Just finished my non-fiction book of the year (so far!). It is titled The Tenth Parallel and it was written by Eliza Griswold. She is a journalist who has written a book of poetry, too. This book is her story or stories - about her travels along the tenth parallel or ten degrees latitude north of the equator through countries like Sudan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. She got started on this trek accompanying Franklin Graham's mission, Samaritan Purse, on a trip to Sudan where he wanted to meet with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who was waging violent jihad against Christians and Muslims in southern Sudan and who would soon begin the genocide in Darfur. Griswold documents the clash of Christianity and Islam along the tenth parallel with research, interviews and stories about people who are caught up in the violence. And it is a violent world but she shows it is not as simple as Christian vs Muslim. It is a religious war but it is also a political one as the powers that be fight over oil, and land and identity. Sometimes it is just a matter of a job. If you have nothing else to do and no means of support, why not join the jihadists.
There is the matter of religious confrontations. Griswold, who was raised Episcopalian and whose father was the highest ranking bishop in the American Episcopal Church ( and who ordained the first openly gay bishop while wearing a bullet proof vest) is not Christian enough for Franklin Graham and other evangelicals, gives a balanced account of the religious warfare along the front lines. There are stories of massacres by Muslims and Christians along with the reasons they give to justify the violence. There are stories of many different kinds of Christians and Muslims, too. Islam is just as fragmented as Christianity. There is no monolithic Muslim movement against the west. Most Muslims in the Global South (and most of the world's Muslims live there and not in the Middle East) are not militant jihadists; they are only trying to survive. These are very poor areas.
There is a lot of confusion among Christians regarding Islam and its intentions toward the Christian world. Are they trying to take over the world and make everyone Muslim? Do they hate all Christians? Does the Koran teach death to all infidels? These are some of the questions Christians have. Christians are suspicious of the motives of Muslims. Few have read the Koran, and few know any Muslims. They know Islam was behind the destruction of lives on 9/11 and they are enraged that Muslim leaders would try to put a mosque on that site. Some even support the Florida pastor who says he is going to burn Korans on the anniversary of 9/11 this year because it is an "evil" religion.
Griswold's book helps us see that real life is not that simple. There are Muslims who are working with Christians to bring peace and reconciliation, teaching the next generation religious tolerance instead of hatred and violence (in some parts of the Global South Muslims and Christians have a history of co-existing peacefully). There are politicians on all sides who have used and are using religion to gain supporters for their positions which means more power for them. And there is oil. Each of the countries along the tenth parallel are oil producers and some of the religious conflict is a veiled fight for oil rights.
The mistrust and religious hatred between Christians and Muslims has a long history in this part of the world. In many of these countries Islam took root first so they see Christians as intruders. Both Christians and Muslims can be aggressively evangelistic and so they are competing for converts. It is a tense situation and violent confrontations are always possible. It has been a way of life for many years. Lately, though, since 9/11 and America's invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the conflict has taken on heightened tensions. Militant jihadists are actively recruiting poor Muslims and educating them in a hatred of all things western, especially, American. Christianity is seen as a tool of the West to subjugate Muslims. Some warlords are using jihad as a way to gain land and wealth for themselves. There are religious fundamentalists as well who interpret the Koran any way they want to make it right for them to do whatever they want.
Griswold tells stories of all sorts of Christians, too. There are many motives for Christian mission and there are many ways of doing it. One well known Christian evangelist is quoted saying, you gotta love Muslims but you can't trust them. There are stories of people with good intentions who have only made the situation worse and there are stories about people who are living a simple life following Christ, serving others. She tries not to make judgments or take sides but like a good journalist she lets the stories do the talking.
It is clear that the heightened rhetoric on the Christian right makes it more plausible that the clash of religious cultures may become violent here. When we lump all Muslims together and name them the enemy. When we ramp up the suspicion surrounding their every move. When we continue to remain in the dark about what Muslims really believe and what the Koran really says. When our first impulse toward Muslims is mistrust instead of respect - when these things are true - we are letting the media coverage of the wars of religion shape our attitudes and actions toward Muslims instead of the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Is a Christian...
