So, I’m sitting up on the hillside behind our house early this morning, praying. I love to pray outside when I can, and this morning was beautiful. Anyhow, you might remember from Walking with God the story of Scout’s death (our family’s beloved golden retriever). That took place in December of ’06, and we buried Scout up on the hill in the scrub oak, near where I was praying this morning. You might also recall that we got a new puppy last summer. He’s a golden, and his name is Oban. He’s a year old now, but still very much a puppy at heart (and in the brain) and he sort of runs around while I pray and chases rocks (!?) and finds sticks and brings them back to me.
Anyhow, as I was praying I saw Oban out of the corner of my eye and turned to see what the rascal was up to. He was standing on the spot where we had buried Scout. You have to take this in visually – here is this adorable year-old golden retriever full of life and curiosity, standing in the very place of Scout, the place that commenorates his death.
I was so struck by the living, vibrant, three dimensional picture of the resurrection. We don’t always know how God restores or how he comes to fill the places of loss in our lives, but he does. He does.
This all took place in the very moment I happened to be praying through that part of my daily prayer where I am receiving the resurrection life of Jesus. It was a stunning gift from him, a living proof that life prevails. Life is the truest thing.
Monday, June 30, 2008
A Beautiful Image
This is from John Eldredge's blog. It struck me as both beautiful and powerful. I hope it can do the same for you
John McCain Behind the Scenes
One of the best and worst aspects of the McCain campaign so far has been the way he's handled his personal life and history. He rarely speaks about such things as his decorated war record or the fact that he has two sons serving in Iraq. In an age where politicians will use just about anything to get elected, I count this as a good thing, an honorable choice. Unfortunately, that choice leaves many people in the dark about his personal character and background.
That's why articles, such as this one in the Jerusalem Post, are so important. It's well worth a read if you have a few moments. A few of the highlights covered in the article:
That's why articles, such as this one in the Jerusalem Post, are so important. It's well worth a read if you have a few moments. A few of the highlights covered in the article:
- The McCain's have a teenage daughter with sever medical issues. They adopted her from Bengladesh after Mother Thersa handed Cindy McCain the child.
- McCain, whose father was the commander of the US fleet in Vietnam, refused to be sent home early from his POW service. He also refused special treatment throughout his imprisonment
- McCain has consistently refused to use any of his children to help his career, even when not doing so has cost him politically
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Book Review: Why We're Not Emergent
In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.
-Mark Driscoll, Senior Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle
Like a lot of people, I've been interested recently in the Emergent Church. I'll confess up front that I have not read the books or been to the seminars. I've heard a few sermons (online) that could probably be described as Emergent but have not been to an actual service. My experience has been more through reading blogs, articles and a fair amount of basic online research. It's an interesting movement, one that at first glance has a lot about it that's attractive. But the more I've read, the more concerned I've become about certain aspects of the movement.
Over the past few months I've seen Why We're Not Emergent referenced several times in various blogs and articles. I've been excited to read it for a while now and I'm glad I finally got around to it. This is an important book and essential reading for anyone who is part of, looking to join, or just interested in learning about the Emergent Church.
One of the big frustrations with the Emergent movement is that it can be just about impossible to define. In some ways this is a virtue (and Emergent leaders would see at such). It allows for more diversity of opinion and thought, and that's largely good. The problem comes when that group virtue gets applied at an individual level. Just as the movement as a whole is tough to pin down, so are the individual views of its leaders. About a week ago I read a response from Emergent leader Brian McLaren to a question about whether homosexuality is sinful or not. After going through his very lengthy reply twice I still had no idea what his view was.
The book does a great job documenting cases like this. The authors dig deep into the Emergent views on the virtues of uncertainty. Now, I'm personally a great believer that doubt and uncertainty are tools God uses to help us grow. I've seen it in my life countless times. But I also believe we aren't meant to wallow in uncertainty forever. God doesn't mean for us to spend a lifetime in doubt about everything. The latter part of my view is not shared by many Emergent leaders who seem more interested in what we can't know than what God has told us.
The implications of this are very problematic. Take the low view of Scripture held by many Emergent leaders. The book quotes Stan Grenz saying, "It is not the Bible as a book that is authoritative, but the Bible as the instrumentality of the Spirit." That sounds nice at first but what happens when two different people claim the Spirit has told them two different things about the Bible? Is it all just a matter of personal interpretation? At some point we need to trust God that He communicated an authoritative message to us in His word or else what good is it? The authors also discuss how well Emergent leaders will claim respect and love for the Bible, they aren't comfortable with adjectives like infailable, absolute, inerrent, etc. That's a problem.
Even more troublesome than the Emergent love of unending uncertainity is what you can pin them down on. Talking about the doctrine of substitutionary atonement (the beautiful doctrine that Jesus took the place we should have had on the cross) Brian McLaren writes, "It sounds like divine child abuse." On the same topic, Steve Chalke says that if doctrine is true, God was repaying evil with evil.
It doesn't get much better. At one point they quote Rob Bell, pastor of the other Mars Hill Church, talking about how we put too big of an emphasis on the resurrection. His argument is that if we look to Christ for salvation our attitude is selfish since we're just trying to get something out of it. Instead we should just try and live like Jesus. The first part of this breaks my heart. Is there any event more glorious in human history than the resurrection? Can he be so blind he's missed completely the victory, the life, that was won in that moment? The second part sounds nice but how are we to do that without the new life Christ brings us through His resurrection? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not all that good at living like Jesus. I need a constant outpouring of the grace He died for at the cross. I need, every moment of every day, the transforming power of His resurrection and acension.
When I first started this book I was angry about a lot of what I was reading. Having finished it, I feel more sad than anything else. There's a lot the Emergent Church gets right. Their emphasis on relationship, both with God and others, is wonderful. But on what foundation is it built? If you strip away all the doctrine and orthodoxy all the good stuff falls apart. What's happening in a lot of Emergent circles is heart breaking. Hearing Christians compare God to an abusive father tears me up. Hearing the miracle of the cross pushed aside by Christians leaves me speachless.
