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

Two nights ago the first major frost descended on our valley as temperatures plummeted into the 20’s over night. We covered the basil, tomatoes, swiss chard, green peppers, and lettuce in our garden, but the basil and tomatoes got nailed all the same. Fortunately we were able to pluck a bunch of tomatoes off the vines, but the basil was generally beyond repair.

It has been wonderful this summer growing so much food in our garden. I haven’t had to buy lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, or tomatoes all summer, and we’ll be eating frozen swiss chard, tomatoes, and basil all winter (the basil is in little balls ground up with oil).

I wouldn’t exactly call it self-sufficient, but it is freeing to have a bit more control over our food. We know exactly what’s been done to it, trusting that it’s safe. We have also spent a good deal of time picking wild apples and no-spray blueberries this year, and have made applesauce and jam respectively, in addition to freezing some berries and apples for future baking projects.

I like all of this because I’m planning ahead, thinking of tomorrow. The growing season is limited, and so I need to work hard today in order to preserve our food for the coming months. I still need to be part of a CSA and to take trips to the grocery store, but we have laid a foundation for the coming winter by planning ahead.

Living with more awareness of the seasons and their effect on our food supply, what we eat and how we eat it, has taught me to be patient, to wait. I can’t always have exactly what I want, when I want it. Now that it’s winter, the only way I can eat a blueberry is by defrosting some for pancakes or putting blueberry jam on my bread. All summer I had to wait for apples until they were ripe on the tree next to my work. It runs counter to the have-it-now culture of consumption: wait for the right season, plan ahead when you have abundance.

Curiously, this seems to have changed more than diet.

Another fine piece of gibberish from the creator of Coffeehouse Theology…

Have you ever had one of those awkward moments when you go over your friend’s house for a cup of fair trade organic coffee over an intense discussion of emerging missional contextual incarnational theology and you don’t know where to put your drink?

This happens all of the time, so don’t be shy.

Thankfully, the leading source for entry-level info on the emerging missional contextual incarnational theology scene, Coffeehouse Theology, is fully equipped with the American Beverage and Brew Association’s (ABBA) Platinum rating for drink coasting.

Coffeehouse Theology’s back cover is composed of a fine blend of paper products, ink, and carefully crafted marketing text that create a firm barrier to coffee dribbles streaking down the sides of mugs and cups. While the back cover may sustain slight discoloring, the experts at ABBA agree that Coffeehouse Theology will effectively protect all fine wood surfaces.

Gwen Ness, spokeswoman for ABBA, shares on the ABBA web site, “Coffeehouse Theology does far more than effectively present a practical introduction to contextual theology, it also ensures that all coffee-based beverages will never discolor the average coffee table.”

As if readers didn’t have reasons enough to pick up a copy of Coffeehouse Theology, the recent ABBA Platinum rating makes the latest release from NavPress darn near irresistible.

Author’s Note: Just a reminder to readers that anything listed as “gibberish” really is that. It’s not true. I’m just having a good time poking fun at myself and hope you enjoy it as well. Other posts in the gibberish line include:

Coffeehouse Theology Bookmarks… Now Scented

Coffeehouse Theology is the Cure for Consumerism

I have been feeling kind of left out lately with the rise of sub-groups within the emerging church conversation. There are presbymergents, anglimergents, submergents (anabapists), and who knows what the heck else. What’s an independent Baptist to do?

Now there’s Baptimergent. They admit the name is a touch on the cheesy side, but if anything, it’s accurate. I really like the way the emerging conversation has allowed Christians from a variety of theological backgrounds to embrace their roots–in my case it’s my independent Baptist roots–while still contributing to the contextual theology conversation and living the Gospel missionally. The mission of God and our orthodox core create plenty of common ground that we need not conform everyone to one “emergent” branch of theology.

In reality, I think this is the only option for the emerging church. If we can’t embrace diversity in the same way of our Evangelical forefathers, then we’re bound to just create another divisive congregation. As it is, everyone can stay put, but change their theology, practice, and possibly even ecclesiology.

Balancing unity and diversity may in fact be the greatest contribution of the emerging church when we look back at it. All of the hubbub about postmodernism, absolute truth, and the other issues that cause controversy may very well be forgotten when future generations look back and marvel at the tremendous Christian unity of the emerging church in the midst of theological diversity.

If you’re interested in this group, as some of my Baptist friends may well be, I’ll post the info from the Baptimergent “About Us” page below.

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I somehow thought it would be a great idea to schedule two major events on consecutive days. What was I thinking? Not only do I have a major event to lead this morning and again this afternoon, I will be hosting a major fund-raising seminar (hosting, not leading that is) on Friday morning, well into 11:00 AM. Talk about crazy.

