Can’t beat the real thing

Here’s the bottom line: non-Christians know the real thing when they see it. The rest of us? Totally clueless. Well, the rest of us still going to church, that is. In the last few years I’ve been surprised at the number of mature, faith-filled Christ followers I’ve met who have stopped going to church altogether. All of them are simply unable to buy into the insanity of the church culture anymore. Surprisingly enough (or not) all of them work in ministries to the homeless. Go figure. One church n particular that the writers visited caught my eye, a church whose marketing tagline is, “A church for people who don’t like church”. Really? Let’s see, there’s someone at the front door to greet folks and give them a bulletin. There’s a pastor who is the front man for the big show. The pastor preaches a sermon. Ther’es a worship band. there’s an offering. The church meets every week on Sunday morning. Everyone sits in rows facing the front. I could go on but I won’t. A new, hip vibe isn’t a new way of doing church. Ooooh, we’ve got chairs with cup holders! Ooooh, we’ve got a video production team! Ooooh, we’re on the internet! Could we be any more oblivious to the insanity of it all? Money quote from one of the church visitors:

“I had a little problem with their arguments involving material goods and our “media saturated culture” as they make their Sunday services available on your 80Gb video ipod.

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Family jewels

The CIA’s scandalous “family jewels” revelations from the 1970s provide reminders that current debates over secret prisons, aggressive interrogations and spying on Americans have a long history in this country.

Consider the case of Soviet defector Yuri Nosenko, discussed in one bland paragraph of Tuesday’s release.

Though he was no terrorist, his treatment by the CIA during 3 1/2 years of solitary confinement bears striking parallels to the current stories of secret CIA prisons overseas where terror suspects are held without charges or visitors for long periods while subjected to harsh interrogation, known to include “waterboarding,” which produces the sensation of drowning.

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Torture, illegal surveillance of US citizens, and a ton of other bad stuff we can only imagine.

The CIA, from our perspective at least, are supposed to be the good guys. Perspective is a funny thing though. When we see people from countries outside our cozy western civilization do the things the CIA did (and does) we think they are evil. The question is, doesn’t doing these very same things make the CIA just as evil?

Bad people do bad things. The reason behind the action doesn’t matter, justification is in the eye of the beholder. As time goes by it just may become more and more apparent that the “bad guys” are a whole lot closer to home than we think.

But, why?

For me, the most interesting phenomena that I have seen in the wake of the apparent double murder/suicide involving pro wrestler Chris Benoit, is the sudden propensity of people in the media to ask why this happened. Generally when an event as tragic as this is reported on there is a brief moment of sadness expressed for the victims and disdain for the perpetrator. Then as quickly as the story appeared, it disappears in the wake of the latest account of Paris Hilton’s fascinating life.

In our society that has become defined by the cult of personality, one has to believe that this increased interest is due to Mr. Benoit’s celebrity status. It is as if we are dismayed not so much by the event, but by the idea that one of our celebrities could have done such a heinous thing. We want to find something else to blame it on, ‘roid rage, drug abuse etc. Sure these things may have played a role, but would we even bother asking these questions if Benoit was just another nameless plebian?

It is too bad that we can’t get more emotionally attached to the nameless, faceless ones. Maybe then we would see people upset about the genocide in Sudan, the AIDS crisis in Africa, and the millions of other humanitarian crises that play out every single day. But enough about that, I hear Paris Hilton is about to give an interview about her time in jail.

Violence and religion

I don’t think there was a person on earth who wasn’t extremely affected by it, obviously some much more than others. But that day did change the world—everything changed. Now, that act [the massacre] was performed by a small minority of people who claimed to represent a particular theology. And in doing what they did, they very badly misrepresented their religion and their theology, and more importantly, they misrepresented God. Obviously, it doesn’t need to be stated that anyone who believes in God would never do such a thing.

And anyone who says they’re a Christian doesn’t send bombs to kill anyone. The world has become a very frightened and frightening place. The existence of war is proof of the absolute lack of contact with God, and that is something I see as having got a lot worse. We’re all affected by what happened on Sept. 11 because all over the world there are countries at risk because of involvement in the war. In the case of the British people and the American people, they can’t walk down the street without being frightened, with very good reason, that something dreadful might happen.

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Conversations with God

A New Kensington man has started a Web site and provides parents with paddles and directions on how to spank their children, WTAE Channel 4’s Andrew Stockey reported.

Joey Salvati said he had four conversations with God while he showered. He said God convinced him to create the paddles to punish unruly children.

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When I read this article I laughed. To me it seems obvious that Mr. Salvati is off his rocker. But then I got to thinking, I believe I talk to God. What separates me from the guy giving out spanking paddles?

For me conversations with God aren’t an exchange of ideas. We don’t go back and forth weighing the pros and cons of a particular plan of action. When God speaks to me it isn’t with a voice, it is with a feeling. On some level God is able to speak into my heart and help me to understand when I am being a total idiot about something and when I am doing the right thing.

I don’t think Christians, or anyone else for that matter, need an excuse to start scheduling times to hit their kids. I have already heard way too much bad theology associated with the whole spare the rod idea. It is possible to discipline your children without brusing them.

Who knows though. Maybe he did have four actual conversations with God about starting up a website to give tips on hitting your kids. If there is one thing our world needs right now it is a little more violence, don’t you think?