I don't want to end this post on a downer. God has promised that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The Emergent Church is hardly the gates of hell. Even in its imperfections I believe God is using it for good, just like He promised. If nothing else, this book has inspired me to pray and pray hard for the leaders and followers in the Emergent Church. May their hearts be healed where they've been wounded by bad experiences in more "traditional" churches. May they be willing to see Jesus not just through the lens of personal interpretation but the Christ of the Gospels, risen and alive. And when they look at God may they see not an abusive parent but a loving Father who gave everything so that He could save us.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Joy of the Internet
Like a lot of people, there are plenty of things about the Internet, and modern technology in general, that drive me nuts. But there's plenty of good too. For me, one of the best things about the Internet is the ability to get expensive books for cheap.
As part of my goal to read a biography on every US President, I'd decided to read Thomas Jefferson & The New Nation by Merrill D. Peterson. Unfortunately the book costs $50 to buy new. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. We're not talking some fancy, gold leafed volume with glossy, color pictures. It's a standard trade-paperback book with only a handful of black and white pictures. Yes it's long, but so are a lot of books I read that cost $10.
When something like this happens, my favorite site to go to is fetchbook.info. This site goes out and searches several used book sites (Half, Abebooks, Ebay) and comes back with the lowest prices. Using this, I was able to get my Jefferson biography, virtually new, for a fifth of the cost.
All 1,000+ pages of historical joy were waiting for me when I got home tonight. So now I'm happy, the used online bookseller is happy, and my wallet is happy. About the only person who's not happy is Merrill D Peterson who's not getting any additional royalty money because of how outrageously expensive his book is. I highly recommend fetchbook.info both for cases like this and for out of print books.
Friday, June 27, 2008
One A Lighter Note
For Father's Day, Ellie got me the complete DVD box set of Monty Python's Flying Circus (isn't she thoughtful? Especially for still being three months away from birth!) I've been laughing pretty much non stop since I started watching it. The self defense class skit particularly had me in stitches. It's even somewhat relevant given yesterday's Supreme Court ruling. (ok, that's a big stretch). Enjoy!
(note: Unlike some of MP's stuff this one is fairly PG)
(note: Unlike some of MP's stuff this one is fairly PG)
Good Quotes
Yesterday I was writing down quotes from a few of the books I've read recently (more on that odd hobby of mine another time). Here are a few from G.K. Chesterton I thought worth sharing:
"When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for the corner-stone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward - in a word, a man [Peter]. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. All the empires and the kingdoms of the world have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible"
"The more hopeless is the situation the more hopeful must be the man"
"Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they aren't hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world"
"Pride is a weakness in the character, it dries up laughter, it dries up wonder, it dries up chivalry and energy"
"There is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter."
"When [a man] drops one doctrine after another in a refined skepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded"
"When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into family we step into a fairy-tale"
"When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for the corner-stone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward - in a word, a man [Peter]. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. All the empires and the kingdoms of the world have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible"
"The more hopeless is the situation the more hopeful must be the man"
"Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they aren't hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world"
"Pride is a weakness in the character, it dries up laughter, it dries up wonder, it dries up chivalry and energy"
"There is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter."
"When [a man] drops one doctrine after another in a refined skepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded"
"When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into family we step into a fairy-tale"
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Trust: Our View and God's
I came across a great quote yesterday in George MacDonald's Diary of an Old Soul. It goes, "To trust is to step forward out of the night." It's the sort of quote that's easy to nod along to and take as a nice but meaningless platitude without really thinking about it. But if we're really honest, I'd say for most of us our view of trust, or at least the way we act it out, is exactly the opposite.
I'm reminded of the story of Peter walking on the water. From his perspective, following the voice of the master, trusting Jesus, was to step out of the safety of the boat and into the storm. That's the human view of trust. From Jesus's perspective Peter was stepping out of the storm and into peace. What Peter failed to see was that trust didn't mean stepping into the darkness of the storm, it meant stepping out of the night.
That's a tough one to swallow, or at least for me it can be. It doesn't make any sense. It goes against everything we think of as rational. And even here trust is required. Are we willing to step out of the benighted state of our limited reasoning and trust that from God's perspective things do make sense even when we can't see it?
Annie and I have been (imperfectly) living this out over the last month and a half. As many of you know, I'm self employed. June saw the end of a major project I've been working on for the last year as well as a few other billing reductions. Don't get me wrong, I'm very aware of how blessed we are. I know there are so many people in tougher positions than this. Way tougher. But with a new house and a baby on the way, that kind of uncertainty can be rough. At times it's felt like the boat is crumbling away beneath us and we're heading out into the storm whether we like it or not. Trusting is tough.
But here's the neat part. God is extremely faithful. Before we bought this house we prayed long and hard about it. One of the things God told me again and again was "there will always be enough." And there is. I don't know where all the work is coming from but right now I'm busier than I've been in quite a while. New projects keep popping up at various clients. Just this morning I had a meeting where I had three new mini projects handed to me. Now my problem is how to balance it all!
We saw the same thing happen two years ago before we got married. Our biggest contract went away virtually over night. I had no idea what I was going to do from one week to the next but each week for three months I always had enough work. It was awesome to watch then and it's just as awesome now.
Living on the edge, stepping out of the night, is a neat place to be. Work is just one example of how God is teaching me about what trust really means. Trust isn't a bad thing that forces us into unpleasant situations. It's an opportunity for our Father to show how much He loves us. It's a chance to fall into His arms. I can't claim that I love the uncertainity (would that my faith might someday be so great!) but I can tell you God is faithful. He's worth trusting
I'm reminded of the story of Peter walking on the water. From his perspective, following the voice of the master, trusting Jesus, was to step out of the safety of the boat and into the storm. That's the human view of trust. From Jesus's perspective Peter was stepping out of the storm and into peace. What Peter failed to see was that trust didn't mean stepping into the darkness of the storm, it meant stepping out of the night.
