What Makes You Tremble? An Election Day Thought

People are afraid these days. The politics of fear seem to be running our country. This political season has seen candidates openly criticize each other because he or she will take us some place horrible. People tremble. Years ago I sat in the living room with a family on an election night much like the one we’ll experience tonight. The preferred candidate of one person in the room was going to lose. They were distraught. They went into their bedroom and closed the door. They were overcome by fear. They trembled.

As a follower of Jesus, we need not be overcome by fear of anything! Really!! Nothing!! At the cross sin was defeated, and in the resurrection the death that goes with it. So while there are many things that should disturb us; politics and politicians, war, racism, poverty, injustice, the dismantling of marriage, and unrighteousness at every level, there is only one thing should make us tremble. What is that, you may ask?

God. Tremble at God. Tremble at the awful beauty and holiness and power and majesty and magnificence of God. He should make us tremble. Our knees ought to knock, and our bodies should writhe--the meaning of the Hebrew word for tremble--when we ponder the awful beauty and holiness of almighty God. Jesus said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:4-5). The Psalmist puts it this way, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord…” (Ps 114:7). “Tremble before him, all the earth” (Ps 96:9) says the Psalmist again [same Hebrew word]. Ironically, where there is godly trembling, there is deep love, deep joy, deep hope, and deep worship (Deut 6:2; Ps 96:9; Ps 147:10-11). God is not trivial. Before Him, we tremble! And in our trembling, we take comfort.

What makes your heart quake? The mismanagement of the government? The presence of unrighteousness? The reality of injustice? The wrong candidate getting into office? “Do not fret because of evil men…” (Ps 37:1-4) says the Psalmist. Instead, trust in the Lord. The government and our country is in his hands (cf Isa 45:1-7). We need not fear evil, evil people, evil policies, or evil actions. While standing for righteousness, we need only fear God. And in that trembling we’ll find real hope, real joy, real peace, and real meaning in life. On this election day, what makes you tremble?

Note: First posted at Moses Lake Alliance Church, November 7, 2016. I decided to post it here on my blog in light of the election in Alabama, December 2017.

It's Not Funny

Louis CK comedian extraordinaire recently admitted to behaving inappropriately towards women for years. His confession, which can be read in its entirety on the following web site (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/arts/television/louis-ck-statement.html?action=click&contentCollection=Arts&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article) admits that the accusations are all true. Honestly, reading what he did is disgusting and disturbing. I wouldn’t want elementary age kids reading this stuff!

Of course, people who have been associated with him have reacted in the politically correct way: contra Hollywood’s usual way of dealing with things like this. While Harvey Weinstein went about his sexual harassment for years, without so much as a peep from Hollywood, everyone is jumping on the “that's disgusting and unacceptable” bandwagon when it comes to Louis C.K. And for the record, this is all happening while Hollywood continues to create movies that actually promote, and mimic, the very thing being disdained and condemned in Louis C.K. and Weinstein.

Louis C.K’s confession rings true, though certainly one suspects he’s doing the politically correct thing. His last sentence is the one that grabbed my attention: “I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.”

Will he? Who knows! But we know that this posture of listening openly, and with honest personal reflection, is truly the right place to start. Psalm 81:8-13 notes that if we’ll but listen to God, and let Him direct us to the revelation of himself in the person and work of Christ, He’ll satisfy us with the finest of wheat, honey from the rock (v. 16). Maybe Louis C.K., who is anything but a Christian, is beginning the long slow journey of having the empty place in his soul occupied by Someone who can actually fill it. As philosophers have puts it for millennia, “If there is a God who created us, then the deepest chambers of our soul simply cannot be filled up by anything less. That’s how great God is!” Only He can satisfy the thirsty soul.

I'm Entitled

I saw it on the fourth of July, on a beach on the North Shore of Boston a few years ago. The crowd was poised for the fire works show. There were thousands of people milling around the beach with their blankets and beach chairs waiting for the inevitable. The place was packed. You couldn’t be alone if you wanted to. And its in that environment where I/we experienced, once again, the mindset of entitlement.

The show started and everyone took a seat on a blanket or a chair; well almost everyone. There was a small group of people, maybe ten yards from us, who remained standing. “Down in front,” people called. That did little to make them move. They huddled together a little more closely out of consideration but the message was clear, “We’re not sitting down. If we block your view, so what?!” And so the show went on and on and on and they remained standing—to the end. I guess I didn’t like that they blocked my view of the lower fireworks. It was pretty obvious that they were locals, based on how they were talking and acting. They probably had yearly beach passes. Maybe they lived in the community. I don’t know. But clearly, they felt entitled to stand while everyone else sat. They were at least middle class, white, and arrogant. They were entitled. And who they inconvenienced was irrelevant to them. It was truly amazing to watch. Irritating but amazing. They were entitled. And they let everyone know it!

