Hippiemommy

Category: Christianity

  • The Post-Church Christian

    The Post-Church Christian is a book written by father and son, both of whom have served as pastors in Evangelical churches. It addresses many of the reasons why the younger generation is leaving the church, and how the older generation views their choices. It is written in a conversational style, with the son going first, presenting the view of “millennials”, and then the father going next, presenting the “boomer” view. In the final section, they combine their points to discuss the future of the church.

    As neither a millennial (I miss the cutoff by a mere 18 months) nor a baby boomer (by, uh, about 15 years), I thought this might be an interesting book to read. I figured that I could hopefully see the value in the points made by each side.

    In the first section, showing the millennial viewpoint, Carson Nyquist covers many of the big reasons why his generation is turned off by the church. If you browse through my previous posts, you’ll probably find them all listed, LOL. His first issue is the church’s lack of authenticity in sharing sins. Quoting Jon Acuff, he says,

    Have you ever been in a small group with people that confess safe sins? Someone will say, “I need to be honest with everyone tonight. I need to have full disclosure and submit myself in honesty… So you brace yourself for this crazy moment of authenticity and the person takes a deep breath and says… “I haven’t been reading my Bible enough.”

    Yes, we’ve all seen it. When my husband and I first started attending The Refuge, we talked about how awesome and also incredibly uncomfortable it was that everyone there was really, truly open with the kinds of sins that you never heard mentioned elsewhere. Even the pastors! It was mind-blowing.

    The book goes on to mention Jon Acuff’s idea of “giving the gift of going second”, meaning that if you honestly share your struggles, the ugly ones that no one normally mentions at church, it is much easier for the next person to be honest. I saw this at the Refuge, and it rocked my world. I will never look at faith communities the same, and I now have a much higher standard.

    Throughout the rest of his section, Carson addresses other frustrations with Evangelical culture, including the lack of integration of faith life and everyday life, pop culture/copycat Christianity, the fact that Jesus wasn’t a white Republican, and the church’s stance on homosexuality. I found myself nodding along to many of his frustrations.

    The second section, written by Paul Nyquist, covers the “boomer” response to the millennials. One of his main arguments is that the millennials need to forgive the boomers and have grace on them, both because we are all part of an eternal family and called to forgive. I found his argument really compelling. He also discusses how the younger generation will make mistakes itself and soon be passing the torch on to their children and be looking for forgiveness themselves. He apologizes for the mistakes made, and tries to explain the boomers viewpoints and why they’ve chosen to run the church in the way that they have.

    The final section brings both voices together, with a vision for what the future could bring for the church. Paul asks again for reconciliation and forgiveness, Carson reminds millennial readers that they will also make many mistakes in trying to follow God as best as they can, and that grace is needed for all of us. They both do a good job of wrapping up their points throughout the book and bringing it together in a cohesive way.

    All-in-all, I enjoyed this book. It is a quick read, and although I’ve either said or heard many of the general ideas covered in here, the authors took fresh approaches to many of them and kept my attention throughout. I really like the format of the book and felt like it gave me a better understanding of both the generation in front of and the generation behind me. I love the conversation that they’ve started, and I hope that it continues.

  • With by Skye Jethani

    With
    Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

    By Skye Jethani

    It is rare that I read a popular Christian author and see much of anything new. Sadly, the same topics seem to get recycled, repackaged and replayed. I was (very pleasantly) surprised as I read With, because Mr. Jethani gave me the vocabulary to describe so many issues that are common in the church. Until I read this book, I could explain why I disagreed with many of these tactics, but couldn’t pin down the common thread – control and manipulation. The way that he laid it out really impressed me.

    Basically, Mr. Jethani describes 4 different ways that we attempt to control the world around us by using God:

    • life UNDER God – where you seek to control the world by securing God’s blessing via rituals and/or morality
    • life OVER God – where you use God as a self-help guide… you employ natural laws or divine principles extracted from the Bible to give yourself a sense of control
    • life FROM God – where you use God to try to acquire wealth, health and popularity so you can insulate yourself from the calamities that happen to others
    • life FOR God – where you try to extract God’s favor and give meaning to your life through faithful service

    Mr. Jethani’s descriptions of how these principles are used in the Western Evangelical culture REALLY made me stop and think. I could see myself (both past and present) in so many of the misguided attempts. I thought of all of the sermons that I’ve heard ENCOURAGING these stances, and my little lightbulb in my head kept turning on as I realized why those attempts don’t work.

