Pastors and TV preachers like to lay the law on people and twist their arms to get them to give to their church or "ministry". They even promise people special blessings for giving to their religious organization. Some claim that if you give to their group you will be given "prosperity" by which they mean plenty of money and other stuff.

Now religious organizations do need support, but not blind support. You need to pray about your giving and give where God leads you to give. Churches use almost all their contributions to build and maintain buildings that are used only once a week, to pay utility bills, and to pay pastor salaries (some of them very large).

The Bible, however, speaks often about helping the poor. Churches are slow to do that. I encouraged a woman who couldn't pay her rent to go to her church (a huge one in Nashville) and talk to her pastor about the church helping her. She came back and told me she couldn't get an appointment with the pastor, but the secretary said they don't have the funds to help. (They own church buildings in three locations.) Could they not help their own member?

Jesus speaks several times about giving alms. That means giving directly to the poor. Why not take some of the money you give to support church buildings and pastor salaries and give alms -- personally give it to someone in need. Try it. It is a real blessing to by-pass organizations and give directly to the needy.

I have personally studied the history and teaching of many dozens of Christian denominations and sects (I love church history). However, I have not found even one that teaches that homosexual behavior is not a sin.

However, in the 21st Century the Episcopalians and a few other denominations are beginning to break with the historic and consistent Christian view that homosexual behavior is immoral. A man, Gene Robinson, who openly lives, proclaims, and promotes homosexuality has been made one of the top leaders in the Episcopal Church.

The Tennessean recently had an article about Mr. Robinson, who was speaking at Vanderbilt University. The Tennessean said that Robinson is “quietly astonished over the controversy” about his appointment as an openly homosexual “bishop”. He said: “While we knew this would be somewhat controversial, none of us expected it to have such breadth and depth.”

So how could Mr. Robinson and the Episcopal leaders who appointed him not know that breaking with almost 2,000 years of Christian teaching, completely disregarding the New Testament position on homosexuality, and appointing a man who openly and publicly promotes immorality; would create a tremendous controversy? That would be like the President of the United States choosing a self-proclaimed American flag burner as his Secretary of State and then in the midst of the overwhelming controversy he caused by his appointment, saying: “We thought this might be a little bit controversial, but we sure didn’t know it would be like this!”

The Tennessean also quoted a courageous, Nashville area Episcopal priest, Richard Kew, interim rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Franklin, Tennessee. Kew said: “This has torn the very fabric of the Anglican church. I don’t know how someone can live with themselves after doing something like this.”

Mr. Robinson has a right to choose to engage in homosexual behavior; but for him to attempt to twist Christian teaching to justify his behavior and to lead a Christian denomination to reject its moral values, is going way to far!

As Simon and Garfunkel sang: “Here’s To You, Mr. Robinson. Jesus loves you more than you know. Hey. Hey. Hey.” Historic Christianity teaches that you can practice self-restraint and be supernaturally set free from all your homosexual compulsions, Mr. Robinson! And freedom from demanding compulsions is a wonderful thing!

As our society continues to shed the idea of individual responsibility and personal self-restraint it is important to consider: Can society function without out it?

If everybody does what she/he wants, when he/she wants without regard for others, without regard for laws, and without regard for morality, won’t chaos result? And that is happening.

My wife and I and a couple of friends prayer walk regularly in a neighborhood in Nashville that could be the definition of chaos. Drug dealers stand on the street and hold out plastic bags as cars drive by. Prostitutes roam the streets and openly solicit their business. We hear about shootings and killings in the neighborhood frequently and most of them don’t make the paper. Trash is scattered everywhere. Little children being pulled down the street by the hand, have cold, empty looks on their faces.

We pray from our hearts and people are often in tears. It is amazing to see a tough looking individual soften before your eyes. People who grow up surround by chaos are desperate for heart-felt love and compassion. They hug us and thank us. One very tough looking guy surrounded by rough looking women said after we held his hands and prayed for him: “If I had grown up under a flag like that I would be a different man.” He then took out some money and gave it to us “for the children.’

I work with addicted men who have abandoned self-restraint and their lives and the lives of their families are a mess. They have to learn self-restraint or they will continue to self-destruct, and that is very difficult for them, as it is for us all.

Our society discards self-restraint and morality to its own peril. Isn’t it time to begin to reverse the trend of our downward slide into chaos?

I read a short article in the newspaper recently that said: ”Egypt will host a high-level international conference in May to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq and prevent the spread of sectarian violence to its neighbors.” The conference will include Iran and Syria. US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice has indicated that she will attend.

This is good news — an opportunity to wage peace instead of war! I hope the United States openly and sincerely joins in these discussions!

It is time for new direction in Iraq. The tiny “coalition of the willing” isn’t working. I have read that since the US invasion of Iraq more than 150,000 people have died. We have replaced an evil dictator with open warfare, sectarian violence, death squads, a devastated economy, civil war chaos, and an immigration problem bigger than our own. It is estimated that more than a million Iraqis have fled to Syria alone.

Some people said that the invasion of Iraq would bring a “Christian witness” to the Arab world. The reality is that a big percentage of the one million Iraqi Christians have fled the country and the rest are being persecuted. 10 of Bagdad’s 90 churches have shut down and the membership of the rest of them has fallen drastically.

It is time to talk to all the Iraqi groups and to all of Iraq’s neighbors about how to bring stability and peace. The longer chaos reigns in Iraq, the more hatred builds for America. It is in our own interest to leave Iraq in other’s hands!

However, we shouldn’t just pull out and leave a civil war. We need to use this Egyptian conference as an opportunity to find ways to turn policing Iraq over to others — the Arab league, the United Nations. Let them determine, along with the Iraqis, the best form of government for Iraq. Democracy imposed from behind a gun defeats itself! America must not let the Egyptian opportunity to find peace pass by!

Every day is a spectacular day, a fresh start, a new beginning – unlike all the days that have gone before. And wonderful things can happen today. Just look at the glorious sunrise. It is there every morning — even if you have to soar above the clouds in your life to see it.

Life is incredible — inspirational! Nature is blooming with beauty all around us. Observe and enjoy. People care deeply about family, friends, and even strangers — and yes, a few cherish you. Feel the love — then spread it around.

Yet the splendor of human life — mine and yours — is often obscured by the ordinary; misplaced in the mundane. We can’t see the glory in the trees.

One morning a woman who felt like she had lost her reason to live — all her hopes and dreams had been crushed — forced herself out of bed and went to a fresh grave site to mourn. But she found the unthinkable — the grave had been tampered with and the body removed.

In her suffering and grief, she saw an ordinary man. She thought he was the gardener. “Where have you taken Him?” she cried in hopeless desperation.

He said her name. That’s all. Her name. And in that moment of misery she recognized in the ordinary the most extraordinary — the very event our society celebrates on Easter!

There is so much more to life than meets the eye. Our possibilities are limitless. Behold the beauty. Dare to dream. Dare to hope. Dare to make a better world!