Directed Writing 1

By Daniel Ondov on September 2, 2010 11:03 PM | No Comments

Directed Writing 1:

Using either Becker and Woodward or Collingwood and Jerome, discuss the conflicts and challenges that face historians (and all thinking people) when trying to use evidence to reconstruct the past.  What do you see as the most appropriate way to address these challenges and produce something that may actually be useful and reflect "the truth?"

There are several challenges that thinking people face when trying to use evidence to reconstruct the past. The first, and one of the most talked about in the readings, is that the evidence could have been altered to fit someone's personal agenda or to hide something. Evidence is what points the researcher to different conclusions about history. Without evidence, many things in life would not be believable and would be just word of mouth. Evidence is used in everyday life for many things and an example of how evidence could be changed is this: If a mom were to ask her child where he has been because he is all dirty and he was to say "playing ball," the evidence would appear to support his. However, the boy was really playing in an empty lot where he wasn't supposed to. The evidence supports both stories, but one is accurate and the other has been changed in favor of the child. When trying to use evidence to discern the truth about history or anything, a multiplicity of pieces of evidence must be accessed, cross-compared, and scrutinized in the light of the author/sponsor.

In On Believing What One Reads, Woodward speaks about ways of controlling the past. He explains it this way, "who controls the present controls the past": it was that "who controls the past controls the future" (37). Thus, if the evidence is put forth in such a way that it controls the past, then the future is controlled as well. Woodward gives 4 "devices" for doing this: 1. The classification of documents, 2. The control of archives, 3. Putting the historian on the pay-roll, and 4. The publication of archives of selected evidence and testimony (37). The first two reference changing the evidence to support one thing or another, the third speaks of a writer's bias, and the fourth gives another challenge. Evidence can be left out or hidden. For anyone to make a good decision or write about something, the full truth needs to be available. If only some of the evidence is seen, then what is written may be incorrect or misleading.

As mentioned above, a third challenge is how the evidence is biased towards a certain direction. Woodward explains, "More and more often the historian is found writing the history of an institution that is paying him for his work" (36). Historians that are paid by a certain organization, have stronger feelings toward a certain direction, or that don't want the opposing side to be seen, may not have unbiased evidence behind their work, or may have taken the liberty to change the evidence to their liking. Again, the importance of finding solid evidence and then checking it with other evidence becomes apparent. Becker, in What is Evidence?, also spoke about this, "Relevant facts must be clearly established by the testimony of independent witnesses not self-deceived" (14). He also explains more, "The history written by historians, like the history informally fashioned by Mr. Everyman, is thus a convenient blend of truth and fancy, of what we commonly distinguish as 'fact' and 'interpretation'" (17).

To me, as I touched on above, the best way to get clear facts and evidence is to get them from independent sources as much as possible and to compare these facts with other sources to ensure that the evidence that is being used is accurate. It also can be extremely helpful if we look at the evidence of the evidence. By looking back behind evidence found, we can ensure that it is unbiased and accurate. One thing that I think we all tend to do is apply some of our own bias to whatever we write and speak. We are biased towards ourselves when we try to make ourselves look good and we can be biased towards different issues if we have a moral or personal preference. Many of the above issues as well as others that are unlisted, stem from the problem of self

I believe that a crucial part to doing anything successfully in this world is asking God for deeper understanding and clearer thinking. For us to properly discern the truth and see through the biases of evidence and even facts, we need God's help, infinite wisdom, and guidance. Because, as humans, we are fallible and tend to add our bias to many things, God's help is crucial so that we can present evidence we find clearly so that we don't further the chain of bias. Many of the above issues as well as others, stem from the problem of self-reliance. Bias can be a powerful thing and unless we have someone stronger to assist us through, it is very easy, even without consciously realizing it, to add our own bias and to miss the bias/misrepresentation of other facts.

Dorothy Day's "The Catholic Worker"

By Daniel Ondov on May 8, 2010 1:03 AM | No Comments
Dorothy Day half-length portrait, seated at de...