Some days are harder than others to own the name of Christian. Is a Christian someone who hates gays, and Muslims, and Democrats, and in general seems to hate more than love. Anne Rice thinks so and she publicly renounced Christianity but not her faith in Christ. In some ways, she sounds very much like an evangelical but she has had it with the church. Many of us have days like that. Is a Christian someone who will only have anything to do with people who they trust share the same detailed statement of faith including footnotes. Jim Wallis might think so. A Christian radio station withdrew its financial support of a huge Christian Music Festival in Wisconsin when they found out he was a key note speaker. On the station they are warning parents to keep their impressionable youngsters away from what is called LifeFest in Oshkosh. Wallis according to the station is guilty of fudging the lines between government and the church and preaching a version of humanistic "social justice". Wallis met with the radio people twice and made a public statement of his true beliefs but the station is not buying it. They 'stand by their stand". Wallis might be forgiven for wanting to do a Rice and follow Christ by himself. Then, there is President Obama. In a new poll by the Pew Foundation more people than ever think he is a Muslim. He has stated numerous times he is a practicing Christian but more and more people are not buying that either. Many of them are Republicans, the poll found. Probably some Christians there, too. Obama might consider joining Rice and Wallis. Then there would be a church of 3.
Some days its hard to stick with the church. Christians can do some dumb things, and sound like idiots. You just want to disassociate yourself from them. You find yourself protesting too much: "but that's not what I believe." And even with your own small group of Christians down at your local church, there are those days when you want to throw in the towel. Alright, I've had it. Pull a Rice and start your own church of 1. Simply follow Christ as you see fit. Not have to deal with other nosy and noisy Christians. Trouble is where ever you follow Christ, he is always attracting these other guys and if you are serious about following him seems like you have to try to get along with them.
Some days its hard to stick with the church. Christians can do some dumb things, and sound like idiots. You just want to disassociate yourself from them. You find yourself protesting too much: "but that's not what I believe." And even with your own small group of Christians down at your local church, there are those days when you want to throw in the towel. Alright, I've had it. Pull a Rice and start your own church of 1. Simply follow Christ as you see fit. Not have to deal with other nosy and noisy Christians. Trouble is where ever you follow Christ, he is always attracting these other guys and if you are serious about following him seems like you have to try to get along with them.
Small Churches
I am the pastor of a small church. I have always pastored small churches. I have not intentionally chosen small churches. It's just that there are so many more of them than large churches. Small churches are like families. You can pretty much know everyone. You don't know everyone well but they are not strangers. In a small church the people of the church do most of the work that needs to be done. There are few staff. Maybe a secretary, a youth leader, a custodian, perhaps, but they are all part time. There are always maintenance projects, music ministries, ongoing Christian education and various caring and helping needs. These are filled by the people of the church who are all volunteers. Volunteers may not be a good word because a small church is like a family. You don't volunteer to do the dishes, or take out the trash or paint the bathroom - at your home. You are part of the family so when something needs to be done you chip in and do it. Ideally. Of course, we know there are no ideal families. Nor are there ideal churches. So, things go undone, sometimes important things and people are blamed for leaving things undone. Sometimes families don't communicate with each other very well and neither do churches. Sometimes families have high expectations of one another and so do churches. Sometimes families play all kinds of relational games - power games - with each other and so do churches. One power game that is played is to withhold yourself emotionally or physically from the family. One family member may refuse to talk to another or may refuse to chip in on the housework or even leave the household for awhile. It happens like that in churches, too. People get hurt, frustrated or think they are not being taken seriously and so exert their relational power. They may stay away for a few weeks, or conveniently forget they were assigned to do something, or stop giving financially, or in some cases, they just leave altogether. When that happens in a family, or a church it creates disequilibrium. The family dynamics are out of whack. We try to figure out what happened, what caused the rupture. It helps to explain it and it helps even more if we can find someone to blame. Then we can move on more easily. But, it is never easy. It is a relational breakdown. They happen in all families and in all churches. We should not be surprised when they happen but neither should we be unprepared. They are not fun to deal with but they are part of community. Because there is no perfect community. In large churches relational breakdowns are masked by the size of the community. People can be strangers. But not in a small church. Small churches experience life at its best and worst. We believe God is in the mix though. He brings healing and wisdom. Closure takes awhile. Sometimes it never comes. It helps to be honest and name the acts and feelings for what they are. It helps to pray even when the feelings feel raw. It helps to know God knows and he doesn't demand a perfection from us that we are incapable of. Family and church dysfunction is a necessary reminder of who we are. Sinners saved by grace. Lord, have mercy.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Church Questions
It helps to be something of an investigator, a private eye, if you are going to be a church leader. You want to be asking, why, a lot. Why isn't so and so coming anymore? Why did so and so leave to go somewhere else? Why did so and so just drop out? Why did Pastor so and so leave and go somewhere else? It's also helpful to investigate why someone joins a church. Why did so and so start coming, and why do they keep coming to the church? Why did so and so join the church? In a church we were part of in NY, one family who joined the church wanted to tell us why they chose to join our church. It was a helpful and affirming experience.
