The Conservative Christian Case for Gay Marriage

This article is originally published here.

Recently there has been a vitriolic national discussion on an issue that in many ways has been confusing. Never before have I seen such hate surround the desire to love. Never have I seen such a clash between passion for God, and compassion for God's people. They used to be one and the same.
The debate surrounding the exact legal definition of marriage has exploded with the passage of Proposition 8 and the subsequent rejection of the bill's legitimacy by a federal court. It seems everybody has a horse in this race: the LGBTQI community has equality at stake, the suburban happily-weds feel the exclusivity of their unions threatened, and David's Bridal waits with bated breath to try out its new line of wedding dresses with in-seams and zipper-flies. But I am deeply uncomfortable when I see one particular dog in this fight, one that I didn't at first expect: the multi-gendered, often unfaithful, Bride of Christ.
I am ill at ease with the Church playing such a dominant role in this national discussion. As a defender of the separation of Church and State, and an evangelical pastor situated very near California, I am stunned to see other Christians so eagerly throwing themselves into the milieu. Followers of Christ are marching into the culture war without a moments pause or any reflection about what exactly it is we are doing, and whether or not we should be involved in this in the first place.
Allow me to offer a few insights for this debate about the institution of marriage.
First, I find it perplexing that marriage is something defined by the government, permitted by the government, and upheld by the government, yet inaugurated by clergy. It is the only institution in America that uses pastors, priests, imams, rabbis, and other faith leaders as agents of the state. Religious clerics become operatives of the government, stamping approval and pronouncing the state's recognition of two people's transformation into one blessed union. I don't think this is what the U.S. Mint had in mind when it featured “In God We Trust” and “E pluribus unum” on our currency.
As a pastor I consider it part of my religious duty to be a prophetic voice that puts government in check, and I'm not the first ordinary ordained to feel this way. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. cried out against racial discrimination, and Rev. Jerry Falwell (who's university I am a graduate from) demanded recognition of abortion's tragedy. Would we have taken King seriously had he been the government official who pronounced which schools were white or black? Would we have taken Falwell seriously had he been a state determiner of which unborn babies could be aborted and which were entitled to life? How can any Pastor take seriously his calling to stick it to the man if he or she is a handmaiden to power? How can any person take seriously a pastor's opinion on how the state defines marriage when Pastors are agents of the state as pronouncers of marriage? “A little leaven works through the whole dough”, and a pastor who holds hands with the Government one moment will find it difficult to hold them accountable the next.
Furthermore, it has always baffled me that society is eager to invite clergy into the forming of marital unions, but never comes courting when those marriages dissolve. Judges and pastors have equal power to pronounce you “man and wife”, but Rev. Rick Warren never co-hosts Divorce Court. The plain uncomfortable truth is this: government is fine with clergy determining marriage on their behalf as long as it is in blind compliance with how the state defines it, but they won't be bothered by our pitiful desires for reconciliation and charity come the custody battle.
Second, speaking of divorce, why aren't we making that illegal? Christians bemoan the destruction of marriage and celebrate the authority of The Bible all while blithely ignoring the only thing that both destroys marriage and was condemned by Jesus. While we are at a loss to find Jesus asking Caesar to redefine institutions to his liking, we find him railing against divorce as chauvinistic, egomaniacal, and devaluing to human dignity. We can say unequivocally that Jesus doesn't like divorce, yet we never take this edict to the polls. Is it because homosexuality is something we can point at, whereas a love-less marriage is too close to home? Or is it that we plainly reject the interference of our nuanced and faith-based opinions in our constitutional and liberty-based democracy?
But in for a penny in for a pound, so why not pass the more prominent marriage restrictions in The Bible? We can pass amendments that prohibit interfaith marriage (2 Cor 6:14), inter-racial marriage (Deut 7:3-4), and require a prenuptial virginity test for women (Lev 21:14). Also, since “sanctity” of marriage is what we are truly concerned about, perhaps we can do away with those Las Vegas drive-thru weddings performed by Elvis (not very sanctimonious) or even weddings done by other faith traditions that don't pass muster with American Evangelicals. We can end the “eternal” marriages of Mormons or the prearranged unions of Hindus. Why not impose our religion wholesale?
Once upon a time, we Evangelicals were consistent in our opposition to imposition. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question, how far Christians if they are voters or members of government ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community through laws. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of people are not Christian and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives.” Perhaps we should reflect on how far we have drifted away from this once calm and popular evangelical opinion.
Finally, as a person who sees The Bible as God's infallible, inspired word, and Jesus Christ as the incarnate and enigmatic Son of God, I cannot abide any effort to dismiss, devalue, or defeat the weak, lonely, and overlooked. Homosexual men and women may find honor in Hollywood and New York, but in the rest of the country they are social lepers- abused, unloved, and often targets of bigotry and unprovoked hatred. A Christian needn't endorse a person's lifestyle to feel sorrow for their plight, nor do they honor God by wielding the sword of the State in the name of Jesus.
Interestingly enough Jesus once rejected partnership with the government. The gospels say that when Satan encouraged Christ to institute His Kingdom through a theocracy, He dismissed the scam as heresy. Instead, Jesus left the mountain and took His good news to the lowly people oppressed by an empire, warmly announcing that “The Kingdom of Heaven is near”.Today I wonder exactly what sort of kingdom we think Heaven is. Is it a place where the disenfranchised and the downtrodden are made illegitimate in their own homes, treated unequally in the name of a loving God? Or is it a place where regardless of our fancies we embrace one another as children of the Almighty, slaves freed by sacrifice, carriers of the imago Dei?
Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

The Conservative Christian Case for Separation of Church and State

This is an article originally published here:

What follows is a response to the actions of Rev. H. Wayne Williams who, in defiance of the IRS Law denying churches the ability to publicly support political candidates, has chosen to endorse Gordon Howie for Governor of South Dakota from the pulpit. Howie has asked for pastoral support and in return has promised to assist those pastors in taking their inevitable IRS trials to the Supreme Court in an effort to end separation of church and state in America.
Pastor, I recognize your frustration, and I see how things have come to this. For years America has only shrugged at religion, and recently Christianity has been caught in a violent tug of war between Republicans and Democrats. We feel, as leaders, entitled to make political endorsements. Why shouldn’t we—particularly in a democracy where endorsements translate directly to power—take up our biblically-informed opinion, get behind a pulpit, and urge our people to support a candidate? Why shouldn’t we support the rulers we stand to benefit the most from, and give them a divine leg up?
For the historically minded among us, the reasons for not bringing our spiritual authority into political campaigns are blood red. For nearly 2,000 years our faith forefathers were persecuted and oppressed; not always by the irreligious, but more often by competing tribes within Christianity. Clerics would jockey for favor in the kingdoms of men, then use any clout gained to suppress the views of their theological enemies.
Over and again we stamped out those who did not fit into our au courant idea of orthodoxy and we entrenched ourselves into division, using the steel of our ruler’s swords to proclaim our theological certainty. Christians have killed and tortured more of their own than any other group in history, and this was possible solely because of the unholy union of church and state. Pastors gave rulers their blessing, and rulers returned the favor by silencing the pastor’s critics, a fantastic deal for the pastor who courts the powers, but a dangerous and painful reality for those who do not.
There isn’t a Christian denomination in existence that has not been slaughtered by its theological opponents. The Pope used his political power in Spain to launch the Inquisition. Bloody Mary earned her moniker by burning 300 dissenters of Roman Catholicism at the stake. The Calvinists and Lutherans used their influence over the German princes to commit near genocide of Catholics all over Europe during the 30 Years War. Catholics in the third Crusade almost exterminated the Orthodox church in Constantinople. Anabaptists have been drowned, burned, and exiled under each of the other major sects.
For almost 1500 years, Christians wielded political power to slay one another; until the founding of America. America was the first country without a designated faith, here was the only place in the world where Catholics and Protestants, Radical Reformationists and Orthodox (not to mention Jews, Muslims, non-believers and others) could live as neighbors. An accomplishment not won by better theology nor a love of peace, but because each lacked the ability to oppress one another by controlling the government.
We have created a land where church and state are separated to protect them from one another, not to diminish the role of either. The integrity of the church is jeopardized when politicians can appeal to spiritual leaders and gain their endorsement because the opportunities for abuse and ambition are too rampant. The same quid pro quo corruption that taints those tempted by lobbyists will await pastors when their support can yield inexhaustible American power. This is why America has passed laws to preserve the dignity and purity of the pastoral office, exchanging tax exemption (a unique phenomenon in the world) with the trust that the nation’s charitable goodwill can't be used as a political force.
Christianity has flourished in America, due in large to the inability of any one religious sect to silence the others by electing one of their own. Consider how different things would be if all along pastors had the ability to endorse candidates, if the elected then changed the social landscape to keep the favor of the pastors—like Mr. Howie is promising to do today. What if JFK had been endorsed by the Pope, what might he have done to protestants? What if Billy Graham had used his crusades to call for the reelection of his close friend, Richard Nixon?
Pastors needn’t remain neutral when it comes to social change. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. championed civil rights, Rev. Charles Finney fought to abolish slavery, and many more contributed to all the progressive reforms of the 19th century, from Women’s Suffrage to Child Labor Laws. But we stir change by stinging the national conscience, by being a prophetic witness for biblical values and obedience to Christ from the pulpit, not by taking the dangerous short cut of merely electing somebody to make a sweeping change in our favor.
Pastors are here to bring the optimism of a better world, a Kingdom of God where it can be on Earth as it is in Heaven. We aren’t here to arbitrate the national discussion, or to be some sort of referee who awards polling points to one side while punishing the other using our immense spiritual clout. Are we willing to compromise our ability to provide hope for the chance to pronounce judgment? Will we use the cross as Caesar did, to dominate political foes, or as Jesus did, to liberate the unseen?
It desecrates our pulpit to yield it to politics. We are called to something higher than to meddle in the affairs of ambitious men. We are not so Holy that we can merely baptize a candidate, and never drink the poison of his words. We do not stump for senators, we do not campaign for congressman, we do not preach for presidents, because the name of Christ is too precious to risk on a common election, no matter how important the issues at stake may seem. We cannot allow Jesus to become a political puppet, a sock on the arm of the statesman. Our role is to translate the values of scripture into the hearts and minds of every American, not to rule those Americans or force our values on them by manipulating the vote. The humble witness of Jesus is weakened when it is communicated through the edicts of rulers rather than the powerful persuasion of changed lives, hearts, and minds. The Kingdom of God cannot be voted into existence.
Pastor H. Wayne Williams, I beg you to take your opinion to the poll and not the pulpit. Encourage your church to lobby their convictions, but don’t let a lobbyist lead your church. Your vote belongs to a candidate, but your pulpit belongs to Christ, so “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give unto God what is God’s.”

Sen. Ensign denies benefits to home state with highest unemployment, chuckles.

As the vote to extend unemployment benefits comes up this week, Nevada Senator John Ensign notified his constituents that even though his state leads in unemployment, home foreclosures, and bankruptcies, he will not be supporting the bill to ensure the continued income of brow-beaten Nevadans.

"I recognize", said the Senator in a press conference Monday, "that folks in Nevada have been crushed under the weight of a recession they didn't cause. Homelessness, dire poverty, and the worst education system in America have all conspired to leave the people of my state hopeless and broken. Our fragile economy is on the brink of disaster, and many families are living on credit and payday loans just to stay in their homes and keep food on their tables. The people of Nevada are working class folks, the sort that have paid into the unemployment system for years and now when they need help the most, I am pleased to announce that I will be voting against the extension of that support."

A bewildered press corp asked the Senator to clarify, noting that it seemed preposterous to deny Nevadans the benefits they need to survive in the wake of such crippling circumstances. Mr. Ensign acknowledged the confusion and was happy to explain-

"A few years back I sold my soul to Satan and consequently owe my allegiance to the Dark Lord and whatever request he may make of me. As it turns out it serves his purposes to stabilize the national debt at the expense of American families, especially Nevadans who will soon be homeless in the 110 degree inferno that surrounds their under-valued houses outlying the vacuous, job absent city centers." Mr. Ensign added with a wink and a nod, "I'm just remembering who sent me to Washington to begin with."

Administration officials in Hell were unavailable for comment, but Mr. Satan's Twitter account said after the announcement, "H8 2 C Sen. Ensign blaming me 4 block on benefits vote, I do not assoC8 w him, and he has no soul to my knwldge. #JohnEnsighIsADouche"

Space Aliens make contact, apologize for spill of dark-matter that will soon destroy Earth

NASA astronauts confirmed Tuesday what earn bound scientists have been saying for decades, we are not alone. Aliens made contact with the international space station early this week and then spoke directly to the assembly of world leaders in the U.N.

Utilizing advanced translation software, the glowing tentacled humanoids delivered a memorable first address: “Greetings people of Earth. You have not been aware of existence, but we have known of you for generations and considered your primitive lives our responsibility. Unfortunately, one of our energy producing inter-stellar drilling ships has pierced a whole in the space-time continuum which is now unstoppably leaking crude dark-matter, our civilization's major energy source, into your part of the galaxy. Your entire habitat will soon be destroyed, and all life on Earth along with it.”

Amidst screams of horror from world leaders the aliens were kind enough to explain that it was in their economic self interest to mine for the destructive energy source, and while they were taking the responsibility of the clean up very seriously, their best efforts would not be enough to prevent the forth-coming Armageddon.

“But we are deeply sorry for this quite preventable tragedy” added the alien's spokeperson, “we just needed to get that dark-matter to refinement mills so we can power our society. You wouldn't expect us to stall our progress, even for your sake. We have to mill, baby, mill.”

Mother of Exiles

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
' With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

So reads the full inscription on our Statue of Liberty, which has waved its welcoming torch to countless immigrants for over 100 years. She declares that America is unique among the world's nations. That we eagerly greet those who are unwanted, homeless, and downtrodden. That we refuse the mentality of an ancient homeland where we belong and others do not. She declares that we, unlike other countries, see the value in a human being.

Recently Arizona's state legislature passed an immigration bill that rejects this noble past. Through the eyes of this new law police officers are required to pursue illegal immigrants as never before. To hunt them down at any cost, even racial discrimination and illegal profiling, whatever it takes to rid the state of their presence. Casting out the tired, poor, huddled masses of wretched refuse into the cold uncaring world, Arizona's new law shines a light on a national truth that has gone unaddressed for far too long: that we are no longer the Mother of Exiles as our statue commemorates. Her torch takes on new meaning, a warning. We should tear down our historic inscription and replace it instead with another: "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here".

Hell as it turns out is not so distant a destination in these times. In the Christian New Testament Jesus warns the world that failing to care for those in need was the same as failing to care for him personally, something that came with the most dire of costs. "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. For I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." In Jesus' teaching, a follower was duty bound to serve whoever was the "least" in a society, failing to do so was a damning gesture.

While Hell may seem a heavy cost for the Christian who fails to "welcome the stranger", even the Jewish Old Testament warns the faithful of the folly when Moses' God tells the Hebrews "You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt." It seems that welcoming a foreigner into one's midst and giving them a home is a consistent thread in the Holy Writ that claims to shape most American's morality. Yet these lessons are abandoned when we are presented the opportunity to put them into action.

Pragmatically, logically, and politically it makes sense to push immigration reform. But Americans embrace another paradigm that is seldom focused on: virtue. It is virtuous to have compassion on the strangers in our land. It is noble to welcome the homeless and make room for our neighbors to the South. And while most American's cannot internalize the calculus that proves immigration reform's value, they can empathize with the morality of never abandoning the lonely, or the desperate.

