Update: I posted several photos from Chile to my flickr site.

Several years ago I told a friend of mine my wife and I were moving to Panama. “Panama?” he asked as if it had recently been discovered. I waited for something profound to follow, like a question about the canal or the political ramifications of decades of military dictatorships that blackened the eye of a nation’s people. I got neither.

“They have Mexican food down there?”

I love Latin America. We North Americans too quickly dismiss our neighbors to the south and the millions with whom we share the Western hemisphere. Frankly we generally ignore more than a dozen Spanish-speaking countries or at best think they are all Mexicans or that Mexican culture is the culture shared by all Central and South Americans. Nothing could be more inaccurate. There is a distinct personality to every country to our south. (A great resource for understanding Latin America is The Epic of Latin America, by John Crow).

Despite the diversity among the countries there are several commonalities Latin Americans obviously share. One of those is what I consider to be an unhealthy obsession with the Virgin Mary.

I’ve traveled extensively in Latin America so have seen various expressions of veneration. I’ve been in Santiago de Chile this week and visited “La Virgincita” – literally translated: “The Little Virgin” (which just happens to be about 40 tall, sits atop a hill and can be seen from across the city, even at night because she is illuminated). One of the prayers fastened to the wall at the statue’s base sums up how most Latin American Catholics would view Mary: as an intercessor between man and Jesus (the picture is of that prayer).

It is heart rending to witness the depth of idol worship among Latin Catholics. They virtually see Mary as the female expression of God. She most often is elevated above Christ (and is literally in Santiago where a much smaller statue of a crucified Christ stands in a subordinate position on the hill beneath Mary). To our shame, too many evangelicals – including some missiologists – lump too many Latin Catholics into the “evangelized” category because of the “Christian” venire stretched across what truthfully is a pagan religion. The word “Evangelism” means “Good news,” news that God came to earth to save sinful men from His impending – and deserved – judgment. Our good news is found in the person and work of the God-man Jesus Christ, NOT the human agent God the Father appointed to birth God the Son into this world. Mary is not an intercessor between man and Jesus. Jesus is the intercessor between man and God.

I recognize my position would be the bane of many Catholics and even some evangelicals who propagate the idea that because Catholics have access to the Bible they are evangelized. I also recognize my thoughts portray a narrow-minded perspective among all “tolerant” people as being a conservative’s rant. But what must be stated is that this has nothing to do with conservative vs. liberal, protestant vs. Catholic or any other man-made pitting of one position over against another. My response to all challengers is simply this: What does the Bible say?

Catholicism (as well as way too much protestant and evangelical theology these days) posits a works-based theology. However, justification of one’s soul is found outside of oneself, at the cross where Jesus bore the wrath of a holy God to cancel the debt owed by sinful man. This same inaccurate theology finds righteousness in “good works” and misses the clear biblical point that even righteousness is transferred (imputed) from Christ to us. Unfortunately Catholic theology goes so far as to teach that justification of the soul is a continuous process and not a single pronouncement by God of forgiveness of sin. Justification and sanctification are seen as one in the same. The Catholic lives his or her life seeking to earn sanctification through works instead of living in the freedom extended through faith in Christ alone. (I do acknowledge there are Catholics who believe by faith in Christ.)

It is unfortunate that the religion propagated by Spanish conquistadors has held Latin American peoples in theological bondage for 500 years. Pray that the similarity among these diverse people is not found In the misperception that they are all Mexican, but that they will all be liberated by the Gospel.

CORRECTION: I was totally busted on my song selection. Tried to remember words from memory. Ben in the comments busted me. The song is Day Tripper. Video here.

The term “Day Tripper” may have been most popularized in the Beetles song, Baby you can drive my car. It is a common expression here and often defines a person who makes a day trip into London. I had a friend in town today who has been through London on many occasions but never to London so I gave him what I’ve come to call the walking tour.

Basically it is the train to London’s Victoria Station, walk the six blocks to Buckingham Palace, through Green Park to Piccadilly then several blocks to Piccadilly Circus, to the Texas Embassy for lunch (which is actually in the building that was the headquarters for the shipping line that owned the Titanic), to Trafalgar Square, down the hill on Whitehall (which is where 10 Downing Street is, to Big Ben and Parliment with a view across the River Thames to the London Eye, around the corner to Westminster Abbey, then a double-decker bus back to Victoria and the train home. Here’s some shots from the day.