    For the remainder of the book, Mr. Jethani describes a life WITH God, and what that looks like. Unlike the above attempts to control our world and use God, a life WITH God embraces the truth that control is an illusion. Instead of trying to overcome our fears by seeking more control, life WITH God is when we overcome fear by surrendering control to God.

    I “clipped” so many quotes out of this book on my Kindle. I am looking forward to re-reading it, because I know I’ll get even more out of it the second time. I highly recommend this book and happily give it 5-out-of-5 stars 🙂

    For fans of InternetMonk, Chaplain Mike recently reviewed With as well:

    http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/prepositions-matter

    And now some legaleze:

    Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

  • Sabbath

    (from http://www.sabbathmanifesto.org/)

    To me, there is something magical about the Sabbath. My religious history is a bit strange. I was raised with a mix of various flavors of Judaism along with pretty much the whole gamut of Protestantism (evangelical, mainline, charismatic…) I am thankful for the diversity that I was exposed to, and it has made for an interesting transition to finding the best fit for worship in my life.

    It seems like every few years I go through a new (deeper) frustration with the evangelical church in America. There is a series on Internet Monk right now that almost perfectly sums up our issues. I am lucky to have an amazing husband who has dealt with the same frustrations. Why does the mainstream evangelical church in America look and feel so WRONG? Why are they (and I can’t even say “we”, because I can’t self-identify with them at this point) living, as the post on Internet Monk says, “of the world, but not in it.”

    We know that we want to be DOING more of what Jesus taught, rather than just sitting in an auditorium and participating in a liturgy-that-pretends-to-not-be-because-they’re-too-cool-for-that. The problem is in finding how to live that out in the midst of our insanely busy lives. We have no problem finding other believers who feel the same way that we do, but they’re all so busy too!

    One solution that has worked well for us (over the past 5 years or so) to reducing the “busyness” is to celebrate a more traditional Sabbath. The site above is nice because it has some bullet points to point you in the right direction if celebrating a Sabbath is new for you. Taking the intentional time to unplug, light some candles, make a special dinner, and enjoy it with those you love can make such a difference. Taking the following day to serve and seek spiritual nourishment is amazing. Those times have given us SO much more growth than any other spiritual practice.

    I am excited to see where God leads us next. Our journey as a family has been so rewarding, and my husband and I have discussed many times how humbling it is to look back. I cannot speak highly enough of the value of traditional spiritual disciplines, especially if looking at the American church makes you feel like crying.

  • Christ and Firing Squads

    Today I was reading this story:

    Condemned Utah Killer Will Face Firing Squad

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/wirestory?id=10455328&page=2

    I am not sure why I clicked on it… I am guessing that it has something to do with how bizarre it sounds to still have people facing firing squads. As I was reading the article, two things struck me that I wanted to flesh out somewhere.

    The article says

    …despite Utah’s strong religious roots — it’s the home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — most here support the use of the death penalty.

    “I think in Utah, when it suits their purposes, they go back to the Old Testament and the ‘eye for an eye’ kind of thing,” Kalish said. “These people may be the worst of the worst, but if the best we can do is repeat the same thing, it’s so obviously wrong.”

    I am always amazed that the “religious right” is also associated with the death penalty. It just seems so ridiculous. Let me preface by saying that this is a difficult subject for me. I have friends who have had family members murdered, and part of me feels uncomfortable telling them what should happen to someone who destroyed their family. At the same time, I don’t see any way that you can justify it as the “Christian” thing to do. I don’t think that anyone should have a right to have someone else killed just because they did the same. As the quote above says, ‘if the best we can do is the same thing, it’s so obviously wrong.’

    As Shane Claiborne says in Jesus for President,

    Violence kills the image of God in us… Violence goes against everything we are created for — to love and be loved — so it inevitably ends in misery and suicide, either literal or metaphorical.

    When people succumb to violence, it infects them like a disease or poison that leads to their own death. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a violent kiss, ended his life by hanging himself… Columbine, the 2006 Amish school shooting, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Virginia Tech massacre — each ended with suicide.

    …

    It’s in moments like these violent times that grace looks so magnificent. It’s in the shadow of violence that a victim’s grace to a muderer’s family shines so brightly, as in the aftermath of the Amish school shooting. It’s even more scandalous to think of killing someone who kills, for they, more than anyone in the world, need to hear that they are created for something better than that.

