Iraqi Invasion Redux

Two years later many Americans, including this one, are questioning their earlier support of the invasion of Iraq. For me the struggle has not been one of second guessing the "evidence". It's easy to do so in light of the many errors, even perhaps misrepresentations, regarding what the situation in Iraq was. But as I read Michael Novak's recent letter on the "First Things" blog I'm reminded of how little evidence was really required to support our efforts based on traditional "just war" theories. (It's worth reading Novak's original Vatican lecture referenced in the letter to learn more about the "just war" theory).

No, I'm still convinced that the threat of biological/chemical attack aided and abetted by Saddam was quite real. Having worked for a biotech company and learned in some detail the mechanisms of such an attack, I am regrettably still convinced this is a real possibility. It just won't be supported by the same players.

And this gets closer to the heart of my questions surrounding the invasion: Does even a "just war" ever accomplish anything in the long run? Surely it is not sufficient, but is it necessary?

I've never been a pacifist, and I'm not one now. At least not yet. But if "just war" is necessary but not sufficent to bring about peach, we surely lack the remaining ingredients in the world today. Of course I don't expect to find the "solution." To my friends who would point out that answer is surely Jesus Christ, I would respond:

Yes. You are absolutely correct, and we are to abide in Him so he may abide in us which makes us a key part of the answer. Yet this brings me right back to where I started: How am I to play my part in the answer? Did Jesus fight a "just war"? Did he not teach that our battle was not against the Roman Empire which, like Saddam Hussein, held together its infamour Pax Romana through brutality and oppression? Isn't the battle against the powers of darkness who fuel the Cult of Personalities so prominent among the political powers then as they are today?

For now my questioning is leading me to read Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. I'm only 1/3 of the way into it but I can see why Brian McLaren gave it such high marks. Volf, a Croatian theologian now teaching at Fuller Seminary, has experienced first hand the horrors exclusion in the name of piety (such as the Serbian Orthodox ethnic cleansing in the Balkans).

One the things I'd like to do this coming year is read more studiously, or at least to capture notes from my reading. I love to read, and I read a lot, but sometimes I wonder if I'm not reading too much. Perhaps by taking the time to capture things as I go, I'll moderate the pace and retain more of what I do read. We'll see.

Guatemala Part 2

My primary activity was helping to build a block house for a widow, Thomasa, and her family (six children and two parents). You can see the home they have been living in the background on the left and the nearly completed replacement on the right.


Here is a group shot of the building team on the left and Thomasa and three of her children inside their old home weaving, their primary means of income, on the right.



One of the most amazing things was to see how hard the family worked. The girls, who think were about 10 and 12 carried wheel-barrow load after load of sand. Here is Thomasa's mother carrying one of many loads of blocks to the job site.

Highlights from Guatemala

Jesse reminded me that I haven't posted anything on my trip last month to Guatemala...so here it goes part one of multi-part post (this is also a good chance to test out posting pictures).

I went as part of a 10 person team. Six of us were from the Ann Arbor Vineyard and four from First Presbyterian of Brighton. Our mission was to support the work of Teri Litrell who is a full-time missionary in Vasquez, Guatemala (and the aunt of John Starkweather, a member of the A2 Vineyard).

Teri has established a clinic in Vasquez where she trains local Mayan women to be nurses and serves as a general advocate for the people. Here she is with some of her students (and Esther Brunson from Ann Arbor).

We stayed with the family of Sefarino and Maria, who took Teri in some 12 years ago after she first came to Vasquez. Through the years, the support Teri has received has enabled her to build "Sefi" and Maria a nice building complex with room for the loom, a clinic, a classroom/chapel and several guest rooms as well as space for the extended family (pictured below).

I was honored to be able to deliver the Sunday sermon the day after we arrived. It was a humbling experience. The people were very warm and friendly, but by the time my words were translated into Spanish, by Teri, and then Quiche (prounced kee-chay), by Pastor Obispo, it was very difficult to get into any kind of rhythm. It also tripled the time, so my nice 20 minute sermon dragged on past an hour. On top of this, the kids ran around freely and the adults, who primarily spoke Quiche, chatted during the english and spanish parts. This all took some getting used to, but all in all it was a very valuable experience.

Jesus skeptics on the run - Los Angeles Times

Here is a nice editorial discussing Anne Rice's new book and the shift in scholarship away from Jesus-Seminar style skepticism to acceptance of the Gospels as plausibly true.

css thesis: sites, that's all.

For my web design savvy friends, this site lists dozens of beautifully designed sites which utilize CSS. Check it out!.

Dick Staub: Movies - Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire

Since I don't have time to investigate Harry Potter myself (and thankfully Robert, only 5, is still a little too young for it...though he is eating up the Chronicles of Narnia), I'm always interested in a reasoned debate on the propriety of it. Dick Staub is usually pretty good at accomplishing that. (Follow the title link to read Dick Staub's views.)

A Message from God: Effective Immediately

Got this from Dick Staub's culture watch... (BTW...I'll post some reflections from my trip to Guatemala next week after I catch my breath).

From: God

To: You

Effective Immediately,

Please be aware that there are changes YOU need to make in YOUR life. These changes need to be completed in order that I may fulfill My promises to you to grant you peace, joy and happiness in this life. I apologize for any inconvenience, but after all that I am doing, this seems very little to ask of you. Please, follow these 10 guidelines.

1. QUIT WORRYING:

Life has dealt you a blow and all you do is sit and worry. Have you forgotten that I am here to take all your burdens and carry them for you? Or do you just enjoy fretting over every little thing that comes your way?

2. PUT IT ON THE LIST:

Something needs done or taken care of. Put it on the list. No, not YOUR list. Put it on MY to-do-list. Let ME be the one to take care of the problem. I can't help you until you turn it over to Me. And although My to-do-list is long, I am after all... God. I can take care of anything you put into My hands. In fact, if the truth were ever really known, I take care of a lot of things for you that you never even realize.

3. TRUST ME:

Once you've given your burdens to Me, quit trying to take them back. Trust in Me. Have the faith that I will take care of all your needs, your
problems and your trials. Problems with the kids? Put them on My list Problem with finances? Put it on My list. Problems with your emotional roller coaster? For My sake, put it on My list. I want to help you. All you have to do is ask.

4. LEAVE IT ALONE:

Don't wake up one morning and say, "Well, I'm feeling much stronger now; I think I can handle it from here." Why do you think you are feeling
stronger now? It's simple. You gave Me your burdens and I'm taking care of them. I also renew your strength and cover you in my peace. Don't you know that if I give you these problems back, you will be right back where you started? Leave them with Me and forget about them. Just let Me do My job.

5. TALK TO ME:

I want you to forget a lot of things. Forget what was making you crazy. Forget the worry and the fretting because you know I'm in control. But
there's one thing I pray you never forget. Please, don't forget to talk to Me - OFTEN! I love YOU! I want to hear your voice. I want you to include
Me in the things going on in your life. I want to hear you talk about your friends and family. Prayer is simply you having a conversation with Me. I want to be your dearest Friend.

6. HAVE FAITH:

I see a lot of things from up here that you can't see from where you are. Have faith in Me--I know what I'm doing. Trust Me; you wouldn't want the
view from My eyes. I will continue to care for you, watch over you, and meet your needs. You only have to trust Me. Although I have a much bigger
task than you, it seems as if you have so much trouble just doing your simple part. How hard can trust be?

7. SHARE:

You were taught to share when you were only two years old. When did you forget? That rule still applies. Share with those who are less fortunate
than you. Share your joy with those who need encouragement. Share your laughter with those who haven't heard any in such a long time. Share your tears with those who have forgotten how to cry. Share your faith with those who have none.

8. BE PATIENT:

I managed to fix it so in just one lifetime you could have so many diverse experiences. You grow from a child to an adult, have children, change jobs many times, learn many trades, travel to so many places, meet thousands of people, and experience so much. How can you be so impatient then when it takes Me a little longer than you expect to handle something on My
to-do-list? Trust in My timing, for My timing is perfect. Just because I created the entire universe in only six days, everyone thinks I should
always rush, rush, rush.

9. BE KIND:

Be kind to others, for I love them just as much as I love you. They may not dress like you, or talk like you, or live the same way you do, but I
still love you all. Please try to get along, for My sake. I created each of you different in some way. It would be too boring if you were all identical. Please, know I love each of your differences.

10. LOVE YOURSELF:

As much as I love you, how can you not love yourself? You were created by Me for one reason only--to be loved, and to love in return. I am a God of Love. Love Me. Love your neighbors. But also love yourself. It makes My heart ache when I see you so angry with yourself when things go wrong. You are very precious to me. Don't ever forget....

