…..Links for Your Linking Pleasure 8….

1. The Clawsons both lead me some good stuff. Mike’s blog has a very funny (and sad) story on how Christian Radio has been on a twenty year loop.  It is these types of articles that makes me wonder if Christian entertainment and radio is totally out of touch with the world today.  As a future teacher, we are constantly being told in our classrooms that high school changes dramatically every year.  Each year, we are told, we need to reassess our goals and objectives based on the students.  Should this be something the church is doing as well?  Julie lead me to a very good poem that should be read to reflect on advent season by T.S. Eliot.  I love his imagery in all his poetry.

2.  There is a discussion going on over whether or not Rob Bell speaks out of both sides of his mouth.  I, apparently, am his sole defender on the largely reformed blog.  This should not be taken for a blanket endorsement of Bell by myself.  I think that his teaching is inherently one-sided, but I think that we can all be guilty of this in one way or another if we are not careful.  My one piece of advice to all ministers is to be careful with the words you speak to your congregations.

Do you find yourself saying the same things over and over again (see this if you’re not sure)?  Does your congregation say that you sound like a broken record?  One of the main things that pastors are guilty of is “getting off” on a pet doctrine and building a church around that pet doctrine.  Granted, there are some things that probably need to be emphasized more based on the context and the community of your church, but there also needs to be a certain amount of challenge and push to your congregations as well.  Sometimes congregations need to hear something different and something that may make them uncomfortable.  Sound educational pedagogy says that we need to push our audience into a bit of disequilibrium (i.e., make the laugh, make them angry, sad etc.), but not into so much disequilbrium that they shut down and stop listening.  Find that balance between raising emotions and keeping your audience engaged is a fine line that any good pastor must walk.

3.  How would you answer Andrew Jone’s million dollar question?  I would begin a house school where a group of one hundred students learn within the context of their community.  They would shadow professionals in the field, learn job skills in relation to their field, and study what they are interested in.  I don’t have all the detail worked out, but it would be a place where community service would be part of the curriculum.  We would save money by using no textbooks and having the majority of the research done in public libraries.  Students would be in charge of making lunches for the students in low-cost fashion.  Jones also talks about five ways that churches can overcome the recession we are in.  His views reflect many of theings I have said in the past (here, here, and here).  If this isn’t enough, also check out Kathleen’s post on this subject.

4.  Colin talks about why he won’t be listening to MacLaren in Scotland.

5.  Adrian talks about why Piper doesn’t own a TV, but that he does own a macbook.  How are the internet and the TV the same?  How are they different?  There is a disscusion about this in relationship to education here.  Because the internet is much more interactive (especially in a web 2.0 world), many have argued that there really is no comparison between TV and the internet.

….links for your linking pleasure 4……

1.  For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, I am taking a bit of a haitus on new content after listening to Mark Driscoll’s latest sermon on ‘the dance of Mahanaim.’  I will try to put some other new content up here and there, but I am really going to be spending a few weeks looking at what some of the major evangelical leaders today are saying about sexuality.  I think there may be a major post coming in a few weeks on this subject.

2. As I try to get put a variety of Christian opinions about abortion on here, I am also now trying to put a variety of opinions about prop 8 on here for your linking pleasure.  Over at Bicycle Muse, I want you to read his full post on prop 8, but I want you to here this quote that particularly resonated with me:

Public policy is the act of constantly navigating between two extremes; nothing goes or anything goes. We constantly see this tension when we talk about the hot political topics of today be it abortion, immigration, economics, military action or, in this case, marriage. In other words, public policy often comes down to the tension between security and freedom; highly controlled or loosely allowed. From a secular as well as a religious standpoint, limitations and boundaries are essential for social order. The question that remains is who sets the boundaries? Are they self-imposed and do we practice self-control (anarchy)? Is control imposed upon us by others (dictatorship)? Do we gather together and agree on a common standard of control and create communal boundaries (democracy)?

3.  Over at blip there is a good discussion beginning about iconoclasts and their opponents.  I would suggest joining in if you feel strongly about it.

4.  On Beauty’s Road and Common Root are both asking how Christian communities are responding to the financial Crisis.

5.  According to these pictures, we have no financial crisis (thanks to Pat for linking me to this).

6.  Torture and America – Read all about it.

7.  What do you think of emergent homeschooling?

8.  Rumors have been circulating about Hillary being secretary of state that are more than just internet whispers. The former rival recently met with Obama in Chicago, and one person is guessing why.

