Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Gets Scrapped

Cardinals' and Steelers' fans aren't the only ones bickering over Super Bowl XLIII. Strangely, NBC executives and Catholic activists are too. After several days of deliberations, NBC executives told Catholicvote.com that the network had decided not to run the web site's pro-life commercial because the network and NFL "are not interested" in advertisements regarding political issues. According to an article by the National Catholic Register,  "the 30-second ad has no graphic content nor even any direct references to abortion." The commercial is embedded above for you to decide if you agree.

Regardless, it should be painfully apparent to the rest of the world who has seen many politically-motivated Super Bowl ads over the years--including those from the overtly-political group PETA--that this decision exhibits a gross double standard by the network. I am normally not one to scream and holler about media bias (for reasons I may discuss later in another post), but this is obviously unfair. Tisk, tisk, NBC. 

Your thoughts? 

True Love Works?

I still remember the drill. The music started, and the lights dimmed. I peered around the solemn room as I floated in a sea of bowed heads. The call went out from the minister who was running the event and like a mad scientist summoning his robot army to life, people around me shot up and headed for the stage. There they found a "True Love Waits" (TLW) card with a dotted line printed below a short pledge:

"Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate, and my future children to a lifetime of purity including sexual abstinence from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship."

At the time, the whole thing felt a bit coerced and contrived, and after some reflection, I still don't know if it was the best way to biblically teach sexual purity. Despite the card's wording, the program implicitly seemed to put too high of an emphasis on the V-card, rather than teach a sustained view of purity. Perhaps that is why all of my friends who signed the pledge that day broke their pledge later. Without fail, almost everyone one of them developed this attitude: "Well, I already lost my virginity, and I can't get it back. Might as well enjoy myself now."

Having played their one and only V-card and broken their pledge, they were remorsefully free to continue pursuing pleasure at will. Maybe their stories simply display human nature and our innate propensity for sin. Or perhaps, they illustrate a sweeping failure of the most pervasive Christian abstinence programs available. I don't think I can personally say for sure.

Last month, however, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released a large study showing that teenagers who make abstinence promises like TLW are just as likely to have premarital sex and less likely to use protection. Unfortunately, as the Washington Post points out, this data has reignited the sexual education debate that has cooled in recent years. Barack Obama has promised to release millions in funding for sexual education with an abstinence emphasis, and it seems to me that many want to block that funding before the administration releases it.

The question remains whether or not these programs are effective. Many, including a very reputable public health organization, say no. Others, including LifeWay Christian Resources--the organization responsible for distributing TLW cards and selling TLW-emblazoned resources including rubber bracelets, watches, apparel, and a line of expensive silver jewelry--say yes.

My gut tells me that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. There are a whole list of things I don't like about programs like TLW. For example, they assume that teenagers won't see through the contrived program, they come across kitschy with their product lines, and they seem to miss the mark on instilling a holistic approach to sexual purity like the scriptures teach. At the very least, these things have collectively contributed the ineffectiveness of these programs.

Yet, the Church must never give up teaching that God wants sex to be reserved for two people who have been biblically married. This is our responsibility as parents, siblings, friends, citizens and Christ-followers. Rather then recoiling at the criticism, we should use this as an opportunity for reflecting on and retooling these programs. It is imperative that we find a better way to communicate moral truths to teenagers in the 21st century.

What do you think? Are the researchers at Johns Hopkins just out to get us? Do we need to wake up and retool these programs? Do you think TLW-style programs work?

**Update: A different opinion from the WSJ**

Flourish: Special Offer for My Blog Readers

If you are in church leadership of any kind, you don't want to miss Flourish Conference 2009. This event will feature some of the most popular speakers and authors in the United States including Chris Seay, Albert Mohler, Rick McKinley, Ed Stetzer, Margaret Feinberg, Joel Hunter, James Merritt, Matthew Sleeth, Gabe Lyons and others. Not only that, it is extremely affordable and will be held in an intimate setting where you will be able to personally interact with many of the speakers and other leaders like yourself.

I want to offer an additional incentive for my blog readers. I want to give you 25% off your registration fee. If you are a reader of this blog, simply go to FlourishConference.com and click "register." After giving your personal information, you will be asked if you have a discount code. If you are interested in attending, simply email me at jonathan@jonathanmerritt.com  with "Flourish Discount" in the subject line and I will reply with a discount code to place in this slot that will take 25% off the registration fee. 

Register NOW! Don't miss this.

Calling for an End to the Culture Wars

If you wanted to sum up the political climate in America in one word, you might call it "divided." Or maybe, "partisan." Or perhaps, "polarized." Each of these descriptions would be optimistic. Over the last 25 or more years, Americans on the left and the right have become deeply entrenched with a "culture war" mentality. Christians are no exception, and in many cases have led the charge. 

Today, however, there are many coming together who consider themselves to be centrists. I consider myself to be a part of this group. We reject the divisive "culture war" mentality, which seeks to demonize and destroy rather than listen and learn. We want to see a unified America made up of people who must sometimes lovingly disagree, but who seek to build bridges of common ground when possible. It was out of this spirit that I met with others yesterday to release the "Come Let Us Reason Together" governing agenda.