Leadership Blog: Out of Ur: How Emergent Are You? McLaren's Seven Layers of the Emergent Conversation

You have to stick with this past the middle to get to the good part. But its short.

Off to Guatemala tomorrow so I may not blog for a couple of weeks (though I hope to fire off some thoughts before I go).

Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy

Today's blog link is dedicated to Mark, who is forever trying to convince me the importance of living in the present "since it is the only time there is."'

Unless You Become a Child

Another nugget from the Daily Dig...

"One thing children certainly accomplish, and that is that they love and wonder at the people and the universe around them. They live in the midst of squalor and confusion and see it now. They see people at the moment and love them and admire them. They forgive and they go on loving. They may look at the most vicious person, and if he is at that moment good and kind and doing something that they can be interested in or admire, there they are, pouring out their hearts to him. Oh, I can write with authority. I have my own little grandchildren with me right now, and they see only the beauty and the joy of other people. There is no criticism in their minds and hearts of those around them."

Source: Dorothy Day, "Selected Writings"

A Short Commercial Break

I googled my company name and was surprised to find the following link to the QT video of a talk I gave on the Intersection of Biotech and IT a couple of years ago. I spoke a little too quickly and said "uh" more times than I should have but it was fun to watch again. I really enjoyed my short stint in the world of Biotech. (If you care to watch it, you might want to download the powerpoint presentation from my site since you can't see the slides well in the video.)

How to Rapture Safely...

Here's a cute piece of satire....Rapture safety cards....including instructions for exiting the church for those that don't get taken (since all the usher's will be gone ;-)

Leo Tolstoy: The Imp and the Crust

When I look back on my college years one of my biggest regrets has been not taking more "great books" literature classes. Perhaps I can make up for it as I grow old. In the mean time, I've enjoyed the little snippets of Tolstoy I've received in my "Daily Dig". Enjoy.

Leo Tolstoy: The Imp and the Crust

Church Marketing Sucks

Found this quote by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids:

"Remember what Jesus always wanted to know?" he asked. "What's the fruit we're producing? Is justice being done? Are people sharing their possessions? Are the oppressed being set free? Are relationships being healed? To me, that's the point. Everything else is just chatter." ...

"My theory of church growth is simple," said Bell, leaning across the table to deliver the coup de grace. "People drive a long way to see a fire."

Found the quote on a cool blog—Church Marketing Sucks run by the communications director for the Foursquare denomination (started by Jack hayford, I think).

Alas my reason for searching for Rob Bell was to find his great sermon called the "Theology of Breathing" for my friend Paul, but the Mars Hill website appears to be out of commission.

More tidbits from Kierkegaard

I found this quote particularly poignant ...

Christendom and Counterfeit Christianity by Soren Kierkegaard: "No one can be the truth; only the God-man is the truth. Then comes the next: the ones whose lives express what they proclaim. These are witnesses to the truth. Then come those who disclose what truth is and what it demands but admit that their lives do not express it, but to that extent still are striving. There it ends. Now comes the sophistry. First of all come those who teach the truth but do not live it. Then come those who even alter the truth, its requirement, cut it down, make omissions in order that their lives can correspond to the requirement. These are the real deceivers."

Bottom Up vs. Top Down

Following is an email I sent in response to a prophetic call for prayer. I had no problem with the contents of the call, per se, but there seemed to be something missing. I have received positive feedback from several people who received the mail so I decided to post my comments here. At the end I've also appended some further thoughts.

It does appear that troubled times are ahead, yet I am struck by the lack of focus on what I see clearly as the primary focus of God throughout his dealings with Israel and the church—justice for the poor and oppressed.

We need to open our eyes to the real sore that Katrina revealed—a city in America where 1 out of 4 people were impoverished, mostly women, children and elderly! This has nothing to do with the Supreme Court or the political government. It has to do with the church!

Here's what Ezekiel told Israel led to the destruction of Sodom:

Ezek. 16:49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen."

For too long the enemy has seduced us into thinking that we need to change our government to bring about revival. THIS IDOLATRY! Only God can bring about revival and he's not interested in the federal government nearly as much as our self-government. When this inward change happens, the changes we hope for in the outward expression (political government) will fall naturally into place.

This inward change, though is NOT primarily focused on external issues such as homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Homosexuality is a symptom of internal brokenness in our society. It is a sign that the moral order of creation is breaking down. We can prune the tree all we want, but until we GET TO THE ROOT, nothing will change.

For too long the enemy has blinded us to the simple message God has given us:

Micah 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 9 Listen! The LORD is calling to the city— and to fear your name is wisdom— “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. 10 Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? 11 Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? 12 Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully. 13 Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.”

Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God...If the church will focus on this statement and all its myriad implications, then revival will come. Jesus did not spend his time railing against the injustice of the Roman government. He challenged the Jewish leadership, yes, but He did not bring about the downfall of the Roman empire through political action, he did it by becoming "obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Hallelujah! He will complete the work He has begun. Let's pray for revival in our hearts that we may apply His simple call to take up our cross and consider other more highly than ourselves. This is what turned the world upside down in the early church and it will do it again.

Maranatha

The feedback I got was not all positive. In particular my pointing out the risk of political activism sliding into idolatry was offensive to some. My intent was not to accuse anyone in particular of this, but to warn us all against something that I, myself, have fallen into in the past (indeed, since anytime we shift our focus away from God we border on, if not commit idolatry, I am sure I still fall into it in various areas of my life...Praise be to God that He has sent His Son to free me from this bondage!).

As I pondered this further, I came to the following conclusion: God works from the inside out, from the bottom up, but we try to reverse this. Jesus did not try to overthrow the Romans or the Herodians by direct confrontation (top down), but by reconstituting Israel around Himself, one disciple at a time (bottom up). Throughout the gospels and the rest of the New Testament the focus is on how we treat each other on an individual basis. We start in Jerusalem and spread to Samaria and then to the outer parts of the world. This is not nearly as rewarding as the sense of power one feels when standing with a group of 500,000 other chanting for a change at the top, but as HisStory proves, it is far more effective over the long term.

This is not an anabaptist call for withdrawal from political involvement (at least not yet). You should vote. You should engage with the world and make your views known. You should pray fervently for political leaders!

But if we really want to change our political and justice system, we need to do from the inside out. If it worked in the midst of the authoritarian Roman regime, surely it will work in our democratic governement that is "of the people, by the people, for the people."

"How can you worship a homeless Man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?"

A good article on the “The New Monasticism” in on Christianity Today’s website this week.

I’ve lived in community, of sorts, when I was younger, and Adrienne and I have always enjoyed opening our home to others (we’ve had someone else living with our family about a third of the 15 years we’ve been married). Still, our experiences are a far cry from a true “intentional community” like those discussed in the article. The challenges are many, especially for married folk with kids, but its clear that God continues to foster communities in His church and the new models that are emerging hold promise for more than monks and nuns.

Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite for reading more…

…when those of privilege can give it up to live among those in need, it mirrors Christ coming to earth. "We have lost that incarnational concept. Jesus relocated down here to become a human being so we could be touched by him."

....

A June 2004 conference officially marks the birth of the new monasticism, and participants wrote a voluntary rule for the many and diverse communities… Drawing from church tradition and borrowing the term new monasticism from Jonathan R. Wilson's book Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World (Morehouse, 1998), participants developed 12 distinctives that would mark these communities, including: submission to the larger church, living with the poor and outcast, living near community members, hospitality, nurturing a common community life and a shared economy, peacemaking, reconciliation, care for creation, celibacy or monogamous marriage, formation of new members along the lines of the old novitiate, and contemplation.

These marks connect like-minded communities, new and older, to each other. They also provide a discipline and structure some observers say communities a generation ago lacked. "The marks show the common threads that connect Christian communities that might otherwise be seen as scattered anomalies, rather than vibrant cells of a body," says Claiborne, who is becoming a spokesman for the movement.

One of the challenges any community faces is affordable housing for the group, but going to live among the poor opens up opportunities that simply don’t exist in suburbia. So for example:

For years, Claiborne says, the Simple Way tried to get the city to condemn an abandoned home at the end of their street, which had become home to drug dealers, users, and prostitutes. "It was unacceptable," Claiborne says. They petitioned the city to condemn the building and allow the Simple Way, which is registered as a nonprofit organization, to buy and rehab it. The city said it would cost $30,000 to buy it and take two years to process the paperwork.

But they weren't going to let red tape slow them down. While they worked with the city to gain ownership of the building, Simple Way members walked across the rooftops down Potter Street and entered the house through the roof. Inside, they found trash piled to the ceiling, walls and floors caving in, drug paraphernalia, and pornography. They cleaned it out, room by room.

