Anti-hate Ads Appearing In NYC Subway

The United Methodist Women, Sojourners, and Rabbis for Human Rights, have joined forces to fund subway ads that counter the recent anti-Islam ones in New York City subways. Some ads appear next to the anti-Islam ones.

One pro-tolerance poster reads, "Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed". (The anti-Islam poster had used the phrase "civilized man").

“We think that respectful dialogue is absolutely important and that the work for peace is very difficult,” said UMW CEO Harriet Olson in an interview with Transportation Nation. “Incendiary speech [as in the anti-Islam posters] is not the way to get there.”

We cannot achieve true Shalom with hearts full of hatred.

• United Methodist Women Unveils Ad Countering Hate Speech in New York City Subway (UMW)
• Read the full article at "Transportation Nation"

Constitution writers were Christians

An interesting factoid, derived from a posting by Bill Federer in "The Moral LIberal" blog. The religious composition of the 55 writers of the U.S. Constitution was:

• 26 Episcopalians
• 11 Presbyterians
• 7 Congregationalists
• 2 Lutherans
• 2 Dutch Reformed Christians
• 2 Methodists
• 2 Quakers
• 2 Roman Catholics
• 1 Deist Christian – Dr. Franklin, who called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787.

Distinctive Methodist doctrine

What's distinctive about Methodist doctine? A good place to start your journey on the topic is Wikipedia's several pages on "Doctinal distinctives", which are listed in the "Methodism in America" section of the Methodism page.

• Articles of Religion
• Prevenient grace
• Governmental atonement
• Imparted righteousness
• Christian perfection
• Conditional preservation of the saints (not "Saints")

Serving others vs personal holiness?

In "Serving Others vs Serving Self", Allen McGraw relates an incident in which someone implied that he preached too much about serving others and not personal holiness. Allen is a United Methodist pastor and seminary student who authors the Methodist Corner blog.

He cites Mark 12:28-34 and states that you can't separate personal holiness from serving others.

This reminds me of the periodic tension between those fervently advocating an evangelism-only approach to outreach vs. those who lean toward a service-only approach. The reality of where Wesley fit was between those two extremes, folks. He preached the gospel and also served the poor and needy.

Allen has it pegged -- if you have real personal holiness, you'll have a true desire to help others. Good deeds flow from faith in God. Good deeds are then God deeds -- we are the vessels of his love.