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Dorothy Day who lived from 1897 to 1980 and dropped out of college "to write for socialist and pacifist newspapers" (413). Day was arrested for "protesting that women could not vote" (413), had an abortion, and then decided to have her second child when she got pregnant again. Day had not grown up with any association with any church and now that her life was in disarray, she joined the Catholic Church and had this child baptized. "Shortly afterwards, she met Peter Maurin, a french former Christian Brother now dedicated to a Franciscan ideal of poverty" (413). With Maurin, Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement. This movement started first with a newspaper and then expanded to have some homes for the "otherwise homeless" (413). "Day continued to write, protest, and serve the poor until her death" (413). This writing by Day is from the first issue of the newspaper of the Catholic Worker Movement.

Day's central beliefs are fairly prevalent and love is a main topic of this reading. The theme that all people should love others and that many, if not all, problems can be overcome with love is interwoven throughout this essay. Day says this about loving the poor and those less favorable in today's society, "When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees Christ, His Son, in us and loves us" (416). She continues to emphasize this and explains that we have to see Christ in everyone, "and nothing else" (416). The first observation that might be made is that this is quite hard and that as humans, we see the faults in others. Day explains, "And this is not easy. Everyone will try to kill that love in you, even your nearest and dearest; at least they will try to prune it" (416). Day believes that the "only Christian answer is love, to the very end, to the laying down of your life. . ." (417).

It is easy to see that Shane Claiborne and Dorothy Day and similar. They both fight for basically the same thing, and both talk about love and its importance. As Day did, Shane also lived with the poor and hungry and experience first hand their suffering. Both also believe that it is necessary to see other people just as Christ sees us. To quote Day again, "God sees Christ, His Son, in us and loves us" (416); We need to do the same. One insight that I have definately gained is that if I am going to be a pastor, I need to experience some of the suffering of the world so that I can identify with the poor and downtrodden. I also see that it is easy to get "lulled" into our own little world and forget about the face that there are millions of other people in the world that don't have all of these luxuries and that need love and help. This is where the old saying comes into play, "Count your blessings." Even with this in mind, I see that we all need a "reality check" once in a while so that we don't lose sight of other people's misfortunes.
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Horace Bushnell's "Binoculars to Find our Calling"

By Daniel Ondov on May 1, 2010 12:23 AM | No Comments
Horace Bushnell (1802-1876)

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My choice for my blog this fine Friday is Horace Bushnell's "Every Man's Life a Plan of God." Most of Bushnell's life from 1802-1876 was spent "as a pastor of North Congregational Church in Hartford, Conneticut" (353). Bushnell felt that children should "grow steadily in Christian love and did not have to sink deep into sin before a dramatic conversion experience" (353) and thus supported the early Sunday School movement. Bushnell's writing was influenced by the Romantic movement and Bushnell was able to see "God's spirit at work in every aspect of both nature and history" (353). In this writing, he explains how we should know what our calling is.

Bushnell makes the claim that everything around us has a purpose set forth by God himself. According to Bushnell, the way everything is balanced around us is not just by chance, or just the way things are; it all has a purpose and if something were to become out of place, it may "fatally disorder the whole scheme of the heavenly motions" (355). Bushnell explains that even "one grain, more or less, of sand" can throw everything out of balance and that the way everything in the world is ordered is not by accident. I agree with Bushnell in the fact that because everything is in such amazing order and because everything stays that way, there has to be an all-powerful God and creator. There is no way all of this came into being and stays balanced by chance or by a "big bang." Bushnell's arguement that even a slight change can cause the balance of the world to become amiss may be somewhat farfetched however. This may be true, but I have a difficult time accepting this as the truth. I do feel comforted, though. To think that there is someone (God) controlling the balance and watching over us, is very comforting. Also, the fact that changes in the balance don't occur very often, if at all, means that God is taking care of us and that he cares. (Definately a comfort.)

Finding one's true calling can be difficult, but the fundamental goal and calling of a Christian is to serve the Lord.I love how Bushnell lays out a step-by-step guide on page 358 to find our true calling. First, Bushnell instructs us to "Consider the character of God." Second, he tells us to "Consider your relation to him as a creature." He explains, "In him they (created wills) all come into a play of harmony." Third, Bushnell urges us to use our conscience when discovering our calling; if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't our true calling. Bushnell's fourth piece of advice is to use "God's law and his written Word" as guides to find our calling. The fifth item he discusses is to "Be an observer of Providence; for God is showing you ever, by the way in which he leads you, whither he means to lead." Sixth, Bushnell advises us to talk to our friends and look to fellow humans for advice and guidance to find our calling. Lastly, and to me most importantly, we need to "go to God himself, and ask for the calling of God" according to Bushnell. By following this guide, it is almost guaranteed that we will find our calling. It may not be immediate, but we will discover our calling. (No 30 day money back guarantee.)

