Thursday morning I and 4 friends from church left for a hiking trip into the High Peaks region of the Adirondack mountains. It was a great trip despite the weather. We had a little rain and snow going in. The trail was so wet, muddy, rocky and treacherous that it took us 5 hours to hike 7 miles. We hit the trail at 3pm and finally reached our lean-to at 8pm. A hurriedly created fire (thank God for birch bark, it will burn even when wet), a meal in the dark, a change of clothes and then huddling into our sleeping bags. Friday was a great day. We stayed near the camp, explored, fished (unsuccessfully), did some woodcraft and kept the fire going. This morning (Sunday) started nicely but soon after we began the hike back the rain began. It rained pretty much the rest of the way (and is still raining). The folks at the adirondack hotel where we ate were extremely good sports to serve 5 smelly, smokey and bedraggled hikers.

The pictures can be found here.

When I got back from my weekend in the high peaks (more on that in another post) I found out that our dog Jordan had died. Michael and I had been IMing about our old dogs and their ill health on Wednesday morning. His dog died that day, ours the day after. Jordan was a Bichon Frise, nearly 12 and his loss is deeply felt by all of us, but most of all by my wife. Jordan was literally her shadow. Other than the day he died, his last two weeks of life were some of the best he had had in quite awhile and we are thankful for that. Also for the fact that we did not have to have him put down, which we thought we were going to a few weeks ago. He will be missed.

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Are you sure you want to be Christ-like?

Excellent post from a former pastor.

I guess you and I will have to disagree on this one, Michael. Oklahoma was the last state to outlaw cockfighting but there are redneck peckerwood judges around here who refuse to uphold the law and prosecute these barbarians. They file restraining orders and all kinds of garbage to keep Oklahoma in the permanent cracker file in the eyes of the rest of the USA.

Yes, more resources should go to capturing murderers and people such as that. Maybe if they didn’t have cops around here stopping people for not wearing seat belts or trying to catch people with expired insurance they’d have more resources for doing just that. Cockfighting is something that should be shut down, however.

Clay County is totally full of cockfighting. I can drive to two rings right now within 10-15 minutes of my house. There are hundreds and hundreds of fighting birds in the yards of houses in our county. I have students who take off of school to fight their birds. They wear cock-fighting t-shirts to school. One of my ballplayer’s dads spent 10 minutes the other day trying to talk our coach into coming to the fight that weekend.

While the whole thing is cruel, the idea that police would spend time and resources on this situation is very frustrating. We have real problems with real people and real violence, etc. Call me a libertarian on this one.

Thanks for the LCMS info. We’re basically homeless as far as church is concerned, so I’m trying to check out all of our options. I even bought a Lutheran Book of Prayer a few weeks back, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

To add to the instability we are trying to sell our house and move to South Austin, closer to work. There is a little PCA church down there that I’d really like to try. It’s difficult to find a church that isn’t 1) doing the 40 days, 2) planning on doing the 40 days.

Want to meet a time traveller?

I’m really glad that Protestants aren’t into displaying bodies. I mean, who would you want hanging around your church in a glass case.?

The third guy….not the first two. The third guy. !!!!!!!!!

Tommy: I will back up what Josh said about the synods as a whole, but let me elaborate a little bit.

As with any denomination, it greatly depends on the congregation as to what theology is presented. The LCMS has fairly consistent doctrine, but my mentor who took a call to Washington D.C. once wrote me upon hearing that I was thinking about going to seminary:

Now that I am living here east of the Appalachians, I see a view of Missouri Synod Lutheranism I never knew existed, where—someone who holds to the basic tenets of the Apostles’ Creed is a Christian fundamentalist,—personal evangelism is Christian Terrorism,—the true Gospel is liberation theology,—the historic message of the Reformation was, “Be nice,”—views espoused by fundamentalists like Hank Hanegraaff, Ravi Zacharias, and Synod’s own Gene Edward Veith are exemplary of all that is wrong with the Christian church in America, and—don’t bother making any case for doctrine and practice based on Scripture since we all read the Bible through our own “filters.”

(If you would like to see where this side is coming from, get your hands on Daniel Erlander’s catechitical materials sold through the ELCA publishing house – Augsburg/Fortress. He has three pieces that LCMS pastors here are using – one is a primer to baptism, one is a primer to first communion [which fails to mention the body and blood of Christ, the atonement, and other essentials], and the third, “Manna and Mercy,” is a zinger of a rewrite of Bible history.)

And I’ve met very conservative members of ELCA congregations who were looking to get out and move to a more conservative synod. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t commune in an ELCA church because of their utter disdain and apathy towards Scripture. However, I would commune the more conservative members I’ve met without reservation.

Within the LCMS, I’ve found that the two exegetical principles at work (the Formal Principle and the Material Principle) help to hold Law and Gospel in very good balance. These are the definitions

Material Principle: The substance of our faith is Justification by grace through faith in Christ.

Formal Principle: The Bible is the rule and norm by which we may govern our actions.

These two principles overlap in that we read the scripture in the light of the Material Principle, and our very Christian liberty is provided by free Justification in Christ. (It’s impossible to explain the entirety of these two principles in one post when I spent an entire 3-hour summer course {Hermeneutics} learning about them. But I think you get the jist.)

The problem with most liberal theologians (including the ELCA) is that they chuck out scripture in its entirety and make the “Gospel” into the guiding rule and norm by which we may live our lives (thereby distorting what the Gospel really is). This leads, in the long run, to a complete abandonment of God’s Law and ultimately the subversion of any kind of objective morality.

