We have been going through a downsizing at work and the folks who took the voluntary severance package just finished their last week on the job. Many of them were near retirement and the package gave them enough incentive to go ahead and move into retirement now. With so many senior folks leaving, this past week has reminded me of high school days when the seniors were getting ready to graduate. Deja’ vu all over again, as Yogi would say. In addition, my daughter turned 20 and so for the first time in 16 years we have no teenagers in the house. That passage out of the teen years also made me think of the milestones and passages in life. It was a strange sort of week in that way.
Of course, some younger folks who were considering a new direction in their life also left. One of those was a man who had worked in my team as a project leader and is moving to Canada to join his new bride. They were married shortly before this severance package was announced. He is from India, though he spent much of his teen years in Canada, and he met his wife on the internet via a match-making/dating service for Asian Indians. She lives in Canada. Since marriages in India are traditionally arranged marriages, that approach seems to fit. He is an avid reader, so I am giving him a copy of The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis as he leaves and begins his new life with his new bride. I suspect that those from cultures of arranged marriages have fewer unrealistic expectations about romantic love than those from cultures like America, so the message that ‘Eros makes promises that she cannot keep’ may not be as desperately needed in his case as it is in America, but I suspect he has lived here and in Canada long enough to have been corrupted by our culture.
That our culture desperately needs this message was made clear yet again this past week by the news of the Argentina affair carried on by Governor Sanford of South Carolina. While the press rarely gets anything right, the comments that have been in print about how he felt that this woman was his soul mate, that this is about love, and so on indicates that he certainly does not yet understand about Eros and her promises. There has been such an ongoing stream of these types of revelations among governors, presidential candidates, preachers, and others in power that I am beginning to wonder if there are other lessons here as well. So many of these ‘leaders’ have such enormous egos that it seems to me that we have a cultural problem in not being able to tell the difference between egotism and leadership. So many of our ‘leaders’ appear to be leading when they are mostly just serving their own ego. They seem to do the same in their relationships with women, serving their own ego and thinking they can talk their way out of anything. And so many women, for their part, seem to prefer this fast talking, outgoing, self-serving type, often choosing them over men who are more introverted but also more reliable and less self-centered. While the ability to communicate is important, it is not enough. For my part, I will take depth and integrity over skillful rhetoric any day. It seems to me that many women, like the electorate, do not recognize the difference between leadership and egotism either. It should not be a surprise that so many have swooned over the words of Obama regardless of his lack of having ever done anything of consequence and regardless of his arrogance. That seems to be the concept our culture has of leadership.
Meanwhile Gov. Sanford clearly still has lessons to learn. Perhaps I should have sent him a copy of The Four Loves too.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Father's Day and Sustainability
It was Father's Day this past Sunday and it was good to be with extended family and children on that day. With the bankruptcy of GM and the talk of needing 'greener' cars, the high price of oil this past year, the debates about wind and nuclear power, climate change, and so on sustainability is all very much top of mind as well. However, still this few days after Father's Day I am thinking and wondering more about the sustainability of fatherhood in our culture. Perhaps it is bigger than that, an issue of moral sustainability.
In the news today Governor Sanford admitted he had been missing the past week due to an affair with a woman in Argentina. A few days ago Senator Ensign admitted to an affair with a staff member and gave up leadership roles. Both are conservative Republicans, the party less reputed for supporting such behavior. Of course, many in both parties have had the same problem, as does culture in general. Something like 40% of all children are now born out of wedlock in the U.S. , up to 70% among African Americans. The family itself is looking to be not very sustainable, regardless of what happens to Father's Day.
I heard in a sermon recently that something like 60% of kids who are active in church youth programs leave the church entirely when they graduate from high school and go off to college. These are not all kids, these are the ones that show up regularly and participate. This is clearly an unsustainable approach to building the next generation of Christians.
The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting this week in Louisville, KY, and the news there is glum; church membership and baptisms are falling. If the rate continues, the denomination will be half its current size in another 30 years or so. Unsustainable.
All of this is symptomatic to me of moral unsustainability. Someone has said that we are living on the fumes of prior generations morals, our own moral gas tanks having long since gone empty. The results seem to support that. We attempt to honor Father's Day while abandoning marriage and leaving our children with no father in the home. We think marriage is only about our own personal satisfaction so we cannot distinguish between so-called 'gay marriage' and the real thing. We do not live our faith daily so our children run away from the church at the first opportunity.
Rev. Johnny Hunt at the SBC Convention says we need revival. That is true, but it doesn't go far enough. We need to be actually living the faith, having it as our own. We need to be fueled with our own personal walk with God, not trying to live on the fumes left from the faith of prior generations. Nothing else will ever be sustainable.
