EChurch@Wartburg – 3.11.12

Posted on by March 10, 2012avatar

Welcome to the Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg

Enhanced Rainbow by Barb Ver Sluis

Here is our order of worship

Some of you wonder where the Lord is leading you.

Perhaps the answer is merely a willingness to be led.

(One typo in song)

Prayer to the Holy Spirit Regarding Anxiety

"O Holy Spirit, give me stillness of soul in you.
Calm the turmoil within, with the gentleness of your peace.
Quiet the anxiety within, with a deep trust in you.
Heal the wounds of sin within, with the joy of your forgiveness.
Strengthen the faith within, with the awareness of your presence.
Confirm the hope within, with the knowledge of your strength. 
Give fullness to the love within, with an outpouring of your love.
O Holy Spirit, be to me a source of light, strength and courage
so that I may hear your call ever more clearly
and follow you more generously."

~ William Browning link

Let us join in the prayer of a brother from a distant time

"O Lord, who has mercy upon all,
take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me
the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You,
a heart to delight in You,
to follow and enjoy You, for Christ's sake, Amen"

St. Ambrose of Milan (AD 339-397)-Creative Commons link

If you are new to EChurch, please click on this link for an explanation

Scripture Reading:  Hebrews 10:19  (NASB Bible Gateway )

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

"God of the heights and the depths,
we bring to you
those driven into the desert
those suffering with difficult decisions.
May they choose life.
God of the light and the darkness,
we bring to you
those lost in the midst of drugs or drink,
those dazzled by the use of power.
May they choose life.
God of the wild beast and the ministering angel,
we bring to you
those savaged by others' greed,
those exhausted by caring for others.
May they feel your healing touch.
Christ tempted and triumphant,
we bring ourselves to you,
tired of difficult choices,
anxious about the future,
drained by the loss of a loved one.
May we feel your healing touch.
May we feel your healing touch,
know God's presence in all things
and receive the crown of life
through the Holy Spirit of compassion."
In the name of Jesus
Amen

Kate McIlhagga The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, p.138

Thank you for spending your precious time worshipping the Lord.

Comments

EChurch@Wartburg – 3.11.12 — 40 Comments

  2. Powerful videos. A great visual reminder of the price Jesus paid for us. Thank you God for using e-church to talk to me and remind how much you love me and all of us. What an awesome God.

  3. Once again, words can’t adequately express my appreciation for your efforts in bringing the EChurch into my home.

    I thought for sure I could make it through the service without tears, but it was not to be. The worship songs and sermon deeply touch my soul and spirit.

    Thanks again! May the Lord bless you and keep you!

  11. Love, love, love the message!!! Thanks so much, Wade, Deb and Dee.

    It is very affirming. 🙂

  12. Okay, wait, what? Pastor Wade, you are uninformed about the testimony of the law school student before Congress. She never bragged about any sexual exploit of any kind! She planned to testify (without shame) that a friend of hers needed oral contraceptives to control an ovarian cyst, basically to save her from that cyst growing and bursting.

    All those salacious “facts” about promiscuity? Rush Limbaugh made all that up about the law student!!

    Please, please don’t discredit yourself by talking about gossip as if it was a reality. I know you are a better man that that.

    Wow.

  13. ps If I am wrong, link me to the testimony in question. I am more than willing to be corrected where I am wrong. In fact, it’s a kindess. 😀

    But in all *I* have read, the law student’s personal romantic life or lack thereof was never the point of her testimony. The point was that oral contraceptives are a legitimate medication for numerous ailments caused by irregularities in the reproductive system of women.

    I know my own sister (good Oklahoma Baptist circa late 1970s) took birth control pills because of serious endometriosis. The pills lessened her pain considerably for many years.

    Taking oral contraceptives does not make one a promiscuous woman, though a woman who is promiscuous may take oral contraceptives. Isn’t that called the fallacy of the converse?

  15. shadowspring: I too have taken oral contraceptives for personal health reasons. In fact, my fertility was at stake if I didn’t. Granted, I wasn’t sexually active at the same time as taking the pills.

    Still, I’d love to go up in the face of Quiverfull-type anti-contraception preachers and tell them that if it hadn’t been for the ‘evil’ pill I wouldn’t ever be able to fulfil my ‘role’ as a mother with lots of kids (not that I plan to have lots of children anyway). Doug Phillips et al, chew on THAT. Haha!

  16. Anne/shadowpring
    I, too, had to take such pills due to fairly serious bleeding.They saved me from a hysterectomy.
    Do either of you know if the debate is over contraceptives used as contraceptives only or contraceptives used as hormonal therapy? I am not sure.

  17. shadowspring,

    I appreciate your comment about Sandra Fluke. I listened to her testimony before Congress, and you’re right she didn’t testify about her own need for oral contraceptives.

    I have done further research and have discovered a number of issues that deeply concern me.

    (1) She is around 30 years old

    (2) She decided to attend Georgetown because the school did not cover contraceptives in their health plan

    (3) She is a reproductive justice activist

    Here is some pertinent information in the Washington Post.

    “She graduated from Cornell University in 2003 with two degrees, including one in feminist, gender and sexuality studies.

    Fluke then worked for several years at a domestic violence center in New York City and successfully lobbied for legislation that would grant protective orders to unmarried victims of domestic abuse, including teens and LGBT individuals, according to her biography on the Georgetown Law Web site.

    As a co-president of the Georgetown chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, Fluke and other law students have met through the years with several top Georgetown officials to discuss the student health-care plan.”

    In my ever to be humble opinion, this was a set-up from the beginning.

  18. Deb – ???

    She enrolled in the law school. There are lots of “older” students there, and it’s an excellent law program.

