.

Holding politicians accountable

The demand for people of grace and compassion to advocate for the common good never has been more obvious than in the past few weeks. The embarrassing and inconceivable stalemate in Washington illustrated why Americans must hold their politicians accountable. Rather than serving a political party and focusing on the next election, they must serve the greater good and focus on compromise and practical solutions to national need. They must recognize and respect our national heritage for protecting and caring for all people.

U.S. Christians could establish a binding moral imperative and a lasting positive legacy by bridging our national divide. What if Christian politicians—maybe Baptists, just to start—would stand up and say, “What we hold in common and value together is greater than political divisions that threaten to tear us apart”?

Christians cannot operate soup kitchens and jobs-training programs fast enough to heal America. We need unified Christian voices—from both the right and the left—demanding our so-called leaders strive for the common good.

Or God help us all.

Would some people be better off if they didn’t go to church? More significantly, would the world be better off if some people didn’t go to church?

Those aren’t comfortable questions, are they?

They raised their impish little heads the other night. It happened right after my wife, Joanna, related yet another story about someone driven far from Jesus by someone else who claims to love Jesus.

Editor Marv KnoxThe Jesus-lover didn’t like a particular aspect of the other person’s lifestyle. It’s something most God-fearing folks would call a sin. And so the jawbone-for-Jesus got all righteously indignant. Let the sinner have it. With both biblical barrels. The transgressor heard what-for about breaking God’s laws and learned she’s an unforgiven reprobate worthy of scorn by upright Christians.

Bless her heart, she may never come near Jesus again.

From her perspective, I really can’t blame her. All she knows of Jesus is what she hears from people who claim to speak on Jesus’ authority. And they say she’s unworthy. Vile and wicked. A reflection of the moral depravity of our nation.

So, I can’t help but wonder if the world—and the kingdom of God—would be better off if the Lord shuttered some churches and muted some Christians.

On one level, this seems harsh and foreign and hard to comprehend. I love the church. It’s the bride of Christ. It’s my home, the deepest part of me.

God is love

But if it’s true God is love and Jesus came to save and redeem the world, then some churches and the people who populate them actively refute the gospel they claim to proclaim. And, ironically, they project themselves as protectors of the faith.

To be fair, they probably started out hating sin. But in their zeal, they learned to hate sinners, too. Oh, they deny it. But in both words and deeds, they demonstrate only antipathy and revulsion.

And it feels good. In every sphere, our society pits us vs. them. So, what good is righteous belief if it doesn’t help you think you’re superior to others?

To be sure, most of these folks see themselves as on a mission for God. They’re out to protect God’s word from the evils of modernism, relativism and, of course, liberalism. They identify with the prophets and with Jesus, of course.

But their mystical myopia causes them to misread Scripture.

The prophets reserved their vitriol for religious folks and showed compassion to outsiders. They left everybody else up to God.

Speaking on behalf of God, Amos (who, if he could time travel to today, would think the only thing that’s changed in 2,700 years are clothes styles and electronics) told the church-going crowd: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

Jesus’ love for sinners

Over and over, Jesus demonstrated love for the sinners and castigated the religious leaders. Of course, he told the fallen, “Go, and sin no more.” But he said it in such a way that’s what they already wanted to do, more than anything.

Is the world broken and decaying? Of course. Just like it was 2,000 years ago, when Jesus walked the earth, and like it was when King David, “a man after God’s own heart,” committed adultery and murder 3,000 years ago.

Today, God’s heart surely breaks for sin. God grieves when broken people run further and further away because all they have heard on behalf of Jesus is judgment and condemnation. God weeps when smart people think the only intelligent option is unbelief because so many “believers” say such stupid things.

Yes, this world is sinful and wicked. But remember this: The only thing stronger than evil is good. The only thing more forceful than ignorance is truth. The only thing more powerful than hatred is love.

Churches that radiate goodness and truly love people are lighthouses for Jesus. All the rest should lock their doors.

Raise your hand if you’ve been disturbed and/or disgusted in the past week.

I see those hands.

If you haven’t been disturbed and/or disgusted in the past week, meditate on one word: Washington.

Editor Marv KnoxThere, now, I see a sea of hands.

Members of Congress descended to the nadir of their collective abysmal existence when they refused to pass a federal budget before the government’s fiscal year began Oct. 1. Republicans want to defund the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and the Democrats want to keep it funded. Since Republicans control the House and Democrats rule the Senate, they stalemated.

What we’ve got here is a crisis of leadership.

It’s troubling on so many levels. First, our political system is so broken, millions of Americans are represented by unrepresentative extremists. Second, under pressure, these so-called leaders behave like children. Third, making this list is depressing. I’m going to move on, but you may add many illustrations yourself.

Behaving like children

For now, let’s go back to point No. 2: Our so-called leaders behave like children. Actually, that statement libels children. Sorry, kids.