Roman Religion and Christian Faith: A Parable

James once said “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself form being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).  This doesn’t seem like such a radical point of view until one considers the way that the Romans viewed religion.  Borrowing from Richard Horsley’s Jesus and Empire, we can see just as much Romans viewed religion as an extension of the state:

“The most divine Caesar…we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things…; for when everything was falling [into disorder] and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave it to the whole world a new aura; Caesar…the common good fortune of all…the beginning of life and vitality…All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the beginning of the year…who was being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and [whereas] having becoming [god] manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all hopes of earlier times…the birthday of the God [Augustus] has been for the whole world the beginning of good news (gr: evangelion) concerning him [therefore let a new era beginning from his birth).” –OGIS 2.#458

When James says the word “religion” and does not include the word “Caesar,” he is subverting empire and committing a crime against the crown.  Not only that, but it is a commentary on the whole power structure of Rome.  How did Rome perpetuate the infamous Pax Romana?  The ‘peace of Rome’ was sustained by taking money from conquered people’s in the form of tribute to the capital and Rome redistributing that money to Roman legions who would, in turn, protect the crown.  While Rome takes from others to protect themselves, the church, as a vital and life-sustaining force for the world, gives to others who cannot protect themselves.

But this is the way that church has always been.  We have always been called to give ourselves away and to show God’s grace by helping the helpless.  We have always been called to share the gospel to all, even if this means great personal loss for ourselves.  We have always been called to carry our cross.  We have always been called, even if it is dangerous…

The Nature of Christian Organization Today

I have written in the past on the emergent movement.  While I have never talked in much depth about their theology, I am quite interested in the sociological trends of places like emergent village.  I recieve their newsletter via e-mail and was again interested in the direction they are taking.  They are suggesting four shifts in priority that generally follow the organizational structure in our changing world:

1. Reduce and decentralize by getting rid of the national coordinator position (this means Tony will be moving on).
2. Re-emphasize the importance of the website as a central hub.
3. To decentralize by depending on grassroot organizations to plan events rather than emergent village to plan events themselves.
4. To Reconfigure the board

I do not consider myself an expert on emergent (I have not read enough of the author’s who call themselves ‘emergent,’ nor do I have the time to do so), but I have been watching the conversation for some years and have been greatly interested by the sociological trends.  All of their goals for the “new” emergent-village seem to be about less national presence and more presence as network node (perhapas the anti-federalists were right all along).  There is a term recently introduced to me by my blogging friend Nate called subsidiarity.  I am so excited by this word because it brings to term some of the ideas that have been boiling in my brain.  This concept suggests that matters ought to be handled by the smallest group possible.  It would probably have been the view of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy and probably embodies many of the grassroots organizations throughout United States history.  There is a good conversation going on about this idea at catholicanarchy (read the comments).  I want to quote one of the comments here:

I think (and I cant take credit for this) that locality is such a wonderful answer to capitalism & globalization. Wendell berry is the best critiquer of this system that I can think of. Why can’t people be happy with solving the problems and providing for the needs of their own communities? Everything is always mass produced and shipped all over whether or not its wanted/needed elsewhere. This is where advertising and the creation of perceived needs come in. What is really troubling is when we think about how this has come into Christianity in the form of evangelism.

Why join a subsidarity movement?  Well, as Christians we hopefully realize that the best way to work is through the local church as an expression of the catholic church (universal, not necessarily Roman Catholic).  Could we argue that God uses subsidarity?  He chose a particular people group in a particular place to be the expression of his love to the world.  The particularity of God in ‘choosing’ one group to, in turn, bless the wold holistically, seem to show subsidarity, or the idea that working through one group as a kind of tree that spreads its root deep, as his guiding principle.  As Christians, we need to remember that bigger is not always better.

Is ‘change’ really what we need?