The problem with fundamentalism is exactly the opposite. They chuck out the Gospel of Christ as the center of our faith and place Scripture there instead. This turns the Gospel of Christ into a Law and leads to legalism of the worst kind (as I’m sure you are aware… Blessed Quietness, anyone?)

The other difference between the LCMS and the ELCA comes in our adherence to the Confessions. The LCMS holds the Confessions (all the writings in the Book of Concord, namely The three ecumenical creeds {Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian}, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, The Smalcald Articles, Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord) to be true because they are true exposition of God’s infallible Scripture. The ELCA has subjectivized them, saying that they hold the confessions to be true inasmuch as they agree with their interpretation of the scriptures. And as a denomination that has a “low” opinion of the Bible, they discard large amounts of the confessions as well.

How’s that, Josh?

Michael: Will do. That is a wonderful essay.

While anyone is praying for BHTers, I’d like to add a request. My need for a new job has gotten much more pressing. God is faithful, and I am encouraged, but it is scary when I am responsible for supporting a wife and 2 kids.

Fellows and readers:

Next week, an essay by me will run in a major Christian publication. I’m quite excited, and it’s a real achievement for me as a writer. The article is on parenting, but it will mention, of course, my name and Internet Monk.com.

I’m very anxious about the fans and supporters of [name deleted] and their reaction to my name being in print in a publication that many of them will read. I know that the publication will get some email on it, but they are big boys and can handle it. Still, it will be uncomfortable for me, and perhaps for the editor who is giving me this chance.

I just hope you will all add this way down the list of things you pray for. I want the essay to be helpful to families, and I want, obviously, for this to be a step forward in my writing. The next 2-3 weeks, this article will expose me an the IM site to thousands of readers. I simply pray it will all be for the blessing of the church, and the fact that I have been declared an unbeliever in some quarters won’t become an issue.

Thanks. Peace. MS

Are “Monrovians” anything like “Moravians”?

I need a freaking score card.

IM is updated with “Retire the Chimps!! Help the Media Find the Real Evangelicals!”

Douglas Wilson answers- directly- questions about his views on slavery.

The posts over at Confessing Evangelical on Mary have been excellent. I recommend everyone get over there and take his quiz. So far all he’s got is a bunch of Lutherans saying sort-of nice things about Mary, so obviously we need some of our Baptists and Calvinist to go over there and set them straight (JN).

If Josh has read much of that interview with the Monrovians, his kidneys are undoubtedly aching. Heck, I tend to agree with them and my head hurts after finishing it. Excellent link, Kurt. I hope Josh responds. It’ll be another great opportunity to make people mad! {:)}

I like the little 4.5×3.25 black and white compositon books (160 pages). They have a sewn binding and they fit in my pocket. Besides they are three for a dollar!

The “Monroe Four” in their own words. Good interview with simple questions and simple answers. All the Presbies should read this one, I think.

Hat tip to PDuggan.

Tommy: Barth may well be awesome. I haven’t read much by him, except sections relating to his view of revelation in Scripture. From what I understand, I don’t see myself coming over to his view on that. However, from the synopses of his other views that I have seen, I think I well may “Amen” quite a lot of it.

I grew up ELCA. At first I was LCA or ALC, I don’t remember, then they merged. My parents are still there. My dad is a hoot. He’s very Republican, anti Bill & Hillary guy, and he’s the best friend there of the pastor, who’s a theologically conservative, politically Clinonite liberal. For a while, he was the church representative to the Synod’s Social Justice committee. In that lefty funhouse, you can imagine the hijinks that resulted. Kind of like Justice Sunday in reverse. He had to quit, because all he did was argue and say, “where’s that in the Bible?”

I tried the hipster PDA approach, but my coordination issues preclude the use of binder clips. I was unable to maintain an orderly stack of cards, but I managed to sustain several fairly severe finger injuries while handling the clips. For years, I have used whatever generic blank book I could find for a daybook/journal/spare brain, and it’s worked fine. Recently, I grabbed what I thought was a dirt-cheap version of that while walking through Barnes and Noble, and discovered that what I had purchased was in fact a refill for this item. So, like a good responsible person who’s cost-conscious, I went back to B&N and … purchased the journal itself. I love it, it goes with me everywhere, even to the places where my Powerbook doesn’t (which isn’t very many places these days.) Between my mac and my daybook, I don’t have a need for a PDA anymore, which is good because my Cassiopeia finally gave up the ghost a while back.

Josh could teach his views on Genesis 1-3 in the ELCA, and receive a major award. Monk ducks under table. Crawls to closet.

Some of the reviews of Ryan Dobson’s book made me laugh out loud. Especially this one:

The new little hitlers now carry bibles, dress like rich teenage poseurs, and cower in one-horse nowhere-towns like Colorodo Springs, terrified of the real world and incapable of True Christian Love.

Ha.

Mark – Barth is awesome, don’t let modern evangelicals inform your view of him. The only proper view I got of him in seminary was in History of Doctrine. (Which ironically for some Dispensationalists started in about 1880, luckily Barth came around after Darby)

Josh/Eric (or someone who knows) – What’s the difference b/t LCMS and ELCA? Do I get the same doctrine?

Kurt, you assume that all Michael wants to do is write down notes, tear out pages with his E-mail address, etc. I assume that, like me, Michael is a journaler from way back and wants something totally sweet to write in. I’ve been journaling since I was 12 years old, and the Moleskine is my favorite by lightyears. I’ve already filled one and and a quarter of the way through another.

And another thing, the SpacePens aren’t all they are cracked up to be. They smear too easily. I have 2. I’m waiting on a bottle of Noodler’s Ink for my fountain pen, then it will most definitely be on.

