Thoughts and Ruminations

As I asked in my post below several days ago, I will ask again.  Five Afghan children were killed yesterday by NATO forces in a botched artillery strike.  Five people created in the image of God, people sustained actively by God.  People who, if we have an consistent pro-life ethic, should be bitterly mourned.  Who will be prosecuted for their deaths?  Where will their parents turn for justice?  

Who is responsible?

“Oh, how I love church signs…”

Just in case you were wondering, your local Bible Church wants you to know…

In other news, what in the world? I’ve tried to think about this last sign semi-seriously over the last two weeks, and the only serious messages I can extract from it are unethical. Wow.

”I said, ‘Lord, if he makes this, these two, we’re supposed to be national champs. And if that’s your will, I’m fine. And if he misses them and we’re not, I’m fine with that, too.’ That’s what I said in my mind. I’m probably not supposed to say that, religiously, but that’s what it was.”

–Memphis coach John Calipari after missed free throws contributed heavily to the Tigers losing the national title game.

”[If] God put me in Denver, it’s no question they would be a better team”

– Sacramento’s Ron Artest

*UPDATE TO ADD*

“Consider the lilies…what a load of crap.“

– my friend Dustin Miller

Any more?

I’ve had this (what I would call) Biblically-driven suspicion for a long time that this heaven business with naked baby angels flying around and people floating on clouds is something that has little or no connection with what it means to be faithful to God.

I’ve grown tired of people saying, “(Insert name here) is in a better place” or “We know (insert name) is with the angels now.”I’ve heard persons like Brian McLaren suggesting that this is not so (or at least is not the central point of our lives), and in response to Brian’s suspicions, I have gone back to Jesus and Paul and found in letting the Scripture speak for itself that this concept of heaven as our culture sees it is driven 99% by unScriptural realities.

 N.T. Wright slams this point home.

 Forcefully.

Read the article.  All the way through.  Then go back to Jesus and Paul and read what they REALLY said.

 You can thank me (or flame me as a heretic) later.”

Christians Wrong about Heaven, says Bishop“ 

 When I found out this morning that Sean Taylor (Washington Redskins safety) had died from a gunshot wound, my stomach immediately dropped through the floor.  I agreed with his family friend that this was a senseless death, a frustrating one for a guy who was honestly committed to growing up and being a responsible man and pro athlete. But what came next from the friend stuck in my craw all day long.  Here’s the quote in full;

“Maybe he was trying to say goodbye or something,” Mr Sharpstein said. “It’s a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously God had other plans.” 

Seems normal, right?  You hear this kind of comment all the time in our culture.  But it frustrates the crap out of me.  Why put the responsibility for Taylor’s death on God?  What did God have to do with this at all?  This was an evil act of aggression by a human being who destroyed the life of another human being.  Maybe this shouldn’t bother me, but it does.  Badly.  At best this sort of comment is syrupy sweet and feel-good.  At worst it makes God an unfeeling tyrant who found it right in his providence to guide the hands and body of a man to break into Taylor’s house, kick in the door, and wreck his wife and family’s life in cold-blooded murder.  

Tell the honest, raw truth; Taylor’s dead because of the twisted actions of a twisted individual.

Just stop, stop it already. 

The church might not know this is a desperate message because it seems like a fun little whimsical product, but it is; look at the picture, read Matthew 25:31-46, then read Revelation 20:11-15.

Now tell me if the picture is accurate, or even relevant to discipleship.

Now I’m gonna channel a little Schrute.
Fact: Family Christian Bookstore (the maker of the catalog I ripped the page out of), like most “Christian” bookstores, cares a heck of a lot less about equipping the church than making as much coin as possible.

Not that I wouldn’t buy it, you should too! Link to purchase here.

 From John Koenig, a quote;

*point of note; Koenig is distinguishing between “religion,” which is historical and traditionally rooted and “religion in general,” which is more of a pop spirituality that often consists of shallow stabs at transcendence and is unwilling to put in the work to find the freedom on the other side*

“In recent years the great devotional classics of both the Eastern and Western traditions have become available to the reading public on an unprecedented scale. Many contemporary works are also of excellent quality. The popularity of retreat centers for prayer and meditation continues at a high level, and there is no shortage of people ready to offer their services as spiritual guides. In addition, the various twelve-step programs have helped tens of thousands find their way to a lively relationship with a Higher Power. As whole new body of writing on spirituality has developed from such programs and from other groups and movements that are best identified by the term New Age.

Yet there is a difficulty with this recent upsurge in devotional practice and literature, for much of it seems to reflect and foster a diffuse kind of religion in general, only marginally related to the biblical forms of faith. While I empathize with people who find the worship life of their local churches and synagogues to be less than inspiring, I cannot quite believe that the present growth of non-institutional or para-institutional religion signals a real deepening in our communion with God.

