Category: religion

culture, religion

Two Lists

Brian McLaren spoke recently at a conference taking place at Willow Creek Community Church and shared something which I find fascinating. Back in the 1970s, McLaren volunteered as a youth minister. He asked the kids in the group to make a list of what the pressing issues at their churches were. They came up with things like contemporary worship music and speaking in tongues. Then he asked them to make a list of what the pressing issues facing the world were. Their list included typical 1970s concerns like nuclear war, communism and famine. McLaren points out that there was no overlap between the two lists. The problem as he saw it was that as he was leading young people to Christ, they would get drawn into the first list of concerns and become less and less involved in the issues of the wider world.

I think that a lot has changed since the 1970s and churches are starting to do a better job of creating overlap between McLaren’s two lists. In fact, much ink has been spilled observing the rise of a new generation of evangelical leaders who are as interested in social justice and global warming as they are in gay marriage. However, I wonder how much overlap is going on at ground level in churches across the nation between church concerns and world concerns. If you walked into your church’s youth group today and asked the kids for their two lists, would there be overlap? Continue reading “Two Lists”

Unknown's avatarRebecca TrotterLeave a comment
religion

The Mind, New Ideas and the Living Word

I have been noticing a phenomenon lately which has probably always been present in humanity: a seeming inability to hear new ideas. I’m not speaking even of being unable to understand new ideas, which is pretty understandable. What I am observing is an inability to even recognize when a new idea is being put forth. There seems to be an unconscious assumption that there are a set group of possible ideas about a variety of issues and therefore everything you will read, see or hear fits into one of those known sets.

It seems that when exposed to a new take on one of these old issues, people make a mental evaluation of which known idea sets this information most closely resembles and then respond to that rather than anything which is actually being said. It’s an odd phenomenon. I’m not sure if it comes from the lack of original thought which unlies almost everything we read or hear these days or if it’s just a natural result of our human tendency to categorize things.

Not only is this happening in the world at large, but I think it has taken over our religion as well. In her book Wondrous Depth: Preaching The Old Testament, Hebrew scholar Ellen F. Davis gives what I think is a good explanation of the problem with regard to our habits of reading scripture and why it just decimates the life of the church:

[It is] the gravest scandal of the North American church in our time – namely the shallow reading of scripture. Such reading results from the assumption that we already know just what the bible says; therefore our reading is a simple rehearsal of what (we think) we know rather than an attempt to probe deeper. Continue reading “The Mind, New Ideas and the Living Word”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter1 Comment
religion

The Proverbs 31 Woman

I recently told my husband that Proverbs 31 was like Cosmo for Christian women; it presents a completely unrealistic image of what a woman should be. Some women get together with their girlfriends to study it earnestly and try to follow its tips and guides to be more like what is presented. Some women look at it and just feel awful about themselves because they know they can never live up to the perfection they see in it. And then there are women who grab a pint of hagen daz to eat while looking for all the tell-tale signs of the copious amounts of airbrushing it takes to make a woman look like that. I mean, the Proverbs 31 woman gets the flax, spins it into yarns, weaves the fabric, sews the garments and keeps them sparkling clean at all times? Not to mention running a vineyard, playing the real estate market, making meals, blah, blah blah. What about the servants? When do they get time to weave their own fabric? What about the nanny who can’t keep her clothes clean because the kids keep wiping hummus on it? Does she lose her virtuous woman status? (Obviously I fall into the “looking for signs of airbrushing while eating ice cream” camp of women 🙂 )

However, the fact of the matter is that this is in the bible, so it must be there for a reason, so simply writing it off as unrealistic and ignoring it isn’t really a good option for us. Yet it’s a totally impossible vision of womanhood. So what are we to make of it? As I mentioned yesterday, one of my rules for studying scripture is that when the bible appears to be contradicting itself or real life, that is usually a “red marker” which indicates a place where we need to dig deeper. Usually there’s more going on in these spots than we realize. The Proverbs 31 woman seemed like a perfect example of scriptures being in conflict with real life, so I decided to dig a little deeper. I came across these text notes at Next Bible on Proverbs 31: Continue reading “The Proverbs 31 Woman”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter10 Comments
religion

Women’s Roles in the Bible

wives_submitI have two rules which guide me in my study of scriptures:

1. If the bible is unchanging, then it can not have been intended to communicate one thing to the people to whom it was originally given and something entirely different today.  If our modern common sense reading of scripture is in conflict with how the ancients would have understood the same verses, then our modern understanding is wrong, no matter how obvious, universally held or apparent it is.

2. Where the bible appears to be in conflict with its self or with the real world around us, this should be seen as a red marker pointing to something which needs to be explored further.  Too often we try to explain away these contradictions or make the unacceptable seem more reasonable when what we really need to do is pray, study and dig deeper.  In my experience I have frequently found that these “red markers” point to areas where there is a problem with translation or our modern assumptions are interfering with our understanding and on occassion, I have even come to see that some aspect of our understanding about God or life is entirely off base and needs to be adjusted.

