The Church will be led by China

China's place in the Christian movement has not been the propagation of Christendom and Western hegemony, as nearly everyone now agrees - in reality, Christendom has long been a historical anachronism. As Huo Shui, a former government political analyst observes, the Christian idea of love has introduced a new value system in China, including the idea of repentance "which is lacking in Chinese culture." He writes of a moral revolution in the New China where the "Christian faith became more indigenous . . . you can no longer say that Christianity is a foreign religion. The Churches are led by Chinese. You see Chinese Bibles. You hear Chinese worship songs. You experience a Chinese style of worship. The church looks and feels Chinese . . . Christianity has finally take root in Shenzhou - in China, the land of God." All this suggests that a China strengthened by its own resources and renewed in its own identity would be a China well endowed to assume a leadership role in the scheme of post-Western Christian developments.

- Lamin Sanneh, Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (bold mine)

Identity, club-culture, and the Gospel

"As identities can be picked up from a variety of media sources, the construction of 'who we are' arises increasingly from how we imagine ourselves, rather than from where we live."

- Ian Condry, "Japanese Hip-Hop and the Globalization of Popular Culture" in Urban Life: Readings in the Anthropology of the City, 384.

And, at the same time, as Condry points out, there are places where imagined identity "shows up" and is developed. Condry borrows from the Japanese term genba, used in the hip-hop world to denote the hip-hop clubs as the "actual scene" where hip-hop happens. The word genba is used "in the hip-hop world . . . to contrast the intense energy of the club scene with the more sterile and suspect marketplace" (italics mine, Condry, 386). Condry uses the term genba to describe how within globalization there are global cultural forms that, instead of imposing a cultural imperialism of homogeneity, tend to get interpreted and shaped according to local culture so that there is heterogeneous multiplication of global cultural forms. The diversity and characteristic Japanese-ness of Japanese Hip-Hop is a prime example, and the clubs - the genba - is where it happens.

Condry (after spending over 18 months attending over 100 club events around Tokyo all held between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.), describes how even though club culture is extraordinary and exotic it still is "embedded in Japan's political-economic structures, characteristic social relations, and the contemporary range of cultural forms. . . It is largely predictable what kind of pleasures can be expected, and also the generally unpleasant consequences for work or school after a night without sleep" (Condry, 380). This tension is most clearly seen when the clubbers board the first trains at 5 a.m. to return home as the businessmen and women get off the first trains to go to work. Even the train schedule dictates the socializing patterns of the club culture.

It's no wonder that the church has struggled to grow in Japan. When the leading edge of cultural change is centered in smoke-filled clubs between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., a Sunday morning worship service that has more in common with a "sterile and suspect marketplace" rather than a place of intense energy and life such as the clubs will by default not capture the imagination of the kinds of people that shape culture in the clubs. Are there any Christians that are part of this club culture? Does anyone know? I sure hope so, because the energy of the club is only a shadow of what could it could be, and what it could lead to, when transformed by the Gospel.

"authentic Christian mission"

“Historically the church has indeed seen its mission in these broad terms. It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself. The gospel has to be demonstrated in word and deed. Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life–in every sphere. So like Jesus, authentic Christian mission has included good news for the poor, compassion for the sick and suffering justice for the oppressed, liberation for the enslaved. The gospel of the Servant of God in the power of the Spirit of God addresses every area of human need and every area that has been broken and twisted by sin and evil. And the heart of the gospel, in all of these areas, is the cross of Christ.”
- Christopher J. H. Wright (italics mine)

- found on the front page of The Boars Head Tavern blog

the 700+1 Club

Pat Robertson endorses Giuliani for president. Either the situation is desperate or the 700 Club has decided to broaden its membership. I guess you could see this a sign of hope for those on the far right that they will look at the big picture a bit more, or a sign of defeat and compromise. It will be interesting to see how this affects things.

The Two Tasks

"...Responsible Christians face two tasks-that of saving the soul and that of saving the mind. No civilization can endure with its mind being as confused and disordered as ours is today. All our ills stem proximately from the false philosophies that have been let loose in the world and that are now being taught in the universities.... Save the university and you save Western civilization and therewith the world."