It does not feel like a positive and affirming experience when someone leaves, of their own choice. We are left with feelings of guilt, failure and self doubt. What did we do to cause this? When someone drops out, or leaves of their own choice, the fingers of blame point to us. And there is often a kernel of truth in what is being said although due to the heightened emotions at the time we rarely discover them.
We are a ragged bunch in the church. We are sinners who often have a higher view of ourselves than we ought. We get sanctification confused with justification and wind up thinking we are justified by our sanctification. God chose us, saved us, and created the church to put us into. Its supposed to be the place where we grow up in Christ, to maturity, attaining the full stature of Christ as the Scripture says. But in the meantime, we are often unbalanced, uncertain, and not blessed with perfect vision or understanding. Now, we see through a glass darkly, as Paul wrote. Best, not to act as if we have perfect clarity because we don't. We are very much a work in progress. But, so is every church.
We end up erring on the side of judgment or grace. Better grace than judgment, it seems to me. God is a good sorter of these things out. We can trust him. It seems a lot of the time we are stumbling along and not making much progress. We are making more than we think. It is a long process, this maturity business. It takes a lot of commitment, flexibility, and patience with others and yourself. It takes a body of Christ who is in it for the long haul, as well. Who is there for you when you may not be at your best, and we all have those days, or years. Better remember the words of Paul in Philippians: What I'm getting at friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning ... live in responsive obedience... be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent, and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. (from Philippians 2, The Message Bible)
It does not feel like a positive and affirming experience when someone leaves, of their own choice. We are left with feelings of guilt, failure and self doubt. What did we do to cause this? When someone drops out, or leaves of their own choice, the fingers of blame point to us. And there is often a kernel of truth in what is being said although due to the heightened emotions at the time we rarely discover them.
We are a ragged bunch in the church. We are sinners who often have a higher view of ourselves than we ought. We get sanctification confused with justification and wind up thinking we are justified by our sanctification. God chose us, saved us, and created the church to put us into. Its supposed to be the place where we grow up in Christ, to maturity, attaining the full stature of Christ as the Scripture says. But in the meantime, we are often unbalanced, uncertain, and not blessed with perfect vision or understanding. Now, we see through a glass darkly, as Paul wrote. Best, not to act as if we have perfect clarity because we don't. We are very much a work in progress. But, so is every church.
We end up erring on the side of judgment or grace. Better grace than judgment, it seems to me. God is a good sorter of these things out. We can trust him. It seems a lot of the time we are stumbling along and not making much progress. We are making more than we think. It is a long process, this maturity business. It takes a lot of commitment, flexibility, and patience with others and yourself. It takes a body of Christ who is in it for the long haul, as well. Who is there for you when you may not be at your best, and we all have those days, or years. Better remember the words of Paul in Philippians: What I'm getting at friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning ... live in responsive obedience... be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent, and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. (from Philippians 2, The Message Bible)
Church, warts and all
"Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity. But church is difficult. Sooner or later though if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with church. I say sooner. I want to begin with church. Many Christians find church to be the most difficult aspect of being a Christian. And many drop out - there may be more Christians who don't go to church or who go occasionally than who embrace it, warts and all. And there certainly are plenty of warts. It is no easier for pastors. The attrition rate among pastors leaving their congregations is alarming.
So, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit formed it to become a colony of heaven in the country of death... Church is the core element in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus inaugurated kingdom of God in this world. It is not the kingdom complete, but it is a witness to the kingdom.
But it takes sustained effort and a determined imagination to understand and embrace church in its entirety. Casual and superficial experience with church often leaves us with an impression of bloody fights, acrimonious arguments, and warring factions. These are more than regrettable, they are scandalous. But they don't define church. There are deep communities that sustain church at all times, everywhere, as primarily and fundamentally God's work, however Christians and others may desecrate and abuse it. C.S. Lewis introduced the term "deep church" to convey the ocean fathoms of tradition that are continuously re-experienced at all times and everywhere.
