:: in.a.mirror.dimly :: A theology and culture blog with the Bible in one tab and a news feed in the other.

The series of posts and comments on the leadership blog Out of Ur have been interesting reading as of late. Everyone is blogging about Brian McLaren’s post regarding homosexuality and our treatment of homosexuals, a rather immature response by Mark Driscoll, and then Brian’s response to Mark.

I appreciate Brian’s thoughts, but have my own views on the matter at hand, so I’m not exactly hanging on his every word. It’s interesting reading and worth a look if you have not thought long and hard about the topics he’s discussing. Mark’s banter and the gloating that follows in the comment section are poison for the body of Christ.

Whatever the case may be, I think there are some larger issues at stake. One is our obsession with certainty and nailing down people on issues. Why can’t we be vague? That is what drives so many evangelicals CRAZY about Brian McLaren. He’s doesn’t flip flop. He just won’t let you pin him down. Is that so terrible? The other issue that Brian focuses on quite a bit is the way we handle scripture. I posted a few of my own thoughts below on that topic.

Certainty
Mark Discoll writes in the comment section:

“Brian, as someone who has known you for many years I will, out of sincere and true love for you, ask one simple question and kindly request that you answer it.

Do you personally believe that all sexual activity between two persons of the same gender is always a sin?

I hope this question is simple, clear, and personal enough to result in an answer of either yes or no. Perhaps my attempt at some prophetic sarcasm which is commmon in Scripture was not well received. So, rather than repeating my tone I would like to simply ask your forgiveness if your have been wounded and get to the point of all this controversy. People like me who have known you, followed you, and learned from you for many years would simply like to know the bottom line for you personally with all of the other issues set aside for the time being. If you refuse to answer I am sure you can understand why accusations and concerns will be coming from both the right and the left and your answer will at least enable you to speak for yourself. So, with all respect would you please answer the question my brother?” (Jan 30, 11:02 am)

Further down is a comment by Mike Morrell, which I should note was probably written without knowledge of Driscoll’s comment. Leadership held all of the comments until they were viewed later in the day in order to weed out malicious and inappropriate comments.

“Is this the present state of the evangelical church? Are we so addicted to certainty on every minutiae of doctrine that we come out, guns-a-blazing, to assassinate the character and explorations of anyone who gently challenges the party line?

For shame. Saints, the church of Jesus Christ is a really diverse place, and we’d do well to realize appreciate this. I’m sick of how US evangelicalism manufactures consent, turning us all into fearful, plastic, nodding yes men.”
Mike Morrell

Scripture
Read the rest of this entry »

Is the value of debate in the church debatable?

Read about it and share your thoughts here.

One of my favorite books is by Jasper Fforde: Something Rotten. Part of the plot is that the CEO of the Toast Marketing Board is taking over England (Whales is a separate Socialists Republic), and makes war with the Danes at the top of his list. That of course is fiction.

This is not.

There are a lot of Arab nations who are ticked off at Denmark and 12 particular cartoonists who committed a major taboo: they drew Mohammed. I’m not up on Islam and its laws, but apparently no one is allowed to draw Mohammed.

With classic European panache, the Danes decided to push the envelope, invoke the wrath of a large people group, and then claim it’s about freedom of speech (or something like that).

What do you think? View the cartoons.

Articles to read:
Boycott of Danish Goods
Threats to newspaper
Angry Saudi consumers
Muslim Rage

Read the rest of this entry »

<%image(20060128-maplefloor 003.jpg|244|325|me with pad)%> A few sore fingers and aching knees later, and our maple floor is almost done. My father-in-law and I tore into it today and made some great progress. While the first star goes to him, the second star goes to my Ryobi mitre saw that I bought last week at Home Depot (on sale!). I come in third because the saw was clearly more valuable than myself. It made cutting everything so dang easy. I even experimented with cutting my trim angles and found that it did a top notch job.

So I still have all of my digits and we’ll wrap up this job tommorrow with some laminate panels to spare. It’s now time for a photgraphic run down of the day. The dog in one of the pictures is my in-law’s hound/beagle/mystery mix. He didn’t help very much, but he always made sure he was laying right where the next piece of laminate was supposed to snap in. I’ll put a few more pics up on Flickr. See the link below.