-Dr. Charles Malik, Lebanese educator and statesman

______________

The United States Supreme Court ruled, "The classroom is peculiarly the 'marketplace of ideas.' The Nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth 'out of a multitude of tongues, [rather] than through any kind of authoritative selection."

.
— United States v. Associated Press, 52 F. Supp. 362, 372.

______________

"We have a gospel to proclaim. We have to proclaim it not merely to individuals in their personal and domestic lives. . . . we have to proclaim it as part of the continuing conversation which shapes public doctrine. It must be heard in the conversation of economists, psychiatrists, educators, scientists, and politicians."

—Lesslie Newbigin, Truth To Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1991), p. 64.

->for more on what some are doing about this, check out www.clm.org

We ignore the academy and marketplace of ideas at great peril to the rest of the world that is at their mercy and the subject of their policies and publications. Let us embrace the call to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Only then can we fulfill the call to love our neighbors as ourselves.

With M. Teresa in view...

You must have often wondered why the enemy [God] does not make more use of his power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree he chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the irresistible and the indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of his scheme forbids him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as his felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For his ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.... Sooner or later he withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.... He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand.... Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.*
-Uncle Screwtape
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

*See also, Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith in TIME

Nooma:thoughts

Until today I had only seen one of Rob Bell's Nooma films. At the time, for various reasons, one of which was pride, I didn't fully appreciate it (sorry to the friend that showed it to me!). I read Velvet Elvis several months ago and bought six of the Nooma films this summer in order to jump in once more. I just watched two of them and wrote down a few thoughts I had in response. Overall, I really like them. I like the concept, the topics; the production is top-quality (not that I would really know, but it seems well done); Rob is a great communicator; and, they are multi-lingual (with subtitles)! Also, I didn't realized until I bought some that they come with a booklet with some quotes, scripture, pictures from the film, and reflection questions which would be great for small group discussion. So, I definitely recommend them as ways to open up or further dialogue on the topics presented and relevant passages of Scripture. They're great for those that follow Jesus and for those that are still looking. Following are a few thoughts and questions that I had as I was watching them today.

Nooma:Rhythm
Rob evaluates what it means to be in relationship with God in terms of the process of relating and following instead of the in/out terms common in conversion language. Near the end he says "you ARE in relationship with God," and on the back of the DVD package it says "maybe it's through trusting Jesus and living the kind of life he taught us to live...that we have a relationship with God." Is this "discipleship to converted discipleship"? What does it look like for someone to walk the path of Jesus before they are counted "in Christ", reconciled to God in Him?
In the notes, the question is asked, "Which is more important to Jesus: what we believe or what we do?" I think I understand what he's getting at, but to me, really, it's neither, because what we do betrays what we really believe, and what we really believe is inevitably worked out in what we do. Jesus repeatedly told people to "believe" in Him, and there was no gap in His mind between believing and doing. To believe is to do and to do is to believe. It is trust. So the question is really "Who or what do you trust?" because life and reality is personal, relational, or at least it was meant to be.
So, maybe at some point those that begin to walk the path of Jesus and listen to the words of Jesus begin relate to him and finally come to say, "You have the words of eternal life. I have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."
And this is renewed, just as the grounds of our baptism is remembered in the Eucharist week by week, so at points we are reminded of our confession when we find Jesus asking us, "Do you love me more than these? ... Then feed my sheep." And so it continues until we die, finally, with Him.

Nooma:You
Rob made a lot of assertions about many of the New Testament concepts being firmly in relation to and in opposition to the 1st century religious and political context, concepts and expressions like "No under name by which men must be saved" and "Jesus is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia (or church)" and even the resurrection of the savior-god. I'm familiar with a few of these points of contact and conflict, but I wonder if the emphasis is too heavily placed on the 1st century context on not enough on the language and tradition of the several thousand years before as revealed in the hopes and experience of the nation of Israel. He brought it through a little bit in talking about the hope of the Messiah, the brokenness of the world, and the hope of God's program to fix it.
Some good questions to ask would be: "What are the sources and context for some of the sayings like "No other name..." and "Caesar is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia"? Are there roots in Israel and the OT for these concepts and assertions as well (e.g. the Lord as YHWH, salvation in the name of YHWH, the gospel or good news of Isaiah 52, the congregation of Israel as ekklesia)? Where's the overlap? Where's the conflict? How were the Jewish concepts translated into the Greco-Roman? What influenced the Jewish concepts? What influenced the Greco-Roman? Any other influences? What were the apostles and 1st century church aware of? And Jesus?
I think the most powerful part of the film was near the end when Rob said, "There's a deeply personal dimension to this. Jesus is saving me, he's saving me from my sins, from my mistakes, from my pride, from my indifference to the suffering of the world around me. From my cynicism and despair, the brokenness I see in the world around me is true of my own soul."
As some of have observed in response to the popular recent discussions about evil and those on the side of evil, "If we look close enough we will see that the line dividing good and evil runs right through the middle of each one of us."

Anyone seen these, thought about this stuff? Thoughts?

long time, no blog, good link

I haven't written anything in a while, and to commemorate that I will continue not writing anything and just post a link to something someone else wrote. Shame on me...

Here's Scot McKnight answering a question that I specifically begin asking in earnest last summer but have asked in many other ways since college. He gives some great advice, not necessarily solutions, but a good way forward in faith, especially in the last paragraph. Check it out and be encouraged.

Scot McKnight on questions about difficulties in Scripture and who to believe.

On Institutions, Western Culture, and Spirituality

Speaking about lay movements in the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict's addressing of the spiritual state of Western Europe, Russell Shorto of the New York Times said in his article, "Keeping the Faith",

According to many observers, the lay movements substantially accounted for the unimagined numbers of mourners who poured into Rome. Data on declining church attendance obscure the fact that there is a good deal of spiritual hunger in Europe, but it is largely outside institutional religion, a phenomenon that the British sociologist Grace Davie calls “believing without belonging.” The Vatican is aware of this and says that the lay Catholic movements may represent a bridge, a way to bring the aimless, searching, largely secular Europeans back into the fold.

Msgr. Donald Bolen, an official with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told me that the lay movements “are movements of the Holy Spirit. The temptation in the church has long been to try to keep the parishes filled, to spend energy on maintenance. These movements are not about maintenance of old structures. But this isn’t a new thing. When Francis of Assisi started with his little band of disciples, some were confused. Movements within the church are not new.” The pope’s media spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, made much the same point to me: “The lay movements are a sign of life. The Vatican is not the whole church.”

But the problem is that the spiritual hunger that exists in Europe seems to be precisely for what the church can’t provide. Polls show that Europeans distrust institutions of all kinds. For an institution that is practically synonymous with hierarchy and control, the lay movements may represent as much a threat as a promise...

Benedict may be right that the Catholic Church has a world-historic chance to transform Europe and bring about change. But the church’s own strictures could work against that... “Think of the silencing of theologians in recent decades,” said Father Reese, the former editor of the Jesuit journal America. “The suppression of discussion and debate. How certain issues become litmus tests for orthodoxy and loyalty. All of these make it very difficult to do the very thing Benedict wants. I wish him well. I want him to succeed. But it seems everything he has done in the past makes it much more difficult to do it.”

A friend of mine living in Italy said that she felt like she has seen the possible future of Christianity and culture in the U.S. I saw some strikingly similar parallels as I read this article in the New York Times, confirming where it is that we are now in a post-Christian Western culture. Like mentioned in the quotes above, there is hope in the Spirit's work in the people, but there will be tension with the power structures of the institutional church to the extent that there are conflicting interests, both in the RCC and other denominations of the Christian church. It's really sad to me to see such power struggles. Though we must contend for the faith, it seems that many, once established as authorities on "the faith", contend for much more than that.

Like the last guy said, I really do want the Pope to succeed in helping Europe to move past postmodern secularism. I really do want the institutional church to succeed so far as it makes disciples of Jesus, but it seems that, like the Jews of Jesus' day, there are some systemic "logs" that will prevent the institutional church from being all that, in Christ, it could be.

Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus, make all things new.

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (Jn 17:20)

The Shadow of Good Friday

To reflect and to pray.

"But what Christ did on the Cross was in no way intended to spare us death but rather to revalue death completely. In place of the 'going down into the pit' of the Old Testament, it became 'being in paradise tomorrow'. Instead of fearing death as the final evil and begging God for a few more years of life, as the weeping king Hezekiah does, Paul would like most of all to die immediately in order 'to be with the Lord' (Phil 1:23). Together with death, life is also revalued: 'If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord' (Rom 14:8).
-Hans Urs von Balthasar (as quoted at the BHT)

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." (John 15:18)

VOM News and Prayer Update: April 3, 2007

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."(Hebrews 12:1-2)

UZBEKISTAN
Pastor Appeals Sentence - VOM Sources/Forum 18 News
Pastor Dmitry Shestakov has appealed his four-year work-camp sentence. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Pastor Shestakov's family will be permitted to go with him to one of Uzbekistan's open work camps. Forum 18 News reported that in imposing its verdict, the court said it would be impossible to "re-educate" Shestakov without isolating him from society. Forum has also reported that prison administration has banned Pastor Shestakov from kneeling to pray and his New Testament has been confiscated. In exchange, he has been offered the Koran to read. He remains imprisoned in Andijan until his appeal is heard. Pray Pastor Shestakov's appeal is successsful and for God to comfort his family. Psalm 41:2-3


NIGERIA
Teacher Killed by Muslim Students - Compass Direct News/VOM Sources
On March 21, 2007, Christianah Oluwasesin, a teacher at a secondary school in Northern Nigeria was beaten, stoned and burned by Muslim students over claims she desecrated the Quran. According to a Compass Direct News report, Oluwasesin was supervising a final examination on Islamic religious knowledge when she collected papers, books and bags from the all-girls class and in accordance with school procedure and dropped them in front of the class to prevent cheating. According to another teacher, soon after Oluwasesin dropped the bags in front of the class, one of the girls began to cry. She told her classmates she had a copy of the Quran in her bag, that Oluwasesin touched the bag and by doing so had desecrated the Quran, since she was a Christian. This led to a riot which was joined by Muslim extremists, resulting in Oluwasesin being beaten to death. They brought old mats to where her body was, placed dirt on her corpse and then burned it. The Voice of the Martyrs has met with her husband and is supporting her family. Pray God will comfort Oluwasesin's family and for her testimony to those that killed her, that it will bring them into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5


INDIA
Christians Attacked, Pastor's Arrested - VOM Sources

• ORISSA - On March 18, 2007, Hindu extremists attacked Abraham Burdhan with a sword. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Abraham was pulled off his bicycle, beaten with rods and sticks on his whole body and hit with a sword causing severe injury to his hand. Doctors are not hopeful they can save all four of his fingers and think he will lose two. Pray for Abraham's healing and the safety of more than 20 Christian families living in the area which is in the midst of more than 150 Hindu families.
• RAJASTHAN - Pastors Gorthan Leetha, Laxman Gorthan, Khana Gutta and Ramesh Gutta were attacked by Hindu radicals and handed over to the police, who are sympathetic with the radicals. They are being held in the local prison. In addition, more than 30 families had to flee the area when they were attacked and their homes destroyed. The families had to scatter to nearby villages and work as laborers. Meanwhile, VOM in partnership with Emmanuel Ministries is providing emergency food and clothing for the family, and their pastor is helping them relocate to relatively safe, Udaipur City. Pray for the pastors in prison and the families who have lost all their belongings. Ask God to comfort them and encourage them to continue standing for Him.
• KUNDRA - On March 25, Pastor Rajendra Chauhan was arrested after Hindu extremists complained he was involved in "forced conversions." He was charged under the State's Anti-Conversion Law because the police said he was holding large religious gatherings without asking permission. Through VOM's legal network, Pastor Chauhan was released. Pray his ministry will not be hindered by these challenges. Psalm 111: 5-9

www.persecution.com

Power of Percentages

"If Christians had given a 10 percent tithe to their churches in 2004, instead of the actual 2.56 percent, there would have been an extra $164 billion. And of churches spend $70 to $80 billion of that on missions and humanitarian works, the basic needs of every person on the globe would be provided."
- Relevant, Nov./Dec. 2006, p. 30

"Personal wealth is distributed so unevenly across the world that the riches two percent of adults won more than 50 percent of the world's assets. The poorest half of the world hold only 1 percent of the wealth."
- Financial Times, www.ft.com, Dec. 5, 2006


As quoted in Campus Crusade for Christ's March 2007 issue of Connection.

The Breadth of Incarnation

"...people are more interested in seeing Christians actually live in a way the reflects what they believe instead of an hollow invitation to come to a church service where you can meet God."

-Chris Burton on the changing scene of church in America

Exactly. It's not only non-Christians who feel that the invitation is hollow...

Our breadth of incarnation has been insufficient. Meeting with God happens no more on Sunday morning than on Friday night. Everything is sacramental, every moment "charged with the grandeur of God." And yet, Sunday morning or Saturday night, or whenever the church gathers for worship, is special, or should be special. It is not so much the place to come meet with God as it is the place to come and celebrate having been met by God and to find the context for and learn the shape of what it means to be God's image out there in the world.

This morning in church we danced. Not the palm leaves, people with banners in the aisles, and tambourines kind of dancing (not that there's anything wrong with tambourines per se), but the all we needed was a strobe light and some turntables kind of dancing. And it was beautiful. Not because people were so holy and so spiritual that they had ascended to the heights of "holy dancing" or "holy laughter" or any other imaginary spiritual watermark, but because we are material beings who live in bodies that engage in life with God and life with others through the bodies God has given us by seeing and eating, singing and dancing. Much of Christian subculture has been stiff and split down the middle by a dualistic gnosticism that says "this material world is bad, the spiritual world is good. Only what is 'supernatural' is good. Whatever is 'natural' is bad." Tim Keller talks about how Jesus is the happy ending to every community's cultural narrative. Today I saw how Jesus breathes life into his design for us to worship Him with rhythm. And besides, it was all still pretty tame compared to the church in Africa...

Light and Heat for the Path

This is from a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Kevin Vanhoozer, from the beginning of an essay in the March 2005, edition of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society entitled "Lost in Interpretation? Truth, Scripture, And Hermeneutics". I'm looking forward to the rest of the article, but I thought this first part was too good not to share! (italics mine)

There has been too much wrangling over whether evangelicalism is a matter of doctrine or piety, the head or the heart. Those who see the essence of evangelicalism in pietistic terms tend to see the Bible primarily as a means of spiritual sustenance. Those who see the essence of evangelicalism in doctrinal terms tend to see the Bible primarily as a means of propositional communication. It is neither necessary nor advisable to take sides in this debate. Indeed, to do so is to reduce, and so distort, the very concept of biblical and doctrinal truth. Let no one put asunder what God has joined together. Far better to see the Christian life as a way where head and heart come together to get the feet moving. Evangelicals need to put feet on the gospel, and on our doctrine. Evangelical theology should provide direction for walking the way of truth and life.

Truth, Knowledge and Communication

Some thoughts on some quotes from Faith Thinking, by Trevor Hart, pp. 92-95.

Although the "ideal of truth as absolute certainty, knowledge as a subjugation of reality by the mind, and true statements as a direct and exhaustive mirroring of reality in propositional form" is an ideal which cannot be attained, "least of all where God is concerned, ...knowledge does not need to be absolutely certain nor (do) statements (need to be) precise verbal representations in order for there to be true knowledge and speech which bears appropriately upon the world."

For all the science folks out there, I would put it like this: at the beginning of college you learn certain equations and models for evaluating things that happen in the world around you, but these equations and models on approximate an actual situation. Towards the end of college your equations and models become more sophisticated, with more variables, constants, coefficients, and even more sophisticated approximations, but you're still approximating to a certain extent. That's why there are safety factors in engineering, to provide buffer for all the things that your approximations might have misjudged.
Now, just because a scientist or engineer can only really just refine and reshape all these approximate models and equations doesn't mean that the effort is pointless and better left to the backyard mechanic who finds a way to make it work for himself and his situation. There are discoverable reasons he is able to "make it work," and the pursuits of those reasons are worthwhile, and even authoritative to a certain extent, even if they are only approximate.


The references outside the system of Christian theology are "the very thing(s) with which Christian theology begins and ends: namely the claim that an extra-systematic reality is indeed to be known here; not on the basis of human endeavor and self-transcendence alone or as such, but because he makes himself know in particular ways, times and places. The claim, in other words, that God has revealed himself. Such a claim may well be impossible to prove or to demonstrate in 'public' fashion, but it furnishes the very starting point for theological activity as a passionate, committed quest for further understanding and truth. . . For if God has indeed spoken or acted in such a way as to give himself to be known here, then to withhold or suspend fiduciary commitment to this story as public truth is to fail in one's moral responsibility in the face of reality."

It is ridiculous and foolish to deal with the system of Christian theology as if it had no meaningful references or sources outside its collections of propositions and doctrines, as if it were just a "value meal" among "value meals" with no connection to the cow or potato or food distribution warehouse from which it came. The system of Christian theology claims a source outside itself, rooted in the public and observable, even if it still open to interpretation in public. To ignore Christian theology's claim on reality while seeking to do Christian theology is not to do Christian theology at all. It is as if, stranded in the wilderness, one said to one's family "Well, we believe that we are stranded in the wilderness so let's use these resources we have to make it out" while saying to and of others, "They may not believe they're stranded in the wilderness, and they could be right, so we'll not bother them too much. I'm sure they'll work things out as what's best for them, and maybe we can learn something from them too." It may still be a theology of some sort, but not of the Christian sort.

Jesus loves porn stars, just in case you were inclined to think otherwise...

Several friends of mine have been telling me about these guys who go to porn conventions and tell people that "Jesus loves porn stars." So, when I saw that they would be on ABC Nightline with Martin Bashir, I put down the remote paid attention for a few minutes.

Basically, XXXChurch.com started as a web resource for Christians struggling with pornography, but changed courses a bit when the founders, Craig Gross and JR Mahon, decided to set up a booth (not unlike my organizations "FSK tables") where they handed out New Testaments with "Jesus loves porn stars" on the cover.

The Nightline interview seemed to focus heavily on their impact, or lack thereof, on the porn industry, to which they replied that they weren't trying to stop the porn industry, just inform and educate. By which they meant, I assume, to inform and educate as to the destructive capacities of pornography and the restorative and redemptive power of the Gospel. Mahon and Gross weren't as articulate and insightful as I hoped they would be (but would I be on national television?). But, their actions, of course, were the most telling, which is exactly what they would want, I'm sure. They stand in good company with others that have dined with prostitutes and tax collectors...

While they had some great things to say about pornography and the sex industry, their most powerful confrontation came not in the parking lot of the adult video store but in the front lawn of the local church. In a clear and passionate prophetic voice they said,

"The church is good at sitting in their pews and judging the world, but if you really want to change the world, get off your butts, get out into the community, and do something for a fellow human being. If you're not doing that, and you're just sitting in your pews raising your hands and praising God, then you're not really doing even that." (my rough paraphrase)

It reminded me of something else someone said along the same lines:

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. - James, Jesus' brother, from James 2:8-13

And from Jesus' closest disciple John,

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. - 1 John 3:16-18

If you want the scoop from Nightline, check it out here:
ABC News: The Porn Pastors: XXXChurch.com

If you do anything with this information, pray for these guys and all the ones that labor with them. Pray that God would use them and their living out of and proclamation of the Gospel to bring real transformation and freedom and that He would protect them from temptation. They are right in the middle of all sorts of spiritual battles. And then pray for yourselves, that the Spirit of Jesus would show you how you might grow in faithfulness, purity, and how to love "in deed and in truth."

so, what do you do?

Here's an article from the New York Times about the brew-ha-ha that's going on with the American Episcopal church. With the ordination of the first openly gay priest a few years back, and the following installment of the first woman bishop of the entire Episcopal church in America, many of the more conservative churches and dioceses have felt jilted, and now they are leaving.

Not too long ago, several other members of the Anglican communion in some of the poorer parts of the world including Bolivia, Rwanda, and Nigeria got together to send missionaries over to help save the day. Now, many of the conservative Episcopal churches and dioceses are leaving the Episcopal church and joining up with these foreign branches of the Anglican communion because of irreconcilable differences.

So, what do you do? The Anglican communion has historically been very broad as far as the scope of doctrine professed, but for many it seems that now a line has been crossed. For me, of course, I think a line has definitely been crossed, at least with regards to homosexuality, if not also with the ordination of women. Is that cause for secession? What is cause for the breaking of fellowship? From what Paul the apostle said, and maybe Jesus too, it seems to be unrepenant sin is cause for breaking fellowship. But of course, that begs the questions, what kind of sin, who defines it, is it possible to really let the Scripture settle the issue, etc. I think so. I want to believe that it is, or we might as well just go in any old direction we want.

Several years ago J.I. Packer commented in Christianity Today about why he walked out of the meeting in which a decision was made to bless same-sex unions by saying that

"this decision, taken in its context, falsifies the gospel of Christ, abandons the authority of Scripture, jeopardizes the salvation of fellow human beings, and betrays the church in its God-appointed role as the bastion and bulwark of divine truth. My primary authority is a Bible writer named Paul. For many decades now, I have asked myself at every turn of my theological road: Would Paul be with me in this? What would he say if he were in my shoes? I have never dared to offer a view on anything that I did not have good reason to think he would endorse."

It's not an uncomplicated situation, and it won't be a quick fix, but someone somewhere at some point in time has to draw the line. And this time it might just be time for a change. I pray that it would not include division, but if it must, then let it be for the truth of Christ and the Scriptures and the glory of God, the only foundation for Christian love.

agendas

I was talking to my friend Chris the other day about conversations with people wherein we discover that what seems to be one reason for a certain line of questioning or behavior actually turns out to be another and how that can be rather offensive and manipulative. It seems that in those situations, the issue is not so much that the person had a secret agenda behind their questions and behavior, but that it was a secret agenda.

There's a lot of fuss today made over people who have agendas behind their words and actions in everything from personal relationships to politics, philosophy, and religion. Of course nobody likes to be manipulated, and it seems that since Nietzche people have turned their glaring skeptical eyes on those who speak from those podiums of politics, religion, and philosophy, especially the first two. It seems that I always hear in critiques of political or religious leaders something to the effect of "Well, he's just trying to control this or that commodity or population" or "She's just saying that because she is really a ... (fundamentalist or liberal or witch or some other pejorative label) and is trying to push her agenda in order to control everyone else's."

Well, all of these critiques may or may not be true, but it seems that when it comes down to it, like I said above, the issue is not that someone is pushing an agenda, but that their pushing a secret agenda. I mean, the reality is that everyone has an agenda in what they say or do. Even people who decry those who push an agenda are at that moment pushing the agenda that others should not push their agenda. (It's kinda like the nonsense of the statement that "there is no absolute truth except for the statement that there is no absolute truth".)

The real trouble comes when people are dishonest or misleading or not forthcoming with their presuppositions and agendas that they speak from in everything from personal relationships to politics, religion, and philosophy. I mean, if you come to me and ask me leading questions and try to pin me in corner so that I come out agreeing with something yet uncommunicated in your head, then I may come out of that corner agreeing in word, but it may only be just to get out of that corner, and I will neither like you nor your idea as a result. But, on the other hand, if you think I'm wrong about something or doing something I shouldn't be, then just tell me. I mean, give me the benefit of the doubt and all, but just tell me, and we'll talk about why you think that. Sure, your agenda is to correct me. That's fine. I may need correcting, or I may not. But I can deal with that. Just don't act like there's nothing behind your words or questions. Nobody likes that.

So, when these things go cosmic, like I said, everyone has an agenda. There's no need to get all worked up about that. What needs to happen, especially in religion and politics, is people need to be honest with themselves and with others about their agenda-driven words and actions. Then, and only then, can we actually deal with the issue at hand. Then, and only then, can we talk about why this or that is being said or done in an intelligent and respectful way. Then, and only then, do we really connect on a fundamental level, even an intimate level, with what really matters in these conversations, people and their agendas, or really, the story they live by, their worldview. And that's when real sparks start to fly and people are changed, very much unlike the premature polarizing, hot-air name-calling that we hear on the news and participate in ourselves.

May God give us grace and mercy to be honest and forthcoming, not fearful or manipulative, in displaying integrity in our relationships, our politics, and our religion.

The bush we beat around has had quite enough, thank you very much. :)