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October 14th, 2010
04:49 PM ET
The story behind the Chilean miners' Jesus T-ShirtsAs miners were being pulled from Chile's San Jose mine Wednesday, most were wearing tan T-shirts over their coveralls. The Chilean government told reporters the green coveralls were designed to help absorb the sweat as they ascended to the top. But Wes Little, a CNN editor/producer in Atlanta, wondered why the miners were wearing the T-shirt over their coveralls. He noticed a logo on the T-shirt's left sleeve for the Jesus Film Project.
Here's what we found: The Jesus Film Project is a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, the massive Orlando, Florida-based evangelical ministry. The Jesus Film Project tells us they have translated the film into 1,105 languages and that it has been seen in every country. You can watch or listen to over a 1,000 of the translations here. The main goal of TJFP's ministry is to create and distribute effective media in every language, says Berry Fiess, the group's director of field information services. Seventeen days into the mine accident, CCCI country director for Chile, Christian Maureira, started contacting public officials to see if they could send the miners a copy of the film. Fiess said Maureira was able to reach a daughter and a brother of miner Jose Henriquez. Through that family contact, the group was able to send an MP3 audio version of the Jesus film and an MP3 audio version of the New Testament in Spanish to Henriquez down in the mine. The Jesus film explains that the New Testament tells how Jesus is laid in a tomb-like cave after his crucifixion. Three days later, Jesus is said to have risen from the dead. In the Jesus film, women come to the tomb and find the stone that blocked the entrance has been rolled away, the cave empty. It is unclear if the miners saw the resurrection story as a parallel for their hoped-for rescue, but Jose Henriquez passed along a letter to CCCI's Maureira from inside the mine. Fiess shared the English translation with CNN:
"At the end of the letter," Fiess said, "(Henriquez) said goodbye with Psalm 95:4, which says, 'In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.'" A few days later, Henriquez asked Maureira to get them special T-shirts. "The T-shirts were a gift from Campus Crusade for Christ Chile," Fiess said. "In the front you can read, 'Gracias Senor' - 'Thank you Lord.'" And on the back, Psalm 95:4. "Apparently, all the miners liked them," Fiess said. "It kind of solidified them." |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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God does not cause tragedy. Tragedy is just the reality of our world. God gave us free will to choose him or not and that is the awesome nature of who he is. He loves us all but we choose whether to accept that love and grace or not. For those who do we come to see our world with more internal peace but we still make mistakes, have illness, heartache and die. Life here is temporary. Lets try not to judge each other and just realize some choose His promise of eternal life and the benefit of knowing the love of Jesus on earth and some choose not to give this a try. Sometimes we Christians get too judgmental and turn people away. Be Christ like and love everyone and let people see Jesus in us. I mean he of course is the ideal of not judging others. He
@EMM
"God does not cause tragedy." you said. LOL ...then may I direct you to those who believe in intelligent design? They appear to think that God does every little tiny thing that has ever happened ever....LOL Go get 'em! LOL
33 miners saved by the hands of man.
250,000 tsunami victims killed by your great god.
I agree with god: there are way too many religious idiots crowding our planet.
I hate to have to admit this, but you have made me doubt God. I can no longer believe in an intelligent God that allowed you to come into existence.
Jesus lives, Jesus lives, Jesus lives who was crucified ... Jesus lives and so too shall I.
Praising God with you and your families.
I'm amazed......I could mention any random name, and offend not a soul.............but mention the name 'Jesus', and heckles go up all over. Reminds me of a line of a song I know...."He will be the truth that will offend them one and all........." Truth offends. And because he IS truth, he is offensive to those who do not cherish that precious name.....Jesus. If that name offends you so.....you might wish to ask yourself, "why?"
@Kathy
Heckles might go up all over,yes, but not hackles for Jesus is just a name in the Bible and used by many people to name their children with. This is a heckle. I am heckling you and your silly post. 😛
@Kathy
Maybe for some the name jesus, has now bec-o-me conditioned to mean something other than what Jesus supposedly professed.