It made me think about how much people feel entitled to. In America we feel entitled to compensation if we can’t work and a nice living if we can, freedom of speech and religion, health benefits, dignity, respect (even if you act disrespectfully), material goods, personal satisfaction and meaning, the right to say what you think or feel even if it hurts someone, happiness, and a lot more. We feel entitled. I’m not so sure that’s always good. I think in a democracy, there are benefits and those benefits, more than entitlements, seem to me to be more like privileges. I recently finished a book by a guy named Jamie Smith. The book is called How (Not) to be Secular. Smith’s book is a summary of a book by philosopher, Charles Taylor, who is so complex to read very few can understand him. So you read Smith to understand Taylor. At any rate, Charles Taylor (via Jamie Smith) notes that there is an individualism that haunts our modern way of life in the west. My take on it is that it erodes our ability to care for others the way we should.

St. Paul told the Corinthian church that he was entitled; entitled to compensation, entitled to respect, entitled to bring a believing wife along on his ministry if he so chose. But he didn’t. He chose, for others sake, to give up the things he was entitled to and live instead with a servant heart. Are we doing that? Am I doing that? Its easy to feel entitled. Its hard to want to serve. Jesus Christ, as the eternal Son of God, is entitled to respect, reverence, honor, and glory. On the cross He gave it all up for us. I think that means we can and should do the same for others.

I Just Bought My First Pair of Skinny Jeans

I just bought my first pair of skinny jeans. It’s true. I’m sort of, well—there is no easy way to say this—kind of skinny. I’m well muscled, as my aunt described me way back (I hang on to that statement hoping its actually true), but well muscled in a skinny sort of way. So the jeans fit and look good. I plan to wear them preaching some time. I share this bit of family reality for one simple reason. Christianity Today recently published a study done by Fuller Theological Seminary. The article was entitled “Put Away the Skinny Jeans.”  “But I just bought mine!!!” I protested. Let me unpack this more.

The article debunks what many in the Christian community have assumed for years—that youth are reached by a relevant service, modern music, hipster dress, a cool place to worship, youthful staff, and coffee. The key issue in reaching youth isn’t any of those things. The article lists several areas that are necessary: (1) They want to be the best possible neighbors within their cities. The churches that were “growing young” were showed high involvement and creativity in their commitment to be good neighbors (2) The goal is the gospel. Other things are good, like racial reconciliation, or social justice. But the ultimate goal is the gospel and engaging people as an expression of the gospel. (3) Key chain leadership, meaning senior leadership is avoiding leadership models that focus on personal charisma and moving towards giving the keys of power over to the younger generation. (4) Focus on youth has little to do with hiring a good youth pastor and giving them domain of a part of the property but is seen in everything from how the budget’s made to programming to planning and community life. In short, younger people are made a priority. They are needed and they feel needed! (5) Finally, older folks willingness to be part of the lives of younger folks including showing up at football games, learning their names, and supporting their endeavors.

The irony of this has to do with the demographic of Moses Lake Alliance Church where I now work as a pastor. It’s made up mostly of the kinds of people who have the biggest impact on the lives of younger people: older people. You read it right! Older folks like me (gasp—did I actually write that) who are just not yet retired (or even sixty) can have a meaningful impact on the lives of younger people by doing several simple things: (1) Caring (2) Releasing authority and responsibility into the hands of those who are ready to have it. (3) and focusing on the gospel instead of other superfluous issues.

The big challenge for any congregation is whether or not they want to do this. What I’d tell people is, “Don’t wait around for the staff to tell you how. Figure out a way to care for younger folks in the community and do it.” They’ll start inviting their friends to church, church activities, groups, and mid-sized events simply because they are cared for, loved, and respected.

A Lament for Another American Tragedy

Another black man was shot and killed by the police. This time it was in Charlotte, NC. The police recovered a handgun at the scene along with an ankle holster. The man was on medication and may not have responded properly to police commands. He was right handed but had something in his left hand which the police claimed was the gun. The investigation is underway. The man’s name is Keith Lamont Scott. He was not just another black man. He was a person. He was married. He had kids. And yes, he had a criminal record. I’ll let you read about the details in the paper.

The issue for me isn’t simply who's right and whose wrong here. That’s not the issue. The issue is that we have this incredible spate of police shootings of black men--regardless of who is right or wrong. The NT Times posted an editorial by an African American professor at Yale who wondered how long he’d live as a black man (can't find the editorial to post here). Just being a black male makes you a suspect these days. I’ve heard all the reasons why. And I think I can honestly say that in many cases, law enforcement is correct to shoot, regardless of a persons skin color. But not in every case!! There seems to be way too much of it these days. Some may say, “Well, if you limit police officers right to use deadly force, there will be fewer police officers going home for dinner after a shift.” That may actually be true. And that wouldn’t be right either.

Now some may say I’m moving towards a liberal view of justice. I don’t think so. I want to move towards God’s view of justice. The political and cultural right and left don’t dictate my views on things. I'm a Christian first, an American citizen second. 

