Coming back with a BOOM!

So I was talking to a friend yesterday, and it came out that they’re a polygamist. They’re “in the closet” about it, but their identity isn’t important. It’s likely no one that you know. Still, the discussion led to me apologizing for the drubbing that people of my faith have given people in that lifestyle. Personally, as I told this person, I don’t care who you live with, sleep with, or marry so long as you’re all healthy and happy. It’s not my place to tell you how to run your life, particularly if you’re not a Christian. Even if you are, I’m not sure that I could come up with anything other than a cultural argument against it, and, personally, I couldn’t come up with one of those that would hold water.

This must have been on my mind quite a bit though, subconsciously. While driving into work this sentence popped into my head. “Jesus was a bisexual polygamist.” I fired it off to a friend and he said that he wanted to read that for sure. I let it run around my brain for a bit to figure out what I meant by it. After having a few cups of coffee I think this is where I’m headed:

We’re told that we are the bride of Christ. All of us (in the Church). Obviously there are men and women in the Church and there are more than one of us. So, there you go, Christ is married to millions of men and women throughout space and time. A little anticlimactic? A bit. But bear with me.

I’ve been married for sixteen years now, but I’m an only child (biologically). The analogy that we’re all married to Christ is a bit more meaningful to me than the one where we’re all his brothers and sisters. The notion that I’m to treat my fellow believers as I would my own spouse hits nearer the mark. I’ve learned a lot about communication and how to treat my wife thanks to quite a lot of therapy over the last year or so.

Things I would never want to do to my wife:
Make her feel unworthy.
Tell her that her feelings are wrong.
Abuse her physically (this one’s never been a problem for me) or verbally.
Try and “fix” her.

Things I need to do:
Encourage her.
Love her.
Learn the art of compromise.
LISTEN TO HER.

This is how a relationship with Christ and with our fellow brides needs to look (this and more). Lately it looks a lot more like an episode of Bridezillas. Whether you believe that God chose us before the creation of the world or whether we chose him, we’re in this relationship for the long haul. There’s no divorcing each other, and since this isn’t “Wife Swap” (that this is a real show pains me), there’s no telling other families how to live their lives.

I had to get this off my chest. Thanks again for your patience.

If you could help stop a genocide would you?

Right now, one of the worst atrocities in the world is unfolding in Sudan. The genocide we witnessed in Darfur is still being played being out against the people of Northern Sudan. It is the same people group being persecuted, the same government regime and the same tactics being used.

This month, The Persecution Project Foundation has launched a campaign to Save the Nuba.

You can help spread awareness of the Nuba’s plight by posting about this on Facebook and Twitter, or by reposting this on your blog. One person alone can’t stop a genocide, but a community of people can.

Please vIsit www.SavetheNuba.com to learn more.

I’ve gotten to know people with an incredible variety of beliefs regarding God’s existence. I cherish those friendships and conversations that I’ve had. If you sense a “but” coming, you’re wrong, generally speaking. One of those people is Derek Colanduno of the Skepticality podcast. While he and I don’t know each other particularly well, we’ve had some interesting conversations. Recently he posted a picture on his Facebook wall:

As you can imagine, an interesting conversation was had. There were bombs thrown, naturally. But I got to thinking about this whole “Hitler was a Christian!”/”Mao/Stalin/Pol Pot was an atheist.” meme that tens to show up early in these games. There’s an old saying “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” The duck test applies here. Christianity, the Bible itself, uses this sort of inductive reasoning.

Jesus says, speaking of prophets, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” Paul in Galatians 5 says “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law… 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” If you fail this Christian duck test then no one will have any reason to believe that you’re a Christian, or so I thought.

Derek is quick to jump on the notion that Hitler was a Christian supposedly because he said that he was one a sufficient number of times. That strikes me as bad logic. If Hitler was a crazy as a fruit bat (a rabid, insane, Jew-hating fruit bat), then why should we accept that he was what he said he was? Particularly when he had a habit of tacking on all manner of non-Christian religious tradition to his worldview, politics, etc. I can’t think of any other reason than it suited his purpose to paint Christianity as a force for evil.