    The second thing that stood out to me in the article was the fact that the man who was killed was also a pacifist.

    “Michael would not be happy at all. Michael would have fought against the death penalty. That’s who he was,” said Temu, 62, a Salt Lake City-area funeral director who knew Burdell through their membership in the Summum church.

    A pacifist who was drafted into the U.S. Army, Burdell served in Vietnam but vowed to never use a weapon on another person, Temu said.

    To me, this makes it even more heartbreaking. The man who was killed would not have wanted his murderer’s life demanded in return. It is sad that the cycle of violence will continue on, and yet we know that redemptive violence is a myth. You cannot bring peace through violence. This act will ripple on as more are impacted through this execution.

    Part of me wants to say that I don’t know what the answer is, but I truly believe that we Christians can see the answer by looking to the Bible. Why is it that the church has politically aligned ourselves with an idea that is so far from the concept of grace?

  • Living More with Less

    Things in my life keep pointing to the Mennonites. I truly have no idea what that means – no conversion plans in the future – but Joe and I really like a lot of what they stand for. I checked out Living More with Less from the library after I saw it recommended on mothering.com. I had no idea that it was a Christian book. Joe grabbed it from the book basket and practically devoured it. I read it next, and we had so much fun discussing it.

    One of the really striking things in this book is how oddly “ahead of the times” the Mennonites were when this book was written. It was published in 1980, and it is filled with “green” ideas that are just now becoming popular.

    This book is split into two sections. The first section is more of the “why’s” of voluntary simplicity. The second section is filled with chapters that start with some words from the author on a particular subject (transportation, clothes, eating together, recreation…), and then there are pages of ideas from fellow Christians on how to live out simplicity.

    One of the underlying principles that I really liked about the book was the focus on learning from those who live in countries that we consider to be developing… Countries that we think we need to swoop in and save. For all of our advances, and all of our technical knowledge, we are becoming more and more like the humans in Wall-E 😛 We are divorced from natural processes, and if we were forced to live without our conveniences, we certainly wouldn’t look like the advanced society that we like to think ourselves to be. This is how the author, Doris Janzen Longacre, discusses this topic.

    If you as a North American travel to an economically poor country such as Haiti or Bangladesh, your first reaction is likely to be shock. You have heard of poverty, and seen it in pictures. But to find yourself face to face with hungry people jars your soul with feelings for which you are unprepared.
    After a while, shock gives ways to ideas for development projects typically conducted by church agencies. These usually promote better education, nutrition, agriculture, sanitation, family planning, small business investments, and, increasingly, a concern that people receive just access to resources….
    These reactions are certainly warranted. God help us when poverty no longer shakes us into action. But how rarely we realize that persons from other countries often go through a similar thought process when living with us!

    It does seem that we want to swoop in and save everyone, but we could really benefit from making this a two-way street of assistance. They have as much to teach us as we do them, and it seems easy for Americans to overlook this fact. I say this as someone who did this EXACT same thing when I was overseas on a mission trip, and I wasn’t even in a poor country.

    For we, of course, have problems too. No one wants to hear the whole sordid list again, but it begins with materialism, violence in streets and homes, family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, automobile accidents, poor diet and degenerative diseases, waste of material resources, pollution, and nuclear proliferation. What if we became as concerned with our own overdevelopment or maldevelopment as we are with the underdevelopment of poor nations? … Could they help?

    Then she begins with quotes from foreigners who were shocked when they saw the blindspots of Americans. Here are just a few.

    “America is a wasteful society. In every store you see disposable things. People want everything to go fast, so after using things once, they throw them away.” –Jusef Sumadi, Indonesia

    “People in North America don’t care to repair things once they are out of order. There are few repair shops. I cannot imagine how many TVs and refrigerators are put into junk which are repairable.”–Guillermo Abanco, Philippines

    “When we first walked into a North American church, my friend from Indonesia said, “The cost of this carpet alone would build a beautiful church in Indonesia.”–Sammy Sacapano, Philippines

    “Children don’t like vegetables? No, I never heard of that in my country!”–Taiwanese nutrition student, Kansas State University

    “American communities are beautiful. But instead of growing vegetables or fruits, the people prefer grass and spend money taking care of it.”–Guillermo Abanco, Philippines

    So you get the idea. A lot of the ideas in the book come from missionaries who learned simpler ways of living when they were overseas. One, in particular, has happily been adopted in my home this week. This was the tip (actually, there were two on the same idea…)

