You say you want a revolution

I am reading The Irresistible Revolution right now. It is a very good book with lots of interesting ideas. What they are doing at The Simple Way is really amazing. I have found much in this book to be inspired by. If nothing else, seeing that miracles do still happen has given balance to my faith which may have been leaning a little too far to the logical side of my brain.

The full name of the book is The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. Like I said, I admire what Shane and everyone at The Simple Way are doing, however, I am not sure how ordinary their lifestyle is. Most of us are not cut out for communal living which may speak to the poverty of our faith in Christ and our attachment to this world, but regardless of the reasons – we just are not able to commit to that lifestyle. Realizing this, I wonder, what does it really mean to be an ordinary radical?

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that being an ordinary radical is living an "ordinary" life, going to work, spending time with family and friends, going grocery shopping, etc. while modeling the love of Christ. What is more radical than being in the world but not of the world?

I’m not saying I do this. Frankly, I have much more to be ashamed about in my conduct lately than I have to be proud of. I am hardly the poster child for living the Christ-like life. But I don’t think the answer is to live in a commune. I can be radical right here, right where I am at. I just have to learn to give these ideas traction in my real life. Pray for me.

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Balance

I finished reading John Shelby Spong’s latest book yesterday, Jesus for the Non-Religious. While I don’t agree with all of his ideas on deconstructing Christian history, I really appreciate his move towards a more tolerant and open Christianity.

Right after finishing that book I started Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution. I am about 70 pages in and I have to confess that I almost put it down. Not because the book isn’t well written, the reality is that this book is challenging me like I haven’t been challenged in a while. It is well written, funny. and poignant. More than that, it is shaking my certainties and forcing me to move beyond my intellectual reasoning.

It is easy to say that miracles don’t happen anymore or that maybe they never happened. However, the reality is that if your faith is small or logical you may just be missing them. There is a balance that needs to be struck here. I am just not sure how to do it right now.

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Defenders of what?

Very interesting article from Slate.

Other terrorist groups have shown that poor, uneducated people—even children—are perfectly capable of carrying out terrorist attacks. So, why go to the trouble of recruiting doctors and teachers? Because middle-class professional terrorists play a trick on people’s psychology. The instinct of "I can’t believe that a doctor would do this" quickly morphs into, "You can’t trust any of those Muslims." For some people, this provokes open season on Muslims. Mosques are torched, Muslim kids are beaten up at school, women in headscarves are harassed, the Prophet Mohammed is depicted in a despicable manner.

The way to win this war is to define us and them based on clear principles and resist all divisions based on religion or ethnicity. The central principle we stand for is pluralism, the commitment to a society where people with different beliefs live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty. People who believe in pluralism come from all backgrounds—Christian and Muslim, believer and atheist, Arab and American.

Funny that Osama and his cronies set themselves up as the defenders of Islam and Muslims. In reality they are willing to sacrifice both to further their own ideology.

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Dear Mr. Pastore

This article came my way via.

The term “emergent church” refers to a loose association of people who share common values and attitudes toward, well, everything. It’s Christianity for postmoderns who don’t like truth, knowledge, science, authority, doctrine, institutions, or religion. They claim absolute or objective truth is unknowable, that the only “truth” that can be known is rooted in communities of shared subjective experience–the infamous “it’s my truth” of relativism.

The emergent church has rejected the “linear” and “modern” categories of true/false, good/evil, and right/wrong, and they recoil at the notion of applying these terms to Christianity or any other faith tradition–even radical Islam. To believe Christianity is true, good, and right is divisive, offensive, and well, rude and anti-conversational.

The emergent church is an ally in the war against radical Islam–al Qaeda’s ally. Not in the sense they are supplying bullets and bombs to Osama, of course, but in the sense they are weakening our conviction to fight.

This response was emailed directly to the author of the above article.

Dear Mr. Pastore,

After reading your article I am going to make the assumption that you have never actually met anyone who considers themselves a member of the emerging church. If you have, I can only assume that they are very much on the periphery of emergent and are in no way representative of what the majority of us believe.

In your article you state that emergent Christians don’t like truth, knowledge, science, etc. In actuality, emergent Christians are just the opposite of that. We pride ourselves on studying theology with a great deal of vigor and also enjoy reading books on a variety of topics including (but not limited to) science, sociology, and church history. At the end of the day we have arrived at our beliefs after having spent a great deal of time in quiet reflection and prayer. In fact, if you actually spent the time to speak to one of us you would probably be surprised to find how much we share when it comes to our Christian faith.

Emergent Christians do not believe that it is wrong to believe that Christianity is true and right. If that were so, why would we even bother referring to ourselves as Christians? As a rule, emergent Christians believe very strongly in the teachings of Jesus Christ as contained in the Gospels of the New Testament. We also generally agree that Christians are to heed Jesus’ call to turn the other cheek and that violence is not the answer to the world’s problems. Believe me when I say that I, as an emergent Christian, find the acts of terrorists – Islamic or otherwise, to be morally bankrupt and repugnant. Yes I do love a good conversation and I am interested in hearing from others what they believe, however, that in no way compromises my commitment to the Christian faith.

I sincerely doubt that the emergent church is in any way weakening the collective will of the United States "in the war for the free world." We certainly don’t have the influence of the evangelical right or the Catholic Church. Even if we did, there is no true central leadership to decide what position the emergent church would take on any issue.

