Careful Thought

UPDATE:  I was cautioned not to judge too harshly based on experiences with one church.  Makes sense.  In addition, I was reminded of the results of Barna’s surveys of giving in America: 

Born-again Christians are still among the best givers: 77% gave to churches last year, and they averaged giving $1,166, 80% higher than the average adult, but down 19% from 1999 levels.

Evangelicals scored higher.  Of the subset Barna classifies as evangelicals, 81% contributed to churches, and they averaged $2,097.

ORIGINAL POST:  At the risk of alienating just about everybody, I’d like to throw an unusual proposition on the table: that evangelical, fundamental Christianity is based, at least in part, on Gnosticism .  [In the interest of disclosure, I have been a member of a conservative ‘fundamentalist’ church for the last eight years, until being asked to leave because of my belief in old-earth creationism. I still generally consider myself to be a conservative Christian.] 

Two key aspects of Gnostic thought are 1) its distinction between the physical realm, which is evil or flawed, and the perfect spiritual realm; and 2) the concept of “salvation” through special knowledge, or gnosis .

There are various flavors of Gnosticism, but most hold that the physical world is inferior to, or a poor reflection of, the spiritual.  The extreme view in this context is that Christ could not have been fully God and man, because the flesh was evil, and God could not inhabit evil flesh.  Marcion, one of the chief early proponents of this view held that “the Son of the Father did not actually take sinful flesh but only appeared to do so.”

The modern conservative, evangelical church likewise emphasizes the primacy of spirit over flesh in several ways.  For example, its insistence on a young-earth and consequent denigration of scientific observation.  This is a topic many disagree on and while I hold a different view, I would not break fellowship over this.  Additionally, the relatively recent notion of pre-tribulation eschatology shows the same eagerness to get past this troublesome physical earth.  Witness the popularity of the Left Behind series.  Ambrosia De Milano, commenting at Sharp Iron ,  puts is this way :

The 20th century was a dangerous time to be alive–and an equally exciting time. However, for the period from 1918 through 1945 (and beyond) the average person faced a cycle of deep poverty, cataclysmic war, political uncertainty–and this cycle repeated itself–culminating in the horrific events of Vietnam, and eventually the 911 attacks (I know, that’s the 21 century–but I’m on a roll here). It was natural to look for an escape.

So, as the need for escape grew, so did eschatological schemes. As the schemes grew in popularity, intellectual voices from seminaries (and other sources) joined the debate. Unfortunately, many evangelicals adopted the attitude “when the trumpet sounds, I’m out of here!” and other sloganized doctrines.

For me, the most troubling evidence of Gnostic disdain for the physical within evangelicalism is the lack of concern with meeting the needs of the needy.  My concern is the simple Gospel injunction to care for the needy.  I’m not talking about setting up homes for illegal aliens or advocating homosexual rights or other “social justice” issues, but basic feed-the-hungry, clothe-the-naked issues.  Churches are quick to beat the drum against abortion or to decry the loss of freedom of religion, which is fine, but Christ asks, “What have you done for me lately?”  My last church had no organized program to help the needy, save an occasional single-moms oil change.  [Maybe that was my fault, since I was nominally the outreach guy.]  They did have an active effort to preach and teach young-earth creationism, though.  Christ didn’t tell Peter to preach creation age, but just said, “Feed my sheep.”

Lastly, the Gnostic theme of special knowledge - and I’ll go back to Ambrosia for this one:

[The] Eastern Church was very gnostic – interested in mystical relationships and trying to guess the nature of God.  [Ralph Gore of Erskine Seminary] says, in counter to the East, that the West was more concerned with the judicial relationship between God, the judge, and man.

Okay–we think the judicial triumphed–but I would argue otherwise.

