Author Archives: Steve

The Whole Point of Christianity

Entertainment magazine had a short piece about the movie The Nativity Story, and the fact that Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old actress who plays Mary, is pregnant out of wedlock. The article wondered if her pregnancy would turn off Christians.

Catherine Hardwicke, the director, doesn’t think so. She says, “The whole point of Judeo-Christianity is not to judge others.”

Now there’s a ridiculous statement. There is a wee bit more to the faith than that. Plus, the fact that all of us will one day be judged is a pretty big “point” of Christianity.

What is the point of Christianity, in a few words? I’ve been thinking about that, and nothing comes to mind. Which is good. I prefer that the Christian life be more complicated than a bumper sticker.

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Jesus and the American Revolution

I was reading in Titus 3. Verse 1 says, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient…to be peaceable and considerate.” Other New Testament passages say similar things, including Jesus’ own words. And it got me thinking, again, about the American Revolution.

Did God prompt the American Revolution? Was he pleased when we declared war on King George? I think not. But I’m really puzzled about this, because I also think that until recent years, America has been used by God as a light to the nations. So the implication is that for God, the end justifies the means. And obviously, that’s not the case. Thus my befuddlement.

The traditional view is that the Revolutionary War was, somehow, a religious cause fought in the name of Christ. A holy cause to create a Most Favored Nation for God. Or something like that. People like James Kennedy and other Jesus-Created-America advocates talk as if the Founding Fathers all held a prayer meeting, and God spoke to them and said, “Verily verily I say unto you, go overthrow the British.” That may be the majority view among my fellow United Brethren.

But I can’t see Jesus being in favor of the war. What were our grievances? There was the “taxation without representation” issue–a matter of an unfair political process. The Jews in New Testament times had that problem. There was the forced billeting of soldiers in private homes. The Romans no doubt did similar stuff, in addition to making you carry their backpacks for a mile whenever they wanted. And those early God-fearing Americans feared that the English might inflict on us some of their liberal anti-slavery nonsense. Those Colonials wanted to keep their slaves, just as today’s conservatives insist on keeping their assault rifles.

The Revolution didn’t meet any criteria for a “just war.” The revolutionaries already possessed plenty of freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, but wanted more of the liberty part than any citizens had ever been accorded. So they went to war, and they won. I’m a beneficiary of that.

What’s more, what those Founding Fathers did next–create a democracy with religious freedom and so many characteristics which all countries should have–showed incredible wisdom, vision, and principle. The Constitution they put in place provided the foundation for America’s later greatness.

But does the end justify the means? I can’t possibly accept that God prompted and favored the Revolution, because the idea directly violates Scripture. Romans 13 is very clear in stating that the American Revolution was not something God would sanction: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established….Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Unless it’s the American Revolution, in which case it’s okay.” Oops, I added that last line.

God doesn’t violate his own rules. How could he tell us to be subject to rulers and authorities, and then say, “Okay, we’ll make an exception in this case. Nobody should have to pay this much for tea.” Jesus would not have signed the Declaration of Independence, and he would have reprimanded Simon the Zealot for picking up John Hancock’s pen.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my country. I believe we’ve been enormously blessed by God. I’m just puzzled. Because Scripture indicates that God would have been saddened when we violated Scripture by going to war against our rulers. And he is no doubt further saddened that, instead of showing repentance for what was clearly an unbiblical course of action, we continually give him credit for somehow inspiring the war and leading us to victory. And yet, once the deed was done, God got behind us as our biggest supporter.

Or did he? Is America’s greatness more a product of a model governmental system, vast national resources, Judeo-Christian values, and a high percentage of God-fearing citizens (at least early on), than a product of God’s blessing?

There’s a big picture which I suspect only God can see.

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UCLA Basketball Rules

UCLA is now ranked number 1 in college basketball. I’ve cheered for UCLA since my high school days in California, at the end of the Wooden era. I put together three whole teams of stellar UCLA alums. Quite an amazing list–two guards, two forwards, and a center for each.