That's a tough one to swallow, or at least for me it can be. It doesn't make any sense. It goes against everything we think of as rational. And even here trust is required. Are we willing to step out of the benighted state of our limited reasoning and trust that from God's perspective things do make sense even when we can't see it?
Annie and I have been (imperfectly) living this out over the last month and a half. As many of you know, I'm self employed. June saw the end of a major project I've been working on for the last year as well as a few other billing reductions. Don't get me wrong, I'm very aware of how blessed we are. I know there are so many people in tougher positions than this. Way tougher. But with a new house and a baby on the way, that kind of uncertainty can be rough. At times it's felt like the boat is crumbling away beneath us and we're heading out into the storm whether we like it or not. Trusting is tough.
But here's the neat part. God is extremely faithful. Before we bought this house we prayed long and hard about it. One of the things God told me again and again was "there will always be enough." And there is. I don't know where all the work is coming from but right now I'm busier than I've been in quite a while. New projects keep popping up at various clients. Just this morning I had a meeting where I had three new mini projects handed to me. Now my problem is how to balance it all!
We saw the same thing happen two years ago before we got married. Our biggest contract went away virtually over night. I had no idea what I was going to do from one week to the next but each week for three months I always had enough work. It was awesome to watch then and it's just as awesome now.
Living on the edge, stepping out of the night, is a neat place to be. Work is just one example of how God is teaching me about what trust really means. Trust isn't a bad thing that forces us into unpleasant situations. It's an opportunity for our Father to show how much He loves us. It's a chance to fall into His arms. I can't claim that I love the uncertainity (would that my faith might someday be so great!) but I can tell you God is faithful. He's worth trusting
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Battlestar Galactica
Last night I was finally able to catch up with the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 (Technically we're only halfway through season 4 but since the powers that be split it in half and aren't giving us any new episodes until 2009 (grrrrrr) this is essentially the end of the season.) I'll avoid spoilers for both these episodes and the show as a whole, but as a good and loyal geek I can't help posting about just how awesome this year's finale was.
Like any show BSG has had its ups and downs (mostly ups). The second halves of seasons 2 and 3 each had a couple of lousy episodes but this season has not had a single disappointing show. The finale was suspensful, exciting and maintained BSG's reputation for controversial endings. But what's really great about where this season left us is that it's impossible to know where the show is going from here. There's only ten episodes left and after last night I have no idea what's going to happen in them.
If you're even remotely a sci-fi fan and haven't checked out BSG, what's wrong with you? This is one of the best tv shows of all time, sci-fi or otherwise. Make sure you start with the miniseries and watch every episode IN ORDER. You can get the miniseries bundled with the first season here
Monday, June 23, 2008
Bias Side Note
A brief add on to the last post. As I've thought about the issue I think it's important to also point out there are some forms of bias and of expressing bias that are always unacceptable. The most common modern example is comparing people we disagree with to the Nazis.
Just the other day I was reading reviews on a Hitler biography and saw several references, irrelevant to the material, comparing Christians, Republicans and George Bush to the Third Reich. Thanks to the moveon.org crowd, these comparisons have become nearly mainstream in the last several years.
This type of bias does nothing but detract from debate. It ought to be possible to believe George Bush is wrong on everything and still recognize he is not Hitler. You should be able to be a card carrying atheist who believes the church a terrible institution and recognize the difference between the church down the street and the Nazi death camps.
I don't limit this criticism to the extreme left. More than once I've heard Hilary Clinton called Hitlery Clinton. For as much as I dislike the woman and am thankful she won't be president, that's wrong and inappropriate.
Hitler and his thugs are enjoying their just rewards in the afterlife. Let's leave them there, where they belong, and recognize that no matter what role bias has in history or public debate, this sort is NEVER ok.
Just the other day I was reading reviews on a Hitler biography and saw several references, irrelevant to the material, comparing Christians, Republicans and George Bush to the Third Reich. Thanks to the moveon.org crowd, these comparisons have become nearly mainstream in the last several years.
This type of bias does nothing but detract from debate. It ought to be possible to believe George Bush is wrong on everything and still recognize he is not Hitler. You should be able to be a card carrying atheist who believes the church a terrible institution and recognize the difference between the church down the street and the Nazi death camps.
I don't limit this criticism to the extreme left. More than once I've heard Hilary Clinton called Hitlery Clinton. For as much as I dislike the woman and am thankful she won't be president, that's wrong and inappropriate.
Hitler and his thugs are enjoying their just rewards in the afterlife. Let's leave them there, where they belong, and recognize that no matter what role bias has in history or public debate, this sort is NEVER ok.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Is Historical Bias OK?
This week I've been reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. For the most part the book is excellent, engrossing and more than a little tough to put down. However, every now and then Morris, whose voice usually fades into the background as he tells the story, will pipe in with his own opinions on some of TR's choices. For example, when discussing TR's opposition to a minimum wage he spends a couple of paragraphs making it clear he doesn't agree with TR and treating his subject as unenlightened (never mind that it's still a legitimate debate with good arguments on both sides). The same thing occurs when he's discussing TR's hunting exploits. He makes it clear he doesn't approve of how high the body counts were.
As I'm reading the book I've found these incidents to be distracting. But as I thought about it I began to wonder if what was bugging me was that Morris is occasionally commenting or that he's commenting negatively on a man I greatly admire.
I am not someone who considers bias to be a dirty word, especially when it comes to current events and contemporary politics. Actually, I think respectful bias is important and has a long tradition in the American system. A political system without bias scares me far more than one with. However, I do think it's important to be upfront about bias. From that perspective I think my annoyance at Morris is legitimate. This isn't a book making an argument one way or another about TR. It's simply telling the story of his life. To me that makes even occasional bias inappropriate.
I'd gotten this far in my thought process when I began to then wonder what my reaction would be if the historical subject in question was someone I didn't admire as much. If, for example, something similar happened while I was reading a biography of TR's distant cousin Franklin Delano (a great leader to be sure but one who, in my opinion, is more flawed) would I be upset by similar occasional criticism but from a conservative perspective?
The truth is, I don't know.
