The Internet Monk Archives

Saturday Ramblings 1.21.12

Your Rambler is in a bad mood today. I’m tired. I got two hours’ sleep after work Thursday night, then drove to Missouri to see my son graduate from Army Transportation School, then drove back home, only to have him want me to go look at a car with him. Which I am normally glad to do, but did I mention the two hours’ sleep? And ten hours on the road? And then the Synonymous Rambler and I have been going round and round on something. I think I’m wrong and at fault, but then I almost always think I’m wrong. (Is it wrong to be right once in a while? And if I say I’m wrong and I really was wrong, does that make me right?) And it’s gray and cold outside. If I wanted that I’d move back to Ohio. So I’m not a happy Rambler right now. Perhaps by the time Saturday actually rolls around I’ll be Happy, but right now on Friday night, I’m Grumpy with a capital G. Is it ok if we just get to rambling?

I am aware of the offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. What I didn’t know about was the office of evangelical political power broker. Cindy Costa of South Carolina apparently is one. She says she engages in this sport because of her “evangelical faith.” Meanwhile, a confab of conservative evangelicals (that phrase could open another can of gummy worms, but let’s not and say we did) met at a ranch near Houston last weekend to decide which presidential candidate should be the evangelical choice. Excuse me, which REPUBLICAN presidential candidate should be the choice among evangelicals. I suppose I should be grateful. After all, if they can come up with who my choice should be, that saves me the time and trouble of thinking for myself.

And then there is the all-important consideration of what Joel Osteen thinks about one particular candidate.

Apparently the number of Mexicans and Latin Americans crossing the border to the United States has dropped dramatically in the last few years. You know, all of those foreigners who some pastors and religious speakers love to shout need to be sent back to their own countries. Seems it is easier to find a good paying job with decent benefits in Mexico than it is in the U.S. right now. (How soon before middle managers, real estate sales reps and drummers are crossing from the U.S. of A. to Mexico to find jobs?) But there is an area of ministry being hit hard by this. Hispanic ministries are really feeling the pinch. How do you say “ironic” en Espanol?

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iMonk Classic: “I Forgive Myself”: The Hardest Words?

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From February 2009

One of the things I really don’t like about run-of-the-mill evangelical spirituality is the assumption that we’re all basically clones of each other. Cheerful clones. Mentally healthy clones. Good family clones. Conservative political clones. Happy at church clones. Like the same music clones. Clones who cope well. Clones who think alike. Clones who can take a cheerful verse and dissolve any problem in short order.

Let me take a simple thing. I don’t like Fox News. I don’t have a vendetta about it, but it’s inflammatory much of the time, and their overall harping tone doesn’t do a thing for my blood pressure. They do a lot of name calling, cheap shots, girly pics and “true crime” coverage. I don’t live in England, so I don’t want the screaming British media.

What would be my fate if I stood up at my next public gathering with conservative evangelicals and read the previous paragraph? Let’s just say that many judgments would be made on this one item, most of them far from true.

We aren’t alike, but there’s a kind of desperate, weird, compulsion to act like we are alike; a compulsion that causes many Christians to walk around carrying the burden of an entirely false self. Their struggles, scars, questions, confusions, missteps, short-comings, darkness and brokenness are going to be a secret.

If…if…we broke those secrets, what would we learn?

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Why I Just Can’t Hate Religion, Though I Love Jesus

There is an increasing sentiment, especially among younger Christians, that is not only apathetic toward organized and formally structured religion (read “church”), but is antagonistic and opposed to it. So when I came across this hugely popular You Tube video (over 15 million views and counting), I found myself ambivalent. There is a core angst about it that I can really relate to (I mean, really). I’ll admit, in recent years I’ve found myself happily becoming a theologically evangelical man without an evangelical culture.

But we, the disenfranchised, have to ask ourselves: when we boast in hating religion, how do we go about distinguishing the church, whom Jesus loves? I’m not so sure. I think maybe I at least am finding it a bit too convenient to draw cavernous lines between abstractions of “religion” and the people who comprise it. (It reminds me a little too much of the oft contrived dichotomy between loving the sinners, but hating their sins.) Can I legitimately claim to love God and yet hate his church . . . his church, made up of and organized by his people?

An analogy occurred to me as I mulled. I find it helpful. (You’ll find it to be not particularly original, as it’s biblical). The Christian religion is much like marriage.

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They’re Not All Clowns

Update: Thanks to all who pointed out that Michael Spencer, the original Internet Monk, came up with the phrase “evangelical circus.” Credit duly noted.

