Yearly Archives: 2014

Christians Coexisting in a Pluralistic Society

We evangelical Christians often feel that our moral views should prevail throughout society. But for me, American pluralism is a huge issue. So while my fellow Christians may oppose any kind of gay bond, whether civil unions or marriage, I’m totally open to that. People can oppose it within the church, but easily coexist with it in society.

Atheists, Jews, Muslims, occultists, gays, and other minority entities are accustomed to coexisting with Christians. But we Christians have been the overwhelmingly dominant religious group throughout America’s history, and with that has come political clout. It’s difficult to back off from a position of power.

An article on ChristianityToday.com was helpful. Toward the end, the author (a law professor) talked about pluralism–“the idea that, in a society that lacks a shared vision of a deeply held common good, we can and must live with deep differences among groups and their beliefs, values, and identities.” He says pluralism requires three things:

  1. Tolerance: A willingness to coexist with genuine differences, including profound moral disagreements.
  2. Humility: An openness to hearing others’ beliefs about right and wrong, recognizing that our own beliefs, no matter how deeply held, may not be entirely correct.
  3. Patience: A willingness to resolve contested moral questions through persuasion, rather than coercion…and persuasion takes time.
Share Button
Comments Off on Christians Coexisting in a Pluralistic Society

Why Youth Stay with the Church

I get weary with Christian articles crafted from a negative viewpoint: “How to Turn Off People to the Gospel,” or “Five Reasons Why People Leave the Church.” So it was refreshing to see this title: “3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church.” That’s an article I wanted to read. Here are the three points:

1. They are Converted. They aren’t just “good kids,” but are truly new creations in Christ. “It is converted students who go on to love Jesus and serve the church.”

2. They have been equipped, not entertained. “After conversion, it is our Christ-given duty to help fan into flame a faith that serves, leads, teaches, and grows. If our students leave high school without Bible-reading habits, Bible-study skills, and strong examples of discipleship and prayer, we have lost them.”

3. Their parents preached the gospel to them. In general, kids from Christian homes stay with the church. Just a fact. Obviously, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work with kids from nonChristian homes. But it’s tougher.

Share Button
Comments Off on Why Youth Stay with the Church

Too Close to Home

amazon-shoestore

Now I’m really weirded out. While in Pennsylvania on vacation, I bought a pair of shoes at an outlet store. This morning, my Facebook newsfeed shows a sponsored ad from the Amazon Shoe Store picturing shoes in the EXACT same style I bought in Pennsylvania. My Amazon account does use the same credit card I used to buy those shoes. There’s no other way Amazon could know I bought shoes like that. It COULD just be coincidence. But…I really doubt it. This is getting too personal.

Share Button
Comments Off on Too Close to Home

Compromised

Two quotes worth considering in this day when evangelical Christians are so intertwined with Republican politics.

“We as a church have become spiritually lazy, substituting aggressive culture-war tactics for the generous, self-sacrificing humility Jesus taught and modeled. Cultural aggression is easier, and it allows us to think we’re still ‘not of this wold,’ even as we use worldly strategies to get our way.” (Justin Lee, “Torn”)

Philip Yancey tells of asking airplane seatmates what the words “evangelical Christian” bring to mind. “Mostly I hear political descriptions: of strident pro-life activists, or gay-rights opponents, or proposals for censoring the Internet…. Not once–not ONCE–have I heard a description redolent of grace. Apparently that is not the aroma Christians give off in the world.”

Because evangelical Christians have so closely aligned with conservative politics, I suspect way too may nonChristians lump us all together as narrow-minded, Obama-trashing, immigrant-hating, gay-bashing, science-denying, poor-despising, FoxNews-worshiping, war-mongering, and generally government-hating zealots.

Share Button
Comments Off on Compromised

Theology Off the Top of My Head

hair-flyaway

Earlier this year, I developed what seems to be a cowlick–a small patch of hair that just won’t lay down properly. I can splash some water on it and smooth it down. But I’m torn by two theological issues which inform my response.

1. Is this just the way God made me? And God doesn’t make mistakes? If so, I should embrace, yes celebrate, the cowlick. It is part of my identity in Christ.

2. Is this just an example of the fallen world in which we live? Surely God didn’t make Adam with a cowlick. When sin entered the world, so did cancer and polio and all manner of evil, including cowlicks. In which case, I should force it into submission with water or even some nasty gel, if not shave my head entirely.

Scripture is unclear regarding how I should respond. I seek godly counsel.

(Oh, and while I’m on the subject–what’s with all the gray?)

Share Button
Comments Off on Theology Off the Top of My Head

Antiqology

antiqology-rootbeer580
July 4 seemed like a superb opportunity for some soda-related Americana. So for our family’s July 4 gathering at my brother’s rural home in Convoy, Ohio, I took along an ice chest filled with about 25 bottles of soda from Antiqology.

Antiqology is a great little store in downtown Huntington. They have a wall containing about 300 different types of sodas–lots of root beers, birch beers, cream sodas, and sundry other flavors. I have a variety of root beers, Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola, several Jic Jac flavors, and more.