Joel: I had to look up “semiotics” in the dictionary :-)

One of my textbooks for my current class is Inerrancy, edited by Norman Geisler (no, Michael, I’m not starting that debate again.) The essays predate postmodernism, or at least its current popularity in Christendom. However, I am seeing a lot of similar issues addressed, specifically in response to theologians like Barth. I guess there is nothing new under the sun.

I skimmed that Revealer article, and it looked interesting. I noticed he put a picture of the Modern Reformation cover with Chrisitan Voters Guide. I don’t think he read it, as Modern Reformation doesn’t promote Dobson-style politicking.

Michael: Before you let Matthew get you hooked on that moleskine crack, let me assure that there is a cheaper alternative. I love mine, and losing it sets back $0.50, instead of 8 or 9 bucks.

Have Matthew buy you a Fisher Space Pen instead. Oh, and he can buy me one too. You know how those Methodist associate pastors are loaded. ;)

Also, stuff like this makes me ashamed to be associated with Republicans. You don’t catch Democrats trying to push stupid bills like this. Somebody just shoot Santorum, please.

Matthew: Not turning down that offer. Thanks. Could you get a picture of Pope Benedict on the front?

I’ll tell you what, Michael: I’ll buy your first one. I like the pocket-sized with plain pages.

Joel: The sight of Ryan Dobson glaring out at us as our future Pope is sickening. Go ahead and write me people. I have permission to be intolerant toward stupid stuff :-)

I think the quote is extremely perceptive, and I think one should put one Al Mohler up as exhibit “A” of the shift from one kind of conservatism to another. Mohler was inaugurated with a big personal blessing from Billy Graham. I was there at Freedom Hall. Now he’s in the shadow of Dobson. Sen. Salazar has apologized for calling Dobson the anti-Christ. Good, because I want to call him the anti-Church. His determination to turn the church into a wholly owned subsidary of a culture war run by parachurch and political leaders is clearly a vision of some kind of Puritan America that many of us reject on Biblical grounds. Of course, we are not listening to scripture or exegetes of scripture in the culture war. We are listening to pundit alarmists who want to attract politcal power and media attention. A pox on all their houses. It’s madness.

Now Mr. Delay has a problem that we can understand….cigar hypocrisy.

Darn you Matthew Johnson. Now I will have to spend money.

Note to people who spend their time interacting with blogs as if they were people. Blogs aren’t people. Blogs are something people write. They have very little to do with the real world. The 23 hours a day I am not blogging I am doing other things that have absolutely nothing to do with what is written about on the blog. This goes double if the writer has an on-line persona. Have them adjust your medication until this becomes clear to you. Blogs are pieces of paper. They are not people. People are those two legged spongy things that you used to see in your neighborhood before you nailed the doors and windows over with boards to keep the aliens out.

If anyone else can make this point better than me, please do so.

Mohler endorses the Roy Moore vision of America.

Here’s an issue that should bring all of us together: Save Our Looney Tunes.

I’m reading Chalke’s book. Guess this cements my credentials. I haven’t come across the offending passage yet. Book is pretty lightweight to be getting all this press.

I gurantee you people are sick of talk radio, all brands and all varities.

Phillip, thanks for the mention of Sharlet and the May Harper’s issue. On my way to school this morning I swung by B&N and picked up a copy. I think this issue should qualify as a BHT must-read. It has two articles on its theme of “Soldiers of Christ.” The first is the aforementioned Sharlet’s “Inside America’s Most Powerful Megachurch.” The second is “Feeling the Hate with the National Religious Broadcasters,” by Chris Hedges. I decided to read Hedges’ article first. I would call it “providential” in its timing, considering the recent attention given to “Justice” Sunday. I thought that this quote was particularly apt for the BHT:

The traditional evangelicals, those who come out of Billy Graham’s mold, are not necessarily comfortable with the direction taken by the Dominionists, who now control most of America’s major evangelical organizations, from the NRB to the Southern Baptist Convention, and may already claim dominion over the Christian media outlets. But Christians who challenge Dominionists, even if they are fundamentalist or conservative or born-again, tend to be ruthlessly thrust aside.

Some may find Hedges’ conclusions objectionable. I don’t, not when I have books like this staring back at me from Christian bookshelves, written by the next generation of culture warriors.

I’m looking forward to Sharlet’s article. I found this article yesterday when I began looking into his work.

Mark, I hope to post a longish entry picking up Alex’s questions from a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to just mention another point about the possible importance of studying semiotics and postmodern theory on that subject. As a student of the Bible, you appreciate the importance of being able to interpret signs. To do this, you must operate under some theory of (a) interpretation and (b) signs. You adopt some method to render the meaning of the signs. What is the basis for that theory and method? For example, we learn to connect the Christian sacraments to their Hebrew prototypes. We find Christ typified, alluded to, prefigured from Genesis to Malachi. I do not question the validity of any of this. But it does involve assumption about language, its structure and use, that it might be worthwhile to bring to the surface and ponder.

Semiotics goes back (at least) to Plato’s Cratylus. Then the Stoics and Epicureans got into it, making the famous distinction between natural and conventional signs. St. Augustine breaks from this classical tradition by offering a general theory of signs that captures both the natural and the conventional and which lays the foundation for medieval semiotics, which in many ways, is the heart of Scholasticism. In the modern period, Locke is very important (Book III of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding) and is the standard for semiotics until Saussure and structuralism. There may be little to gain in structuralism, hermeneutics, and poststructuralism, but it is worth learning about them if for no other reason than to gain an appreciation for what unresolved problems there are in the earlier theories of semiotics. The more we rely on those earlier theories, the more problematic our communication becomes in an age that has left those theories behind.