In the news today Governor Sanford admitted he had been missing the past week due to an affair with a woman in Argentina. A few days ago Senator Ensign admitted to an affair with a staff member and gave up leadership roles. Both are conservative Republicans, the party less reputed for supporting such behavior. Of course, many in both parties have had the same problem, as does culture in general. Something like 40% of all children are now born out of wedlock in the U.S. , up to 70% among African Americans. The family itself is looking to be not very sustainable, regardless of what happens to Father's Day.
I heard in a sermon recently that something like 60% of kids who are active in church youth programs leave the church entirely when they graduate from high school and go off to college. These are not all kids, these are the ones that show up regularly and participate. This is clearly an unsustainable approach to building the next generation of Christians.
The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting this week in Louisville, KY, and the news there is glum; church membership and baptisms are falling. If the rate continues, the denomination will be half its current size in another 30 years or so. Unsustainable.
All of this is symptomatic to me of moral unsustainability. Someone has said that we are living on the fumes of prior generations morals, our own moral gas tanks having long since gone empty. The results seem to support that. We attempt to honor Father's Day while abandoning marriage and leaving our children with no father in the home. We think marriage is only about our own personal satisfaction so we cannot distinguish between so-called 'gay marriage' and the real thing. We do not live our faith daily so our children run away from the church at the first opportunity.
Rev. Johnny Hunt at the SBC Convention says we need revival. That is true, but it doesn't go far enough. We need to be actually living the faith, having it as our own. We need to be fueled with our own personal walk with God, not trying to live on the fumes left from the faith of prior generations. Nothing else will ever be sustainable.
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Private, the Secret, the Intimate
The sermon yesterday at our church, one in a series about family life, was about sexuality and its proper role. Much of the sermon was about the current problems with internet pornography and how that is destroying many families. It may well be the biggest sin problem within the church. The fact that an addiction to internet pornography can be idulged in 'secret' is part of the problem, since many are lured into it thinking that it will always remain a secret, not realizing how indulging in this secret sin will eventually destroy their marriage or lead them to other less secret sins with prostitutes, underage partners, or other crimes.
Besides being a troubling reminder of how sexuality continues to be a point of vulnerability for most men and many women, it also made me think about the role of the secret things in life and how pornography turns that role on its head.
In years past it seems to me that I heard more sermons and discussion about how our secret, private life exists to empower our public life. This idea, that the role of prayer, meditation, and marital sexuality provide a foundation of strength to help us resist the temptations of public life, is a powerful concept that I think deserves more attention. At the same time, in parallel to this idea of a private life that strengthens you, was a parallel idea that if you instead had a private life of secret sin you could be sure that it would find you out. In fact, this came up in a family discussion recently, whether that quote 'Be sure your sin will find you out' was in the Bible or just was a saying , so we looked it up and it is in Numbers 32:23, telling the Israelites that if they did not do as the Lord commanded then they should be sure that their sin would find them out. Of course many of the Proverbs talk about this as well in regard to sexual sin and failure to learn the Law among other things. Our private failures eventually become public, even if we are not running for public office.
Today we instead treat the private portions of our lives as the area where we alone should be god. We insist that these are 'victimless crimes' rather than self-destructive behaviors. As the movie Fireproof pointed out, porn plays a role in the failure of many marriages now. Pastoral counselors confirm that they find it to be an issue when counseling marriage problems. Just as we seem as a society to be less and less willing to defer gratification until later (via saving money, for instance) we also seem not to recognize that there are behaviors with penalties that arrive later. There is such a thing as postponed penalties as well as deferred gratification.
Yet the private, the secret, the intimate can provide strength instead of weakness in its proper role. Marriage provides times for both sexual self-control and times for fulfillment that should strengthen our character and provide the fulfillment needed to resist temptation. Similarly, private devotions can provide the knowledge and strength to withstand spiritual deception. Secret sin like porn takes that which should enable our lives and instead undermines it.
Someone pointed out to me many years ago that porn is basically a lie. It is a lie in many ways: the airbrushed photos of 'perfect' bodies, the implants and other surguries to make 'perfect' bodies, the false implication of seductresses who are always available for pleasure, in addition to the lies that it is victimless, that it is just normal, that no one will know, that sex should be just for pleasure and nothing else. These are all lies. But in addition to telling us lies, porn turns our secret life which should be a source of strength into a source of weakness.
Besides being a troubling reminder of how sexuality continues to be a point of vulnerability for most men and many women, it also made me think about the role of the secret things in life and how pornography turns that role on its head.