Something else Derek said jumped out at me, referring to Hitler and the rest, “As for the rest on the list, they were not Atheist, they just wanted to make sure the citizens who they ruled had no one above themselves as the leader. They were more like hard-line slave owners, had pretty much zero to do with actual Atheistic views.” I’m curious as to what those “actual Atheistic views” are. I asked him, but he didn’t answer other than to say “Basically he was not an Atheist, in any way, shape or form.”

Now, I don’t know what Hitler’s true religious views were. He pandered to the German people and add his fruit bat-ness on top of that and I don’t think it matters. These men were crazy. That much we can be relatively certain of. If you wipe out large portions of your population to make others toe the line in service to some half baked ideology cobbled together from your own insecurities then I honestly don’t think a religious belief or lack thereof can be the root cause.

I would like to know what “actual Atheistic views” are, outside of a lack of a belief in God. If I were to take the views of the Atheists (I capitalize the A to denote people who are “militant”) in that Facebook post and elsewhere:

“You do not talk to god. You do not have a personal relationship with an imaginary being. This delusion of yours is an exaggerated sense of your abilities.”

“I’m sick of being told by society that I have to “respect others’ beliefs.” No I don’t. ”

“Religion is child abuse.”

and the responses of some Atheists to Phil Plait’s admonition to not be a dick, then I would have to come to the following conclusions. If you’re an Atheist then you believe that you’re a better person than anyone who believes in a god of any stripe. You believe that your worldview will ultimately lead to the betterment of mankind through the casting off of the ancient morality most religious people stick to. In general, you know more about the universe and your place in it than your theistic counterparts. You’re essentially a mirror image of that which you hate.

Now, I won’t paint all atheists with that brush. I know some of you are capable of respectfully disagreeing. We can have discussions without despots being brought up as examples of anything other than despotism. We won’t tell the other person what they believe. We will express love for the Other as best as we are humanly able.

I do want you to know though, that if you are an Atheist (or a Theist) and your waddle gives you away as a dick, you’re not going to convince anyone of anything, religious or otherwise. I suspect that most people of this stripe are okay with that. None of them actually seem to want to do much more than beat their chests and feel awesome about themselves. I seriously doubt that any of those sort will comment here, and I also recognize that this post may well bounce back in my face. It needed to be said for my piece of mind though at least.

We’ve been talking a lot about idolatry at church lately. The working definition that seems to be used for an idol is “anything that you express or feel more love for than you do for God”. Given that most folks don’t worship idols in the same sense that they did hundreds or thousands of years ago, that makes some sense. That means that we can make idols of spouses, kids, cars, or just about anything really. This leads me to a few thoughts.

Read more…

I felt pretty sure that I blogged about this before, but I couldn’t find anything, so here goes.

A little movie came out recently called Courageous. I haven’t seen it, but it’s done by the same church that put out Fireproof and Facing the Giants. I have seen both of those and they’re not horrible. It’s basically like someone filmed a community theater production on a pretty high budget. The acting in the movies I’ve seen is uneven at best, as is the writing. It seems that for a lot of Christians, enough to enable them to continue putting these movies out, it’s better to have a “good message” that feels likes “a [very long] sermon” than it is to have a well written story where the message may be a little less in your face.

For me though, I really want something more. I really don’t have a problem with movies, music, or books that deal intelligently with themes or struggles inherent in the Christian faith. If you’re going to put something out there that is really out there with the gospel message (whatever you think that is) then by all means, do it. All I ask is that you put a lot more effort in the production/writing/acting/etc. than you think you need to. Everything you do in that vein is going to be judged, more than that scrutinized, and not just by “the world”.

If you’re going to make a movie like this, it really needs to feel like something more than a direct to video effort. Make something that I don’t feel reluctant to watch or that I feel I have to apologize for. That really shouldn’t be that hard. It’s really all I ask of any book, movie, or song, regardless of its message. The created thing needs to be good on its own and only then will the message have any meaning beyond the “choir”.

That’s my two cents anyway. Let me ask you, is message or story more important and why?

How should we treat immigrants? The Bible has a little to say:

Exodus 22:21 “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Leviticus 19:33-34 – “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

How’s that for some Old Testament righteous anger grace? According to Strong’s that word stranger can also be translated alien, sojourner, or stranger. Now of course it might be making a mistake to apply this to the current problems we’re having with immigration (illegal or otherwise). It might be falling into the same trap that I often accuse my brethren on the right of, when it comes to cherry picking verses and applying them to pet beliefs. But in this case I’m willing to take that risk. If cherry picking leads us to be better human beings and to loving those around us, it’s a good risk.