Last December, a UM pastor had her ordination creds removed by a jury of her peers in a church trial for being a “self-avowed, practicing homosexual”. Today, the Northeastern jurisdiction reversed that decision because “neither the General Conference nor the pertinent Annual Conference has defined the words “practicing homosexual” and “status.” Great. Haven’t defined it? Do they need some one to draw it in crayon for them?

Josh, you might want to send me that advertisement on how to join the LCMS.

Jack, agreed with me. I repeat, government is not ‘them’, it’s ‘us’!

Josh, my environmentalism could be labeled “fighting the fall”; be it mental retardation and disability or the extinction of species, I hate all disease and death. It’s a losing battle, but it’s mine.

This morning I heard that an ivory-billed woodpecker of some sort, thought to be extinct since the 1940’s, has been seen in the wild. I was very happy for me, for us and for the God who created that woodpecker for our/His enjoyment.

Josh is just itching for more hate mail :-) I agree, for the most part, with your post. My problem is that I talk the talk (“We need to be good stewards of God’s creation…”) but I really don’t do crap about it. I’m not alone, though. The person who talks my ear off the most about the environment owns 2 SUV’s and does God knows what else that adversely affects “the environment”.

Kurt and I just IM’d about this. Have you ever seen a cause that has people on the right and the left coming together for a common purpose? Pat Robertson is in the commercial for crying out loud! There are some Christian organizations, good ones at that, participating in this effort to eliminate poverty and AIDS. What do you want to bet that the liberals won’t want to see abstinence advocated as a way to eliminate AIDS.

Kent: My beliefs exactly. The urge to power is best restrained at a local level. It’s a lot harder to get away with being a government scoundrel when the people said scoundrel is screwing is his own neighbors.

Josh: Do I qualify as a curmudgeonly libertarian? (Oh, and welcome back. If you’ll recall, [ahem], I voted to keep you last time. And yes, I am thirsty now that you mention it. Grey Goose, straight up please.)

I recall reading recently—though I can’t remember where—that Luther started off with essentially the traditional RCC view of Mary, and indeed a higher view of Mary than many of his RCC colleagues. Later in his life he backed away from it, insisting that Mary should not be prayed to, etc, though he still said that he treasured her.

Steve Camp is very interesting. I know that for years all I ever heard about Steve Camp was that he used the word B-S- in an interview with CCM Magazine, and CCM printed it, and people were shocked. Looking back, it reminds me of the Campolo story, because I can’t even remember what he was decrying as cow feces, even though I read the interview more than once. Anyway, many people just couldn’t believe that a Christian would use that word, or that a Christian magazine would print it. At least at first, CCM stuck to their guns, but I think they eventually apologized.

I remember that story every time I see someone who mocks earthy language or subtly calls someone’s Christianity into question over the use of earthy language, but calls Steve Camp a good friend.

I’ll only take the day off if that bird tastes like chicken and someone fries it up for me.

I’m hesitant to post a link to the on-line store where I buy my Moleskine journals because then you would know how much money I’ve spent on them in the last year. Of course, that picture only shows the ones I took with me. So sad, I know. Anyway, here’s the link. These people are customer service oriented and the product always shows up before you think it will.

P.S. The first one I bought came from Joseph Beth. I got it the day before graduation and have been writing in them ever since (I finished that first one while in Guatemala).

Everything you ever wanted to know about Lutherans and Mary. In fact, this may be more than Josh and Eric want to know :-) Excellent post from John at Confessing Evangelical.

Joel: Steve Camp is interesting. He is a supporter of PSs. (His kids go to PSs.) He’s a Democrat I believe, and he is also a Macarthur Man, which would explain the anti-Romanist parts of the post. Steve has always been a favorite of mine. A musician who thinks, studies and writes. The man who told the CCM industry the truth. (His posts on the Chevrolet sponsored MWS/Third Day tours are classics.) A man who has been through a divorce and is honest about his brokenness. Yet a man who is passionate about the Gospel. “He’s Not Like Them.” Here’s to him, even if I disagree with the anti-Romanist bit.

Matthew will be taking the day off. (Hey Matthew, where do you buy those nice journals on your flickr site?)

16-6 victory for OBI last night in the rain. One freshman got his first home run, he was so happy. Hard to beat that.

I marvel at how enthusiasim for certain kinds of Calvinism so easily morphs into contempt for people and the simple, kindergarten conventions of decency. Was one critic write in saying that when your religion says God despises the majority of people it’s easier for you to do the same?

There’s a facit of our form of governance oft missed today, especially by conservatives. And by being missed creates an us/them polemic which is sad and counterproductive. It’s a product of the fact that most people don’t see local government as being significant enough for their attention…which is sad because it’s one place where a single person or small group of people can have significance.

Government in the United States can also be “people coming together collectively to do something that they cannot accomplish individually”. I’ve seen it, I’ve been part of it, it works, albeit imperfectly. If you go in with an ideal agenda and are unwilling to settle for anything else you will be disappointed…it’s kinda like marriage that way.

Message? Quit whining about the ubiquitous “them”, go out and try to make a difference locally.

