Category: faith

Christianese and Techno-garble

Common Craft shares a great video highlighting the features of Rockwells Retro Encabulator.

Be sure you watch this one. The technology is amazing!

Ok… did you watch it? Truth be known, it’s a hoax.

Behind the announcer is simply a bank of large circuit breaker panels. You can find these in any large building. This is a hoax video produced by Rockwell for a sales meeting.

But it got me thinking – is this what we sound like when we talk Christianese to “non-believers?” Is this what I sound like when I talk government and history to my wife? Is this what I sound like when I talk about technology to my friends and family?

Consider the audience.

While terms like Son of God, kingdom, good news, Messiah, Parousia (or presence), Savior, faith, Lord and Emmanuel may have been familiar to Jews and Romans in the time of Christ (see “Jesus for President” p.67-69), they may not carry the same meaning or understanding for folks in our day.

While I’m not suggesting we change all our terminology, I think we need to be careful to explain and share our understanding of the terms and ideas that those outside (and maybe even inside) the church aren’t familiar with.

Otherwise, to them it may feel like standing in line at Starbucks for the first time, hearing folks in front of them rattle off, “Venti, skinny, 2 shots, no-whip, Cinnamon Dulce Latte.”

Jeremiah Wright’s entire sermon

Jeremiah Wright medic

Well everyone I know has an opinion on Rev. Jeremiah Wright now and what they know or don’t know about “Black Liberation Theology.”

Jeffrey Weis over at the DMN has links to the entire “God damn America” sermon (as a side note – notice he’s not swearing, he’s actually saying, “God condemn America”).

To the many of you who have weighed in here on whether or not Rev. Wright is on target or a hatemonger, I strongly suggest that you personally experience the entire sermon about “Confusing God and government.” There is a lot more to it than you’ve heard or read. More to make you angry, if you are in that direction, and more to make you think, no matter where you sit on this. The overarching theme of the sermon is that governments lie, change, and fail. But that God and Jesus do not.

I haven’t listened to the entire message yet – hope to do so soon. But here’s a couple interesting nuggets that Weis pointed to:

Here’s a nugget to make you mad: “Our money says In God we Trust, and our military says we will kill under the orders of our Commander-in-Chief if you dare to believe otherwise.”

And here’s a nugget that turns the thought that he’s simply anti-white on its head: “Long before there was a red, white and blue colonization, the Egyptian government was doing colonization. They colonized half the continent of Africa, they colonized parts of the Mediterranean. All colonizers ain’t white. Turn to your neighbor and say “oppressors come in all colors.” Hello, hello, hello.”

Listen to the full sermon. Read the sermon.

See what Mike Huckabee had to say.

I have to wonder, is this simply an act of the national media trying to show they’re not absolutely infatuated by Barack Obama as Hillary Clinton’s campaign (and Saturday Night Live) have suggested? Were they desperate for dirt so they simply found a great sound bite they could use to discredit Obama’s campaign?

Share your thoughts (after you read everything in context)….

Hear about Darfur

Want to hear from someone who has seen the Darfur genocide firsthand?

“Ruth Messinger Bears Witness”

Thursday, March 27, 2008 • 7:30 p.m. • Pollman Hall
Temple Emanu-El 8500 Hillcrest Road | Dallas, TX 75225

Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service, will give a firsthand account of the ongoing genocidal campaign in Darfur, Sudan that has been raging since February, 2003. Reflecting on her own visits to the region in August 2004, October 2005 and July 2007, Ruth will describe what must be done to stop these atrocities that have claimed over 450,000 lives. In addition to her presentation on the current conflict in Darfur, she will also highlight the work of AJWS and its 368 projects in 36 countries throughout the Americas, Africa and Asia. Sharing the words of dedicated volunteers from across the United States – students, community leaders and skilled professionals – Ruth will tell of the enormous transformative impact we can make as global citizens working to ensure lasting social justice.

