Once again the issue of race has gotten me blogging – it was what got me to start blogging in the first place and now has gotten me out of hibernation. Like before, I find blogging therapeutic, particularly when it comes to this topic. Unfortunately the Deadly Viper/Zondervan controversy has not ended well for all parties involved. The authors appear very dejected, their readers are now angry, and an accusatory tone has dominated the conversation in the blogosphere.
I’m not surprised at the outcome. In my open letter to the authors and Zondervan, I asked for 2 things: 1) That they would make a decision not based upon political pressure but rather from a sense of justice; 2) If they chose to recall the material that they would educate their audience as to why they chose to do so. Mike and Jud w/Zondervan have made the courageous and costly decision to recall the book but they have chosen not to continue the conversation regarding race. In one sense I don’t blame them because they must be feeling a great sense of loss right now. But it seems apparent that if ever their audience needs to hear from them, it is now. In the absence of leadership many of them have now turned against the AA Christian community and when you hurt others, you inevitably hurt yourself.
This evening I head down to Camp Cascades in Yelm, WA to speak for Quest’s Life Together Retreat. I think I’m going to be a little ambitious in attempting to tie together themes from the OT Wisdom literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job) with recent research regarding the psycho-social lives of twenty somethings in urban settings and make it applicable for our people. Jeffrey Arnett has recently coined the term, “Emerging Adulthood” to describe this generation. This is in contrast to Erik Erikson’s widely held notion that in industrial societies people pass through the following eight life stages: infancy, early childhood, play age, school age, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and old age. Today adolescence and adulthood are becoming blurred where people live in a stage of prolonged adolescence well into their 20s and possibly into their 30s. Arnett describes Emerging Adulthood as displaying the following characteristics: read more…
I’ve never officiated a wedding. Recently one of my students has asked me to officiate hers. This has caused me to consider my view on what kind of weddings I will officiate over. In a culture where we constantly hear that Christian marriages are qualitatively no different than non-Christian marriages (e.g. rate of divorce) and where the gay marriage/civil union debate has forced the church to clarify her role in society, it seems incumbent upon us to consider what makes a marriage Christian. Does getting married in a church make a Christian marriage? Does getting married by a pastor do so? I recall a former pastor of mine say, “Of course I’d marry a non-Christian couple, it’s a great opportunity to minister to them.” Certainly people are very teachable when they are engaged so I wouldn’t want to miss out on this opportunity to minister. If a pastor does agree to consider officiating a wedding I think it best though that no promises ought to be made until the spiritual condition of the couple can be discerned. I cannot help question whether their openness to faith can possibly be merely their part of a transaction (i.e., “We’ll be open to faith as long as he marries us.”). So the following is the response I wrote to clarify my policy on officiating weddings. read more…
Thanks to ElderJ for drawing my attention to this speech given by Stephen Webb to an incoming class of freshmen in 2008 entitled, “Christ Against the Multiculturalists.” In his speech Webb takes on the challenge of cultural pluralism, laments the loss of the pursuits of Western cultural achievements in education, and instructs students to shun social constructions of reality. He gives the following prediction of what will take place in their classes:
Here is how the game is played: They [Professors] will first try to convince you that you are a racist, a sexist, and an enemy of social justice. Then they will argue that the victims of racism, sexism, and cultural elitism have a privileged view of these issues. It is as if the victim of the crime were to be given the first, last, and only word in a trial, with no cross-examination and no other witnesses called. Your job as a student in the multicultural classroom is to grant unquestioned authority to those who come from underprivileged or marginalized backgrounds. You have to do this because, you will learn, because Western culture has exploited every other culture, and your experiences are so shaped by Western culture that you cannot question those who criticize you. And thus you will become a good cultural leftist (which is the shape liberalism takes in the academy), or, if you are not convinced by these arguments, you will learn how to fake it for the sake of getting a good grade.
I find this prediction quite troubling because my guess is that this is an unfair caricature of what takes place in college classrooms. read more…
I’m a little embarassed to come out of blog hiberation with a Jon & Kate post. Oh well here goes. Yes professors can be quite superficial. Sarah and I watched the season opener the other day and my reaction is similar to most – really depressing. Disclaimer: I’ve not been keeping up with the tabloids so I didn’t know this was the season opener and would be up to date on their present marital problems. I.e., I assumed it was filmed months ago and wouldn’t reflect all the problems that they are currently going through. Halfway through I realized that it was quite current and I was shocked to discover that they plan on filming a whole season with all they are going through. I’ll admit Sarah and I were amused with the first season. I quickly got turned off to them though when I heard that their relatives objected to their decision to not only continue filming but expand their commitment to the show. read more…
Yes, I’m been blog MIA. I blame it on Aaron (my 1 yr old). Last Nov I picked up Philip Jenkin’s latest work, The Lost History of Christianity at SBL. Jenkins is doing some of the best writing today in regard to global Christianity. His previous works on the spread of the Global Church and the Bible in Africa are seminal works – reflecting not only great research but highly readable. The thesis of this latest work is intriguing. If one considers the Eastern Nestorian church, then the church for her first 1000 years was tricontinental – African, European, and Asian. According to Jenkins as late as the 11th century Asia was home to at least a third of the world’s Christians and a tenth lived in Africa.
Last week Sarah and I watched MSNBC’s Witness to Jonestown. Absolutely horrific. I knew about Jim Jones, knew that he had led a mass suicide by the having his followers drink the infamous Kool-Aid laced with cyanide (it was actually Fla-Vor-Aid, Kool-Aid has gotten a bad rap!). I assumed that his followers were unknowingly poisoned but that is not the case. His followers knew exactly what they were doing. He told them to “get the medicine.” He had practiced suicide drills with them prior to this event. They knew that they would die by ingesting the cyanide and they did so anyway. Over 900 men, women, and children would die that day. The children died first. They took syringes, filled them with the cyanide laced Kool-Aid and had their infants and children ingest the poison. Then they drank the poison themselves. One survivor recalls observing his wife poison their baby and then drink the poison herself all the while with a look of helplessness on her face. He then held both of them in his arms as they died. I cannot imagine having to live through that experience.
I have an odd connection to Jim Jones. His San Francisco Peoples Temple, his headquarters prior to moving to Jonestown, was a second home to me growing up. read more…
I remember being really puzzled by a fellow co-worker in my days when I worked at an insurance company. To encourage team building in our training we went around sharing which was our favorite holiday. As usually Christmas topped the list followed by “my birthday” (yes, I know, it’s not a holiday). I said either Christmas or Thanksgiving. I remember being quite puzzled by one of my co-workers who said, “The Fourth of July. Because I’m so proud to be an American.” Now he was one of the older persons in the group and had been a former policeman. It just struck me as odd because I just didn’t share the same attitude towards our country. The 4th of July elicits no such sentiment from me. read more…
I just picked up Michael Ward’s recent work on C. S. Lewis entitled, The Planets of Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis. He came to my attention because we at SPU have invited him to do a couple of talks in November. Even though I was an English major in college, I’ve never been a huge fan of Lewis. I have nothing against him, his works just haven’t personally moved me. But I do recognize that Lewis has had, and continues to have a huge influence culturally (e.g., the recent Disney movies), intellectually, and religiously. So like him or not, he is someone to be reckoned with. read more…
O.k. so I’m making my politics public. But blue or red, this is too funny. If you’ve seen the original commercial you can FF to the 2008 version.