This is why our iconic Statue of Liberty is emblazoned with poetry, sculpted in symbolism, and stands proudly as an emotional reminder to each generation. It does not summon our enlightened senses, but rather our hearts. We imagine how such an edifice must have greeted the oppressed, the hopeless, the bankrupt, as they drifted to this new land, desperate for a better life. Their tears streaming down dirty faces, as they read the words, and as they thanked God Almighty for such a place; a land where the poor and the broken are made whole, where the unskilled and ignorant and empowered, where the least of these is valued as if they were the very Son of God.

Drawing on these reasons of the heart, and the conscious of our predominant faiths, we must call ourselves to return to this past. To welcome the sun worn face of the immigrant, to embrace his children into our schools and their illnesses in our hospitals, to invest in him dignity, wholeness, and value. Only then can we rightly claim the meaning of the Statue that was built to honor us, only then can we proclaim that we are a nation unlike any other, only then can we stare off into the distant twilight, a torch held high beckoning the hopeless to find strength, searching for those we might heal, that we might welcome, that we might restore. Only then can we become as we began, the Mother of Exiles.

Church and Life Cycle

What if when a church planter laid out a vision for birthing a new church they also included an expiration date? So not only would the planter be planning for when the church is born, but then also when the church should die; 10, 15, 20 years in the future.

What if the planter anticipated the irrelevance of the church in the future, and so set a date to declare the church dead and bury it? How would that impact the way people in the church view the mission? Would it discourage them, because they know the day is coming when the church is no more? Or, would it embolden them to know exactly how long they have to accomplish the church's goals? Would it cause them to stay and be apart of the story to see how it ends?

Perhaps it would give the people a unique opportunity to celebrate the different stages in life that church might go through. Its infancy, its childhood, its adolescence, its adulthood, its senior years, and finally its death and burial. Imagine a congregation coming together to remember the journey of their fellowship, tears and nostalgia flooding the aisles as the founding pastor eulogizes the church that has accomplished so much. People who have been there since the beginning side by side with those who joined in only the last year. Appreciating together the shared experience of having been apart of a story, as the last page turns and "the end" is slowly and deliberately placed at the bottom.

How would it make you feel to know your church has an end date? What about that would be good, what would be bad?

“Sarah Palin hired by Fox News in effort to regain its neutral position in politics”

In a stunning announcement, Fox News and Sarah Palin have come to an agreement that puts Palin on staff at Fox as a conservative commentator to their usually liberal news shows. “We needed something” admits Fox owner Rupurt Murdoch, “to counter-balance the tendency of our channel to be left leaning and progressive. Sarah Palin is the cure.”

The move is applauded by journalists the world round as being reactionary to the now obvious liberal bias observed at Fox. “We just need to keep things balanced”, said popular news anchor Glen Beck in a statement about the decision, “I expect she and I will knock heads often, but because I value journalistic integrity and despise propaganda, I have to affirm her place here.”

Bill O’Reilly agrees. “If Fox News is a boat in the ocean it is tilted toward the port-side. We have needed a serious weight to counterbalance that tilt and bring us back to center. Had we been any less left her presence would have capsized us on the right, we’d have gone right off the deep end if you know what I mean. Luckily we lean left.”

Few are critical of the deal since most acknowledge that recruiting Palin was counter-intuitive for both she and the network, but some have voiced concern. Alan Colmes, one of the many outward liberals on Fox, observed that Palin “is a failed Vice Presidential candidate, a failed Governor, a failed blogger, an inauthentic author, and an insane fringer who’s views are universally known to be brain poison and word vomit. And Fox is a conspiracy toting fraudulent news organization that only poses as legitimate. ” Pausing to breathe and wipe the sweat from his upper lip Colmes added, “This is fucking crazy.”

In the wake of his comment Fox has announced that Alan Colmes will no longer be employed at its network, replacing him with noted journalist and obsessively balanced thinker Dick Cheney.

Emerging Church, pronounced dead Thursday, missing from grave.

1/09/10

In a mysterious turn of events, the grave of recently deceased Emerging Church was discovered empty this morning after Church was buried Thursday afternoon. Speculation surrounds the sepulcher, with few credible witnesses to the event itself, but at this time there are several theories as to the disappearance of the body of Mrs. Church.

A frantic Phyllis Tickle claims to have seen an illumination hovering above Church’s grave around 1 this morning. “It was bright and glorious,” reports Tickle, “it seemed to dim for a moment as it paused over the grave- almost as if it were reading the head stone- then, it furiously exploded with light and the ground shook. I fell into a bush with all the commotion, but when I saw the grave again, the coffin was laying beside it, opened and empty.”

Others, like Church’s former husband Mark Driscoll doubt Tickle’s account. “She has said this sort of thing before. Phyllis has a terrible habit of imposing other’s narratives where they don’t belong. She’s only doing that again here.” Pressed to explain the disappearance, Mr. Driscoll offered that Emerging Church had many devoted friends who were in disbelief at her death. “They probably stole her body”, concluded Driscoll.

While authorities have begun a search for the body, opponents of Mrs. Church’s former social and theological efforts are decrying the implication that Emerging Church has risen from the dead. “What is she now some sort of zombie?” exclaimed one critic who wished to remain anonymous, “that’s just absurd”.

Still, rumors abound in the wake of this enigma. Reports now flood in of people having witnessed Emerging Church in a litany of locations. Some claim to have seen her in the American South, visiting Seminaries and disrupting congregational board meetings. Others say she has been observed at used book stores, browsing through well worn copies of Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian”. As of yet, no hard evidence of these encounters has been produced.

Reached for questioning as to the allegations that Emerging Church had in fact been risen from the dead by some supernatural phenomena and is now rifling though old copies of his book, Mr. McLaren had this to say: “I for one am not surprised that she is believed alive. Many have said that the last word in her story was ‘death’, but I have always held out hope that there was another word after that, that the story she found herself in, one that I have been lucky enough to share, was one of generosity and lasting change. Hope, as they say, dies hard.”

Left with only questions at this point and very few answers, the world stands in shock at this incredible mystery. Reports continue to come from almost every corner of the globe, people claiming to have witnessed Emerging Church in their communities and even in their living rooms. Some distinctly observing only a feature of Mrs. Church, a hand or a foot as she left a room, say that her presence, though not always conspicuous, is easily evident if you know what to look for. Time will tell it seems, as the world waits for the next chapter in this unique and captivating story.

Apocalypse

I find it interesting that every sensibility of man, even from his most primitive reflections, has pointed to the sudden and terrible end of the universe.

Before men knew what the lights in the night sky were, before they could comprehend the sun or our place in its orbit, mankind seemed to universally know that at some point these things would pass away.

Despite the absolute reality of natures consistency, seasons never failing to come and go on schedule, dawn endlessly rising in the morning and fading into dusk in the evening, animals and trees bearing new life in the spring and withering in the winter; despite all this near nauseous repetition and pattern, primitive man knew that it would end.

It is incredible to me that ancient literature records even more ancient oral traditions in which people commonly believe that the universe (whatever their understanding of it at the time) would in one fell swoop close curtain and be dim forever more. Science had at one point believed the universe was static, endlessly looping from rising states to falling states, but then learned of the 2nd theory of thermodynamics, which states with solemn infinity that all energy in the universe is slowly being extinguished.

Upon realizing this our future seems very sober. No matter how many galaxies we one day explore and conquer, no matter how wide the universe actually is, or whether our species numbers in the trillions as it colonizes and evolves into new and exciting complexities; one day all of sentient life will hold its breath as the cold dark wave of oblivion comes to rest upon it. Death; still, frozen, vapid and unintelligent death will be the final word no matter how far our science or our biology takes us. For mechanics and medicine are governed by a deeper magic: physics.