Before their cleanup efforts made much progress, two people were murdered on the corner. The story made the evening news, and the local alderman, feeling pressure, promised to do something. The building was immediately condemned, canceling $150,000 in liens, and the house put up for auction. The Simple Way bought it for $14,000, and three days after gaining ownership, the building was clean.

The article also includes some important warnings about the imbalances that can occur:

It's always a good thing when people decide to live out their love for Jesus in radical ways, says Ron Sider, professor at Palmer Theological Seminary (formerly Eastern Baptist). Many young people, he says, "look at society and the church and see an incredibly individualistic community and, in spite of some exceptions, still largely unconcerned for the poor."

However, in intentional community movements, one sometimes senses an element of guilt that is used to manipulate suburban youths into giving their lives to work with the poor. "And the flip side of that [guilt] tends to be self-righteousness projected on everyone else," says Jenell Williams Paris, who lived in community during college and graduate school from 1991 to 1999 and now teaches anthropology at Bethel University in Minnesota.

"I heard speakers give prophetic messages, part of which I now understand as shaming messages to white, middle-class evangelicals. I heard, 'White people aren't doing anything. Evangelicals don't care," Paris says. "I took that personally, and I thought, I don't not care; I just didn't know."

A summer with Bart Campolo's ministry gave her the conviction to work on behalf of the poor and influenced her life down to the person she married. However, Paris says, "That sense of shame and guilt was driving me for eight or ten years. Now I listen closely when evangelical social justice speakers come to my university. It's important to help students engage with justice issues out of love, not just out of white guilt."

Community living is also difficult, especially for families, to sustain over the long term. "The whole [American] culture is set up for married people with careers and kids to live in houses and to be mobile as a unit," Paris says. That can cause problems for communities that include married couples and their children, who at some point feel the need to move on to create a life for their family.

This sort of rhythm "reinforces the love-them-and-leave-them pattern," says Don Stubbs, director of recruitment for Inner City Impact in Chicago. Inner-city hopelessness is so deeply rooted that ministry takes years of building one-on-one relationships before it is effective, Stubbs says. Community living can be "sexy" ministry, but Stubbs says he would rather find workers committed long term to the urban setting.

…Hmmm…

Building the World of Tomorrow

Pat Robertson's recent proposal for dealing with Hugo Chavez has caused quite an uproar. He's apologized for calling for assasination but his general attitude points to one of the clear "meta-narratives" of modern evangelicalism, which I used to adhere to, but now find increasingly objectionable. Here's a quote from the reply I received from CBN after I posted my feelings on their website. Pat Robertson says:

We are in the midst of a war that is draining vast amounts of our treasure and is costing the blood of our armed forces. I am a person who believes in peace, but not peace at any price. However, I said before the war in Iraq began that the wisest course would be to wage war against Saddam Hussein, not the whole nation of Iraq. When faced with the threat of a comparable dictator in our own hemisphere, would it not be wiser to wage war against one person rather than finding ourselves down the road locked in a bitter struggle with a whole nation?

The brilliant Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived under the hellish conditions of Nazi Germany, is reported to have said:

"If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."

Some are quite offended that Mr. Robertson would dare compare himself with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. To me it simply points to his shallowness. I'm no expert on Bonhoeffer but the little reading of him I've done (Life Together) indicates a profoundly deep thinking man. He was accused by Hitler of participating in a plot to assassinate him and while the evidence is inconclusive, I found the following discussion of his life and his views on pacifism revealing of the dilemma he faced:

BONHOEFFER, CONVINCED sufficiently of the arguments for pacifism that he arranged to visit Gandhi in the mid-1930s (something he was unable to do), eventually supported a plot to assassinate Hitler. He simply could not accept the personal perfection of withdrawal. In doing that, one "sets his own personal innocence above his responsibility for [humanity], and he is blind to the more irredeemable guilt which he incurs precisely in this," Bonhoeffer wrote.

Of the elites and never a populist, Bonhoeffer left the immortal phrase that it was essential "to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled-in short from the perspective of those who suffer."

One thing is clear, to me at least: Bonhoeffer was far closer to the situation in Germany, and the evil more starkly apparent, than Pat Robertson's perspective on Venezuela. More importantly, Robertson's comments on the war "draining vast amounts of our treasure" and the call to "take out" Saddam (not assassinate, mind you, Pat makes it clear that there are numerous ways to "take out" a leader), go to show where his heart is.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

To my main point about modern evangelical meta-narratives: we have been far too quick to resort to natural means to fight the battle. Or perhaps the problem is that we have been too focused on fighting "our" battle and not the Lord's. In any case, the article that prompted this ramble is more about Brother Roger. I love his thoughts on the role of the humble and obscure in bringing about a future of peace and trust...

SojoNet: Faith, Politics, and Culture: "Brother Roger was well-known for his letters, many of which were addressed to young people. 'So many young people all across the earth carry within them a yearning for peace, for communion, and for joy,' he wrote in one such letter last year. 'They are also mindful of the untold suffering of the innocent. They know all too well that poverty in the world is on the rise. It is not only the leaders of nations who build the world of tomorrow. The most obscure and humble people can play a part in bringing about a future of peace and trust. However powerless we may seem to be, God enables us to bring reconciliation where there are oppositions and hope where there is anxiety. God calls us to make his compassion for human beings accessible by the way we live.'"

Breaking down the Walls of Division

I was moved by the NYT's story on Brother Roger Schutz (At His Funeral, Brother Roger Has an Ecumenical Dream Fulfilled"), who was senselessly stabbed last week by a disturbed Romanian woman looking for attention. Here are some excerpts:

Brother Roger Schutz pursued many ecumenical dreams in his long life, but in death one of them came true: At a Eucharistic service celebrated Tuesday by a Roman Catholic cardinal for Brother Roger, a Swiss Protestant, communion wafers were given to the faithful indiscriminately, regardless of denomination.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican's council for the unity of Christians, who celebrated the Mass, said in a homily, "Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taize." Beyond religious divisions, Brother Roger also abhorred the division between rich and poor. "Every form of injustice or neglect made him very sad" Cardinal Kasper said. Brother Roger's community and friends, including President Horst Kohler of Germany and the retired archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, attended the liturgy in the vast wooden monastery church at Taize, while thousands more followed it on a huge screen in fields outside the church. Brother Roger was 90 when he was stabbed to death by a Romanian woman, Luminita Solcan, 36, during an evening service in the church one week ago. His successor, the Rev. Alois Leser, a Roman Catholic priest from Germany, prayed for forgiveness: "With Christ on the cross we say to you, Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did"

Here's another link to an article with more details on the history of Brother Roger and some quotes from varioius Christian leaders.

Happy Tu B'Av - Holiday of Love and Romance

"Since Biblical times the 15th of Av has been celebrated as a holiday of love and affection, and in modern Israel it is celebrated as a sort of “Valentine’s Day” (though it is a much older and sober holiday that St. Valentine’s Day)."

Learn more...

Did they find evidence of David's palace?

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "n what could turn out to be the archeological find of the century, a prominent Israeli archeologist claims to have uncovered the ancient palace of King David near the Old City of Jerusalem.
The 10th Century BC building discovered by Dr. Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, following a six-month dig at the site, has stirred international interest, igniting a debate in the archeological world whether the building is indeed the Biblical palace built for the victorious King David by King Hiram of Tyre as recounted in Samuel II: 5."

Worshipping at the IHOP

Adrienne I dropped in at the IHOP in Atlanta tonight. Not for pancakes, but for prayer and worship. The International House of Prayer - Atlanta : houses prayer and worhsip services 24 hours a day nearly 7 days a week.

We showed up a little after 8 PM and sat down in the "prayer room" which is more like a sanctuary with about 200 seats and stage for musicians. One young woman sang and played piano while another worshipped harmoniously. The singing was sweet and melodic and the Holy Spirit was clearly present. We were two of maybe half a dozen people in the prayer room with a few others off in a side room practicing guitar. Later exploration revealed a fellowship room with video games, pool tables etc., and a kitchen. Didn't see the recording studio, but their website claims to have one.

All-in-all and annointed way to spend an evening.

Imagine if you could join with others for an hour of prayer and worship any time the Spirit moved, night or day! Think about it....well?

Are you ready to make it happen?

Two faces of Human Instinct

When the Air France jet skidded off the runway this week in Toronto, two faces of human instinct were on display.

