_awakening

Uninvited?

Apparently, according to Christianity Today, Shane Claiborne was "uninvited" by Cederville University to deliver a lecture tonight at the university. What was the reasoning you might ask? Well...

After Cedarville's public relations office announced on January 22 that Cedarville would be hosting "An Evening with Shane Claiborne," some blogs decried the decision to invite someone they labeled as belonging to the Emergent community. Links to the blogs were then e-mailed to alumni and pastors, some of whom called Cedarville administrators to complain.

The article goes on to say...

Carl Ruby, Cedarville's vice president for student life, told CT that although there was "a high degree of receptivity on campus" to the Claiborne lecture, he decided to cancel the lecture to avoid risking conveying the wrong message about Cedarville's doctrinal beliefs.

"There was a tension between my desire to use this event to challenge students to take a closer look at a very important social issue, and the need to protect Cedarville's reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university," said Ruby. "There can't be any confusion about our commitment to God's Word and our historically conservative doctrinal position.

Okay, so the "need to protect Cedarville's reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university" is at the heart of all this? Interesting. For any of you who have read Shane's book, or heard him speak in the past will know this to be true - Shane is one of the most passionate followers of the way and the teachings of Jesus. His life is committed to living the words of Jesus - could anything be more "Christ-centered"?

All this, and how it went down, hits way too close to home for Jamie and I. We've been the focal point of similar situations. For those of you who have been on the receiving end of something like this, it comes out of left field and seems unreal. I think Shane's response is outstanding:

Unfortunately it's difficult to communicate with folks who will not talk to you, who only talk around you, as in this case. I do not have time to hunt down every rogue Web site. There's too much constructive work to do for the Kingdom for us to spend our energies constantly reacting to every destructive voice, especially those who do not honor Matthew's admonition to speak directly with one another in love (Matthew 18). And there is too much brokenness in the world to spend time tearing each other apart.

Well said. It's such a pity that people who claim to represent the living Jesus, can often act in ways so counter to the ethos of Jesus.

You can read the rest of Shane's response [and a whole host of comments] here.

The Death of American Christendom.

In the wake of the death of Dr. D. James Kennedy yesterday [and the recent death of Jerry Falwell], comes these thoughts from Diana Butler Bass. I think she has a point to be made here. The death of these two gentleman marks an enormous generational shift in leadership in certain evangelical circles. Speaking of Kennedy's legacy, she notes:

His strongest contribution to the movement was his passionate belief that America was founded as a Christian nation and developing media to carry that message across the globe. "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ," he proclaimed, "whatever the cost." His preaching, politics, and public ministry flowed from this central idea: to restore Christian America.

And it is at that very point - the idea of a Christian America - that evangelicalism, along with American Protestantism more generally, is changing.

Now for the genius quote of the article...

The contrast between Kennedy and Hauerwas and Willimon is dramatic. Kennedy believed in Christendom, an American Christian nation divinely designed as the leader of a global spiritual empire, and in creating a Christian politics toward that end. Hauerwas and Willimon believe that Christendom, the ideal of a Christian nation, was historically wrongheaded from the start. "The church," they argue, "doesn’t have a social strategy; the church is a social strategy."

The contrast defines the generational shift regarding attitudes toward Christendom. Older evangelical leaders, for the most part, want Christendom back. Emerging leaders, influenced by theologians such as Hauerwas and Willimon, are less interested in “reclaiming” Christendom and more interested in strengthening a confessing church based on the model of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s alternative community in Hitler's Germany. For younger Christians - evangelicals and progressives alike - Kennedy's nostalgic world bears no resemblance to their own. The vision of a post-Christendom church, a community of pilgrims joined together in practices of faith and justice, energizes their hope for the future. As the Christendom generation passes away, a post-Christendom faith will, most probably, take its place. That may take some time, but it will eventually recreate Christian political theology in America.

Amen. I think she is onto something here. The unfortunate vision of Christianity as somehow being able to bring about "a Christian nation" is beginning to fade into history. And in it's place I believe is coming a beautiful vision of a counter cultural kingdom movement, one that influences culture not with words and policies, but with compassion and servanthood. Perhaps this new vision will begin to wrestle with the words of Jesus, when he said:

My kingdom is not of this world. [John 18.36]

You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. [Mark 10.42-45]

My hope is that the community of God move away from trying to "reclaim America as a Christian nation," rather focusing on making a life in the way of the kingdom, the kingdom that does not come like earthly kingdoms, a kingdom that embraces a different posture - a posture of humility, servanthood, and love.

You can read the article in it's entirety [as well as some pretty heated comments... as you could imagine] here.

Pondering.

Recently a friend of mine and I were talking. He was sharing with me a situation he was having in his church. It turns out that someone who was new to the community, who is a follower of Jesus, had recently been discovered to have a view different that the church on the issue of homosexuality. This person, who was not a homosexual themselves, was active in advocating gay rights. Furthermore, they did not see homosexuality as a "sin".