In years past it seems to me that I heard more sermons and discussion about how our secret, private life exists to empower our public life. This idea, that the role of prayer, meditation, and marital sexuality provide a foundation of strength to help us resist the temptations of public life, is a powerful concept that I think deserves more attention. At the same time, in parallel to this idea of a private life that strengthens you, was a parallel idea that if you instead had a private life of secret sin you could be sure that it would find you out. In fact, this came up in a family discussion recently, whether that quote 'Be sure your sin will find you out' was in the Bible or just was a saying , so we looked it up and it is in Numbers 32:23, telling the Israelites that if they did not do as the Lord commanded then they should be sure that their sin would find them out. Of course many of the Proverbs talk about this as well in regard to sexual sin and failure to learn the Law among other things. Our private failures eventually become public, even if we are not running for public office.
Today we instead treat the private portions of our lives as the area where we alone should be god. We insist that these are 'victimless crimes' rather than self-destructive behaviors. As the movie Fireproof pointed out, porn plays a role in the failure of many marriages now. Pastoral counselors confirm that they find it to be an issue when counseling marriage problems. Just as we seem as a society to be less and less willing to defer gratification until later (via saving money, for instance) we also seem not to recognize that there are behaviors with penalties that arrive later. There is such a thing as postponed penalties as well as deferred gratification.
Yet the private, the secret, the intimate can provide strength instead of weakness in its proper role. Marriage provides times for both sexual self-control and times for fulfillment that should strengthen our character and provide the fulfillment needed to resist temptation. Similarly, private devotions can provide the knowledge and strength to withstand spiritual deception. Secret sin like porn takes that which should enable our lives and instead undermines it.
Someone pointed out to me many years ago that porn is basically a lie. It is a lie in many ways: the airbrushed photos of 'perfect' bodies, the implants and other surguries to make 'perfect' bodies, the false implication of seductresses who are always available for pleasure, in addition to the lies that it is victimless, that it is just normal, that no one will know, that sex should be just for pleasure and nothing else. These are all lies. But in addition to telling us lies, porn turns our secret life which should be a source of strength into a source of weakness.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Time for Remembrance
June is always a major time of remembrance at our house with birthdays and wedding anniversaries. This week in the news were some other major remembrances as the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe in WW2 was highlighted by President Obama's visit to that site. Since my dad went ashore there a day or two after the initial landing and went through a number of battles all the way to Berlin, D-Day is one that I always remember (also because of my wife's birthday!). This same week was also the 20th anniversary of the Tianenmen Square protests in China, causing us to reflect on the many changes that have taken place in China since that sad time.
This year is also the 25th anniversary of the death of Francis Schaeffer. It is hard to believe it has been that long. As I reviewed his book Genesis in Space and Time this week I was reminded again how very much his writing impacted the way I view the world, especially how I view the culture we live in. His writing on abortion, the arts, movies, literature, politics, and sexuality all caused to me to think more critically about how these things either reflect or deny Christianity. He more than anyone else I have read made me understand what it means to have a Christian 'worldview'.
One comment that I noticed more in this re-visit of his book than I did at the time was his comment that the church is by-and-large a middle-class institution in the western world, appealing to neither workers not intellectuals very much. That is quite unlike in Jesus' time or in other parts of the world like Africa, where the poor and working folks are the predominant members of Christian churches. Certainly as I was growing up the poor and the workers were all that I knew of the church, since that is where I was. As our prosperity has grown, we somehow have lost touch with the poor this country. I am not exactly sure how or what it means, but it is a concern.
As for the intellectuals, I think that they have always been a very small part of the church. Just as with the rich, I think they find it harder than the poor to view anyone but themselves as being in control, including God. Perhaps I should say 'we' instead of 'they'. It is a good time to remember my roots and not get too impressed by my own prosperity and education, which are enormous blessings that I should be more thankful for.
This year is also the 25th anniversary of the death of Francis Schaeffer. It is hard to believe it has been that long. As I reviewed his book Genesis in Space and Time this week I was reminded again how very much his writing impacted the way I view the world, especially how I view the culture we live in. His writing on abortion, the arts, movies, literature, politics, and sexuality all caused to me to think more critically about how these things either reflect or deny Christianity. He more than anyone else I have read made me understand what it means to have a Christian 'worldview'.
One comment that I noticed more in this re-visit of his book than I did at the time was his comment that the church is by-and-large a middle-class institution in the western world, appealing to neither workers not intellectuals very much. That is quite unlike in Jesus' time or in other parts of the world like Africa, where the poor and working folks are the predominant members of Christian churches. Certainly as I was growing up the poor and the workers were all that I knew of the church, since that is where I was. As our prosperity has grown, we somehow have lost touch with the poor this country. I am not exactly sure how or what it means, but it is a concern.
