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It's Saturday, October 5, 2024.

Today’s edition covers a report linking corruption and Christian persecution, my (Anthony Langer’s) new article on the VP debate, Martin Luther’s famous speech at Worms, and more.

“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)

Of Christian Concern

CORRUPTION AND CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION ARE CORRELATED: NEW REPORT

Cover of International Christian Concern’s new report.

There is a correlation between corruption and Christian persecution, International Christian Concern (ICC) concludes in a new report.

“Corruption,” the report states, “is operationally defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain, encompassing acts such as bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism.” On the other hand, “Christian persecution refers to systematic mistreatment, harassment, or violence directed against individuals or groups because of their Christian faith.”

In the report, ICC Fellow Lisa Navarrette summarizes five studies highlighting a connection between the two factors. For example, one study found an association between corruption, religious persecution, and “adverse effects on economic growth in Pakistan.” Another “analyzed how corruption within Myanmar's government and military has facilitated religious persecution,” and identified the “systemic factors” that drive that persecution.

Navarrette then overviews the status of corruption and Christian persecution in 14 countries (Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, and Turkey). She concludes—no surprise—that a correlation exists. Where corruption is minimized and society is “more just and accountable,” Christian persecution is reduced.

Why, exactly? The report offers a few ideas. In part, minimized corruption means “governments properly investigate cases of persecution against Christians and hold perpetrators accountable.” So, less corruption leads to a better-functioning justice system.

Also, “improved governance” results in “greater protection for religious minorities' rights, including freedom of religion and expression.” So, less corruption leads to laws that prevent persecution.

Finally, “addressing corruption contributes to socioeconomic stability, reducing societal tensions and conflicts that may lead to religious persecution.” So, less corruption leads to a healthier socioeconomic situation, which leads to fewer acts of persecution in the first place.

Peruse the full report here.

Speaking of corruption and religious persecution, don’t miss the Church History Tidbit below.

Also Noteworthy

→ Dallas Jenkins, director of The Chosen, the hit show about Jesus’ ministry, announced the launch of 5&2 Studios and a number of new projects, including a series based on Acts and another based on the life of Moses.

→ The Biden-Harris federal government agreed on Tuesday to give $68.5 million in aid to Somalia, whose prime minister said Hamas is not a terror organization but a group of freedom fighters and called Israel “children of pigs and monkeys,” International Chrisitan Concern reports.

→ Pastor Chuck Swindoll, 89, announced his retirement as Senior Pastor at Stonebriar Community Church (Frisco, Texas), which he founded 26 years ago (when he was 64).

→ The final three of seven pro-life protestors convicted for blocking entrance to a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021 were sentenced last week. Two of the three were assigned prison time.

→ A Georgia judge overturned the state’s six-week heartbeat bill, “meaning abortions could be allowed until the 22-week mark,” FOX News reports.

Content Catch-Up

Vance Won the Debate, But Here’s Who Really Lost: My (Anthony Langer’s) latest article takes a look at Tuesday's vice presidential debate. There was something a lot of people missed—because it was missing. Here is a brief analysis of where things stand on arguably the nation's most crucial issue. → Read the article

Church History Tidbit

Luther and Worms: “Here I Stand”

Luther at the Diet of Worms, Anton Werner (Public Domain)

After Martin Luther (1483-1546) publicly challenged the authority of the papacy in his Ninety-five Theses, the Roman Catholic Church repeatedly disputed his teachings before finally excommunicating him on January 3, 1521. Three months later, the Church summoned him to the Diet of Worms for an opportunity to recant his teachings and be reinstated.

“Diet of Worms” does not refer to a habitual consumption of those creeping invertebrates you may find in the dirt of your backyard. Instead, an “imperial diet” was “a formal deliberative assembly” of the Holy Roman Empire, and Worms was (and is) a city in Germany where this particular 1521 imperial diet was held. The Diet of Worms was not only about Luther; his teachings were only one of the issues to be addressed.

Photo: Julia Filirovska

At the diet, the titles of Luther’s books were read aloud and he was asked two questions: first, whether he was the author of these books, and second, whether he would recant them. The examination was designed, scholar Joshua J. Mark writes, “to prevent Luther from making a speech.”

Luther affirmed that he was the author, but “requested an adjournment to formulate a response” about whether he would recant. In so doing, he threw a wrench in the attempt to keep him from orating, as he would now be “expected to provide a longer answer.”

In his address the following day, which is “considered one of the greatest pieces of oratory in world history,” Luther reaffirmed his previous answer that he was indeed the author of the books in question. As to whether he would recant, he pointed out that the books fall into three categories:

1. Works about Christian doctrine and practice that everyone agrees on. If he were to denounce these, he argued, he would denounce uncontroversial truths. He could not do that. He remarked,“I alone, of all men living, should be abandoning truths approved by the unanimous vote of friends and enemies, and should be opposing doctrines that the whole world glorifies in confessing!”