The picture here is of me putting down the pad, I wasn’t just posing on the floor to look like I was working. Real work was being done when the picture was snapped.

Read the rest of this entry »

Names and some details have been slightly modified for privacy reasons, but the rest of this is true. Most of this is not made up, James Frey be “darned.”

A conversation with Janice confirmed my deepest, darkest fears: my desire for a leadership position anywhere in ministry is fueld by a burning desire for some kind of status and career advancement. Yes, too often I find myself wanting a position in ministry because of where that could take me or the doors it could open.That has to stop.

I’m tired of being a self-serving leetch who’s not fit to lead a warren full of bunnies. “How will holding this rabbit make me look?” “Should his ears be up or down to maximize the attention drawn to me?” Of course I’m not quite like that, but I’m close enough to the flame of ego to singe my eye brows.

Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend Julie will be running away to spend time with a friend and that means I get to tear the place apart. It’s my largest undertaking for quite some time and my father-in-law is going to be a big part of it: we’re putting in a laminate floor in our kitchen and bathroom. I got most of the flooring from IKEA with my own modifications here and there. It’s a pretty sharp maple look.

I need to get up tommorrow morning and stain the quarter round and take up the carpet tiles. The tiles have served us well, but we both find that carpet can be tough when you get messy with spilling oil, sauce, and who knows what.

Here are some before pictures:
<%image(20060127-kitchen before2.jpg|210|285|before)%>

Read the rest of this entry »

On Open Source Theology
My thanks to Andrew Jones for linking to an article titled: “Towards an emergent pneumatology.” That long “P” word is Christian Scholar-ese for “study of the Holy Spirit.” The article points to a gaping void of the Holy Spirit in some key places of the emerging church.

While I know that many prominent emerging voices do in fact hit on the Holy Spirit a lot, most of the EC books and blogs seem to focus more on culture, deconstructing church, and new ways to do church. The disconnect here is that our theology of the church should flow right from the Holy Spirit. Talk about getting things arse backwards.

As If the DaVinci Code Wasn’t Bad Enough . . .
Priest told to prove Jesus lived: “An Italian court is to decide whether a priest should be called to face questioning over whether or not Jesus Christ actually existed. A court in the town of Viterbo, north of Rome, is considering a case brought by Luigi Cascioli, a devoted atheist.”

I Believe This Story, but Man Do I Wish it Was Part of a Sinister Liberal Scheme to Deceive Us
Sea level rise ‘is accelerating’: Global sea levels could rise by about 30cm during this century if current trends continue, a study warns. Australian researchers found that sea levels rose by 19.5cm between 1870 and 2004, with accelerated rates in the final 50 years of that period.”

Good News For the World?
Quickie Bird Flu Vaccine Created

Income Gap in New York Is Called Nation’s Highest
“ALBANY, Jan. 26 — New York continues to have the highest income disparity between rich and poor of any state, according to a new study by two national economic policy groups.”

News stories that are worth a look.

Bono bets on Red to battle Aids: The rock star Bono has launched a new global brand, Product Red, with a share of profits to go to the fight against Aids in Africa. Launch partners American Express, Gap, Converse and Giorgio Armani announced a range of “red” branded products.

Internet serves as ’social glue’: E-mail cements rather than replaces offline friendships.
The internet has played an important role in the life decisions of 60 million Americans, research shows. Whether it be career advice, helping people through an illness or finding a new house, 45% of Americans turn to the web for help, a survey by US-based Pew Internet think-tank has found.

Rebels battling for Darfur town: Fighting is continuing in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur province, where rebels are trying to take a government-held town, the UN says. The clashes have prompted aid agencies to pull out of the area around Golo. The US has condemned the rebel attacks.

MPs demand sanctions over Darfur: A group of MPs wants the government to push the United Nations to impose sanctions against Sudan for failing to curb atrocities in the Darfur region. The Commons International Development Committee accuses Sudan authorities of blocking international peace-keepers.

