Promises

Sometimes I wish...

…Americans and our leaders didn’t make us look bad in the eyes of the world…

…Christians didn’t give Jesus a black eye…

…Calvinistic and pseudo-Calvinistic followers of Jesus didn’t discredit reformed theology through their unthinking arrogance.

Ben Stein Comes Out for God

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.



My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:  Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina)  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events.. .terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-estee m (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

 

Manifest Destiny

A friend of mine is in Boston right now... I like Boston. It is a city full of history and friendly people with funny accents. It is a beautiful city with miles of waterfront and great architecture. It is the city home of my favourite restaurant: Legal Seafoods. But this post isn't about any of that...

I began thinking about this nation of ours. I began thinking of how the church I grew up views this country and her place in history, and I remembered that history is always written inaccurately by the victor...

Creating Space

So yesterday I am with Michelle and she says to me, "I love the space we create together." We do create a remarkable and exhilarating space. It was a fantastic word picture for me and has helped me think through a lot of different things. At some point in the following paragraphs you are probably going to wonder what on earth this little quote has to do with all that follows it. If you stick around long enough I hope you’ll see. Michelle’s word picture was a bigger gift to me than she realized. It has helped me think about a lot more than what I write about here...

Bob has a blog. I list a link to his blog on my blog, not because he is one of my  pastors, but because I like what he says, even when I disagree with him or when he speaks over my head. That happens a lot he and his friends seem to be much smarter than me. I simply pretend to understand so I don’t feel left out.

So he started this conversation about egalitarianism. He caught some heat for it, and I was left scratching my head as to why. I don’t think it is because of his position. That seems to be very solid. In this case the people that gave him the most grief were the egalitarians. (It would have been easier for me to understand the complementarians giving him grief but this was not the case.)

Bob was clear. He believes that gifting and service within the body is not gender dependent. He is equally clear that men and women are not the same.  I think this has to be the sticking point in the discussion because there doesn’t seem to be another one other than the egalitarians feel a little like minorities in this country feel after years of oppression and prejudice. And they seem to want some sort of payback for all of the years of misogyny they have had to endure at the hands of fearfully ignorant men.

But no, I don’t think that is the issue either. Now follow me cause I am not changing the subject, really…

One of the very cool things about Evergreen is that we don’t all agree. It is one of our great strengths. One of the downfalls of Evergreen is that though we don’t all agree we are all similar. I was with friends the other day and they pointed out many of us are just like Bob. (“What about Bob?”) We are products of the evangelical and sometimes the fundamentalist church. We tend toward brightness. Most of us took our fair share of advanced placement courses. And we are for varying reasons disenchanted and disenfranchised from the evangelical church.

I have described Evergreen as a youth group that decided to stay together instead of joining the older generation. Because this is who we tend to be we carry a lot of baggage that try as we might we can’t always free ourselves from immediately. I think this women’s issue is one of those things.

We believe as correctly as it is possible to believe anything. Our actions are lacking, however. Bob encourages many who have an aptitude to preach and teach – male and female. Two of our six elders are women though they hate being referred to as such. I have found that women younger than me get offended when I refer to them as my elder…trying to figure that one out. But still there is a push and pull. One of our elders tends to view most of life through a feminist perspective and I appreciate that about her. Bob is not in that camp though, and the space we create as a congregation is somehow not as freeing for the women as anyone would like it to be. (OK, there might be a few fighting fundies that never have visited our community that would not like the freedom we already give, but they are not part of this discussion to begin with).

One of the things about us is that we are intent on creating sacred space wherever we find ourselves. Sometimes our best attempts fall short because we haven’t arrived at our glorified state. Sometimes they fall short because we are afraid. And here is the rub here.

As I read the discussion on Bob’s blog, I was struck by the fear. I was primarily struck by the fear of those that struggled with Bob’s Sumnerian position.

Fear seems to permeate most of the lenses through which we look at life. I think that is why John said that, “perfect love casts out fear…” Love doesn’t demand equal treatment or even equality. Love doesn’t fear being trampled on or not getting its way.

As I read the posts and the replies, I was struck that too often we miss out because the space we create is a space of fear rather than a space of love. It is a fear of women. Or it is a fear of misogyny. Both are fears. Both get in the way of love.

Talking to another friend today I learned that this fear isn’t confined to the church. He is facing a fearful medical board. He hasn’t done much wrong, but the fear of those on the board is severely limiting him. Another friend has to face the same fear of the chiropractic board scared about his earlier felony embezzlement conviction that has very little to do with his ability to perform his duties as a chiropractor. But we must keep up appearances.

When we as a church live and create a similar space of fear we mirror the world instead of the Trinity. We need to take a long look at the space we create… I happen to be really digging the space I get to create with Michelle right now.

Predictions

Listening to all the reports. We are not far from the bottom dropping out of our economy again. We are a nation in debt both individually and corporately. We have more stuff than we have capital. Stocks are still over valued, ethics are questionable at best, people are defaulting on all loans at record levels, but particularly alarming is the real estate default rate. Some would say that the only difference between 2007 America and 1929 America is the FDIC. This is major difference and the assertion is an oversimplification, but if I had money to invest I'd be putting a chunk of it in gold... and precious metals... My best guess is that is all going to end in the next five years... Another reason not to trust mammon... 

P.S.

This is another good reason to keep the war going , it props up the economy a little longer and keeps a few more people employed. Not to mention keeping our focus off of what is really going on.

Political stuff I probably shouldn't write

    I'm a registered Libertarian. What that means practically speaking  is I never get to vote for anyone who ever wins a political election. It also signifies my displeasure with both the two mainstream parties.
    During the last election I was a John McCain fan. He didn't seem to sell his soul to the highest bidder. I thought I would be again this year and still might be, but Rudy Guiliani has caught my eye and it scares me a bit. I think he too may be a sell out. I guess time will tell.