Within this person's community this created quite a stir. In fact some in leadership were quite concerned saying things like, "Should we have this person here? What if they start sharing their views?" Even more fascinating was this one, "Is this person even a Christian?"

This led my friend and I into a very interesting discussion, which focused on the latter question. We wrestled with this - What does a person need to "believe" in order to be a follower of Jesus? Also, what kind of life do they need to embrace in order to be "saved" or be a follower of Jesus?

Herein lies where I think the Church struggles. We talk about being embraced as we are by Jesus, but in actuality there appears to be a whole set of preconceived beliefs, that one must sign off on in order to be considered a follower of Jesus. What are we exactly communicating here about the good news? How do those who are interested in Jesus, but want nothing to do with Church, hear this sort of thing? Is it good news only for those who agree to a preconceived set of religious beliefs and positions?

When we choose to follow Jesus, we begin to orient our lives around the kind of life we see in him. In him, we find redemption, restoration, forgiveness, wholeness, and reconciliation. In a real sense this is a process, but yet it often seems that we demand some kind of watershed moment when everything falls in line with some preconceived belief system.

I just don't think it's that easy...

An Insightful View.

Being the book addict that I am, when I see something that catches my eye, you can pretty much bet that the smiley box will be showing up at my doorstep in a mere few days.

So last week when my friend Rick showed me this book, that feeling came over me. "Must have. Must have."

The long and short of the book is this, Jim Henderson - a man with a history of paying people to go to church [you have to read the book to fully appreciate this] pays a self-proclaimed atheist, Matt Casper to go to various churches around the country - large churches, small churches, suburban churches, urban churches, house churches. Matt's only job was to be honest, even brutally honest, about what he experiences in each church. Some he vibes with, while others... well, 'er... not so much. The book is painfully insightful, often hilarious, and quite genius.

Throughout the book, Matt's comments often circulate around this question, Is this what Jesus told you guys to do? Absolutely genius. The light show, the fog machine, the worship bands, the cameras, the offering plates, the emotional appeals, the "what happens if you die tonight" schtick... Is this what Jesus told you guys to do?

When it is all said and done, here's how Casper sums up the experience...

When all this was done, Jim asked me, "What do you think of Christianity?" And I had a ready reply: It's a religion with well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. (Okay, that's not me; that's Homer Simpson.)

But I don't think I can answer that question because Christianity takes so many forms. It's like asking me, "What do you think about people named Dave?" Each denomination, each church, each Christian basically has a version of Christianity.

As far as the teachings of Jesus go, I love them. Absolutely love them. I also love the teachings of Buddha, Socrates, Teddy Roosevelt, Noam Chomsky.

The question that just came up for me again and again - having read more than a few pages of the Bible - is this: What does the way Christianity is practiced today have to do with the handful of words and deeds uttered by a man who walked the earth two thousand years ago?

Ouch. Painfully true, is it not?

Religion.

Just saw this quote on Emma's blog...

"I have this hunger in me... everywhere I look, I see the evidence of a Creator. But I don't see it as religion, which has cut my people in two. I don't see Jesus Christ as being any part of a religion. Religion to me is almost like when God leaves - and people devise a set of rules to fill the space." [Bono]

Brilliant.

Jesus Outside of Religion?

Today I had the opportunity to re-reflect on the following thoughts from C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity. [Long story, but you can find out more here.] Anyway, I'm absolutely captured by these...

If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the strangest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. [p. 35]

The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians, but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without even knowing it. [pp. 208-9]

I continually find myself blown away by what Lewis was saying here. It inspires and expands my imagination, making me all the more filled with wonder and awe. God truly is larger than I could ever imagine. Perhaps there are more who follow in the Way of Jesus than we ever imagined.

[Also, these are the type of thoughts that make me wonder how Lewis was embraced as some sort of patron saint of evangelicalism - as what he is proposing here is quite radical... and out of step with "evangelicalism" in a myriad of ways.]

"You're On With Jesus..."

Don't know if you've heard about this, but you need to.

Neil Saavedra has a show on KFI in Los Angeles called The Jesus Christ Show [Sunday mornings fropm 6-9 am] which is making huge waves locally. Neil takes phone calls from listeners as "Jesus" - answering people's questions, listening to their stories, and sharing their journey. Saavedra describes it this way, "What if Christ were living in Los Angeles and he had his own advice show?"

The show is genius... and growing. OC Weekly just ran an interview with Neil which is a must read. [If you've never read OC Weekly, you need to... it's the publication for alternative culture, news, and views in Orange County.]

Anyway, here's a slice of the interview...