Intellectually I would say that if you're writing a book that is not agenda driven, you have a duty to keep your opinions out of it. Realistically I'd say I'm not sure that's completely possible and in this case I would say I was probably bothered more by the nature of the criticism than by the criticism in and of itself. Even more to the point, does a highly opinionated/biased guy like myself have any cause to complain about bias no matter what the context is?
And now for the anticlimactic ending of this post: I don't have a good answer to these questions at this point. It's an issue that's very interesting to me both intellectually and personally. I'm still thinking through this one (as you well know after reading through my jumbled thoughts!). If I come up with a more concrete answer on this I'll let you know.
Note: I want to briefly restate that anything I've said in this post isn't meant to take away from Morris's work. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a great book. Any small qualms I have do nothing to detract from that.
As I'm reading the book I've found these incidents to be distracting. But as I thought about it I began to wonder if what was bugging me was that Morris is occasionally commenting or that he's commenting negatively on a man I greatly admire.
I am not someone who considers bias to be a dirty word, especially when it comes to current events and contemporary politics. Actually, I think respectful bias is important and has a long tradition in the American system. A political system without bias scares me far more than one with. However, I do think it's important to be upfront about bias. From that perspective I think my annoyance at Morris is legitimate. This isn't a book making an argument one way or another about TR. It's simply telling the story of his life. To me that makes even occasional bias inappropriate.
I'd gotten this far in my thought process when I began to then wonder what my reaction would be if the historical subject in question was someone I didn't admire as much. If, for example, something similar happened while I was reading a biography of TR's distant cousin Franklin Delano (a great leader to be sure but one who, in my opinion, is more flawed) would I be upset by similar occasional criticism but from a conservative perspective?
The truth is, I don't know.
Intellectually I would say that if you're writing a book that is not agenda driven, you have a duty to keep your opinions out of it. Realistically I'd say I'm not sure that's completely possible and in this case I would say I was probably bothered more by the nature of the criticism than by the criticism in and of itself. Even more to the point, does a highly opinionated/biased guy like myself have any cause to complain about bias no matter what the context is?
And now for the anticlimactic ending of this post: I don't have a good answer to these questions at this point. It's an issue that's very interesting to me both intellectually and personally. I'm still thinking through this one (as you well know after reading through my jumbled thoughts!). If I come up with a more concrete answer on this I'll let you know.
Note: I want to briefly restate that anything I've said in this post isn't meant to take away from Morris's work. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a great book. Any small qualms I have do nothing to detract from that.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
HULK! SMASH!
Fear not comic book movie fans, The Incredible Hulk is nothing like the putrid, snore inducing, far too long Ang Lee's 2003 version was. Don't get me wrong, we're not talking Shakespeare here but the new movie does have a coherent plot, great action and mostly good acting.
The first half of the movie is great as Bruce Banner does his best to avoid being captured and occasionally turns very big and very green. There are some great chase scenes here (at times you'll think you're watching The Bourne Hulkamtum). It's suspenseful and a lot of fun.
The second half is way more conventional, culminating in a giant CGI Hulk vs. CGI Abomination battle that would be cool if we hadn't already seen the same thing in virtually every other comic book movie ever made. It's not bad but it's not that good either. Thankfully everything that comes before is more than good enough to make up for any failings here.
This should be a very good movie year for us geeks. We've already had Iron Man and next month we get The Dark Knight, Hellboy 2, and X-Files. This one will probably be the weakest of the bunch but it's still a lot of fun. If you're a fellow geek or just like big green monsters you'll enjoy it a lot
G.K. Chesterton's Heretics: Stand For Something
Last week I finished reading Heretics by G.K. Chesterton. I've held off writing about it until now since it's a dense book, full of ideas, and therefore takes time to digest. the book is a series of brief essays, most of which decry what is in Chesterton's opinion a heresy contemporary to the early twentieth century.
At times, that makes the book seem dated and confusing. Names that would have been familiar when the book was written are completely foreign to most of us modern readers. But what struck me more than the passages that have aged poorly is just how much of what Chesterton says is relevant to today.
He was combating modernism and many of the issues he has with it are only amplified in our post modern world. He is particularly alarmed by the shift from the pursuit of truth to the idea that there is no truth, no absolutes.
Commenting on so called progressives he writes, "Nobody has any business to use the word progress unless he has a definite moral creed and a cast-iron code of morals. Nobody can be progressive without being doctrinal" In other words, for all the post modern talk of progress the question remains: what exactly are we progressing towards?
That's a very relevant point for today. Not just for society in general but also for the church in particular. One of my great concerns with the Emerging Church is that while it (rightfully) recognizes the failings in an academic, study-first, program oriented approach to Christianity, it's already swinging too far in the other direction and favoring emotion and experience at the expense of doctrine.
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes doctrine as a map of the ocean. If the modern church has spent too much time studying the map and far too little voyaging on the sea then I'm afraid that the post modern, emerging church is in danger of throwing away the map altogether, content tot be tossed about on the waves. Sure they're sailing on the ocean, sure they're progressing, but towards what?
God gave us doctrine in the Bible for a reason. Not so that we could use it to hide behind (as we've done), not so we can use it to replace experience with Him (as we've done), not because we should rely on it instead of Him for guidance (as we've done), but so He could use it to protect us, so He could use it to draw us into deeper experience with Him, and so He could use it to guide us in our journey.
I think for a lot of us, a book with a title like Heretics makes us cringe. It seems very judgmental and maybe in part it is. But for me, reading it was refreshing. Chesterton is saying what he believes and defending it as best he can. That's a quality in far too short supply today.
I'm no fan of using doctrine to wag my finger at someone or inform them they're going to hell. How we go about defending our beliefs matters and matters a great deal. God is no fan of self righteousness judgments. But truth matters. It matters a great deal. Christians have a duty to pursue, defend it and, in love, share it
At times, that makes the book seem dated and confusing. Names that would have been familiar when the book was written are completely foreign to most of us modern readers. But what struck me more than the passages that have aged poorly is just how much of what Chesterton says is relevant to today.