Benedict Seeks To Surprise With Encyclical on Love
WASHINGTON - By choosing to highlight in his first encyclical letter to the world’s billion Catholics the meaning of Christian love, Pope Benedict XVI is setting a papal agenda aimed at reviving a vibrant practice of the faith with a return to the basics. The new pope’s 71-page letter, “On Christian Love,” touches on the connection between human and divine love and addresses the charitable work of individual Christians, calling this - and not temporal authority - fundamental to the mission of the church.

Google Praised, Chided For Sanitized Site
SHANGHAI, China Jan 26, 2006 — Google’s decision to filter sensitive topics from Web searches in China is a major triumph for the regime’s campaign to have the Internet censor itself, observers said Thursday, amid mounting criticism of the move.

After doing some dishes around 10 pm I sat at the table to jot a few thoughts down last night. Neal Morse (as always now) was playing in the background and I settled in. By 11:45 am I wasn’t quite done, but I was getting too drowsy. Here’s a chunk of what I wrote:

I watched my leg grow longer while it rested in Russ’ hand and thought to myself, “My God,this is real.”

Christianity had been a ritual for most of my life: sit, stand, kneel, pray this, chew on a paper-life wafer, vote pro-life, and don’t use God’s name in vain unless you’re justifiably pissed. The spirit would could not be further from my mind even as the priest waved his hands over the paper-wafers to transubstantiate them into the body of Christ. The wine that became his blood was bitter and polluted by the old guy with the hacking cough in front of me. My religious system was entrenched and simple to follow, I made life easy on God. He didn’t have to do a whole lot.

Thinking that everyone was either Jewish or Catholic for most of my elementary years, I assumed that my experience was the norm for the rest of Adam’s race. God kindly kept out of our way, we paid our dues on Saturday or Sunday, and things kept ticking right on schedule. Sure God was using the church to do his work, but he was too busy to actually intervene in my life or in the life of any one around me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night Julie and I attended our first ever writing group. We got together with a few people at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester (VT, not UK), worked through some writing exercises, and then read and critiqued them. It was actually a great time. I highly recommend these kind of groups, provided that they support and help you and don’t cut you to pieces with criticism!! Our group was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately for you, I ended up writing some things that I wanted to post, so here’s one of my writing samples from last night. The exercise involved writing about something that needs to be documented since it may not be around some day.

Stacked in rows of lonely crates, the black disc s press together in a jumbled mass. The box edges were a blurry bunch, never revealing where one gegan and the other ended. Cold wet rocks frowned upon the stack of black discs, condemning them to warps, mold, and eventual disintegration.

Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t quite remember what Philip Berg did at Jerusalem University College. It’s more a matter of what didn’t he do. While he was the campus manager, everyone will remember him as so much more than that. I remember him as a quiet, humble man who loved and served people. His home was always open to the students, had a big heart for his many children, and was devoted to his wife.

While in Jerusalem in the Fall of 2000 when the latest intifada started, there was a lot of fear among the students. A bomb went off down the road, gun fire could be heard at night, and the one guy that many of us felt drawn to was Phil. He loved the people (Arab and Jew) he loved the land, he loved his family, and he loved his Lord and Savior. I will be forever grateful for the investment that he made in all of us.

After serving as the campus manager at JUC, Philip and his family began serving with Shevet Achim, an organization that performs live-saving surgeries on children from Arab countries. It was in this service that his heart failed on him.

Phil leaves behind a wife and five young children. They worked to save the lives of children without accepting a formal salary or health care. If you would like to support the Berg family, designate a gift for them at secure.shevet.org/.

Other Blogs with tributes to Phil: Todd’s Thoughts, Pardon the Interruption,

<%image(20060125-bergs-762440.jpg|400|300|bergfamily)%>

From JUC’s Web Page
January 16, 2006: We are saddened to note the sudden passing of Philip Berg, a loving and caring husband, father and friend of the JUC community. Phil succumbed instantly to a heart attack at his home here in Jerusalem early Monday morning, January 16. Phil received his M.A. from JUC in 1996 and served tirelessly and selflessly as campus manager for many years. He met and married his lovely wife Martha while at JUC. They have five young children, Asher, Adam, Nathan, Sara and Anna, ranging in age from 7 years to 3 months. For the last few years, Phil has been working for Shevet Achim, a humanitarian organization which brings infants and children from Iraq and the Palestinian Territories in need of life-saving heart surgery to Israel to receive medical care at the region’s finest hospitals. Phil’s dedication has been instrumental in saving lives. Phil will be buried later this week in Jerusalem; specific arrangements are currently pending. Please remember Martha and their children in your prayers. May his memory be for a blessing.
Link: From JUC News

From the Shevet Achim Web site where Philip last worked:

Read the rest of this entry »

After taking a call from a rude person today, I had this thought:

“I’m not able to cast the first stone . . .
but I’m looking for someone who can.”

Do you ever feel like this?

<%image(20060124-redmountainhike view.jpg|300|225|redmtview)%> Last weekend we did some exploring in our back yard . . . literally. I’ve taken enough pictures of Red Mountain, a 2,800 foot mountain that looms over us, but we have yet to scale it. While we didn’t make it to the summit this past weekend, we did some exploring and found what trails to take and which ones to avoid. Going in was easy enough, but we ended up bush wacking a bit, climbing up some steep old logging roads, scrambling up a steep slope, getting within 10 feet of a ridgeline that would provide a scenic path to the top, and then finding that a HOUSE was already up there!

We apparently had gotten onto some private land or something. We heard rumors of a guy on Red Mountain who has a helicopter, but now we know.

In any case, we doubled back and found some other trails that flanked a beautiful ravine. There were great views along the way and we ended up finding a nice little water fall and stream

.
Read the rest of this entry »

<%image(20060124-homedepot.jpg|88|133|homedepot)%> While living in Pennsylvania, the following would play itself out on numerous occasions: Julie and I would go shopping somewhere and a salesperson would not be helpful or would just try to avoid us. I was always surprised and expected better service. Julie wasn’t surprised at all and didn’t quite know what I was complaining about.

And then we moved to Vermont. I quickly learned that the chipper, “I can’t do enough to help you,” “I’ll be your best friend for 15 minutes,” and “will serve you to the point just short of indentured servitude” is not a given up here. In fact, when I go into most stores around here, I have a strong sense of sales people thinking, “Get out! Leave me alone? Why are you in MY STORE!!! Stop asking me questions, I don’t know or like you. Let me get back to my book.” Well, not really, but you get the picture. Julie shared the other day that she has just accepted this as the norm. And here’s where my dilemna comes up.

We’re doing some pretty major projects around the house (I’ll post pictures next week) and I had a novel, if not noble thought. In spite of the uncomfortable feeling and the total lack of help (that I sorely need because I know precious little about handy man stuff), I determined yesterday to buy local, support the little guy, and do all of my shopping at Local Store A and Local Store B. If necessary, I would go to a small hardware store chain called Aubuchon.

But Home Depot was not on the agenda. Enough of the giants squashing small town America!
Of course by 4 pm yesterday I was roaming the aisles of Home Depot filling my cart with everything I needed.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Feast of Paul’s Conversion is January 25th. My own celebration of this feast is a little early, but the divine hours prayer manual is not set to specific dates. The readings for today focus on Paul, and the morning reading was Acts 26, which documents his conversion.

In reading it this morning there were a number of details that stood out afresh in light of reading NT Wright’s book What Saint Paul Really Said. Yes, with Wright’s presentation of context and examination of Paul’s words in light of it, I felt like I had a new sense of, well, what Paul really did say. I’m not saying that I’ve transcended tradition and the limits of my current perspective, but I have a sense that Paul’s words make more sense and make him a bit more real in his context.

You could analyze many parts of this passage, including Paul’s fascinating introduction where he states that he is on trial for his hope of in the Resurrection. You may find some other parts worth looking at more closely, and I welcome that, but I wanted to share a few observations of selected portions.

Read the rest of this entry »