  20. numo,

    I hope you understand that I am in no way defending Rush. I’m just on a fact finding mission.

  22. Also… I really *don’t* want to get into an argument about a political topic, though I do wish Wade hadn’t used this in his sermon and agree with shadowspring’s take.

    (And, like many other women, I once took the pill for health reasons – endometriosis and ovarian cysts.)

  23. numo,

    What I meant was, I believe she was “groomed” to testify before Congress. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it. 🙂

  24. I must disagree, insofar as it looks like she was uniquely qualified to testify on these issues, but … Pax, Deb! 🙂

  25. Coda: you and Dee have a very diverse “constituency” here, and I marvel at how well we get along, on the whole.

    Thank you for providing a place for people to come to talk – and to worship. And hearty congrats on your 3-year anniversary! 😀

  26. numo,

    It’s refreshing that we can agree to disagree here. 😛

    That being said, I believe credibility is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Here’s where Ms. Fluke lost hers with me.

    Weekly Standard Reports:

    “Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy,” Fluke testified regarding the Catholic university’s policy of not covering birth control. “Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school.”

    But Fluke’s testimony was very misleading. Birth control pills can be purchased for as low as $9 per month at a pharmacy near Georgetown’s campus. According to an employee at the pharmacy in Washington, D.C.’s Target store, the pharmacy sells birth control pills—the generic versions of Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho-Cyclen—for $9 per month. “That’s the price without insurance,” the Target employee said. Nine dollars is less than the price of two beers at a Georgetown bar.

    It strains credulity to believe that a single Georgetown student can’t afford $9 per month for birth control. But this is the justification the mandate’s supporters give for forcing religious institutions to purchase insurance that violates their religious and moral convictions.”

    Why did Fluke testify that birth control costs $1,000 per year (or around $83 per month)?

  28. Deb – As I said above, I think it best to bow out of a political discussion on this thread… mainly because I know I can be extremely stubborn as well as hot-headed.

    Shake? 🙂

    P.S.: the diversity is one of THE best things about this blog; also the general peacefulness, in terms of people agreeing to disagree and to discuss things in a sensitive, civil manner.

  29. Thank you, numo, for responding.

    I see nothing at all wrong with majoring in gender studies, working to end domestic violence or going to law school at Georgetown. Whether or not Target sells generic birth control has nothing to do with the Fluke’s testimony. Indeed, with her expertise in women’s issues, she seems uniquely qualified to testify.

    Her testimony- that oral contraceptives are medications that regulate a woman’s hormones and that have worth far many medical applications besides birth control- remains true. She was not asking anyone to pay for hers or anyone else’s promiscuity. Rush made that up, and it sounds like a lot of people believe that to be the case. Sadly, it sounded to me like Pastor Wade erroneously believed that to be the case.

    In all my research, that was never the situation. She never even suggested that insurance companies should cover birth control so Americans can have sex whenever they feel like it. The legitimate truth is that oral contraceptives are a medication, not an aphrodisiac for feminists. They don’t cause or prevent immoral behavior. They merely regulate hormones in the female patient.

    It was misleading and extremely ugly of Rush to characterize the need for oral contraceptives as something only sluts and whores use. Worse, though, the way in which Rush said it has led good-hearted people (like Pastor Wade) to believe that was exactly what Ms. Fluke was saying.

  31. Dee – aww shucks… thank you! But I think it’s also a case of “sadder but wiser,” after having engaged in a LOT of fruitless internet arguments. I get really anxious and stressed by that, at the same times that I’m annoyed and angry, and in the end, it just does not do *any* good. (And there’s no way to “win,” anyhow.)

    shadowspring: yes.

  32. shadowspring: The fact that the contraceptive pill is a remedy for many health issues needs to be shouted from the rooftops. What worries me is the urge of some big figures, in the church and in politics, to ban it altogether. Would they deny insulin to a diabetic? Would they deny blood thinners/thickeners to someone with a heart problem? An inhaler for an asthmatic? No. So they shouldn’t ban the pill either.

    Having a generic hormonal therapy pill right across the board isn’t good enough. They can have some serious side effects. AND a general brand of contraceptive pill may not do it either. Some brands are more effective than others, depending on the person taking it. Thus, any and all brands of the pill should be covered by insurance.

  33. Anne – right you are, in my opinion. And I have experienced some of the differences between various formulations of oral birth control, back when I was taking it solely for medical reasons.

    That was *not* a pleasant thing, believe me!

  34. One other thought: oral contraceptives are notorious for suppressing rather than enhancing libido – ask anyone who works in an ob/gyn office, or as a certified nurse-midwife. (I have friends who are CNMS – Georgetown grads, no less! ;))

  35. numo: I didn’t know they suppressed libido, or at least I’ve never heard that. I hear you about different side effects – one brand made my (mild) acne worse, even though it was supposed to make it better. Also, apparently there’s a link between the pill and weight loss, believe it or not.

  36. Suppressed libido: oh yeah. One of my CNM friends (certified nurse-midwife) has told me how often she saw it when she was in full-time practice, and I’ve experienced it personally. (Talk about TMI! ;))

    Weight loss: I can believe it.

    I ended up taking hormones (natural estrogen + a progesterone patch) for 7 years in order to suppress my endo symptoms because the birth control pill started doing some pretty unpleasant things to me, in terms of hormone surges and mood.

    There have to be multiple approaches, because (as my gyn was fond of saying) one size does *not* fit all when it comes to these things.

  40. shadowspring – I really do sympathize re “crickets,” but … a week and a half is like 3 centuries in blog-time, at least when new posts are published as often as they are here. (Especially when the subject is “hot” – cf. the post above on the Petry’s horrible experiences with Mars Hill.)