He was combating modernism and many of the issues he has with it are only amplified in our post modern world. He is particularly alarmed by the shift from the pursuit of truth to the idea that there is no truth, no absolutes.
Commenting on so called progressives he writes, "Nobody has any business to use the word progress unless he has a definite moral creed and a cast-iron code of morals. Nobody can be progressive without being doctrinal" In other words, for all the post modern talk of progress the question remains: what exactly are we progressing towards?
That's a very relevant point for today. Not just for society in general but also for the church in particular. One of my great concerns with the Emerging Church is that while it (rightfully) recognizes the failings in an academic, study-first, program oriented approach to Christianity, it's already swinging too far in the other direction and favoring emotion and experience at the expense of doctrine.
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes doctrine as a map of the ocean. If the modern church has spent too much time studying the map and far too little voyaging on the sea then I'm afraid that the post modern, emerging church is in danger of throwing away the map altogether, content tot be tossed about on the waves. Sure they're sailing on the ocean, sure they're progressing, but towards what?
God gave us doctrine in the Bible for a reason. Not so that we could use it to hide behind (as we've done), not so we can use it to replace experience with Him (as we've done), not because we should rely on it instead of Him for guidance (as we've done), but so He could use it to protect us, so He could use it to draw us into deeper experience with Him, and so He could use it to guide us in our journey.
I think for a lot of us, a book with a title like Heretics makes us cringe. It seems very judgmental and maybe in part it is. But for me, reading it was refreshing. Chesterton is saying what he believes and defending it as best he can. That's a quality in far too short supply today.
I'm no fan of using doctrine to wag my finger at someone or inform them they're going to hell. How we go about defending our beliefs matters and matters a great deal. God is no fan of self righteousness judgments. But truth matters. It matters a great deal. Christians have a duty to pursue, defend it and, in love, share it
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Books Recap
I'm back! Not in town yet (we've got one more week, this one in Myrtle Beach) but I should be online and able to post a little more regularly this week. Finding a wi-fi signal on Ocracoke Island is no small challenge and proved not worth the effort as the week went on, hence the lack of blogging. Besides, isn't part of vacation being able to disconnect for a while?
Anyway, Annie and I had a great time on Ocracoke. We spent most mornings at the beach (see previous post) and spent the very hot (at least by Minnesota standards) afternoons doing puzzles or laying around reading books. We'll probably post some vacation highlights and pictures on the family blog at some point but in the meantime here are a few highlights from my reading this week.
By far the best book I read last week was The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. This is the best presentation of grace I've ever read. Manning again and again hammers home that it's not what we do but what He did. It's powerful, deeply moving, and definitely one I'm going to need to revisit often.
As expected Philip K Dick's, The Man in the High Castle was a mind trip but a great read. The book takes place in an alternate post World War 2 America where the Axis powers won. The Nazis control the eastern part of the country and the Japanese the Pacific Coast. Slavery is legal and the holocaust is in full swing in America. All that sounds straightforward enough but the story is told through several loosely connected tales that range from somewhat straightforward to very bizarre. There's also an alternate history novel within this novel where the US won the war but not as it happened in actual history. This only gets more weird as two of the characters begin to suspect that their world is really fiction and the novel is real. Confused yet? Me too! I love books like that!
I'll avoid anymore history talk for now but tonight I finally finished John Adams by David McCullough. It's simply brilliant. One of the best books I've ever read and worth reading no matter how boring you find history.
I finished G.K. Chesterton's Heretics at the beginning of the week but I'll hold my fire on that one for the moment. It's a great book and sometime in the next day or two I'm hoping to discuss some of what it talks about more in depth.
On the docket for this week: Eye in the Sky, A Canticle for Leobowitz, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and rereading some C.S. Lewis.
Anyway, Annie and I had a great time on Ocracoke. We spent most mornings at the beach (see previous post) and spent the very hot (at least by Minnesota standards) afternoons doing puzzles or laying around reading books. We'll probably post some vacation highlights and pictures on the family blog at some point but in the meantime here are a few highlights from my reading this week.
By far the best book I read last week was The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. This is the best presentation of grace I've ever read. Manning again and again hammers home that it's not what we do but what He did. It's powerful, deeply moving, and definitely one I'm going to need to revisit often.
As expected Philip K Dick's, The Man in the High Castle was a mind trip but a great read. The book takes place in an alternate post World War 2 America where the Axis powers won. The Nazis control the eastern part of the country and the Japanese the Pacific Coast. Slavery is legal and the holocaust is in full swing in America. All that sounds straightforward enough but the story is told through several loosely connected tales that range from somewhat straightforward to very bizarre. There's also an alternate history novel within this novel where the US won the war but not as it happened in actual history. This only gets more weird as two of the characters begin to suspect that their world is really fiction and the novel is real. Confused yet? Me too! I love books like that!
I'll avoid anymore history talk for now but tonight I finally finished John Adams by David McCullough. It's simply brilliant. One of the best books I've ever read and worth reading no matter how boring you find history.
I finished G.K. Chesterton's Heretics at the beginning of the week but I'll hold my fire on that one for the moment. It's a great book and sometime in the next day or two I'm hoping to discuss some of what it talks about more in depth.
On the docket for this week: Eye in the Sky, A Canticle for Leobowitz, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and rereading some C.S. Lewis.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Seeing the Small Blessings Part 2
This is something of a follow up to my post a few days ago about seeing small blessings. I've been trying to put that into practice during this week. Last year on vacation I learned that kite flying is a lot of fun and I knew I wanted to do more of it this year. This morning I found myself standing waist deep in the ocean flying my kite. It was so peaceful, monotonous and wonderful. There's nothing quite like just standing there feeling the waves break over you and enjoying the morning.
To me that's the perfect example of a small blessing. There's nothing hugely complicated about kite flying (at least not for the simple kites I have) and there's nothing really to "do" once you get it up in the air. Nothing except relax and be. Those are the moments where God really speaks to me and it's an awesome experience.