Truthfully, I don’t know what the answer is. But the only thing we can do is what the scripture calls Lament. The Psalms are full of Lament’s where’s God’s people cry out to God for his seeming absence. Ruth Haley Barton, a spiritual formation author, recently noted this on her blog site in response to the some of the tragedies including the killing of police officers in Dallas during a peaceful protest. Here is what she said: 

"The prayer of lament is that unsettling biblical tradition of prayer that includes expressions of complaint, anger, grief, despair, and protest to God. Many of us have never been taught this way of praying and it is often missing in the worship of many congregations…. The prayer of lament is a place to begin as we seek to respond to the sin, the brokenness, and the complexity of our life together as human beings. It is tempting to rush to problem-solving and fixing when the situation is so dire, but I hope we won’t."

"Let us stop, at least for a moment, and lament together. Let us stand in solidarity with our black brothers and sisters who continue to experience such tragic loss; let us mourn with them the loss of another black male and affirm that black lives matter. Let us grieve for the law enforcement officers who lost their lives while trying to keep the peace. Let us acknowledge complexity, that we don’t have answers, and cry out to God together for the peace and justice that seems to elude us."

Psalm 13 is an example of a prayer if lament. I’ll include it in this post for your reflection. 

"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me."

How (Not) to be Secular--A Review

I’m not the first person to say this and I’m pretty sure I got this from someone else. So here goes: the great sin of our age isn’t that God’s dead, but that God’s trivial. He just doesn’t matter. “There is no God” is more than atheistic fiat. It’s the de facto way American culture works. We may give attention to him here and there but frankly, we don’t pay much attention. We give him his due, sort of, kind of, maybe—not really. It affects everything from what we spend our money on, to justice issues, to race relationships, to what we think about in our spare time. He’s just  not really considered.

I recently finished a book entitled How (Not) to be Secular—Reading Charles Taylor, by Jamie Smith. Smith is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. He’s taken Charles Taylor's book A Secular Age, and made it understandable. Don’t think that reading Smith’s a whole lot easier! He’s got a glossary in the  back just to keep the reader informed. It’s not an easy read. But if you want to understand the western culture we live in, that’s the book to read. Smith comes from a distinctly Christian worldview (Smith is a Philosophy Professor at Calvin College) but the goal is to understand culture more than provide an apologetic for the Christian faith. Here are a couple of his main points:

In the modern secular world, we doubt transcendence. As a result, doubt and longing are the cross pressures (how people respond to the lack of transcendence) of the secular world. Pg. 11

What makes our modern secular age is the default assumptions about what is actually believable. Some people call this a plausibility factor. A God whose personally involved in our world just doesn't seem plausible (e.g. I think Leslie Newbigin came up with that idea in The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society). Pg. 19

There is no goal beyond human flourishing. Pg. 23

Civility becomes the naturalized, secularized sanctification. Pg. 43 

Humanism isn’t something we fell into but an achievement (Taylor makes this very clear and Jamie Smith captures it nicely). Pg. 57

We are buffered and sealed off from enchantment (the sense of God’s presence in the world) which also seals us off from meaning and significance. Consequently we no longer view this world as a “Cosmos” created by God but as a “Universe” that is cavernous, anonymous space. Pg. 64, 69

All of this secularization is rooted in assumptions! There really is no neutrality only “unthoughts” as he calls them (Taylor—and thus Smith in writing about Taylor—begins in the later part of the book to show the inconsistencies of secularism). Pg. 80f

The real consequence of secularism is that you have no reason for meaning, morality, or beauty (he calls this agency, ethics, and aesthetics). These become “cross pressures” on our secular culture which forces us to violate the logical implications of a secular culture devoid of God. Pg. 102

In fact, secularism faces the same dilemma Christianity faces: to attain any sort of moral aspiration requires you repress your ordinary human desires!  Pg. 112

Consequently, there really are moral codes in a secular culture and they focus on political correctness. Pg. 128.

It’s an incredible book. The last chapter Smith entitles “How (not) to be Secular” but does little to clearly actually unpack specifics of what that may look like. The reader has to figure it out on his or her own. But it's a great book, one that I will turn to regularly as I seek to be a good Christian leader in today's culture.

It’s (not really) simple! Thoughts on Recent Tragedies

That seems to be the new American solution to everything. “It’s simple.” After a Muslim extremist shot up a gay night club in Orlando, there were essentially three reasons brought up for the carnage. An editorial in The Week noted the three most common: (1) Our failure to keep weapons of war out of the hands of terrorists (2) President Obama’s refusal to take ISIS seriously (3) Hatred and intolerance for the LGBT community. The reductionistic arguments repeated over and over by commentators, and others like them, became combatant and a bit odd when CNN’s Anderson Cooper went on the offensive against Florida’s Attorney General because she didn’t Tweet enough about Gay Pride.

Then after the unjustified killing of several black men by the police in Minneapolis, MN and in Banton Rouge, LA and the killing of five police officers in Dallas during a peaceful protest, the blame game started. “It’s simple,” we were told, The problem is the Black Lives Matter movement, Donald Trump, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Church, and so forth and so on. 