2. Works against the papacy for their “false doctrines, irregular lives, and scandalous examples.” The truth of these works, he said, are “confirmed by the grief of all who fear God,” since “the laws and human doctrines of the popes entangle, vex, and distress the consciences of the faithful.” His recantation would only “strengthen this tyranny and open a wider door to so many and flagrant impieties,” which “would thereby become, so to speak, lawful,” since his recantation would have the approval of the Emperor. So, he could neither recant these.

3. Works “against private individuals” who tried to defend the Roman Catholic Church. Luther admitted he “may have attacked such persons with more violence” than appropriate for his “profession as an ecclesiastic.” Still, he said, a recantation would only “sanction the impieties of [his] opponents,” who would “take occasion to crush God's people with still more cruelty.” For that reason, he could not recant these either.

Luther insisted that, if someone were to “prove to [him] by the writings of the prophets and apostles that [he was] in error,” he would, “as soon as [he was] convinced,” “retract all [his] errors” and “be the first to seize [his] writings and commit them to the flames.”

After making this address first in German and then in Latin, he was pressed to provide a more simple, straightforward answer. He obliged, saying “the pope” and “the council” “have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves,” so if he is not convinced by Scripture or reason, he “neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience.” He is then reported to have concluded with the most famous line, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” 

There is debate among scholars about whether he said, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise,” since, as Roland H. Bainton writes, the words were “not recorded on the spot” but were included in the “earliest printed version [of the speech].” Nevertheless, writes Lyndal Roper, these words “encapsulated the spirit of his appearance.” Luther would not budge, preferring to defy the Catholic Church than to defy his conscience.

Luther’s stand, Mark writes, “inspired and informed the movement that became the Protestant Reformation.”

Learn more here.

The Bible, Briefly

The Solution to Racism (Part 2)

Image: Soupforone (CC BY-SA 3.0)

If you missed part 1, read it here.

Colossians 3 and Galatians 3: Differences Disappear

In Colossians 3:11, Paul writes something shocking. Describing the Church, he says, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” He makes the same point in Galatians 3:28, with some differences (see if you can spot them): “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In both of these verses, as in Ephesians 2, Paul mentions the distinction between Jews (“Jew,” “circumcised”) and Gentiles (“Greek,” “uncircumcised”), but here he also lists other ethnic, cultural, and social distinctions. And he proclaims that, in the Church, “there is not” any one of those. Those differences—differences like ethnicity—don’t matter. There is a sense in which those differences essentially disappear in Christ.

Of course, Paul recognizes elsewhere the continued importance of natural categories (for example, he gives different instructions to males and females). Still, his point is that these categories do not give us any advantage or disadvantage in our relationship with Christ and likewise must not in our relationships with one another. Paul’s call is not to flatten everything but to treat others impartially.

Divisions Rendered Moot

It’s important to notice that Paul mentions different details in Colossians and Galatians. Did you spot them? In one, he refers to barbarian vs. Scythian; in the other, male vs. female. This fact indicates that neither one of these lists is complete. We can consider that other categories could have been listed, which, in earthly terms, divide us from one another but, in Christ, are rendered moot.

No doubt the devil would like to divide Christians along any number of lines, but if Paul is to be believed, none of them are cause for division.

So, here we see the connection to Ephesians (part 1). While Ephesians 2 only explicitly mentions how Christ’s death achieves peace between Jews and Gentiles, Colossians and Galatians reveals that this peace occurs between people of other categories, too.

“There Is Not”

Think about how this truth ought to work itself out in the real world.

• Many professed Christians jumped on the bandwagon to say “black lives matter”—but, applying Paul’s teaching, “there is not” black or any other color in the Church. Lives matter; colors, not so much.

• Other professed Christians apparently gaining traction in the culture have suggested racism is not a sin. Applying Paul’s teaching, however, “there is not” a distinction between races in the Church to begin with. “Races” are of no consideration, so racism has no place.

• Many churches have prided themselves in being multiethnic or multicultural, as though to say, “Here there is black, white, Latino, Asian, etc. etc.! They’re all here!” But Paul says, “Here there is not” any of those. It’s not that there’s no place in missions for considering how to reach certain people groups (even Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and Peter to the Jews), but the significance of those distinctions dissipate in Christ.

That, therefore, is the real solution to racism—to be in Christ, where none of those things matter, and He “is all, and in all.”

But…?

But don’t we still see ethnic division in the Church? Isn’t there something we have to do—a “ministry of reconciliation“ (2 Corinthians 5:18)—to reconcile the division? We’ll address that in part 3 next week.

To be continued…

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

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