Walking towards the fog

This past weekend I went on a day retreat with St. Benedict's Table. The day was perfect and very poetic. What made the day so poetic is that it was really foggy in the morning. Funny how sometimes driving through this uncertainty towards a day away from the world can be so meaningful. It was a day of reading, walking and great soup. Jamie briefly read from a book that focuses on the difference between a job and our work. I am sure we have all been asked, so what do you do? In of itself this question isn't a problem. The problem is when we define people according to their workplace. I believe people are too complicated to 'know' a person according to their workplace. The fog was especially powerful in that I am entering a period of the unknown. Not really sure what direction my life is taking me, but it is reassuring to know that in the journey I will encounter wonderful people, willing to journey with me.

Why do we care so much about sex....

So I am just wondering why Christians care so much about sex. Maybe sort of an odd title for a blog from someone whose never had sex. I am overwhelmed that many 'mainline' Christian issues revolve around sex or what happens after sex. I recently view a www.godhatesfags.com video and was truly disturbed. All the gays and lesbians I have meet have been loving, friendly, and caring people. I have a hard time calling myself a christian if that requires me to hate people who are genuine and loving people. I wonder what it is that requires a certain reading of the bible that singles out these verses, but ignores the rest of the purity code in Leviticus.

300

I saw the movie '300' recently. I know the movie has a lot of hype. I'd like to say I was thoroughly entertained by the film. Even though it revolves around war, which usually repulses me, I was intrigued by the nature of these warriors. I found it interesting the depiction of selflessness in the movie. I am always in awe of people who give of themselves for the greater good of others. I wish I would do that more often. It is interesting how this vision of selfless love is so profound. As a Christian, I was repulsed by 'The Passion of the Christ' and how this depiction of brutality was meant to reveal my savior. I actually think '3oo' does a better job at showing the selflessness of the cross. Recently, i have thought more about selfless people i have meet over my life. I keep coming back to my experience on the cruise ship. I was blessed to meet so many people that truly gave of themselves to others. I just want to thank Sandy, Kari, Jodi, Clea, Kathy and so many other who embodies a selfless life for me. My life is better because of meeting all of you

Amen & the Kingdom of God

Recently, I view 'Amen' a movie taking place in Nazi Germany. It revolves around a Christian officer in the SS. Who once realizing what is really going on tries with all his might to make the church aware of the atrocities. Sadly, the only one who listen is a jesuit priest. The interesting part of the movie is what happens when the Kingdom of God collides with the rest of life. As I have beening further reading 'Emerging Churches' the idea of kingdom living is constant. A lot of the time I have no idea what kingdom means for these leaders. I've read a lot on how we live in a world that is at odds with the kingdom of God. Derek Webb has a brillant song on his latest CD that delves into this dillema. I think kingdom living is very important, do we realize when the gospel is put in a straighjacket due to cultural norms. I think that is what happened in Nazi Germany. Maybe my question is do we have a confessing church to turn to or has the church assimilated itself so much to culture that this is no longer possible. I think emerging churches realize this conflict more than other churches in my experience. Just a thought....

The Conversation series....

Well I would say the conversation series was well worth it. I love music and am continually distancing myself from Christian music. It is interesting why we need Christain music in the first place. Obviously it is not to reach others, because how many people know Christian artists outside the church. A reoccurring theme during the conference was that we are of the world, but not in it. Through Andrew Beaujon and Steve Bell it became apparent that the music industry is corrupt, Christian and 'secular.' Beaujon believes that the Christian music industry exists because of money, I would have to agree with him.

First, i will say a sacred/secular divide segregates life into to false categories. An interesting element is how many bands with Christians in them do not want the 'Christian - Band' label. Beaujon encountered this most significantly with Switchfoot. Jamie Howison made numerous interesting points regarding how prior to 1880 that high culture was almost exclusively Christian. Why do we hold up terrible art such as Kincaids lighthouses when we have great artists who identified themselves as Christians such as Van Gough, particularly late in life. What is it about Christian art that runs away from evaluating art as art. As Flannery O'Connor believes we need to see life through Gospel eyes. Steve Bell recognizes the agenda ridden Christian industry, this is sad how a lot of christian messages are agenda ridden.