I listened with shock (but without surprise) to Pat Robertson’s latest proclamation of idiocy (viewed here) regarding the events in Haiti.”How can you be so matter-of-fact in speaking for God and declaring His judgment on the people of Haiti hours after an

earthquake destroyed its capital?” I asked as I watched the clip. (Fortunately there are high profile Christians like Michael Horton who put into perspective this type of prophetic pandering.

(NOTE: for a healthy biblical perspective on God and disasters listen to this NPR interview with John Piper on the heels of the 2005 Tsunami that devastated Indonesia and parts of Thailand).

Is Robertson’s declaration that this is God’s judgment on Haiti for having made a pact with the devil an appropriate response? It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with for the past few days as I’ve watched clips, read stories and followed photo essays coming out of Haiti. My response is no, it is not appropriate and here are a few things I’ve concluded about being a Christian at times like these.

NO ONE has a right to presume to know the mind of God, let alone speak with an air of authority regarding that presumption. I do know that NOTHING happens in this world without God’s approval and He has a purpose – His purpose – for all He allows (Isaiah 46:9-10). Only God sees all of history before Him at once and knows exactly how this quake fits into His eternal plan. To cherry pick a prophesy is to reveal theological shallowness.

I must feel compassion for the suffering of the people. The Christian who is not moved to compassion  – and worse yet allows the thought that this is somehow deserved – is a legalist at best and heartless at worst, and I’d seriously question that person’s claim of salvation.(“…Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”)

My compassion must motivate me to do something. I may not be in a position to give or go, but I can certainly pray. Pray for the people, for workers trying to help, for suffering to be assuaged, for the Gospel to be preached and for God to save thousands.

My actions of compassion must NOT be devoid of the Gospel. There is no way to alleviate all the human suffering of this world and especially in a situation like this. Physical suffering in this world is a visual representation of a spiritual reality: Sin causes suffering; has from the beginning and will until the end. God has placed the earth under a curse (Romans 8:19-23). Nothing man does is going to change that reality but we are called by God to apply ourselves to good works while seeking to share a remedy (the Gospel) for man’s greatest need (forgiveness of sin to be reconciled to God). Failing to do this is not compassionate. In fact it is cruel. To be so close as to extend clean water to someone yet not share the Gospel is to alleviate a temporal need while withholding  hope that quenches his or her eternal need.

Every Christian should watch the news coming out of Haiti with a great deal of soul searching, a healthy amount of compassion and a deep desire to see Jesus become very real in the lives of the suffering masses.

I love language, more specifically the use of it. I’m not sure when this love affair began but I remember way back to when I was about six years old and my dad read to me The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I could see ol’ Huck and Jim floating the Mississip’ on their raft.
At some point I graduated to sports writers like Red Smith, books like The Great Gatsby and essayists like John McPhee and his incredible look at Princeton’s Bill Bradley (A Sense of Where You Are).
And then there was William Safire.

Safire died in September (2009) ending a life of language. I began reading his column, “On Language” when I was in high school and followed it through college. His giddiness over words was contagious. Safire was the first person I thought of when I read the column below in a local publication (sorry, would credit the author but there was no byline). One of the things I LOVE about Brits is their use of language. Many have a broad vocabulary and put combination of words together that make this English speaker feel like the language gods have rolled in a buffet of fresh catch and invited this mortal to a word feast. It’s sometimes like living in a Monty Python movie.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

The English Language Lesson

We’ll begin with a box and the plural is boxes, but the plural of ox become oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men, why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, if I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Beware of a heard, a dreadful word, that looks like beard and sounds like bird.

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

(You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.)

Andy Summers is 67 years old today.
And Pete Quaife is 66.
The two played instrumental roles in bands I love; The Police and The Kinks respectively. I was standing over the sink washing dishes when the local BBC radio station played songs by both bands and mentioned that today, Dec. 31, was the day both were born. As I scrubbed stir-fry residue from a wok, I thought about some of my favorite bands or performers that come from the UK. Below are a few of them in video form. No, they aren’t part of the British Invasion of my parent’s generation that was ushered in by the Beetles, but they weren’t far behind.

Andy Summers opens this favorite Police song of mine.

Yes, I know what the song is about, but you gotta understand the Kinks. They never took themselves that seriously.

These guys may have been some of the most preeminent musicians ever. I never get enough Yes.

Is it possible to make a list of great British bands without Queen? NO BODY has a voice like Freddie Mercury had. (I know, I know….and I’ll probably hear it from my mom).

They weren’t there in the beginning, but Genesis easily makes my list.

It is possible to go on and on but I’ll end this list with another of my favorite British bands with Pink Floyd, the musical equivalent of Fantasia…only better (by the way, which one’s Pink?)