    Cordless Crockpots

    “During our stay at the Thokoza Conference Center in Mbabane, I saw demonstrated what I’m calling an African crockpot. This is a fairly deep, simple grass basket stuffed full of crumpled newspaper. You make an impression at the top to hold the pot. In the morning, boil soaked dry beans for fifteen minutes. Then nestle the pot down in the newspaper inside the basket. Put a heavy blanket or pillow on top to keep in the heat. At suppertime the beans are soft, hot, and ready to eat.” –Darlene Keller, Mbabane, Swaziland

    So it turns out that this is a pretty popular idea. I found some information here – http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Heat-retention_cooking – that I used to cook both rice and beans this week. They turned out delicious, and I only used a very small amount of electricity and gas to make them. It was so cool!

    There were tons of other great ideas in there, but this post is getting rather long-winded, so I think I’ll wrap it up, lol. It really is a good book, though, and I recommend it if you can grab a copy. Joe particularly liked the ideas on transportation and ways to simplify around the house. I really liked the sections on eating together and homekeeping. We both liked a lot of the ideas for simple celebrations and recreation. We’ve already implemented quite a few, and its been wonderful. 🙂

  • Homophobic Christians

    I’m going to try to address this without getting too emotional, but I will preface by saying that I couldn’t sleep last night because of this issue. One of my friends on Facebook had posted to her wall, and a debate (if you could call it that) ensued courtesy of one of her Christian friends.  The man on facebook was saying that legalizing gay marriage is like legalizing child molestation.  He was using inflammatory language and I was so sad to read what he wrote.  This kind of stuff breaks my heart. I was laying in bed, thinking of everything that I was going to say, when I realized that I had way too much to fit into the little comment box on Facebook, so yeah…

    If you’re friends with me on Facebook, then you probably saw that I recently linked to this discussion on Evangelical Politics.  It is Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne speaking at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego in 2008.  Joe and I watched it and stayed up WAY too late talking about it.  We were both struck by how bizarre it was that Chuck Colson appeared to be in a completely different church than the rest of us.  Honestly.  It blew my mind.  It was like he saw absolutely.nothing.wrong.  Seriously!  He said that he had never met people who were disrespectful of homosexuals in the church.  Chuck?  Are you with me?  What church are you attending?

    Shane and Greg both referred to the Unchurched survey, which helped Evangelicals to see that the #1 adjective that the unchurched use to describe Evangelicals was “homophobic”.  #1!  Way to go!  Lets think about this for just one second.  Jesus was known for drawing in people who were outcast from their society due to their sex lives.  Is no one else bothered by the fact that the church is NOT like Jesus in this area?  The church actively repulses the homosexual community.  While 1/3 of heterosexuals fall into the “unchurched” category, 49% of homosexuals do.  I know its shocking, but apparently the “God hates fags!” signs are pushing people away.

    Not surprisingly, 72% of the people in the survey also said that the church is full of hypocrites.  You think?  Considering that I remember reading a few years ago that 90% of pastors admit to struggling with pornography.  Guess what…. the numbers inside the church weren’t any better.  It turns out that the church is filled with people who struggle with sexual sin, and yet we are pushing away others by our actions.  Even in the video, Chuck Colson said that you only have to look at a naked man and a naked woman next to each other to see what is “normal”, and that obviously being gay is just not normal.  That’s not helpful talk.  We know that our church is struggling with lust, based on our own numbers, and that’s not any better.  He said that gays would be welcome in the church if they stopped sinning like the rest of us have to.  Uh, seriously?  Do you think you attend a sinless church?  The numbers don’t point that way.

    I wanted to include a quote that Shane Claiborne said was from Billy Graham, and when I just googled it, a site came up for gay Christians.  How ironic.  Anyways, the quote from Billy Graham says

    It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, it’s God’s job to judge, and it’s my job to love.

    That sums it up.  It is our job to love.  It is our job to be love to the hurting people of the world.  It is not our job to convict or judge, ESPECIALLY those outside of the church.

    As Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15

    Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

    I really feel that this whole issue underscores a general problem that we have in our church.  A problem with being open, being honest, and being loving.  I feel that we all see Christians acting this way, and it makes it much more difficult for those inside and outside of the church to be transparent, because such hateful language is used.  We do not create a safe, loving environment.  Sure, it happens in some churches (Joe is in a fantastic mens group that really embodies so much of what the church should be), but this is not the message that we are getting out to the masses.  It is so sad.

