Breathed gets it...

Click to see the full toon....

God's ways are not our ways....

French existentialist playwright Jean Anouilh proposed a scenario for the last judgment:

The good are densely clustered at the gate of heaven, eager to march in, sure of their reserved seats, keyed up and bursting with impatience.

All at once, a rumor starts spreading: “It seems He’s going to forgive those others, too!”

For a minute, everybody’s dumbfounded. They look at one another in disbelief, gasping and sputtering, “After all the trouble I went through!” “If only I’d known this…” “I just cannot get over it!”

Exasperated, they work themselves into a fury and start cursing God; and at that very instant they’re damned. That was the final judgment.

(cited in Louis Evely, That Man is You)

Brian McLaren - Everything Must Change Part 1

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be commentating on Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change. I was sent an advance copy under the premise that I would do a book review. That would be hard for me. I rarely read a theological book straight through. I read some, leave it for a week or two while I dig through another book, come back to it, etc. (However, I did read the latest Harry Potter straight through in less than 36 hours).

In addition, I don't think I could read a full theological book through in a few weeks time, and then write a review on the totality. I think I would need to read it through multiple times to write a review like that.

So instead, I will write in spurts as I work through the book.

In the first few chapters, Brian focuses on a trip he took to Burundi to meet with some of the local pastors. Burundi is a country like Rwanda in terms of the violence and ethnic unrest that is there.

One of the pastors who got up at the meeting said that he had grown up hearing basically only one message from his pastor father. It was the message that had been given to his father by foreign missionaries which was, "You are a sinner and you are going to hell. You need to repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus might come back today, and if he does and you are not ready, you will burn forever in hell." Brian states that almost everyone in the room laughed when they heard that. Not because they thought it was funny, but because it was what they had heard all their lives too. I laughed when I read it. When I read it out loud to my wife, she laughed too. All around the world, that cliche' message has been delivered.

What interests me, when I consider that message in the context of someone from Burundi, is that they would have lived that message as different warlords and rebel groups came to power. When a new faction took over, the message was "Submit to this regime or face terrible punishment". In their context, how would the gospel presented in the way stated above be good news? Jesus is just another warlord.

The pastor finished his talk by asking, "How many of you from Burundi and Rwanda have ever heard even one sermon telling Tutsi people to love and reconcile with Hutu people, or Hutu people to love and reconcile with Tutsi - or telling both Tutsi and Hutu to love the Twa as their neighbors and brothers and sisters?" Hardly anyone raised their hand.

So far, the book seems to be pointing out how lopsided our presentation of the Gospel has become. In a talk, McLaren said "What you focus on determines what you miss." We have perhaps become so heaven and afterlife focused, that we are missing that God wants his will carried out on earth too.

I will try to give an objective commentary on this book, but I have to say straight up that I am a fan of McLaren. I felt a little isolated by how unorthodox my theology was becoming years ago until I read A Generous Orthodoxy. Whew! It was a breath of fresh air.

Brian McLaren - Everything Must Change Part 2

Drive Free, Retire Rich

Everyone should watch this lesson in economics. It is less than 5 minutes and at the end you will be saying "Wow!"

I wish I had known this when I was starting my first job.

Click Here!

The Crabbe and Goyle of Christianity

A lot of hoo-ha has been stirring over in the anti-emergent corner of the blogosphere. It concerns some posters a couple of folks made which poke fun at the views of some postmodern Christians.

As I looked at the blogs of the gentlemen who put together these posters, at first I was a little irritated, but then I was embarrassed. They reminded me of my own theological past. They took me back to a time when I used to beat up people with theology and scripture. I was a pretty good Bully for Christ.

The best measure I could use to describe myself at that time is Crabbe and Goyle. In the Harry Potter series, they are the two thugs who hang out with Malfoy and use their relationship with him to intimidate and harass people. Their relationship to Malfoy is sycophantic. I think many aspects of my relationship with Christ could have been fairly described in similar fashion.