From my project, one of the fundamental things I have learned is to "love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." This is our ultimate calling and if we do this, we will find our calling and will love our life's work too!
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Thurman's Sermon: The Temptation of Jesus

By Daniel Ondov on April 23, 2010 11:35 PM | 1 Comment

Howard Thurman was raised by his grandmother in Florida. His grandmother was a former slave and was very poor and so Thurman grew up in poverty. He became a pastor and was the pastor of a church in San Francisco called the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples for many years. Thurman was initially educated at Morehouse, Columbia, and at Rochester Seminary. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as other prominent civil rights movement leaders was greatly influenced by Thurman because of his commitment to non-violence. This sermon entitled "What Shall I Do with My Life?" which is based on Matthew 4:1-11 was given many times; "this particular version was preached to a student audience in 1939" (385).

One of the topics of this sermon is the temptation of Jesus and Thurman makes several points about his third temptation particularly. One of Thurman's first points is "the tempter strikes at the center of Jesus' dominant passion, to bring society under the acknowledged judgment of God and thereby insure its purification" (387). Thurman uses this point to illustrate that Jesus, as he lived, became the "embodiment of this great desire" (387) and this is why the tempter tried to tempt Jesus with the kingdoms of the world. The tempter tried to get Jesus to believe that the kingdoms were not Jesus' and that only the tempter could give them to him. The tempter also tries to make Jesus see that the relationships between men and women were created by him and not by Jesus. This is why Jesus warned his disciples with two statements, "Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. You must be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves" (387-388) and, "Rejoice when men persecute you for my sake, for it means that you are making inroads on territory that is foreign to the will of God" (388).

Thurman gives some insights into the role of Christianity in the public square also. From the reading I think Thurman is saying that when involved in the public square, we will come across many different people, some bad (wolves) and some good (lambs). Because of this, it is important to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." This means that even though we may not agree or get along with the opposition, we have to learn to work alongside each other without compromising our own thoughts and beliefs (being wise). As we do this, we still will encounter persecution, but this means that we are making an impression on that/those person(s).Thurman means that by doing this we are shedding some of God's love on others and are being upright Christians.

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Winstanley, the "other" ordinary radical

By Daniel Ondov on April 16, 2010 11:48 PM | No Comments

Winstanley lived from 1609-1676 and was a tradesman in London. Then he was bankrupted and he became a Baptist lay preacher. After some time, he felt that Indepentent Baptists were too strict so he decided to go off on his own religious paths. In April of 1649, Winstanley started the "Diggers" as it came to be known by digging up the soil and planting crops "on the common land at St. George's Hill in Surrey, south of London" (300). Supposedly, this "common land" was available for all to use, but was being used only for animal grazing, specifically the animals of the "local lord." Thus, the diggers' work (also known as levelers) was very controversial. The reading, "A Declaration from the Poor Oppressed People of England," was written on June 1 of this year and had 45 signatures. After this was published, "a warrent was issued for Winstanley's arrest, but he seems never actually to have been arrested and he continued Digger agitating until the mid 1650s" (300). Eventually, he became a Quaker.

Overall, Winstanley's reason for their right to dig the land was because the land was public and because God or the "King of Righteousness" as Winstanley says, had given the land to everyone; it was not designed for only a few people to use, such as the "local lords." He also feels that this is God's gift to them and that it is for them to dig so that some of the proceeds can also go to the local community and be shared. This is why Winstanley feels that the digging of this land is his right and his duty.