In closing, I would like to encourage you to take the time to get to know the real people involved in the emergent church. As I stated earlier, you may be shocked at just how much we share. You seem to be very concerned with protecting a Biblically based Christianity. That being so, I encourage you to study what the Bible, and specifically Jesus says about conflict as a means to solve problems and about where we are truly citizens – the Kingdom of Heaven or the "free world."

Sincerely,

Paul Connors

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Democrats like Jesus too, honest

This article on CNN.com today discusses the Democrat’s push to lure religious voters away from the religious right. In June, Jim Wallis from Sojourners hosted an event on CNN discussing faith and politics with the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates.

I support Sojourners and I am glad to see politicians who lean to the left showing that they too believe in God. Having said that, I am not sure if a new religious partisanship is a good thing. I don’t care who you are or what party you represent, somehow hiring people to specifically curry the votes of religious people leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

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Confessions and condolences

I have kind of a strange confession to make. When I was a kid sitting in the basement of our house watching cartoons, sometimes I would watch the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker show. Part of me knew there was something not right about it, but I found the show strangely soothing. Years later we found out that there was much not right about that show and the organization that put it on, but I still feel a connection to those people.

Today, the connection is through Jim and Tammy’s son Jay. I first became acquainted with him through his book and since reading it I have followed his ministry from afar. Jay and I agree on many topics and I admire the way he conducts his outreach. I wish there were more pastors like Jay.

On Friday morning, Jay’s mom Tammy Faye passed away after a long battle with cancer. She too is someone to be admired. Her life is a testimony to the unending grace and love of God. In her later years she shared the truth of God’s love with so many people, including homosexuals and porn stars, all without judgment. I believe that the only ones who truly understand God’s love and grace are those who have experienced what it is like to be hated by the church.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences to Jay and his family. To Tammy, God speed. I am confident you are with your Savior now.

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Homer and the pagans

Life is too busy for any serious blogging, but a friend forwarded me this story and asked about my thoughts on it.

Pagans have pledged to perform "rain magic" to wash away a cartoon character painted next to their famous fertility symbol – the Cerne Abbas giant.

A doughnut-brandishing Homer Simpson was painted next to the giant on the hill above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, to promote the new Simpsons film.

At first it seemed funny, but then I thought, what would I think if something like this had been done by the Christ the Redeemer statue? That is my favorite monument to my religion, and frankly, I would probably be offended if someone erected a monument to Homer alongside it.

I love The Simpsons and I look forward to the movie, however, this stunt was in bad taste.

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The limits of capitalism

Lately I have been considering how limited capitalism as a way of life is. This post by Brian McLaren, which I excerpted below, does a great job of summing up my thoughts.

The greatest challenge facing American conservatives today, he says, is not liberalism but capitalism, which he says, “in its current form, undermines not only the virtues necessary to the kind of society conservatives claim to want, but ultimately risks subverting itself.”

Consumerist government sucks in more and more power and tax revenue that it uses to create bloated bureaucracies, consuming time and money without producing improved social infrastructure. It sucks in more and more power to all its branches, waging ill-advised wars and protecting powerful partners with whom it colludes for narrow interests rather than the common good. It also sucks in attention, focusing on short-term political fights while ignoring the longer-range, bigger-picture issues that demand our best thinking and leadership. The framers of our constitution were aware of the danger posed by the craving for more power among the already powerful. Their brilliant system of checks and balances was intended to curb the suck of consumerism in government.

In order to be healthy and not implode, our economy needs virtue, Dreher says, especially virtues of self-restraint. He defines a kind of conservatism that people across the ideological spectrum would be wise to warmly receive: “to do more with less … to conserve for the sake of a higher good.” He continues, “…we can’t pretend that our prosperity does not present us with serious civic problems. Consumer capitalism contains within its unfolding dynamic the seeds of its own destruction, to say nothing of the way it chews up traditional loyalties to faith, family, community and place.”

Full post

The limits of free speech

There is an interesting case before a Human Right’s Tribunal in Calgary this week, a pastor who wrote an anti-gay letter to a newspaper is being accused of hate speech. I vehemently disagree with the tone and intent of his letter, however, I do support the right of every person to express their beliefs. I am convinced that limiting his ability to say what he thinks ultimately limits my own ability to share my beliefs and to speak against those who promote hate. Free speech though, does have limits.

In the wake of the pastor’s letter a young man was the victim of an assault that was allegedly motivated by his homosexuality.

Ms. Dodd also talked about her outrage after the alleged gay-bashing incident, which involved a youth who frequented the drop-in centre, who was not admonished by Mr. Boissoin, she says. "There was no repercussions for this and the youth was allowed to still come into the organization," she told reporters later.

Via

You cannot use your right to free speech as a tool to incite others to commit violence. If you do, you are just as guilty of the violence as those who actually perpetrated it.

My hope is that the Human Right’s Tribunal decides in favor of Boissoin. After that, I hope that the Red Deer Police investigate whether or not he incited or encouraged violence.

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Jesus as Paxil

The idea that any religious institution is headed by one who possesses infallibility or that anyone’s sacred scriptures are inerrant speaks only to human anxiety, not to human truth. From Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong – page 66.