The Economic$ of a Chri$tian nation?

I have spent some time in recent weeks and months fretting of the economic practices of our nation. We spend spend spend! Worse yet, we Charge Charge Charge!

It seems to me (and I hastily add that I have no training in economics) that we, as a people, live above our means by living on credit and by exploitive international economics. And I suspect, that such a mode of living is not infinitely sustainable.

Christians have since the days of Jesus' admonition to the rich young man to sell his possessions always felt that the holy life is one of material simplicity. We need not have much or spend much. If that is the Christian ideal, then in this aspect, the US must be of the anti-Christ. We spend more time in our churches explaining why Jesus couldn't possibly mean that we should obey that command in a literal fashion than we do actually seeking to live simply.

John Wesley taught his followers to 'earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.' Modern Americans neither give nor save as much as previous generations, we rather borrow all we can so that we may indulge ourselves all we can.

Something is wrong.
It is time for us to think of ways of being radically different. I firmly believe that Christianity, especially that which seeks to evangelize for the kingdom, MUST be holistic. If Jesus is Lord of my conversion experience or my church-going he must also be Lord of my credit cards.

Reading this somewhat alarming article is a good place to start thinking about what the problems might be:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050827/ap_on_re_us/drowning_in_debt

Bishop Will Willimon's blog

Check out a great message about our victimized/self-help culture from William Willimon, currently Bishop of Northern Alabama in The United Methodist Church, at his blog

Here is an exerpt:

Cloying positive messages that, "I am loveable," self-aggrandizing demands to "Look out for yourself for a change" are not the gospel. Indeed, although I am not at present victimized by depression, it is depressing to note how many church groups, counselors, and religious publishing houses have bought, hook line and sinker, into the codependency fad as if were easily transposed into the Christian message.

The gospel is not in the business of producing victims. Christian conversion is not a journey deeper, ever deeper into yourself, relentlessly scanning your psyche, your needs, your desires and hurts. Not everything painful which happens to us in life renders us into victims. (Popular codependency writer John Bradshaw has the nerve to compare adult children of alcoholics to Holocaust survivors.) The Poor Me victimization motif which infects much of this literature degrades our language and makes it increasingly difficult for us to talk about genuine cases of victimization by genuinely traumatic events. The facile adaptation of the twelve step process pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous in an attempt to apply it to every possible human malady and annoyance degrades the process. We now have smokers who have formed support groups to help them deal with the trauma they have experienced at the hands of nonsmokers. When everyone is a victim, nobody is a victim.

See: http://www.willimon.blogspot.com/ for the whole of "My name is Will, and I am addicted"

Campus Confession Booth?

What happens when a small group of uncertain Christians, on a college campus where God is the last thing people want to hear about, set up a 'confess your sins booth' during the middle of a campus-wide rave?

Click below to find out:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/003/4.62.html

Too much 'buddy' Jesus?

As a Christian, I often use the language of personal relationship and intimacy with Jesus Christ to describe what my faith is and means. I have, however, often wondered if in doing so, I may fail to communicate the other dimensions of my relationship to God, like my wretchedness in the face of his eternal majesty.

I have known people to schedule dates for 'coffee with Jesus' and other cute spiritual events. While I certainly know it is healthy to attend to your relationship and intimacy with God, I also am concerned that we don't misunderstand just who this is we are talking about.

The ubiquity of 'personal relationship' language often makes me think of St. John 'the Divine' who fell on his face 'as though dead' when he saw Jesus Christ in his splendor (Rev. 1:17), especially when I consider that the tradition holds that this is the same John who was one of Jesus' closest friends during his earthly ministry.

The early Church (A.D. 300s) sang a wonderful communion hymn that reminds us how they saw Jesus in the midst of their worship services as they made their oath, their sacramentum, in the sharing of the bread and cup at the table:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand.
Ponder nothing earthly minded
For with blessing in his hand
Christ, our God, to earth descendeth
Our full homage to demand.

The mystery is, as the Orthodox Christians say, that he is of all things both closest to us and farthest from us. This is indeed part of the challenge of the Incarnation, that he is 'both and.'

Here is the article that got me thinking in this direction, that further examines some of these questions: http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007133

"Intelligent Design" Intelligence failure

What have you heard about Intelligent Design (ID) Theory?