One day Paley's watch will tick its last tock, and this is as unavoidable and irreversible as the sun setting in the west. Try as I might, I cannot now or ever pluck the star from the pink and purple sky and place it back in the east. Darkness, desolation...death, will be the last word for all known reality, and somehow, remarkably, humanity has known this all along. Discovering that the universe is winding down wasn't shocking, it was the validation of a knowledge we have stragely had all along.

Ironically though, for just as long as mankind has intrinsically known that time itself will come to an end, it has also believed in a transcendent being who has the power to resurrect. A Governor of life and death, an unquenchable source of light and power. Perhaps when the universe has dimmed to only a faint glow, when the light is all but extinguished, finally we will be able to clearly see what was there all along, diminished by the pollution of so much other energy closer to our observation. Perhaps we will see the far off but brilliant light of a new dawn, a new universe, the ever present hope of a future, and life everlasting. Perhaps we will then know, as we have always suspected, that while death will be the final word in our reality, there is another word that comes after that, a word that must be spoken by the being that created us whom we have always suspected was there. He will speak again as He did in the beginning, and we will all come into new life; "Let there be light".

Getting De-Baptized

I read about this story and it added to my ongoing concern for the divide between secularists and theists. I am currently reading the book "Saving Darwin" to try to understand the middle ground between the volatile atheists like Richard Dawkins, and the staunch creationists that line the fundamentalist ranks.

Part of our calling is to reconcile with people, I think we need to consider the implications of that, and at least be willing to find a way to reach into these lives that have become so separated from us.

For Nana

Today my grandmother called me and shared terrific news. She has been given the honor and privilege of sharing the message Easter Sunday at her Unitarian Church in Arkansas. She called because she had a very unique question to ask me, a question that captured my thoughts for the rest of the day and left me tossed in endless directions. Her question was: If Jesus had been here in the 20th Century, how would he have interacted with American Society? How would he react to things like the Vietnam war, or to communism, or to the plight of the urban sprawl? Imagine that Jesus had been there, what would that be like?

When I got home I made myself a cup of tea and sat in my recliner in the living room. Sunlight slipped through blinds, rays visible from the glass of the window all the way to the curled up kitty cats on the floor. I leaned back in my chair and listened to some music playing on my stereo, I tried to imagine Jesus in the 20th Century.

My first thought was John Lennon sitting behind a white piano, a well lit room and Yoko Ono sitting at his side. John was singing his song "Imagine", and I couldn't help but wonder if Jesus wouldn't have held a lighter in the air at a Lennon concert. "Imagine there is no country" says the former Beatle, "and no religion too" I drifted in the waves of thought, the image of Jesus with a fire in his palm, swaying back and forth to the music.

The 20th century was characterized by war, by oppression, and by evil. In the 20th century we saw two world wars, and countless smaller ones. We saw the rise of super-powers, and the first abuses of the popular media. We saw the creation of the ultimate death machines, and the radiation poisoned, half melted faces of their victims. In the 20th century we saw the results of colonialism, the prestige and power of sovereign nations dominating the weaker, the exploitation of everybody from the factory worker, to the dark skinned farmer suffering under Jim Crow. Yes, the 20th century saw the evil in Hitler's eyes, the massacre of 10 million people, the haphazard destruction of the environment, and the disaster of saber rattling hawks with power. For those that lived through the last century, one would think they would recall a literal hell on Earth. However most will tell you that days were not always so dark, that even in the thick of despair, somehow hoped shined through, and things got better. When I consider that I think I realize why that is, and also the answer to the question my Nana asked me; Jesus was there.

Jesus was there with the Jews starving in a prison camp, giving them strength to last until rescuers arrived. Jesus was there when the American economy collapsed, and honest men and women found themselves penny-less and without a bed to sleep in, but somehow managed to forge the bread line in to a better future. Jesus was there when dust bowls ate the crops and lungs of weary eyed farmers, who summoned the courage to leave behind their history and their lives in the name of survival. Jesus was there when a burst of light flashed over Hiroshima, Jesus wept over Nagasaki. Jesus was there with Neil Armstrong as he stepped toward the bleach white surface of the moon, floating in the infinite darkness of space. Jesus was there when a young black preacher rallied millions of men and women of color to demand equal rights, when those people chose non-violence over riots and terrorism.

When Titanic was found, when King Tut's Tomb was found, Jesus was there. When soldiers from Vietnam were buried in Arlington Cemetery, Jesus was there. And during 14 Presidential funerals, Jesus was there. The reason I know that, the reason I know that Jesus was there during the good times and the bad, the reason I know he is that flicker of hope that inspired the greatest among us to rise up and illuminate the darkness is because Jesus' grave, unlike the rest I have mentioned....is empty.

The vacancy is notorious, outrageous, and the source of the greatest debate in human history. This conspicuous absence is also the reason we celebrate Easter, it is the day we reflect on Jesus' rising from the dead, and consider whether his presence has been observable since.

When my Nana asked me if I could imagine a 20th Century with Jesus in it, my first thoughts were a Jesus who protests wars, and marches in the streets with John Lennon. But soon I realized that despite the brokenness, conflict, and savagery that colored the last 100 years, there was an ever present light that guided humanity to a new dawn. A star that lead us over the turbulent seas of misfortune and agony, into the terra nova of God's Kingdom. While humanity continues to grapple with its iniquity, I still am compelled to notice that star shining above us, that great light by which all things are seen, hovering steadily, loyally, by our side helping us to see. Though this light may set, it rises again and brings with it a new day, a new age, and the bright hope of a future. Christ, is this light for me. He has set and yet risen again. When we see our world in horror, when we sense the vacancy again of the Son of God, when hopelessness is its most potent, this is when our Sun rises again, giving us new hope and new life. This is the essence of resurrection.

I see Jesus in our common history, I see our need for him in terrible times, I see our inspiration through him in times of human victory. I believe that it is by seeing his presence in so many stories, that I can embrace the romance of this thing called resurrection, that I can celebrate a day like Easter. On Easter we remember the King who came back for us, who still comes back for us, who's love will not cease, until it is on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Resurrection is the promise of hope, and the reality of Jesus. Seeing his fingerprints in our time, helps me to remember that he does indeed live on, that the grave could not hold him, that victory will yet be his, and that because he has risen to new life, I also may find new life through him. For that is the promise of the light rising in the east, with each new day we hear it say to us, "Fear not" and then with hope and light, “Because I live, you also live” (John 14:19) .

Remember the wheel?

I was thinking today about the difference between "Emerging" and "Emergent". Mark Driscoll seems to have defined the two terms very differently, and noted that "Emerging" is the group of people who are thinking differently about how to do church, considering how to become relevant yet still keep with the past, while "Emergent", explains Driscoll, is the group that is questioning everything from relevancy to theology.

I will be brief but to me its sort of like the car industry right now. On the one hand you have the industry that is trying to put new paint on the old things, produce new models of the old tried and trues. They are asking the question: "How can we sell this in the new market?" The same is true for Emerging churches. They are asking themselves how they can sell their church in the new market, how they can appear relevant in a world that is quickly changing, how can they stay on top?

Of course what these churches, and that end of the auto-industry, are missing is that for some reason their surges of buyers are getting smaller and smaller. Quickly they are being overtaken by the other end of the spectrum, those who are rethinking their philosophies all together, the Hybrids.

Instead of putting new paint on old ideas, the Hybrid industry and those who are leading it are asking entirely new questions. Not "how can we sell this?", but more "why is this?". They aren't just seeking to stay on top, they are seeking to recreate the way we view transportation, burst through the old molds and create something altogether new. Something, ironically enough, that if successful makes fully irrelevant all previous molds and models. Who wants the gas guzzling diesel when the new 100 mpg truck comes out? Who will care about land speed and maneuverability when cars can fly?

These are the Emergents. They are the side that is rethinking everything they thought they knew about church, God, theology...everything. Instead of asking how they can make their church more relevant, they are asking why they do what they do in the first place. Their changes are coming from the inside out, from deep shifts in their ways of thinking, that far surpass a simple new coat of paint...they are a whole new concept. They are reconsidering the old fuel economy of ideas, and inventing new sources of power, new balances and new measures of success.