I don’t know who first came up with the phrase “evangelical circus” here at the iMonastery. It was either Chaplain Mike or myself, but we both use it frequently to describe what we see as the Big Top of American Christianity. The ringmasters are familiar names to those of you who frequent this blog. Joel Osteen. Ed Young, Jr. Mark Driscoll. Ted Haggard. They make such easy targets for writers such as we that it gets kind of boring after a while. So Young and his wife spent 24 hours in a bed on the roof of their church last week to promote his book. Yeah? No surprise there. He’s a clown. And what do we do when we see a clown at a circus? We laugh at them. We don’t need to overanalyze a clown. He’s just someone who has painted his face and put on exaggerated clothing to get attention for himself. It’s all a part of the whole circus act.

But there is life out from under the Big Top. Sure, many are working hard so they can have their shot at being ringmaster. But there are far more who take on the moniker “evangelical” but want nothing to do with the circus. There are many Baptist, Assembly of God, Pentecostal Holiness, Free Methodist, Charismatic and independent churches that are far from being part of a circus act. And their are many Baptist, Assembly of God, Pentecostal Holiness, Free Methodist, Charismatic and independent pastors who toil long and hard within their churches to nurture, disciple, and minister to those placed in their care. These pastors don’t see themselves as clowns but as shepherds. And there is a big difference.

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Stories of Circus Acts Past

I am making an effort to read more Christian history this year. Right now I am working through Diarmaid MacCulloch’s impressive Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. On Friday, I will post the first in a series of articles on “God’s Marvelous, Massive, Messy House,” working our way through the long and complex story of our Christian family.

In addition to those regular posts, I will occasionally give glimpses of various people, places, and events that catch my attention in my studies. Today, we look at one of the outstanding “circus acts” in early Christianity.

You think Ed Young and his wife went “over the top” with their 24-hour “bed-in” last week? Wait ’til you hear about our subject today.

His name was Simeon, and he is the first known practitioner of a form that Diarmaid MacCulloch calls, “sacred self-ridicule,” performed in critique of society’s conventions. This became known as the tradition of The Holy Fool. By humiliating himself in public, the Holy Fool drew attention to the pride and self-assurance of those bound by society’s ways and called them to humble repentance.

According to MacCulloch, the roots of this tradition may be traced to the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who became notorious for his stunts in Athens in the fourth century BC. Simeon, Christian heir of this tradition, lived in the sixth century AD in Syria, and became known as St. Simeon Salus (foolish), or Simeon the Holy Fool.

For much of his adult life, Simeon practiced the ascetic life of a hermit in the desert. Then he decided to return to his hometown of Emesa, prompted by the Spirit. His foolish behavior began immediately when he entered the village dragging a dead dog around, attracting attention and contempt. It is said that he then entered the church, extinguished the lights, and began throwing nuts at the women in the congregation. Upon exiting the church, Simeon turned over the tables of food merchants in the streets.

As if foreshadowing Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks,” Simeon Salus would move around the town feigning a limp, jumping up and down in the streets, dragging himself along on his bottom, or falling down and thrashing about. (There is no evidence he did the “Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey, however.) He would stick out his foot and trip others deliberately. On one occasion he is said to have run naked through the woman’s bathhouse.

As he was humiliating himself through these embarrassing, offensive acts, Simeon Salus became known for embracing the poor, homeless, and needy as well, living among them and sharing their shame. It is said that, in his humility, God’s grace was upon him and he was able to heal many who were sick and work other miracles. One commentator remarks, “The saint loved humility so much he was convinced one can only attain it perfectly by loving humiliations.” He died in 570 AD and was buried where the city poor were laid to rest.

In his Lives of the Saints (1866), Rev. Alban Butler draws this lesson from the career of Simeon the “Holy Fool” — “Although we are not obliged in every instance to imitate St. Simeon, and that it would be rash even to attempt it without a special call; yet his example ought to make us blush, when we consider with what an ill-will we suffer the least thing that hurts our pride.”

Creation Police at Toys-R-Us

Parents, you can be reassured. The creationists are keeping watch.

And now a new front has opened on the war against those who don’t take the Bible literally and promote Evil-lution: the toy store.

Brian Thomas, science writer for ICR (The Institute for Creation Research) posted a dire warning on January 9 against perhaps the gravest threat yet assembled against the literal historical accuracy of Genesis. His piece, picked up by The Sensuous Curmudgeon and The Revealer, suggests that children are now being brainwashed even before they go to school by nefarious toy makers who are intent on spreading their secular worldview to our little ones.