Two mornings after the government shutdown, a TV program tested that theme with a group of children. A news anchor talked about the government shutdown with fourth graders from a Brooklyn elementary school.

The children put the politicians to shame. They instinctively talked about compromise, sharing, cooperation, fairness and compassion.

Why does prepubescent wisdom trump conventional political wisdom? Prepubescent wisdom is straightforward and logical, while political wisdom is distorted by power, money and a corrupt configuration that rewards extremism.

This corruption particularly influences the House of Representatives and state legislatures, but a form of it also reaches the U.S. Senate.

Gerrymandered districts

Gerrymandered legislative districts provide pervasive and poisonous political influence. Most U.S. representatives and state legislators hold “safe” seats. Their districts have been drawn to encase strongly Republican or solidly Democratic voting majorities. The party in power when districts are drawn crafts them to maintain control. But minority politicians aid and abet. Their reward is a safe seat, even though their acquiescence means their party doesn’t have a chance to gain a majority or balance the political power.

When a politician runs in a safe district, the only worry is winning the primary. If a politician can defeat all primary challengers from her/his own party, the general election is a shoo-in. That means the real race takes place in the primary, where party extremists dominate.

Consequently, if an officeholder does not vote the will of the zealous party leadership, she or he will be “primaried”—face an even more extreme candidate in the next primary. So, at general elections, voters rarely see an opportunity to elect a statesperson who will apply the wisdom of fourth-graders, seeking compromise, sharing, cooperation, fairness and compassion.

Money compounds the problem

Beyond this, money compounds corruption. Despite cosmetic appearances to the contrary, campaign cash flows unfettered into the coffers of incumbent candidates. Controls and safeguards? Laughable. And so money corrodes and corrupts.

You may be wondering: What’s this got to do with faith? Why should this be a topic of conversation in a Christian publication?

Christians have a mandate—read Luke 4, Matthew 25 and Amos, for starters—to care for the common good, to look after the weak and less fortunate, and to seek and pursue justice. Any Christian who votes solely according to personal interest violates the gospel.

Christians must repair our broken political system. If dysfunction in Washington and our state capitols is to be healed, we must get the process started. Here are initial steps:

• Demand balanced, truly representational legislative districts.

They should be fair and geographically contiguous. The more open, tight and closely contested the general elections, the better. Candidates will realize they must represent all the people, not just party elite, to remain in office. This will supply incentive for compromise.

• Open and improve the primary system.

Fair districts will provide the greatest impetus for open primaries. However, do not underestimate powerful forces’ ability to cheat the system. We must remain vigilant to thwart seemingly innocuous bills and regulations that would corrupt primaries.

• Reform campaign finance laws.

Yes, the Supreme Court has weighed in and shoved us toward the current system. But Congress can enact laws that pass constitutional muster while also providing for fairness. No one who has studied American history can believe the Founding Fathers would be proud of where we are today.

• Consider term limits.

Imagine a political system where no one is running for re-election. How much more willingly would lawmakers and government executives seek the common good if they no longer considered the self-interest of re-election?

I opened a boxed lunch and liked what I saw—turkey sandwich, baked vegetable chips, white-chocolate-chip cookie and an orange.

The orange offered the pleasant surprise. Most boxed lunches come with apples. Usually dry, shriveled, mealy apples. So, an orange down on the bottom, beside the cookie, made me smile.

Editor Marv KnoxWhen I think about smell and taste, oranges are my favorite fruit. A good orange is pungent. And that’s only a set-up for the sweet-tangy-tartness that twists and tickles your tongue.

But when I started eating this orange, I suddenly wished it were a banana.

This has happened before. Usually, when I’m wearing dressy clothes and don’t have a paring knife. And often when I’m in a hurry.

See, bananas come in simple, easy-open containers. Oranges arrive shrink-wrapped in sticky, crumbly, annoying, next-to-impossible-to-remove covers.

Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, reports Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined. It’s not because they stay fresh longer or taste better. It’s because they come in simple, easy-open containers.

Friendly and accessible

Bananas are user-friendly and accessible. Oranges? Not so much.

So, what’s this got to do with church?

While I was trying to peel the orange—making a mess of it, getting more frustrated by the minute—I thought about my younger daughter, Molly, and her husband, David, who moved to a new city this summer.

Molly and David love the Lord and church. So, even before they moved, they got on the Internet and started checking on churches. After they arrived, Sunday by Sunday, they searched for a church home.

In his new position, David works some Sundays. When he couldn’t attend Bible study and worship, Molly explored.

That led her to a Baptist church that seemed like a fit. And that led to frustration and disappointment. This church was much more like my orange—maddeningly inaccessible—than a friendly banana.

Molly walked into the building and looked around. Nobody greeted her or even seemed to notice. She searched out the church office, tracked someone down and asked about a Bible study class.

Churches that don’t care

Over and over, people at this church acted surprised to meet a visitor. They didn’t know what to do with a newcomer, especially a young adult. Worse, they didn’t seem to care.