One of the most frustrating parts of life is the celebrity culture we live in, unfortunately the Christian music industry does the same thing. We have idols in music that we quite frankly worship these artists, which is a dehumanizing act and anti-art. I think Christian book stores cannot be distinguished from chapters, etc. because the same capitalist mentality exists in both, like Beaujon says its all about money.

A frustrating part that was recognized is how there is one Christianity in media. Bell often asks when someone talks about Christianity, which Christianity they are talking about. Christianity is not a monoculture, how can mother Teressa and George Bush belong to the same community of Faith. It is easy to use shallow/hateful Christians as the example of 'all christian' but this is clearly not always the case.

An interesting point was made that we are oral prudes. Why are we up in arms over certain words, but we allow into our lives movies, TV, and video games that are so graphic that the images stay in our mind. We are more comfortable saying Yahweh than fuck. But, to my knowledge Yahweh was never to said it was too powerful/dangerous. It is interesting to see what words a culture deems as curse usually stem from what is untouchable. In mainstream western culture it is body words, but in french culture it deals with religion as swear words. I found that fascinating.

We often talk about discerning pop-culture, but we also need to discern Christian media. Christian music often sound like a teenager heart throbs songs, which is very 'immature' and we wonder why the church does not have deep people, maybe we should look to our music.

Some lasting phrases:

If you want to stop gay marriage keeping driving your SUV's to church

We should stand for the fullness of life for all not salvation of the few.

The Black Jesus....

I tend to enjoy watching movies that portray Jesus. I find it interesting how media portrays Jesus for better or worse I find these portrayals interesting. Recently, I watch 'The Color of the Cross', a movies depicting Jesus as a black man. I would say this movie is interesting, not overly entertaining or even well acted, particularly the Jesus character. Still the movie is interesting if you have any interest in the subject of Jesus / early church. It was cheesy how Jesus spouted well known verses throughout the movie, also interesting how Jesus and the twelve were hiding from the Romans. I think the most interesting part of the movie are the disciples, they are more like Robin Hoods' Band of Merry Men, then Jesus followers. Actually, the disciples make the movie worthwhile. Purely for the dynamics of those men, who really if it had not been for them and early followers of Jesus what would Christianity look like or would there even be a Christianity with these 'twelve' and Paul. An interesting movie nonetheless. Gave a great example of what the New Testament understands as 'family', very worth while if you can get beyond the bad acting, set design, script, etc. Happy viewing.

Life is funny...

I sort of had an interesting experience this week. As my blog indicates I have been having a rough time working at my home church, but my main place of refuge has been St. Benedict's Table. I love St. Ben's. One interesting point about St. Ben's is that a former youth pastor from my home church attends. Shall we say me and this youth pastor did not see eye to eye, actually there was one point where I was almost brought before the Board. I guess that is the closest I have ever come to being ex-communicated from a church. Back to the story, this youth pastor now works at Booth College, which co-sponsored the conference. Till now we have always been polite with each other. However, at the conference we actually talked and it seems like we have a similar view on all things emergent. I guess it teaches me that sometimes things do change. We chatted a couple times and it was really refreshing to hear. Just funny that of all the people who couple of helped me with my struggles at Rowandale, he was the last one I would have guessed. Funny how God does that

Another thought on the conversation series

I almost forgot the best line of the night. We had a little 'music roundtable' after the mini-lecture, one of the artists said this:

I was so happy when Bruce Cockburn said Fuck! I'm not kidding, really happy.

Amen

The Conversation begins....

Well, Monday evening the conversations series began. It was interesting to hear this guy talking about his experience with Christian Music as an agnostic. The author attended cornerstone, which I did a number of years ago. When he mentioned cornerstone, I was transported to another world. At one point in my life, I was 'into' christian music. I remember those days, but over the last 7 years I have realized that most christian music is bad, both spiritually and emotionally. I find it hard to see integrity and honest in their music. I just wanted to share some interesting thoughts from the first night.

- The author describes as a twelve year old, a girl took him to a bible study of sorts and he encountered Christian music for the first time in the form of Petra, thus securing his agnostic belief forever.

- After Bush won re-election his book got more offers due to the influence evangelicals had on the election.

