Category: faith

Quote the whole dang thing!

Oh how I wish more people would have spent some time in a journalism class!

I’m so tired of people quoting only half of a statement because that’s all they chose to hear.

I’ve got the day off today (nice) and I woke up and read another section of “Jesus for President.” Bought it last night before going to the Dallas Museum of Art with Laurie.

I was good and ready to write a quick blog post about the what I had read before when my friend John forwards this to me from a site he forwards stuff from pretty constantly:

EXCERPT:

There is a word that describes John Dominic Crossan and that word is Heretic.

On a related note: Brian McLaren of the Emergent Church in his latest book Everything Must Change quotes favorably from Crossan’s latest book. McLaren and Crossan reinterpret the message of the gospel in such a way as to practically eliminate the doctrine of Christ’s Penal Substitutionary Atonement (This is the Biblical teaching that tells us the Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and died as our substitute on the cross in order to propitiate God’s wrath against our sins). After quoting Crossan on pages 122 and 123, Brian McLaren concludes that rather than die for our sins, “Jesus will use his cross to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed.”

That is not the Biblical gospel!

That is a bunch of Emergent goblidy gook!

But here again the scriptures tell us plainly what the gospel is and so we ask who are you going to believe?
Mark 10:45 [Jesus said] “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Arrghh! I’ve read the book. I knew exactly when I read the email which portion of the book it came from. I had to jump up immediately. Head out to my truck and grab the book.

My response

again… taking one line out of an entire chapter.

McLaren NEVER says, “rather than die for our sins…” McLaren is making the point about Jesus’ framing story compared to that of Ceaser Augustus.

Now I’ve got to type this whole thing out to prove my point……. geeze….

The empires “good news” is a framing story of peace through domination, peace through redemptive violence, peace through centralized power and control, peace through elimination of enemies. (Sounds a lot like modern America doesn’t it*) It involves the gods legitimizing those in power so that resistance to their sacred regime becomes not only treason but also heresy. The imperial narrative that drives them to dominance often drives them to self-destruction. Jesus’ alternative framing story, as we’ve seen involves God bringing down those in power (Luke 1:52-53) so that the poor can be legitimized (Luke 4:18) and so that the religious collaboration with the empire can be exposed as hypocrisy. The empire uses crosses to punish rebels and instill fear and submission to the oppressed: Jesus will use a cross to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed.

*my note

I have to wonder – would we really have that much to talk about, blog about, write about, get angry about if we’d only quote the whole dang thing. Maybe if, rather than listening for a sound bite to put on YouTube we’d actually take a couple hours (or maybe minutes) and read the entire chapter or book, or listen to the entire message.

Example 2

I have to share this from Kevin Hendricks re: the recent hub-bub about Jeremiah Wright:

Wow. The craziness is flying over comments made by Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I’ve read reactions from people stronly opposed to Wright, and from people defending Wright (or at least giving some helpful context — Knightopia links to several more).

Some of what Wright says is clearly off the deep end (i.e., the government invented AIDS to wipe out people of color). But I think some of his comments are right on. Like the “God Damn America” comments:

“The government gives them the drugs [referring to the Iran-Contra Affair], builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people — God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (Seattle Times)

The ABC News story left out the last sentence, which I think helps give some context. Wright is preaching prophetically, like the prophets of old, who spoke out against injustice. I love America and the freedoms we have, but it’s not anti-American to speak out against injustice committed by America. That’s patriotic. (I wish Obama would have made that point.)

And America has some injustice going on when there are more black men in prison than in college.

re: anti-human = anti-God

Eric shared his thoughts on Jewish view of heaven and hell…

Obviously, there are a lot of different views, but I think the basic view of the afterlife in Judaism is that heaven and hell are fluid. I’ll try to explain.

One phrase used in Hebrew to describe heaven is “Gan Eden,” which literally means “The Garden of Eden.” It’s even become slang, as in “This cake is Gan Eden.” The idea is that heaven is a return to perfection on earth, not some otherworldly place.

Another phrase is “Olam Haba,” meaning “the world to come.” As in, this is the world we have here, but there is another world that mirrors this one, but created spiritually instead of physically.

I remember in high school one of my Rabbis said heaven and hell looked exactly the same. In both, people sit around a pot of delicious stew and have spoons with long handles; they can reach the pot, but they can’t bring the spoon back to their mouths. He said that in hell, everyone simply starves, but in heaven they realize they can eat if they feed each other. Again, the idea is that heaven is created in the interaction among people.

My Rabbis often described “hell” — called gehenom — as more of a dry-cleaner than a place of eternal punishment. After life on the physical earth, all souls — except those belonging to the holiest people — need to go through a period of cleansing before they are appropriate for heaven.

Hope that helps.

(re)Quote for the day

I was looking through some old blog posts of mine this morning and came across this quote:

“Consider the possibility that a church should own no property at all”
Larson, Osborne, The Emerging Church (1970), p51

Posted March 24, 2006. Almost one month before Phil and I walked into encounter for the first time. Funny how God works things out.

re: Obama’s speech on race

From Brian McLaren:

Senator Obama’s speech today was, I think, one of the most important speeches of my lifetime. I hope people will read it and ponder it…

I hope each of us can encourage intelligent and civil conversation on the content of this speech. I feel we’re at a moment where our history could take a different turn depending on how we respond. In the context of “Everything Must Change” – Senator Obama has said things that America desperately needs to hear and engage with.

Here are lines I especially hope we take to heart:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

I resonate so much with these words. Will we choose – as we do so often – to focus on the latest distractions? Or will we go for the deep shift that’s needed in our hearts, our attitudes, our values, our beliefs, our priorities, our purpose, and our vision? I believe we can make the better choice and take the better path. I believe we can.

Barack Obama’s speech on race

The NYTimes has the full transcript of Obama’s speech today.

Here’s a few snippets:

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s speech on race

A New Law

Everytime I listen to Derek Webb’s Mockingbird album something else grabs me.

don’t teach me about politics and government
just tell me who to vote for
don’t teach me about truth and beauty
just label my music

don’t teach me how to live like a free man
just give me a new law

i don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
so just bring it down from the mountain to me

i want a new law
i want a new law
gimme that new law

don’t teach me about moderation and liberty
i prefer a shot of grape juice
don’t teach me about loving my enemies
don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit
just give me a new law

what’s the use in trading a law you can never keep
for one you can that cannot get you anything
do not be afraid
do not be afraid
do not be afraid