To me that's the perfect example of a small blessing. There's nothing hugely complicated about kite flying (at least not for the simple kites I have) and there's nothing really to "do" once you get it up in the air. Nothing except relax and be. Those are the moments where God really speaks to me and it's an awesome experience.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Transformation Through Fire
Over the past couple days, Annie and I spent some of our drive to North Carolina listening to David McCullough's 1776. The book covers the plights of George Washington and the Continental Army from the siege of Boston through the Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware. Now I know that for some of you the mere mention of history makes your eyes glaze over but bare with me for a few sentences. I promise this post will be about more than (really cool) Revolutionary War history.
What most of us don't know, and what McCullough brilliantly describes, is that George Washington was not always the brilliant commander and leader we remember him as. In fact 1776, his first full year of command, was almost a complete failure. His first major battle, the defense of Long Island, couldn't have gone worse (leading John Adams to summarize "In general, our generals were out generaled"). To make matters worse he followed up Long Island with three more miserable defeats.
Morale was very low and the patriotic fervor that had enveloped the nation following July's signing of the Declaration of Independence was gone. What had begun as whispers of his incompetence had grown into a very loud and open discussion. A good portion of the colonial population (not to mention the British) were convinced that the war was completely lost and that Washington was to blame. He was a failure and he would go down in history as the man who cost America her independence.
But then something happened. Transformation occurred. He began to learn from his mistakes, his indecisiveness started to slip away. He became more comfortable with his command and his daring crossing of the Delaware helped turn the tide of the revolution and save the young country.
None of that transformation would have occurred without the failures.
And that's so much like our lives. So often the only way God can make us grow us by knocking us flat. It's one of the central mysteries of the Christian walk: the only way up is down.
No matter how we look to the outside world, we all go through times where we feel like complete failures. We've let ourselves down, others down and God down. Nothing makes sense. We blew it bad and everything is lost.
I believe that it's at those times God can truly begin to work in us. We cannot be built up sitting in comfort on the sidelines. Washington was commander for over a year before Long Island, before his transformation truly began. It took going through the fire, both literally and politically, for him to become the man he would. It takes going through the failures and disappointments of life for God to make us who He truly would.
This is tough and I don't claim to be any expert in it. But God's grace is always waiting for us to get us through those times and help us to get out of His way so transformation can begin.
What most of us don't know, and what McCullough brilliantly describes, is that George Washington was not always the brilliant commander and leader we remember him as. In fact 1776, his first full year of command, was almost a complete failure. His first major battle, the defense of Long Island, couldn't have gone worse (leading John Adams to summarize "In general, our generals were out generaled"). To make matters worse he followed up Long Island with three more miserable defeats.
Morale was very low and the patriotic fervor that had enveloped the nation following July's signing of the Declaration of Independence was gone. What had begun as whispers of his incompetence had grown into a very loud and open discussion. A good portion of the colonial population (not to mention the British) were convinced that the war was completely lost and that Washington was to blame. He was a failure and he would go down in history as the man who cost America her independence.
But then something happened. Transformation occurred. He began to learn from his mistakes, his indecisiveness started to slip away. He became more comfortable with his command and his daring crossing of the Delaware helped turn the tide of the revolution and save the young country.
None of that transformation would have occurred without the failures.
And that's so much like our lives. So often the only way God can make us grow us by knocking us flat. It's one of the central mysteries of the Christian walk: the only way up is down.
No matter how we look to the outside world, we all go through times where we feel like complete failures. We've let ourselves down, others down and God down. Nothing makes sense. We blew it bad and everything is lost.
I believe that it's at those times God can truly begin to work in us. We cannot be built up sitting in comfort on the sidelines. Washington was commander for over a year before Long Island, before his transformation truly began. It took going through the fire, both literally and politically, for him to become the man he would. It takes going through the failures and disappointments of life for God to make us who He truly would.
This is tough and I don't claim to be any expert in it. But God's grace is always waiting for us to get us through those times and help us to get out of His way so transformation can begin.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Doing Vacation Differently
Over the past few weeks as we've been preparing for our trip, God has been asking me a question over and over. It goes something like this: Given everything Annie and I have learned over this last year about life, God, our hearts, worship, and so much else, how does that change how we do vacation?
The typical way of doing vacation seems to go something like this. We rush through our lives for fifty weeks out of the year, leave the house feeling more than a little guilty over all the unfinished business we've left behind, try to cram as much fun/relaxation/rest into two weeks and then come home and jump back into the rat race only to feel burned out again after five minutes back in it.
As I thought about the question and the problem it addressed it seemed to me that what was really missing from that whole miserable equation is God. I think so often we leave him out of stuff like vacations and rest. A lot of us even feel guilty about rest and feel like we need to try and hide it from God. It all seems so selfish. Never once do we stop to consider that He cares for our hearts, that He delights in showing us the beauty of life, and that maybe those two weeks where we slow down is just the opportunity He's been waiting for to get a hold of us.
You see, when we leave God out of something like rest there's a subtle shift that happens in our hearts. We look to the trip, instead of to Him, as our source of comfort and rest. We don't trust Him to provide the rest we need so we try to make it happen on our own. That's a dangerous shift, idolatrous even, and one I know I've been guilty of many times.
With all that in mind, here are a few things I'm doing to try and avoid the typical vacation trap. First, I'm making a real effort in prayer before I leave to bring the time before God and invite Him into it. I want Him to meet me intimately during vacation and that won't happen unless I've prepared my heart before I go.
Second, I'm recognizing the spiritual battle surrounding this trip. Lest we forget, let me remind us all that there is an enemy who has a vested interest in us not inviting God into this (or any other) area of our lives. The warfare has really started raging since God started walking me through this a couple of weeks ago. I don't expect it to stop anytime soon but knowing I can fight it and (more importantly) knowing God is faithful throughout all of it makes all the difference in the world.