"Two thousand years ago, he walked this Earth teaching, guiding, loving and preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice. . . . What if today you could walk with him, laugh with him, cry with him? Not just through prayer but through the radio? You are listening to The Jesus Christ Show. To be a part of the show, call 1 (800) 520-1KFI. And now here is our host, Jesus Christ."

Jesus Christ is sitting in his fourth-floor office at Clear Channel in Burbank. He is surrounded by plastic tchotchkes that were given to him by family and friends, things like a George W. bobblehead and an Ann Coulter doll still in its box. There is a post card for Sarah Silverman's movie Jesus Is Magic on the desk. He sits behind a nameplate that reads: Jesus Christ. He gets phone calls:

Caller: Good morning, Lord. I am having a hard time. My husband and I got divorced last year, and it’s mostly my fault. I am really searching for some kind of healing. I can't forgive myself for my marriage failing and can’t believe that you could ever forgive me for something like that.

Jesus: What took place?

Caller: [Crying.] It was something I never thought could happen: I fell in love with someone else. I tried to make the best decisions for my marriage—it got to the point that I couldn't imagine being married to him anymore, 'cause my feelings had changed. And now, when I look back on it, I think I made the biggest mistake of my life.

Jesus: The thing about feelings is that they do change and they are going to change. They go back and forth. That is why you don't ever bank on feelings. A lot of people get caught up in "I feel like this and I feel like that," and that will change, it's very circumstantial. Pressing through is the best thing to do. Now, you made the decisions that you made and they had consequences. But if you are worried about it, I forgive you, absolutely I do.

[The caller cries some more.]

Jesus: I can't force you to forgive yourself. I think it is purposeless for you not to forgive yourself at this point, and to not release it is only to give fertile ground to the enemy and continue to allow him to pummel you and take up your precious time that you could be spending with me.

Jesus, in this case, is 37-year-old Neil Saavedra. With his tattoos, shaved head and proclivity for dressing in black, he makes for an unlikely incarnation of the blond-haired, blue-eyed, robe-wearing Son of Man whom we've gotten used to seeing on coffee cups and 3-D fridge magnets. But this is KFI, the radio station that plasters "Question Everything" and "The Straight Poop" in glow-in-the-dark orange letters across its billboards.

You can [must] read the rest of the interview here. [go there now!]

Christian Art?

Since we've been kicking around some thoughts lately on the issue of "Christian art," Josh Hernandez sent me this link to the Christians in Visual Arts yesterday. Quite intriguing...

Be sure to check out the "recommends" section.

Going Beyond God.

Salon has a great interview with Karen Armstrong in regards to some thoughts in her new book The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions She covers a lot of ground in the interview - including the history of monotheism, why most of what say about God is "unreligious," why the afterlife should be irrelevant, and our misconception of Isalm as a religion of violence [where she notes "that there are more passages in the Bible than in the Quran that are dedicated to violence."]

Stimulating. Thought provoking. Well worth the time.

Here's just a taste of the interview...

Religion is hard work. It's an art form. It's a way of finding meaning, like art, like painting, like poetry, in a world that is violent and cruel and often seems meaningless. And art is hard work. You don't just dash off a painting. It takes years of study. I think we expect religious knowledge to be instant. But religious knowledge comes incrementally and slowly. And religion is like any other activity. It's like cooking or sex or science. You have good art, sex and science, and bad art, sex and science. It's not easy to do it well.

So how should we approach the sacred texts? How should we read them?

Sacred texts have traditionally been a bridge to the divine. They're all difficult. They're not a simple manual - a how-to book that will tell you how to gain enlightenment by next week, like how to lose weight on the Atkins diet. This is a slow process. I think the best image for reading scripture occurs in the story of Jacob, who wrestles with a stranger all night long. And in the morning, the stranger seems to have been his God. That's when Jacob is given the name Israel - "one who fights with God." And he goes away limping as he walks into the sunrise. Scriptures are a struggle.

Is faith a struggle?

Well, faith is not a matter of believing things. That's again a modern Western notion. It's only been current since the 18th century. Believing things is neither here nor there, despite what some religious people say and what some secularists say. That is a very eccentric religious position, current really only in the Western Christian world. You don't have it much in Judaism, for example.

But it's not surprising that religion has become equated with belief because these are the messages we hear as we grow up, regardless of our faiths.

We hear it from some of them. And I think we've become rather stupid in our scientific age about religion. If you'd presented some of these literalistic readings of the Bible to people in the pre-modern age, they would have found it rather obtuse. They'd have found it incomprehensible that people really believe the first chapter of Genesis is an account of the origins of life.

What is a Christian?

Tonight at 11pm [PST], CNN will be exploring this question on Anderson Cooper 360. As a part of the segment, they'll be interviewing Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and Dwight Hopkins, a professor of divinity at the University of Chicago.

Could be a refreshing discussion. Here's a little taste of where they're heading...