Example?

Noah’s Ark has been a popular story for children, with its parade of colorful animals living in a floating zoo. But the small and cute boat often pictured in stories, toys, and games is so unlike the gigantic seaworthy vessel described in the Bible that it leaves a misleading impression. How could such a craft possibly have preserved animals and people through a real, historical global flood?

One example of this parody of the biblical Ark is a game for preschoolers produced by Rubik’s Cube toy maker Ideal. The Noah’s Ark Game looks innocuous enough, with a picture of colorful animals crowding the roof and deck of a boat barely large enough to hold them. But it misrepresents the Ark to such a degree that it undermines the feasibility of Scripture’s account of the Flood.

Pointing out that “unbelievers often use their personal interpretations of the Noah’s Ark account to try to demonstrate that the Bible is false…,” he warns against all “cute images” of Noah’s Ark, like those in this game, that might mislead our children.

And of course, Thomas takes the time in his article (with footnotes, even) to give us a detailed description of exactly how it all worked in the Ark, even as far as to tell us how Noah and the Mrs. fit the dinosaurs in and grew plants for food (that’s why God had ’em put a window in it, you know).

[None of which, of course, is in the Bible but is pure speculation. But let’s not even mention that. The spiritual well being of our children is at stake, after all.]

We simply must not yield to the temptation to let our children play with any toys that fail to reflect historically accurate depictions of Biblical history. Children must not be allowed to be silly or have fun or, God forbid, use their imaginations! They must be taught from the earliest ages a realistic portrayal of the Ark and its structural integrity, and how the birds and animals and dinosaurs and all survived the worldwide Flood, and how you can see the evidence of this Flood in the Grand Canyon, and how the Flood is the answer to all geological questions about the apparent age of the earth, etc., etc., etc. No false images should ever cloud their minds and prevent them from holding fast to these Biblical Truths™.

Of course, with my conspiratorial mind, I have another theory — Mr. Thomas is trying to eliminate the competition. My sources tell me that he is developing his own Noah’s Ark game for pre-schoolers, to be sold at Ken Ham’s Ark Adventure park. Dinosaurs included.

Allen Krell on “Unitarian Christianity”

At Allen Krell’s blog, our friend has outlined a direction with respect to what he will write about in 2012. I asked Allen if he would share his thoughts with the Internet Monk community, and he graciously sent me the following post. It describes his current perspective on the evangelical movement he has left behind.

• • •

In my journey in the post-evangelical wilderness, I found myself confused and bewildered. I had left as a founding elder in what was rapidly becoming one of the largest churches in our city. I was questioning myself, wondering if I was the one confused and everyone else all understood something that I just didn’t get. I examined many traditions, and I found theological points with which I both agreed and disagreed. With some traditions, I had many difficulties with how adherents implement beliefs, but I still considered the traditions Christian.

Then my journey became clearer as I was able to clarify in my mind the fastest growing and most unsettling of all movements. I say movement, because being less than 50 years old it is not old enough to be a tradition. I had difficulty finding a name for this movement, so I started referring to as “Unitarian Christian”.

If you search this phrase in most search engines, it will lead you to websites on Unitarian Universalism, but I consider this movement to be something very different. The name comes from the tendency of its followers to abandon the traditional concept of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in favor of a Unitarian “Jesus” which merges some attributes of each member of the Trinity.

The movement is very diverse, but it shares some of these common attributes…

Occasionally the cross may be mentioned as a means to salvation, but the death, burial, resurrection, and future return of Christ is largely ignored.

Instead of historical discussions on sin and grace, this movement focuses on a Jesus who helps us be successful parents, money managers, and athletes.

The members of this group do not follow traditional denominational boundaries and are coming from charismatic groups, non-denominational churches, Baptist churches, and even from some of the historical denominations.

The “Christian” publishing industry has almost completely been taken over by this movement. Publishing giants Zondervan and Thomas Nelson Publishing have been purchased by the Rupert Murdoch conglomerate and control most of the “Christian” publishing industry. This follows a common tenant of this movement of merging American style capitalism with religion.

In the extreme, this group teaches a prosperity gospel. However, the more common teaching is a ‘prosperity lite’ that if you praise Jesus, be a good spouse, and manage your money well then Jesus will reward you with a good middle class lifestyle.