Inside the plane, pandemonium broke loose as Survival instinct took over passengers, experts say

A primeval, and sometimes ugly, survival instinct swept over some of the desperate passengers of Air France Flight 358 when they found themselves trapped in the burning plane … It was for a time, as several passengers described it, everyone for himself or herself….Stephanie Paquin, a 17-year-old returning from a student exchange in France, said "people were just pushing. They didn't care about anyone else." After fleeing through the emergency exits, "everyone was trampling everyone."

The experts point to this as evidence of a primal instinct built into us over the eons:

"We have a bunch of primitive reflexes in which we exhibit behaviour like animals in certain situations," said Steven Taylor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, whose research focuses on trauma and anxiety.
… Often people will "later feel embarrassed" for their behaviour.

Yet, another instinct drove one man who was driving by the airport at the time of the crash to drive toward the crash, against the rush of other cars fleeing the seeing, scale the barbed wire fence and lend a hand becoming the The hero of Flight 358

As terrified passengers fled the burning Air France jet, Guy Ledez stood atop a muddy ravine, pulling survivors from the wreckage.

He then ran on board the burning wreckage of Flight 358 to make sure no one was left behind. The 37-year-old airport rental car manager says he didn't have time to stop and think of danger when he witnessed the crash on a routine Tuesday afternoon.

"I looked down and there's just a sea of people trying to get up," he said. "I had two babies passed to me." He and another bystander - whose name he never learned - pulled survivors to safety and then went down to help elderly passengers up the ravine.

Not knowing whether injured survivors remained on board, he said, the two men scrambled up the emergency slide at the tail of the plane. Each took an aisle and did a sweep to make sure nobody had been left behind.

All 309 passengers and crew had remarkably escaped serious harm.

The other unknown good Samaritan jumped out and landed safely. Just as Ledez headed toward an exit, he heard an explosion from the back of the plane, one that ultimately ripped the aircraft into pieces.

He jumped and ran for his life. Only then did he realise how much danger he had escaped: "That sort of woke me up," he said. "That's when the reality set in."
…

"There was no thinking involved, just, 'I gotta go help', so boom, I did it," he said.

One the tensions Christians must grapple with lies between the total depravity of man, which speaks of the capacity and even propensity towards evil inherent in all of us, and our role as image bearers of God, created as good creatures, yet now fallen. Must we strive to empty ourselves of every ounce of human will to make room for God? Or do we seek to subject to and join our will with His will to achieve His purposes? Saints have grappled with these questions for millennia with no clear answer, and the two faces of human instinct shown in Flight 358 does little but highlight the tension. Perhaps that is as it should be.

Peace.

Choosing Poverty: Jesus and the Redistribution of Capital

Paul Metler reminded me today that I hadn't blogged in over a month. Not that I haven't been reading and thinking a lot, but I haven't been writing a lot.

Anyway, here's a provocative piece to chew on....
Choosing Poverty: Jesus and the Redistribution of Capital: "Choosing Poverty
Jesus and the Redistribution of Capital
"

The Original Unity of Man and Woman

I first came across this when preparing a sermon on the bride of Christ for my classwork. My friend Paul sent me some of this writings which spoke of the Hebrew for man and woman is/issa and how the woman was like but different from man. I did a search and came across this from Pope John Paul II. I had never read anything by him before and, quite frankly, I was blown away by the depth of his writing. I can see why they made him Pope.

There really isn't a "pull quote" from it that does it justice (you'll just have to read it for yourself...click on the title of the entry for the link) but the suffice it to say I find the text far more beautiful and meaningful than I did before.

It is clear, too, that the text emphasizes the equality of woman with man. This may come as a surprise to some, but the more I study the scriptures in depth, the more I realize the inadequacy of the typical evangelical approach to reading the Bible literally. So for example, without an understanding of how ancient Hebrews expressed themselves and talked about the world it is impossible to know the literal meaning of God forming Eve from Adams rib.

Grocery Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion

This was passed on to me by my friend Paul. Similar to the Meatrix (see my earlier post)....funnier, though maybe not as educational. However, I should have put a warning on the Meatrix post...it mayn not be suitable for young eyes (I had to stop it before it scared my young nephew). Store Wars is more paletable (sp?) for yound eys. Grocery Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion

Time to Forgive Debts

This whole article is worth reading, but I was particularly interested to read the following explanation of a parable that has always puzzled me, the parable of the dishonest steward in Luke. The historical context provided below makes sense of it for me...

Time to Forgive Debts: ..." the parable of the dishonest steward (Luke 16:1-39), also revolves around the peasants' status in Jesus' time. Due to the extortions of King Herod— as well as those of his son and the Roman occupant — most of the older proprietors had lost their independence. Forced to mortgage their property in order to pay their taxes, they had been driven into semi-slavery. The taxes in oil and wheat that they paid to their masters often amounted to half or more of their harvest.

The peasants' conditions in Israel were aggravated by yet another evil: the owners' absenteeism. A hierarchy of middlemen (toll-gatherers, publicans, customs officials, stewards, and managers) had the task of collecting debts. They extorted from the sharecropper arbitrary sums of money that exceeded the rent, debts, and taxes they actually owed. The poor were always in the wrong. They could rely on no one because the stewards presented falsified accounts to their masters. With the help of these accounts, they were able to accumulate what Jesus called "unrighteous mammon." It was by constantly seeking these unjust riches that the stewards lost their genuine riches, namely, the friendship of their fellow citizens.

This parable tells how a landowner discovered the dishonesty of his steward. Not only did the steward plunder the sharecroppers, he also stole from his master to whom he showed falsified records. Once his cheating had been discovered, the steward began to feel the pangs of conscience. He understood that he would never be able to reimburse the entire amount of his swindling. But he decided at least not to require of the sharecroppers exaggerated amounts they had not yet paid. He then erased the amount by which he had unjustly increased their debts. Jesus describes him calling the debtors together and reducing their debts to their correct amount: fifty measures of oil instead of a hundred, eighty measures of wheat instead of a hundred, etc.

Such a decision certainly increased the steward%u2019s insolvency. It forced him into poverty. But by acting as he did, he would acquire genuine riches, that is the thankfulness and friendship of his previous victims. Poor among the poor, man among men, he would be received as a brother in their homes. That, says Jesus, is the nature of God's kingdom. The point of the parable? Jesus says, "Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves" (Luke 16:9). That is, put the Jubilee I'm announcing into practice. By liberating others from their debts, you set yourselves free from fetters that bind, which keep you from being ready for the coming of God's kingdom of justice.

The most remarkable part of the parable is the praise for the steward's shrewdness that Jesus puts into the mouth of the landowner, who symbolizes God. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, God is the one who takes the initiative. God is the first to cancel our debt, and so he expects us to do the same. In the parable of the dishonest steward, it is man who takes the initiative. He is the first to put the Jubilee into practice by obeying the messianic call and remitting the debts of those who are debtors to God, as well as debtors to himself. Consequently, God praises this man for practicing the redistribution of wealth even before being touched by divine grace. He was able to read the signs of God's kingdom and understand that the rule of unjust riches is over."

Independence Day

I wish I had the time to write more on my feelings about this, but this quote from John Stott will have serve as a proxy for now...
Independence Day: "In The Unforbidden Fruit, John Stott says that Christians have this to add to the Declaration of Independence: "Those who pursue happiness never find it. Because joy and peace are extremely elusive, happiness is a will-o'-the-wisp, a phantom, and even if we reach out our hand to grasp it, it vanishes into thin air. God gives joy and peace not to those who pursue them but to those who pursue him, and strive to love. Joy and peace are found in loving and nowhere else."

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

Here's the transcript of the Stanford commencement address Steve Jobs delivered this year. 'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
.

I found it particularly engaging as I realized the parallels in our lives. Like Steve, I was adopted and like him, I dropped out of college when I felt guilty that my parents were spending outrageous sums of money for my out-of-state tuition at UM and I had no idea what I wanted to do. By the time I went back to school a couple of years later, the Macintosh had been introduced. In his speech, Jobs speaks of how a calligraphy class he took after he dropped out led him to build typography into the Mac. I learned a little typography as editor of my yearbook in High School, but it was using the Macintosh that really helped me learn to use type creatively. Thanks, Steve, for dropping out and connecting the dots.

All Things New

I've really enjoyed the readings I get sent by the daily dig. Here's today's quote and the story that it linked to..

And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” - Revelation 21:5

A darkness has come over Christianity in regard to this matter of renewal. We are so easily contented, so quickly satisfied with a religiosity that makes us appear a little more decent. Yet this cannot be all there is to our faith: Everything—everything—must become new. Not just a little taste of something new, but all things new. C. F. Blumhardt.