Where once speed and power were the trophies of a ministry (and the auto industry), now environmental impact and long term resource allocation are fast becoming the new badges of honor. A few decades of this new thinking and we won't even call what we drive churches (or cars) anymore, because they will just be too different from what that word describes.

Emergents are not trying to reinvent the wheel, they are trying to make it obsolete in the wake of what comes next. What if one day people turn to one another over coffee and say, "Remember the wheel?"

Agnostic Christianity

I wonder sometimes if there is such a thing as the sin of certainty. If knowing and not knowing are actually the same thing, only the latter is more honest. What can we actually say that we know? Do we know ourselves, do we know each other, do we know our faith? Are we 100% sure that we know the things we think we know, beyond any shadow of a doubt? And if we can affirm that yes we do know things this well, should we be committed for having too simple a view of reality?

I was considering the word Gnosis the other day, wondering at the very first heresy Christianity ever birthed within itself, the group that became known as Gnostics. Gnosis, I learned, means "knowledge", and that band of heretics were so named because they believed that God had given them a special knowledge about himself, a knowledge that if attained could make one a more perfect Christian. But only those who realized this knowledge were speical, only those who obtained the gnosis would live forever.

Do you see where I am going with this? If the first heretical Christians were called Gnostics because they believed in a supernatural knowledge which saved people, I would imagine that would make the other Christians, the Orthodox Christians, the Agnostic Christians.

Today we use the word Agnostic in reference to the certainty of there being a God. We see it as the middle ground between Theism (one who believes that Theos, God, is extant) and Atheism (one who does not). But this assignment is arbitrary and out of place, sure the word can conveniently convey that there is an opinion of not knowing which is correct, but the word itself I think expresses a much deeper meaning than this mere position can provide.

To be Agnostic about something is to profess unknowing. Its to say that you have been well informed about the various side's theories, have measured and weighed them but feel there is not enough to lead you to firm conclusions. Yet despite this seeming lack of confidence in a particular direction, you are comfortable in your unknowing, content with floating along the waves, unsure which coast these ultimately lead to.

Back again to the first Christians, I wonder if there is an irony in their clash with the Gnostics. The first heresy was believing you had a special knowledge that others didn't have, something in your version of faith that was better, higher, and more enlightened than the rest. These heretics were excited to proclaim their special understanding, but the true Christians were content to remain Agnostics, unable/unwilling to deduce the wonders and marvels of God.

The irony is in how that group of orthodox Christians who were once happily agnostic, morphed to become the various tribes we see today, each claiming to have found something others haven't. Protestants telling the Catholics that they don't understand salvation, Eastern Orthodox telling everybody that they don't get worship, Catholics telling the others that they don't have the knowledge of the Pope. How ironic that the very first heresy, gnosticism, found its way into each faith tradition. Sure the form has changed, but the concept is clear: some have the special knowledge that others don't.

In this light it would seem that the Christians who might be willing to admit how little they actually know, would be the one's returning to true orthodoxy. The one's who would be willing to drop their systematic theologies and monopolies on truth might be the one's closest to the humble beginnings of our sacred story. I'm sure that would seem ignorant at first, but perhaps like Socrates, being confident about what one doesn't know will actually prove how wise one actually is.

"We all want progress, but progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." - C.S. Lewis

I wonder if there could be Agnostic Christians again. Christians who don't bask in their high and lofty understanding, but follow as if their souls depend on it; who judge not others lest they be judged by the same measure. I'm sure at first these Christians would be seen as "liberal" or "progressive", but wouldn't they actually be regressive? Wouldn't theirs be a departure from the well accepted heresy of special understanding, and a return to the discipline of humility and trust in Christ?

I have no idea.

"If this religion boasted of having a clear view of God, and of possessing it open and unveiled, it would be attacking it to say that we see nothing in the world which shows it with this clearness. But, on the contrary, it says that men are in darkness and estranged from God, that He has hidden Himself from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which He gives Himself in the Scriptures, Deus absconditus (God Hidden)."

-Blaise Pascal

Apologetic

After my post where I recaptured my student's response over the atheist bus advertisements, I received a surge of attention from various atheist websites and bloggers. With this very small window of attention at my disposal, I could think of no better message to send to so many atheists, than this:

I am sorry.

I am sorry for the oppression: mental, emotional, physical, legal, and spiritual (if you will permit me to use the word in a non-offensive way) that my faith community has put you through.

I am sorry that you have been hunted, persecuted, fought, hastily and unfairly treated. I am sorry that you were never listened to.

I am sorry that I never took the time to listen to your stories, or cared enough to see how my story was impacting you. I am sorry that I allowed my faith to control politics in a way that self destructed government, and imposed upon your, and others', rights.

I am sorry that when you asked me for a reason for my faith, I gave you nothing but ignorant platitudes. I am sorry that when I gave you my best reasons for God, I betrayed the very fabric of his mystery by attempting to capture him in theology, doctrine, and systems.

I am sorry that I have so profoundly misrepresented the man described by the four gospels in the New Testament, I am sorry that I have failed you.

I am sorry that you have to see religious relics every where you go, I am sorry that you have been afforded no voice in the public.

I am sorry that my best attempts to care for you have only botched things up incredibly, I am sorry that when you needed me the most I was cold to you.

I am sorry that I have created a noticeable (please, I mean no harm in saying this) cynicism within you. I am sorry that I have so poorly dialoged with you.

I am sorry that this small post will never make up for the literal thousands of years that the religious have oppressed the non-religious. I am sorry that your honest and straightforward pursuit of truth has been scorned at every turn by those who seem more deluded with their own superiority, than awestruck with having discovered the reality of a thing called "God".

I am sorry that my testimony is unconvincing, as it is laden with hate, cruelty, bigotry, arrogance, and failure.

I am sorry for the crusades. I am sorry for the inquisition. I am sorry for the witch trials. I am sorry for the way we treated Darwin, Galileo, Copernicus, and an infinity of others. I am sorry that we have stifled growth, progress, and human discovery.

I am sorry that we have built monuments to the wealthy instead of homes for the poor, provided temples to the unseen instead of food for the starving, robes for the rulers instead of clothes for the naked. I am sorry that we have used religion as an excuse for wickedness.

I am sorry for the Holocaust. I am sorry for the use of religion to justify violence. I am sorry for 9/11.

I am sorry for the countless people who have been murdered in the middle east due to our blind ignorance, I am sorry for eagerness to take life, instead of preserve it.

I am sorry that I have manipulated, controlled, beguiled, lied, killed, raped, stolen, and blasphemed to maintain my hold on power. I am sorry, that when you needed me most to follow the claims of my Religion, as they are truly presented, I did not.

With perhaps only seconds left of this extraordinary attention my small blog has received, let me say this: I cannot begin to tell you how profoundly sorry I am for the treachery those representing my faith have caused. Had you no other reason not to believe in a deity of some kind, the actions of those who claim to have discovered that deity would be enough to dissuade you, and for that we...I...can only feel ashamed.

I have no ulterior motive here, no secret plan to covert all of you reading this to my wonderful great way of thinking. I wouldn't dare extinguish the richness, the vibrance of your voices that have been so long kept from the ears of the world. I only hope, that somehow despite the anger, despite the betrayal, despite the tyranny I have done to you, you may hear through all that these final words, and know that I mean them with all my heart: I am, I really am, sorry, though I know that alone will never be enough to make up for what I have done.

This apology is overdue.

Getting out of the way of God's Atheist Bus

I recently read an article in the New York Times that explained how Atheists in Britain, with the strong celebrity of Dr. Richard Dawkins at the helm, launched a campaign to preach a godless message across their country via bus advertisements.