Christians living out the Gospel are strangers in a strange land. We are oppressed (to varying degrees) and should be more understanding of those who live in a more real sort of physical oppression. Yes, some of them are breaking the law, but even legal immigrants are oppressed by those of us who see only their skin color and hear only their accents.

Children that are born here are legal citizens and I think that’s the way it should be. If that means it brings people here to have their babies that should be a source of pride for us. Yes, it means we need to decide what to do with their parents. I’m not sure that chucking them back to their countries of origin is the answer. But this is really less about what the government should do and more about what we should be doing.

If we know of a stranger among us, how should we love them? What steps do we take? Take the legality of their presence off of the table for the moment. Remove even the question of immigrants and just think about the last person you looked at with an eyebrow lifted in judgment. Someone who didn’t dress like you or talk like you, what did you do to love them?

I have a solution to one of the problems that’s been plaguing the Middle East for some time now. Just make Palestine a state. It’s the Christian thing to do.

Wait, wait, hear me out. According to certain traditional Christian thought, the land that Israel now occupies is at least in part the land that God has promised them.According to gotquestions.org:

With Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4 in mind, the land God gave to Israel included everything from the Nile river in Egypt to Lebanon (North to South) and everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River (West to East). So, what land has God stated belongs to Israel? All of the land modern Israel currently possesses, plus all of the land of the Palestinians (the West Bank and Gaza), plus some of Egypt and Syria, plus all of Jordan, plus some of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land God has promised.

That’s a lot of land. For most of the last two thousand years, they didn’t occupy it (if they ever truly did). The only reason they have the part of the land they do now is because of some degree of luck and a whole lot of money. If God wanted them to have it back, all of it back, now wouldn’t he make it happen? And under what circumstances would he make that happen?

I have to ask myself, with some degree of tongue in cheek, that if I as a Christian believed those things then I’d say that God will give it back to them in one shot and he’d do it when they were obedient. As it stands they still aren’t recognizing the true Messiah (as Christians understand it) and until they do why would God reward them? If he did extend them grace, something the God of the Old Testament did do from time to time, why would he do it by half measures? I don’t think so. Of course, the joke here is that none of us has any idea what exactly God would do here, so we need to stop pretending that we do.

I say that we should leave any amount of theology, good or bad, out of the equation. I think that if this whole thing is to work out, both parties need to come back to the negotiating table and let go of their death grips on those things they hold sacrosanct. This whole thing is a nearly perfect example of what is plaguing DC right now, the unwillingness to compromise. It won’t get either party anywhere and leaves them no option other than to try and make the other party look as bad as possible to win some sort of sympathy vote (oh and in the case of Israel/Palestine, buckets of blood).

As Christians it’s our job to make peace as best we can. If we as a country are to be involved in this decision on whether or not to give them statehood, then I believe it behooves us as Christians (if we’re going to be involved at all) to move things in the direction of peace. Denying Palestinians what they want and supporting Israel’s every move hasn’t done that. I’m not saying that we should cave in to the Palestinian people, but true peacemaking can’t happen if things continue apace. Giving them statehood strikes me as the only clear option for peace to “break out”. I’m willing to be proven wrong.

This post was inspired by a previous post on this debate from a few years ago. It sparked some excellent debate and I hope this will.

I’m not sure if it’s truly ennui, or if it’s just being overly busy with regular life stuff, but either way my brain hasn’t had much room for this part of my online life. I re-upped for another year here though so I plan on carving out some headspace.

I hope I have a few folks with this site still in their readers, so for those of you paying attention, I’m curious as to what you’d like to see from me. I’ve tackled subjects like abortion, homosexuality, and orthodoxy. I’ve also talked somewhat candidly about personal struggles, my brand of politics, and the like. Part of me feels that I’ve said it all, but I know that can’t be. I’m just too opinionated. Help me prime the pumps.