The Cop and the Bank Robber

The Three Hermits by Leo Tolstoy

Sunday, our pastor Ken spoke of the importance of creed, but more importantly, the connection with the One the creeds point to. This story from Leo Tolstoy makes the same point...
The Three Hermits by Leo Tolstoy

THE MEATRIX

Here's a hilarious spoof of the Matrix movies targeted at "factory farming"...THE MEATRIX

God's All Embracing Love

Wow! What gem I found. Here are some excerpts of excerpts from letters from Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, a German Lutheran pastor, writing circa 1900 to his son-in-law who was a missionary in China.
As it says in the Forward to the free e-book The Hidden Christ :

“His words lack polish. Blumhardt clearly writes from a passionately moved heart, hastily jotting down thoughts with little regard for the choice of words or the skillful marshalling of ideas. Theologically, too, there are many points over which one could take issue. But Blumhardt never claimed to be a systematic thinker. In fact, many central assertions seem to have no clear inner connection, and even a remarkable duality, especially with problems involving the institutional church and the Church of Christ, Christians and non-Christians, testimony by word and testimony by deed.”

Yet at a time when we struggle to find relevance in a chaotic world, I find his approach refreshing and exciting…

God's All-Embracing Love

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
These excerpts are from Blumhardt's letters to his son-in-law, Richard Wilhelm, a missionary in China.

God's love tears down old divisions. No longer religion against religion, Christians against non-Christians, but justice against sin, life against death. His love embraces everyone. Therefore, every person you encounter should be your concern. Do not settle for less. The whole world must see the glory of God. …

God protects the oppressed. He will see to it that they receive his blessing. Today his spirit moves upright hearts everywhere, without asking what kind of a religion they cling to. Our task is to spread the gospel of Christ, not the gospel of Christians. Christ does not want separation. …

The chief thing is to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, not an apostle of the European Christian world. Have patience, and whatever you do, stay clear of forming a party. Your work must embrace the whole, then your integrity will win you everyone's trust.

… The conversion of individuals is only a temporary measure. Individual conversion by itself risks the sin of pharisaism. A single baptized person can so easily flatter himself, thinking he or she is a special person, able to give someone a spiritual kick now and then.

… When we come to a foreign land in the name of Jesus, we should thank God that a law already exists which can find fulfillment. Or do we think we have first to hammer the laws of Moses into people? This would be to stand above God, whose spirit has been at work long before we Christians showed up!

… No one can honor God without honoring what is of God in people.

Conservatism of every stripe hinders and paralyzes everything. The Chinese are bound by this, just as much as Christians who are in the church's clutches. The Chinese are imprisoned by an inordinate veneration of the family and an overemphasis on superstitious customs. All this prevents them from experiencing any real change. In this sense, Confucianism seems to me to be a kind of church, controlling every mood of the soul, inducing anxiety, and hindering genuine progress. You will no doubt encounter great obstacles the more you draw close to people and move beyond superficial acquaintance.

Many missionaries feel this makes them right in wanting to use Christianity to uproot the national character of the Chinese. But they will soon find out where that leads! If a nationalistic spirit is aroused, on either side, then all foreign elements will be swept away, and the Christians themselves will become enemies. Only those who act justly toward the people and represent their interests in the face of oppression will stand the test of Christ's love.

…My hope is that Christ quietly works and comforts, and that a difference of spirit between what you and others are trying to do can be clearly sensed. As you rightly point out, aggressive attempts at missionizing do not spring from the love of God, but from the spirit of business.

During my recent visit to Cairo, where I had to preach at the local mission house, I was made acutely aware of what a distortion it is to play Christianity like a trump card when we relate with Muslims, instead of simply allowing the Savior to speak through us. Islam is not so absolutely closed that the spirit of God is unable to work there. Certainly, these people will never become European Christians - not that they would gain anything by it if they did.

There is something very impressive about the worship of Allah in the Islamic faith. Not only are there few religious forms, but there is a heartfelt devotion to Allah, even in the midst of misfortune and despite a strict moral code. As a religion, Islam has the kind of strength that is able to influence the actions of its followers. It is true that everything in Islam is quite rigid, which obscures the living, human, and personal love of our Father in heaven. Only Jesus, the Son of Man, can reveal this to them. But to the Muslim, European Christians appear immoral and irreligious-and not without some justification.

…

God's plan is to lift us out of our animal-like existence into the life of the Spirit. A great deal of truth still has to be revealed - from non-Christian peoples as well-to show that from the beginning God has wanted to create something good and true wherever there is an opening far beyond our narrow boundaries.

…

Only Christ expresses God's nature clearly. Apart from him all our human efforts to change the structure of society will collapse as soon as outer circumstances change. "We must be redeemed from the curse of the law and enter into the freedom of the children of God" (Gal. 3:13). It is the Chinese law, like our high and mighty morality in Europe, which holds the people back. As my father wrote to me when I was young, "Our virtues have become our greatest sin." They hinder the living God from doing something new.

Although great and profound outer changes can occur quite apart from any revelation from God, there is nothing more wonderful than the indwelling Christ. When he is present, streams of living water flow out, bringing life to people. This is something that transcends human goodness. What God directs is never destroyed, even when nations suffer ruin. Only where Christ's love rules are human beings valued for who they are, and everything else - social institutions and customs - takes second place and even become quite unimportant.

The hidden Church of Jesus Christ, out of which something of God's future can come, remains and will never die. The lines of human ideals and Christ's kingdom run parallel. And the mantles of Confucianism and Christianity are in tatters. A new mantle is needed - made of God's pure love and the capacity to receive it.

Excerpted from The Hidden Christ, available FREE in e-book format.

Joy At Work - Synopsis

Looks like an interesting book. The link below is to a fairly detailed synopsis.

"Dennis W. Bakke's passion is to make work exciting, rewarding, stimulating, and enjoyable. While most business books focus on top executives, Joy at Work is aimed primarily at the working life of the other 90 to 95 percent of people in large organizations. According to Bakke, co-founder and CEO emeritus of the AES Corporation, a worldwide energy company with
40,000 employees and $8.6 billion in revenue by 2002, a better measure of an organization's success than the bottom line is the quality of work life."

ARghh! Can't somebody actually engage NT Wright in real debate?

I've been reading a lot of NT Wright and find his take on the NT compelling and encouraging to my faith. Yet his "new perspective on Paul," as I've learned his views are categorized, are sufficiently different from "classic" evangelical teaching, at least on certain topics such as justification, that they've attracted a fair amount of criticism. I'm quite interested to understand some of the basis for this criticism so I can wrestle with it myself.

So I was pleased to find the list of critical articles mentioned in the previous post and immediately began reading the first article, which was supposed to be "a very well crafted, effective response to Wright...
The Attractions of the New Perspective(s) on Paul - Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc

Alas! After an hour of reading (its a long article) I am no closer to my goal. There are perhaps three or four actual places where he "engages" with Wright. The rest is a recapitulation of the NPP ideas surrounded by subtle and not-so-subtle hints that they are seducing promising young evangelical students and laity (always the young ones, mind you, or the "laity", never the mature, evangelical). This is followed by "11 reasons" Wright is so popular (he's a hero for taking on the "Jesus Seminar," he's witty and charming and does a better job supporting his case with exegetical studies.. "don't underestimate him").

Yet when it gets to actually identifying what's wrong, this article at least suffices with assertions primary substantiated by reference to other scholars, who themselves assert such things as "the NPP misreads Luther and Calvin". No where is there the kind of detailed argumentation one finds so attractive in Wright's own writing. He lays out the other side, provides several variations of it and then one-by-one attacks them head on.

Don't get me wrong. I understand how hard it is do what I suggest. I am falling into the same trap in this blog entry (i.e. simply asserting a problem with taking the time and energy to quote the text and show why its' wrong. I just hope I can find someone who do a better job.

There is a good bibliography at the end of the article which appears to offer more meaty fair. If anybody reading this (if anybody is reading this) comes across a good article along these lines, please send them on.

New Perspective on Justification (N.T. Wright)

A whole passel of links to critical looks at Wright...
New Perspective on Justification (N.T. Wright)

Illusory Freedom

The Religion Report: 17 November 2004 - Anglican Bishop N.T Wright: Full Transcript :

Stephen Crittenden:A lot of the freedom we’ve won for ourselves may be an illusion.