It is easy to dismiss the church as ineffective and irrelevant. And many do dismiss it. It is easy to be condescending to the church because so many of its members are unimpressive entities. Condescension is widespread. It is common to become disillusioned with the church because expectations formed in the country of death and by the lies of the devil are disappointments. Disillusionment is, as a matter of course, common.
If the church is intended as God's advertisement to the world, a utopian community put on display so that people will flock to it clamoring to get in, it has obviously become a piece of failed strategy. And if the church is intended to be a disciplined company of men and women charged to get rid of corruption in government, to clean up the world's morals, to convince people to live chastely and honestly, to teach them to treat the forests, rivers and the air with reverence and children, the elderly, and the poor and the hungry with dignity and compassion, it hasn't happened. We've been at this for two thousand years now, and people are not clamoring to join us. Obviously, the church is not the ideal community that everyone takes one look at and asks, "how do I get in?" Clearly, the church is not making much headway in eliminating what is wrong in the world and making everything right. So, what's left?
What's left is this: we look at what has been given to us in our Scriptures and in Jesus and try to understand why we have a church in the first place, what the church, as it is given to us, is. We are not a utopian community. We are not God's avenging angels. Look at the church as it is right now and ask , Do you think that maybe this is exactly what God intended when he created the church. Maybe the church as we have it provides the very conditions and proper company congenial for growing us up in Christ, for becoming mature, for arriving at the measure of the stature of Christ. Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church. (from Practicing Resurrection by Eugene Peterson, pages 13-14)
So, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit formed it to become a colony of heaven in the country of death... Church is the core element in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus inaugurated kingdom of God in this world. It is not the kingdom complete, but it is a witness to the kingdom.
But it takes sustained effort and a determined imagination to understand and embrace church in its entirety. Casual and superficial experience with church often leaves us with an impression of bloody fights, acrimonious arguments, and warring factions. These are more than regrettable, they are scandalous. But they don't define church. There are deep communities that sustain church at all times, everywhere, as primarily and fundamentally God's work, however Christians and others may desecrate and abuse it. C.S. Lewis introduced the term "deep church" to convey the ocean fathoms of tradition that are continuously re-experienced at all times and everywhere.
It is easy to dismiss the church as ineffective and irrelevant. And many do dismiss it. It is easy to be condescending to the church because so many of its members are unimpressive entities. Condescension is widespread. It is common to become disillusioned with the church because expectations formed in the country of death and by the lies of the devil are disappointments. Disillusionment is, as a matter of course, common.
If the church is intended as God's advertisement to the world, a utopian community put on display so that people will flock to it clamoring to get in, it has obviously become a piece of failed strategy. And if the church is intended to be a disciplined company of men and women charged to get rid of corruption in government, to clean up the world's morals, to convince people to live chastely and honestly, to teach them to treat the forests, rivers and the air with reverence and children, the elderly, and the poor and the hungry with dignity and compassion, it hasn't happened. We've been at this for two thousand years now, and people are not clamoring to join us. Obviously, the church is not the ideal community that everyone takes one look at and asks, "how do I get in?" Clearly, the church is not making much headway in eliminating what is wrong in the world and making everything right. So, what's left?
What's left is this: we look at what has been given to us in our Scriptures and in Jesus and try to understand why we have a church in the first place, what the church, as it is given to us, is. We are not a utopian community. We are not God's avenging angels. Look at the church as it is right now and ask , Do you think that maybe this is exactly what God intended when he created the church. Maybe the church as we have it provides the very conditions and proper company congenial for growing us up in Christ, for becoming mature, for arriving at the measure of the stature of Christ. Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church. (from Practicing Resurrection by Eugene Peterson, pages 13-14)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Hannah's Child: A Theologians Memoir
Finished the new Stanley Hauerwas memoir last night called Hannah's Child. Hauerwas was named by Time magazine America's best theologian in 2001 in the September 10th issue. On the next day that honorable mention was all but forgotten. It is an interesting read. Hauerwas's life all by itself, even if he wasn't a controversial theologian, is a compelling story. He grew up in a hardworking, poor family in Texas. His dad was a bricklayer just like his dad and all his 5 brothers. Hauerwas started going to work with his dad before he was a teenager. His early life was defined by hard work, laying brick or peddling vegetables from his garden. This work ethic served him well later in life as people wondered how he managed to read and write so much. It also helped him cope with a difficult first marriage. Hauerwas is probably not known well in evangelical circles unless you have been to seminary or done graduate work in theology or Christian ethics. Only a couple of his books have made it beyond academic and professional circles. He co-authored a couple books with Will Willimon, Methodist preacher and bishop, and those are probably his most popular. He taught scores of students at Notre Dame and Duke Divinity School and was a popular teacher. A good speaker, he was known for colorful speech, and humor and well constructed lectures. He cared deeply about what he was doing. He wanted to think and teach about "what mattered."
