Bush's Long-Range Space Initiative May Place Communities Millions of Miles from Earth and Grace

PASADENA, CA – President Bush's announcement this week regarding the United States' long-range goal of establishing permanent residence on the moon and then Mars has the scientific community elated, but it also has many groups worried that individuals may not be able to attain salvation living so far from Earth. Most notably, Focus on the Family is promoting a formal petition to the administration with hopes that it will reconsider its objectives.

Bush's announcement comes in the wake of NASA's huge achievement in its successful deployment of Spirit—a golf cart sized robot equipped to gather rocks and soil on Mars. Spirit's goal is to determine if liquid water could have persisted in the supposed ancient lakebed long enough for life to develop on the now desolate planet. Hopes are high right now—mostly because last spring before launch Spirit successfully gathered rocks and soil on Earth. Water and life were also found.

Kenneth Erff, public relations director for Focus on the Family, asserted, "Whether or not Spirit ever finds life there, I definitely think we should consider Mars an enemy planet!" In response to some confusion from THO, Erff continued, "At the very least it's one of Satan's playgrounds, which he'll use to lure humans away from God's plan and salvation. I mean a trip to the Moon or Mars is one thing, but living there is a recipe for damnation. I can't advocate a plan that would place children born in these locations in a position where they cannot receive God's gift of eternal life!"

Proponents of the movement against permanent residence on the Moon and Mars cite Scripture in their defense. "How could 'For God so loved the world' be any clearer?" explains Penny Draught, president of the newly formed Christians Against Extra-Earth Residence (CAEER). "John speaks so plainly when he says 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!' (John 1:29)." Scripture reeks of the concept that Jesus only came to save the world—not the Moon or Mars!"

Don Claymont, secretary of petitions for CAEER, agrees and added, "Even if you could be saved while living permanently on the Moon—which I highly doubt—how pleasing would your life be to God when you can't even begin to carry out your portion of the great commission? You can ignore your calling to spread the gospel to the ends of the Earth, but God certainly won't ignore your ignoring when it comes time for the world's final judgment! That is, if He even realizes you're out there."

This morning, Focus on the Family, CAEER, the Christian student group 9.8 4-Ever, and others released a joint statement in opposition to permanent residence away from Earth. The document also clarifies that crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) remain within the physical boundaries of God's current offer of salvation because "they can still see the Earth really well." It adds, "But God knows if their hearts are living outside our atmosphere."

Media have not received an official response from the Bush administration regarding the petition. Although, as news of this was released to aides after Bush's address on Wednesday THO reporters believe they overheard one aide mutter "They can permanently reside in my…"

Surprisingly, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, had little to say when asked what he thought of the theological basis for the petition. "You know, I really don't know. This must have been the board's decision," Dobson responded.

Ok, I know this will provoke some strong debate, even though it is a fairly old article, but let’s try to keep it civilized.

I have met some Christians who hold the view that we should in no way attempt to live off the Earth, that it is in violation of Revelations and therefore a violation of God's will. I am a Christian and do not believe this, but I would be interested in hearing from both sides.

I checked the web and could find no further comments from this group, and I did a pretty thorough search

Again, let's try to keep the arguments down to a dull roar and not insult anybody.

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We at The Holy Observer want to let you in on a little secret: we are all really serious about Christianity. We cling to our faith in the one triune God and affirm the classic Christian consensus—those essentials of the faith that have been believed by all Christians, everywhere, and stated best in documents such as the Apostle's Creed.

That said, we are acutely aware of two facts that drive the content on this site:

1. Laughter is good for the soul.
2. Satire is an appropriate way—and maybe one of the better ways—to comment on the state of Christianity as it is believed and practiced today.

Christians, at times, take themselves too seriously! We can poke fun at the idiosyncrasies that we all have without crossing the line into sacrilege. Just because Christ and the Holy Bible are sacred, doesn't mean that everything that humans do in the name of Christianity is sacred. Every other belief or ideal that we hold apart from our religion has always been open game. We poke fun at politics, our jobs, and even our families. It's healthy. It helps us point out the inconsistencies and ridiculousness in our lives in a lighthearted and constructive way. The same should be true for our religious practices. We are human, and our practice of religion is imperfect, just as we all are imperfect. Pointing that out in a good-natured, lighthearted way is not sacrilegious. In fact, it's constructive. So read our articles looking for the message behind the jab, and have a good laugh. We hope that it helps you take yourself a little less seriously.

One common misconception about this type of humor is that it fosters disunity and animosity among Christians of different traditions and worship styles. Ironically, much of our content that is accused of this is actually designed in a way that we believe brings to light some of the ridiculous presumptions and stereotypes that are the premises of the text. That is, the attacker many times ends up looking more ignorant than the attacked—which is probably the case with many of the issues that cause real division within the church. We fully support the prayer of Christ where he calls all believers to be one "so that the world may believe" (John 17).

On the other hand, we also believe it is reasonable to question and criticize certain behaviors, beliefs, and practices of supposed Christians. God surely gives each of us grace to cover our theological shortcomings, but part of our conversation with God and others must include a humble analysis of differing belief systems.

Ultimately, the actions of any individual can be unhealthy if the motivation is not based on godly ideals. Our intention (besides our intention to make you laugh) is not to harm, but to provoke thought and to keep the human aspects of our relationship with God in proper perspective. We cannot emphasize enough the gravity and seriousness of dealing rightly with the eternal verities of life.

We love Jesus; we love our religion; and we love the church, despite of all its gaffes and blunders (after all, we are all only human!). Thanks for laughing along with us, and hopefully we will all "go on from grace to grace" (to quote John Wesley) and make this world a better place while we're all here together.

Sincerely,

THO Staff

We have to remember that the Bible was written for peoples living in ancient times. They needed a simple message which related to the environment around them. Guess there are those that want to limit His sovereignty to this planet. What happened to the belief that he was the ORIGINAL CAUSE? There are good pious people who believe every letter of the Word. That's ok. There are other good pious people who are more selective. That's ok, too.
We shouldn't take offense if some people have to see things on a smaller scale. Even in the polytheistic societies, there was always ONE GOD more potent/revered than the others.
Hopefully in another incarnation we'll see things a bit more
clearly. Pity the poor individual who HAS to know all now!

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