Everyone loved picking through the ice chest to find a bottle to try out. The Hippo Size drinks seemed to be the most popular. The photo shows seven different kinds of root beers I’ve gotten from Antiqology.

Share Button
Comments Off on Antiqology

Christians Incognito

One of the things which drives me nuts, as our denomination’s communications director, is that I can’t talk about some of our most exciting work in other countries. If I did, I could cause serious problems for Christians serving there.

We have a number of missionaries serving in “undisclosed” countries–places where “missionaries” aren’t supposed to be. I hear about their ministry, and our constituents would love to know about it. But I can’t communicate what these folks are doing–especially not on the internet.

Every Thursday, we have devotions in our office. Today, we had special prayer for one of these persons. We had solicited prayer requests in advance for this person. But the responses were phrased as “please be thinking about….” That meant “please be praying about….,” but this person didn’t want to use the word “prayer” in an email, which the government might intercept.

Just shows some of the sensitivities Christians deal with around the world–places where real religious persecution occurs.

 

Share Button
Comments Off on Christians Incognito

Some Clear Thinking on a Complicated Issue

This is an excellent piece by my friend Dave Schultz, written for his newspaper column. He and I tend to think alike on most issues (worship music being the prime exception). I particularly resonate with him when he writes, “I am always looking for the middle ground. Even when there is no middle ground to be found, such as in our current quandry, I keep trying to find it.”

There is quite a range of viewpoints on the gay-marriage issue in the church-going world–what is biblical, what are gray areas, what should be forbidden in the church but allowed in secular society, what attitude should Christians have. Dave navigates through a lot of those waters.

He hits some of the relevant nails head-on with this: “God hates divorce, but American society puts up with it — and that’s something, I think, that directly informs the same-sex marriage debate. Just because God doesn’t like it does not mean it should be subject to a societal ban.”

I’m passing this along as some clear thinking on the issue by a friend of high Christian integrity.

Share Button
Comments Off on Some Clear Thinking on a Complicated Issue

Who Gets Hit By Lightning?

Interesting little fact: of the 261 persons killed by lightning during the last seven years, 211 were men. The conclusion in the article I read: Men are stupid and think they are invincible.

Seven persons have been killed by lightning so far this year–all men. They were: fishing, closing car windows, riding a motorcycle, picking blueberries, roofing a business, and near tall trees. Men are more likely to do outdoors-related things.

Also interesting: lightning deaths have greatly dropped. In 1943, there were 432 lightning deaths, compared to just 13 in 2013. I guess people are spending a lot less time outdoors. Could this be an argument in favor of spending the day watching TV, or letting your kids hibernate in their rooms playing video games? Were my parents irresponsible for letting me roam around outside all the time?

Share Button
Comments Off on Who Gets Hit By Lightning?

Richard Engel – A Master War Correspondent

I’m a huge fan of NBC’s Richard Engel. We’re watching one of the best-ever war correspondents in action.

As a quasi-journalist, I’ve always been a fan of war correspondents. Ernie Pyle set the standard during WW2. Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney cut their teeth during WW2. The New Yorker’s AJ Liebling wrote “Molly,” the best piece of war writing I’ve ever read; it shows up in most WW2 anthologies. I reread it a couple months ago.

Vietnam gave us David Halberstam, Michael Herr, Joe Galloway (“We Were Soldiers”), and Peter Arnett. Arnett, of course, also covered the Gulf Wars and everything in between. Christiane Amanpour did superb reporting in various conflicts, including Bosnia.

In the current conflicts, two men stand out to me: Dexter Filkins of the NY Times, and Richard Engel.

I love listening to Engel. When on camera, he is totally prepared. He can answer every question asked of him, showing that when off-camera, he’s doing diligent reporting. He can put conflicts in historical context–both recent history, and history going back centuries. He can explain the dynamics of the various parties in a conflict (like in Iraq). He knows the perspectives of everyone, from top leaders to grunt soldiers and civilians on the street. He is fluent in Arabic (and Italian and Spanish).

Some reporters, like Geraldo Rivera, like to be chummy with the troops. That’s crowd-pleasing, but it isn’t reporting. Engel goes deep to get information, and he skillfully conveys it to the public.

Probably most of the best war correspondents work in print, mostly for major newspapers or freelance. They aren’t as visible as TV reporters, but usually go far beneath the surface in their reporting. Engel started out there, going to Iraq in 2003 as a freelance journalist. NBC quickly snapped him up, recognizing his brilliance. He has since reported from the midst of every hotspot–Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, Somalia.

Enjoy him while you can. Engel operates in a dangerous career. As we know, sadly, from Ernie Pyle, who died on Okinawa from Japanese machine gun fire.

Share Button
Comments Off on Richard Engel – A Master War Correspondent

Receive Posts by Email

If you subscribe to my Feedburner feed, you'll automatically receive new posts by email. Very convenient.

Categories

Facebook

Monthly Archives