I mean that religion without a solid base often falls prey to peculiar romanticisms, which in turn lead to the very opposite of spiritual truth and freedom. Moreover, religion in general, as I perceive it, frequently lives in deprivation. Always standing just outside the houses of the ancient traditions, it does not get properly nourished at any one of their tables. Religion in general often searches for esoteric experiences but turns away from daily sustenance. Such a tendency, I believe, nearly always proves to be self-defeating. And it is far from necessary. “

From Rediscovering New Testament Prayer, pgs 1-2

I fear for Benny Hinn’s soul, and I’m not joking.

I just read an article that jogged my memory of a conversation I had with one of my good friends the other day centered on the phrase above. I not only think the phrase carries a dripping, overly emotional and sentimental Francine Rivers or Danielle Steele feel to it, I personally am repelled as a heterosexual guy by its connotations. And though my friend disagreed with me on this point, I think the reality that the church is the “bride of Christ” should only be employed in speaking of the church as a whole, not me as an individual. At any rate, I don’t want to comment too much on this article, but it’s the first real solid, even-handed look I’ve seen at the emotionally-charged, erotic relationship with Jesus stuff. It’s not like this is new (see: Teresa of Avila), but it is rapidly gaining steam in the more conservative, Max Lucado-addicted crowd…and some of the examples the author of the article highlights seriously made my jaw drop to the ground.

There are two main dangerous effects (in my mind) of this overly sentimentalized emotional love towards our relationship with Jesus if engaged in uncritically:

1) It reduces Jesus to a subjective “friend” (buddy Jesus) without the equally true reality that he is Lord of the Universe. Jesus is not just some smarmy “I looooooove you” concept without serious expectations for our lives that demand we subordinate his friend status to his Lordship status. A simple look at what Jesus represents on the white horse in Revelation (as well as a couple conversations with Pharisees or the times he dresses down his disciples) wouldn’t really fly in a Danielle Steele novel. Instead of asking “What is Jesus to YOU?” I think we should ask “Do we carry an understanding of Jesus that reveals ALL of who he was and is?” (because I’m accountable for the picture of Jesus I portray through my thoughts and actions). That way, we can see that Jesus not only is merciful and willing to help when we screw up, but also has eyes that flash with his commitment to righteousness and expectations for his followers. One without the other could lead to some twisted conclusions about Jesus.

2) Focusing on our emotional “feelings” of love towards Jesus without integrating other elements of love (consistency, commitment no matter what, trust, sticking it out through the hard times as well as the good) can create a situation where a girl (or guy I guess) can be terribly confused and feel terribly unloved when the highly charged emotions aren’t there. Or, any challenge to their lives and their relationship with God becomes a personal attack on their private relationship with Jesus; and they reject out of hand anything that might ask of them commitment in the midst of a hard situation.

Just a couple thoughts. Here’s the beginning of the article.

Dating Jesus: When ‘lover of my soul’ language goes too far. Agnieszka Tennant

“God loved the world with an extravagant tenderness. He spun into our genes a strand of divine DNA. Imago dei, this God with us—it’s an astonishing intimacy…”

Read the rest of the article here.

The Left Behind series (fiction, right? right?) is terrible. Terrible writing, terrible interpretation, and terrible for letting people run with it thinking it’s the gospel truth.

Now, the terrible has hit your video game store. See a link to a review here.

To be honest with you, I’m more and more disenchanted with “Christian” producers, directors, and idea-folks trying to harness the machinery of Hollywood and culture for “good.” More often than not, in seeking to be relevant to the greater culture and present a different message, the striving for relevance becomes the end, rather than the means to an end of greater dissemination of the gospel. T.D. Jakes tossed out a movie rated R for significantly different themes than the Passion of the Christ; churches applauded. The Left Behind series has gotten significant readership; people use their form of interpretation as the only one, and we’ve got one of those good ol’ “Late Great Planet Earth” revivals like the Hal Lindsey-ruled seventies.
I’ll give props to the Passion of the Christ and the End of the Spear; beautiful and convicting movies…I’m not trying to say there isn’t a silver lining here.

But now we’ve got a video game where there’s justified violence in the name of the extension of the kingdom. I may be young, but I know enough to know where this is going. Suffice it to say I pin the label on a lot of “Christian” music, books, and movies that my mom told me about Silverchair’s album Frogstomp in the late 90s: GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. More than ever, those of us who find ourselves in a Christian bookstore have to be extremely discriminating about the things we read, watch, and listen to; and retain the knowledge that more than a few aspects of secular culture carry more significant themes about what Christ would have us be and pursue than whatever’s on the bestseller rack at Family Christian Bookstores.