First Team
Reggie Miller (1987)
Gail Goodrich (1965)
Marques Johnson (1977)
Keith Wilkes (1974)
Lew Alcindor (1969)

Second Team
Baron Davis (1999)
Henry Bibby (1972)
Sidney Wicks (1971)
Kiki Vandeweghe (1980)
Bill Walton (1974)

Third Team
Walt Hazzard (1964)
Roy Hamilton (1979)
Richard Washington (1976)
David Greenwood (1979)
Swen Nater (1973)

The team that played in that famous streak-ending loss to Notre Dame had Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes, Marques Johnson, David Meyers, Richard Washington, and Swen Nater, all of whom became good pros.

The closest contender for all-time greatness would be North Carolina. You can put together a few great teams from this list, though they would be short on centers and not well-rounded. And they still wouldn’t beat the UCLA greats. At least, not in a series.

Michael Jordan
James Worthy
Vince Carter
Antawn Jamison
Rasheed Wallace
Sam Perkins
Phil Ford
Rick Fox
JR Reid
Jerry Stackhouse
Brad Daugherty
Eric Montross

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The Magic of Conner

SteveConner_200.jpgSomething historic happened today. I held a baby. I’m 50 years old, and today is the first time I held a baby. That I can remember. Maybe sometime in my past a baby was forced into my arms, but I have no memory of it. I certainly never initiated an act of baby-holding. I would tell people, “I don’t do babies.”

But nine days ago, Allen and Carolyn moved into our spare bedroom with their 2.5-month-old son Connor. I’ve been absolutely captivated by him, and little actions and sounds from Connor reach out and grab my heart in ways I can’t explain. I’ll sit on the couch and watch Allen play with Conner, manipulating his tiny hands and feet and letting Connor kick him in the chest, while talking nonsense in an attempt to evoke a response. Preferably a smile. Connor does smiles real well.

I can’t say I was ever captivated by any of my brothers’ kids when they were babies. Not Curt, Paula, Benjamin, Jonathan, Anna, or Cameron. Now I’m wondering what I missed. While the rest of my family members swapped time holding a baby, I steadfastly avoided any appearance of being in line for my turn. Sorry, Stu and Joyce and Rick and Dorene, but your kids just didn’t do anything for me.

But now, we have Connor in the house for the foreseeable future. I didn’t know for sure how I would feel about having a baby around, this little package of unknown quantity. But I’ve watched Pam and Carolyn and Allen holding and enjoying Connor, and gradually the thought built up, “I’d like to hold him sometime.”

I got my chance this afternoon. We volunteered to watch Connor while Allen took Carolyn to work at 1:30. Company was coming over, and Pam had a little more cleaning she wanted to do. So she left me to watch Connor while she finished up. He sat propped up in the corner of the loveseat, and we carried on a conversation for a while. But then he became discontent laying in that position. And so I gladly swooped him up, holding him on my shoulder, and he found new contentment.

Pam, of course, rushed out to take a picture of this spectacular event in our universe, so she could show it to my family, who would undoubtedly find it astounding. But she needn’t have rushed. This will happen many, many more times.

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Relational Skills in Business and Church

The first thing I turn to when BusinessWeek comes is the back-page column “The Welch Way,” by Jack and Suzy Welch. They simply respond to people’s business-related questions, and always provide rich insights. Very often, their words apply directly to the church.

This week, they responded to a question about how business schools can best prepare today’s students.

They lamented the scant classroom time given to people issues–hiring, motivating, team-building, and firing. Instead, business school focus on “brainiac concepts” like disruptive technologies and complexity modeling (whatever those are). “Those may be useful…if you join a consulting firm, but real managers need to know how to get the most out of people.” While business curriculum emphasizes strategy and finance, the Welches would prefer seeing people-management front and center.

There are parallels to how ministers are trained. Seminaries, from what I gather, focus on learning biblical languages, theology, strategy (mission statements, goal-setting, etc.), and church administration. How much is spent on developing relational smarts? Not much, according to what I’ve seen from my perch at my denomination’s headquarters.