    I wish that Christians would stop trying to legislate morality, because (1) It doesn’t work, (2) It pushes people from the church, (3) We all suck too, so we just look like a bunch of hypocrites, and (4) Most importantly, we don’t expect ANYONE to change apart from a relationship with Christ.  It is nothing but legalism and bondage to expect people to act differently without a relationship with Christ.  We are so concerned that gays may raise kids in a family that doesn’t meet the tradtional (2 parent – 1 male/1 female) ideal, and yet the divorce rate in the church is PASSING the divorce rate amongst the unchurched.  We have so far to go, and I think we’d do so much better to love and support everyone (while removing the log from our own eyes), rather than trying to micromanage others lives while we screw up our own.

    <sigh>  I don’t think that was very unemotional, lol.  I need to go edit!

    Edited to add: My pastor gave a great sermon a few weeks ago where he talked about how we need to accept that our church should be filled with all sorts of different people – different races, different socioeconomic backgrounds, Democrats and Republicans, straights, gays, transgenders, bisexuals… everything! That is God’s plan for our church, and we will be missing out if we try to limit who is welcome in church. Here is a link: Message Archives I’m pretty sure that it is the one on the top – the first of the “Get on the Bus” series. On a side note, today’s sermon was on the myth of redemptive violence. 😀

    Edited to add another thing: Isn’t it funny that Jesus didn’t try to legislate this stuff? He certainly could’ve if he wanted to, but instead one of his TEMPTATIONS from the devil was for political power. Hmmm.

  • A disappointing ending

    I finished The Powers That Be. Overall, I’d still recommend the book. I really am not a fan of the last chapter, though. I already returned it to the library. That means I don’t have any cool quotes to share, so we’ll both have to rely on my mommy brain to describe what I read.

    Basically, he paints a picture of a weak God, IMO. He said that God would like to answer our prayers, but his hands are pretty much tied because the principalities and powers of nations/organizations/etc. are fighting it out in the heavenlies, and there’s not much God can do while they’re in the midst of it.

    His theory is based on Daniel 10

    12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

    He says that the word used for princes is really talking about angels/principalities/powers, and that when we pray, they are battling it out. He says that God wants to answer our prayers, but has to wait for them to finish wrestling. If you google “Walter Wink Daniel 10”, you should get plenty of results (including the google books result) that will sum up his position quite nicely.

    I guess my biggest issue is that it is a really big piece of theology to hang on one chapter from Apocalyptic literature. He might be absolutely right, although I am just not sold on the idea.

    I think that ending the book with that particular argument could turn off a lot of people who would’ve been a lot more impressed in his work before that point. I don’t know. Its still a good book, but I didn’t love that chapter.

  • The Gift of the Enemy

    Continuing on, with my new best friend, Walter Wink. LOL. I don’t think that his ideas are that shocking, but I think it is shocking to see how few of them are applied in mainstream Christian circles.

     

    So my last entry was about how we need to let go of the thought of ourselves as God’s favored, and our enemies as unloved. God loves everyone, and “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked”, so maybe we should try a little of the same, eh? We’re actually pretty sucky ourselves, in our natural state, so its time to get off of our high horses.

    On to Mr. Wink (fantastic name, btw.)

    Once the spell of the perfectionist reading has been exorcised, we begin to see just how far from perfect Jesus assumed we are. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matt. 7:3-5)

    I really do love those verses. I have lots o’ logs.

    This is the earliest known teaching of what modern psychologists call projection… The “splinter” in the other’s eye is a chip off the same log that is in one’s own eye. We see in the other what we would not see in ourselves. But why is it a log in the eye of the beholder? Isn’t that backward? Normally we say, “I may be somewhat bad (a splinter), but that person is really bad (a log).” Why has Jesus inverted that conventional way of putting it?

    Again, I suck at this. I totally do this all the time. God is working on me, and He is changing me, but I am so prone to this type of thinking. I apparently tend to think that my poop doesn’t stink, because that’s how I act.

    Because the log in my eye totally blinds me. I can see nothing objectively. Remove the log, and I can see to help my neighbor remove his or her splinter.

    I am super-blinded by my logs. Its pathetic.