As far as relating this to Claiborne, I think there are several parallels between these to accounts. First, both explained that they did not agree with the rich and powerful having control over these types of things. Also, both would agree that since this was originally public resources, the rich should have no control over it. Second, both explain that it is extremely important for everyone to group together to fight for something meaningful, even if it meant sacrifice and suffering.
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John Wesley's Sermon 28 Blog

By Daniel Ondov on April 10, 2010 12:45 AM | No Comments

This week I chose to reflect on the reading from John Wesley. John Wesley was the "son of a rector(means teacher in Latin) in the Church of England" (316). Wesley studied at Oxford and from then on, he and a group of his friends started being called Methodists because they approached religion with a "methodical approach." This approach consisted of "systematic prayer and good works" and ended up being quite controversial. Wesley had gone on a mission trip to Georgia, which was unsuccessful, and afterwards he had a "conversion experience." After this, Wesley began to powerfully preach abroad and was quite successful. Even though Wesley "never officially left the Church of England, the Methodist movement was already strong and widespread by the time of his death" (316). Wesley's Sermon 28 about the Sermon on the Mount is one that is charecteristic of Wesley's preaching, and is quite interesting.

Wesley's first point about what is NOT forbidden is that we are not forbidden to borrow from others. Wesley does point out that God instructs us to "owe no man anything" (Rom. 13:8) but nevertheless, we are allowed to borrow as long as we plan to be honost and to what is borrowed back. Secondly, it is not forbidden to provide for ourselves the necessities of life. The third point that Wesley makes is that we are not forbidden to "provide for our children, and for those of our own household" (321). Wesley means that we should keep enough money to provide for our families and that we should always have enough to do this. He explains that this doesn't mean that delicacies are needed. Wesley goes on to explain that if a man does not provide for his own children then he has "denied the faith and is worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:8). Lastly, Wesley points out that it is not forbidden to save our money and possessions for the future. We are not to hoard these things, but it is permissible to "lay up, from time to time, what is needful for the carrying on of our worldly business" (321).

Now that my project is finished and I look back on my experiences throughout, I can see that my view of economic success and the desire of many people to have an abudance of money has changed. When I look at an organization like Feed My Starving Children, and how frugally money is spent so that every dollar is used to its full potential, I feel guilty in my own life for sometimes going overboard. So many of people today, myself included, get money and then do not use it as wisely as possible. Just a simple thing like finding the least expensive gas can save several dollars which could be used to support organizations like Feed My Starving Children. Thus, after seeing what power just a dollar or a few hours can have to reduce hunger and save children from dying, money no longer seems as important to me and I feel more willing to give money away. The goal of economic success has been the downfall of thousands in the past and will be in the future, but I know in my own life, I no longer see economic success as a priority and I think I am more focused on serving others with any extra money I have.


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Poehler Lecture Blog

By Daniel Ondov on March 27, 2010 12:17 AM | No Comments

On Tuesday evening of this week, I, and all of my Honor's comrades attended a lecture, that was part of the Poehler Lecture's, by Dr. Loma Meyer. That name should ring a bell because not only was Dr. Meyer a large part of Concordia's past, but Meyer hall was named for her. Dr. Meyer started making her mark in 1967 when she first came to Concordia. She has help various positions throught the years she has spent at Concordia. To name a few specifically, she has been the Executive Vice President, Dean of the Faculty, and a professor at Concordia. Dr. Meyer has also has been president or vice president of many other groups at Concordia and elsewhere.

Throughout her speech, Dr. Meyer had a multiplicity of excellent points and overall the speech was very interesting. The overarching theme of the speech was about the connection between faith and learning. I learned a great deal about Concordia's past and what things are seen happening in the near and distant future. She stressed that even though things may be great at Concordia right now, there are changes needed and she explained what changes have happened. Dr. Meyer talked in some detail about what past presidents have done and how certain presidents have "changed" (there's that word again) Concordia. Since I am in the pre-seminary program, I found Dr. Meyer's statistic on how many people are pursuing a church work study very interesting. Compared to 43 years ago, the percentage has dropped from 93% to 6% today. That is an incredible drop and is certainly a "change." (Hmmm, that word again.) Dr. Meyer also highlighted the Honor's Program and how this was one of many significant implementations President Holst has made. Another point of Dr. Meyer that I really identified with is the implementation of technology. This is a major change that completely changes (boy, twice this time) how students learn and interact. I know that I can't imagine learning without the technology. How awful!

