technorati, mr. scotty
this is just for technorati blog-claim purposes. you don’t have to read it.
unless you want to.
but then you’re even sicker than reading my blog indicates you are…
manifest o’ destiny
there’s been a not-too-insignificant amount of discussion around the internet on various blogs about the Evangelical Manifesto that was released this week at the National Press Club. CNN has a story here; FOXnews has one here. NPR has four-minute piece you can listen to here.
i’ve been hoppin’, skippin’ and jumpin’ around the internet sticking a few of my thoughts on the blogs of those who have drawn attention to it. i had some hesitations and misgivings before reading the document, but was actually quite impressed and invigorated after taking in the whole of what it addressed.
one of the things i like about the document is that the authors choose not to say that creationism and inerrancy are non-negotiables. for the first, there’s very little biblical justification anymore behind whatever the latest flavor of anti-natural-selection dessert is being served up; for the latter, somehow we can admit that we can’t prove the existence of God, but goshdarnit we have a golden egg this unprovable God laid right here. there’s simply too much of a tendency to add items to the ever-increasing laundry list of ideas and doctrines to which we have to pledge allegiance before we’re allowed into the room marked “Christian.”
more than anything, i found myself motivated and energized by the very positive nature of the piece - that it isn’t yet another “here’s everything we’re against” rant but an effort to make the gospel again a message of good news. imagine that - the gospel being good news. American Christianity has lost this defining characteristic that once served it well.
there are a few things i question, but nothing is going to please everyone, i suppose. for instance, i’m not sure i agree with this statement: We Evangelicals should be defined theologically, and not politically, socially, or culturally. Jesus’ message uses “action” verbs (physician heal thyself - inside joke): teach them to DO as I have commanded you, LOVE God and LOVE your neighbor, by this will all men know … if you LOVE one another. any theology that defines us must have feet.
i did, however, like these words:
We are also troubled by the fact that the advance of globalization and the emergence of a global public square finds no matching vision of how we are to live freely, justly, and peacefully with our deepest differences on the global stage.
some of you know that i sent a letter to various politicians last year encouraging each of them to rise up and be today’s Constantine and pull together the leaders of the world’s religions to figure out how we were going to happily share the same bathroom over the next few decades in our ever-shrinking world.
of course, no one responded, but it made me feel especially grandiose for a few moments…
one interesting thing: maybe i missed it, but there doesn’t seem to be a great emphasis on evangelism in this Evangelical Manifesto. was that intentional? i didn’t see a single chick tract referenced in the bibliography…
perhaps one unintended benefit of the proposal is a clear opportunity to take this EM (Evangelical Manifesto) and align it with the other EM (Emergent Manifesto) and finally have all our EM & EMs in a row without demonizing the other side.
one can only hope…
winkin, blinkin, and noddin’ off
the host was Alex Trebek.
the show, of course, was Jeopardy.
this is the week that was … the College Tournament.
three bright, energetic, seemingly capable youth to whom we will soon be handing off our country’s future. one from Tufts University, one from the University of Wisconsin, the third from the University of Michigan.
the catagory was “B.A.” - a play on “bachelor of arts,” but every correct question would contain “B” and “A”.
the answer was… “‘Except a man be’ this, Jesus said, ‘he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.’”
silence.
more silence.
and then the buzzer indicating, “time’s up” - beep-beep.
“Born again,” said Alex. “Born again.”
and he asked the contestant to make another selection.
and the game continued.
outsourcing american insanity
interesting TIME magazine piece online.
all i have to say is, been there, done that, saw it comin’, got the t-shirt.
now it’s going on a world tour, sponsored by a host of high-tech companies.
wish the earth had a big “pause” button somewhere…
Review: The Shack (the ‘ology part [2])
Judgment of Sin
let’s turn to the topic of sin, and how judgment of it is portrayed in “The Shack.”
the key statement from Papa on this subject comes when Mack asks, “Don’t you enjoy punishing those who disappoint you?”.
from the book:
At that, Papa stopped her preparation and turned toward Mack. He could see a deep sadness in her eyes. “I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie. I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.” (p. 120)
over the course of my 47 years of life on this planet, this is the position i’ve come to take regarding our failures and God’s response to them. and this “progressive revelation” has come through trying to raise three daughters. in the end, the poor decisions they make, and the wrong things they do, carry with them their own punishment and exact their own retribution. does there need to be anything more?