Andrew Jones chats with Brian McLaren

Andrew Jones shared a recent e-mail conversation with pastor, author and speaker Brian McLaren on his blog about his latest book, Everything Must Change.
Great questions from Jones I thought (several occurred to me and several that didn’t – I think I just remained optimistic when something wasn’t directly addressed, it wasn’t because it was purposely left out because McLaren didn’t agree, but more because he wasn’t the focus of the book) and great answers from McLaren I thought.
You can read the whole conversation on Jones’ blog, but of course I’ll share a few highlights:

McLaren: One of the things that I hope the book does (by understatement, perhaps?) is help people think of “church” in broader ways. For example, I don’t think that the church per se is going to intentionally solve economic problems in Africa. But churches will inspire entrepreneurs and activists and politicians and health care workers and community organizers and film-makers, etc., to work together in ways that will bring more and more healing. In this way, “church work” is building up the church, but “the work of the church” is doing kingdom work in our daily lives and jobs, from business to art to government to education to agriculture to whatever.

Jones: 2. The apparent absence of HOPE in your view of future things. Maybe i missed it but you don’t seem to acknowledge hope in the afterlife, resurrection of the dead, etc in your book and i had to guess whether you had walked away from these foundational orthodox doctrines or you were focusing exclusively on the immanence of the gospel in today’s world for effect.
McLaren: Again, I set a pretty specific goal for myself in this book: to explore global crises and what the message of Jesus says to those crises. I did address life after death in Secret Message of Jesus, chapter 20. So I haven’t walked away from hope in the afterlife, etc. If anything, I see more than ever how hope in the afterlife is necessary to keep us going when progress in this life seems slow or nonexistent.

Jones: Brian, your view on the last things has a few of us guessing. How does your eschatological position compare with . . say . . an evangelical post-millenial view? And do you believe in life after death?
McLaren: Just to be super clear … YES! I believe in life after death! I find it hard to line up my views with conventional pre, post, or amillenial views because I think they are all based on an assumption I don’t share, i.e. that the book of Revelation is intended to tell us how the world will end. This view presupposes a deterministic view of history, which I don’t share. I suppose I’m more Wesleyan and Anabaptist in this regard than Calvinist. Anyway, I talk about this in detail in SMJ, and refer to it briefly in EMC – I believe the Book of Revelation is an example of Jewish Apocalyptic which, although it may be concerned with the end of the age, is not really talking about the end of the world at all. In this, I follow NT Wright’s general line of thought, so if I’m off the ranch, so is he. I see Biblical prophecy in terms of warnings and promises, which are different from prognostications. If I had to put a name on my eschatology, I suppose I would call it “Participatory” – meaning that God invites us to participate in God’s ongoing work in the world, leading to the ultimate victory of all that is good and the ultimate defeat of evil. Beyond that, there are a lot of eschatological details I was much surer about twenty years ago when I read the Bible less and popular end-times books more!

Jones: You seem to be calling the American church to a new level of repentance, one that is deeper and more connected with structures. How has the response been?
McLaren: My loyal critics are by and large ignoring this book (so far), or if they pay attention to it – this is very sad to me – they generally ignore everything about poverty, war, and environmental destruction, and focus on doctrinal issues they disagree with me about. Sheesh. I can only hope that someone they agree with theologically will get them thinking more seriously about global crises. Apart from these loyal critics, though, response is really encouraging. People are telling me they are coming to faith or back to faith through the book … and they are feeling more confident to call themselves followers of Jesus when Jesus is presented not just as a fire escape and savior from the world, but as a liberating king and savior of the world. I am also hearing privately from some “big names” who can’t afford to associate with me publicly because of all the nastiness in the American religious world, but who are thankful for the book and affirming of its message.

Is Brian McLaren anti-Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement?

A few excerpts from the comments section of the blog:

You’d have a point about McLaren if it wasn’t for the fact that he has consistently attacks the doctrine of Christ’s Penal Substitutionary Atonement.

In his book “a new kind of Christian” he likens it to cosmic child abuse. There is a recurring pattern and history with McLaren regarding Christ’s death on the cross and that patter is to re-imagine, redefine it and steer us away from what the scriptures clearly teach on it.

It bugs me when people take things out of context and don’t cite their sources.

You mean to tell me you don’t think the cross exposed “the cruelty and injustice of those in power?”
You don’t think it instilled “hope and confidence in the oppressed.”

Join in the fun and leave your own thoughts and comments in the comment section.