 

I’m thinking these simplistic solutions to complex problems aren’t helpful. And they are really unhelpful when they take on religious overtones. But I have my own simple solution. It’s the human heart. Our hearts are hard. All of our hearts; not just the hearts of people like the guy shooting up the gay bar in Orlando or the people shooting up the café’s and dance hall in Paris. And not just the hearts of right wing conservatives who naively seem to think that our only real problems are economic and big government and we should become isolationists to protect ourselves, or left wing liberals who can’t seem to tolerate anyone who disagrees with them and believe the best rules are no rules except the rules they want. 

 Our hearts are hard. And people do what they do for reasons we are unaware of. In fact, based on my experience, people do what they do for reasons they themselves often don’t fully understand! Why? Because their hearts are hard and its complex. Who can know the human heart?! It’s not really that simple.  

As a follower of Jesus I’ve been struck by how the early church addressed issues like this. Christianity was birthed, and thrived, in the midst of a cultural cauldron that didn’t include CNN, smart phones, multiple political parties, and democracy. The King or Emporer could have a commoner killed for doing virtually nothing wrong. Work was hard. Oppression of the lower class was rampant. War and terrorism were common occurances. Violence was the norm. In Greaco Roman culture, sexual promiscuity was common which included abortion, adultery and long term gay relationships. And yet over time, over decades actually, the church thrived and grew and became powerful in the midst of it all. How? 

Here’s a couple of ways I believe that happened: (1) People in the churches loved each other. Christians were known for their love. (2) They did the politically incorrect thing in a gracious compelling way. They served and supported those society rejected. (3) They policed themselves. That is, not everyone who claimed to be Christians were allowed to call themselves Christians. This separated the wheat from the chaff and allowed the true church to emerge. (4) They valued marriage, family, and sexual purity. It set them apart from the culture as a whole. (5) They sacrificed themselves on behalf of their neighbors and others. They’d adopt little girls exposed to the elements after birth by the Romans who didn’t want baby girls. They stayed in cities during the plagues and cared for the sick at their own risk, when everyone else fled. (6) They valued everyone—especially women and children, who had little worth in the minds of many in that day. (7) They rejected the violent entertainment of the day and didn’t support it. 

In short, they didn’t run away. And best I can tell, they didn’t blame. They didn’t stop living out their faith every day. They continued to worship. They fought for the true faith and celebrated everything Christian because Jesus, the God man, gave everything for them. As Keller puts it somewhere, Christianity fights the individualistic, autonomous consumerism of modern culture because Jesus gave himself for his enemies. Shouldn’t we do the same? The gospel fights the simple reductionistic solutions to difficult problems and provides us with the tools to live humbly, simply, and generously in cities and communities that are often troubled. Life is messy. Lets get in the mess and realize the solutions aren’t simple but they point us to the ultimate solution—a relationship with Jesus Christ that addresses the hardness of the human heart by repentance from sin and faith in his work on our behalf. There is no other world religion like that!

The Great Divorce--A Hellish Drama

I went to see the CS Lewis play, The Great Divorce, a while back. The play was off Broadway and in a very small theatre. What a production. It was amazing. If you’ve never read the book, consider it. It’s the story of a bus ride from hell to heaven. At the gates of heaven, each of the bus riders are given the opportunity to get into heaven, but all but one ultimately choose hell. I’ve read it over and over again. Lewis isn’t making a theological statement in the book. If you are reading it with that in mind, you are missing the point. But the characters at heaven’s gates are all very provocative!

For example: One of the characters was a grumbler. The actor walked across the stage mumbling and grumbling. The words cascaded from her lips like water over a water falls. Grumble grumble grumble. Over and over. Lewis used the character to highlight what happens when one becomes the qualities that get us into hell. He notes in the book, “The whole difficulty of understanding Hell is that the thing to be understood is so nearly Nothing. ….It begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it, again. But [here Lewis warns us through the character, speaking in the book] there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, nor even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.”

Do you see what he’s saying? There may come a time when sin literally consumes us. It’s become so much apart of us, that it is us and when that happens, its hell. Hell is the by-product of what sin does to us—we become dehumanized and less of what we’ve been created to be to the point where we eternally disintegrate. Sobering!! The whole idea of hell as flames of fire is a metaphor for the eternal, non ending, disintegration of a human soul. Biblically it is searing heat and fire. It is outer darkness and isolation.  We never become what we were created to become: its utter, complete, and entire hopelessness. Lewis seeks to communicate that in the book.

After it was all done, we went out to dinner and discussed which character was most compelling. It made for good conversation. Read the book. The play was put on by The Fellowship of the Performing Arts which is a theatrical company committed to sharing theatre from a Christian worldview. The play, The Great Divorce, had taken several years to perfect and has gotten some great reviews. Max McClean, the founder, came out after the performance and took questions. There were three actors who played sixteen roles!! Honestly, living in NYC has its benefits when it comes to the arts. It was an amazing experience. 

