 | Jonathan Ng  2011Long Island City, NY Jonathan grew up in Kansas, where they value family, hard work and basketball. Jonathan works as a project finance attorney at White & Case and has an interest in renewable energy and social entrepreneurship. He also volunteers with Brooklyn Jubilee and New York Christian Legal Services, both of which provide free legal services to low-income New Yorkers. When he's not at work, he's following Kansas basketball and Notre Dame football, or running in Central Park. |
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When discussing the challenges Christians face when it comes to cultural renewal, we are reminded by two examples that have recently played out in the media: (1) the proposed (and later cancelled) burning of the Quran by Christian pastor, Terry Jones; and (2) the purported sex scandal alleged by four young men against Christian Bishop Eddie Long. How does the discernable impact on the public perception of Christianity caused by such events affect the nuanced efforts of thoughtful Christians who wish to engage in effective cultural renewal? What impact do such stories have on making the case for dualism? To be clear, not everyone who reads such stories automatically projects them onto all Christians. Nonetheless, as author Anne Rice recently pointed out, Christians often do the best job for making the case against Christianity: “Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” Bishop Long Sex Scandal "Bishop Long cuts a flashy figure in Lithonia, the Atlanta suburb where he lives and has built his church. He is often seen in a Bentley attended by bodyguards. He tends to wear clothes that show off his muscular physique. He favors Gucci sunglasses, gold necklaces, diamond bracelets and Rolex watches. He lives in a 5,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, which he bought for $1.1 million in 2005.
His lavish display of wealth is in keeping with his theology. In his sermons, he often tells his congregation that God wants them to be wealthy and asserts that Jesus was not a poor man. By all accounts, he has been well compensated for his leadership in building New Birth from a church with a few hundred members into the largest congregation in Georgia. His televised sermons reach 170 countries.
In 2005, for instance, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published tax records showing that from 1997 to 2000 Bishop Long had accepted $3 million in salary, housing, a car and other perks from a charity he controlled.
'We’re not just a church, we’re an international corporation,” he told the newspaper in justifying his compensation. “We’re not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can’t talk and all we’re doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.'"
Proposed Burning of the Quran
"When Jones canceled his 9/11 Quran burning and then abruptly uncanceled it, you could almost hear a collective groan from the media: How and why did we end up giving this nut so much airtime? The more important question is whether we are going to let the fringe control the religion conversation."
"Imagine if all Christians—from mild Protestants who go to church at Christmas to ardent evangelicals—were tarred worldwide with the imagery of the most extreme adherents. Actually, you don't have to. Because with our words and pictures, beamed across the world, we have now helped promote Terry Jones and his Christian fundamentalists as exemplars of faith in America." |