Third, God is leading me into a deeper, different lifestyle during the rest of the year. Slowly I'm learning to stop striving and start trusting. I'm making time for Him and not just blasting through life. That makes such a huge difference when it comes to vacation. No longer does it need to be my way of recharging the batteries for the rest of the year. It stops being an escape from life and starts being just another part of life. Once I've lowered the stakes on vacation and stopped asking it to be everything for me, then God can make it what He wants it to be and reach my heart in a richer deeper way.
I say all of this as someone who is still learning and still growing. I'm excited to see what God is going to do. If you're going anywhere this summer I'd encourage you to take time and invite God into your trip. The difference may surprise you and, better still, you'll see just how passionate He is about caring for your heart.
The typical way of doing vacation seems to go something like this. We rush through our lives for fifty weeks out of the year, leave the house feeling more than a little guilty over all the unfinished business we've left behind, try to cram as much fun/relaxation/rest into two weeks and then come home and jump back into the rat race only to feel burned out again after five minutes back in it.
As I thought about the question and the problem it addressed it seemed to me that what was really missing from that whole miserable equation is God. I think so often we leave him out of stuff like vacations and rest. A lot of us even feel guilty about rest and feel like we need to try and hide it from God. It all seems so selfish. Never once do we stop to consider that He cares for our hearts, that He delights in showing us the beauty of life, and that maybe those two weeks where we slow down is just the opportunity He's been waiting for to get a hold of us.
You see, when we leave God out of something like rest there's a subtle shift that happens in our hearts. We look to the trip, instead of to Him, as our source of comfort and rest. We don't trust Him to provide the rest we need so we try to make it happen on our own. That's a dangerous shift, idolatrous even, and one I know I've been guilty of many times.
With all that in mind, here are a few things I'm doing to try and avoid the typical vacation trap. First, I'm making a real effort in prayer before I leave to bring the time before God and invite Him into it. I want Him to meet me intimately during vacation and that won't happen unless I've prepared my heart before I go.
Second, I'm recognizing the spiritual battle surrounding this trip. Lest we forget, let me remind us all that there is an enemy who has a vested interest in us not inviting God into this (or any other) area of our lives. The warfare has really started raging since God started walking me through this a couple of weeks ago. I don't expect it to stop anytime soon but knowing I can fight it and (more importantly) knowing God is faithful throughout all of it makes all the difference in the world.
Third, God is leading me into a deeper, different lifestyle during the rest of the year. Slowly I'm learning to stop striving and start trusting. I'm making time for Him and not just blasting through life. That makes such a huge difference when it comes to vacation. No longer does it need to be my way of recharging the batteries for the rest of the year. It stops being an escape from life and starts being just another part of life. Once I've lowered the stakes on vacation and stopped asking it to be everything for me, then God can make it what He wants it to be and reach my heart in a richer deeper way.
I say all of this as someone who is still learning and still growing. I'm excited to see what God is going to do. If you're going anywhere this summer I'd encourage you to take time and invite God into your trip. The difference may surprise you and, better still, you'll see just how passionate He is about caring for your heart.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Seeing the Small Blessings
God gave me one of those great eye opening experiences today and I wanted to share it with you. This afternoon Annie and I decided to go for a bike ride. Now neither of us are huge bikers and when we got out we're looking for a peaceful and moderately easy ride. Since moving to Ramsey we'd driven by a park near our house several times that looked like it had good trails so we decided to check it out.
When we got there, we found that most of the trails were very narrow, very curvy and very hilly. There was only one that was wider and more like what we were looking for. We took that one but after about half a mile it ended forcing us to turn around. When we got back to the car I was disappointed and annoyed. What moron decided to put in a half mile trail? Why do all those other trails have to be so advanced? I wanted a good bike ride, not a dippy little one mile jaunt.
A few seconds later Annie rode up behind me. Before I could voice my feelings, she got off her bike, smiling, and started talking about how much fun she'd had being outside and spending time together. She even said she was feeling encouraged since she got up the hills ok.
As I loaded up the bikes I thought about the differences in our reactions. My expectations, demands really, for this bike ride had kept me from experiencing the simple joy Annie had. It wasn't that she was thrilled about the trail ending, we both agreed we probably won't go back to this park, but she saw past that while I was stuck in disappointment.
I wonder how often that happens to me and I don't even realize it. I'm reminded of how during His trial Jesus is sent to appear before Herod. Herod expects a magic show. He wants to see the miracles he's heard so much about. But Jesus won't have any of it. He just stands there silent, refusing to be put on display. How different it might have been for Herod if he'd been willing to lay aside his demands and expectations and simply been content to be in the presence of Jesus.
I think I make Herod's mistake far more often than I'd like to admit. I want big magic shows from God. If I go out biking I want it to be exactly how I like it. And when it doesn't happen I get ticked. Meanwhile God's hands are open wide, filled with small and wonderful blessings if only I'd be willing to set aside my agenda to receive them.
Part of the problem, it seems to me, is the pace at which we live. Just like it's hard to make out the details of the countryside when you're driving by at eighty miles per hour, it's tough to catch anything but the big blessings when you're blasting your way through life. It takes a contemplative mind to both see and receive the small blessings. As A.W. Tozer reminds us, "God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age"
I should also point out that small does not mean inferior. The small and subtle blessing of time with my wife is far better than a good bike ride.
Today made me realize how much I still need transformation here. I need to quit demanding magic shows and expecting God to meet me on my terms. It's time to receive the peace He gives, practice contemplation and meet Him on His terms. Only then can I truly begin to receive His blessings, big and small.
When we got there, we found that most of the trails were very narrow, very curvy and very hilly. There was only one that was wider and more like what we were looking for. We took that one but after about half a mile it ended forcing us to turn around. When we got back to the car I was disappointed and annoyed. What moron decided to put in a half mile trail? Why do all those other trails have to be so advanced? I wanted a good bike ride, not a dippy little one mile jaunt.
A few seconds later Annie rode up behind me. Before I could voice my feelings, she got off her bike, smiling, and started talking about how much fun she'd had being outside and spending time together. She even said she was feeling encouraged since she got up the hills ok.