Molly gave this church the benefit of the doubt. She visited a second time. Same boring song; second lethargic verse.

You might be thinking, “Well, that’s only one church.” Unfortunately, it’s not. I’ve been guest preacher for scores of congregations. I get depressed about the times I walked in and people didn’t seem to notice or pretend to care.

That’s not a problem for me. Jesus is my Savior, and I have a church home.

But I shudder to think about hurting souls who walk onto many church campuses. They limp away, wondering if God loves them. They know God’s people don’t.

A few simple steps

You don’t have to be a megachurch to make guests feel welcome. You can make huge progress by following a few simple steps:

• Recruit your friendliest members and station a couple of them at each main entrance during Bible study and through the early part of worship services.

• Make sure they know how to find classes for every age, as well as where to go for childcare.

• Encourage them to listen, so they sense needs.

• Place at least two people at each door, so if one is helping guests, another is ready.

• If you don’t have enough friendly people to cover all the doors, post signs providing clear directions to your welcome center, where friendly people await them.

• Recruit someone in each adult class to take newcomers under wing. Help them find everything they need—from where to pick up their children, to how to get to worship, to information about the church and how to contact a minister.

• When guests aren’t around, teach members to identify and welcome people they don’t know.

The churches I love to attend—and want to join—make sure I know they were happy to see me and helped me feel at home.

Church members can get lackadaisical about this, because going to church feels routine. But every Sunday, eternity weighs in the balance for people who drive to church looking for God. A friendly greeter can make a divine difference for a searching soul.

Americans could raise the level of public discourse, improve the quality of life for millions of people and solve most of our political problems if we could agree on the meaning of one word: “Values.”

The ideals we hold reflect our values. The way we act and how we treat others reflect what we value.

Marv KnoxIf we could talk—and listen—reasonably and patiently to people from all segments of society, perhaps we could discover a common set of values. These values, in turn, could shape how we establish public policy, operate institutions and businesses and, in short, behave toward each other.

We continually hear complaints that America’s “values” have declined precipitously across the past five or six decades. Really? How can anyone but white men even take that claim seriously?

To be sure, no television station from 40 or more years ago would have carried a program featuring a young female singer of middling talent “twerking” her behind in the crotch of a male singer almost old enough to be her father. And immodest dress is now ubiquitous, as is rampant sexuality.

But for all the media attention it generates, profligate promiscuity is not the leading indicator of America’s moral values.

Values may have improved

In fact, you can build a case that our values—or at least numerous important values—have improved across the years. Decades ago, Jim Crow laws segregated and repressed people of color, particularly in the flagrantly religious South. Voting rights were not distributed equally (although, now we’re regressing on that front). Girls did not possess equal privileges in academics and athletics. Women, who still haven’t caught up but are making progress, faced repression in the workplace.

Legislation and public policy forced Americans to treat each other differently. Slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, attitudes followed along. Millions of young people today will not condone—and, frankly, find incomprehensible—the racism and sexism their grandparents took for granted. That’s a vastly improved value.

Now, public attitudes about the dignity and worth of all people are changing. We don’t agree about the morality of homosexual activity. But more Americans acknowledge all people, regardless of their orientation, should be respected and their rights protected.

Economic values hit where we live

Economic values seem to be the most intractable, because they hit each of us where we live—in the pocketbook. Any value that doubles as daily reality calcifies into bedrock.

So, many Americans worry about deficit spending and insist on balancing the federal budget and reducing the national deficit. We’ll leave the debate over whether that will work or if it is in fact necessary to the economists. The question of values comes into play when they suggest exactly how to balance the budget and reduce the deficit.

Those proposals disproportionately fall on the backs of the weakest and most vulnerable. For example, recent legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes cutting SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by $40 billion over 10 years. This program is designed to expand and contract with the economy so that the most vulnerable—the elderly, children and the working poor—can receive basic nutrition. It’s not extravagant, either; the cost is only about $1.50 per meal. Drastic cuts mean consigning fellow Americans to malnutrition, at the very least, which ultimately further harms the economy.

This is but one example of competing values. A strong economy and a healthy federal budget are important, positive values. But so is the health and well-being of all Americans. Similar illustrations could be drawn from policies and budgets that shape health care, education, the military, housing, the environment and more.

Balancing values

And contrary to partisan politicians (Others are hard to find these days.), while values may compete, they need not be mutually exclusive. If we weigh the values, we must look for solutions that balance them appropriately.

Christians can take at least two steps to help our nation define the values that shape our society.

First, we can insist on balance. It’s past time to reward politicians who have the courage to build consensus and compromise, so all Americans are respected and protected and so the range of legitimate values are respected.

Second, we must insist on placing a premium value on human beings. All people are created in God’s image. It is blasphemy and a sacrilege for political and economic power to run roughshod over the divine stamp in any soul.