Odds and Ends are Langstaff letters covering important topics that do not necessarily require a whole article.
BIDEN – CAFETERIA CATHOLIC
President Joe Biden considers himself a devout Catholic and regularly attends mass. However, on many issues, he differs from the teachings of the Catholic Church, especially those related to sexuality. Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory recently called him a “cafeteria Catholic.” Gregory stated, “I would say that he’s very sincere about his faith. But like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts. There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a ‘cafeteria Catholic,’ you choose that which is attractive, and dismiss that which is challenging”(foxnews.com).
CIVILIAN DEATHS IN GAZA RELATIVELY LOW
Alan Dershowitz, who was a professor at Harvard University, stated the following earlier this year.
- Critics of Israel almost never cite comparable data from other military encounters. This omission creates the false impression that the civilian death tolls in Gaza are among the highest in history, when they are in fact among the lowest.
- The New York Times’ conclusion that the new data suggests that it is “wrong to accuse [Israel] of wanting to maximize civilian deaths” is highly relevant to the false charges of genocide that are being considered by the International Court of Justice.
- The decreasing civilian death rate among Gazans should also end the campaign to impose a ceasefire on Israel before the IDF completes its legitimate mission to destroy Hamas’ military capacity. Successfully completing that mission will save civilian lives in the long run, by reducing Hamas’ capacity to keep its promise of repeating the barbarism of October 7 and also by reducing its use of civilian shields(gatestoneinstitute.org).
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH LOST A QUARTER OF ITS CHURCHES
“Americans looking to understand the ways political polarization has defined U.S. voting patterns need look no further than the divisions in the United Methodist Church. Five years after allowing churches to leave with their properties if they disagreed with the direction the denomination was heading on issues of gender and sexuality, the results of the split are in, and they reflect larger political patterns to a substantial degree. A new study by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary finds that the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination lost a quarter of its total churches between 2019 and 2023. Leading the way were churches in the South — the same area of the country that tends to be the most politically conservative and Republican-leaning”(ministrywatch.com).
MOST ‘TRANS’ CHILDREN OUTGROW THEIR CONFUSION
“Even as activists push for so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors, a long-term study shows that most gender-confused children grow out of their false beliefs. From Daily Mail. The majority of gender-confused children grow out of that feeling by the time they are fully grown adults, according to a long-term study. Researchers in the Netherlands tracked more than 2,700 children from age 11 to their mid-twenties, asking them every three years of feelings about their gender. Results showed at the start of the research, around one-in-10 children (11 percent) expressed ‘gender non-contentedness ‘to varying degrees. But by age 25, just one-in-25 (4 percent) said they ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ were discontent with their gender. The researchers concluded: ‘The results of the current study might help adolescents to realize that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common'” (ifapray.org).
OVER HALF OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRY LEADERS ARE OVER THE AGE OF 60
“Christian ministry leaders in America are aging. Most of them are over age 60, according to the MinistryWatch April survey of executives in the top 1,000 Christian ministries in the country. A whopping 91% of the survey respondents said they were over age 50, with nearly 55% between ages 61 and 70. Only 2.8 % were over 70” (ministrywatch.com).
DECLINE OF CHRISTIANITY LINKED TO COLLAPSE IN MARRIAGE AND FATHERHOOD, EXPERTS SAY.
“The Pew Research Center shared survey results earlier this month on the structure of the ‘modern American family.’ The report stated, ‘The American family has undergone significant change in recent decades. There is no longer one predominant family form, and Americans are experiencing family life in increasingly diverse ways. ‘Experts say this familial breakdown is connected to the breakdown of Christianity in the U.S. Compared to 1970, the home of a married mom and dad with children all living together has dropped from 67% to 37%. Reportedly, much of the decline is due to the normalization of unmarried adults living together. Another survey done by Communio, an evangelical nonprofit organization, yielded similar results, arguing that the decrease in Christianity as linked to a ‘collapse of marriage [and] fatherhood.’ This survey found 80% of churchgoers were people who had parents who stayed married”(washingtonstand.com).
JOEL OSTEEN’S LAKEWOOD CHURCH PAYS OFF $100 MILLION LOAN
“Joel Osteen, the longtime pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, was brought to tears last Sunday (Jan. 14) as he announced the church had paid off its nearly 20-year debt. ‘My big announcement today is that as of December 31 of last year we have officially paid off the $100 million loan,’ Osteen said to his congregation of nearly 16,000 and millions more watching online”(ministrywatch.com).
THE COMING YEAR
I want to finish off this Odds & Ends with a personal word about the year ahead.
For a year or two, I have felt that 2024 was going to be a tumultuous year and that there was going to be an attempted assassination that would not necessarily be successful. There is more that I could share but let me commend to you a prophetic word by Chis Reed of Morningstar Ministries.entit;ed “A prophetic Dream warning. A Rebirth O America.” You can find it on YouTube.
We need to be Praying for America this year more than ever!
RESOURCES
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20343/gaza-civilian-deaths
https://ministrywatch.com/the-umc-lost-a-quarter-of-its-churches/
https://ifapray.org/blog/study-most-trans-children-outgrow-their-confusion/
https://ministrywatch.com/over-half-of-christian-ministry-leaders-are-over-age-60/
https://ministrywatch.com/joel-osteens-lakewood-church-pays-off-100-million-loan/
Kairos Ministries 