If you have been listening to the mainstream media you may have heard things like intelligent design 'doesn't believe that life developed through evolution' (which is false), or that 'intelligent design is dismissed by nearly all scientists' and that it is 'nothing more than religion masquerading as science' and other false statements. In fact you can find ALL of these example statements in a recent Yahoo-News article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050819/ap_on_go_co/frist_intelligent_design

The public is simply being mis-informed on this issue. Intelligent design does NOT argue that evolution did not happen. It DOES argue that if evolution happens, it is started by and/or guided by an intelligent force - that evolution probably doesn't happen by pure chance. ID is NOT necessarily religious. It leaves the intelligent designer totally undefined - in fact, 'space aliens' could fit the ID scheme just as well as any sort of God; the point is that given the observable complexity of say, human DNA, and the relatively short period of time it has had to develop to an extremely sophisticated level, a guiding force of some sort is seen as highly probable. Intelligent design is NOT a radical theory held by a few loonies. It IS a credible theory that attempts to make sense of the scientific evidence and is endorsed by a number of reputable scientists at major universities. Click here to read a series of surveys that ends with an extensive list of scientists who favor ID, and let their credentials speak for themselves:
http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/Polls%20with%20MN%202.pdf#search=

In other words, much of the media descriptions of ID are misleading, and simply false either as a result of laziness and failure to investigate or because of an anti-ID agenda of some kind. In either case, the major media outlets are doing the whole country a disservice by not allowing our voters to make a well-informed decision, since most of our information does indeed come from mainstream media at the moment. And we all know that ill-informed decisions can be disastrous.

For more info about Intelligent Design see: http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/
or read The Design Revolution by William A. Dembski,
Pandas and People by Percival Davis, Dean H. Kenyon, or
Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. Behe

A Great message from N.T. Wright

N. T. Wright, currently the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, is one of my favorite living theologians. I am not 'on board' with everything he says, but I just love the way his mind works and the depth and credibility of his convictions. If you haven't read him you should and he has published a large number of books, many of them are written on the 'popular' level. Here is one of those rare authors who has both a brilliant intellect and a firm loving trust in Jesus Christ.

The link below is to a homily (very short sermon) he delivered when he was the cannon theologian at Westminster Abbey in London. You should check it out!

http://westminster-abbey.org/voice/sermon/archives/030518_easter.htm

For much more great stuff from N.T. Wright - look for the N.T. Wright page under 'links.' >>>>

Pope visits Germany on first foreign trip

Pope Benedict XVI landed in Cologne, Germany, his native land, for his first trip abroad as the new pope. He will be leading World Youth Day, an event organized under the previous pope that aims to help bring new strength to the Roman Catholic Church in a post-Christian Europe. Over 400,000 people pre-registered for the event and coordinators say crowds could reach up to one million for Sunday's mass which is to be celebrated by the Pope. Thousands have already gathered around Cologne's famed Cathedral.

Also: Pope in Germany warns of rising anti-Semitism
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050819/ap_on_re_eu/pope_world_youth

Antiochian Orthodox denomination quits National Council of Churches

The nearly 400,000 member Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America has quit the National Council of Churches. The Christian denomination pointed to a shift in the National Council of Churches toward political activism, especially in supporting liberal policies, as playing a part in the August decision to leave the organization. The Antiochian Church was one of several Eastern Orthodox groups involved in the NCC and a founding member. The Antiochian Church is still involved in "Christian Churches Together" a new ecuminical group that, unlike the NCC, will include Roman Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, and Pentecostals in addition to the 'Mainline' (historic) Protestant Churches that dominate the NCC.

For more see:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/kansas/living/12371085.htm?source=rss&channel=kansas_living
OR
http://www.ird-renew.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=470197&ct=1269771
OR
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/living/12371086.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

For more on "Christian Churches Together" see: http://www.christianchurchestogether.org/

Brother Roger, founder of Taize', murdered

Bro. Roger, founder of the inter-denominational monastic community in Taize' France which is dedicated to reconciliation among Christians, was stabbed several times while leading in the monastic community's daily evening prayer services. He died shortly thereafter. The woman who attacked him is in custody and is thought to be mentally deranged (demon-possessed?). Bro. Roger was 90 years old, and had devoted most of his life to healing and reconciliation among Christians. The Taize' community is known for its sung and chanted prayers and attracts thousands of young people every year from across the world.



For more see:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050817/wl_afp/francereligiontaize_050817055119

For more about the Taize' community read this article:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/6354

Lutherans reject sexually active Gay clergy

On August 12th, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted 51% opposed 49% in favor of a motion that would have allowed homosexual clergy to be non-celibate (or practicing). The motion required a 2/3 majority to pass. A measure that upholds the current ban on same-sex wedding ceremonies was also passed, but the language of the ban was made somewhat more ambiguous.
For more information see: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/national/13lutheran.html