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.