Gay Marriage--A Response

A year ago nearly to the day, the Supreme Court effectively made gay marriage the law of the land. By one vote, the justices determined that thousands of years of history would be set aside for our 21^st century western understanding of truth and wisdom. The idea that two members of the same sex could be legitimately married has, until the last 30-40 years, not even been considered an option. This should give pause even to those who are pro gay marriage. States like California, Massachusetts and New York were ahead of the national curve, but the court’s decision sealed the reality that the North American understanding of marriage would be irrevocably challenged, and perhaps changed for good.

People from conservative Jewish, Islamic, and Christian backgrounds were/are justifiably concerned, and in some cases outraged. The reactivity on the part of those in the Christian community was at times confusing. For example, Kim Davis, a clerical worker in Indiana made national news when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Davis has been married four times and has two kids out of wedlock. Some feel she has no right to impose her biblical morality on others. On another note, in the Pope’s recent visit to the States, he made the front page of the New York Times Online when he hugged an openly gay man. In a recent subway advertisement, I noticed a picture of the Pope with the tag line noting his refusal to be judgmental towards gays. Of all the things the Pope said, while in the States, why highlight that? Our cultural agenda seems intent on moving towards the normalization of a gay lifestyle and orientation.

I recently read an article in Leadership Journal entitled “Consistent Sexual Sacrifice.” The author, an Anglican pastor named Kevin Miller, told the story of an interaction he had with a woman at a wedding reception over gay marriage. Upon telling her he was a pastor the following conversation took place:

“Oh, your’re that group that hates gays.”…. So I said, ‘No, in our church, we have many people who feel same-sex attraction.”

“Oh,” she said looking puzzled. “What do you do with them?”

“We walk alongside them,” I said. They’ve come to us and said, ‘Help me walk the way of Jesus.’ And they know that for many of them their longings will remain and that means a life of celebacy.”

“But what you’re asking of them—isn’t that unfair?”

I said, “It’s hard. I don’t minimize that. But the way of Jesus is hard for everyone. We tell our heterosexual singles, ‘You’ve got to stop sleeping with your girlfriend or your boyfriend.’ We tell a married man, ‘I don’t care how alive you feel around that new person at work; you’ve got to stay faithful to your wife.’ We tell our folks caught up in pornography, ‘Come to our support group, where you’ll admit to other people how much power this has over you.’”

He went on to note that as a pastor he did not try to foster consistent sexual sacrifice in the church in order to convince people outside to become Christians. We can’t convince people who don’t want to be convinced. As P.T. Forsythe put it, ‘No reason of a man can justify God in a world like this. He must justify himself, and he did so in the cross of his Son.’ Scott Saul in his book Jesus Outside the Lines, puts it best when describing the surrender that same sex attracted men and women make to faithful obedience in the area of sexual purity. “…. it is a surrender that each of them has considered worthwhile, not because Jesus is a roadblock to love but because Jesus is love itself.” (pg. 144)

So what is our response to be as the church? Here’s what I suggest: We need to be welcoming and encouraging in terms of the commitment on the part of all believers to sexual purity. Biblically speaking, sex and marriage, between a man and a woman, go hand in hand. Sex and sexual activity outside of marriage which includes pornography, sex between and a man and a woman, or sex between two men, or between two women, are not God’s best for us. In fact, sex outside of marriage period, is a low view of sex.

Never the less, the church should be the place where all are welcomed regardless of what they struggle with. Let’s have an exalted view of sex and an exalted view of marriage. Let’s not focus on gay marriage but on making marriage, between a man and woman, everything God wants it to become. And let’s commit to relax, and avoid the shrill argumentation that has accompanied this debate, even among Christians. It will go a long way towards human flourishing and peace, in our community.

Decency and the 2016 Presidential Campaign

I have a confession to make: I have been blogging elsewhere. I've got a bunch of posts at my church's web site but I've failed to put them up here. I'll start adding them later. But for now I wanted to add this blog post from Max Lucado that I found very helpful. It's on the presidential campaign that's being waged and on Mr. Trumps behavior in particular. I'm not going to apologize for being a Christian. This blog is designed intentionally to be sensitive to those who don't have the same faith as I do. And for that reason, I rarely put up posts that are political. I just don't think its always helpful. But truthfully, I'm so disgusted with some of the political antics going on, I'm putting this one up. Lucado, who by all accounts is a gracious man, takes Trump to task; and well he should. Read the post. If you disagree with me, fine. But at least consider it. 

Decency for President by Max Lucad

As the father of three daughters, I reserved the right to interview their dates. Seemed only fair to me. After all, my wife and I’d spent 16 or 17 years feeding them, dressing them, funding braces, and driving them to volleyball tournaments and piano recitals. A five-minute face-to-face with the guy was a fair expectation. I was entrusting the love of my life to him. For the next few hours, she would be dependent upon his ability to drive a car, avoid the bad crowds, and stay sober. I wanted to know if he could do it. I wanted to know if he was decent.