Tom Wright: Yes, and that is the thing which Postmodernity names, that the freedom is simply turning over in your sleep within your prison cell and in fact you’re still pretty stuck. But I have always, in my scholarly work, taken very serious the Enlightenment's historical question, because it seems to me that before the Enlightenment, the church was getting away with murder, sometimes literally, alas, by simply saying “We’ll tell you how it is, we’ll tell you what the Bible means, here it is, boom-boom. No questions to be asked. And then along comes the Enlightenment and says “Wait a minute. We think that there's some history under there, and it might just disprove what you’re saying”. And I and a lot of people have taken that on board and said “Yes, OK, we will answer that, we will go to those historical sources and we’ll show that we can actually do this a lot better than you guys can”. And, I see this, because I know some people who are listening to this will have a further question, I see the model for that as Jesus’ dialogue with doubting Thomas. That Thomas comes and says “Here, I want some hard evidence , I want to be able touch and I want to be able to see”. And Jesus doesn’t say to him “Oh you silly boy, you know, you shouldn’t ask for touching and seeing, you know , go out of the room until you’re prepared to come back with a better question”.

Stephen Crittenden: He gives him touching and seeing.

Tom Wright: He says “be my guest. Bring your finger here and touch my hands”, and then when Thomas has done that and said “My Lord and my God”, Jesus says, “Actually it would have been better if you had done this without your silly questions”. So I want to take the Enlightenment on like Jesus took Thomas on. I think then the trouble with the Enlightenment’s rhetoric of freedom and human rights and so on, is it’s now over-reached itself. And part of the postmodern critique, which I endorse, is to say “Don’t believe all the rhetoric of the Enlightenment”. Because in fact there’s much more and a rather dark side to that. And people are using this language to crowbar particular agendas through and because we all signed up to the Enlightenment, we daren’t stand up against it. It’s happening in the European Union at the moment, but that’s another story which no doubt people in Australia are happily well off without."

Young Christians Rising - Hans Zeiger

Young Christians Rising - Hans Zeiger: "%u201CIn an age of relativism,%u201D writes Peter Kreeft, %u201Corthodoxy is the only possible rebellion left.%u201D Remarkably, Christian orthodoxy is spreading rapidly amongst young Americans; we can hope that a great awakening of the spiritual life of the nation is imminent.

Across denominations, young Americans seek commitment; they want to be presented with a challenge and a message that can occupy their innermost identity; they want to live with purpose and an excitement that undermines the prevalent boredom of the post-modern wasteland. That is why, in an August 2004 MTV survey, a mere 21 percent of 18 to 24 year olds said that religion plays a small or unimportant role in their life. Eighteen to 24 year olds were more than twice as likely to see Mel Gibson%u2019s %u201CPassion%u201D as they were to see Michael Moore%u2019s %u201CFahrenheit 9/11.%u201D"

"Sampled" NT Wright

Those of you who enjoy NT Wright will particularly enjoy this song from Paul Seburn (originally posted on OpenSourceTheology.net):

While listening to the 4 talks at the Future of the People of God Conference, I've been a few times struck with the "cadence" of Tom's voice when he is expressing something he is passionate about. They happen to be things that I am also passionate about. As I have a home studio and am a songwriter / producer I've put together a couple mixes that include Tom's voice. At times his voice has a clear pulse to it and is almost melodic.

Google News

Kill the Commentators!

I have read very little, if any, of Soren Kierkegaard, but the provacative piece excerpted below has whet my appetite. I don't agree with his conclusions in the extreme, but I do bear witness to the sentiment....

Kill the Commentators!:

"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?

Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend it-self against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

Adopt a Village—Rick Warren's next Step

Here's a cool idea from Rick Warren, who's already demonstrated the ability to propogate an idea to millions of people....

Rick Warren, at 25-year point, launches global initiative - (BP): "P.E.A.C.E. is an acronym that stands for 'Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation,' Warren said. The emphasis calls for church-based small groups to adopt villages where spiritual emptiness, selfish leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance keep people from experiencing the kind of life God wants them to have, he said.
"

What would Jesus watch?

It's been a while since I've posted, but I finished my final for the VLI Winter Quarter, so for at least a week or two, I should have some breathing space.

First item to mention is that news.Google.com now lets you customize what you see. I'm experimenting with different search filters to try and capture some interesting faith-based news...caught this from David Crum at the FreePress..

FAITH IN THE 21ST CENTURY: What would Jesus watch? . Crum reviews some new DVD's from a Grand Rapids based group NOOMA. They're from the emergent chruch, Mars Hill. Here's Crum's description of one of their films....

"Well, in 'Bullhorn' (also known as NOOMA 009 of the 10 films available), a nerdy evangelist in a white shirt shows up on screen photocopying hellfire-and-brimstone tracts and packing up a bullhorn as he prepares to shout at people on street corners.

But wait. There's a second preacher in this movie, a very different kind of clergyman who shows up in the next scene, sitting on a wooden bench on a city street in a T-shirt and sandals. His name is Rev. Rob Bell. At 34, he looks like that cool guy in Verizon ads with glasses and spiky hair. In real life, he's pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, near Grand Rapids, a hot new church for twentysomethings. He talks straight and fast about a loving kind of God who accepts everyone 'just the way they are.'

Back to the movie. Bell talks into the camera, as if addressing the hellfire preacher in the first scene, and says: 'Bullhorn guy, I don't think it's working. ... I think it's making things worse. I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind.'

Churches shouldn't look for new members 'like they're notches on somebody's spiritual belt, because they're not,' Bell says. It's those ideas that give millions of young people the 'perception that being a Christian is lame.'

No, Bell says, the whole point of Christianity is to experience God's love, to love one another and never to scare or threaten people.

The movie ends there.

There's nothing in it about right and wrong. And there's nothing in any of the 10 NOOMA movies about women's rights or gay rights or abortion rights or any of the hot-button issues in the evangelical world.

Each movie is all about a specific, plain-and-simple spiritual topic. "Bullhorn" is about the need for acceptance. Other films are about Christian approaches to promoting forgiveness, overcoming rejection or soothing stress.

Interesting. Learn more at Nooma's website

And God Said...

...Let there be light.

Is this poetry? Metaphor? or Science?

Put aside the question of how you get sound without air for the moment, and check this out...It turns out that when pulsing sound waves compress bubbles in a liquid the result is observed as flashes of light, something they call "sonoluminescence"...now some scientists claim to have measured the temperature inside the bubbles...their answer? 15,000ºC or 4 x hotter than the Sun and hot enough to fuel a fusion reaction...here's the article...
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Son of Sonofusion

How Do We Know About Jesus: Two Visions

I took a few minutes the other day to check out Nicola's books and was glad I did. It turns out that they have the best religious book section in Ann Arbor (IMHO)...better than Borders, better than Barnes and Noble, even better than Christian Crossroads (which is quite sad when you think about it). Instead of having the latest and greatest froth, they seemed to have a nice selection from across the spectrum of beliefs. I even found a copy of The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions by Marcus Borg and NT Wright. Since Donnell was complaining about his lack of a discussion partner for this, and since Borg is coming to Ann Arbor in a couple of weeks, I bought it. I should be finishing Jeremiah tonight for VLI, but couldn't resist the call of a new book (I hope you're happy Donnell).

The first couplet of chapters is about how we know about Jesus (the format of the book is that two authors each write a chapter on the same topic, alternating who goes first). Borg started this one, and as Donnell pointed out

"Dr. Borg's vision of Jesus is very intriguing...[Borg] defines an argument called 'History Metaphorized' as 'the use of metaphorical language and metaphorical narratives to express the meaning of the story of Jesus.' ...[and] casts doubt on the 'historical' events and activities attributed to Jesus, and at the same time he affirms the importance of 'nonhistorical material.' "

Both authors, Borg and Wright, speak of growing up with similar worldviews in which faith was accepted uncritically while still holding an essentially modern view of the universe as a closed system, what Francis Schaeffer refers to as a “two-story” perspective where “faith” is held separate from “reason.” Borg faced a crisis when confronted with the tension between his secular modern view and his faith, which explained the miraculous events of the Bible by thinking of Jesus as “more divine than human … as having the mind and power of God.” The problem, he explains was “I lost the historical Jesus as a credible human being…Because he is more than human, he is not fully human.” Borg resolves this in a creative way by postulating a pre-Easter Jesus and post-Easter Jesus, both important but quite distinct individuals.

I can see his point. I can’t relate to a “superman” Jesus.

