Religious Place Names

Saint-Ambroise, Quebec, Canada: From the Greek word, "ambrosisus," meaning "immortal."

Egloshayle. Cornwall, England: From the Cornish word, "eglos," meaning ""church."

Babylon, Iraq: From the Akkadian word, "ilu," meaning "god."

Luverne, Alabama, USA: A female personal name from the Latin/Roman "Laverna," the goddess of imposters and thieves.

Penzance, Cornwall, England: From the Cornish word, "sans," meaning"holy."

Two Responses to the Manhattan Declaration

Two websites have been created in response to the success of the Manhattan Declaration (see my post on 23 December 2009). Both are in response to the declaration's opposition to homosexuality.

The Manhattan Refutation (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/manhattan-refutation) by the Progressive Christian Alliance, was drafted to "oppose bigotry and intolerance." As of today, it has received 47 signatures.

The Affirmation Declaration (http://www.affirmationdeclaration,org/) is an alliance of Orthodox, Catholics, and Evangelicals who aim "to correct egregious errors" and "bad theology." Since its promulgation on 28 September 2009 it has received 1282 signatures.

Christian Jokes.net

http://www.christian-jokes.net

Most are groaners, plays on words, etc. This is a variation on several other very similar websites.

Film Comment: Woman in the Dunes

Suna no Onna (Woman in the Dunes) is a 1964 Japanese black and white language film which received two Oscar nominations and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. An insect collector (Okada Eiji) from Tokyo escapes his terribly boring existence by spending his spare time in the desert region of Japan, collecting bugs and staying at the homes of the locals. On his latest trip, the only place to stay is with a woman (Kishida Kyoko) who lives at the bottom of a sand pit. The man happily climbs down the ladder into the pit to spend the night.

When the collector wakes up the ladder is gone and the walls of the sand pit are sliding down into the house. Then he gets the surprise; he is expected to stay with the woman and help her shovel sand away from the house. In return, he gets her. He struggles mightily to leave, but soon, he gives in and wouldn't leave even if he could.

The woman is the sugar and the glue, and the pit is the trap. The man is the fly, but he doesn't struggle for long because the sugar is so sweet. To be sure the viewer gets it, though nothing explicit is shown, nudity and phallic symbols appear. Before he is even aware of it, the man doesn't want to leave his hopeless situation.

Obviously an allegory, the film lacks any logical story sense, being more of a situation than a narrative. The man finds himself trapped in a situation for which he is partially responsible; he didn't have to climb down into the pit and he should have known better.

Many things which on their surfaces may seem to be benign, innocent, or essentially harmless, can ensnare us like the Woman in the Dunes. Some situations and activities (ie: gambling, smoking, egoism, recreational drug use, pornography, alcohol consumption, flirting, overeating, obsessive volunteerism, obsession with a hobby or one's career, etc) must be avoided because of their ability to ensnare us in unexpected ways which can escalate out of our control and from which it is difficult to extricate ourselves.

Don't Do It!

Don't jump into a pool of alligators. Don't pound in a nail with your eyes closed. Don't squirt gasoline on an open flame. Don't poke a stick at a mountain lion. Don't sleep in a refrigerator. Don't drive your car into a tornado. Stay away from sleazy places. Sometimes sleazy people do sleazy things, perhaps to you.

“A prudent [man] foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
 By humility [and] the fear of the LORD [are] riches, and honour, and life, Thorns [and] snares [are] in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them,” Proverbs 22: 3-5

Relationships

Don't be afraid to commit to a relationship.

"Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him [that is] alone when he falleth; for [he hath] not another to help him up." Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

Hair

Hair is considered to be beautiful when it is well maintained and clean. Beautiful hair is considered to be so important that some people will pay large sums of money to replace their failing hair with someone else's hair attached to their head. Some men spend large sums trying to grow their own. Many women's self-image is tied up in their beautiful hair.