As for the intellectuals, I think that they have always been a very small part of the church. Just as with the rich, I think they find it harder than the poor to view anyone but themselves as being in control, including God. Perhaps I should say 'we' instead of 'they'. It is a good time to remember my roots and not get too impressed by my own prosperity and education, which are enormous blessings that I should be more thankful for.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Poetry
I have little patience for poetry. Most of what passes for poetry these days, and for art in general, seems to me to be mostly a rejection of the idea of art and poetry, rejecting form and structure as much as possible. In many cases, it rejects the very concept of truth rather than giving an insight into truth. Yet in the latest issue of First Things a poem caught my attention. That is hard to do. They publish some poetry in every issue, and most of it is really quite bad, but every year or so one will catch my attention. This one is quoted in full below (so it is obviously short). It is entitled 'I Did Not Come to Call the Righteous' and listsMatthew 9:9-13 in the subtitle. Here it is:
We ninety-nine obedient sheep:
we workers hired at dawn's first peep;
we faithful sons who strive to please;
forsaking prodigalities;
we virgins who take pains to keep;
our lamps lit, even in our sleep;
we law-abiding Pharisees;
we wince at gospels such as these.
-Julie Stoner
The allusions to so many various passages of Scripture, and the gathering of them together so succinctly, caught my attention. Being a person who values doing things right, following the rules, it pokes me in a place I need to poked every so often. Art should do that: give you a view of reality, of truth, that you need to see but often don't. My thanks to Julie Stoner for this reminder of the truth!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Europe's End of the Age
Europe as we now know it continues to matter less and less. The current issue of First Things magazine includes an article on how Israel can survive and one thing is clear: Israel cannot depend on Europe. Neither can America.
Here are some startling statistics mentioned in that article: 'Of the 6,000 languages now spoken, half of them will disappear over the next century'. 'We stand on the cusp of a great extinction of the nations without precedent since late antiquity'. Europe cannot survive long in light of their current demographic decline: indeed birthrates in most of Europe are so low that some are saying that it cannot be reversed now and so it is just a matter of time until the current indigenous people are gone, replaced by either immigrants or no one. Even in the most Catholic area of Europe, Poland, the birth rates are below replacement rate and the population there will drop by a third by the middle of this century.
The author, David Goldman, makes this observation: 'The four millennium miracle of Jewish survival fails to impress the nations of Europe, who themselves cannot expect to survive long if their demographic decline continues' and 'why should gentile nations go out of their way to help Jews survive when they have neither the desire nor the capacity to survive themselves?' He also comments that 'the data indicate that many of the industrialized nations do not care to survive'.
That is really the crux of it. The end result of what is called 'liberalism' is a society that does not care to and is not capable of surviving. Israel, on the other hand, with its constant day to day struggle to survive, has the highest fertility rate and lowest suicide rate among the industrialized nations.
It is very clear that Israel cannot depend on Europe for much of anything. It ought to be clear that America cannot depend on them, either.
Here are some startling statistics mentioned in that article: 'Of the 6,000 languages now spoken, half of them will disappear over the next century'. 'We stand on the cusp of a great extinction of the nations without precedent since late antiquity'. Europe cannot survive long in light of their current demographic decline: indeed birthrates in most of Europe are so low that some are saying that it cannot be reversed now and so it is just a matter of time until the current indigenous people are gone, replaced by either immigrants or no one. Even in the most Catholic area of Europe, Poland, the birth rates are below replacement rate and the population there will drop by a third by the middle of this century.
The author, David Goldman, makes this observation: 'The four millennium miracle of Jewish survival fails to impress the nations of Europe, who themselves cannot expect to survive long if their demographic decline continues' and 'why should gentile nations go out of their way to help Jews survive when they have neither the desire nor the capacity to survive themselves?' He also comments that 'the data indicate that many of the industrialized nations do not care to survive'.
That is really the crux of it. The end result of what is called 'liberalism' is a society that does not care to and is not capable of surviving. Israel, on the other hand, with its constant day to day struggle to survive, has the highest fertility rate and lowest suicide rate among the industrialized nations.
It is very clear that Israel cannot depend on Europe for much of anything. It ought to be clear that America cannot depend on them, either.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
What is Discipleship?
A while back I made some comments about discipleship. The brief 'definition' in Greg Ogden's book Transforming Discipleship is a good start: 'self-initiating, reproducing, fully devoted followers of Christ'. That does not capture the whole of it , but it is a good start. I am about half way through the book now and he adds more later, such as refering to discipling as 'a process that takes place within accountable relationships over a period of time for the purpose of bringing believers to spiritual maturity in Christ'. He also offers an interesting challenge to pastors: what if they, like Jesus, had only 3 years to serve and would have no one to replace them? How would that change their approach to ministry? Would that force them to build discipling processes instead of just 'doing church'?
