December 7, 2007

Weekly Round-Up: Uganda, Romney and His Mormon Faith, and the Future of Evangelical Missions

Another Friday brings another weekly round-up of recent news related to East Africa, Christianity, missions, defending the faith, and cults:

1) "Four epidemics hit Uganda," in the Daily Monitor newspaper (Uganda). Uganda is continuing to struggle with many health challenges. Four problems are addressed in this article: an ebola outbreak, the rise of meningitis and bubonic plague, cholera, and yellow fever. Let us pray for our Lord to help meet the needs of these people!

2) Mitt Romney, "Faith In America." Whatever your view of Republican residential candidate Mitt Romney, you cannot deny the importance of the speech he gave this week. My intent is not to begin a discussion on the relationship between church and state or whether evangelicals can vote for a Mormon. I also do not plan on commenting on or analyzing Romney's address. Such responses are already abundant and can easily be found throughout the internet. Nevertheless, I have linked to the official transcript for those interested to read what he had to say. I pray that Romney's candidacy will not lead evangelicals to cower in fear, but that we can use this opportunity to help others understand the differences and incompatibility of Latter-day Saints doctrine with historic Christian teaching.

3) David Hesselgrave, "Will We Correct the 'Edinburgh Error'?—Future Mission in Historical Perspective" (a paper available online in PDF format). Hesselgrave is a veteran missionary and well-respected scholar who is seeking to keep evangelical missions on a solid doctrinal and biblical footing. Here is his introduction:

No missionary gathering impacted 20th century missions as did the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910. No single error was as significant as the “Edinburgh error.” Currently, missionary conferences of various kinds and with a variety of agendas are routine and Edinburgh centennials are slated for Edinburgh (again), Tokyo, Cape Town and elsewhere in 2010. Will organizers of these and numerous other missionary conferences on the drawing boards correct the “error of Edinburgh”? How important is it that they do?