Lewis says that evil cannot succeed in being evil the way good can being good. Evil is not original, it can only exist as a corruption of good. Evil needs good, but good does not need evil. Harry could go on fine in life without Crabbe and Goyle, but they could not go on without Harry (or someone like him). Their nature requires an enemy, someone to be against, or better yet - someone to beat down. Without someone to shove below them, Crabbe and Goyle would not know what to do with themselves.

I am not even sure how to talk about this type of Christian without getting into mudslinging. When I read the blogs of some of these anti-emergent folks, I just see a lot of anger and frustration wrapped in christianeez rhetoric. I also know that if someone had pointed out this behavior in my past, I would only have shouted louder and more obnoxiously.

I have been a Christian for 25 years. Only in the past few do I feel like I have started to be a follower of Christ. I grew up hearing that our faith was different because we had a "relationship" with God. I believed all those years I had a relationship with him and, I suppose, on some level I did. However, I feel like it is only now that I am beginning to discover what relationship means.

Speaking of posters, I thought these responses from Emerging Grace were wonderful.

Thank You JK Rowling!

Thank you dear lady for the gift you gave us. Thank you for such a wonderful closing. Your choice of ending with so many stories of redemption give a little hope in these troubled times. May God Bless You.....

and goodbye Harry... we will miss you!

Going to the Manti Pageant?

I have Mormon Coffee on my Google Reader list. I am not a fan of their approach, but I do find some of the posts interesting and pertinent to life here in Utah.

They recently did a post on their trip to the Manti pageant this year. The pageant is an outdoor theatrical re-enactment of parts of the book of Mormon and the life of Joseph Smith.

When Mormons gather in large groups, organizations like Mormon Coffee take the opportunity to evangelize. Contrary to typical evangelism, these street preachers carry signs designed to provoke and belittle Mormons, while yelling similar slogans.

On their blog, Mormon Coffee was inviting Christians to come down next year and join them in sign carrying and yelling (Click here to see the post). In the comments section I tried to post my experience at the pageant. Since it is a moderated blog, it has to be cleared. My comment was not posted, so I am going to try to recall it as best I can here.

I had the opportunity to attend the Manti pageant last year with some neighbors who had invited my family. We were sitting outside the fenced area since we had some dogs with us. A street preacher was making his way down our row. He was yelling out to the small crowd behind the fence about deception, Mormons going to Hell, etc. When he got to our area, he singled me out declaring that I was blind and needed to be open to the truth. I couldn't get a word in to tell the guy I wasn't Mormon. My neighbors snickered at the irony of his choosing the one non-Mormon in the group to yell at. This reaction made him angrier. He shouted at us a little louder, then stomped off.

It is said on the Mormon Coffee blog that if one person comes to Christ, all of this (yelling and sign carrying) is worth it. Therefore, it is considered that the methodology works. I think there is a difference between something working, and something being efficient and effective. My neighbors saw the shouting as confirmation that their beliefs are correct (after all, why all the persecution if Mormons aren't right?). From that view, I don't think you have forward momentum if you take one step forward followed by four steps back.

I am sure there were some good hearted and sincere street preachers out there. For the most part however, I observed only frustration and anger. When the totals are tallied, I think the street preachers do more harm than good.

I am disappointed that my original post was deleted. I know it was better than the above (I was in the groove that night).

Seeing the street preachers out there makes me realize how careful I have to be when I open scripture. They are a living testament that you can get scripture to justify almost anything. If they truly feel that Mormons need converting, I think they can engage in a way that does not destroy community.

A wise woman once told me, "Don't pull weeds unless you are willing to stay and tend the garden". These street preachers come in... do enormous damage with their verbal violence... and then leave the scene in a wake of destruction - that those of us who live here have to clean up.

Theology's Top Model!

Since I have my summer off (don't hate me cause I'm beautiful) I decided I could now go to an early morning bible study that my job usually precludes me from attending.

In one of the first emails from the group they used a word I didn't know (not a good sign) - dispensationalism. Actually, I had a general idea what it meant, but since isms of any sort make me squeemish, I figured I better raise my hand and ask the teacher to use it in a sentence.