Dr. Meyer certainly made connections to the Honors Program in her speech. Combining faith and learning effectively is almost the mission statement of Honors. There are two connections to Honor's that I think Dr. Meyer made in her speech. The first is technology. The more technology progresses, I can see the Honor's program changing to do more online learning. Technology may allow us to do more activities and to meet together more often. However, my second connection of the future goes hand-in-hand with this. In Honors, I feel that we all become a tight knit group by the end of our two years of Honors. The problem comes with technology becoming too integral to learning. If too much online learning is done, there is a possibility that the sense of family will not be as strong and may dissolve. This would be detrimental to the Honor's Program and this connection needs to be looked at very seriously.

Overall, Dr. Meyer was very intruiging to listen to and I got a lot of insight from it.

Honors Blog 3-20-10

By Daniel Ondov on March 20, 2010 12:05 AM | No Comments
After reading the introductory section on Sor Juana in Callings, it appears that she was oppressed for most of her life. It is unknown exactly when she was born but it was either 1648 or 1651. Sor Juana was born out of wed-lock and by a Spanish soldier in Mexico. Early in life, Sor Juana loved scholarship and thus she was part of the court of the Viceroy in Mexico City. It was highly unlikely that she would be able to find a husband and thus Sor Juana entered a convent in Mexico City. She wrote many plays, essays, poems, etc.; many of which the Archbishop of Mexico dissaproved of. In fact, he also dissaproved of women "devoting themselves to scholarship at all. This all led to Sor Juana writing this letter entitled, "Reply to Sor Philothea." In this letter, Sor Juana defends her calling to be a scholar. This letter is written to the Bishop of Puebla but because of the culture, Sor Juana wrote it as if she was writing to another nun. It was discovered, however, that Sor Juana had written the letter to the Bishop and was "forced into public repentance and then silence." Soon after, Sor Juana died of plague.

 

It appears that Sor Juana had many obstacles that she had to face during her life. She spends most of page 257 talking about how the fact that she didn't know all these different areas of learning, and that she didn't have a teacher to help her understand caused her to not learn all that she wanted to. Sor Juana felt a calling to learn as much as she could about everything, but without the proper resources, she found that difficult. Sor Juana says, "I considered it necessary to ascend the steps of human arts and sciences" and "How, lacking logic, was I to understand the general and specific methodologies of shich Holy Scripture is composed?" God was calling Sor Juana to study the scriptures in depth, but she felt that she couldn't because she didn't have enough knowledge. Sor Juana also speaks on page 259 about being "singled out." She explains that she feels that since she has been singled out, she is viewed as "everyone's enemy" because she is taking the spotlight. Sor Juana doesn't seem to want recognition and sees it as an obstacle. All Sor Juana wants to do is to serve the Lord and follow her calling to learn.

When looking at my life and obstacles that I have faced, there are only a few that I see that have made an impact. The first of these is that there never seems to be enough time to properly fulfill my calling. There are many groups and activites I would like to be involved in to further my knowledge of the Bible and of Jesus, but there is never enough time, it seems, to do even the necessary tasks. I can definately see this in my project. I deeply love working at Feed My Starving Children, but there always seems to be something that I deem more important or higher priority. I would love to do more than 100 hours of volunteer service, but time is an obstacle. Overall, however, I think that the Lord has made it fairly clear to me what my calling is, and how I should go about fulfilling that calling to be a pastor. Of course, there are many small obstacles that come up, but the Lord always seems to be there to help me over them. I get a lot of inspiration when I read stories like this one by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. I am amazed at how Sor Juana always trusted in the Lord and never appeared to doubt. Even though Sor Juana had obstacles of not having a teacher, not having the proper resources, etc., she still put complete trust in the Lord and trusted that as long as she did as much as could to fulfill her calling, God would do the rest. I hope that I can be more like Sor Juana and that I can grow closer and closer to God so I can fulfill my calling as best as I can.

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Blog on Dr. Raheb's Convocation

By Daniel Ondov on March 10, 2010 11:08 PM | No Comments

One week ago today, I got the chance to hear Dr. Raheb speak at Concordia about his background and things he has experienced as Christian in Palestine. He is also a Lutheran pastor, just like I will be (probably not in Palestine though, but who knows?). It was very interesting to note that Dr. Raheb grew up in the heart of Bethlehem, very near to where Mary gave birth to Jesus. The Greek Orthodox Christians are probably one of the biggest groups of Christians in this area. Also, Dr. Raheb's family was part of the Greek Orthodox. Dr. Raheb, however, became a Lutheran pastor because Dr. Raheb's partents died when he was fairly young, and he was "adopted" by an orphanage in Syria. This was where he first was exposed to protestant beliefs. Later, Father Schneller confirmed Dr. Raheb as a pastor and from then on he has favored protestant beliefs.