As far as I can tell, I haven’t found a good name for this movement. Some names I have seen are “Prosperity Gospel”, “Prosperity Lite”, and “Consumer Christianity”. I have been calling it “Unitarian Christianity” because of its use of a singular “Jesus”.

I have seen many reports that in much of the developing world, this movement has now become the dominant missionary force. In fact, it’s merging of American style capitalism and prosperity gospel seems to be very attractive to the impoverished in much of the developing world.

For me, I had to get to the place where it wasn’t about styles of music or whether I could drink coffee and eat donuts at church. Since this movement ignores orthodox beliefs in a Triune God as well as the death, burial, resurrection, and future return of Christ, I had to question my role and participation. My journey is mostly of finding a place for me in the religious landscape that is remaining.

The Bible, through a Scientist’s Eyes

The Bible, through a Scientist’s Eyes, part one

Testing Scripture: A Scientist Explores the Bible
by John Polkinghorne

• • •

Today, we begin walking through a new book by John Polkinghorne on the Bible. I believe this will give us a unique vantage point from which to consider the Scriptures? Why? — because Polkinghorne has a unique combination of vocations and expertise, as both an Anglican priest and a world-class physicist. (You can read his full biography here.)

John Polkinghorne is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a Fellow (and former President) of Queens’ College, Cambridge. His distinguished career as a Physicist began at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received his PhD in 1955. He stepped away from his scientific work and began studying for the Anglican priesthood in 1979, and eventually became President of Queen’s College. He retired from there in 1996. He was appointed KBE (Knight Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1997. Since then, Polkinghorne has been writing on the relationship between faith and science, serving on various faith/science-related commissions in the Church of England. He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Science and Religion in 2002.

In the introduction to his new book, Testing Scripture: A Scientist Explores the Bible, he writes, “Scripture has been very important to me in my Christian life. For more than sixty years I have read the Bible every day and when in middle life I was ordained as an Anglican priest, I undertook the welcome duty of saying the Daily Office. Every year this takes me through the whole of the New Testament and a good deal of the Old Testament.”

So, this book is not only written by a really smart guy (!) but by a man who has soaked himself in Scripture daily as a Christian and in his vocation as a servant of Christ. How could we not listen to the perspective of a brother with this kind of knowledge and experience? That is exactly what I’d like to do in the days to come. We will have a series of posts on his new book, listening and responding to John Polkinghorne’s unique point of view.

Having said all that, you should know that Testing Scripture is not an academic work. As its author tells us,“Its principal purpose is simply to help the contemporary reader to engage in a serious and intellectually responsible encounter with the Bible.”

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Daniel Jepsen on “How I became Non-Political”

I see the presidential election season is heating up. Soon, it will be a two-man race, Obama versus a candidate to be named later.

I find I care less each election cycle.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I still vote, and I do so after a good deal of reading about the candidate’s positions. But I have a hard time getting too emotionally worked up about the outcome. I don’t claim this as a virtue. Maybe (as perhaps you are thinking right now) it is a great fault. This post is not to defend my apathy, but to explain it.

First, let me stress that “twas not always so”. The month after I turned 18, I walked into a cold January night to take part in the Iowa caucuses. That same election I was allowed to ask a question during the “audience participation” part of the only GOP debate of the Iowa campaign. That was my fifteen minutes of fame (it was run on all three networks, and yes I am dating myself terribly by putting it that way). I recall that same season walking up and down the streets of Des Moines hanging GOP campaign material on people’s doorknob. I hated abortion (still do), resented the welfare state, and was suspicious of ‘socialized medicine” and soft-hearted judges. I was a full-throttled, red-blooded young republican, and I rejoiced at the start of the Reagan Revolution.

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Hate Religion? Love Jesus?

Jefferson Bethke has certainly received a lot of attention for his video, “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus, which went viral on YouTube last week (over 10 million views). In it, he raps a poem expressing a common evangelical perspective: Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. In fact, Jesus came to abolish religion and establish something completely new in its place.

I wonder what you might think about it?

Then, on the other hand…

Jonathan Fisk calls out Bethke and charges him with not adequately defining his terms and with promulgating a false dichotomy. I don’t post this for you because Fisk specifically promotes Lutheranism (though I personally agree with him), but because on a broader level, I think he offers a better way of thinking about how Jesus and religion relate to one another.

Oh yeah, and the clips from the Scott Wesley Brown video from the 70’s are worth twice the price of admission.

OK, it’s all yours. Have your say. Play nice.

Note: please make sure you watch the videos. Don’t just comment on what you may have heard elsewhere.