    In workshops on this theme I invite people to name an enemy and list all the things they dislike about that person (or group or movement or nation). Then we ask them to go through that list and ask how many of those characteristics are true also of themselves (or our group or movement or nation). The common elements identify our projections. These can be taken into our meditation, prayer, and spiritual guidance, to see what they have to teach us about ourselves. (Some things on our lists may not be projections. There are people who are objectively hostile, even evil. Not every enemy is a gift. I am focusing only on those enemies that draw our projections.)

    OK, so I tried this mentally, and it was pretty disturbing. This is not my first time doing this exercise. I remember doing it in college, and have noticed that i am most annoyed by people who have the same faults as I do. I think this is a great gift in parenting. I recently did an exercise for a parenting Bible study that asked me to write down the things that frustrate me most in my family members. My family members are obviously not my enemies, so that part doesn’t apply here, but I did find the list interesting. The things that I struggled the most with knowing how to handle are also things that I am not so great at handling in myself. Humbling.

    Walter Wink gives some examples of things that frustrate you in others that you need to work on. Then he says:

    Revelations such as these (and they are precisely that) need to be treasured, because that is the gift our enemy brings to us: to see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way. Our friends are not good sources of information about these things; they often overlook or ignore these parts of us. The enemy is thus not merely a hurdle to be leapt on the way to God. The enemy can be the way to God. We cannot come to terms with our shadow except through our enemy, for we have no better access to those unacceptable parts of ourselves that need redeeming than through the mirror that our enemies hold up to us. This, then, is another, more intimate reason for loving our enemies: we are dependent on our enemies for our very individuation. We cannot be whole people without them.

    How wonderfully humiliating: we not only may have a role in transforming our enemies, but our enemies can play a role in transforming us.

    What? I’m not the savior of them?! They help me?! Craziness.

    As we become aware of our projections on our enemies, we are freed from the fear that we will overreact murderously toward them. We are able to develop an objective rage at the injustices they have perpetrated while still seeing them as children of God. The energy squandered nursing hatred becomes available to God for confronting the wrong or transforming the relationship.

    I have found this to be true, although I think I am still in my infancy in this process. Being able to step back and still see those who hurt you as children of God is so freeing, but so difficult (at least for me.)

    An understanding of the Powers makes forgiveness of our enemies easier. If our oppressors “know not what they do,” if they, too, are victims of the delusional system, then the real target of our hate and anger can be the system itself rather than those who carry out its bidding. “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). We can pray for the transformation of our enemies, knowing that even the most intractable opponents may be capable of complete turnabout, and that some have actually done so.

    Interestingly enough, this was the topic of my Beth Moore study last night. Once again, when Beth Moore agrees with practically anyone else that I’m studying, then I think that’s a big deal. I’m pretty sure that pretty much the only thing that overlaps between these authors is Christ, LOL.

    Joe and I had a discussion about how all of this relates to America’s position in the world, and it was really good. We both realize how much we’ve bought into the myth of redemptive violence – the idea that violence makes peace. Somehow it seems like so much of mainstream Christianity is saying that we can accomplish peace through violence, and yet that was not the way of Christ at all. Are there times when we must stand up against evil and cruelty? Absolutely. Is violence the only way to do that? Of course not.

    We can look to history to see example after example of nations being healed without violence. Even our own revolution in America had many non-violent aspects. We just abandoned them for war. The problem is that violence breeds violence, and its not like it really even works. Lets just look around. Does the world look more peaceful? Uh, no. More civilians were killed in the 20th century than in every century before that combined. Clearly our methods of violence aren’t making for a more peaceful world, and we know its not what Christ taught. How is it that Christianity in America has become so entangled with the myth of redemptive violence?

    I don’t know the answer. I did find it interesting to try the above exercise with America’s enemies vs. America. We don’t exactly come out looking like roses. 😉 We’re not all bad, of course, and we do a lot of things very well. I also believe that America, on a whole, is trying to do the right thing. I think it is just easy to get misguided.

    So… if I come up with a solution to world peace, I’ll let you know. Until then, I’m going to keep working on applying these examples in my (much smaller and more manageable) day-to-day life.

  • God’s favor

    I have two entries mulling around in my mind for tonight. I’m going to give this one a go first and then try the other one if my mind isn’t mush yet 😉

     

    OK, so I’ve been reading The Powers That Be by Walter Wink. Fascinating stuff. It was recommended in the footnotes of Irresistible Revolution, and it really develops Shane Claiborne’s ideas of embracing pacifism without being passive. Good stuff.