Modern evangelicals place the judicial relationship as the initiation rite into the body of believers. Nothing particularly mystical happens, except the rebirth (however that works). The rest of the time is spent trying some form of mysticism or another. All of the mysticism, whether pentecostal on one extreme, or those who reject and say the Bible is the means of God speaking on the other extreme, is earned (that’s right, I said earned) on the basis of righteous living. The cleaner the vessel, the reasoning says, the more insight into God (or from God).

So where does that leave us?  I don’t think the modern evangelical church is in danger of bringing back Marcion, but because they buy into many Gnostic precepts, they are wandering further and further from basic Gospel truth.

Here’s the only worthwhile Paris Hilton news I’ve seen recently.  I wondered when the patriarch of the Hilton empire would grow a pair.  Maybe actions do have consequences….

Paris Hilton loses inheritance

PARTY princess Paris Hilton is $60 million out of pocket after her billionaire grandfather - appalled by her jail term for drink-driving offences - axed her inheritance.

Family patriarch Barron Hilton was already embarrassed by his granddaughter’s wild behaviour - notably when her home sex video was leaked on the internet.

But the 79-year-old considered her 23-day sentence last month the last straw.

“He was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris,” says Jerry Oppenheimer, who wrote a biography of the clan called House Of Hilton .

“He now doesn’t want to leave unearned wealth to his family.”

Hilton senior, the only member of the family left with a sizeable stake in the huge hotel chain, has let it be known that he intends to donate to charity the $2.4bn he will gain from this month’s sale of the company to private equity firm Blackstone.

The money will go to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the charity set up in the name of the founder of the family business.

Unfortunately for the global whining crowd, the latest peer-reviewed data shows that - wait for it - Greenland is still cold.

From the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (Sen James Imhoff’s team), here’s the latest:

Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt

Posted By Marc Morano – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov – 9:39 AM ET

Ilulissat, Greenland – The July 27-29 2007 U.S. Senate trip to Greenland to investigate fears of a glacier meltdown revealed an Arctic land where current climatic conditions are neither alarming nor linked to a rise in man-made carbon dioxide emissions, according to many of the latest peer-reviewed scientific findings.  Recent research has found that Greenland has been warming since the 1880’s, but since 1955, temperature averages at Greenland stations have been colder than the period between 1881-1955.

A recent study concluded Greenland was as warm or warmer in the 1930’s and 40’s and the rate of warming from 1920-1930 was about 50% higher than the warming from 1995-2005. One 2005 study found Greenland gaining ice in the interior higher elevations and thinning ice at the lower elevations. In addition, the often media promoted fears of Greenland’s ice completely melting and a subsequent catastrophic sea level rise are directly at odds with the latest scientific studies.  These studies suggest that the biggest perceived threat to Greenland’s glaciers may be contained in unproven computer models predicting a future catastrophic melt. 

Unfortunately, there’s so much money to be made in perpetuating global warming fears that any real scientific evidence that goes against GW dogma will be painted as “big oil propaganda.”

Tags: global whining, Greenland

There’s a great discussion (and insightful comments) at Sharp Iron  discussing the real value of Martin Luther in bringing about the Protestant Reformation.  Abrosia De Milano makes a good case that Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was the “true torch-bearer of reform.”  While Luther tended to use venomous, spiteful language against the Catholic church, Erasmus was peacemaker - without minimizing the need for sweeping reform within the church.

Erasmus’ work The Complaint of Peace reminds the reader that Jesus had spoken the imperative “Blessed are the Peacemakers.” He did not hide behind the excuse that the state had a right of self-defense, and that Christians ought to support war. Erasmus writes, “No greater enemy of goodness or of religion can be found.”

Humanism—not the secular humanism that rejects God—was the mark of Erasmus’ intellectual endeavors. It was not that man was the measure, but that God had endowed humanity with great gifts. These gifts had to be recognized, and drawn out to see the full glory of God that dwells in humanity. He followed the great tradition of the Dutch humanists. This led his work to be marked by an irenic spirit, one that seeks peace and reconciliation, in contrast with Luther’s fury.