Read (past tense) Camp’s second entry on “The Dangers of Evangelical Cobelligerence.” He makes some good points, as he did in the first article. And I love the Barnhouse epigram. But it seems to me there is some fundamental confusion in this entry. On the one hand, he makes a good point about the inappropriate use of the church for a political rally. Church: preach the gospel, not a culture war. Yep, got it. Where he goes off track is the attention given to the speakers’ non-Protestant credentials (evident in his taking exception to “Romanists” speaking—good grief, here we go with that again) rather than the cynical and flagrant political machinations. But not all “co-belligerence” has the same kinds of ends as “Justice” Sunday. For example, as an individual Christian I might work with Amnesty International to raise consciousness about and fight against injustice like state-sponsored torture. We may have different motivations for the cause, but why must everyone I work with be, not only a Christian, but a confessing Protestant one? There’s just too much emphasis on separateness from non-Protestants in Camp’s article for my liking that diminishes the importance of political life (much as I hate it). I think this same emphasis also results in his conflation of legitimate political action by an individual and illegitimate political action by the church. The bedfellows one keeps in these cases is, at best, a secondary issue. Anyone else read it? Did I misintepret him?

What Alex said.

I agree with Josh in principle: anyone who expects the State to spread the gospel has made a category mistake. The State bears the sword (if there even needs to be a State) and the Church bears the gospel.

However, I think that the application of the principle is incorrect in the case of certain conservative evangelicals*. I think that if one were to press them as to whether or not they think that the State is responsible for “saving” people, they would reply “most certainly not.”

I think the reason that conservative evangelicals* are exerting undue amounts of political muscle is because they want certain social fruits of the gospel to be realized to a greater degree in the city of man. The whole “Justice Sunday” thing is an attempt to get likeminded jurists in positions where they will be able to exert power with respect to certain issues that evangelicals find especially pressing – abortion and homosexual marriage, for example.

I also think that many conservative evangelicals* are operating under the assumption that there is some Christian golden age lurking in the American past, a golden age where Christian morality was at least taken for granted by most Americans. What is wanted is a recovery of that golden age. For what reason, I do not know. For all I know, it is a nice fiction that downplays the significant moral problems that plague American history.

It really boils down to the Puritan strain of thinking that views America as the new Canaan – in the Promised Land sense. The boundaries of church and nation are seen as congruent with one another (or at least they were are one point in time one might claim).

All of this is demonstrably false. The Puritan dream has failed, and much to everyone’s chagrin, America is just like any other nation in the steady progression of history. While America may fall apart, the Church, however, will stand forever. My thinking is, why hitch one’s wagon to a falling star?

• Non-Lutheran evangelicals, that is.

and the culture wars.

Has anyone else received a phone call from Focus on the Family about the cultural issues facing our nation?

I received an automated call last evening. I hung up after about the third question. Am I a registered voter, Judicial filibustering, Homosexual marriage, Do I allow my children to watch SpongeBob (jn on the last one).

Michael: At lunch today I listened to a radio interview with Jeff Sharlet, who has written an article called Inside America’s Most Powerful Megachurch for Harper’s Magazine. He spent an hour talking about Ted Haggard and the rise of the “religious right” in American politics, and I felt more ill the more I listened. I felt extremely sad at how so much energy is being misdirected into politics when it should be focused more directly on spreading the Gospel.

I felt especially sick when this author, who had spent a good amount of time going to Haggard’s church in Colorado Spings, talked about how the people he was profiling, including Haggard, felt about soup kitchens and various other types of outreach. It isn’t the lowest possible priority, he said, but it comes after “make me feel good,” and small groups, and a few other things. Obviously there are exceptions to this: my church is pastored by a former Republican lobbyist and is actively involved in local outreach. But it does seem to be the rule that those crying loudest that social programs should be the domain of the church instead of the government tend to be those doing to least to put the government’s social programs out of work.

This tendency to isolate ourselves from society in the most odd ways, while swallowing other bits of Western culture hook, line, and sinker, just makes me sad.

Long sigh

The question of the day in my Bible class has to do with a group of students who have now made renouncing all secular music/literature the hallmark of the “true” Christians on campus. Separation from the world. Only “Christian” music.

I did a couple of things with this. First, I read this wonderful story of a Lutheran Church in NYC with two generations of ministry to the jazz community. We talked about this ministry as compared to what we hear about in churches and the dominant evangelical culture today. Read the article. It’s a beautiful thing.

Next, I wrote the words “worldly” and “Christian” on the board and asked students to define the terms in relation to each other, which wasn’t much trouble. But then I said let’s do this in relation to music.

So I wrote on the board at least twenty different kinds of music: jazz, classical, country, techno, rock, pop, rap, hip hop, Gospel, and so on, including as many subdivisions as we could briefly name. Then I asked why a Christian should and shouldn’t listen to each one of these. Fairly quickly, it is apparent that 1) all are related to God, 2) many are related to the Christian faith and 3) all present opportunity for Christians to convey a message or glorify God. In some cases, matters of faith are highly essential to the genre, such as country, Gospel and bluegrass.

Then we talked about Bob Briner. Briner, author of Roaring Lambs, was a Christian who wanted to be a sports annopuncer. His Christian mentors said that wasn’t a godly profession. Briner wrote Roaring Lambs and asked why not? He started a revolution that a lot of fundamentalists are still missing.

I also told them about the importance of a church that embraces and encourages Christians in their callings, and used Mars Hill as an example (especially the way they use the DJs to do the Prelude music for worship.)

Then I asked what they thought Jesus did at the wedding in Cana for a week? And what he did at Matthew’s party? Any “worldly” music present? Did Jesus remove himself from that environment?

Finally, we talked about the incarnation as God coming into the world, not telling Christians to separate themselves from it. I acknowledged that there are lots of things in culture- and in some music- that are offensive. Some things need to be avoided for prudence sake, but not as an absolute.

I have this conversation over and over and over. The way of the Pharisee, the way of the rule book, the way of separation is the prefered spirituality of Christian young people, and the reason is that their pastors, youth ministers and peers constantly hold out these ways of being “Christian” with almost no reference to Jesus himself. Jesus is the guy on the cross. The ministry of Jesus seems to be meaningless. It’s problematic that Jesus lived out a Kingdom of divine incarnation and acceptance of the sinful, rather than a retreat into separation and gnostic experiences of “holiness.”

Where is the real Jesus in the churches shaping these kids? Where is their desire to love neighbor? Are they so weak- morally- and so fearful of “poluution” that they fall for all the schemes of evangelical publishers and entertainers to create a Christian consumer culture? Christian kids in Christian schools watching Christian videos, wearing Christian clothes and listening to Christian music? Praying in the bubble that their unbelieving friends will become like them?

If every member of Congress were Christians; if every member of the Supreme Court were saved; if every judicial appointee by the President confessed Christ as Lord; and if the President and every member of his cabinet were born again, it would have zero impact upon the spiritual condition of our nation.

Grace and peace,
Steve Camp
2 Cor. 4:5

[Moderators Note: Apparently, Steve is “not like them.” Put on your helmet, Steve-O.]

I agree PW

I figure if the desire to do good works (for the glory of God) is there, that is in itself is enough to prove my own salvation to me (It matters not what anyone else thinks). Romans 7 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ESV More »« Less

On the one hand, I can’t believe Peter Popoff is still around. On the other hand, I can. And I weep for the human race.

All my problems are solved! I’ve found the answer!!!

I wasn’t going to subject myself to the tidal wave of abuse and misunderstanding that surrounded that subject, so thank you, PW. :-)

Tom: Cling to the Cross, and rest assured. I don’t have any easy answer on the issue of good works. Perhaps our resident Methodist should speak up on the issue, instead of spending his time creating pirate flags!

I can look back over my life and see times when my “good works” were hard to find, and yet I can see God sustaining me in His mercy. I can also spot times when it seems like I was doing great things and I know that I was feeling empty inside and not spending much time focusing on Christ. I believe that God held me in His hands during those times, too.

In the end, all we have is that we believe in Jesus Christ, crucified. In the long run, over time, yes I believe good works will follow. The work of the Holy Spirit, and all that. But just as God’s view of things in so many other areas isn’t at all like ours, so too I think His view of “good works” is different from ours. I suspect that I just don’t realize how far I’ve got to go before I really start demonstrating true love, true joy, true peace, etc. Between now and then, I suspect things will sometimes get worse instead of better from my perspective. And yet I think that from His perspective, they probably improve.

As I think Michael was trying to say a couple of months ago—though I never quite grasped him perfectly—it is often when we label ourselves the biggest failure in the good works department and “give up” that God finally does what He wants to do because He’s got us right where He wants us.

I came across this in my reading this morning, and thought it was interesting in light of recent discussion on the culture wars:

”...some cannot entertain the thought of boundary-definition without immediately rehearsing the most flagrant examples of the loss of civil liberties. The Spanish Inquisition remains the defining example of the dangerous extremes conjured by the very word heresy. Modern upwardly mobile people, with all their guarantees of civil liberties, wildly imagine that they will be again subjected to some new potential “inquisition” if the H-word is even mentioned. But the Spanish inquisitors had state power behind them, while classic Christians worshiping within democracy exercise no unilateral coercive power – and desire none. Wherever misguided church leaders confuse coercive political power with faith, they cease being grounded in the orthodox way.”

~Thomas C. Oden, The Rebirth of Orthodoxy

The problem with faith and works for me is that I look at my own life and don’t see very many works. But what classifies as “works?” What are the works that “prove” your salvation? I believe I have fewer works than almost any Christian on earth (maybe an exaggeration, but I’m taking after Paul who called himself “chief among sinners.”) I’m fat, I hate God half the time, I’m lustful, and I could go on and on. I believe in helping the downtrodden but I don’t. And yet still I believe I have faith, and believe that old cliche that “if I died tonight I’d go to heaven.” Do I have a theology that just provides me with a false comfort? Am I just kidding myself? I sort of take comfort in the fact that if God accepts a peyote-smoking Christian artist into the kingdom that he might just accept me too. If not, what can I do about it, oh ye Calvinists?

I win.

Best medicine for dog grief: a 13-11 OBI victory over rival Cordia, featuring lots of home runs and three major comebacks.

Now…..I have a challenge. I just got a letter and I want to share this excerpt with you:

Then one day on a website that they had skull and crossboned (an) article of yours on why you are not like other Calvinist…

I spoke on faith and works to our college group last night. The gist of the message was, you are saved by faith but if you really believe it is going to be visible in your actions and works will follow. More »« Less

“Christ for President” by Billy Bragg and Wilco, words by Woody Guthrie.

Sorry to hear about your dog. I know how much I rely on my dogs (five Border Collies right now) company and how much it hurts when I loose one. Though I usually have a bunch of dogs one is always my special friend that goes everywhere on the ranch with me. When I loose one of those dogs it is like my shadow is missing for months.

Michael, I’m so sorry to hear about your dog. I lost my first cat, Patches, in 2001 after 14 years, so I know how hard it is. I’m so very sorry.

Red Meat for Josh: A young Catholic scholar takes on the Protestant claim to have the more Biblical reading of “Justification by faith” in Romans and Galatians. One thing that interests me is that Piper uses a lot of the “faith working through love” in his books.