These two rules have served me well, although what I learn from applying them frequently leaves me well outside of mainstream Christian opinion on some issues.  I haven’t quite decided yet if that is a good thing or bad thing and what I’m supposed to do with all that, but time will tell.

At any rate, one of the most vexing problems of scriptures for us moderns is the bible and women.  My first revelation that there might be something wrong with our modern approach to what the bible says about women came years ago when my husband and I were newly married.  We were having a really hard time and I went into a Christian bookstore looking for some sort of answer which would rid us our misery.  While browsing through books, I came across one which claimed to explain the biblical injunction for wives to submit to their husbands in such a way that a woman could be at peace with her role.  The key, this author claimed, was that women had the easier part; while women were called to submit, men actually had to LOVE their wives.  You see, the oft quoted verses first tell women to submit to their husbands and for husbands to love their lives.  Since only husbands are instructed to love their wives, this author reasoned, women were free to despise, hate or just be indifferent to their husbands so long as they were submissive towards them. Continue reading “Women’s Roles in the Bible”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter19 Comments
education, homeschooling, religion

Raising Christian Evolutionists

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why parents who teach their children creation science or intelligent design in a way which elevates those teachings to a fundamental of the Christian faith are putting their children’s long term spiritual well being at risk.  In the comments on that post (which were remarkably civil for this topic BTW, thank you to all who commented!), someone asked how I teach my kids to be faithful Christians while also accepting the science of evolution and geology and such.  I think this is a good question and figured I would share how it works in our house. 

The first thing I tell my kids is that God is always willing to meet us where we are.  He doesn’t wait for us to get it all together or have a good grasp of life to reach out and reveal himself to us.  Thousands of years ago the ancient Hebrews had no numbers for billions.  They did not know what elements or atoms or DNA were.  They did not know where sickness came from or what the stars were.  It would have been literally impossible for them to understand a universe which was billions of years old, stars made out of burning gas shining many billions of light years away.  They could not have comprehended that life was composed of atoms linked together into molecules which linked together to make macromolecules which worked together to create all the tissues, fluids and such of the human body.  They could not have comprehended what DNA does, how it replicates itself, how it gets passed down from generation to generation while various mutations occur which can, over time beyond their words to even name, result in a diversity of life they weren’t even aware of. 

In other words, it would have been impossible for the one true God to reveal his role in and purpose for creation to the ancient Hebrews in a way which reflected the scientific reality of this amazing creation.  Continue reading “Raising Christian Evolutionists”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter30 Comments
current events, religion

Forget Stations of the Cross! It’s stations of the UN!

When I was a Catholic, I went through the stations of the cross several times, including a couple which included props and sound effects. It’s one of the reasons I never felt the need to go see Mel Gibson’s snuff movie – as a former Catholic, I was well aware of Jesus’ suffering on the cross. It was real for me already.

However, since The Passion of the Christ, the movie, accomplished the task of helping Christians experience the horror and suffering of Jesus’ passion and death, the Episcopalian Relief and Development Agency has apparently decided that they can move on other, important topics. Like reducing our carbon food print and promoting third world debt relief. From an article about it on Slate:

This year in time for Lent, Episcopal Relief and Development, the relief agency of the Episcopal Church, began offering a variation on the Stations of the Cross called the Stations of the Millennium Development Goals. It features eight stations, one for each of the global priorities identified by the United Nations in 2000, from eradicating poverty to promoting gender equality. Where each of the 14 stations of the traditional Stations of the Cross represents an event leading up to Jesus’ death—”Jesus is condemned to death” and “Jesus falls the first time,” for example—the alternative version, promoted by Episcopal Relief and Development, shifts the focus to righting global problems. At Station 8, “Create a Global Partnership for Development,” participants are reminded that a “fair trading system, increased international aid, and debt relief for developing countries will help us realize” the U.N. goals. An optional activity at Station 7, “Ensure Environmental Sustainability,” asks that “pilgrims calculate their carbon footprint and come up with three strategies to reduce it.” . . . A suggested activity for Station 4, on reducing child mortality, calls for participants to shade in drawings of children’s faces, coloring-book-style.

Goodness. Continue reading “Forget Stations of the Cross! It’s stations of the UN!”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter3 Comments
culture, religion

The sins of the fathers

Over at Crunchy Cons, Rod has a post up linking to a rather unfunny piece by Diogenes on Catholic World Daily which is meant to mock those who have or would like others to, ask for forgiveness for the sins of our ancestors. A clip from the piece:

It’s back in style: the political fashion of issuing official “apologies” for wrongs committed by others — especially long-dead others — in order to cash-in on the compassion sweepstakes and dutch rub the opposition in the process. Australia’s Labour Government apologized to the aboriginals last month, and now Canada appears ready to follow suit. Perhaps the following Mea Culpa, first offered in response to the initial wave of vicarious mortification, might bear repeating:

Bless me, Father, for my ancestors have sinned. It has been two episodes of 60 Minutes since my last confession.