It can be said that Erasmus would be one to whom Kant might say “Understanding is sublime, wit is beautiful” (From Kant’s Of the Beautiful and the Sublime). This could not be said of Luther.

Luther was seeking to overwhelm the perceived ignorance of his opponents with scalding critique. He sought to maintain enmity, rather than find common ground with which to carry on intellectual conversation. Calvinist scholar R. C. Sproul writes this of Luther, “The first key to Luther’s profile is found in his tempestuous outbursts of anger and his intemperate language. He was fond of calling his critics ‘dogs’. . . . his language was at times earthy, salted with scatological references” (The Holiness of God, p. 75).

Is this intemperate one, this man who used insult and invective to blast his intellectual and theological opponents, the Chosen One of the Reformation? Perhaps this title was given too easily to such a one as Luther. Maybe it is time Protestants (and Baptists, and other evangelicals) rethought Luther. Maybe it is time to transfer the reins of our faith to a man of peace, one of those opponents whom Luther engaged as one engages a hated enemy. Maybe it is time to consider Erasmus as the True Reformer—or to look elsewhere altogether—as to the one whom God truly called to speak out the abuses and sins of the established church of the 16th century.

The notion of ‘non-secular humanism’ is powerful.  It serves to clarify something that has long bothered me in conservative evangelicalism - the idea that human effort can’t produce anything of value. True, our best efforts still can’t get us to God, but anything beautiful and true that is shaped by human hands reflects the God who created us. If we ourselves are created by Him and in His image, what wouldn’t our works reflect Him?

Let’s shake hands with the blues…

Tags: blues, Jim Suhler, Shake Hands With the Blues

(HT:  Something and Half of Something )

In reports first published by DEBKAfile, American naval and air forces intercepted two North Korean vessels clandestinely en route for Iran with cargoes of enriched uranium and nuclear equipment in the past month. The shutdown of Pongyong’s nuclear facilities has made these items surplus to North Korea’s requirements and the Islamic Republic was more than willing to pay a hefty price for the goods.

On July 12, the second intercepted North Korean freighter was sunk in the Arabian Sea by torpedoes fired from a US submarine 100 miles southeast of the Iranian naval base-port of Chah Bahar. Delivery of its freight of enriched weapons-grade uranium and equipment and engines for manufacturing more fissile material including plutonium in its hold could have jump-forwarded Iran’s nuclear bomb and warhead project, lopping off at least a year of work. For this Iran’s rulers were ready to reportedly pay out a cool $500 million.

A few hours earlier, President Bush received an intelligence briefing on the vessel, its freight and destination. Apparently the shipment was brought forward by several weeks to evade detection by UN nuclear inspectors scheduled to visit Pyongyang this week to verify the dismantling of its nuclear facilities.

US airplanes had been tracking the freighter and picked up signs of radioactivity, indicating the presence of nuclear materials aboard.

President Bush had the option of ordering US Marines to board the vessel or to sink it. He decided on the latter - both because the North Korean freighter was approaching an area patrolled by Iranian naval units and seizure of the vessel by American marines might have provoked a clash; secondly, it was the better choice in order to avoid exposing US troops to radioactive contamination. American naval and air units in the Persian Gulf, Middle East and seas opposite North Korea were ordered to go on a high state of readiness and the torpedo the North Korean vessel was accomplished without delay.

After the attack, US warships raced to the spot where the ship went down where they picked up three lifeboats. Most of the North Korean sailors aboard were either injured or dead. Twenty in all died in the attack. They all bore symptoms of contamination. After the episode, the area was cordoned off and underwater equipment dropped to salvage the cargo from the sunken ship.

All the parties to the incident, the United States, North Korea and Iran, have kept the incident under wraps as the situation in and around the Gulf is inflammable enough to explode into a full-blown Iranian-US clash at the slightest provocation.