This agenda puts forth solutions to some of our country's most pressing issues, and it has been affirmed by many evangelicals and progressives alike. There are four policy points outlined:

1. The abolition of torture. Americans must employ the Golden Rule and never compromise human dignity... starting now!

2. Abortion reduction. While we must still advocate for the abolition of abortion, in the meantime, we can join with pro-choice advocates to employ proven strategies to reduce the number of abortions occurring. This includes supporting pregnant women and new families, providing comprehensive sexual education with an abstinence emphasis and contraception for low-income women, and supporting adoption. 

3. Immigration reform. We must secure our borders ... period. But, we must also abide by the biblical mandate to love the stranger and the "least of these." We need to provide an earned path to citizenship for many who are already in this country and keep families together. 

4. Employment rights for gays and lesbians. While the Bible clearly teaches that heterosexuality is God's ideal, the Church is rarely if ever exercising our obligation to love our gay and lesbian neighbors. No American should be denied the right to earn a living, but this MUST include an exemption for churches and religious organizations. 

This comprehensive governing agenda was released yesterday, and was signed by many progressive and evangelical leaders. I joined others (including Sam Rodriguez, Joel Hunter, David Gushee and Tyler Wigg-Stevenson) in DC for a press conference, a meeting with members of Congress, and a meeting with the Obama Transition Team. It was covered by many news outlets including the following stories:

Associated Baptist Press: Liberals, evangelicals call for common ground agenda on abortion sexuality

U.S. News and World Report: Liberals and evangelicals unite to advise Obama

Washington Post's On Faith: Christians Find Common Ground  on Abortion, Gay Rights

Hear me clearly: The culture wars must come to an end. The divisiveness produced by people of faith must be rejected. The common good must be pursued through cooperation between people of mutual goodwill. And when we disagree due to deeply held convictions, we must do so with humility, grace and love. 

Your thoughts?

My Support for "Come Let Us Reason Together" Governing Agenda

Below is a transcript of the statement I gave at the "Come Let Us Reason Together" press conference at the Third Way headquarters in Washington, DC:

I support the "Come Let Us Reason Together" governing agenda put forth by Third Way because of my desire to see people of faith work across division of disagreement in the pursuit of common goals.

As a committed Southern Baptist, I know all too well the "culture war" mentality. It is a mentality that often speaks without listening, divides rather than unites and promotes destructive partisanship. At the same time, I am proud of the unwavering moral stances that conservative Christians, including Southern Baptists, have taken. We remain committed to important issues like traditional marriage and protecting life from conception. Yet, conservative Christians must also live out other tenets of our faith including compassion, charity, human dignity and the pursuit of peace. Therefore, I support this agenda because I am a Southern Baptist, not in spite of the fact.

We should maintain our convictions on those matters where conscience demands that we part ways. However, we must accept the promise that people of mutual goodwill can find shared values and goals. For far too long, we have allowed the common good to be sacrificed on the altar of our disagreements.

Two policies in the agenda have been at the center of some of the fiercest disagreements, but even here there is room to work together. First, while I support making abortion illegal, we must vigorously seek to reduce the number of abortions actually occurring. This includes supporting efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies, assisting pregnant women and new families, and supporting adoption. It is easy to call one's self "pro-life." The difficult thing is to put feet to our faith and begin working with real people in real communities to see that faith made tangible, and lives saved.

Second, I affirm the freedom of religious expression and the rights of religious institutions to have their values reflected in their hiring practices. But I can also support a policy that ensures that gays and lesbians receive equal treatment in the workplace. To me, scripture is clear that God's ideal is heterosexuality, but this policy gives conservative Christians an opportunity to affirm, rather than undermine, our claims to love our gay and lesbian neighbors.

I count myself a member of a group becoming known as "the younger evangelicals." We are a group who has turned away from self-serving partisanship, and we are a generation calling for a rapid infusion of civility and grace into a political culture where faith has often produced divisiveness. Today, Christ-followers spanning may generations hold hands in pursuit of the common good. May God bless our spirit of cooperation.

The Shifting Abortion Debate

Today, I wrote a guest column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entitled "Reducing abortions: priority promise should not be broken." One of the most divisive and polarizing issues in the United States is abortion, but in the last year or so the debate has taken on a new angle with the inclusion of abortion reduction as a common ground platform. In my article, I basically state that while Obama has made promises to reduce the number of abortions actually occurring, his record doesn't seem promising to that end. In the end, I call on Obama to keep his word and "add another mark on the checklist under 'unprecedented and historical.'"

Running opposite my column is another guest column entitled, "Reducing abortions: The time is right to break old stalemate," written by the Executive Director of Catholics in Alliance, Alexia Kelly. Her article seems to be more optimistic about the possibility of Obama making good on his promise to champion abortion reduction. "President-elect Barack Obama is well positioned to help push this effort as a leader focused on pragmatic solutions and finding common ground," she writes. 