One of the problems with critical thought is that you will find allies in places you never imagined. Pope Benedict XVI is much more of an ally, for true evangelical soldiers of the cross, than an enemy. Evangelicals could learn a great deal from reading and watching him. I doubt most boomers will even bother. I have some hope for younger believers, however. When the winds of God begin to blow through the church again you can expect many Christians, and various Christian traditions, will have a part to play. This is, in part, a reason for my ecumenism. It is an ecumenism of the cross, not of politics and pragmatics. -John Armstrong, writing about the writings of Pope Benedict XVI

I wept like a baby when my wife wanted to get rid of Bodhi after a week and a half. Plus “Bodhi” is actually a name taken from Buddhism. All of which leads me to believe I must be a heathen pansy.

Michael- Sorry to hear about your dog. There is something just so terribly special about what they do for us. I wept like a baby when we had to put down our last dog. I believe they are a great gift from God. I know Timothy Merton McCheyne will be missed.

Kent: I think that quote you provided is right on the mark. A few years ago I noticed that 1 John 4:20 indicates such a strong tie between loving brother and loving God. In fact, it almost seems to turn things around a little bit, suggesting that loving brother is easier than (and therefore helps us to learn how to) love God.

Doug Wilson IS a Calvinist….and just read what fun he’s having. (jn) Truly a stranger than fiction post.

Dave Rattigan: If you only knew some of the cool ideas we’ve been tossing around over here.

World Magazine Bog is having such trouble with “Christian commenters” that they are considering registration.

It took about 50 comments at the current IM essay- on Justice Sunday- to accuse me of promoting N.T. Wright and his lefty causes and to start personally insulting me (I’ve stayed off the comment threads except for questions. Wright gets one sentence in the essay.) Tell me this isn’t a mind virus.

I’d second Michael’s recommendation for works about contemplative prayer. I’ve always liked The Way of a Pilgrim. When I teach the Shorter Catechism questions on prayer (98-107), I find the insights from contemplative prayer a helpful corrective for our tendency to think of prayer as an idiosyncratic way of bringing some content to God’s attention. I do think prayer is more about attitude than about words, about the “How” more than the “What.” Otherwise, Paul’s imperative to “pray without ceasing” would be an occasion to despair.

I’ve been reading Ernest Gordon’s book, To End All Wars and ran across this bit of verse, seems appropriate to share for some reason.

No one could tell me where my soul might be;
I sought for God, but God eluded me;
I sought my brother and found all three…
My soul, my God, and all humanity.

Maybe God isn’t in our navels after all…

eric, I’ve always loved The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, which is available in printable format here or from Amazon here. I’m sure that there’s a lot wrong with it, probably there’s a website out there detailing what’s wrong with it, but I simply like it.

Brennan Manning’s books have also helped me grow in theospection (new word alert), though I can’t think of any whose main focus is prayer. A big step for me was giving myself permission to pray in pictures, as I’m pretty visual. Quite liberating, though there’s probably a website detailing the problems with that too.

#1 and unchallenged on my list. A book by the LIBERAL Baptist stalwart, Harry Emerson Fosdick: The Meaning of Prayer. Acquire it.

Then read Merton or other monastics. Basil Pennington. Their idea of prayer is far different than the revivalist idea. Contemplative prayer. Check it out and you will be free of a lot of baggage.

AVOID: Bounds, and frankly, just about everyone in evangelicalism. Books on prayer are almost all books on “Getting God to do Stuff for you,” and it’s annoying and ususally vacuous.

Can anyone recommend a very basic book about prayer? And when I say basic, I mean focusing on its definition and procedures for praying. Is there such a book? One that focuses on how to pray specifically. Not the power of prayer, and not the scriptural commands to pray, but how to actually do it in real time.

For me, prayer remains the single most confusing, confounding, mysterious part of this belief in God that I have. In all truth, it makes not a lot of sense to me. And when I try to do it, I feel that. Always have. I guess it is to me like I think heaven is for Michael.

Anyway, when I look at what’s missing in my Christianity (and believe me, I hate thinking in those terms, because the work and life and death of Christ mean there is nothing missing—but you know what I mean), I guess the thing that always pops up is the whole “personal relationship with Christ and/or God” thing. I believe, and I have faith. But personal relationship? What does that mean in practical terms? And is prayer at the center of that concept, as I seem to instinctively believe it is? Maybe that’s why the “personal relationship” idea has always sent guilt daggers through my heart.

Don’t worry—no hand-wringing crisis of faith here. I’ve been through that before, and I know how to recognize it. This is just something that’s always thrown me, and I’ve lately been trying to figure it out—an exercise in frustration.

And please no one just say: “See the Bible.” The Bible has much to say, for instance, about the need and command for Christians to pray, and about its power and effects. And Jesus prayed, and taught His disciples to pray, and demonstrated prayer. But somehow I am not sure how to translate that into individual prayers. Do I pray exactly what He prayed? Or do I just follow that model and insert my own petitions and concerns? And what kind of words do I use? Normal vocabulary? Or is it not about words, but rather thoughts and attitudes? Does me thinking about stuff as I drive to work constitute prayer, since I am God’s child and He knows my thoughts?

And so my mind goes in circles, even as I pray.

Wow. That was a lot! Didn’t intend to type all that. But if anyone has any sagely words, I would welcome them.

In late summer of 1993, we took our two kids, a 5 year old boy and an 8 year old girl, to Bardstown, Kentucky to Grandma’s Kennel to purchase a puppy for our family. We came away with a 12 week old Scottish Terrier named Sir Timothy Merton McCheyne. Timothy after his dad, Merton because Merton’s monastery was around the corner, and McCheyne for the great Scottish preacher. This morning, just before I left for school, he died here in the house, laying on his blanket, quite peacefully, after 3 years of diabetes and a recent bout with a virus.