His positions were not mainstream. He was criticized by liberals for his Barthian Christology and his high view of the Church. He was criticized by Catholics for being too Protestant and by Protestants for being too Catholic. In many ways, he was a unique blend of Anabaptism and Catholicism who ended up in the Methodist Church. He was influenced by John Howard Yoder, the Mennonite scholar. Yoder was a pacifist and convinced Hauerwas of the truth of that position. That conviction did not set well with most evangelicals and Catholics after 9-11. Hauerwas was not shy about criticizing Bush's response to 9-11 and the war on terror.
Whether you agreed with Hauerwas or not, there was no question where he stood. He said if you tell a Texan what you want he will either give it to you or kill you. Hauerwas pulled no punches. Yet, in his memoir he is gracious to a fault. When conflict or disagreement breaks up a relationship or friendship, he willingly accepts responsibility for his part of the problem. He did not write this story to tell his side so he would look better. It is as honest and transparent as a memoir can be. When a friendship fails, he is contrite and hopeful reconciliation will take place. Sometimes it did. Sometimes not. When he decided someone was dishonest or untrustworthy he told that person the relationship was over.
Even though he often felt like an outsider - not fitting into either the evangelical or liberal camp and not finding a lifelong home in any one denomination - his teaching should be heeded by Christians in all camps. Truth matters, and he thought hard and long about what that meant. It would be good if Christians cared more about what they say they believe. And if you believe it, you had better be ready to go wherever that belief takes you even it causes conflict.
Hauwerwas believed friendships mattered, too. He worked hard at relationships. His first marriage was to a difficult person (although even here he takes more than his share of responsibility), yet he worked at making it as good as it could be.
He valued the Church. Not only what the Church is and stands for ( he said once that it didn't really matter what he thought, what mattered was what the Church taught) but what it means to be a "congregation". One church he belonged to had too many people who did nothing to sustain the life of the congregation - that was a church that liked the idea of church but was not a congregation. Later in life, he and his second wife bought a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina for a getaway place. They discovered they never used it because they were always busy on weekends - at church. How refreshing to find someone - a theologian even - who not only says he believes in the church but is committed to it and actually shows up every week!
Worship is at the heart of Hauwerwas's theology. It is what Christians do. It is important for him to attend a church that takes worship seriously. One that celebrates the eucharist weekly and keeps to the services and vigils of Holy Week. In one church, he was part of, the pastor retired for health reasons and soon died. The new pastor came full of church growth ideas and "what would work" to make the church bigger. She cut back on some of services and the number of times the eucharist was celebrated. Instead of the traditional Holy Week services, she did some drama on Good Friday night. She went to a Willowcreek conference and told the church they were going to have a contemporary service and a traditional service and make some other seeker friendly changes. Hauerwas said "over my dead body", and rather than fight and perhaps split the church, walked away.
His positions were not mainstream. He was criticized by liberals for his Barthian Christology and his high view of the Church. He was criticized by Catholics for being too Protestant and by Protestants for being too Catholic. In many ways, he was a unique blend of Anabaptism and Catholicism who ended up in the Methodist Church. He was influenced by John Howard Yoder, the Mennonite scholar. Yoder was a pacifist and convinced Hauerwas of the truth of that position. That conviction did not set well with most evangelicals and Catholics after 9-11. Hauerwas was not shy about criticizing Bush's response to 9-11 and the war on terror.
Whether you agreed with Hauerwas or not, there was no question where he stood. He said if you tell a Texan what you want he will either give it to you or kill you. Hauerwas pulled no punches. Yet, in his memoir he is gracious to a fault. When conflict or disagreement breaks up a relationship or friendship, he willingly accepts responsibility for his part of the problem. He did not write this story to tell his side so he would look better. It is as honest and transparent as a memoir can be. When a friendship fails, he is contrite and hopeful reconciliation will take place. Sometimes it did. Sometimes not. When he decided someone was dishonest or untrustworthy he told that person the relationship was over.