I had an excellent chat via Facebook with my friend Adam. It involved drawing lines in what we watch and otherwise consume and using those lines to tell other people what they should and shouldn’t watch/consume. He wanted to know where I drew the line, why, and if there was a sort of universal line that Christianity tried to draw. Here is my modified and further thought out answer to that question:

Part of the doctrine that I believe in as a Christian is the notion of “total depravity”. That means, while we’re not as bad as we could be, every part of us is touched by sin, including our sense of right/wrong. So while there exists an absolute morality and God has laid it out, our understanding of it is tainted. That gets back to the question, why push away/give up the bad stuff? If it’s because it will make you somehow a better person/more holy not to consume South Park (and in some ways I could argue it would) then I think your motive is wrong. If, on the other hand, you’re watching it to be cool/relevant/to reach your unbelieving friends I think your motive is wrong too.

You have to look at how watching/listening to certain things affects you as a person. If watching violence makes me more violent or desensitizes me to violence I shouldn’t watch it. I like the verse from 1 Corinthains 13 – “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ” Do the things you know are right (prayer, fellowship, reading the Bible) and as you mature spiritually you lose the taste for things that are childish (bad for you/immature/etc.). That’s a good description (I think) of what “sanctification” means. The process of becoming more holy.

I think a lot of people try and force it, rather than letting their lives bear that fruit naturally. I mean, honestly, when I tell someone, “Don’t watch SP, it’s bad for you!” as an adult what’s their reaction going to be? I think that the rules that are laid out in the Bible are good things and that people will benefit from following them, but you can’t strongarm people into them. It just won’t work. There is a place for you going to a fellow believer and challenging them on their behavior/consumption, but laying down the law to someone who doesn’t have the same spiritual maturity/development as you do without a spirit of love (also to be found in 1 Corinthians 13) is about as effective as Cartman the cop.

It’s rare to come across a book on Christianity that resonates closely with me. I’ve always felt like I was a little too far outside the mainstream. Not so far that I’d identify with authors that were “heretics”, but far enough that I don’t get gut punched by authors like David Jeremiah or D. James Kennedy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read books by NT Wright and C.S. Lewis that really inspired me. I also enjoyed Blue Like Jazz and am looking forward to reading Love Wins. This book by Dr. Martin Thielen could have been written by me though (provided I possessed a doctorate in theology and decades of experience as a pastor/teacher).

Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not a book that allows you to squeak by. What it is, is an attempt to take the current “hot button” issues in Western Christianity and reveal them for what they are, points that are debated and debatable within our faith. He tackles things like doubt, evolution, the role of women in the Church, social justice, a literal reading of the scripture, how we as Christians view other religions, and homosexuality. It will come as little surprise to any of you that I agree with his take on most, if not all, of these issues. The point is, agree or not though, you can sit wherever you like on these matters and still count yourself a believer. If I have any problem with this book, it’s that he seems to be making the case that on these ten or so topics, you should actually agree with him if you want to be right. I suppose that’s hard to avoid.

One thing he does make clear is that this is not a book on systematic theology. It’s hardly a book at all, weighing in at 144 pages. That’s not much when you not only want to cover the ten things you don’t have to believe, but the ten things you do. There he talks about things like who Jesus is, how God works in people’s lives, suffering, the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit. I’m satisfied with the answers to those questions as well, as I think most mainstream Christians would be. He also makes it clear that if you believe in these doctrines, that a few things need to happen. You need to be a member/regular attender at a mainstream church. Spiritual growth is vital and will only happen in community. Central to that growth is the ongoing process of sanctification through prayer, Bible study, congregational worship, service to others, and the like.

What this book won’t do. – If you’re a conservative Christian, it’s not going to convince you to change or that you’re wrong. That’s not his point. If you’re a hard core atheist it’s not going to convince you that Jesus is the only way.

What I hope (and I suspect the author hopes) it will do. – It can show some of you that Christianity isn’t a monolithic belief system. If you’re soured on the faith because you somehow came to the conclusion that we all belong to the He Man Woman Hater’s Club or that we’re all a bunch of evolution deniers, then maybe this can set the record straight.

Dr. Thielen isn’t going to set the world on fire with this. It’s well written and well thought out. The title is going to intrigue some people and turn others off. If it turns you off, likely you’re not the target audience. You might go ahead and read it anyway. You’d be a step ahead of some of the one star reviewers on Amazon. You risk nothing by giving it a shot. It’s free and if you can read this blog without tearing out your hair then you can read this book.