I shared the article with my Apologetics students (I'm a teacher at a private school) and asked them to give me their initial thoughts. Most of the kids were filled with outrage. "We should hit back with our own billboards", one yelled. "Yea, and the government shouldn't let Atheists write that kind of stuff anyway, it should be illegal", agreed another.

I kept a blank face while I listened to the students campaign for censorship and more aggressive proselytizing, but in my heart I sighed with discouragement. These kids don't hear anything I say, I thought to myself, despite months of instruction, they still see these issues in only two dimensions. But then, to my great astonishment, one my students bravely put forth a different opinion.

"Well wait a minute", he said with conviction, "haven't we been talking about this all quarter? Before we can just go off half cocked on these ads and the Atheists who put them there, we need to ask ourselves questions about why this is happening in the first place, put ourselves in their shoes." I held my breath as he looked at me for permission to continue his thought, I nodded hiding my excitement.

"Well, what made these people feel it was necessary to put these ads on buses in the first place? Maybe its them who are striking back, at us, not starting a fight or anything. Maybe we started it." A few of the other students began to release furrowed brows as they leaned in to listen. The brave young man continued, "We can't just take aim and fire at them, getting our revenge or shutting them up. Jesus didn't tell us to do that, he told us to see things from their world, take pity on them, even turn the other cheek. And I think if we put ourselves in their shoes, we will understand why they might feel ads like this are necessary. Have you ever thought of how it feels, especially during the holidays, to be bombarded with advertisements talking about the religious reasons for the season? Or how many Christians start flooding their conversations with their christianese and religious verbage that makes zero sense to everyone around them? If I were an Atheist I would be pissed off to no end!"

The students shot a quick glance at me to see how I would respond to the outburst at the end of his explanation, I kept my poker face. Seeing he hadn't gone foul, he continued. "We should feel sad that we make Atheists feel like they need to defend themselves, sad that they are getting aggressive and pushy, because we caused it. We caused it because we made them our enemy after the scopes trial, we made them out to be devils and demons, opposing soldiers in some imaginary culture war. But Christ says our war isn't against flesh and blood, and you don't beat evil with matched aggression, you beat it with love, you beat it by laying down your swords. Fires aren't put out with more fire, they are put out with their opposite, water."

As the students reflected on what was said, they looked at me to measure my approval, which I could no longer fully conceal. With a smile, I held back the excitement in my voice and asked what he would propose Christians do in response to these signs. Sensing my probe for previous lessons in his next answer, he gladly regurgitated whatever he could. "Well" he began, "I would say we shouldn't respond to the intent of the signs, but to what caused them in the first place. We know that its hurt that caused the Atheists to do this, so we need to figure out how that happened, and work hard to fix those relationships. If we really love our neighbor, we should see these ads as a symptom of our broken relationship, not as an attack to be offended at."

He turned and addressed the class as he continued, "And why should we be upset about the message in the first place? The hardest thing in leading people to Christ is to break through their indifference to the 'meaning of life', 'reality of God' stuff anyway. These signs force people to wonder whether or not what they say is true, this practically invites conversation about God, thats the best possible thing that could happen for followers of Christ!"

The room suddenly glowed by the flame of his growing enthusiasm. "Can you imagine how great it would be to stand at a bus stop when one of these things pulls up? Standing next to all those strangers who are tilting their heads reading it, looking around puzzled and all that, how easy would it be to just ask them what they thought, begin a conversation about God's universe with nothing more than a nod and a 'get a load of that'. We should be thanking these guys for making our job easier, for daring the world to wonder about God instead of never stopping long enough to think it through at all. Instead of bursting in with our arguments for God and how much smarter we are than everybody else, we can ask questions and listen to peoples' hearts, hurts, and hell.

We can gently tell them, show them even, that God is real, and does love them. We can even apologize for causing the sign in the first place, and show these people who Christ really was, not the guy who chased people around trying to create a world where nobody thought differently than himself, but loved everybody unequivocally and regardless of their culture or their creed. We can finally say we are sorry for how badly we have misrepresented Christ, we can finally be, finally be...." he stammered trying to think of the right word. "Apologetic", I said, looking him in the eyes.

Suddenly the realization was palpable, the whole room had a new understanding of the subject of my class, and the method that must go behind it in these contentious, and difficult times. He smiled and nodded, then sat down satisfied that the point had been made. I couldn't have been more proud of my student that day, and I can only hope he rises up to become a voice of calm in the storm of ideas that he will face as an adult.

It's rare that a teacher gets to feel he's making a difference in the world. But when I get to hear a 16 year old kid talk like this, hear him blatantly reject the ideas of anger and revenge, to instead choose forgiveness and love, I feel like God has given me a glimpse into a brighter future. I don't think teachers like me bring these sorts of people into the world, I think God does. And since hearing this kid go off like that, my prayer everyday has been that God wouldn't let me get in the way of His revolution, that I wouldn't be the barricade that stops the voice of Christ from spilling out of the mouths of babes, but if I ever am, that He would rip through me without a moments pause.

God is good, my greatest accomplishment in life will have been getting out of His way, and I couldn't be happier than to have a legacy like that.

Revisiting "Emergent"

I thought I might repost one of the first posts on this blog, because I recently invited some facebook friends to join this group, and I think these quotes embody "emergent" thinking more than any of my recent posts would. I would really like to get some more posters to this blog, and also some more conversation partners in general. Thanks for checking these quotes out, please don't be mislead by my posts throughout this blog that can at times be inflammatory and dubious, I have been talking to myself for some time in this website, and what you read is just my attempt to self-reflect and struggle with some things.

Thanks,
-Jimi

A New Kind of Christian- Brian McLaren

"Now take a moment and let this really sink in. To the Christian culture of medieval Europe, none of you today could be considered real Christians. True, you might say that you believe in Jesus and that you follow the Bible- but that would sound like nonsense to them if at the same time you denied what to them was essential for any reasonable person to accept: the medieval worldview, which was the context of their faith [(ie-astronomy, Copernicus etc)]. That brings me to an important question for you to think about: Is it possible that we as moderns have similarly intertwined a different but equally contingent worldview, with our eternal faith? And another question: What if we live at the end of the modern period, at a time when our modern worldview is crumbling, just as the medieval one began to do in the sixteenth century?" - Pg 34

"Most modern people love to relativize the viewpoints of the others against the unquestioned superiority of their own modern viewpoint. But in a way, you cross the threshold into postmodernity the moment you turn your critical scrutiny from others to yourself, when you relativize your own modern viewpoint. When you do this, everything changes. It is like a conversion. You cant go back. You begin to see that what seemed like pure, objective certainty really depends heavily on a subjective preference for your personal viewpoint." -Pg 35

"Our interpretations reveal less about God or the Bible than they do about ourselves. They reveal what we want to defend what we want to attack, what we want to ignore, what we're unwilling to question. When Judgment Day comes, God might ask a lot of us how we interpreted the Bible-not to judge if our interpretations are right or wrong but to let our interpretations reveal our hearts. That will be telling enough." =Pg 50

Searching for God Knows What- Donald Miller

"How many people have walked away from faith because their systematic theology proved unable to answer the deep longings and questions of the soul? What we need here, truly, is faith in a Being, not a list of ideas." p 161

"The story bears repeating: I presented the gospel to Christian Bible college students and left out Jesus. Nobody noticed....To a culture that believes they "go to heaven" based on whether or not they are morally pure, or that they understand some theological ideas, or that they are very spiritual, Jesus is completely unnecessary. At best, He is an afterthought, a technicality by which we become morally pure, or a subject of which we know, or a founding father of our woo-woo spirituality."p 159

"And then I wondered at how Jesus could say He was a Shepherd and we were sheep, and that the Father in heaven was our Father and we were His children, and He Himself was a Bridegroom and we were His bride, and that He was a King and we were His subjects, and yet we somehow missed His meaning and thought becoming a Christian was like sitting in a chair."p 157

"I get this feeling sometimes that after the world ends, when God destroys all our buildings and our flags, we will wish we had seen everybody as equal...." p104