Even though he often felt like an outsider - not fitting into either the evangelical or liberal camp and not finding a lifelong home in any one denomination - his teaching should be heeded by Christians in all camps. Truth matters, and he thought hard and long about what that meant. It would be good if Christians cared more about what they say they believe. And if you believe it, you had better be ready to go wherever that belief takes you even it causes conflict.
Hauwerwas believed friendships mattered, too. He worked hard at relationships. His first marriage was to a difficult person (although even here he takes more than his share of responsibility), yet he worked at making it as good as it could be.
He valued the Church. Not only what the Church is and stands for ( he said once that it didn't really matter what he thought, what mattered was what the Church taught) but what it means to be a "congregation". One church he belonged to had too many people who did nothing to sustain the life of the congregation - that was a church that liked the idea of church but was not a congregation. Later in life, he and his second wife bought a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina for a getaway place. They discovered they never used it because they were always busy on weekends - at church. How refreshing to find someone - a theologian even - who not only says he believes in the church but is committed to it and actually shows up every week!
Worship is at the heart of Hauwerwas's theology. It is what Christians do. It is important for him to attend a church that takes worship seriously. One that celebrates the eucharist weekly and keeps to the services and vigils of Holy Week. In one church, he was part of, the pastor retired for health reasons and soon died. The new pastor came full of church growth ideas and "what would work" to make the church bigger. She cut back on some of services and the number of times the eucharist was celebrated. Instead of the traditional Holy Week services, she did some drama on Good Friday night. She went to a Willowcreek conference and told the church they were going to have a contemporary service and a traditional service and make some other seeker friendly changes. Hauerwas said "over my dead body", and rather than fight and perhaps split the church, walked away.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Summer Reading So Far
So the summer is half over (that's a depressing thought when we only yesterday saw some summer weather finally arrive here in Kodiak) and I am way behind in my summer reading plans. I did not get much reading done on my recent summer trip to the lower 48 because I was otherwise occupied (see my earlier blog). But as far as it goes, I have read some good books and I have a stack waiting for my perusal ( and a "stack" lined up vertically on my kindle). Some comment is in in order. I read Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns who is the president of World Vision. It's a good story about how he came to be the current president. He was very successful and a very rich businessman selling homeware to the very rich. God took him out of that business and put him in one that tries to get food to people who have little of it and couldn't care less about the homeware upon which it is served. It's a good story about how he struggled to hear God's call when he was about to buy into another company that would have guaranteed him 25 to 50 million in stock shares. Does the rich young ruler come to mind? Stearns also has plenty to say about the mission of the church to the poor (try these stats on for size: 25,000 children die every day due to hunger and hunger related causes; 2.6 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day - Americans live on 105 dollars a day; the richest 7 people on earth control more wealth than combined GDP of the 41 poorest nations; 20 percent of the earths people consume 86 percent of the worlds goods; one of four children in developing nations are underweight; 350 to 400 million children are hungry right now; roughly 850 million people do not have enough food to sustain them; 9 million people die every year due to lack of good food. Stearns believes the church needs to do something about the crises the poor face and he offers suggestions for ways we can help.
Marilynne Robinson is a very smart woman. She is a fine novelist having written Gilead, Housekeeping and Home. An Absence of Mind is a very different kind of book. Not a work of fiction, it is piece of cultural criticism in which she tracks the death of the mind today. "Whoever controls the definition of the mind controls the definition of humankind itself, and culture, and history." "if the answer is we are the accidental outcome of the workings of physical laws which themselves are accidental, this is as much a statement of ultimate reality as if we were to find that we are indeed a little lower than the angels..." This is a book to be read and read again.
Why is it that Christians just can't get along? I don't know why I have such trouble getting that, or accepting it. We have a history of fighting over definitions. Definitions of theology, and of practices like baptism, and church symbols, and music, and furnishings, and lifestyle. We split, and split again until we are atoms in the larger church universe. If we are all one in Christ, I hope God can figure it all out and put us together again someday. John Philip Jenkins is a terrific church historian and writer and he has done it again in The Jesus Wars which tells the story of church infighting from the beginning when the church struggled to get the definition of who Jesus Christ was exactly right. The stakes were high and emotions were too. People died in this theological warfare. At least no one lost their lives when we replaced some pews with chairs.