— My parents were unwelcoming of government mandated integration in their working class neighborhood. At least, I ‘m not absolutely sure they were unwelcoming, but they had a statue of the Sacred Heart in the parlor, and that was typical of the kind of people that put property values before justice in those days. For these and all their other sins of bigotry I ask pardon and penance.

I think it’s safe to say that our pastors are doing a really, really bad teaching the flock how God wants us to deal with the sins of our ancestors. The gap between what God calls us to do and how many Christians, even good faithful Christians, think about what is the right way to deal with the sins of our for-bearers could hardly be greater. A commentator on the Catholic World News sight where the item was put up had this to say: Continue reading “The sins of the fathers”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter2 Comments
humor, religion

Beliefism’s Co-joined Twin, Biblism

Last night I wrote about “Beliefism” which for some people, is living as a parasite off its co-joined twin, “Bibleism”.  Now, let me be clear, I believe in the authority of scripture, I believe that it is the inspired word of God, I have and continue to study it.  However, the truth of the matter is that there is a lot of abuse which goes on around the bible.  So many people become “Beliefists” because they cannot see the difference between their interpretation of scriptures and scripture itself.  There is also a tendency to insist that we cannot understand any part of scripture as being mythological or allegorical or otherwise not accurate as a history book without discrediting scripture, and therefor God.  I like to call this bible abuse.  It is a form of beliefism wherein a person’s faith is in scriptures rather than in the living God.

Anyhow, what really brought this to mind was something I read last night.  I’ve been skimming through How People Grow by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend and came across this line which just hit me as odd:

I don’t know if she fully understood the depth of theology she communicated in that one answer to how she made it trhough.  But the Bible does understand it.  It commands it.” (emphasis mine)

Now, I know the verses from Hebrews (“The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword” Hebrews 4:12).  And I do know what they’re saying here.  However, I still wonder about a Christian author who attributes understanding, feelings and such to a book – even the bible.  It seems to me that it would be more accurate, and more helpful for the proper mindset of the reader to say, “God understands this and that is why He put it in His word”?  Maybe I’m nitpicking here.

Regardless, the wording struck me as odd and reminded me of a parody I read a while back at The Wittenburg Door:

Professors at Dallas Theological Seminary published a position paper Tuesday eliminating the concept of “God” and/or “Lord” from Christian worship and replacing it with worship of the Bible only. The step had been anticipated for several years and was considered a formality within the actual “Bible only” movement . . . Continue reading “Beliefism’s Co-joined Twin, Biblism”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter2 Comments
religion

Beliefism is poison

Christianity has literally tens of thousands of denominations. Which can’t be honoring to God; the unity of the body of Christ seems to be very important to God. Jesus talked about the desire for us to be one. Paul speaks repeatedly of the need for Christian believers to be unified. And yet, we keep splitting up, often acrimoniously. Of course this isn’t particularly new; the early Christian church was much more diverse than we often realize.

What drives these divisions, for the most part are disagreements, often valid and serious, about what Christian beliefs are true. Are sacraments necessary for salvation? Is the sinner’s prayer? Must members of a church affirm a particular creed? What is the role of tradition? How should various scripture verses be interpreted? How should claims of revelations be handled? All serious points. All with presumably one right answer, or at least a limited range of right answers. Then again, many of these disagreements are more than likely completely besides the point; does anyone seriously think God cares if we are sprinkled or dunked at baptism?

So we have all these disagreements, and thus all these divisions. And we can argue all we want over the particulars, the fact still remains that this level of division among God’s people cannot be pleasing to God. But what to do about it?

I certainly don’t have the answers sheet for who has the right answers to all the issues which lead to our division (although I have plenty of opinions!). However, I would suggest that we look at the biblical principle of “good fruit/bad fruit”. That is, if we see a good result, we can assume that whatever is producing it is good. If we see a bad result, then we can assume that whatever is producing it is bad. Obviously the division in the body of Christ is bad, so we would do well to figure out what is creating this bad fruit.

I would argue, as does this article titled “Giving Beliefism the Bird” from The Ooze, that something we can call “beliefism” is at the root of this bad fruit. This article provides this explanation:

beliefism [is] ‘about me being right.’ This is a lot different than being devoted to a Person, to Jesus. Beliefism is devotion to a system of beliefs.” Continue reading “Beliefism is poison”

Unknown's avatarRebecca Trotter7 Comments