- All true art is incarnational

- The Christian subculture has reversed Paul' teaching we are not 'in but not of the world' rather 'of but not in the world'. I am finding this a true statement. Christians are off the world, but due to an attempt at segregating ourselves from the 'other' we are safe. Some how the Powers of the world have a grip on our life that we do not even realize.

Well more to come as the conversation continues.....

What is your Master Status?

Recently, at Providence College we had a faculty forum to discuss Christian Sexuality. I think the time was very good. The one thing that I am realizing how in talking about sexuality and also with a conversation over homosexuality is that we need to understand our master status. I first encountered this idea of master status through a sermon on sex by Erwin McManus. McManus sees one of interesting parts of the conversations regarding homosexuality is how we talk about using master status. I don't go around introducing myself as Chris the Heterosexual, and I have never meet a gay or lesbian that talks like that, but I am sure that exists. During the forum, Dr. Tim Perry gave a great insight regarding master status that for Christian( gay, straight, bi, etc.) our master status or identity is not found through our sexuality or maybe more precisely who we want to have sex with( also how naive is it to define sexuality through the sex of our sexual partner). Most Christian believe that through baptism we are united with Jesus. I think as we continue to dialogue about homosexuality as it regards to the church, we need to recognize our master status is in Jesus not our sexual behaviour/orientation.

Peter Rollins - Heretical Orthodoxy

Well the last little while I have been writing a bit on idol. This tangent is largely due to Peter Rollins. In "How (Not) to Speak of God" this is a theme. So I thought I'd due some sharing on this book. I will do my best to share my thoughts and beliefs using Rollins.

Well, in the introduction Brian McLaren calls the book one of the best theology books he has read in the past 10 years and Rollins story telling 'compares' to Jesus' parable. I must admit such a claim made me a bit skeptical, but I must say McLaren' praise is very accurate. Rollins slits he small masterpiece into two section the first called Heretical Orthodoxy: From Right Belief to Believing in the Right Way.

I think over the last year with the help of Karl Barth, I believe that God is utterly transcendent. This is one of the premises of Rollins, to remember when we talk about God that we talk about our understanding of God, not God. I think this is sort of of obvious, but I think in discussion this is easily forgotten that we can never talk about attributes of God as they are, because any language can not grasp God. For me a good reminder is intellectual idolatry, often wars or division were started due to understanding of God. I feel how we understand God when designated as divine attributes of God are idols, we can hold to our understanding of God but once we assume our words equal God we are on a slippery slope. I encounter this kind of thinking often in modern evangelism/apologetics. While I am sure these forms of communicating the good news were useful at one point in time, however this time is long over. I am convinced all they are attempting to so is to convert people to a system of beliefs, this is not convincing and not the reason I am still a Christian.

One of the interesting things is how traditional methods of conversion conveyed that after saying a pray one is a christian Rollins believes we should recognize that Christianity involves a process of journeying and becoming. I think this is correct, but also requires many to reevaluate our words. I personally think definitive words create problems for Christians. We talk about what my friend Bryan calls 'Christian Myths' that everything will be better once we say this prayer, i think the prayer is the beginning. Unfortunately like McLaren says evangelical race to the start line of the Christian life. I reject these kind of binary notions of faith. I think it makes things nice and neat, but life is messy.

I think it is funny when people in my class talk about God in a singular view and other ways of God are heretical. I think we all view God, Jesus, and the Bible different due to our social upbringing. Can we recognize that a North American understanding of God will inevitably be different than a South American view, I think this is obvious, but we tend to forget what we bring to life and a text.

I've talked a lot about idol, but what exactly do I mean by this loaded word. "Like aesthetic idol (such as the Golden calf in the book of Exodus), the conceptual idol refers to any system of thought which the individual or community takes to be a visible rendering of God. The only significant difference between the aesthetic idola dn the conceptual idol lies in the fact that the former reduces God to a physical object while the latter reduces God to an intellectual object. Does 'holiness' not have strong connotations of a God who is beyond all finding out.