But what if there was a way to explain the Jesus in the Gospels without reducing his humanness? What if the problem was not in the historical presentation of Jesus in the gospels, but in Borg’s earlier, admittedly pre-critical interpretation of what he read? What if the gospels don’t, after all, actually present Jesus as “having the mind and power of God”? (Which is not to say that they don’t present Jesus as divine, but rather that our definition of what it meant for him to be fully human and fully divine is colored by layer upon layer of doctrinal assertions, all posited in good faith, but done so without the benefit of the rich historical perspective we now have.) What if being divine meant that the “historical Jesus” is instead the perfect example of what humans were intended by God to be. Isn’t this in line with Paul’s reference to Jesus as both the “the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation” (Col 1:15) and the “second Adam” (so to speak) who brings life where the first Adam brought death (Romans 5)? It seems to me that in his attempt to preserve the humanity of Jesus, Borg has instead posited a picture of humanity which is far more limited than God intended us to be. Yes, today the perfection of Jesus's example is unattainable, but some day "when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2b)

On to Wright's chapter. Where as Borg regularly makes sweeping assertions about what is and isn’t historical about the story we have of Jesus in the gospels, based primarily it would seem on the majority of opinion of scholars, Wright couches his arguments in carefully crafted discussions, attempting to eliminate our many presuppositions about what things mean by addressing each major stream of opinion in turn, in light of historical methods of inquiry.

To Wright the major question is: “why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did?” From Wright’s perspective Borg’s gulf might need to be bridged. Or it might not exist at all. To even posit such a gulf in the beginning is to necessarily color the investigation…

“I do not know in advance…that a considerable gulf exists between Jesus as he was (the “pre-Easter Jesus,” in Marcus [Borg’s] language) and Jesus as the church came to know him and speak of him (the “post-Easter Jesus”). We might eventually wish to reach some such conclusion; we cannot build it into our historical method." [emphasis added]

There has never been a time in history when we knew so much about the past and this is especially true regarding Biblical history. Couple this with the postmodern penchant to puncture past controlling meta-narratives and we find ourselves in a unique position to reevaluate the conclusions of past historians and priests alike. As Wright puts it:

History, then, prevents faith becoming fantasy. Faith prevents history becoming mere antiquarianism. Historical research, being always provisional, cannot ultimately veto faith, though it can pose hard questions that faith, in order to retain its integrity precisely as Christian faith, must struggle to answer, and may well grow strong through answering. Faith, being subject to the vagaries of personality and culture, cannot veto the historical enterprise (it can’t simply say “I don’t like the Jesus you write about, so you must be wrong”), but it can put hard questions to history, not least on the large topic of the origins of Christianity, and history may be all the better for trying to answer them.

Back to Jeremiah….

Influencing our Youth with a Call to Action

I haven't read Jim Wallis' book God's Politics, though I bought it recently after reading about it in Jesse's blog. Now that I've read the following excerpt from Wallis's blog, I'll have to move it up on my list....

Sojourners : Special Features: "An unexpected thing: bringing families together.

I've reported how the book and media events are attracting a new generation of young people and that many students are coming up to get their book signed. At one bookstore, a young man gave me his book to sign and I asked if he was a student. 'Yes, but I'm still in high school.' 'What year?' I asked. 'I'm a freshman,' he said, and I noticed he was there without his parents but with a few of his friends. And something else very moving is now happening at many stops. Parents tell me how their son or daughter had lost their faith and left the church. 'But my son saw you on Jon Stewart's Daily Show and got the book. He just wrote his mother and me to tell us that he is finding his way back to faith.' There was a tear in Dad's eye when he told me that. I've heard many stories like that now, about sons and daughters, husbands or wives, and even parents who hadn't been to a church in many years now taking a fresh look at the issues of faith and how it applies to the social issues they care most about. Reading the book seems to be bringing some families back together again around the issues of faith and social justice."

Evolution is a Friend of Creation, says Evangelical Professor

I generally steer clear of Evolution vs. Creation debates. Not that I'm not interested in the resolution of the apparent paradox between science and Genesis, but too often the debate turns rancourous and divisive. So I wouldn't be surprised if evangelical Professor Richard Colling has encountered a fair share of rancour. Unfortunately, at least in this article in the Christian Post, the results of these encounters seems to overshadow the rest of an otherwise important discussion: Namely whether Evolution is a Friend of Creation as he proposes in his new book Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with Creator. From the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like a more scientific version of the creation story that Neo tells in Brian McLaren's book The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian. I'd be interested to hear from other's who might have read Collings' book.

Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits

Heard about this on the Diane Rehm show today...all 17 of Rembrandt's late religious portraits are on display atNational Gallery of Art - Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits: January 30 - May 1, 2005. It moves to the Getty museum in LA this summer, but if can't make either one, the NGA website offers a great study of the works.

Podcasting...all the rage

There must have been some type of editorial vibration in the air around Podcasting. First I read an article in the NYT, Tired of TiVo? Beyond Blogs? Podcasts Are Here, which happens to list several Christian oriented podcasts along with a sidebar on how to get started. Then I came across this article on Podcasting in Michigan. iPods offer radio with no rules - 02/20/05.

Are We an Emergent Church

I tend to use Donnel’s blog as a launch pad for a variety of blogs I read (I guess I’m too lazy to update my list), so when I saw a new listing, ServantBlog, I checked it out. Andy and Kate White seem like great people, and I’ll continue to read their blog, but more to the point, they listed Brian McLaren’s blog, which launched me into several hours of reading about the emergent church movement.

I first heard of Brian McLaren last summer when I read his book The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian. It was a very enjoyable read. While it challenged many of my “modern” evangelical presuppositions, it also spoke to a long smoldering ember in my heart to live my life as a Christian in a more dynamic holistic way. I should also point out that it blended well with all that has been happening at the Vineyard, which now leads me to wonder to what extent the A2 Vineyard could be classified as part of the “emergent church” movement…at least unofficially.

Here are some excerpts from a November 2004 Christianity Today article, The Emergent Mystique, on the Emergent Church movement, including a summary of McLaren’s first book. My comments are italicized and [bracketed]:

"'This is not just the same old message with new methods,' Rob [Bell, pastor of a 10,000 member “emergent church” in Grand Rapids] says. 'We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life. Legal metaphors for faith don't deliver a way of life. We grew up in churches where people knew the nine verses why we don't speak in tongues, but had never experienced the overwhelming presence of God.'

In fact, as the Bells describe it, after launching Mars Hill in 1999, they found themselves increasingly uncomfortable with church. 'Life in the church had become so small,' Kristen says. 'It had worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped working.' The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—'discovering the Bible as a human product,' as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. 'The Bible is still in the center for us,' Rob says, 'but it's a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it.'

'I grew up thinking that we've figured out the Bible,' Kristen says, 'that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it's in color.'"

The emphasis on the mystery of wonder reminds me of what we learned from Phyllis Tickle last weekend and I can definitely relate to the Bell’s realization that they didn’t really understand the Bible after all.
…….

A New Kind of Christian became influential not just because of its content but also its form. McLaren cast the book as a story of two friends, a disillusioned evangelical pastor named Dan Poole and an enigmatic high school science teacher nicknamed Neo. On the brink of despair with his own ministry, Dan is led by Neo—who turns out to be a lapsed pastor himself—through a series of set pieces that introduce the initially skeptical Dan to a "postmodern" approach to Christianity.

The modern period of history, as Neo tells it, is coming to an end. We are entering "postmodernity," an as-yet ill-defined borderland in which central modern values like objectivity, analysis, and control will become less compelling. They are superseded by postmodern values like mystery and wonder. The controversial implication is that forms of Christianity that have thrived in modernity—including Dan's evangelicalism—are unlikely to survive the transition.

[which is exactly the kind of discussions we’ve been having in our Questers discussion of NT Wright’s works

…. recently McLaren has started to sketch the outlines of his vision of a postmodern church. He sketches a big circle labeled "self," a smaller circle next to it labeled "church," and a tiny circle off to the side labeled "world."

"This has been evangelicalism's model," he says. "Fundamentally it's about getting yourself 'saved'—in old-style evangelicalism—or improving your life in the new style. Either way, the Christian life is really about you and your needs. Once your needs are met, then we think about how you can serve the church. And then, if there's anything left over, we ask how the church might serve the world."

He starts drawing again. "But what if it went the other way? This big circle is the world—the world God loved so much that he sent his Son. Inside that circle is another one, the church, God's people chosen to demonstrate his love to the world. And inside that is a small circle, which is your self. It's not about the church meeting your needs, it's about you joining the mission of God's people to meet the world's needs."

With his circle diagrams, McLaren is popularizing the work of the late British missionary Lesslie Newbigin, who returned from a lifetime in India to spend his last years reflecting on the need for a new theology of mission. "According to Newbigin, the greatest heresy in monotheism is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of election," McLaren says. "Election is not about who gets to go to heaven; election is about who God chooses to be part of his crisis-response team to bring healing to the world."

[YES!!!]
…….