Brittian said something really interesting over at his blog today:

Walter Brueggemann spoke about in The Prophetic Imagination.  He said that the Empire of control and competition, is constantly co-opting people’s revolutions.  In other words, when was the last time a revolutionary didn’t eventually become Emperor?  Think Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler…but maybe even more unfortunate are those true believers like the French revolutionaries whose ideas of liberty and equality eventually turned into a reign of terror.  Why?  Brueggemann points out that it is because those revolutions and revolutionaries bought into a critical deception.  The immediacy of their hope.  Anytime, he comments, the hope is too “here and now” it becomes prime real estate for imperial control.  The tangible, touchable, manageable realities of linear thought and rational process are Their domain.  Finally he councils us not to be Managers of change but rather to be Imaginers…  Poets, provocateurs, singers of songs, artists, prophets, painters, sculptors, wordsmiths, etc… Envision a new world, live into that new reality…but don’t necessarily engage in the dangerous assumption that CHANGE is the end all solution.

Brittian specifically is talking about the new ‘green revolution’ that seems to be taking place and how the same big companies are changing their marketing tactics to market to this target audience.  Rob Bell and Don Golden say someting similiar about the oppressed becoming the oppressors from Egypt to Jerusalem in their new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians (44-45):

God gives power and blessing so that justice and righteousness will be upheld for those who are denied them…

To forget this, to fail to hear the cry, to preserve prosperity at the expense of the powerless, is to miss what God had in mind…

Exile is when you forget your story

Exile isn’t just about location; exile is about the state of your soul.

Exile is when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others.

Exile is when you’re a stranger to the purposes of God

We have to be careful that we do not buy into ‘change’ as an idea simply as a cool ‘alternative.’  Otherwise, when things ‘change’ we will somehow believe we have reached our goal.  This new green revolution has become ‘the norm’ and the world has begun capitalizing off the label.  Ryan Bolger has a good graphic that I would like to borrow.  The image is a table of the difference between the ‘green’ revolution and the way that perhaps we should respond as Christians (labeled as ‘blue’).

He asks the important question, does the church need a color?  Over at Jesus Manifesto as well there has been an important discussion going on about language.  Who are we leaving out and who are we including based on our language?  It is easier than people sometimes think to learn a cultural language or a certain theological bent and to extol that theological bent to your congregation, but the danger is that the theology begins trumping Jesus Christ and the particular plan and revelation of God throughout time and space–the one that transcends cultures.  It is actually very easy for big companies to read this “cultural language” and create products which they can capitalize off of to “co-opt” the revolution (as Brittian said earlier).

The questions then are large: How does Christianity stay focused on Christianity and avoid being eaten up into a larger mass culture created by the media and big business?  How do we deal with the major environmental movements in a way that is true the particularity of Christ?  Which direction is the church going and is it the right direction? Are we following Christ or are we following culture?  If we are following culture, to what extent to we dwelve into it?  Over at emergent village one person argues that almost nothing is off limits.  Do you agree that Christians can go anywhere and do anything in the name of Christ?  Are there limits on our freedom as Paul often talked about, for the sake of our brothers?

Honk if you Hate Homosexuals

Honk to protect marriage, one sign said.

I sat at a light on the way to work and a group of five stood on the corner.

Another sign said, honk if you support prop. 9. Prop 9 is a proposed law that would make it illegal for homosexuals to be married in California.

Coming into work I say hi to one of the girls.

“Did you see the people on the corner?” I ask.

“No,” she said. “What is going on?”

“There are all these people protesting prop. 9. You know the one about homosexuality and legalizing it.”

“Oh. I think it’s dumb,” she said.

“What?”

“That people are so upset about it.  I mean, homosexuals are people too.  You can’t legislate morality.  They are going to be together whether the law says so or not.”

“Who are you going to vote for?” I ask not really responding to what she said.

“Probably Obama,” she said. “I like Obama.”

(UPDATED): Want more on this subject?  An interesting line of logic is used here.

Suburbs, Jesus and Amazon Kindle

There is an interesting conversation going on at common root on the issue of ministry in the suburbs.  Read it!  The suburbs is often a place that many people (including myself) as a boring place to do ministry because most people already are Christians or they are turned off to Christianity for whatever reason.  It is incredibly difficult to create a community in this land of genemerica (as Mark calls it).

Also interesting is some thoughts over at Juris Naturalist about the new Amazon Kindle.  Just as iTunes has taken many record stores out of business, so also Amazon Kindle has the potential to take publishing companies out of business.  There is no way that they will be able to compete with a machine that can hold so many books in its hard drive.  Textbook companies will start facing many of the same problems that the music and move world now face with torrent files.  Students will be illegally sharing copyrighted books that they scan into their computers via pdf files.  And if you can write on the screen to take notes, the kindle is basically the same as having a book in hand.  This will revolutionize the way that universities do class and how students read their textbooks.