"If you ask me, the way to tell if a person knows God for real, I mean knows the real God, is that they will fear Him. They wouldn't go around making absurd political assertions and drop God's name like an ace card, and they wouldn't be making absurd statements about how God wants you to be rich and how if you send in some money to the ministry God will bless you. It seems like, if you really knew the God who understands the physics of our existence, you would operate a little more cautiously, a little more compassionately, a little less like you are the center of the universe."p 38

"If I weren't a Christian, and I kept seeing Christian leaders on television more concerned with money, fame, and power than with grace, love and social justice, I wouldn't want to believe in God at all."p 28

"The very scary thing about religion, to me, is that people actually believe God is who they think He is. By that I mean they have Him all figured out, mapped out....dissected and put into jars on the shelf."p 20

Blue Like Jazz- Donald Miller

"Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to a formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder." p 205

"I think we have two choices in the face of such big beauty: terror or awe. And this is precisely why we attempt to chart God, because we want to be able to predict Him, to dissect Him...We reduce Him to math so we don't have to fear Him, and yet the Bible tells us fear is the appropriate response, that it is the beginning of wisdom...I stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon once, behind a railing, and though I was never going to fall off the edge, I feared the thought of it." p 205

"Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it." p 202

"It is hard for us to admit we have a sin nature because we live in this system of checks and balances. If we get caught, we will be punished. But that doesn't make us good people; it only makes us subdued." p 18

Fools Gold- John MacArthur

"By the way, true worship is not something that can be stimulated artificially. A bigger, louder band and more sentimental music might do more to stir peoples emotions. But that is not genuine worship." p38

"The showman's ability to lure people in should not impress us more than the Bible's ability to transform lives"p 41

"There are plenty of gifted communicators in the modern evangelical movement [who] massage people's egos and focus on fairly insipid subjects...
Like the ubiquitous Plexiglas lecterns from which these messages are delivered, such preaching is lightweight and without substance, cheap and synthetic, leaving little more than an ephemeral impression on the mind of the hearers." p36

"Choice- saturated, capitalistic, American Christians [need to] discern the difference between seeking God's kingdom and building their own." p 165

"Truth be told, Jesus never spoke in terms of a one-time decision that you make about Him but rather exhorted His hearers to follow Him wholeheartedly for all of their lives. Christ was calling people to a life that continually confesses Him before men. We do not find in Scripture that the test of discipleship is a one time decision." p134

"Mindless emotionalism, often hyped up by repetition and "letting go", comes closer to the paganism of the Gentiles (cf Matt 6:7) than to any form of biblical worship." p126

"The music has been carefully and purposefully brought to this intense emotional peak. One senses that this is the whole purpose of the congregational singing-to elevate emotions to a white-hot fervor. The more intense the feeling, the more people are convinced they have truly "worshiped"." p 120

"When we look at contemporary ministry, we see programs and methods that are the fruit of human invention, the offspring of opinion polls and neighborhood surveys, and other pragmatic artifices. Church growth experts have in essence wrested control of the church's agenda from her true Head, the Lord Jesus Christ." p37

A Generous Orthodoxy- Brian McLaren

"Has [Christ] become (I shudder to ask this) less our Lord, and more our mascot?"p86

"How many of us have used the cross in Caesar's way, to dominate, rather than in Jesus' way, to liberate?" p 91

"Is it any surprise that with this understanding of salvation, churches tend to become gatherings of self-interested people who gather for mutual self-interest--constantly treating the church as a purveyor of religious goods and services, constantly shopping and "trading up" for churches that can "meet my needs" better?"p118

"This competitive Protestant religious market eventually spawned a kind of infomercial mentality, where each group advertised its unique features, seeking loyal customers for their religious products and services." p137

"To the degree they preoccupy themselves with the question of who's right , to the exclusion of considering whether they are truly good (as in bearing good fruit) they're destined to fade, wither, fail. To the degree that they have sold their spiritual birthright for a political ideology, they must repent; neither left nor right leads to the higher kingdom." p154

"We must, therefore, never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God...language can be a window through which one glimpses God, but never a box in which God can be contained." p170,171

"I believe that we must be always reforming, not because we've got it wrong and were closer and closer to finally getting it right, but because our mission is ongoing and our context is dynamic. For this viewpoint "getting it right" is beside the point; the point is being and doing good as followers of Jesus in our unique time and place, fitting in with the ongoing story of God's saving love for Planet Earth." p 214

"Believing as I do that doctrinal distinctives are a lot like cigarettes, the use of which often leads to a hard to break Protestant habit that is hazardous to spiritual health (and that makes the breath smell bad)..."p217

"While some Protestants seem to let Jesus be Savior, but promote Paul to Lord and Teacher, Anabaptists have always interpreted Paul through Jesus, and not the reverse." p231

"Just as the early Christians could not imagine the gospel outlasting the Roman Empire, 19th century Evangelicals couldn't imagine the gospel outlasting modernity, the empire of Scientism, consumerism, and individualism." p268

"Given the chance, would Christianity eradicate every vestige of the world's other religions?" p286

"We must be open to the perpetual possibility that our received understandings of the gospel may be faulty, imbalanced, poorly nuanced, or downright warped and twisted." p 294

"I am more and more convinced that Jesus didn't come merely to start another religion to compete in the marketplace of other religions. If anything, I believe he came to end standard competitive religion (which Paul called the law) by fulfilling it; I believe He came to open up something beyond religion- a new possibility, a realm, a domain, a territory of the spirit that welcomes everyone but requires everyone to think again and become like little children" p299

"A generous orthodoxy must look back on our first 2,000 years of Christian history and face our failures, our atrocities, our abdications, our cowardice, our complicity, our betrayal of Jesus, and say to ourselves, "Never Forget"." p 305

"True prophets (those who bring a new word from God to assist in the current process of emergence) are crucified; false prophets (those who promise shortcuts that will cause regression or stagnation) are made rich and famous. The process is messy." p 323

"In Christian theology, this anti-emergent thinking is expressed in systematic theologies that claim (overtly, covertly, or unconsciously) to have final orthodoxy nailed down, freeze-dried, and shrink wrapped forever." p 325

Christian Charity

Christian Charity Raising Money To Feed Non-Gay Famine Victims

Im not one of those "Love thy neighbor" Christians

This is an article that was posted on The Onion and I found it amazing. Here is the original link for it.

I'm Not One Of Those 'Love Thy Neighbor' Christians

By Janet Cosgrove
Christian
November 19, 2008 | Issue 44•47

Everybody has this image of "crazy Christians" based on what they hear in the media, but it's just not true. Most Christians are normal, decent folks. We don't all blindly follow a bunch of outdated biblical tenets or go all fanatical about every bit of dogma. What I'm trying to say is, don't let the actions of a vocal few color your perceptions about what the majority of us are like.

Like me. I may be a Christian, but it's not like I'm one of those wacko "love your neighbor as yourself " types.

God forbid!

I'm here to tell you there are lots of Christians who aren't anything like the preconceived notions you may have. We're not all into "turning the other cheek." We don't spend our days committing random acts of kindness for no credit. And although we believe that the moral precepts in the Book of Leviticus are the infallible word of God, it doesn't mean we're all obsessed with extremist notions like "righteousness" and "justice."

My faith in the Lord is about the pure, simple values: raising children right, saying grace at the table, strictly forbidding those who are Methodists or Presbyterians from receiving communion because their beliefs are heresies, and curing homosexuals. That's all. Just the core beliefs. You won't see me going on some frothy-mouthed tirade about being a comfort to the downtrodden.

I'm a normal Midwestern housewife. I believe in the basic teachings of the Bible and the church. Divorce is forbidden. A woman is to be an obedient subordinate to the male head of the household. If a man lieth down with another man, they shall be taken out and killed. Things everybody can agree on, like the miracle of glossolalia that occurred during Pentecost, when the Apostles were visited by the Holy Spirit, who took the form of cloven tongues of fire hovering just above their heads. You know, basic common sense stuff.