Whether you like it or not, the abortion debate will shift during the next four or more years, and abortion reduction is going to be the primary catalyst. While those of us who are pro-life must never sacrifice our commitment to the sanctity of human life and the belief that life begins at conception, we can still work with others to achieve a moral victory through reducing the number of abortions presently occurring. The ocean of partisanship must stop at the shore of the common good.

Check out both articles to gain an understanding of the nuances, and then let me know your thoughts.

Giving that Doesn't Hurt

Did you know that 10% of gift cards are never used? Did you know that billions of dollars in gift cards each year go unspent? I didn't either until I attended a gathering last night with the founders of giftcardgiver.com, an organization that collects unused gift cards with small balances on them and lumps them together to donate goods to people in need. 

When I first heard about this concept, I was shocked both by its simplicity and its profundity. If you are like me, you always end up with a .45 balance on that Walmart gift card you got for Christmas or a $3 balance on the Best Buy card you got for your birthday. What most of us do, and the corporate giants realize this, is either forget about the card, throw it away or buy something we don't need that ends up costing us money! 

No more.

Now there is a great and charitable alternative, a way to give that doesn't even hurt. Take a minute to support this awesome organization. You can host a gift card giver party, buy one of their organic cotton t-shirt or simply spread the word. Check out this video which shows what one church did with giftcardgiver.com. 

Check out giftcardgiver.com and let me know if there are any other creative sites like this floating around that others need to know about. 

Help For Uncertain Times

I rarely ever post about my dad on this blog. He has his own voice, and I have mine. While our respective voices are equally grounded in a commitment to the message of God's word, they often convey that message differently. We are comfortable with that, and it often leads us into some spirited but loving debates.

Today, however, I wanted to post a word from Dad that I think everyone in America needs to hear. It is entitled "Help for Uncertainty" and was released by our media ministry, Touching Lives. In this message, Dad calls us to rally behind, support and pray for President-elect Obama no matter how we voted in November. We are facing tough times, not as Democrats and Republicans, but as Americans and, for some, as Christians. As Dad says, when times are tough God is asking us, "Do you trust me or not?" This is a wake-up call. Do we really trust Him? If we do, we need to decrease our fear by increasing our faith in God. That is truly a message of hope for these uncertain times.

What do you think our message should be in the midst of this crisis?

Diplomacy at The Expense of Liberty?

It seems like every day another news story reports an effort to mend US-Muslim relations. Who can forget the uproar when Rick Warren and over 300 others signed "Loving God and Neighbor Together,"  a letter penned by Yale University's Center for Faith and Culture, which sought to create dialogue between Muslims and Christians? I remember Baptist Press demanding that one Southern Baptist professor give his rationale for signing that letter. In fact, they published his rationale alongside another article, drawing on the comments of Al Mohler who called the letter "troubling." The problem people had with the Yale letter was that it capitulated on foundational Christian beliefs in an effort to be gracious. 

In this case, I think that Mohler et al. were justified in their criticisms. As much as we desire dialogue with any disenfranchised group, whether they are Muslim or Mormon or gay, we cannot sacrifice who we are as Christ-followers simply to achieve conversation. Conversation for the sake of conversing is neither profitable nor a good use of one's time. We must be true to ourselves as we seek to engage others who are at variance with our religious beliefs. 

Perhaps that is why a more recent attempt to bridge the Muslim gap troubles me. This time the effort came by way of a document, "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World," which was signed by 33 American leaders meeting at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund conference center. Participants included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, author Steven Covey, American Petroleum Institute president Red Cavaney and an assortment of professors and former government officials. The one participant representing an evangelical group was Richard Land, President of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. 

The most glaring problem with this effort is that while they rightly emphasize diplomacy as the primary tool for bringing peace and encourage the civic participation in governance, they completely ignore the gross oppression of religious liberty in the Muslim world. It is impossible to comprehensively address Muslim relations without addressing religious oppression. As one commentator stated in the December 13/20 issue of WORLD magazine, "[The report's rhetoric] sounds good, but the report skips questions of religious liberty--and without that fundamental freedom, "democracy" will merely mask tyranny."

Countries like Libya, Algeria, and Iran openly suppress the expression of liberty among Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims. In places like Sudan where 1.5 million Sudanese have been martyred for their faith in the last 15 years, we have seen the results of unchecked suppression of religious liberty. Opposing this sort of atrocity is at the core of what a Christ-follower should be, and we cannot and should not check that at the door in the name of dialogue. 

Christians must never compromise our stance on religious freedom. We are a people on mission, and each year we send missionaries to closed countries where they risk their lives for the gospel. In the case of Southern Baptists, we must be careful that the "Relgious Liberty" in "Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission" remains an integral and fundamental part of our public witness rather than a mere afterthought. I think we can and must do a better job of loving our Muslim neighbors while demanding that they pursue civility and freedom in places where they enjoy governmental control. 

Your thoughts?