There was also the danger that North Korea might decide at the last moment to abort the closure of its nuclear facilities.

Tags: Iran, Navy, North Korea, nuclear weapons

Karen Allen has announced that she will be back in Indiana Jones 4.  Actually, ‘announced’ is probably not the right word, since they have already completed 25 days of shooting for the movie.  That Harrison Ford guy will be in it, too.  The working title is either Indiana Jones Forgets Where He Parked or Indiana Jones Yells at those Damn Kids to Get Off His Lawn .  Indy’s getting too old for this stuff.

Llama Butchers have an ongoing discussion about their favorite Indy female characters .  Karen Allen takes it, hands down.

Technorati Tags: Indiana Jones , Karen Allen , Harrison Ford

(HT: LifeSite ) 

“PrideFest” Organizer Charged for Soliciting 14-Year Old Boy over the Internet

WAUWATOSA, WI, July 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A homosexual event organizer has been charged with felony for sexually soliciting a 14-year old boy over the Internet, World Net Daily (WND) reports.

42-year old David Bodoh contacted the Oconomowoc boy through an Internet chat room. The boy’s foster mother contacted the police, however, and an undercover agent pretended to be the boy over the Internet. According to Quest, Bodoh pretended to be 21, and sent sexually explicit emails as well as nude photos of himself.

He arranged to meet the boy at Brookfield Square Mall on July 12, promising to give him “the ride of his life”.

On reaching the rendezvous point on his motorbike, Bodoh was promptly arrested by policemen. He was charged in the Waukesha Circuit Court on July 13, but was released when he paid a $5000 cash bond and a $25,000 signature bond. At present, he is forbidden to contact anyone younger than 18 or use the Internet. If he is charged, he could face 25 years in jail and a $100,000 fine. The preliminary hearing will take place August 9.

After Bodoh was arrested, he offered to withdraw from his role in the Milwaukee “PrideFest” that took place from June 8 to 10. Bodoh’s name was removed from the “PrideFest” website, WND reports. Nevertheless, he is still mentioned as “Community Outreach” in an archived page.

According to the Wisconsin gay website Quest, “PrideFest” chair Scott Gunkel issued the following statement, “PrideFest cannot comment on the allegations against volunteer David Bodoh because they are a legal and a personal matter. Mr. Bodoh had been a volunteer on the festival’s production team, but he resigned from his position earlier this week.”

He continued, “PrideFest reaffirms its ongoing commitment to creating a safe space for all people, and in particular youth. There is nothing more important to us than to ensure the safety of our patrons and all members of the community.”

Uh huh.  You betcha.

Mike Keiley , like me, is not happy with a lot of the churches he’s visited.  Too many are nothing more than “youth ministry for people with jobs.”  He has a great piece at The Ooze called “ In Defense of the Institutional Church ” that wrestles with the to-church-or-not-to-church question.

We were stung when we were asked to leave a conservative evangelical church which had been our home for nearly eight years.  It’s only been a little over a month, but I’ve been amazed at the number of bland, big-tent churches we’ve found in that time.  Where are all the biblically-sound, friendly, on-fire-for-the Lord churches these days?

“As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  ( Luke 9:57-62   NASB)

What do you do with this passage?  Why did Jesus say that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”?  I read this in context as Him describing the cost of discipleship.  Others have used this to suggest that Jesus, though the Son of God, was in human form a wandering vagrant/teacher who slept out in the open, depending on the His disciples for sustenance and housing (i.e., Martha, Mary, and Lazarus).  Deity aside, He was no different than the guy sleeping on the bench in the park, or the guy panhandling for beer money. 

I don’t buy that argument.  True, he did associate with sinners throughout His ministry, but does that make Him a bum?  If I were to yank Him out of the context of Israel two thousand years ago and force Him into a modern mold, it would be more along the lines of a street preacher.  Whatcha think?

Tags: faith, homeless, Jesus Christ