But that doesn't mean I think people should, like, forgive the sins of those who trespass against them or anything weird like that.

We're not all "Jesus Freaks" who run around screaming about how everyone should "Judge not lest ye be judged," whine "Blessed are the meek" all the time, or drone on and on about how we're all equal in the eyes of God! Some of us are just trying to be good, honest folks who believe the unbaptized will roam the Earth for ages without the comfort of God's love when Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior returns on Judgment Day to whisk the righteous off to heaven.

Now, granted, there are some Christians on the lunatic fringe who take their beliefs a little too far. Take my coworker Karen, for example. She's way off the deep end when it comes to religion: going down to the homeless shelter to volunteer once a month, donating money to the poor, visiting elderly shut-ins with the Meals on Wheels program—you name it!

But believe me, we're not all that way. The people in my church, for the most part, are perfectly ordinary Americans like you and me. They believe in the simple old-fashioned traditions—Christmas, Easter, the slow and deliberate takeover of more and more county school boards to get the political power necessary to ban evolution from textbooks statewide. That sort of thing.

We oppose gay marriage as an abomination against the laws of God and America, we're against gun control, and we fervently and unwaveringly believe that the Jews, Muslims, and all on earth who are not born-again Pentecostalists are possessed by Satan and should be treated as such.

When it comes down to it, all we want is to see every single member of the human race convert to our religion or else be condemned by a jealous and wrathful God to suffer an eternity of agony and torture in the Lake of Fire!

I hope I've helped set the record straight, and I wish you all a very nice day! God bless you!

Spurgeon Quotes

Chapter 1: The minister's Self-Watch.

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus”.

“It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it. You all know the injurious effects frequently produced upon water through flowing along leaden pipes; even so the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spiritually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurious to their hearers.”

“True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever “call” a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”

“Should we as a a nation be called to defend our hearths and homes, we should not send out our boys and girls with swords and guns to meet the foe, nether may the church send out every fluent novice or inexperienced zealot to plead for the faith. The fear of the Lord must teach the young man wisdom, or he is barred from the pastorate; the grace of God must mature his spirit, or he had better tarry till power be given him from on high.”

Chapter 2: The Call to Ministry

“The apostle says, 'Now then we are ambassadors for God;' but does not the very soul of the ambassadorial office lie in the appointment which is made by the monarch represented? An ambassador unsent would be a laughing-stock.”

“The first sign of the heavenly calling is an intense, all absorbing desire for the work. In order to a true call to the ministry there must be an irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what God has done to our own souls.”

“'Do not enter the ministry if you can help it'...for a man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul pants.”

“This desire should be one which continues with us, a passion which bears the test of trial, a longing from which it is quite impossible for us to escape, though we may have tried to do so; a desire, in fact, which grows more intense by the lapse of years, until it becomes a yearning, a pining, a famishing, to proclaim the Word.”

“If a man be called to preach, he will be endowed with a degree of speaking ability, which he will cultivate and increase.”

“Do not run about inviting yourselves to preach here and there; be more concerned about your ability than your opportunity, and more earnest about your walk with God than about either. The sheep will know the Godsent shepherd; the porter of the fold will open to you, and the flock will know your voice.”

“That which finally evidences a proper call, is a correspondent opening in providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work.”

“It is very difficult to restrain ourselves within the bounds of prudence here, when our zeal is warm: a sense of love of Christ upon our hearts, and a tender compassion for poor sinners, is ready to prompt us to break out too soon; but he that believeth shall not make haste.”

Chapter 3: The Preacher's Private Prayer

“All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail in private prayer.”

“Prayer, as a mental exercise, will bring many subjects before the mind, and so help in the selection of a topic, while as a high spiritual engagement it will cleanse your inner eye that you may see truth in the light of God.”

“Certain brethren aim at inspiration through exertion and loud shouting; but it does not come: some we have known to stop the discourse, and exclaim, 'God bless you,' and others gesticulate wildly, and drive their finger nails into their palms of their hands as if they were in convulsions of celestial ardor. Bah! The whole thing smells of the green-room and the stage. The getting up of fervor in hearers by the simulation of it in the preacher is a loathsome deceit to be scorned by honest men.”

Chapter 5: Sermons-Their Matter

“Brethren, weigh your sermons. Do not retail them by the yard, but deal them out by the pound. Set no store by the quantity of words which you utter, but strive to be esteemed for the quality of your matter.”

“We must throw all our strength of judgment, memory, imagination, and eloquence into the delivery of the gospel.”

“You should make your sermons like a loaf of bread, fit for eating, and in convenient form.”

“We must in these times say a great deal in a few words, but not too much, nor with too much amplification...One tenpenny nail driven home and clenched will be more useful than a score of tin-tacks loosely fixed, to be pulled out again in an hour.”

Chapter 6: On the Choice of Text

“Let us abhor all one-sidedness, all exaggeration of one truth and disparagement of another, and let us endeavor to paint the portrait of truth with balanced features and blended colors, lest we dishonor her by presenting distortion instead of symmetry, and a caricature for faithful copy.”

“Your pulpit preparations are your first business, and if you neglect these, you will bring no credit upon yourself or your office.”

Chapter 12: The Minister's Ordinary Conversation

“The bow, of course, must be at times unstrung, or else it will lose its elasticity; but there is no need to cut the string.”

“Salt is of no use in the box; it must be rubbed into the meat; and our personal influence must penetrate and season society...Our Master went to a wedding, and ate bread with publicans and sinners, and yet was far more pure than those sanctimonious Pharisees, whose glory was that they were separate from their fellowmen.”

“Give me the man around whom the children come, like flies around a honey-pot: they are first-class judges of a good man. When Solomon was tried by the Queen of Sheba, as to his wisdom, the rabbis tell us that she brought some artificial flowers with her, beautifully made and delicately scented, so as to be facsimiles of real flowers. She asked Solomon to discover which were artificial and which were real. The wise man bade his servants open the window, and when the bees came in they flew at once to the natural flowers, and cared nothing for the artificial. So you will find that children have their instincts, and discover very speedily who is their friend, and depend upon it the children's friend is one who will be worth knowing.”

“An individual who has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker, and bury the dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living.”

“But if you are drawn into controversy, use very hard arguments and very soft words. Frequently you cannot convince a man by tugging at his reason, but you can persuade him by winning his affections.”

Chapter 21: Earnestness: Its Marring and Maintenance

“In many instances ministerial success is traceable almost entirely to an intense zeal, a consuming passion for souls, and an eager enthusiasm in the cause of God, and we believe that in every case, other things being equal, men prosper in the divine service in proportion as their hearts are blazing with holy love. 'The God that answereth by fire, let him be God'; and the man who has the tongue of fire, let him be God's minister.”

“Moreover, for the sake of our church members, and converted people, we must be energetic, for if we are not zealous, neither will they be. It is not in order of nature that rivers should run uphill, and it does not often happen that zeal rises from the pew to the pulpit.”

“If the prophet leaves his heart behind him when he professes to speak in the name of God, what can he expect but that the ungodly around him will persuade themselves that there is nothing in his message, and that his commission is a farce.”

“Be earnest, and you will seem to be earnest. A burning heart will soon find for itself a flaming tongue. To sham earnestness is one of the most contemptible of dodges for courting popularity; let us abhor the very thought. Go and be listless in the pulpit if you are so in your heart. Be slow in speech, drawling in tone, and monotonous in voice, if so you can best express your soul; even that would be infinitely better than to make your ministry a masquerade and yourself an actor.”

“If non-success humbles us it is well, but if it discourages us, and especially if it leads us to think bitterly of more prosperous brethren, we ought to look about us with grave concern.”

“Never say 'it is enough', nor accept the policy of 'rest and be thankful.' Do all you possibly can, and then do a little more.”