It is my experience that my understanding of God is constantly changing, consewualty we do not do theology but are rather overcome and transorbed by it: we do not master it but are mastered by it. Augustine encourages us to bear in mind that God transcends all terms and escapes every conceptualization --even that of being beyond conceptualization. I think God is changing my view of everything. Recently in a class my prof said those of us who identify with the emerging movement are being prepped for some work that God has in store for us, I find that reassuring as I am sure many of these thoughts may seem pointless, but for me I need the mystery, answers do not provide my hunger.

Recently, the senior pastor at my church has been talking about how doubts are from the evil one. I wonder what would have happened if Martin Luther that his doubts about church were view as from the evil one. Rollins believes doubts should be understood as a virtue. In contrast to the modern view that religious doubt is something to reject, fear, or merely tolerate, doubt not only can be seen as an inevitable aspect of our humanity but also can be celebrated as a vital part of faith.

One of my big problems with modern expressions of Christianity is apologetics. I must say for many years, I wonder what these people really thought they were accomplishing, but I must say all I think they are attempting is to convince people of a system of beliefs, which is a false assumption. I don't think people follow Jesus because he is convincing, but because encounter the living God not a logical reason, how reasonable is it deny our self and pick up our cross. I think in our postmodern age apologetics is falling away for the much better belief that the community is our apologetics. One of the primary reasons is that apologetics is a form of 'power discourse', which I find to dehumanizing. Rollins talks about 'Iconic God talk', I am a firm believer in this. 'To treat something as an icon is to view particular words, images, or experiences as aids in contemplation of that which cannot be reduced to words, images or experiences. Not only this, but the icon represents place where God touches humanity.' God stands outside our language regimes and cannot be colonized via any power discourse. This emphasis embraces the mystery and complexity of life. Life is not neat , but mysterious and beautiful. 'God is not revealed via our words but rather via the life of the transformed individual', hence community is apologetics.

During postmodernism one of the main idols of modern evangelical Christianity Truth has been attacked. I have often found this debate peculiar, not sure what the need to hold on to this tenet in much an emotional way. Rollins say 'the judeo-christina view of truth is converned with having a relationship with the Real(God) that results in us transforming reality. The emphasis is thus not ondescriptions but on transformation. This perspective completely short-circuits the long-redundant debate as to whether turh is subjective or objective, for here Truth is the ungraspable Real (objective) that transforms the individual (subjective). I don't think Truth can described, but it can be experienced. I know many are weary of 'experience' of God, but i don't know how else to state it I do not conceptualize God, I encounter and experience God when I attend St. Benedict's Table.

'In the Epistle of John, he equates the existence of religious knowledge with the act of love. Knowledge of God (the Truth) as a set of propositions is utterly absent; instrad he claims that those who exhibit a genuine love know God, regardless of their religious system, while those who do not love cannot know God, again regardless of their religious system. Truth is thus understood as a soteriologyical event. This word 'soteriological' is derived from the term soteria, from which we get the word 'salvation'. In precise terms the word refers to a cure, remedy or helaing.' Love is a tricky word, mostly because it has been raped by pop-songs and hallmark cards, that any time one uses this word one is skeptical of the sincerity of the words. But it is obvious that love is central to being a follower of Jesus, so what do we do? I think we need to understand love very broad. During the 80's forms of friendship evangelism emerged as a new way to 'win those for Christ.' The problem with this form of evangelism is that people befriend people of the motive to 'convert' them. This naturally has an agenda, can sacred love have an agenda? I don't think it can when we add a 'should' to love it becomes something other than love. I think any form of evangelical tool is worthless, without growing into being deeper followers of Christ. Maybe it is the easy answers we are after to share our faith, but somehow this isn't possible. One who love all(do not read tolerate all) shows God, by living out our life as Eucharistic people being broken in the world.
I think we can go into the world and be broken, without the need to convince others we are right.

Food for Thought...

Deeper into Lenten territory...


I'm increasingly uncomfortable with current images of God found in books and workshops that mix popular psychology with a theology wholly devoted to self-realization. I really don't want a God who is solicitous of my every need, fawning for my attention, eager for nothing in the world so much as the fulfillment of my self-potential. One of the scourges of our age is that all our deities are house-broken and eminently companionable. In a society that emphasizes the limitless possibilities of the individual self, it comes as a strange freshness to be confronted by an unfathomable God, indifferent to the petty, self-conscious needs that consume us.


Beldon Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes