Christian Relativism and Glenn Beck's Call

Christians will often state that relativism is a bad thing. However, many believers have a very relativistic ethical code. For example, there have been a number of Christians picking apart the movie Avatar. I heard one Christian say of Avatar's message of environmental and corporate responsibility:

"Yeah, they try to portray it as good, but it is just paganism and they are trying to trick us."

Here the Christian states that something seems good, but because it is being portrayed by another belief system, that makes it bad.

This was also demonstrated today by Glenn Beck. He warns Christians to abandon churches that focus on "Social Justice". Glenn said:

"I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Social Justice would normally be a good thing. It sure was a biggie on Jesus' list. However, because "liberals" are for it, that makes it bad.

Religion can cause people to develop very dubious ethical systems. Good and bad become relative to who is doing it. Loving your neighbor becomes valuable if you are a Christian, but if the same behavior is exhibited by an atheist it becomes "nice" at best and deceitful at worst. God forbid we should think well of the Muslim who loves his neighbor.

Glenn knows this phenomenon personally. Many Christians are "rah-rah" Glenn. Go Glenn go!!

Then they find out he is a Mormon.

Suddenly Glenn doesn't sparkle so brightly.

Here are some other blogs I follow that have weighed-in on Mr. Beck's view of churches that work for social justice.

Michael

Richard

Skye

Bruce

Wes

Sojourners

Scot

Hell: The Oxymoron of the Christian Faith

For the past few weeks, Out of Ur has picked a famous preacher each week and shown a clip of their explanation of Hell. This week they featured Greg Boyd.

I generally like Greg Boyd. I think he has been an important voice when it comes to getting Christians to see that the way they have interwoven Christianity and American politics into a single entity is nothing short of idolatrous.

In the video, I see Greg do what many good-hearted Christians do: go into theological contortions to accommodate Hell. One of those contortions is to suddenly make goodness and right behavior into vague, amorphous notions. It is the only time Christians do this; any other time, they are loud and specific with their opinions about goodness and right behavior. This line of argument does not get made often, and usually the Christian is uncomfortable while they make it because they know it renders any further discussion on ethics completely meaningless.

Hell goes against everything we know about goodness, parenting, love, and forgiveness. The evangelical view of Hell leaves most of Jesus' teachings empty. It is the oxymoron of the faith. It makes a lie of every good thing one might declare about God.

When I watch the video, I see a good man who is trying to make an evil notion fit into his worldview ... because he believes he has no other choice.

A Low View of God

Fellow blogger Wes wrote an article recently that expressed an idea that has been gaining ground in my mind over the years. For all our rah-rah God talk, Christians often articulate a rather low view of him to the public at large.

Wes made reference to a well known evangelical pastor who was reminding his listeners that our wives should be taking second seat to God on our priority list. This kind of view was something I heard a lot in my Christian upbringing. Anything one might enjoy or place importance on was in danger of becoming an "idol", taking God's rightful place. I remember one woman, whom I considered to be quite godly when I was young, tell me she had given up her autumn ritual of canning vegetables because she enjoyed it so much that it had become an "idol".

I held this view for a long time, carefully weighing every thing in my life to make sure it wasn't becoming more important than God. I now realize this interpretation of God was nothing more than self-perpetuated oppression.

I look back on this thinking as absolutely ridiculous and an embarrassing misrepresentation of God... as if he could be so insecure. What kind of lame father would I be if I became jealous of the things my son or daughter enjoy? On the contrary, I find myself absolutely fulfilled when I see Kathryn's passion and love of theater or Jacob's joy with books. I love the affection they hold for their friends. Their happiness and joy makes me proud and content as a father.

This is what appeals to me about panentheistic theology. God is not separate or apart from these things; He is in them. God is not in competition with my love for my wife; He resides there.

Thank God for Taxes!

I just finished my taxes. I know it is in vogue to use tax like a swear word, but I notice an inconsistency. People forever want to complain about taxes and state why they shouldn't have to pay them... but they are happy to use all of the services that those taxes provide.

It reminds me of a Home Owners Association board that I sat on back in Michigan. Everyone at the condo complex was complaining about our lack of street lights. The neighborhood wanted the Board to do something about it. The Board realized that our monthly dues could not cover this anytime in the near future and that we would have to do a small, one time assessment to cover the cost of getting street lights put in. It had to be put to a vote and everyone voted it down; they didn't want to pay for it. However, within a few months, everyone was once again complaining about our lack of street lights.

As I drove to work today, I remembered that the nice road I drove on for half an hour was tax provided. The station where I pumped my gas was building inspected for safety by taxes. The medication I took today was scrutinized using my taxes. My son spent a day in a safe place being educated through my taxes. The police who pulled over the crazy man who zipped past me on the highway were paid for with my taxes. The Apache helicopters that cross the Salt Lake Valley because of the local Air Force base are covered by my taxes.

I could go on and on and on about all of the positive benefits that we reap as citizens due to our taxes.

Of course we want our politicians to budget wisely. Of course frugality can be a virtue. But I for one want to push back against all of the heated rhetoric that inflames anger, when there should be more thoughtful consideration occurring.