Family life is hard. What would it be like to be a husband with four wives and 28 children! How would you get to all those little league games in one night? Maybe you would just have your own team, or two or three! Brady Udall wrote one of my favorite books, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, so I took a chance on his next book, The Lonely Polygamist. You can see where this is going. Some good novels have been written about family dynamics; this is a good story about a man who has to deal with four families and himself all at the same time. Good read.
Stanley Hauerwas was catapulted to fame a few years ago when Time called him the greatest theologian in America. Hauerwas who teaches in the Duke Divinity School was taken aback. He is a hard working theologian who has written some books and is often asked to speak at theology conferences but much of his work is critical of our American culture and the church's captivity to it. He was not looking for this "honor". So he wrote this memoir to answer the question, Who is Stanley Hauerwas? It is not the person so dignified by Time's selection as America's Top Theologian. The name of the book is Hannahs Child. His mother, Hannah, had a child late in life after losing a baby who was stillborn. She prayed to God like Hannah did in the Samuel story in the book of Kings and promised to dedicate her son to God just like Hannah did if God would answer her prayer. He was named Stanley after Stanley who sought after Dr Livingstone in Africa. Stanley's mother Hannah told him when he was six that he was a direct answer to prayer and he was dedicated to God. He says:"I am not sure what possessed my mother to unload her story on me at that time... My fate was set - I would not be if she had not prayed that prayer...whatever it means to be Stanley Hauerwas is the result of that prayer. Was I robbed of my autonomy by my mother's prayer? Probably. But if so, I can only thank God. Autonomy given my energy would have meant going into business and making money. There is nothing wrong with making money but it was just not in my family's habits to know how to do that... I certainly like the work my mother's prayer gave me.
He had me hooked when he told about his conversion. " I was baptized at Pleasant Mound Methodist Church in Pleasant Mound, Texas - a small town outside Dallas... Pleasant Mound Methodist was Methodist but like most folks in that area we were really Baptist which meant that even though you had been baptized and become a member of the church you still had to be "saved". Baptism and membership were Sunday morning events. Saving was for Sunday nights. Sunday night was an hour hymn sing, a time for personal prayer at the altar, a forty five minute to an hour sermon, and then a call to the altar for those convicted of their sin. I was in my early teens and had begun to date a young woman who also went to the church. I was pretty sure I was beginning to sin and I needed to be saved but I didn't think I should force God's hand. Our pastor was Brother Zimmerman. He had actually gone to college but he preferred to be called "Brother" to show that even though he was educated he was not all that different from the rest of us. He was thin as a rail because he gave everything to being a minister. I remember him being a lovely, kind man but he believed we did need to be saved. He put up a tent outside the church every summer so we could have the yearly revival. It was quite an honor for a clergyman from another nearby Methodist Church to be asked to come and preach the revival. Despite the honor, the clergyman had to be from a nearby church because we could not afford to pay travel. It was never clear to me why we needed to be revived but you could always count on some members of the church, and they were often the same people year after year, being saved. I sometimes think they wanted to be saved in order to save the preacher, because it was assumed that the Word had not been rightly preached if no one was saved.
So there I sat Sunday night after Sunday night thinking I should be saved but it did not happen. Meanwhile, some of the youth were "dedicating themselves to the Lord" which usually meant they were going to become a minister or missionary. I am not sure how this development among the youth of Pleasant Mound began but it was not long before several kids older than I was, had so dedicated their lives. So, finally one Sunday night after singing "I Surrender All" for God knows how many times, I went to the altar rail and told Brother Zimmerman that I wanted to dedicate my life to the Lord. I thought that if God was not going to save me, I could at least put God in a bind by being one of his servants in the ministry. When I took that trip to the altar, I assumed I was acting "freely" but in fact I was fated to make that journey by the story my mother had told me."
Marilynne Robinson is a very smart woman. She is a fine novelist having written Gilead, Housekeeping and Home. An Absence of Mind is a very different kind of book. Not a work of fiction, it is piece of cultural criticism in which she tracks the death of the mind today. "Whoever controls the definition of the mind controls the definition of humankind itself, and culture, and history." "if the answer is we are the accidental outcome of the workings of physical laws which themselves are accidental, this is as much a statement of ultimate reality as if we were to find that we are indeed a little lower than the angels..." This is a book to be read and read again.