when we look back to the Garden and the entrapment 
scenario in which God put Adam and Eve, we are forced to ask: what was the purpose of this command to not eat the tree’s fruit? was God protecting Adam and Eve, sharing His wisdom with them as a parent would a child and offering his advice based on years of experience? or was it just a prohibition for its own sake, a “you better not do this” that immediately pricks the interest of our inner rebel such that the very thing we now have to do is exactly that?
when i look at OT law and NT directives, there’s obviously a mixed bag of reasons behind them. some are simply done to set Israel apart from the other nations, to give them means for their own identity. most, though, seem to have at least some kind of basis in reality, and that the prohibition or direction given is really in Israel’s best interest, to help it remain “pure” and untainted by things of the world. few, if any, are suggested in some kind of celestial game of truth or dare.
of course, the judgment - the penalty - the balancing of the scales of justice, as it were - remains a significant theme in scripture. it doesn’t appear to be enough that sin exacts its own toll - no, God is angry and there is hell to pay (literally). forgiveness may come for the crime, but only after you’ve done the time.
and this is where our mental/logical understanding of sin, guilt, “paying the price,” and forgiveness grinds to a halt.
there is an interesting interchange between Mack and Sophia, who Mack meets in a cave. embodying wisdom, she begins to force Mack into the role of judge in a number of reality-TV scenarios, a role he doesn’t want but one that, Sophia says, he has played quite well through the years of his life.
as we all have. i’m judge wapner, and you can, too.
Sophia sets Mack up as the judge of the whole human race. but as they say, the devil is in the details: Sophia asks what should be done with…
“…the man who preys on innocent little girls? What about him, Mackenzie? Is that man guilty? Should he be judged?”
“Yes!” screamed Mack. “Damn him to hell!”
“Is he to blame for your loss?”
“Yes!”
“What about his father, the man who twisted his son into a terror, what about him?”
“Yes, him too!”
“How far back do we go Mackenzie? The legacy of brokenness goes all the way back to Adam, what about him? But why stop there? What about God? God started this whole thing. Is God to blame?” (pp. 160-161)
Sophia dips her toes into determinism and the guilt of God when she says,
“Isn’t that your complaint, Mackenzie? That God has failed you, that He failed Missy? That before the Creation, God knew that one day your Missy would be brutalized, and still He created? And then He allowed that twisted soul to snatch her from your loving arms when He had the power to stop him. Isn’t God to blame, Mackenzie?” (p. 161)
and then she goes in for the kill, asking Mack to decide the eternal fate for his kids:
“You must choose three of your children to spend eternity in hell… Mackenzie, I am only asking you to do something that you believe God does… You believe He will condemn most to an eternity of torment, away from His presence and apart from His love. Is that not true?” (p. 162)
it’s a clear poke in the eye to the Calvinist types who see God in pre-history dividing his toy soldiers into two boxes, one labelled “Jacob,” the other labelled, “Esau.” (Romans 9:13)
it’s at this point where i have to step back and simply admit that we are not ever - EVER - going to figure out where this piece of the puzzle fits. to say God stamps human bacon on everything He creates is to eliminate man’s responsibility and make God guilty. to deny that He has a plan - even if it involves making use of things we would call evil - is to say He’s as much a reactive agent in the universe as we are - a thought that should give no one comfort. to say sin has its own judgment is to deny what we’ve believed about the Cross for 2,000 years, but to think that a spirit God set up a self-governing law that blood had to be shed in order to grant forgiveness owes more to uncivilized man and his offerings of animals to an unseen god than to any reasonable meaning.
the book tends to lean towards an open theist perspective - and here, just using that term probably clouds what i’m going to say - where God is at work somehow continuing to move Creation towards a divine good while billions of people make trillions of decisions that God constantly has to factor into the equation - decisions that He knew in advance but somehow expresses surprise about when they happen and then goes on to pull out His umpteenth plan B when the present tense is actually summoned to the stage.
it’s like Ian always says…
there is one seat in the circle
five hundred million in the stalls
simply everyone will be there
but the safety curtain falls
when the bomb that’s in the dressing room
blows the windows from their frames
and the Prompter in His corner
is sorry that He came…
what - you thought we were going to solve this puzzle by the end of this post? silly rabbit - trix are for kids.