All this makes what Mary of Bethany did at the house of Simon the Leper even more meaningful. As reported in John 12:3, Mary (the sister of Lazarus and Martha) took very expensive ointment and, using her hair as a towel, washed Jesus's feet. When his disciples complained that this was expensive and wasteful, Jesus instead told them that it was a wonderful act of love which would be remembered forever.

Men who had been traveling would have very dusty, dirty feet. For a woman to take her hair and use it to wipe clean the feet of a man involved several powerful emotions and taboos. Jesus was not her husband but Mary touched him and Jesus allowed it, he even praised it. To wash Jesus' feet, Mary had to dirty her hair, which could be viewed as a debasement, a lowering of herself. Doing this in front of other men who were watching could have been viewed as even more disturbing. Jesus declared it to be holy.

Remember who Jesus is: God. He is totally deserving of our worship. Apart from God, nothing else matters.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian. Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions. This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Charles Edward Daniels: (b. 1936, North Carolina) Country/rock music singer, guitarist, fiddler, songwriter. Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry 2008.

Adolf Schlatter: (b. 1852 – d. 198) Evangelical theologian and university professor of New Testament and Systematic Theology.

Marie Keyrouz: (b. Lebanon) Melkite-Maronite nun and chnter of Oriemntal Church Music. Musicologist, anthropologist. (Sorbonne, 1991)

Defensor: (fl. Late 7th Century) Book editor and complier. Pen name of a monk at Ligure, near Poitiers, France.

St. Deinol: (d. ca. 584, Wales) Probably was the first Bishop of Bangor.

A Proper Name

Many of the familiar names you know for Native American tribes are not names they have chosen for themselves. Often they were named by other tribes, not all of whom were their friends.

The Sioux actually have three major divisions named the Isanyathi, aka: the Santee ("knife"); the Ihankthunwan, aka: Yankton ("village at the end"), and the Thithunwan, aka: Teton or Lakota ("dwellers on the prairie"). The Sioux name probably comes from Nadouessiouak, an Odawa/Ottawa word meaning "small rattlesnake," not intended as a compliment.

The name of the Nez Perce tribe is French for "pierced nose", while the tribe refers to itself as Nimiipuu ("the real people"). The Nez Perce did not pierce their noses but another tribe, which did, lived nearby.

The Cherokee call themselves the Tsalagi or Aniyvwiyai ("principal people"). The name by which they are best known is possibly from the Choctaw cha-la-kee ("those who live in the mountains"). Another possible Choctaw origin for the name means "those who live in caves."

The traditional explanation of the Iroquois name is from the derogatory Wyandot word "irinakhoiw" meaning "real adders." The Iroquois name for the tribe is Haudenosaunee, meaning "they are building a long house."

The earliest Christians called themselves "the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5) and "those of the way" (Acts 9:2). The name "Christians" (Xριστιανουσ) was a derogatory term applied by outsiders and later proudly adopted by believers. The Latin suffix "ianos" implied that one was a slave of the one to whose name it was affixed.

"And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Acts 11:26

Embryo Adoption

Many pro-life advocates are opposed to in-vitro (outside the body) fertilization and to embryo storage because "excess" embryos are often discarded or donated for stem cell research. For those of us who believe ** that human life begins at conception, this is nothing short of murder and it presents a special problem for those who, because of other medical conditions, can not get pregnant any other way.

There are currently about 500,000 embryos held in a frozen state. The majority will never be used for implantation. This leaves four possibilities for their future: 1. destroy them; 2. donate them for stem cell research, which results in number 1; 3. donate them to another family, or 4. keep them frozen, which will eventually lead back to number 1. The longest period of freezing known to have resulted in viable implantation is about ten years.

Christian couples who resort to this technique to become pregnant will have "excess" embryos over which they will have legal control. One option is making the frozen embryos available to other infertile couples; ie. embryo adoption, or FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer). This is an "adoption" because the baby is not the biological child of the second couple, but the second couple gets to experience a real pregnancy and a real birth. A failed implantation is not destroying the embryo, but is a failed attempt at pregnancy akin to a miscarriage.

Concerns are the cost (about $6000.00 per attempt), and the strong possibility of a multiple pregnancy.

One company providing this service in an explicitly Christian format is Nightlight Christian Adoptions, see www.EmbryoAdoption.org.

** (This is not just a religious faith statement. There is a solid scientific basis for the declaration that human life begins at conception. See my post on 29 July 2009. You can access the post at the "abortion" keyword at the end of this page.)

New Blogs to Watch

I have added the following blogs to the list of blogs I check regularly:

Dead Theologians: http://deadtheologians.blogspot.com. Discussions and insights drawn fro the writings of John Calvin, Martin Luther, St. Athanasius, St. Jerome, etc. Written by a pastor in Georgia.

Look Both Ways: Art and Faith: http://lookbothwaysartandfaith.blogspot.com. Absolutely beautiful graphic adaptions of biblical passages by Earnest Graham, an Episcopal priest.

The Bible Artist: http://www.bibleartist.com. This is a resource for artists and illustrators which features costume and figure reference photographs posted by Graham D. kennedy.

Joel plus Jenny: http://joelplusjenny.blogspot.com. A blog by a Mennonite missionary couple in Mozambique.

Film Comment: Tremors

In the hilarious 1990 horror-comedy film, Tremors, Kevin Bacon's character Val (short for Valentine) tells his friend, "Ya know, if you budget your time just right, you ain't gotta do nothing today."

For those who don't know, Tremors features two slacker handymen, portrayed by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, who discover giant and exceedingly hungry prehistoric flesh-eating worms (they call them "graboids") in the sands under Perfection, Nevada, a tiny desert town which the two men have decided to leave "one damn day too late!"

Instead of slacking, the two have to get very busy. They discover that if you take care of the worm today, you won't have two worms waiting on you tomorrow.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9:10

"And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;" Colossians 3:23

Matthew 25:2-13 The tale of the five procrastinating virgins.

Female Images of God: A Comforting Mother

"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Isaiah 66:13

Fools and Vomit

"As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." Proverbs 26:11

Jimmy Swaggert, who had "fool" problems of his own, once told of a sinner who repented of his former "slop" of a life but couldn't quite let go of it. He put it into a slop bucket and put the bucket in the closet. Every so often, he would go into the closet with a spoon and take a little sip. Swaggert called this "slop bucket repentence."

Religious Place Names

Dunkirk, France: From the Flemish word "kirk," meaning "church."

Madras, India: From the Arabic word "madrasa," meaning "Islamic religious school."

Jorf el-Yhoudi, Morocco: From the Arabic word "yhoudi," meaning "Jew."

Sainte-Anastassie, Quebec, Canada: From the Greek word, "anastasis," meaning "resurrection."

Kanchipuram, India: From the Sanskrit word "anchi," which means "worship."

Coakley vs. Brown

Saints on the Loose! is not a political blog and I don't intend for it to become one. I will comment on political issues only when they shed light on a point that I'm trying to make. As a traditional Baptist, I have a very HEALTHY distrust of politics and politicians. Though some have forgotten, we have always strongly believed in the separation of church and state. Sometimes though, you just have to say something.

Martha Coakley, a Democrat, and Scott Brown, a Republican, are engaged in a very intense race for the US Senatorial seat vacated by the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. As the race has tightened, Ms. Coakley seems to have become abusive and derisive toward Brown. She recently referred to him as an extreme right wing teabagger. The term has also been used by leftist poliltical commentatotrs such as Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Anderson Cooper.

"Teabagger" was a reference to the 2009 Tea Party protests which arose to oppose the tax and spending policies of the Democrat-controlled United States government. "Tea Party" was a reference to the Boston Tea Party in which a group of men stormed a ship and threw its cargo of tea into Boston Harbor to protest King George's excessive taxation policy.

Using the word "teabagger" as an insult exposes what radio and television commentator Glen Beck spoke of on 15 Jan 2009. This is an offensive word and is so, especially, since some conservatives have adopted it without knowing its origin, which Beck declined to elaborate upon. I think adults can handle the truth so here is the explanation.

"Teabagging" is a slang term referring to a sexual act in which a man repeatedly places his scrotum into the mouth or on the face of another person, like dipping a tea bag into a cup of tea. In pornography, the act is a form of sado-masochism stressing male dominance and erotic humiliation. In its political usage, the term is an insult because it implies that those against whom it is directed are too stupid or innocent (read as "naive") to know what it means. Why, some of them even use it of themselves.

Recently, I had to tell an Indian co-worker why others were quietly giggling as he ran around searching and saying, "I lost my lunch! I lost my lunch!" When conservatives proudly declare, "I'm a teabagger!," progressives are silently giggling.

Apologia

Understand your own position, know what you believe and why you believe it so that you can adequately explain and defend it to others.

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" I Peter 3:15

Film Comment: God Told me To

God Told Me To (1976), directed by the prolific director, Larry Cohen, was originally titled Demon, but the better known title is more representative of the film's content. A police detective (Tony LoBianco) investigates what appear to be random savage murders by seemingly mundane individuals who all give as the reason for their rampages the phrase, "God told me to."

This is Larry Cohen's most incoherent film and has the weakest ending, but it may be the best known besides The Stuff, Phonebooth, and It's Alive! Cult status was achieved for the film by the appearance of the bizarre comedian, Andy Kaufman, as one of the killers. Deborah Raffin and Sandy Dennis also appear.

The film raises an interesting question. What should be our response to persons who claim to have personally met God, or that they speak directly for God, or that they are God? What if they show evidence of possessing supernatural powers? Remember that God told Abraham to kill his son as a sacrifice. The difference between YHWH (our God) and the "god" of this film is that God never intended for Abraham to actually do it.

Genesis 22; Matthew 24:5,11; 23:25; Mark 13:6,21-23; Luke 21:8.

A Gay Bible

Revision Studios (www.revision-studios.com), a New Mexico-based film studio, in 2008 released The Princess Diana Bible, a gay spoof version of the Christian scriptures. The writer, Max Mitchell, is also the head of the studio.

Mitchell says, "There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one. ... There are 116 versions of the Bible, why is any of them better than ours?"

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Psalm 14:1

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked.for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7

Feelings of Guilt That Won't Go Away

Christians should not live with a permanent sense of guilt. We are forgiven and God sees Jesus when he looks at us. We are also not yet perfected so we will knowingly or unknowingly continue to commit sins. Transitory feelings of guilt may be the Holy Spirit prodding us to alarm us that we are separating ourselves from God. He is calling us to remind us that though we are saved and will not be lost, we need to return to the working out of our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12; Hebrews 4:16). We are not saved by the working out but are participating with the Holy Spirit in our growing sanctification.

A permanent sense of guilt is another thing entirely and may have several causes, three of which will be discussed here:
1. We may be consciously or unconsciously holding onto the belief that we must somehow earn our salvation, suspecting or knowing all the while that we are not good or holy enough. NO ONE IS GOOD OR HOLY ENOUGH!
(Ephesians 2:8-9)) At the moment of your salvation, God saw you as holy and He sees you as holy now. He still expects you to allow the Holy Spirit to conform you to santification.

2. Satan is the Accuser (Revelation 12:10), daily making accusations to God against us. A persistent feeling of guilt may be Satan pulling a trick on you, immobilizing you; in football terms, "taking you out of the game." Don't let him. Romans 8:1; John 8:36.