It has been my experience that 'most'... not all, but most fundamental christians justify their actions in the name of jesus... like forcing religion into politics(separation–church/government), making a-bortion the single biggest issue to care about in politics, lack of the ability to make the emotional and cognitive leap to realize that gays deserve equal rights under the law, just as every other human being, teaching religion (Idesign=earth was created with the dinosaurs only 6k years ago)... etc..etc..
If the fundamental christians just practiced love and compassion, and didn't try to run my life through their beliefs, I would be better with that.
So, that is one 'big' reason when many here the name of Jesus, they are not hearing the truth as you said, but a distorted, bas-ta-rd-ized version of what his *true* message might have really been.
I don't understand why people who are not religious post on religious articles. It's call the Belief Blog, so you know it's going to talk about religious beliefs. Why go out of your way to read an article you know will irritate you so you can then insult the people who agree with it? You're picking a fight. It's not like someone interrupted your dinner with a knock at your door and forced a bible on you. You didn't have to click the link.
They tricked us into clicking! We wanted to know about those darn T-shirts and then we got sucked into la la land. But, I'll blow out now and leave you all to your dreams of the great hereafter. Have fun sitting around hanging out with God! As for me, I guess I'm going to that "other place". LOL. But that's okay... that's were all of the cool people go. Sitting around on a cloud day in and day out for eternity would be boring. Plus, I heard you guys won't let some of my wonderful, generous gay friends in, so that's a deal breaker. Good luck with all that! Oh... and if you do get up "there", please do me a favor. Punch God in the nose for me for being such a tyrant over the centuries. Uh-oh, I just heard something screeching....
there are many credible reasons to believe in God. Those of you who think God is delusion, I can understand why considering our age of scientific naturalism. But I'm not even talking yet about Jesus or Buddha or Allah but just the fact that there is a creator. Consider the Kalam argument. In simple terms it goes like this:
1. Everything that begins has a cause
2. The Universe has a beginning
3. Therefore, the Universe has a cause
Scientific discovery for the Big Bang supports the Universe did in fact begin at a point in time. Also the fact that there is no such thing as a true infinite in real life. If there was an infinite regress of temporal events, then we would never experience time because the next moment would take an infinity to be reached. You can not have an infinite regression in our time/space reality.
I know there are naturalistic arguments for that ultimate cause. But at that point without even arguing their merits and whichever position you take, will take faith. Because what we know as "nature" simply did not exist at the Beginning. From everything we see, it would be completely reasonable to believe an infinite self-sustaining mind willed this universe into being. When we consider the delicate nature of the conditions required for life to exist in this universe, it would be reasonable to consider it was an intelligent mind that designed this universe. so no, believing in God is not some delusion. for some it may be based on irrational belief but it is not in itself irrational to believe there is a God and creator to this magnificent universe we live in.
@Theism defended
I have read your comment. You sound intelligent. You didn't just start posting bible passages to me.
I would love to discuss this with you, but tomorrow is a work day for me. I am fortunate enough to be able to comment throughout the workday. Multi_tasking!
Any rate when I can I will post my thoughts. Please watch for them. I enjoy talking about the possibility of a creator.
Happy Trails!
i look forward to our discussion david johnson and anyone else willing to have a reasonable discussion on the merits of God, Christianity, etc. i see many of your points. i don't necessarily agree but I can see your point.
The Kalam argument is very intriguing. Of course I have to start by questioning statement 1.
Does everything that begins have a cause? When a tree falls, it BEGINS to fall. Was there a cause in that? I don't think so, at least not in how I am perceiving "cause." I'm sure you've given this more thought than I have, so please enlighten me.
The universe doesn't need a first cause. The big bang could be just a continuation of something that has always been happening. Think of of it as a expansion and contraction that is infinite and oscillating. Easier for me to believe that than the other tripe men and women fight and die needlessly over.
@Theism defended
Ah. An "intelligent design" argument. Debunked over and over. I am trying to avoid long posts (a growing problem), so I will just point you towards the door marked "logical fallacies" and speed you on your merry way.
Your understanding of physics must be pretty limited, if you can point to random chance and call it intelligent, or the physical absurdities that are to be found everywhere in biological life.
If there is a "God" who created the universe, he is not listening to people like you, I would guess, or perhaps he is hiding from everyone. His absence is marked by all, yet used by religious people as proof that he exists.
Random accidents prove nothing, no matter how complicated they may appear to the untrained eye or those ignorant of physics. They are the simplest of things piled high, wide, and deep. Chemical bonds come together with only a few requirements to make them happen – and when they do you would shout that God exists! These chemicals have come together!
But they were going to anyway. Duh. No designer needed.
No, you need to research logic and rules of evidence and a few other things. Please do so, if only for the sake of those children who need the truth and not some wild anti-science nonsense that threatens your religious texts.
Do it for the children and give up defending the indefensible lies and wild-eyed fear-mongers words that drove you to this.
Science, if God exists, is something he should approve of, don't you think? (that wasn't too long of a post, was it?) 😛
@Theism defended.
Yes, I am aware of the Kalam argument. Raison is right about that. Most of the proofs for god's existence, have been chewed so long, they lack flavor. Smarter people than me have pondered them. You can look up any of them, and read the criticisms.
raison, thank you for your post. i guess i should read more because from what i read from what you posted, I don't see any critique of intelligent design other than you stating it has been debunked and your attack on my poor logic. i hate long posts too. but it's hard to put forth a reasonable discussion without some substance and length.
btw, i am a sciences major. in fact, i am a biological sciences major from a UC school. so I'm quite familiar with the arguments for evolution etc, at least the ones up until 1994 when I graduated. : ) i'm sure much has been advanced since then and i'm no scholar by any means. but i think the Kalam argument is a pretty strong syllogism for a creator. i've read many of the critiques and i'm not impressed. I am familiar with the oscillating universe theory. the issue i have with that is entropy and 2nd law of thermodynamics. i know in the oscillating theory of the universe, that it should never reach equilibrium so we don't see a heat death or cold death but entropy increases with each cycle of in such a model. so it can go forward infinitely but as one traces the oscillations back in time, they become increasingly smaller until you reach the first oscillation which brings us back to a beginning again. it is infinite in future but finite in past. there are other issues with the conditions of entropy needed at the contraction of such an event that i believe prove problematic. so no, I don't think you're position is that full proof. it has holes in it too.
most of your critique and what i read a lot in this forum are ad hominem arguments that attack the people rather than the merits of the argument. i don't see a lot of fruit in that. there are many old proofs for the existence of God, etc. But they are far from debunked. the reason why they are still around is because they are still considered very viable. I could be wrong, if I am ...feel free to post a link and I'll read it.
but I really think theism is a more reasonable cohesive thought system to the world we see and live in than what you propose. but if you are so into logic, i would try to avoid ad hominem arguments and tearing down the other person. if i am wrong, i will be glad to accept that but your condescending tone isn't too helpful in my opinion.
one more thing...i do believe in science. i believe God gave us the enterprise of science. what I am against is scientism. science is a sector of knowledge not some all-inclusive world-view. your position that science can solve everything does not help science but rather distorts it. your comments on chemistry and bonds I have no idea what that is about. believe i understand how it works. but that is besides the point. showing that chemicals bond together or whatever is very different than showing how they got there in the first place. that's a very different argument.
@Theism defended
An interesting response(s). Yes, I need to try harder to avoid those wonderful ad hominem attacks against those I see in an unflattering light. I am trying to become a better person, and I value your calmly stated attempt at correction of my obvious fault.
I have a personal theory regarding certain aspects of cosmology that I scratched out by myself, wanting a "tabula rasa" view untainted by the hundreds of new physics papers that come out every month. It is impossible for me to keep up with them so I do not try.
I did this because I was needing a more comprehensive view of the universe, and it would help immensely as I wrote my science fiction novel to have done some "universe-building" along the way to help with the plot.
But I am not a physicist nor do I have the math skills for it. But I tried to make sure that none of what I came up with contradicted any modern results of which I was aware.
As an agnostic, I cannot rule out the possibility that what we see has been "created" by some intelligent application of force, but when I examine and compare what I know of physical forces, I find a definite lack of any pattern that would suggest deliberate design. But it all needs to fit together and make sense with what we see. Those are some reason why I am an agnostic. It has to make sense or there is no sense in believing in it. I hope you can understand that. It seems like the only way to look at anything with any hope of understanding.
Energy is an amazing thing, yet it obeys physical laws as far as we have been able to determine. I am not saying that this is the last word or that everything is known, but what we've got so far is pretty comprehensive if you are looking for "deliberate patterns" that would suggest "conscious design". There aren't any as such – but perhaps time and research will show us something different, like what you and I and many others have been hoping for to resolve the question.
"Time will tell" is a good phrase. It works for many situations.
What bothers me so often in discussions like these, is that so many people seem convinced that this time-space continuum that we can see all around us is all that there is – that there is nothing but this one single place so often referred to as "The Universe" when it is clear they are only referring to the four-dimensional space we occupy and where we see so many galaxies laid out fairly randomly.
There are almost surely larger dimensions than this one, dimensions which work in strange and incomprehensible ways.
Time is a fascinating subject in physics, as is the rest.
Is it not curious that without time there is no movement, no energy perhaps, maybe even no physical laws? Yet even with all of these wonderful speculations, there does not seem to be any place for "conscious design" to fit.
This is one of the reasons why I sometimes wonder if God exists only in a different and separate dimension (eh?) and does not interact with our continuum except in a very tiny way. A VERY tiny way. This possibility would satisfy both the physicists and the spiritualists, but proof? Good luck with that! I am talking about multi-dimensional physics, higher and incomprehensibly complicated dimensions, and even "meta-dimensions", all of which are way beyond my understanding but not my speculation, if you get my drift....
Sure, the jury is still out on this problem, but the issue of "patterns" is pretty clear so far, yet there is always the possibility that there might be a pattern of some influence that we cannot see any evidence of as yet.
I am keeping my door open for the possibility that God exists. He does not need to knock. But everything I have run into is like a prank ringing of the neighbor's doorbell, if you can wrap your head around that one....!
Another long post. This is fun. My keyboard is sure to fall to pieces some day. 😀
raison, i really appreciate your thoughtful response, humble tone and genuine desire to understand this world and wanting to be a better person. i re-read my response and I apologize if i came across less than cordial. i also love the tabla rasa reference. not many may know what that is so thank you for that. if you wrote a science fiction novel, i'm pretty sure i'd read it since i'm a fanboy too. if we were in one of your multi-verses, I'd probably enjoy a good point of guinness with you. but i digress.
i respect your stance and i think i understand your position. you want things to make sense with what you see but also feel not all the info is in for the jury and are hoping some discovery will put it altogether or at least enough to make sense of it. an agnostic to me makes sense. i actually am not a fan of "design patterns" etc as they are teleological arguments which I don't consider as strong. but at the end of the day, I could see from your position that there could be other multi-verses etc. where there is this creator who started it all. i just see that as heaven.
for me? there are only 2 causes we know of in the universe; either a physical one or agent based ones (persons). i just think a personal being as the 1st cause makes the most sense to me. what someone finds persuasive varies for each person. for me, like begets like. And since we are personal beings, it would make sense to me that if there is a creator, that creator would be a personal agent/being. if it was a being, it would be immutable or non-changing (since it's out of time); immensely powerful, incorporeal (without a body or like a spirit) and eternal. That sounds a lot like the Judeo/Christian or Mulsim God to me. But I can understand your position. I just saw your other post to Nathan, and I know the Bible to you doesn't make sense. If you can get past the seeming contradictions, there is actually a pretty cohesive thought system.
ok...g2g but have a great day. thanks for posting and I enjoy reading your responses!