Divine favors

…in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God (John16:2 NIV).

When Jesus spoke these words He was warning His disciples about their future. However, like most of scripture these words have a timeless quality about them.

Our world is filled today with people who believe that they are fulfilling the wishes of God by destroying their fellow human beings. Many of us upon reading that statement will think of Islamic militants. Make no mistake, Christian militants are just as responsible (in some cases maybe more so) for the terrible state our world is currently in. George Bush claims that God told him to invade Iraq. Personally, I have a very hard time believing that. Just as much as I have a hard time believing that God told a bunch of people to fly planes into those buildings on 9/11.

Come to think of it…

Forever, or at least for a very long time, people in the West will always equate terrorism with Islamic fundamentalism. Whenever we hear the word “terrorism” mentioned on our news we will, on some level, think of the smoldering World Trade Center or the carnage in the London subway.

I wonder if people in the Middle East think of George Bush and his soldiers every time they hear the word terrorist. While we think of soldiers as heroes (and I do for the most part, even if I disagree with the war), do they think of suicide bombers in the same way? Perspective is a relative thing.

Maybe that is the problem. Maybe we have spent far too long looking at the world from our own perspectives instead of trying to see the world the way other people see it. We all want to have the corner on God and somehow earn His love by showing how bad other people are, and in extreme cases, killing those other people.

God doesn’t need any favors from us, especially not these kind. The saddest part is that we are doomed to continue to repeat these mistakes, and religious people are a big part of the reason why.

Democracy inaction

Canadian Anglican delegates meeting in Winnipeg have voted against blessing same-sex unions, despite the majority of members actually being in favour of the motion.

The laity voted in favour, the clergy voted in favour, but it was the House of Bishops that narrowly decided not to approve the motion that was before the members of Synod,” Reverend Canon Christopher Pratt, of the Diocese of Huron, told CTV Newsnet on Sunday.

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Why does the church bother allowing people to vote if their choice can be overturned? To me that seems like a colossal waste of time.

Sometimes I really get the feeling that the higher up you move on a church’s hierarchy, the further you get from the will of God. I am sure many more conservative Christians will applaud the Anglican church’s choice to ignore their laity and clergy and not bless same-sex unions. Let’s not kid ourselves here though, this has nothing to do with the church suddenly feeling the need to uphold the sciptural provisions against homosexuality and everything to do with them protecting themselves from being expelled from the world-wide Anglican Communion. It is all politics.

In reality, that is what most of the hot topics in Christianity are about. Sure, a church will tell you that they are choosing to do something because it is in the Bible. But if that is the case, why do they choose to ignore so many other things that the Bible says? Churches choose to do the things they do out of upholding their own prejudice and way of life. God is just the excuse.

Evan not so almighty

You might argue that making a comedy about Noah’s ark—one of the Bible’s grimmest stories—is a bit like making a sex farce about the Rwandan genocide. But the problem is not the comic aspiration. VeggieTales is proof that Bible comedy based on unpleasant stories is possible. No, what’s disturbing about Evan Almighty is its flaccid approach to faith. All that is compelling, moving, and profound about the Noah story has been systematically excised. In the Bible, God chooses Noah to survive because Noah is a righteous man. But Evan is faithless and stupid, and comes to believe in God only because God hammers him over the head with about 137 miracles. Any moron will believe when an omnipotent divine being appears in the back seat of his car and starts sending him pairs of lions and giraffes. The lesson of the Bible is that faith is hard, and unrewarding, and painful. Faith is belief when there are no giraffes.

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Kid ego

Today is my last day in my cushy desk job. Lately, I have been second guessing myself a bit. Not so much that I made the wrong decision by asking for a transfer, but the fact that the transfer means a step back of sorts on the corporate ladder.

The other day I was thinking, I’m 32 (oh wait, that’s right, its 2007 – I’m 33), its about time I got a “real” career isn’t it? Sure, I had grown to hate the job I was doing, but it did mean a title, an office, and a salary. I mean, if I was to go to my high school reunion tomorrow I would rather tell people the I have a title and an office rather than say that I sell stuff in a store. Even if that job with the title doesn’t make me happy. The ego is a dumb ass thing, isn’t it?

On Monday night I was watching the Speed Channel (for those of you who know me personally, I am sure that is not a big shock to you). Specifically I was watching the show Payback. The premise of the show is that people who have attained a measure of success in life pay back the people who helped them get there by buying them a car and having it souped up. Monday’s episode had this guy Ken Shamrock who is apparently a kick ass martial artist paying back his foster father. Shamrock’s dad was really touched by the gesture and remarked that it didn’t matter if Ken was pumping gas for a living, he’d still be proud of him.

Ken Shamrock’s dad is proud of him, at least partly, because of all the adversity he has overcome. I suddenly realized that I too have, by the grace of God, overcome some adversity of my own. I could be doing a lot of different things with my life, not good things, but for the most part I am an OK guy. I suppose really, it is a miracle from God that I function as well as I do.

This epiphany helped me put my ego in perspective, at least for a moment. I have a lot to be proud of and thankful for, even if I don’t have a title or an office anymore. I’ve wasted too much of my life being unhappy already, I’ll be damned if I will spend the life I have left spinning my wheels in a job that makes me miserable. Even if that job comes with a desk and a cell phone.

9/11 Simulation

This is a simulation that was made at Purdue University of the plane hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11.