3. The guilt that a Christian is feeling may be caused by the fact that he or she has not confessed their real sin. They may not even realize what their real sin is. Compulsive behaviors such as pathological eating, gambling, attraction to pornography, temper tantrums, etc. may plague Christians who over and over find themselves helplessly returning to the hated behavior. Though they confess their sin and ask God for "strength" they fail. The real sin may be underlying anger or resentment which is so frightening that it is directed into other, less fearsome directions. Rest assured that the Holy Spirit knows the real sin and will reveal it to the believer who truly listens.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian. Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions. This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Paul Miki: (b. 1562, Japan – d. 1597, Japan) Miki, a Jesuit, was the first Japanese member of any Catholic religious order. Martyred by crucifixion in 1597, his remains are buried in Macau. The Japanese Christian community that he and the other Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan founded was still active when Christian missionaries again arrived in 1847. Declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Jacob Hoeppner: (b. 1748, Prussia – d. 1826) Mennonite. Hoeppner led a group of Mennonite colonists to settle in Russia.

John Mair: (b. 467, Scotland – d. 1550) aka: John Major, Joannes Majoris, Haddingtonus Scotus. Mair, a university professor, advocated “sane conservatism,” and a skeptical, logical approach to religion.

Gennadi Konstantinovich Kryuchkov: b. 1926, Russia – d. 2007) Soldier, coal miner, electrician, Baptist leader. He successfully evaded the Soviet police for twenty-five years.

Clotilde: (b. 474 –d. 545) Born as a Burgundian princess, she married Clovis, King of the Salian Franks. She is considered to be a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

What Does It Mean? Exclusion from the congregation

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Is a recurrent segment in this blog. The meaning of certain Biblical verses is not always readily apparent to modern readers. Sometimes the answer to the problem is cultural, or linguistic, or philosophical. Sometimes no one knows what it means and we have to accept that full understanding will only come when we meet the Lord.

"He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
" Deuteronomy 23:1

"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever [he be] of thy seed in their generations that hath [any] blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
… He shall eat the bread of his God, [both] of the most holy, and of the holy.
 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them."
 Leviticus 21: 16-17, 22-23.

These verses refer to Levites, members of the kahal (Hebrew = “congregation” or “community”), the hereditary priests who serviced the Jewish Temple. They were expected to be holy righteous men, men without moral or spiritual blemish. They also had to be physically unblemished, just as their sacrifices were required to be. Since God was utterly perfect it was considered to be insulting to Him for any imperfection to approach His presence.

The physically damaged men (the list of causes for rejection go on for several verses) were not themselves rejected. As Levites, they were entitled to the same support (“he shall eat the bread of his God”) as was provided by the other tribes to their brother Levites.

Persecution as Fertilizer

In 1949 there were 700,000 Christians in China. Then the atheist Red Communists took over and proceeded to squash religion except for those who recognized their authority and obeyed them. Non-registered churches were banned. As a result there are now 25-30 million Christians in China.

Book Comment: Baby's First Book About Jesus

In this sweet book with simple non-threatening pictures, the longest sentence is "Jesus is the Son of God." He is shown preaching, loving, teaching, and having risen from the dead. In most of the pictures He is shown with small children. This is a nice, non-challenging introduction to Jesus for a very young pre-schooler.

Baby's First Book About Jesus (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1979)

Intimacy4us

I have added the website, www.intimacy4us.com, to the list of blogs and websites which I check regularly. Each of the websites and blogs on the list contributes to the theme of this blog that Christians should be and are represented in every legitimate human field of endeavor and are “on the loose;” “ακωλητοσ” (“unhindered”).

www.intimacy4us.com  is a site for married Christian women which is dedicated to fostering and enhancing their experience of physical, emotional, and spiritual intimacy with their husbands.