Praise God!!! What a beautiful story of faith. God Bless all of them:)
Can't we just leave out religion/beliefs and just be happy for these men?
@Madelyn
Yes. Very easily, in fact. No one seems to be angry that they have been rescued. Everyone seems glad that they made it out okay, including me...and I hope you as well.
They are very glad to be safe, I am sure. The efforts by so many to help them is good to see. No one is mocking them. Take a look a little closer at these posts if you don't believe me.
It's not even about being a believer or not...it's respecting that these men ARE believers. I am a skeptic, but I will never disrespect these men's faith in their beliefs to help through a time that you and I will probably NEVER come close to experiencing. I don't care if you believe or don't...why not just respect what people do believe without coming off like pompous asses? It's not like they were telling us that if we don't believe, that we will be condemned...that's where I draw the line.
I totally agree! It would be like going to a mental ward and laughing at the patients. Not cool.
Only 3 of them were xtians. 3 out of 33 makes ~9%. Hardly the majority and it makes me think what the majority had to put up with being trapped underground with the '3'
I continue to see all these posts stating "hail jesus". This is somewhat an insult to humanity. The sheer amount of manpower, intellect and will is the sole reason why the rescue was possible. It's an incredible event, but it was the people that made it happen. Posting incredibly broad scriptures (which the "good book" is consistent of) proves absolutely no solidarity to a "divine power". Human's are capable of incredible things, let's give us some credit.
congratulations to humanity, which created the oxygen that we take for granted every day.
Oxygen is a naturally occurring element in our universe that is widely dispersed amongst it.
just sayin there was a lot of groundwork laid in order for all that sheer intellect to be used.
Bottom line is this was a real marketing coup for CCC which sort of cheapens the euphoria surrounding this great accomplishment, regardless of whether it was orchestrated by mere mortals or assisted by a divine being!.
No doubt the donations will really start to flow to them now! Free publicity, pro or con is a marketers dream com true.
I am quite surprised that alcohol, soft drink or even cigarrette companies didn't jockey for placement on the T-Shirts.
Maybe they thought correctly that it would seem too tacky.
I thought the same thing when I read the headline and was told about this story. Then I read the article and it seems that is something that the Miner's wanted to do, as opposed to being paid to do it. If that's the case, it's not at all tacky, its purely genuine.
If I had a short chance at a similar platform, I'd speak up for a cause I believed in as well (which would likely be superior math education).
No philosophers here I see.
Listenandyouwillhear
WHAT IF!!!!!!!!!!! God,Jesus, and the Holy Spirit does exist? Those who believe and repent will be with Him for all eternity. There is a place for those who don't accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you would like to go for a swim in a lake of fire for your eternal life, then DON'T believe. You may not understand how it all works. It's because He is God and we are like baby's to Him. Even those who are knowledgeable are like baby's just beginning to walk. Trust Him, HE knows all and obviously, we don't need to know everything-not yet, but it may not be long before the Truth is Revealed.
HE IS REAL. TRUST ME I KNOW!!!! REMEMBER YOU READ THIS AND WERE WARNED.
(for Christians – know that some will not believe until it's too late-unfortunately!)
@Listenandyouwillhear
Oh yeah! I believe you now. After all, you typed it in caps! No one has ever done that for me before. How convincing.
The mockery towards Christianity and Christ in these responses makes my heart ache.
None of these Christians are in any way trying to force their beliefs on others that are reading their comments, so why the disdain? Can't you just choose to ignore them, and move along?
While I don't condone the mockery of any religion, it saddens me to see Christianity the butt of jokes, yet Islam appears to be off-limits...
@burritos
First time on the internet, huh?