This was my word: “decent.” Did he behave in a decent manner? Would he treat my daughter with kindness and respect? Could he be trusted to bring her home on time? In his language, actions, and decisions, would he be a decent guy?

Decency mattered to me as a dad.

Decency matters to you. We take note of the person who pays their debts. We appreciate the physician who takes time to listen. When the husband honors his wedding vows, when the teacher makes time for the struggling student, when the employee refuses to gossip about her co-worker, when the losing team congratulates the winning team, we can characterize their behavior with the word decent.

We appreciate decency. We applaud decency. We teach decency. We seek to develop decency. Decency matters, right?

Then why isn’t decency doing better in the presidential race?

The leading candidate to be the next leader of the free world would not pass my decency interview. I’d send him away. I’d tell my daughter to stay home. I wouldn’t entrust her to his care.
I don’t know Mr. Trump. But I’ve been chagrined at his antics. He ridiculed a war hero. He made mockery of a reporter’s menstrual cycle. He made fun of a disabled reporter. He referred to the former first lady, Barbara Bush as “mommy,” and belittled Jeb Bush for bringing her on the campaign trail. He routinely calls people “stupid,” “loser,” and “dummy.” These were not off-line, backstage, overheard, not-to-be-repeated comments. They were publicly and intentionally tweeted, recorded, and presented.

Such insensitivities wouldn’t even be acceptable even for a middle school student body election. But for the Oval Office? And to do so while brandishing a Bible and boasting of his Christian faith? I’m bewildered, both by his behavior and the public’s support of it.

The stock explanation for his success is this: he has tapped into the anger of the American people. As one man said, “We are voting with our middle finger.” Sounds more like a comment for a gang-fight than a presidential election. Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel.

We can only hope, and pray, for a return to decency. Perhaps Mr. Trump will better manage his antics. (Worthy of a prayer, for sure.) Or, perhaps the American public will remember the key role of the president is to be the face of America. When he/she speaks, he/she speaks for us. Whether we agree or disagree with the policies of the president, do we not hope that they behave in a way that is consistent with the status of the office?

As far as I remember, I never turned away one of my daughter’s dates. They weren’t perfect, but they were decent fellows. That was all I could ask.

It seems that we should ask the same.

© Max Lucado
February 21, 2016

Exercise--the West's New Religion

In the front of his book, The Reason for God, Tim Keller notes that both orthodox Christianity and Secular irreligion (Atheism in some cases) are gaining footholds around the world. This sets us up for a philosophical and political clash of the Titans which we experience in a variety of ways. What I never expected, however, was to experience it in exercise.

Behold, the new religion of exercise. This religion has all the makings of a cult with its stringent orthodoxy (training with sledge hammers and tires), its well spoken advocates (coaches and workout instructors), and its more than willing participants (normally younger men and women). This is of interest to me since in the past ten years of my life I’ve dabbled in the extreme sport of marathon running. Now it would appear that training for marathons, and even running them, is really no longer extreme. It’s something people do to check off their “bucket list.” However, the new paradigm of exercise has taken things to another level. It’s not conditioning to accomplish a sport but conditioning for conditionings sake and often in the most extreme fashion. What is valued is the exercise for exercise itself. Instead of preparing us for some athletic competition, it drives the one exercising to what is ultimate, provides protection for a future apocalypse, and seeks to provide answers to life’s real meaning

New York Times writer, Heather Havrilesky, in an October 14, 2014 article entitled, Why Americans are so Fascinated by Extreme Fitness says this about this new tendency towards physical fitness:

“…our new religion has more than a little in common with the religions that brought our ancestors to America in the first place. Like the idealists and extremists who founded this country, the modern zealots of exercise turn their backs on the indulgences of our culture, seeking solace in self-abnegation and suffering. ‘This is the route to a better life,’ they tell us, gesturing at their sledgehammers and their kettlebells, their military drills and their dramatic re-enactments of hard labor. And in these uncertain times, it doesn’t sound so bad to be prepared for some coming disaster — or even for an actual job doing hard labor, if our empire ever falls.

It makes sense that for those segments of humanity who aren’t fighting for survival every day of their lives, the new definition of fulfillment is feeling as if you’re about to die. Maybe that’s the point. If we aren’t lugging five gallons of water back from a well 10 miles away or slamming a hammer into a mountainside, something feels as if it’s missing. Who wants to sit alone at a desk all day, then work out alone on a machine? Why can’t we suffer and sweat together, as a group, in a way that feels meaningful? Why can’t someone yell at us while we do it? For the privileged, maybe the most grueling path seems the most likely to lead to divinity. When I run on Sunday mornings, I pass seven packed, bustling fitness boutiques, and five nearly empty churches.” 