    One of the sections that I’ve really been enjoying in this book is all about God’s favor and the idea of God hating our enemies. Here’s the funny thing about that thought. God is love. He loves everyone. We know this. Let’s take a look at Luke 6.

    Love for Enemies

    27″But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
    32″If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

    OK, so we’ve all read those verses a thousand times, right? So how is it that the church, and particularly “the religious right”, seem to forget about them when it comes to policy-making? God is “kind to the ungrateful and wicked”, but are we? Ha. So often the church is too busy focusing on a God that will favor the good based on their righteousness. We know from scripture that the rain falls on both the righteous and the wicked. Why does the church forget this so often? Walter Wink talks about it:

    God’s all-inclusive parental care is thus charged with an unexpected consequence for human behavior: we can love our enemies, because God does. If we wish to correspond to the central reality of the universe, we will behave as God behaves–and God embraces all, evenhandly.

    Well, crap. That’s not something I do very well.

    Our solidarity with our enemies lies not just in our common parentage under God, but also our common evil. God “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” We too, like them, betray what we know in our hearts God desires for the world. We would like to identify ourselves as just and good, but we are a mix of just and unjust, good and evil. If God were not compassionate toward us, we would be lost. And if God is compassionate toward us, with all our unredeemed evil, then God must treat our enemies the same way. As we begin to acknowledge our own inner shadow, we become more tolerant of the shadow in others. As we begin to love the enemy within, we develop the compassion we need to love the enemy without.

    Let me just say that I have found this to be so true in my life. It is at my most humbled and broken moments that I can love those who hurt me. It is so much easier to have compassion for others when you realize just how much compassion you need.

    If, however, we believe that the God who loves us hates those whom we hate, we insert an insidious doubt into our own selves. Unconsciously we know that a deity hostile toward others is potentially hostile to us as well. And we know, better than anyone, that there is plenty of cause for such hostility. If God did not send sun and rain on everyone equally, God not only would not love everyone, God would love no one.

    I am finding this to be so true in my life. I have been through a lot of hurt in the past year, and I feel like God has really used this time to show me all of the compassion that I have (undeservingly) received.  He has also helped me to love those who hurt me. I am so far from perfect that it is not even funny, but I am really enjoying the journey. I love serving a God who loves everyone without them having to act a certain way. That’s how I want to be too. Its an amazing journey to try to get there, and I am thankful for God’s unending patience with me. He knows I need it!

    I love hearing voices like Walter Wink’s in the Christian community, because I think this is an area where we could really stand to be challenged.  If we think of God as an angry deity who picks sides, then how will we ever see the image of God in those who are our “enemies”?  Its so hard, but we know that we were ALL created in God’s image, even those who hurt us the very most.  It is only when we can see that piece of God in them that we can reconcile and live the kind of life that Jesus told us to live.

    Good stuff.

  • Upcoming Colorado Conferences and Speakers

    I wanted to post some info that I’ve run across over the past few weeks.

    Sally and Clay Clarkson
    The WholeHearted Child Home Education Workshop
    September 7-8
    New Life Church, Colorado Springs
    http://wholeheart.org/whcalendaritem.php?eventid=17
    This is two days (Friday and Saturday). Friday night is free and Saturday is paid. It looks great!

    Jane Lambert (author of Five in a Row) and Amanda Bennett
    Grace Point Community Church, Littleton
    October 13, 10am-2pm
    Email mpskra{at}comcast{dot}net for more information.
    Also find more information here.

    Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller (Authors of “Say Goodbye to Whining…”)
    http://www.biblicalparenting.org/schedule.asp
    October 13, 2007
    Saturday 8:45 am to 2:30 pm
    Bad Attitudes, Anger, and Accepting No as an Answer
    Presenters: Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller
    Westminster Church of the Nazarene
    3501 W 104th Ave
    Westminster, Colorado 80031
    A children’s program is provided to complement what the parents are learning.
    The cost is $30 per couple, $20 per individual.
    For more information or to register, please call (303) 469-5149.

    November 10, 2007
    Saturday 8:30 am to 12:30 pm
    Start with the Heart: The Parenting Seminar
    Brought to you by the International Network of Children’s Ministry
    Heritage Evangelical Free Church
    555 N Heritage Ave
    Castle Rock, Colorado 80104
    A children’s program is provided to complement what the parents are learning.
    The cost is $15 per adult, $5 per child.
    Register online at incm.org
    For more information call (303) 660-9911.

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