It isn’t like hosting events is my main job. They’re just side projects more than anything, and so that means I’m still trying to do my regular work while managing the logistics for events. One major event a week is plenty. I hope I can remember that for next time…

Technorati Tags: events - planning

Speeches are lovely things. There may be no greater orator in America than Barack Obama at this point, and he can sure deliver a fine speech. While listening to his address last night in Minnesota, I kept thinking of that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace has just delivered his masterful speech that will propel his rag tag troops into battle against England’s northern army. He returns back to the ranks and his slightly insane partner from Ireland says, “Fine speech. Now what do we do?”

It was kind of a deflating moment. Amidst all of the chanting, cheering, and brandishing of weapons, the fact remains that Wallace only delivered a “fine speech.” He hadn’t won anything or accomplished much. He had merely gotten his men in the mood to die for their country. Nothing to sneeze at no doubt, but still… it was just a speech.

Obama made a lot of great points last night. Points that I agree with such as:

“What you won’t hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon - that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize.”

That makes me want to shout hallelujah. Death to the exploitation of religion for political gain, I say. In one sentence he condemned the fear mongering used to pass the Patriot Act and to sell the Iraq war, while also vowing to avoid the shameful exploitation of religion so popular under Bush. McCain is already using the terrorist threat as a major reason why people should vote for him, but Obama claims he’ll keep away from this.

We’ll see. Fine speech Mr. Obama. Fine speech.

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Jon Birch has two great cartoons about what may happen when God shows up. There are times when we experience the love of God and peace comes rushing in. Other times we are really, really convicted of sin and have to face up to the parts of ourselves we’d rather ignore.

Becky Garrison commented,

“Except for Isaiah every prophet ran for the hills when they heard God calling them. And the first thing out of an angel’s mouth when they appear to say Mary and Elizabeth is “be not afraid” - a phrase you wouldn’t utter unless someone is shaking in their boots. What’s missing from all these angelic paintings of people receiving word from God and his messengers is the puddle on the floor.”

I’ve heard many wise Christian teachers say that while we’re praying for revival, we often don’t know what we’re asking for or what it will look like. I’m reminded of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time who prayed for the Messiah and kind of killed him when he showed up.

I’m not sure what we can do differently to avoid making similar mistakes, other than being slow to judge and keeping some open lines of communication with God.

Julie and I needed a getaway and we also needed to connect with my family in the Philadelphia area, so we stole away for a few days into my former home town. We spent the first couple days in center city at the Sheraton Hotel at City Center, formerly the Wyndham at Franklin Plaza (or something like that). We buzzed about the city in the midst of the Obama/Clinton campaigning with women brandishing Hillary signs on street corners and a few well-dressed young people parading about China town with Obama fliers.

My internet access has been limited because the Sheraton still charges their guests to use their internet. I find that so hard to believe since just about any dumpy motel off the interstate has free wifi these days. In fact, it seems that “free” is a very necessary prefix for wifi. So I’ve been unable to post on a few things I noticed during our time in Philly:

Of course the best part of our visit was hearing the crowd at the debate actually booed the moderators. If you know anything about Philly sports, you know that anyone and everyone is fair game for a round of boos. Some of our more shameful boo recipients include Santa Claus, Hall of Fame baseball player Mike Schmidt, and (if memory serves correctly) his young son. Oh, and just about every professional sports team in this town has been booed pretty viciously on a fairly regular basis. So if there was any town able to spot a lousy couple of moderators, it had to be Philly. They heckled and booed just like at any sports event. Take that ABC.

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The past two weeks have been quite busy in relation to my forthcoming book Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life with NavPress this coming September. I thought that my work would basically be done when I finished writing the book. However, that appears to only have been half the job.

I have now entered the publicity season, and the first event on that calendar is finding a list of endorsers.

I began working on this by making sure I had plenty of information available about the book project. If you click on the Coffeehouse Theology link at the top of this web site, you’ll see that I’ve revamped the page: inserted a better introduction to the book, pasted in some advance praise I received, and stuck a relatively up-to-date summary of each chapter. The “punathon” remains at the bottom of the page.

After that I spent an entire day writing to various Christian writers and leaders who may be interested in my project. The following two weeks were filled with all kinds of e-mails and research to dig up addresses and to follow up in various ways. I really had no idea how involved this can be!

So far I’m really happy with the list of Christian writers and ministry leaders who are willing to give my work a look. Of course I can’t mention specific names until things are settled and in place.

I’m not 100% sure about my next step in the publicity drive since I still have quite a bit of time, but for the time being I’m going to be working on developing a few ways I can improve the buzz for the book. Once again this is uncharted waters, but I’ve spent enough time looking at what other authors have done that I have a few ideas jotted down. We’ll see what happens next.

Vermont Public Radio just happened to be in the midst of a pledge drive right around the time that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was found out to be a hypocrite who not only was a client of the prostitution rings he prosecuted, but also paid for these flings by using a method of payment that he helped crack down on. I ended up listening to the Upstate New York station that was embroiled in Spitzer’s ordeal.