Did you get that? People rather suffer the extreme pain of “hard labor physical fitness” than the emptiness of religiousity. Very interesting. Truthfully, I agree with them. Churches are empty for a reason and exercise boutiques are full of people for a reason. Maybe we should consider why. After all, while exercise may prolong your life, it never promises to save your soul. If anything, it delays the inevitable. So why are churches so empty and exercise facilities so full? Maybe its because churches have lost their way, like everyone else, and haven’t figured it out yet. Check out the article. It will be worth a read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/magazine/why-are-americans-so-fascinated-with-extreme-fitness.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A8%22}

The Human Stain--A Review

I just finished reading the novel The Human Stain by Philip Roth. The novel is set in a quaint New England college town, in Vermont. The story is intriguing in that it is framed in the late 90’s just following the President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky scandal and is told as if written by the writer Nathan Zuckerman. The plot is exceptional. There are more twists and turns in this novel than one could imagine. Roth is an excellent social critic. No one seems to escape his eye, especially the those in the tolerance movement.

Here is a short summary of what happens (Warning—I’m going to expose one major theme of the book so if you don’t want to lose the intrigue, stop reading this blog now). The distinguished and brilliant classics professor Coleman Silk offends some African American students, in his class by referring to them as spooks, as ghosts, since they’d never attended his lectures. The students got wind of it and charged him with racism. It’s a bogus charge, and one many on the faculty saw as such, but he ended up losing his job and his wife, over the whole affair. The book is built around that event and his reaction to it. What comes out, as the plot unfolds, is that everyone of the main characters has a secret. A secret so deep, and in some cases, so profoundly disturbing, that it acts like a stain on their humanity. It colors their perception of reality and yet also defines them. Roth’s secret is he’s African American himself. The term spooks couldn’t have possibly been used in a racially charged way. But no one ever finds out—except  Nathan Zuckerman.  

Roth, describing the stain through the lens of one of the characters says this, “The human stain…we leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, … there’s no other way to be here. Nothing to do with disobedience. Nothing to do with grace or salvation or redemption. It’s in everyone. Indwelling. Inherent. Defining. The stain that is there before its mark. The stain that proceeds disobedience and perplexes all explanation and understanding. It’s why all the cleansing is a joke…its inescapable.”(pg. 242)

I won’t take time to unpack the book. It is not an easy book to digest. I went on line after reading it to see what others had to say and one critic suggested that this was the kind of book that should be read by High School students. I don’t think so. It was pretty graphic at times but the critic was right in one regard. Everyone should understand that there truly is a human stain, and that stain, whether we are completely aware of it or not, is inescapable. You can’t get away from it. You can try to conceal it, but it won’t go away.

The question then becomes, how can it be dealt with? Roth offers no answer. The book is a description of human depravity and how that is used to hurt others and how that eventually hurts us. It’s thought provoking, I’ll say that. As a Christian, there is really only one answer—Jesus Christ. But there are a lot of people unwilling to consider that with all its ramifications.

It’s (not) better to be European

We had a tile guy come in to our house the other day. After 10 years, we were finally putting up our back splash in the kitchen. It was one of my sabbatical projects along with making sure we had a generator wired directly into our house so the next time Hurricane Sandy (or a black out or a brown out or anything else, for that matter) shuts out our electricity, we’ll be all set. At any rate, the tile guy comes and he’s named German. But he’s not German, he’s from South America.

 I said, “Wow, that’s an interesting name. German! Sounds very European.” To which he responded, “Well, yes but unfortunately, I’m not.” That took me back. Because the tone of voice, the way it was said, etc. all communicated, “I wish I was white and European. But I’m not white or European even though I have a white European name.” It bothered me. I asked about his ethnicity. He was from Ecuador. I said, “You have a wonderful culture.” He nodded, smiled, and agreed with me, then we talked about tile. I was going to lean into him a bit but it would have been inappropriate.

 Who knows exactly what it meant? But it took me back. What are the standards for beauty, privilege, and success, even in today’s American culture? White, blonde, blue eyed, and western? I am white. I’ve been white my whole life. I like white people. (I once said that in front of a white congregation in Maine and they thought it was a racist statement—from a white guy! Go figure.) But white isn’t right and the west isn’t always best. Caucasians have made a wonderful imprint on the culture of the world. Our culture, and the many varieties it contains, will be represented in heaven (Rev 7:9-11). But we have a lot to repent of as well. The same white skin that made so many wonderful scientific discoveries and gave us Bach and Mozart in the 18^th century also raped the Belgian Congo in the 19^th century (Read the book King Leupold’s Ghost for a nauseating study of that), and started a good chunk of World War II in the 20^th century.

 I believe each cultural group has wonderful redemptive gifts that it brings by divine design to the world community. But each cultural group as well, must come to grips with the reality that sin has tainted those gifts and they must come to grips with that, for true cultural healing to take place. Speaking about the Germans, consider my post on my trip to Berlin to see what cultural repentance may look like—even for a culture or government that’s not distinctly religious (See January 2012—Post entitled The Topography of Terror).

The Picture of Dorian Gray--A Review

I read this book in 2010 and wrote a blog on it that I never posted. I referred to it in a recent post and then realized I'd never put it on my blog. So here it is--three years late!   