Why is it that Christians just can't get along? I don't know why I have such trouble getting that, or accepting it. We have a history of fighting over definitions. Definitions of theology, and of practices like baptism, and church symbols, and music, and furnishings, and lifestyle. We split, and split again until we are atoms in the larger church universe. If we are all one in Christ, I hope God can figure it all out and put us together again someday. John Philip Jenkins is a terrific church historian and writer and he has done it again in The Jesus Wars which tells the story of church infighting from the beginning when the church struggled to get the definition of who Jesus Christ was exactly right. The stakes were high and emotions were too. People died in this theological warfare. At least no one lost their lives when we replaced some pews with chairs.
Family life is hard. What would it be like to be a husband with four wives and 28 children! How would you get to all those little league games in one night? Maybe you would just have your own team, or two or three! Brady Udall wrote one of my favorite books, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, so I took a chance on his next book, The Lonely Polygamist. You can see where this is going. Some good novels have been written about family dynamics; this is a good story about a man who has to deal with four families and himself all at the same time. Good read.
Stanley Hauerwas was catapulted to fame a few years ago when Time called him the greatest theologian in America. Hauerwas who teaches in the Duke Divinity School was taken aback. He is a hard working theologian who has written some books and is often asked to speak at theology conferences but much of his work is critical of our American culture and the church's captivity to it. He was not looking for this "honor". So he wrote this memoir to answer the question, Who is Stanley Hauerwas? It is not the person so dignified by Time's selection as America's Top Theologian. The name of the book is Hannahs Child. His mother, Hannah, had a child late in life after losing a baby who was stillborn. She prayed to God like Hannah did in the Samuel story in the book of Kings and promised to dedicate her son to God just like Hannah did if God would answer her prayer. He was named Stanley after Stanley who sought after Dr Livingstone in Africa. Stanley's mother Hannah told him when he was six that he was a direct answer to prayer and he was dedicated to God. He says:"I am not sure what possessed my mother to unload her story on me at that time... My fate was set - I would not be if she had not prayed that prayer...whatever it means to be Stanley Hauerwas is the result of that prayer. Was I robbed of my autonomy by my mother's prayer? Probably. But if so, I can only thank God. Autonomy given my energy would have meant going into business and making money. There is nothing wrong with making money but it was just not in my family's habits to know how to do that... I certainly like the work my mother's prayer gave me.
He had me hooked when he told about his conversion. " I was baptized at Pleasant Mound Methodist Church in Pleasant Mound, Texas - a small town outside Dallas... Pleasant Mound Methodist was Methodist but like most folks in that area we were really Baptist which meant that even though you had been baptized and become a member of the church you still had to be "saved". Baptism and membership were Sunday morning events. Saving was for Sunday nights. Sunday night was an hour hymn sing, a time for personal prayer at the altar, a forty five minute to an hour sermon, and then a call to the altar for those convicted of their sin. I was in my early teens and had begun to date a young woman who also went to the church. I was pretty sure I was beginning to sin and I needed to be saved but I didn't think I should force God's hand. Our pastor was Brother Zimmerman. He had actually gone to college but he preferred to be called "Brother" to show that even though he was educated he was not all that different from the rest of us. He was thin as a rail because he gave everything to being a minister. I remember him being a lovely, kind man but he believed we did need to be saved. He put up a tent outside the church every summer so we could have the yearly revival. It was quite an honor for a clergyman from another nearby Methodist Church to be asked to come and preach the revival. Despite the honor, the clergyman had to be from a nearby church because we could not afford to pay travel. It was never clear to me why we needed to be revived but you could always count on some members of the church, and they were often the same people year after year, being saved. I sometimes think they wanted to be saved in order to save the preacher, because it was assumed that the Word had not been rightly preached if no one was saved.
So there I sat Sunday night after Sunday night thinking I should be saved but it did not happen. Meanwhile, some of the youth were "dedicating themselves to the Lord" which usually meant they were going to become a minister or missionary. I am not sure how this development among the youth of Pleasant Mound began but it was not long before several kids older than I was, had so dedicated their lives. So, finally one Sunday night after singing "I Surrender All" for God knows how many times, I went to the altar rail and told Brother Zimmerman that I wanted to dedicate my life to the Lord. I thought that if God was not going to save me, I could at least put God in a bind by being one of his servants in the ministry. When I took that trip to the altar, I assumed I was acting "freely" but in fact I was fated to make that journey by the story my mother had told me."
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