McCheyne has been a great dog. Good with the kids. Friendly to the cats. Welcoming to strangers. No personality quirks. Even as he got older- and deaf- he was a fun dog. Yes, he had dog breath, chewed Clay’s toys, scratched at the carpet and needed to be walked 4x a day. But we undertook the care of a pet for the enjoyment of it, and we were more than fortunate.

Dogs have a remarkable loving nature. It is easy to imply human personality- and value- to them. We endowed McCheyne with a human voice and made him an imagined party to everything that went on in this house. He brought us hours of laughter and joy. In the purity of the relationship with a pet, we experience something of the original paradise. I don’t like it when we humanize animals to a fault- I wouldn’t have hesitated to put McCheyne down if he stayed ill or if Denise hadn’t been able to give the shots each day- but I believe animals humanize us. They recover for us some of what it means to be human. Our original dominion and our mortality. Our creatureliness and our identity in God.

McCheyne made our family better, and he made us more loving, responsible and happy. Many people mention how they admire the way all the family took their turns walking him. I know he made us more patient with one another because sometimes we had to be patient with his “dogness.” When I am reviewing an admissions folder to come to our school, I never admit someone who is cruel to animals. It is an indicator to me of something very wrong.

I buried him within the hour of his death, next to the shed, out in the yard he loved. We will plant something over him, and we’ll all have a moment of emptiness and remembrance. Then we will move on. All that we love that dies before us teaches us how to approach death without fear. In simple surrender to what is the enemy, but what has become, in Christ, the prelude to resurrection.

I’ll miss my walking buddy. A lot of good times and moments in my life have been passed with him. But he runs ahead, as dogs will do, and I, older and not as fast, walk slower, but determined to catch up.

JoelH and JoshS: Thank you both for fighting over my eternal soul. I will make my church decision based on which one has the coolest, swingingest worship band and the clearest PowerPoint slides and the tastiest refreshments. Also, if the pastor uses one of those head mics instead of a corny old stand mic or lapel mic, I will be drawn like a moth to a flame. (JN all of that, please)

Speaking of: Jim: I was just thinking that since you were one of the proponents of abolishing comments (if memory serves me correctly), it was funny that you now had them open on your posts (because if memory also serves here, I don’t recall seeing them open on your posts before—I could be wrong). Anyway, don’t you know one of the main rules of the world: when someone gives you credit, take it! (JN)

Joel: I don’t have any problem with Congress reigning in the courts by restricting funding or abolishing district courts or whatever, if that’s within their constitutional authority. There may or may not be a political price to pay. I don’t have a problem with Christians who are politicians or lobbyists getting involved in such a plan. I do have a problem with Christians involving themselves as Christian leaders, which is what is happening here, if this article is accurate. Then we become just another lobbying group.

Can we get the Jack Hitt editorial w/o registering? While navigating the LA Times’ site, I came across this doozy (in case there are any doubts about the intentions of certain politically active evangelical “leaders”). Long story short: it’s much bigger (and worse) than “Justice Sunday.” That was a news flash, I know.

ericrigney, best of luck on your LCC interview. I’ll sure be pulling for you and hope you will be able to join us here in our fair city of Lexington. We must consolidate our forces against the mounting threat from that Republic that lies yonder west.

As for Tates Creek, of course it would be great to have you there, too. We get people from all different backgrounds, churched and unchurched. We’ve even been known to have the occasional Lutheran, er, “Evangelical, in the Augsburg Sense” (EAS) visitor. I’m pretty sure this is the denomination that was founded by Norville Barnes after he invented the hula hoop.

Chet at IM passed along this LA Times column that does a great job with Jesus. I think you will want to read it, save it and pass it along.

I know that all of us have to deal with our subjectivity when it comes to Jesus, but hey…..how in the world do you go from Jesus in the Gospels, and the LORD Jesus of the New Testament….to the Jesus of the political crowd, hammering away at their culture war agenda for America? Wake up people! This is the savior and Lord of the world, not of American culture! American Christians are being persecuted by the judiciary? How can you be so small minded in a world of real suffering?

I was a Clive Cussler reader for years. Read all the Dirk Pitt Stuff up till the last few years. So I wanted to see Sahara. Denise and I went to see it tonight, and it was a fun date. Good updating of the stories and keeping the fun spirit of the characters. But I have to tell you, there were some plot holes so big you were embarassed to sit there and listen to them. It’s hard to spoil a good adventure movie for me, but WOW- there were mistakes in plot editing. And they left out Lincoln. Boooo. Boooo. I want to see Fever Pitch and Kingdom of Heaven. Break approaches, with actual time to go to the movies.

Got a great letter today from a 25 year old young man who went to D.C. to make it in politics, and is now in the ministry at McLaren’s church. God bless you, Jeremy. I hope we hear more from you. Here’s one paragraph of his letter.

You see, I am a 25 year old working in ministry on Capitol Hill. As I
always tell people, I did not come to Washington, DC to work in ministry, but to work on the Hill and in politics. I worked for a Member of the Senate for a year before God rocked my world and completely changed my life course. Now, I am trying to do this thing called ministry without having any formal training or experience (which God has been very good about, by the way, helping me work through!), all the while standing chest deep in a cauldron of spiritual e-evaluation. Through doing ministry for a year and a half and beginning to read some people like Sweet, McLaren (and now attending his church…), Willard, and other Emergent leaders, I am beginning to decide for myself what I believe God cares about when it comes to the Bible, salvation, faith, prayer, heaven, hell, the kingdom of God, church, etc…and it is kind of tough and scary…