Book Comment: Ethics Without God

Ethics Without God, by Kai Nielsen, admits that a reasonable person can be a Christian but adds that a reasonable person who has had a full education cannot be a Christian. So, though Nielsen goes out of his way to seem reasonable, in the end his judgement of Christianity and Christians is an insult. He rejects the basic assumptions of Christianity as unnecessary and illogical. He believes that secularization is inevitable "as we move away from a peasant society."

Nielsen rejects the idea that only religion, and more specifically Christianity, can provide a purpose in life. He agrees that a life with no purpose would be awful. He finds purpose in science, logic, and ethical behavior and says that Christianity has "incoherence" in it. Another insult said with a sweet smile.

"Perhaps we have even more reason to love each other if there is no God for then the only thing we have is each other."

Nielsen, Kai, Ethics Without God (Rev. ed.: Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 1990)

Film Comment: Getting Ready Morally

This 1951 black and white film, Getting Ready Morally, would invoke groans and eye rolls from modern audiences, but the points it makes are still as valid as ever. It was made, surprisingly enough, by the United States military. The concern of the film is with innocent young men being suddenly away from home and family and expected to cope with the almost total lack of restraints and guidelines of free unsupervised adults.

Anyone whose son or daughter "went wild" during their first semester at college knows the validity of this film. One of the main points is that one's parents aren't there to help the young man (remember, this is 1951) make the right choices so the right choices must come from within the young man, ie. personal responsibility. The film counsels choosing one's friends wisely and avoiding some people altogether. Finding a mentor is also important as is thinking about consequences before taking actions. As the narrator says, "When you choose the start of a road, you also choose the end."

XXXChurch

A little talked about problem within the Church is sexual addiction and/or addiction to pornography among Christians. Some Christians can barely say the word. Others wish it would just go away and leave them alone. Others can't believe that their beloved deacon might secretly spend hours on the Internet trolling for free pornography, feeling horribly guilty the entire time, but unable to stop.

The website, http://xxxchurch.com is a ministry to persons addicted to pornography and to persons in the sex industry who wish to get out. The site makes available free pornography filters for computers, support for those trying to break their addiction, and online classes for teens, men, women, spouses, parents, pastors, and churches.

The Chart Man

Gary B. Smith, on the Fox News Channel, is The Chart Man. The other financial commentators speak from their experience and intuitions; Smith does also, but he adds intense study of financial charts and graphs of seemingly every conceivable financial angle.

Some Christians are like Gary B. Smith, with charts and graphs and the ability to instantly recognize a Bible quotation and state its location in the BIble by book, chapter, and verse. Most of us aren't like that. We can talk intelligently about a certain passage in the Bible but don't ask us exactly where to find it. Ain't gonna happen.

Luckily for us, there are now thousands of commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, concordances, devotionals, and sermon collections in printed form, and available on the internet are powerful search engines and translation programs. And the most important study aid of all, listening to the Holy Spirit as we read the Bible.

Another Light Bulb Joke

How many Jewish Mothers does it take to change a light bulb?

None.  My son, the schmendrick, never comes to see me anyway.

Secrets

Carrie Prejean, Miss California USA (2009), ran afoul of pageant judge Perez Hilton (a gay activist) when she answered his question about same-sex marriage by saying she supported traditional marriage. A firestorm erupted in which she emerged as a defender of traditional Christian morality. Then "the biggest mistake of my life" was exposed, a sex tape from years before.

In November 2009, Radaronline.com reported that there are an additional seven sex tapes and thirty nude photos of Ms. Prejean.
If the tapes and photos really exist this is greatly embarrassing for Ms. Prejean but also for the Church. Prejean presumably knew about all this and she should have known this would eventually come out.

“For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither [any thing] hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.” Luke 8:17

“Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”
Romans 2:22-24

Young Christians must remember that everything they do reflects not only on themselves but on the Church. Christians are forgiven but their pasts can still cause damage to the reputation of the Church. If there are damaging secrets hiding in the past it may be best to expose them preemptively, acknowledge them, accept the consequences, and move on.