Ministers never need to leave a church because they lack sufficient understanding of Greek and Hebrew, their theological understanding is sub-par, or they don’t know how to develop a mission statement. Rather, almost always it involves bone-headed relational skills. Ministers get in trouble because they do and say stupid things in their relationships with parishioners. Do seminaries not teach people-management skills, or do students just not pay attention, and revert to their default behaviors once they get assigned to a church?

I’ve always admired my Dad’s ability to deal with people. Relationships are tricky in small churches. Tricky and treacherous. Young bucks fresh out of seminary regularly get eaten alive. But Dad knew how to keep the church bosses in line, how to marginalize or chase away carnal laypersons who sow discord, and mobilize persons to move the church forward. Nobody ever ran over him. I wish I had more of his relational smarts. It’s a whole lot more valuable than (to take something from my field) knowing how to diagram a sentence.

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When the Church is the Church

We had 16 people at prayer meeting last night (two of them babies). That’s a new record. We met around two big round tables in the sanctuary. Except for Pam and me and the couple leading the thing, all of the attenders are on the lowest socio-economic end of the Anchor spectrum. We have unwed mothers and convicted felons and people who have trouble reading and/or still lack their GED. People whose prayer needs focus around work–finding a job, finding a better job, making ends meet, just getting by.

I love these people. The group has become a community, a patchwork of meaningful relationships. And we have most definitely seen prayers answered. It’s incredibly neat. Bill Hybels says something along the line that, when the church is the church, there’s nothing like it in the world. He’s right. And even with all of its flaws, which any idiot can point out and criticize, the church of Jesus Christ is still an amazing thing.

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Mismatched Socks

Today I’m wearing all brown–sweater, pants, shoes. But to my horror I see that I’m wearing blue socks. They sure looked brown when I picked them out of the drawer in the dark. I guess that’s what lights are for.

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My View on Stem Cell Research

Okay, time for me to pontificate about stem cell research and reveal my view to the world.

My view is: beats me. I haven’t examined the issue for myself, and haven’t had that much interest in doing so. I know that the party line is that Christians are supposed to be against it, but though I’ve heard and read a few things, those reasons haven’t clicked into place. The opposition seems to be coming from the more rabid end of the anti-abortion crowd, and I’m not comfortable letting their views be the “Christian” view. And yet, I haven’t given the subject enough attention to provide an informed opinion. And since my mind doesn’t get along well with issues of biology and genetics, I’m not sure I’ll ever figure it out.

So don’t ask my opinion. I don’t know what I believe, and don’t foresee crafting an opinion in the near future. On this subject I’m a self-proclaimed dummy. On all other issues, I’m merely a dummy who thinks he’s got something to say.

Now isn’t this one sorry excuse for a blog post?

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Grown Man and Long-Ago Slain Child

I read this morning from Matthew 2, the Christmas story, and of Herod ordering that all boys in Bethlehem under the age of 2 be killed. And I wondered: did Jesus ever encounter a mother or father whose boy was killed? Wouldn’t that have been an interesting encounter? Like, “Hi, Jesus. I would have had a son your age…if you hadn’t come along.”

I did a Bible search, and it doesn’t appear that Jesus ever went to Bethlehem. At least, it’s not mentioned in the Gospels. Oh well. Doesn’t mean such an encounter couldn’t have occurred.

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Looking for an Honest Lady

Every day I receive requests to be put on our denominational email list, so that people can receive news updates. These come through the denominational website which I manage. The thing is, most of these requests come from places like Nigeria, Pakistan, Namibia, and Zambia. In earlier years, I would respond nicely to such requests. Now I simply delete them. Cold, I know.

Today I received a request from a fellow in Louisiana who wanted to be put on our email list. He explained his desire with this note: “I’m looking for a honest lady. its not the reason i go to church. but its better then going to any bars, ect.”

I hadn’t considered the idea of creating a denominational dating service. That seems like a worthy tool for a conservative evangelical denomination as it pursues fulfilling the Great Commission. I’m sure that we do have, in our churches, a good many honest ladies.

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