One of the guys in the group emailed back a well detailed explanation of dispensationalism and its history in the church. I won't repeat it here but, in short, it is an explanation of how God has dealt with man throughout history. The writer also presented some of the alternatives to this idea.

People often cling doggedly to one of the many sides of this issue, but as I read I noticed I could see them as nothing more than possible- and incomplete- models.

It reminded me of Galileo. He got into a lot of trouble for proposing a model of the universe that contradicted the church of Rome. He felt that the existing model (Earth centered) did not explain the skies or make predictions as well as his model (Sun centered). In the end, though Galileo's model was an improvement, it was still incomplete. I wonder if he would have been slow to surrender his model if he had lived to see it being supplanted.

It seems to me that all of our denominations, tenants, religions, and beliefs are nothing more than our attempts to develop a model to explain what we see when we look at God. Perhaps they are also our attempt to make Him predictable.

Sometimes models seem to contradict each other. If you have ever caught Brian Greene on PBS, you may have heard him explain the apparent contradictions of String Theory and Relativity. String Theory seems to work great at the quantum level but doesn't help at the cosmic level. Relativity works to explain the cosmos, but breaks down as we head toward the quantum level. Men like Stephen Hawking would like to find a single, unified theory to explain everything.

Science is good at holding two apparently contradictory theories. Men of Science know that there is more to know.

Theologians (and religious folks in general) tend to find it very difficult to hold two theories of God that seem to be in opposition. The tendency is to champion one model while belittling proponents of the other.

If we have yet to find a unified model for physics, why would we think we could develop a unified model for God?

For myself, I tend to hold my models of God very loosely. I suspect that God was referring to our models when he told us not to "make any graven image". I don't know that he was as concerned with little clay images to sit on our shelves, but rather our tendency to want lock God down, to quantify Him, to point and say, "This is who He is!"

The Spirit blows wherever it pleases... He will not be contained.

In the end, I think our models tell us a lot more about ourselves than they do about God.

Who is responsible?

I know there is a thin line between stating reality and making excuses, but there is a line. I don't want to dismiss problems as being unsolvable, but I think there is room for calling things as they are and not sitting in an endless cloud of idealism where no true changes are made.

I have sat through countless seminars and meetings in my 15 years as a teacher where the presenter insists that we can have across the board success with students. If curriculum is done right, if the instruction is delivered properly, if the environment is correct, etc... then EVERY child will succeed.

Do you notice anything missing in the equation?

The child's responsibility.

However, if you say that, you will be accused of making excuses. After all, if the child is unmotivated, then it is the teacher's job to motivate the student. As far as these theorists are concerned, the child plays no role in his or her outcome.

From personal experience, I reject this premise. I was the classic trouble maker as a boy. I never got anything above a C prior to 10th grade. School was at the bottom of a short list of meaningless priorities. Looking back, I recognize that many of my teachers did all that they could. They employed the right strategies, they cared, they intervened... yada, yada, yada. I simply didn't want to do it. Period. End of story.

They were powerless.

In the summer prior to my 10th grade year, that all changed. Perhaps someday on this blog I will write out my testimony. Suffice to say, I saw de' light.

I came back the first quarter of my 10th grade year and nailed 4 A's and two B's. My teachers and principal were shocked, but they had nothing to do with my turnaround. I pulled those grades because I wanted to. Period. End of story.

I believe I must do ALL that I can to help my students, but they must put forth effort. Their will affects their destiny. Like the ghosts and the Bright Ones in Lewis's The Great Divorce, the student can put nearly all of their weight on me but they must still walk.

If we take all responsibility in the equation away from the students, should we then be surprised if they approach life irresponsibly?

An Interview with Tony Campolo

This is a great interview with Tony Campolo. He really outlines where Christianity should be going and what it should look like. I don't think that the majority of Christianity at the moment reflects his views, but I hope a generation from now they are commonplace.