So here is what I learned: His basic plan was to make large payments–such as $4500 for a prostitute–in several smaller transfers. This is supposed to keep large amounts of money from popping under the radar of certain software that looks for fraud and corruption. Of course Spitzer should have know that these same computer programs look for these smaller transactions as well, and that of course is how he was found out.

At this point in my life, we’re not exactly rich, but we do have to keep an eye on our account balance during the beginning of the month because our mortgage payment is taken from our account on the first of the month. This means I need to be careful not to pay all of our other bills at the same time, and so I pay extra attention to our account balance at this time of the month.

Since I planned on going grocery shopping this afternoon, being the member of our household who works in town, I looked up our latest statement online and noticed something that didn’t quite look right: a series of transactions, all for the same amount, all going to the same place that I didn’t recognize.

Spitzer! I thought.

The very same kind of fraud Spitzer fought and then used to his own advantage had been used on us on a very small scale. Thankfully everything is going to work out and my card has been canceled. However, if it had not been for Eliot Spitzer, I may have questioned my hunch that this was a scam. Perhaps I just paid a bill and it got applied in a strange way?

No siree!  Thanks to Spitzer I spotted a fraud and quickly took action.

Thanks Eliot!

This ad for Microsoft Office with Amy Sedaris may be one of the funniest commercials ever. And in case you’re wondering, there is a house rabbit society. We are members and rabbit owners.

I thought this has been made abundantly clear over the past 50+ years, especially with the renewed interest in the Jewish roots of Christianity (renewed with Sanders and continued by mainstream pastors such as Bell). However, I recently heard an accusation that the Bible should not be taken seriously because it has anti-Semitic statements, such as the time that Jesus calls some Jewish leaders a brood of vipers.

So just in case there is any doubt, ambiguity, or accusation remaining here, let me address this head-on: the Bible is not anti-Semitic.

Keep in mind that the Bible records stuff, lots of stuff that it does not necessarily endorse as something we should do. Solomon had many wives, Ezekiel walked around half-naked, and then there’s Jesus and John the Baptist. Both called a very select group of Jewish leaders a “Brood of vipers.” Jesus and John were Jews as well, so it isn’t that they were being racist against the Jewish people. Also, the simple fact that they are recorded insulting these leaders who were essentially oppressing, misleading, and exploiting the people, not to mention who eventually arranged to have Jesus killed, does not mean that the Bible now tells us to use these choice words for any old Jew we meet.

There was a very clear conflict between the Pharisees/Sadducees and Jesus/John. Jesus and John were calling them out for their oppression of the Jewish people, challenging their sin in public. It’s not pretty. It’s not something they did  lightly. However, it is preposterous to assert that this event shows us what the writers of the Bible thought of Jews. The writers of the Bible were Jews for crying out loud!

Technorati Tags: Judaism - Christianity - Bible

Besides the continual criticism of Bart Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus and God’s Problem among other books, journalist Chris Hedges threw in his two cents at a recent book event to promote his latest work I Don’t Believe in Atheists. When I mentioned the innovative ministry of social justice advocate and Evangelical Christian Jim Wallis, Hedges said he has one major problem with Wallis: Wallis believes the Bible is inspired by God.

He proceeded to list a number of reasons why it’s ridiculous to believe the Bible is inspired by God:

1. It was rewritten by Christians over time and especially at the Council of Nicea.
2. The Bible is anti-Semitic.
3. The Bible is bigoted toward homosexuals.
4. The Bible supports genocide, especially in the case of the Canannites.

Ehrman would no doubt agree for the most part with this list, especially the first point that has been his bread and butter as a former Evangelical turned agnostic due to his heavy reliance of inerrancy and the subsequent problems he found in the various manuscripts of the Biblical text. If you do a search of my blog, you’ll find a few other articles written in response to Ehrman, but now I’d like to focus on the some of the charges leveled by Hedges. I’ll start with his claim that the Bible was rewritten by Christians with an agenda.

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• Reclaiming the Mission :: The Weblog of David Fitch
  Is there a work of “ideological cynicism” at work in Christians supporting Obama? Is the Obama bandwagon a positive or a negative (or neutral) for the church’s role in bringing justice to the nations? Is energy by Christians spent on Obama politics misgui
  (tags: politics mission theology)
• Why Liberals Are Weak When Faced with Fundamentalism
  The problem with Biblical literalism: “Put two readers of any complex text together and you’ve got two differing interpretations. If those two readers can appeal only to the literal sense, then those two divergent evangelical interpretations inevitably
  (tags: theology)

• Weblog » Emergent Village » Scot McKnight on “Rethinking How You Read the Bible”
  McKnight advocates reading with tradition, not necessarily through tradition. It’s a helpful way to balance the primacy of scripture with tradition.
  (tags: theology)
• My Travels with George W. Bush - TIME
  The success of George W. in Africa.
  (tags: politics poverty)

• The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence: What Are The ‘Grand Challenges’ for Theology for the 21st Century?
  This is well worth thinking about.
  (tags: theology emergent emerging christian)