If critics overlook the evangelistic energy of the emerging church, they also often lump together two very different kinds of postmodern thought. The most notorious postmodern thinkers have been the "deconstructionists"—French intellectuals like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault who seek to show that the cherished ideals of Western society (and Christian faith) are fatally compromised by internal contradictions.

But another stream, less well-known outside universities and seminaries, has taken dissatisfaction with modernity in a more constructive direction. It is these thinkers—the late philosopher Michael Polanyi and Notre Dame professor Alasdair MacIntyre, along with theologians like Newbigin—who are gaining the attention of the emerging church's more theologically inclined leaders.

From Newbigin, McLaren has drawn the idea of the church as "missional"—oriented toward the needs of the world rather than oriented towards its own preservation. From Polanyi and MacIntyre, he concludes that the emerging church must be "monastic"—centered on training disciples who practice, rather than just believe, the faith.

He cites Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, with their emphasis on spiritual disciplines, as key mentors for the emerging church. None of these thinkers has any inclination to throw out the baby of truth with the bathwater of modernity.
.....[end of CT article excerpts]

If you substitute (or add) NT Wright for Willard and Foster, you get something a lot like Ken’s emphasis on outreach (missional), contemplative prayer (monastic) and re-examining what the bible really means through rediscovering the historical context (from Wright). Maybe we are part of the Emergent “conversation”, as McLaren calls it (since it doesn’t rank as a movement yet in his mind).

If you’re up for more reading, here a triad of interesting and related articles. The first is a critique by Chuck Colson of the postmodern movement. The second is an open letter from Brian McLaren responding to the article and the third is Colson’s response to McLaren. I’ve excerpted them, albeit clumsily, if you don’t have time to read them in toto.

1) The Postmodern Crackup - Christianity Today Magazine: "Is postmodernism—the philosophy that claims there is no transcendent truth—on life support? It may be premature to sign the death certificate, but there are signs postmodernism is losing strength……It would be the supreme irony—and a terrible tragedy—if we found ourselves slipping into postmodernity just when the broader culture has figured out it's a dead end."

2) Brian McLaren: An Open Letter to Chuck Colson….I can agree with you that the “no transcendent truth” kind of postmodernism is dead, because as I said, it never was very alive. At most, it was an early, reactionary phase in a yet-embryonic movement that has much more mature, constructive, and positive voices emerging.…You feel that postmoderns have developed a self-contradictory message (THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH: there are no absolute truths!). This absurdity might allow them to do anything they want in the name of no absolutes (which to you means “no morality”).…. This is a good thing, and I applaud you for it, and I share your concern!….But try to understand this parallel reality: In the late 20th century, postmodern thinkers looked back at regimes like Stalin’s and Hitler’s…Postmodern thinkers realized that these megalomaniacs used grand systems of belief to justify their atrocities. Those systems of belief – which the postmodern thinkers called “metanarratives,” but which also could have been called “world views” or “ideologies” – were so powerful they could transform good European intellectuals into killers or accomplices. They thought back over European history and realized (as C. S. Lewis did) that those who have passionate commitment to a system of belief will be most willing, not only to die for it, but to kill for it…. I’m tempted to point out the irony that some Christians like yourself seem to be more deeply entrenching themselves in “modernity just when the broader culture has figured out it’s a dead end.”

3) Chuck Colson's Response…. Immanuel Kant spent his life thinking about whether truth is knowable and how you can know it. The issue is clear: are the answers to life found by a thinker sitting in a Dutch oven and exclaiming after much reflection, cogito ergo sum, which in some ways led to the rise of a humanist view of the world, unintended though it was? Or is the meaning of life found in Revelation (which I believe is aided by reason)? This is a very fundamental question…..To put it in the most shorthand way, relativism and deconstruction and existentialism have to lead to the loss of any transcendent authority. Whenever a society lacks transcendent authority, it is going to be governed by whoever can obtain power – and there will be no restraints upon that person or party. The process is almost inevitable….If postmodernism succeeds in destroying transcendent authority, the inevitable consequences are anarchy and nihilism. But nihilism is a vacuum and all vacuums must be filled; so without the restraint of a higher law a tyrant can always be depended upon to step in to fill the power vacuum; and people always choose order over liberty…. If you stop looking for truth and you stop debating primary questions, that is, the fundamental issues people deal with in life, then whoever occupies the seat of power makes those decisions for us. The utopians may think this is a good thing. They believe the victors (their choice) will be more enlightened and benign than the white oppressors who wrote history and of course were only expressing their view of life, which they imposed upon culture. The utopian myth, which for generations has been the principal enemy of liberty, is based on false premises as Christians who are aware of the Fall know...Of course, the postmoderns are right in saying that looking over European history, those who have “a passionate commitment to a system of belief will be most willing not only to die for it but to kill for it.” But is it wrong to die for a noble cause—or to kill in a just war, restraining evil? The Greeks recognized courage as one of the four cardinal virtues – courage to defend justice. Where would we be if people did not have a wholehearted commitment to a system of belief like democracy, freedom, and liberty? We’d still be living under monarchs...What this tells me is that people are still asking the same questions the Greeks asked. They’re still looking for ultimate meaning, still looking for first principles. They’re still plagued by the questions that exist within us because the Imago Dei is within us. The problem is that you are not going to find that answer in the art world. I think we really have a much better answer if we have the opportunity to explain this to her. And that, dear brother, is what my column was all about.

Cool site for worship photos, images etc.

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Styrofoam Homes

WorldChanging discusses some intriguing low-cost, thermally efficient building material...Styrofoam Homes. Might be an interesting thing to explore for any type of community building.

In Memory of Sister Dorothy Stang: Martyred Feb 13, 2005

It's sad that we hear so little of the many Christians who literally lay down their lives each year in the service of our Lord, so when I read about the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old missionary, originally from Dayton, I thought I'd pass it along.

By organizing poor families and helping them develop sustainable management techniques she angered local loggers. According to the article in the Toledo Blade: "Witnesses said Sister Dorothy read passages from the Bible to her killers before they shot her. One witness said she pulled the Bible from her bag when she was confronted and started reading. Her killers listened, took a few steps back and fired." I heard on NPR that she preceded her readings with comments to the effect of "I don't have any guns, my only weapon is the Word of God"

During her sermon at our church last Saturday, author Phyllis Tickle mentioned that "every death buys something." Indeed, according to Ubiritan Cazetta, chief federal prosecutor in Para state, "Now with the world's attention, implementing the sustainable development project has become a question of honor."

Sister Dorothy had been receiving death threats for years and new the loggers were getting more and more brazen, but she perservered. Let us pray her efforts for the kingdom will continue to bear fruit long after her passing.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

Honing Your BS Filter as an Act of Grace

Read an interesting article about Harry G. Frankfurt, 76, a philosopher, professor emeritus at Princeton, and author of the book "On Bull - - - - ."....The New York Times > Books > Between Truth and Lies, An Unprintable Ubiquity:

Dick Staub discussed it today in his blog, commenting: “Followers of Jesus are supposed to love the lord our God with our mind. Until we recognize the ‘Bulls—t” in the broader culture and faith community, think about it and take action…we are doomed.”

Here are some excerpts from the NYT article…
"'One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much [bull]. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize [bull] and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry.'

"What is [bull], after all? Mr. Frankfurt points out it is neither fish nor fowl. Those who produce it certainly aren't honest, but neither are they liars, given that the liar and the honest man are linked in their common, if not identical, regard for the truth. 'It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth,' Mr. Frankfurt writes. 'A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it.'

"The bull artist, on the other hand, cares nothing for truth or falsehood. The only thing that matters to him is 'getting away with what he says,' Mr. Frankfurt writes. An advertiser or a politician or talk show host given to [bull] 'does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it,' he writes. 'He pays no attention to it at all.'

“And this makes him, Mr. Frankfurt says, potentially more harmful than any liar, because any culture and he means this culture rife with [bull] is one in danger of rejecting 'the possibility of knowing how things truly are.' It follows that any form of political argument or intellectual analysis or commercial appeal is only as legitimate, and true, as it is persuasive. There is no other court of appeal.

“The reader is left to imagine a culture in which institutions, leaders, events, ethics feel improvised and lacking in substance. 'All that is solid,' as Marx once wrote, 'melts into air.'"

Evangelical Environmentalism

Here's an interesting article on the increased focus of evangelicals on environmental stewardship: Joel Makower: Two Steps Forward: Are Evangelicals the New Environmentalists?

Be sure to check out the link to the "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" put out last fall by the National Association of Evangelicals.

My only quibble with this article is the implication that Christians only started paying attention to this in the '90s when, in fact, Francis Schaeffer wrote his brilliant book on the topic Pollution and the Death of Man in the early '70s.