I recently read the book The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It’s a book set in 19^th century England about a handsome young man whose good looks and persona inspire others to desire to be like him. For this reason, he can get whatever he wants, and he centers his existence around himself and his own pleasures. But in an odd twist of fate, Dorian Gray’s life takes a unique twist after an artist’s portrait captures his soul. So while on the outside, things look great: He’s energetic, creative, and appears youthful even as he ages; on the inside Dorian Gray’s soul begins to shrivel. And somehow little by little the painting mysteriously changes, revealing his self-absorbed and self-centered ugliness.

Fearful of being discovered for what he really is, Dorian Gray hides the painting in a room in his home to which he alone carries the key. Over the years he regularly visits the room and watches in horror as the painting, revealing the real Dorian Gray, becomes despicable, hideous, even grotesque. His withered soul was hidden from all but Dorian Gray himself, and it tormented him. The possibility that he would be revealed for what he really was, terrified him.

The Picture of Dorian Gray examines human nature through a modernistic lense. Several of the characters, including Dorian Gray himself, appear to take an objective view of life. Their perspective and emotion is tempered by their even keeled scientific method. But the sheer emotionally vacuous analysis of life events that, in the end, should pierce their souls does not. In the end, Dorian Gray lives out the Hedonism that his friends all wish they could but don’t or can’t. Ironically, those whose lives intersect closely with Dorian Gray end up devastated or destroyed. But none are as twisted and destroyed as Dorian himself. Without even knowing, it he destroys himself.

The book is worthwhile reading and made me wonder what realities there are about myself that can’t even be conveyed or even called blind spots because they are so hidden--not just from me but from others as well!  The moral seems to be: face what’s real, don’t hide it or it will destroy you. It did to Dorian Gray. 

Oscar Wildes must have been an interesting man. What secrets was he keeping about himself that he never revealed, yet in the end, destroyed him?

Philosophy and Culture

I’ve been reading philosophy lately. One of my physicians suggested I read a book by Jim Holt, Why Does theWorld Exist. Before you pick up a copy be warned. This is a tough read. I find reading Jonathan Edwards easier! (For those who don’t know, Edwards was an 18^th century Puritan whose English is—shall we say—tough to understand) At any rate, Holt does a good job of addressing, in story form, a variety of philosophical themes including the existence of God, the meaning of moral virtue, the reason for existence (the key theme in the book), and perhaps even a smattering here and there of epistomology.

I’m not a philosopher but I’ve been struck during my sabbatical by the extent to which philosophy and culture effect our thinking. In some cases, without us even knowing it, much of what we thoughtlessly accept as common sense in society, from both Christian and distinctly non-Christian world views, are inextricably connected to philosophy and thought in our culture. We are simply parroting what our culture believes and may even do so while uncritically validating it (in some cases this seems to happen in some Christian psychology).

I’ve also finished reading the newest biography on Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas and was struck by the same thing. Barth and Bonhoeffer were both independent thinkers who fought the liberalism of the 19^th century German theologian Schliermacher, etc. but who never got to the same thoeological orthodoxy that some in modern Evangelical America embrace. I’ve also read a short bio of Nietzche, as well which detailed all the ways his philosophy has entered a variety of disciplines in modern thought, to the extent that its become cultural wisdom. For example, the author suggested the idea that, The highest virtue is to be true to oneself as well as You can’t love someone else if you don’t love yourself both come out of Nietzche’s thought. [Of course, one must always be careful with these things. Because even though Nietzche disdained Christianity, when Nietzche and Jesus agree on anything, its probably true! But that’s a different post topic.]

Francis Schaeffer in his book Escape from Reason, describes how this seems to have happened by explaining this as a shift from Grace (The belief that the central theme of our western cultural worldview has to do with faith, God, the heavenlies, the invisible, etc) to Nature (The belief that the central theme of our cultural worldview has to do with the created, earth, the visible, etc). Our current national preoccupation with separating church from state is a product of this. At any rate, its been thought provoking and stimulating.

I think for me, the critical “take away” is awareness and responsibility. Will I be aware of what I’m automatically buying into and believing and search for its roots. And will I take responsibility to be as honest as I can with what I believe to be truth—especially when I preach, teach, or write. I’m writing all this to say that I think that we—that is all of us who are alive right now— are more influenced by our culture than we think. And for that reason, its critical to step back and ask, “Why do I think this way? Why do I  believe this way?” I for one believe that truth is certainly found in reason and science but that complete truth has its roots in revelation—all truth is Gods truth—that goes beyond reason and science. There is simply too much “truth” for even the greatest of minds to assimilate or discover. We need revelation and all of us, even those who disbelieve in God, seek that revelation from somewhere. I, for one, get mine from the Bible. I think that makes sense, more sense than from other sacred writings. Obviously a lot of people, maybe even most, will disagree with me, but I stand on the authority of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. Otherwise solutions to our greatest problems become arbitrary.

Those are my musings now. More later.