I was reminded of all this, especially the part about 'spiritual maturity' by an article in the new June 2009 issue of First Things magazine. The archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, writes there, ' If 65 million Catholics really cared about their faith and cared about what it teaches, neither political party could ignore what we believe about justice for the poor, or the homeless, or immigrants, or the unborn. If 65 million Catholics really understood their faith, we wouldn't need to waste one another's time arguing whether the legalized killing of an unborn child is somehow balanced out or excused by other social policies'. He goes on to say that 'we need to stop lying to each other, to ourselves, and to God by claiming to oppose personally some homicidal evil-and allowing it to be legal at the same time'. He goes on to discuss the importance of truth, truth that is greater than this world, and how vital it is to what he calls 'Christian formation'. He decries the idea, so common today, that people can 'create their own truth and then baptize it with an appeal to personal conscience'.
While his viewpoint is Catholic and mine is evangelical Protestant, his concerns are very similar to my concerns about the lack of folks in the church whose entire life, whose total world view has been dramatically altered by the invasion of Christ into their life. Many claim to be Christian but the things they consider true, regarding abortion or justice or marriage or truth itself, are undistinguishable from those rejecting Christianity. As a result, they can in fact be ignored by the political power structure, even in a democracy. The article observes that 'There is nothing more empty-headed in a pluralistic democracy than telling citizens to keep quiet about their beliefs. A healthy democracy requires exactly the opposite. Democracy requires a vigorous public struggle of convictions and ideas. And the convictions of some people always get imposed on everybody else. That's the nature of a democracy.'
Someone's views will be imposed; shouldn't those views be based on truth? Our current culture seems to be more concerned about 'rights' (gay rights, abortion rights, animal rights, etc) than about either truth or the common good. But to make a difference in the debate, your faith must be more than a private thing. It must be something that impacts your whole world view so that you see clearly its implications in all areas of life, and can verbalize it.
So our concept and definition of discipleship must include more than self-initiating in our daily walk with God, and reproducing the faith via witness and evangelism. It must include this part about 'spiritual maturity', about living a life that is distinctively Christian, and about applying the Truth to all areas of life, not just to a compartment of life that we think of as our 'spiritual life'.
I was reminded of all this, especially the part about 'spiritual maturity' by an article in the new June 2009 issue of First Things magazine. The archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, writes there, ' If 65 million Catholics really cared about their faith and cared about what it teaches, neither political party could ignore what we believe about justice for the poor, or the homeless, or immigrants, or the unborn. If 65 million Catholics really understood their faith, we wouldn't need to waste one another's time arguing whether the legalized killing of an unborn child is somehow balanced out or excused by other social policies'. He goes on to say that 'we need to stop lying to each other, to ourselves, and to God by claiming to oppose personally some homicidal evil-and allowing it to be legal at the same time'. He goes on to discuss the importance of truth, truth that is greater than this world, and how vital it is to what he calls 'Christian formation'. He decries the idea, so common today, that people can 'create their own truth and then baptize it with an appeal to personal conscience'.
While his viewpoint is Catholic and mine is evangelical Protestant, his concerns are very similar to my concerns about the lack of folks in the church whose entire life, whose total world view has been dramatically altered by the invasion of Christ into their life. Many claim to be Christian but the things they consider true, regarding abortion or justice or marriage or truth itself, are undistinguishable from those rejecting Christianity. As a result, they can in fact be ignored by the political power structure, even in a democracy. The article observes that 'There is nothing more empty-headed in a pluralistic democracy than telling citizens to keep quiet about their beliefs. A healthy democracy requires exactly the opposite. Democracy requires a vigorous public struggle of convictions and ideas. And the convictions of some people always get imposed on everybody else. That's the nature of a democracy.'
Someone's views will be imposed; shouldn't those views be based on truth? Our current culture seems to be more concerned about 'rights' (gay rights, abortion rights, animal rights, etc) than about either truth or the common good. But to make a difference in the debate, your faith must be more than a private thing. It must be something that impacts your whole world view so that you see clearly its implications in all areas of life, and can verbalize it.
So our concept and definition of discipleship must include more than self-initiating in our daily walk with God, and reproducing the faith via witness and evangelism. It must include this part about 'spiritual maturity', about living a life that is distinctively Christian, and about applying the Truth to all areas of life, not just to a compartment of life that we think of as our 'spiritual life'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)