It is also one more step in the decentralization of authority in the world.  Now someone could write a book, distribute it through kindle via e-mail or blogs and people read the book virtually free of charge.  Soon enough, it may be enough that people begin self-publishing books and getting them out into the world through the internet rather through any one company.  It will certainly be interesting to watch as these new ideas arise.

The Mystery of Gatsby

I have always been intrigued by the mystery of Gatsby:

‘I think he killed a man,’ [Jordan said] and had the effect of stimulating my curiousity.  I would have accepted without question the information that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the lower East Side of New York.  That was comprehensible.  But young men didn’t–at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t–drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound

The phrase ‘only in America’ comes to mind thinking of a place where even Jets and Sharks can come together reminiscient of a Shakespearan Romeo and Juliet.  Only in America can Gatsby rise from nothing and become “something.”  While the phrase is utterly flawed and corrupted by the nostalgic tendencies, I wonder also if the idea of ‘only in America’ also deteroriates our trust in tradition.  The great innovator of the twentieth century–Henry Ford–noted that history and tradition are “more or less bunk” and the only thing that we should give a “tinker’s dam” about is the here and now.  Robin Williams performance in The Deat Poet’s Society emphasizes the American love of carpe diem.

And yet, Williams performance and the mystery of Gatsby raise up a central point about Western Civilization: have we so valued this rising from the ashes–coming from nowhere–that the places we come from really become nowhere and nothing.  Joe Biden emphasizes his rise from the working class and Barack Obama call for a world where we don’t see things in terms of red states and blue states.  But this is exactly the question: Should the red states abandon their traditions and their values for the politics of ‘change.’

Who is Gatsby?  Are we to know the traditions that shaped him?  Are we to know the traditions that shape our lives?  Or do we now live in a Western traditionless world where the mystery of Gatsby will reign?

The Emerging Church

At my church there has been an increasing amount of talk about the emerging church.

I recently found a site that gives a good overview for further resources and blogs on the emergent church and thought I would share it with my readers.

While you’re at, you might also visits Seth’s blog and read his thoughts on consumerism and how it relates to my former post on the financial crisis.  Bob Poole, over at his blog as well, talks abut the true nature of graditude using some of Seth’s thoughts in his blog as well.

Ben Witherington on Rob Bell

I stumbled across a blog written by Dr. Witherington that I thought I might share with my readers.  Witherington first praises Bell as an “engaging dialogue partner” and one who “takes the bible seriously,” but comes back with a fairly hefty criticism that Bell “has not used good enough sources to really help him understand the difference between Judaism prior to the two Jewish wars in the first and second centuries AD, and the later Mishnaic and Talmudic Judaism.”  Witherington reminds him that “Jesus was certainly not a rabbi in the later Mishnaic sense.”  When pressed later on by commenting blogger only known as “Daniel” (not be confused with the author of this blog) as to why his disciples called Jesus “rabbi” if he was not a rabbi, Witherington responded, “The Hebrew and Aramaic words ‘revi/rabbi/rabbouni’ simply mean ‘my great one/master’ or ‘my teacher’ in early Judaism. They do not have the sense of ‘ordained rabbi’ that they come to have centuries later after the time of Jesus. Properly speaking all those passages you list should not have the translation ‘rabbi’ because they are misleading, and convey to a modern audience that Jesus fell into the same category as modern rabbis, which is false. A better translation would be ‘my teacher’ or ‘my master’.”

Witherington is especially critical of Ray Vanderlaan and his Follow the Rabbi site.  Witherington also roundly denounces Bell’s views on homosexuality as “unhelpful.” Commenting on the post, Michael Spencer of the blog internet monk agreed saying: “While I am basically optimistic and supportive regarding the emerging church, I have not been able to extend that optimism to Bell. Zondervan sees some star quality and is overlooking some serious problems. I appreciate Bell’s heart, but posing as an “expert” on the Judaism of Jesus is over Rob’s head. And your critique of his approach to sexual ethics is also on target. I join Rob in much of what he is feeling, but that is a problem with how we love and respect people. It’s NOT a problem with the Bible’s clarity on sexual ethics. It’s Hebrews 13:4.”