On this note, it seems one of the loudest anti-tax proponents, Glen Beck, displayed his contradictions during a speech to CPAC. While ranting against progressives and their promotion of "community interests" (a bad thing in his mind), he let slip where he had done his research -

At the Public Library!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rage Within the Machine - Progressivism
www.thedailyshow.com
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An Atheist on Hell

"Our ideas about God affect the way we treat other people." - David Dark from The Sacredness of Questioning Everything.

___________________________________________

I don't believe in an eternal Hell as described by the majority of modern Christians. I think there are just too many holes in the concept; whether you look at it from a scriptural point of view or simply by reasoning out it's necessity.

Most Christians, after a conversation about it, will admit that the idea holds no merit and will state that they don't like it but (as one Christian responded to me) "Many simply don't want to believe God would throw people in such a hell for eternity. Problem is we cannot hold God to our limited human standards of what is right and wrong behavior or worthy or cruel punishment. He's the creator of us. Not to accept that is just to hold on too tightly comfortable human notions."

This is where most of my conversations with Christians on this topic ends... God is beyond our understanding, so just accept it.

The God who, as Lewis argues, puts immense value on right and wrong behavior... suddenly can't be trusted to behave by the ethics he lays down? Suddenly black is white, up is down, and when it comes to God everything can go willy-nilly on a whim?

No. In the end, Hell is a religions trump card used as threat to get compliance for the absurd. It is a control mechanism of the insecure.

The author of this video presents a superb argument against Hell. We may disagree on theism, but we do agree that Hell is a notion that does little to persuade a non-believer and that it poisons the soul of anyone choosing to believe it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaL7CkQaQpU&feature=player_embedded

This Year's Funniest Movie Review

Valentine's Day is here, so I have a movie suggestion: The Time Traveler's Wife. My wife and I saw it this past summer and loved it. It is a bittersweet love story, with a time travel hook similar to Somewhere in Time. I appreciated the love story, but what also grabbed me was the love that Henry (played by Eric Bana) had for his daughter. That pulled at my fatherhood heart strings and had me leaving the theater sobbing like a baby. :)

So, I was excited to hear that it was coming out soon on DVD and went online to check the release date. One of the Google summaries of a review caught my eye, so I clicked on it to read the whole article.

What I found was a Christian movie review site called Movieguide.org. Now let me first say that, in theory, I have no problem with a "Christian" movie review site. If they want to give reviews for a movie that like minded folks would be interested in reading, wonderful. I myself would like to have an idea how much violence, nudity, drug use may be in a movie before I take my muchkins.

However, what this site thought of as problematic was just too rich. You can read the whole review here, but I thought I would give you some of the big threats you should watch out for in this love story.

• "the movie’s worldview is ultimately humanist, but in a light way."

• "it includes some politically correct content attacking Republicans and hunters"

• "a line of dialogue supporting the radical homosexual agenda trying to turn modern society into an anti-Christian tyranny."

• "The movie’s politically correct content is not extremely didactic or constant, but it is annoying and gratuitous."

The review concludes by stating that the big problem is that the time traveler does not have God in his life, so he and his bride must make it on their own.

• "as this movie clearly shows, our relationships can be torn apart by circumstances if we do not have God, Jesus Christ or God’s Law to guide us."

Mmmm-Hmmm...... because with God in your life, your marriage and relationships will do SO much better than those without him. Just look at the Christian track record in marriage, it's......

....exactly the same as those outside of Christianity.

Pesky facts.

This site did give me a good chuckle, and I have to admit I will be checking there regularly now for movie reviews.

Every day should have a good laugh.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUDlMBR-dQ

A Truth of the Universe

My son Jacob is 8 years old. A year ago he was reading Captain Underpants and later this year he had moved up to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Journal of a Cardboard Genius. His sister, Kathryn, had recently finished The Lightning Thief and was looking forward to the movie. She was watching the movie trailer online and Jake became interested.

"Can I see that movie?" he asked.

Jake's mother and I have been pretty protective of his young eyes. A movie like that would not be one we would let him see at this age, so the answer was no. However, we had a weak moment when he proposed a deal to us - If he read the book, could he see the movie? To be honest, we felt the book was too high a reading level for him, so it was a safe bet.

"Sure, why not?"

Jacob all but inhaled the book. He read for longer periods than I had ever seen him do; tucked into the couch with his little bowl of goldfish crackers. Mary Lee and I quickly realized that he was, in fact, going to complete the book.

NOW what do we do....

We tried to persuade him otherwise, but in the end, he wanted to see the movie. From his readings, he pretty much knew where the scary parts were and would cover his eyes as necessary. For the Medusa scene, he wanted out of the theater all together.

At the end of the show he had a smile on his face and a spring in his step. He had read his first big-boy book and seen his first big-boy movie.

"So," I asked Jake as we walked out of the theater. "What didja think?"

"I liked it," Jake responded as he continued walking. Then he looked up at me and smiled.

"But the book was better!"