Dr. Raheb started off his speech by talking about how the Muslims first got control of the Middle East. Then he discussed how even though there are Christians in that area, the amounts have been going down hill. What really started the downhill movement of the number of Christians is when the Muslims started taxing all non-Muslims. Some Christians didn't want to pay the tax and so they became Muslims. One major misconception is that all people that are Arabic are Muslim and vice-versa. Throughout his speech, Dr. Raheb emphasized that there are many Arabians throughout the world that are not Muslim. Another big factor in the decreasing numbers of Christinas is that when the Crusades happened, Arabic Christians did not look like what they defined as a "regular" Christian and thus didn't like them. One thing that I really found interesting was that, even though Palestine is 98% Muslim, Christians head over 30% of the organizations and also run over 45% of Non-Governmental Organizations. The Prime Minister of that area said that Christians are a large part of Palestine. What is interesting is that the Prime Minister is Muslim.

For my insights, I was surprised at how interesting the convocation was, and how much I learned. I think one thing that was impressed upon me is how extremely diverse and widespread Christianity is. I never would have guessed how a 2% population of Christians in Palestine could do so much. This shows me how important it is to know what the different issues are between the different parts of Christianity so that we can discuss them and inspire other people. One other insight that I got was that there is a fairly large chance for many other Muslim's in Palestine to become Christinas. Dr. Raheb and groups of Christians have already helped to open a university in Bethlehem. There is a good mix of Christians and Muslims in this school and from this, there should be a good chance for a lot of the Muslims to convert to Christianity. Overall, I learned how such amazing things can be done with God's help. There is just soo much we can do to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we want to and if we try.

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First Honors Blog of 2010

By Daniel Ondov on January 24, 2010 10:10 PM | No Comments

       Well, as we start a new semester and new blogs I thought it would be good to write about someone I have done reading on before. I am writing about the Martyrdom of Perpetua.
I read about Perpetua in another class I took and I found her interesting at that time as well. Most likely, Perpetua's martyrdom was in A.D. 203. The account in Callings, probably was written by Tertullian, most likely soon after Perpetua's Martyrdom. In Callings, Perpetua's autobiographical account of the events is also included. One thing I noticed that Placher wrote in the introductory information was about the Romans and their, well, lets call them policies, about killing christians. I this introduction, Plachersays that the Romans really didn't want to kill the Christians but only wanted to make it harder for them to follow their cause. Usually, according to Placher, the Romans just made a Christian who had been caught do some kind of service for the emperor. Thus, for Perpetua to get caught and also matryed for her faith she would have had to have been VERY public about her faith. She also would have had to have been committed to her faith because she didn't make any compromises.

       In this reading, there wasn't a lot of mention of Christian community. In my opinion, the only real contact that Perpetua and her other prison friends had was when Pomponius and Tertius came to visit and then talked the guards into moving Perpertua and some of the others into better conditions in the prison. Perpetua also probably had community with her fellow Christians in the prison. From what I can see, the community of Christians in that day mainly had the purpose of caring for their fellow Christians and also trying to keep their spirits upbeat.

       As Christians today, we certaintly don't have to be scared about being imprisoned or killed for our faith, and we don't have to worry about that happening very soon in the future either. Their also isn't a very high chance of very much persecution either. There is definately a lot of people in the world, though, that do not like Christians because of how they live and will do a lot of things to make life miserable for them. What is interesting about this is that even though there isn't matyrdom here in the US and there isn't imprisonment for having a certain faith, the Christian community's social purpose is really very similar, that is it's purpose is to help and encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. From this we can see that it is extremely important to keep our fellow Christians in our prayers. It is also important to show extra support for them when trouble and ridicule does come. Also, in the future there may be times when physical persecution does come, as our world seems to be going this direction. This shows us that it is more important than ever to have a strong Christian community.

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