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

<%image(20060208-warren.jpg|184|250|warren)%>Warming Up to An Important Issue
The NY Times reports (link):
“Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.”

Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller The Purpose-Driven Life.”

Way to go fellahs! I wonder who wouldn’t support such a resolution? Oh, just Dobson, Colson, and a theologian. That’s fine, I hope your head stays cool in the sand while other people try to do something about a well-documented problem.

And now for some comic relief . . .
Marc over at Purgatorio has created a hysterical Christian satire based on the Danish cartoon controversy. For context, here’s a link on John Bunyan.

<%image(20060208-bunyan.jpg|170|250|bunyan)%> “A cartoon depicting Puritan author and allegorist John Bunyan as a thelogical terrorist has brought bitter and acrimonious responses from Reformed Baptists around the globe. The image, originally published in the Presbyterian denominational magazine Paedo has been circulated widely and has been decried by religious leaders of all faiths as abhorrent. The editors of Paedo defend the decision to publish the cartoon, citing the cherished freedom of one denomination being able to openly mock another. Cartoon artist Archie Sprawl describes the image ‘I was trying to portray the violence I felt Bunyan does to the biblical text in regards the issue of baptism… I guess it got blown out of proportion a bit’.” (link)

By the way, “paedo” is most commonly used in Presbyterian circles in reference to “paedo” baptism or infant baptism. Baptists prefer dunking grown children/adults, while Presbyterians treat infant baptism as a covenant ceremony. Baptists and Presbyterians are known for their squabbles over such theologically ambiguous issues.

He’s religious, but sensible.
How so?
He know where to draw the line.
Where is that?
Where sense stops and religion becomes damaging.
So religion is only safe when it’s sensible?
I didn’t say that. Religion isn’t safe at all. Religion is really just a bunch of non-sense, a stimulant for the brain. Like wine, a taste is delightful, but too many glasses can make one a blubbering fool. Religious people must cling to sensibility, lest they become of no use to society.
You have really thought this through. I assume that you would not consider yourself religious?
Well I lean toward the sensible side of the equation, but the occasional prayer is not beyond my sensibilities.
I see. Less religion, more sense so to speak.
Certainly. Religion perpetrates so much evil, intolerance, and confusion. There is no better guide than one’s own sense.
Quite, but what if a religious man says that it is only sensible to be religious? In fact, what if one does not have sense unless relion reigns supreme?

Technorati Tag: fiction
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<%image(20060206-bono.bush.ap.jpg|220|242|bonobush)%> While Bono gave a top notch speech at a prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. and everyone is blogging about it, I couldn’t help but notice the picture that CNN posted with their article. Bush sure can take a bad picture.

What the heck is going through dubbuya’s mind? Is he excited to meet Bono? Is this the photo opt he’s been waiting for all of his political career, thereby fusing his right wing constituents with the dissatisfied, left-leaning church? Or is he thinking about having a tuna sandwich for lunch? I imagine that Bush had the same smile after beating John Kerry in 2004. What a smirk!

And Bono, he seems to be mentally blocking out the man holding his right hand. In fact, his left hand seems to be reaching out, struggling to get as far away from the man holding his right hand. Is Bono thinking about swatting dubbaya with that rolled up paper? Is he a little depressed because he fears no one will listen to his plea for a 1% tithe to the poor?

By the way, if you haven’t listened to the speech, it really is worth your time. link
Back in high school I used to doubt that Bono was a Christian, just wishful thinking on the part of a few friends. A few years ago I realized that Bono is very much a follower of Jesus. He just follows Jesus so closely that he doesn’t look like a typical Christian with all of the sub-culture and church baggage. This speech reveals a guy who is very much in tune with the heart of God (Yes, Adam, you were right all along).

Technorati Tag: politics

Sitting with a group of non-profit employees from SW Vermont for our monthly meeting, I had a chance to hear how the group began. Apparently some non-profit leaders got together and wanted to start a group that would pool our resources together, help one another out, and work to promote all of the organizations. There was no central leader beyond a facilitator. They tried to make a mission statement, but thankfully scrapped it. They essentially decided to meet, hang out, and help one another.
(link)

Some members of the group thought it would flop. No mission, no central leader, no membership guidelines, no go. One doubter mentioned at the last meeting that he had been completely wrong.

The group is flourishing. We are constantly looking for a larger meeting place because more groups are being added each month. The collaboration is great, and I find that our meetings go very smoothly with the gentle guidance of a facilitator.

Predictably (if you didn’t see it coming already), I began to think about the church. What does this teach us about organizational dynamics and the church? Just this, we don’t have to be hyper-organized like a business. Is it possible that our mission and activities flow less from strategic planning by a few key leaders and more from group collaboration?

Technorati Tag: church
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<%image(20060206-superbowl.jpg|300|263|touchdown)%> It was the start of the fourth quarter in the Super Bowl when I finally remembered that it was happening last night. I was working on some trim in our house, so I searched the internet for a radio broadcast. After trying several different radio stations that didn’t seem to work, my desperation gave way to the BBC’s broadcast of the game. It worked great, sort of. I should have had a cup of tea.

Once you got past the fact that a strong British accent was calling the plays and saying names like “Roethlisberger” and “Hasselback”, it was fairly routine. The “colour” announcer who provided explanations was an American who had played football (not soccer that is), which helped a bit.

The best part about this was the steady stream of explanations. It was Super Bowl merged with Football (not soccer again) 101. I think of my wife and every other woman who asks questions about the game, and I realized that this would be the perfect tool. They explained intentional grounding, passing from the pocket, the two minute warning, stopping the clock by going out of bounds vs. running the ball and keeping the clock going, and so on.