As I loaded up the bikes I thought about the differences in our reactions. My expectations, demands really, for this bike ride had kept me from experiencing the simple joy Annie had. It wasn't that she was thrilled about the trail ending, we both agreed we probably won't go back to this park, but she saw past that while I was stuck in disappointment.
I wonder how often that happens to me and I don't even realize it. I'm reminded of how during His trial Jesus is sent to appear before Herod. Herod expects a magic show. He wants to see the miracles he's heard so much about. But Jesus won't have any of it. He just stands there silent, refusing to be put on display. How different it might have been for Herod if he'd been willing to lay aside his demands and expectations and simply been content to be in the presence of Jesus.
I think I make Herod's mistake far more often than I'd like to admit. I want big magic shows from God. If I go out biking I want it to be exactly how I like it. And when it doesn't happen I get ticked. Meanwhile God's hands are open wide, filled with small and wonderful blessings if only I'd be willing to set aside my agenda to receive them.
Part of the problem, it seems to me, is the pace at which we live. Just like it's hard to make out the details of the countryside when you're driving by at eighty miles per hour, it's tough to catch anything but the big blessings when you're blasting your way through life. It takes a contemplative mind to both see and receive the small blessings. As A.W. Tozer reminds us, "God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age"
I should also point out that small does not mean inferior. The small and subtle blessing of time with my wife is far better than a good bike ride.
Today made me realize how much I still need transformation here. I need to quit demanding magic shows and expecting God to meet me on my terms. It's time to receive the peace He gives, practice contemplation and meet Him on His terms. Only then can I truly begin to receive His blessings, big and small.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Sci Fi Geek Confessional: Alastair Reynolds
For anyone still in doubt that I'm a full fledged, certifiable, sci-fi nerd wonder no longer. I'm here to confess one of my geek secrets involving the fantastic British author Alastair Reynolds.I got hooked on Reynolds about four or five years ago when he was in the middle of writing his Revelation Space trilogy. Since then I've bought every one of his books as soon as they've come out in hardcover. Two years ago when Pushing Ice came out I ordered it from Amazon only to find myself extremely disappointed. Not because Reynolds had written a bad book (Pushing Ice is one of his best) but because they'd changed the the cover for the US edition of his book and it was far inferior to its UK counterpart.
Now I was hoping this would be a one time deal, that the US publisher would come to its senses and start using the good cover designs again. No dice. When Galactic North was published that fall the UK cover was beautiful matching all the others he's written. And though the US one did match Pushing Ice in design, it also looked like a bad photoshop job completely butchering the UK cover design.
So what did I do? Simple. I did what any true geek would do. I paid extra to get the UK edition of Galactic North. I've done the same with the two books since and I'll keep doing so until the US covers stop looking like they were made in a high school graphic design class.
Ok, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. It's really only a few bucks more and since I started this practice they've only given me more cause by delaying the US releases of each book by over a year. The Prefect, which I read in April of 07 is just being released in the US (complete with ugly cover) this week. House of Suns doesn't even have a stateside release date yet.
I just finished Reynolds latest, House of Suns, last night and it only reinforced my decision. Not only was the book great but it also looks totally cool with all my other Alastair Reynolds books on my shelf.
As for the book itself, let me give a very brief review. This is the sort of book that reminds me why I read sci-fi. It's chock full of cool ideas like spaceships miles long, sentient robots, clones who've been travelling the galaxy for 6 million years. It's also his most philosophical novel dealing with issues like the nature of reality, bad actions done for good reasons, what defines existence, cloning and identity. It does slow down a little in the middle but the very cool ending more than makes up for that. Highly recommended.
And in case you don't believe me, check out my comparrison of the covers below. The UK ones match House of Suns above
Subtle and Stylish. The UK Prefect Cover:
Ugly and blunt. Especially the yellow/orange lettering. The US Prefect Cover:
Great colors and fits with the ship over planet design of Reynolds early books.
The UK Pushing Ice cover:
Not nearly as bad as the Prefect US cover but this one still comes off as uninspired and boring
The US Pushing Ice Cover
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Screaming + Preaching = Screeching?
The latest from the now infamous Trinity United Church of Christ:
I do want to say I'm glad Barack Obama has finally done the right thing and resigned from this church (though I still have to wonder why it took him 20+ years to realize what most of us managed to grasp after five minutes of video footage).
That said, I'm not posting this to talk about the election. You can find good analysis on that all over the net and you don't need me to regurgitate it for you. I'm posting this video because I believe it's extremely sad to watch this happening from any pulpit. I don't care where you are on the political spectrum, this is NOT what the Gospel is about. I say that not because I think politics are unimportant but because God is after something so much deeper than what's being preached here. And His message is being buried under a heap of bitterness and anger. I'd feel the same way even if the "sermon" was about tax cuts and limited government.
Finally, I think we could all agree that we'd be better off if pastors would avoid nearly giving themselves heart attacks while on stage. What Michael Pfleger is doing is about performance and himself. Even if he was preaching a real message, the Gospel will to some degree get buried if it's presented in such an egotistical fashion. No matter the topic, tone down the screeching and make room for God to speak
I do want to say I'm glad Barack Obama has finally done the right thing and resigned from this church (though I still have to wonder why it took him 20+ years to realize what most of us managed to grasp after five minutes of video footage).
That said, I'm not posting this to talk about the election. You can find good analysis on that all over the net and you don't need me to regurgitate it for you. I'm posting this video because I believe it's extremely sad to watch this happening from any pulpit. I don't care where you are on the political spectrum, this is NOT what the Gospel is about. I say that not because I think politics are unimportant but because God is after something so much deeper than what's being preached here. And His message is being buried under a heap of bitterness and anger. I'd feel the same way even if the "sermon" was about tax cuts and limited government.
Finally, I think we could all agree that we'd be better off if pastors would avoid nearly giving themselves heart attacks while on stage. What Michael Pfleger is doing is about performance and himself. Even if he was preaching a real message, the Gospel will to some degree get buried if it's presented in such an egotistical fashion. No matter the topic, tone down the screeching and make room for God to speak
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