WHAT IF!!!!!!!!!!! God,Jesus, and the Holy Spirit does exist? Those who believe and repent will be with Him for all eternity. There is a place for those who don't accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you would like to go for a swim in a lake of fire for your eternal life, then DON'T believe. You may not understand how it all works. It's because He is God and we are like baby's to Him. Even those who are knowledgeable are like baby's just beginning to walk. Trust Him, HE knows all and obviously, we don't need to know everything-not yet, but it may not be long before the Truth is Revealed.
HE IS REAL. TRUST ME I KNOW!!!! REMEMBER YOU READ THIS AND WERE WARNED.
(for Christians – know that some will not believe until it's too late-unfortunately!)
LOL! Thanks for the advice... but I prefer to take my chances with reality. But good luck with all that. Have fun in heaven sitting around for eternity with god. Hope it's not boring.
These miners survived because of the faith they had in God. Perhaps many of you wonder why God would not let other miners survive in the past, well it's in his hands but the people have the freedom to make the decision if they have the will to live or not. Sometimes people give up in tough situations. They infiltrate their minds and wonder why God would put them in that situation and begin blaming him. That is not the way it works. God does not create disasters to hurt people. He brings people together in light of them. We take planet Earth for granted too often. Please atheists, if you have nothing nice to say, i advise you do not say anything. Do not tell Christians that God is fake. We will not tell you he is real. It is in your heart and conscience as to what you believe.
It's curious to me that the atheists posting here do not seem to have the intellectual capacity to consider that there could be a spiritual being that is far more intelligent and all knowing than they are. David, doodbis and others seem convinced that they know everything about the entire world and universe, almost like they possess all knowledge! How else can they know FOR SURE that God does not exist? They are also quite intolerant of others beliefs, most especially these amazing Chilean miners who chose to wear these shirts of their own free will. It must have meant a lot to them to make such a statement. How could someone who claims to be so intelligent have such disdain for these fine men!
Atheistic materialism of the sort that people like David follow is borne out of arrogance. They don't want to accept that humans are merely a part in something much larger than them. And, no – it can't examined under a microscope!
@Frank
Hold up. I have decided to live and let live. But if you attack me then I promise I will not be quiet. The ball is in your court. You should read the comments on our exchanges.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/songwriter-not-done-telling-the-story-of-your-life/
Happy Trails.
David, I did not start this. You pretty much do nothing but attack others. I only am less than nice when I am attacked. Maybe you should take a break from the Internet. All this is is words on a screen. You put too much value into it.
I have said that people should be respectful of other people's views and stop tearing each other down. And then you called me a 'joke' and left. I'm just going to stop replying to you.
@Frank
I am not going to post to you, or use your name in any post to anyone else. I would like you to do the same.
I will decide when I need a break from the internet.
Happy Trails!
That's nice to see that they have hope in something higher. We need more stories like this.
For the reason's above.. post's shouldn't be allowed. It's easy to sit and mock or preach behind a computer screen. It's also easy to say we are religiously tolerant people, read all above, clearly not. I think it's time that we all grow up and just be decent with each other. You don't have to believe in any religion, maybe you should, but you don't have to; you should however be respectful enough to be considerate of other's beliefs, both by not saying rude things, as well as by not preaching things like "your going to hell suckers" over the internet just to put in your opinion. Even if it's true, it's not the place to say that and most definitely not the way to. More than learning religious tolerance, maybe we should learn respect first.
For the reason's above.. post's shouldn't be allowed. It's easy to sit and mock or preach behind a computer screen. It's also easy to say we are religiously tolerant people, read all above, clearly not. I think it's time that we all grow up and just be decent with each other. You don't have to believe in any religion, maybe you should, but you don't have to; you should however be respectful enough to be considerate of other's beliefs, both by not saying rude things, as well as by not preaching things like "your going to hell suckers" over the internet just to put in your opinion. Even if it's true, it's not the place to say that and most definitely not the way to. More than learning religious tolerance, maybe we should learn respect first