During Pittsburgh’s big trick play that sent a touchdown pass to Hines Ward and effectively knocked out Seattle, the Brit announcer got wonderfully wild and declared that it will be one of the greatest Super Bowl memories of all time. While not exactly doubting how brilliant and memorable the play was, I had to wonder, how sure could he really be?

Innocent hikes on logging roads have led Jules and I on two different adventures that sent us right up two of the largest mountains in our town.

Last Monday we were mucking around on some logging roads near the base of Red Mountain, our next door neighbor, and noticed some old walls from the days when all of the forests in Vermont were open pastures for sheep. We began following one of the walls and eventually noticed a blue blaze on a tree.

Hoping that a blue blaze could only mean that we were on to something good, we kept moving up the wet, snowy, and, more than anything, muddy trail. The slope was very steep at times and we soon found ourselves at a T intersection with a snow mobile trail with a red blaze. The trail would up the side of the steep hill, showing the track marks of a snowmobile from the previous weekend.

At this point my excitement was mounting. I have been determined to summit Red Mountain (2800 feet) and today was going to be the day if I could help it.

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It was too good to be true. A movie is made that faithfully tells one of the most courageous acts by a group of Christians in this century. It’s a story of hope, redemption, and healing. It gained publicity and was shown in major theaters. The film was done well, produced with emotion and life. It showed that Christians have one of the of the best stories to tell because when God is involved, there is life, sacrifice, and redemption.

The End of the Spear, the story of 5 missionaries who died at the hands of a violent tribe in Ecaudor (The group inlcuded Jim and Elizabeth Elliot), and how two of the wives of these men returned to the tribe and showed them the way into God’s Kingdom.

And all of this was too good to be true. We couldn’t let the world think kindly of Christians for too long. We had to go and mess it up. In fact, we’ve messed it up so bad that no one wants to talk about the story in the movie. Everyone is talking about what Chad Allen, an actor who plays a main character in the movie, does with his spare time: works with gays and lesbians thanks to this article. (NY Times article). “More than 100 pastors of churches across the country signed a letter drafted by Mr. Janz and addressed to Every Tribe expressing their disappointment in the casting of Mr. Allen.”

Fantastic. We couldn’t let it rest. We are so lost in our quest to purge the sin out of our nation that we push ourselves and the world with us closer to hell.

We’ve given up our redemptive role in society and are playing the morality police. That doesn’t cut it. Do we really think we can regulate and petition the world into heaven? Is the Kingdom of God something that we can lobby to do our bidding?

Never mind that there are real people out there who need God desperately. We’re building our own kingdom with our rules and regulations. Anyone who does not meet our standards is not welcome.

<%image(20060202-megachurchgame.gif|162|278|megachurch)%> That’s right, you can now create the church you want, anyway you want (check out the game). Tim Bednar has entered whitty and completely made-up video game into the Huffington Post contest. If you enjoy what you see, vote for Tim by putting up a link on your blog.

Perhaps one of the best lines in the description is “Denominations and Bible colleges use it to prepare potential church planters or associate pastors. It is better than an internship!”

Andrew Jones, whom I credit with alerting me to this wonderful game, writes about the emergent plug-in:

“Now, thanks to the emergent plug-in provided by the game’s creator Tim Bednar, my family and I can enjoy hours of productive, informative family fun, and create churches with couches, candles, karaoke machines and video ipod stations with wireless connection to the main projection screen. How refreshing it is to have our virtual parishioners complain about the chai rather than the coffee.

So now . . with the emergent plug -in (included free-of charge), I highly recommend this game for families everywhere seeking a new level of eccumenatainment that will transform the way we think about church. ”

Chastened by NT Wright yesterday, I have spent my morning bouncing around at the Biblegateway.com (if you have Mozilla Firefox as your browser, you probably already have the Bible search engine at the top right corner with Google, Amazon, etc. If not, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL DAY!). The other book that I’ve been reading by Wright is called What Saint Paul Really Said. Throughout this book Wright brings up the concept of righteousness for Paul and the Jews of his day.

You would like a summary of Wright’s “wrighteousness”? Welllll, it’s hard to undo centuries of bad theology, but I’ll give it a wack (if you’re hard-core reformed, you may not like what follows). Essentially, wrighteousness for Paul and other Jews (such as, I don’t know, Jesus) meant more than a position or imputed status that God gives as part of a “transaction” with God. You know, insert the faith credit card and the Spirit/clerk tosses salvation in the bag and sends you on your way. That’s a horrible summary so far, but it will get worse.

Teasing out the nuances of wrighteousness is a bit harder. Righteousness to the Jews was far more than a status. It is linked more with righteous conduct, God’s righteous dealings with us, and God’s righteousness that we lean on. I know that is incredibly incomplete, but I hope that at least provides some motivation to explore the possible nuances of righteousness in the NT.

Of course now I’m off track and I imagine NT Wright glaring at me for not getting down to the scriptures themselves. Instead I have theologized once again. Without further ado, I’d like to take a brief look at Psalm 51.

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<%image(20060201-lastword.jpg|240|240|lastword)%> The Last Word : Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture

I began reading NT Wright’s latest book last night, The Last Word. This is the US edition. Apparently the editors didn’t like the British title: Scripture and the Authority of God. Not only does the US title confuse Wright’s book with McLaren’s latest, The Last Word and the Word after That : A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity, but it also obscures the message of the book.

Wright is not giving a final word or message on the Bible that will close off debate. He’s not providing the last word on a topic that transcends the boundaries of time and culture. And while the US sub-title offers a touch of clarity, it still doesn’t convey the message of the British edition. This book isn’t just about a new kind of authority for scripture, it’s also about the authority of God and the role that scripture takes in the church’s mission to share the Gospel.

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