7.24.2007 | narcissism

One of the diseases afflicting the Christian church generally is alive and well in the Roman Church. The target is the hymnal, Glory and Praise, which is raked over the coals in this posting at Mere Comments. Here's the litany of complaint:

-- the neutering of old masculine language about mankind and even God
-- the heedless fouling up of the old poetry, to update a "thou" and a "thee"
-- the seizing of every chance to talk about dancing (not to be found in the New Testament, I suspect, unless it's Salome) and about the motherhood of God"
-- in general, the louche emphasis upon feelings, not repentance, but soft and syrupy feelings
-- the blithe arrogation of God's words to ourselves, speaking in the first person
-- the arrogation of God's grace and majesty to ourselves: "We are the Bread, we are the Body"
-- the celebration of our own wonderfulness, and the decrying of sin -- that is, other people's sins
-- the abandonment of traditional liturgical forms, traditional poetry and song -- all relegated to the status of the "old fashioned," for trotting out, like Grandmama's silver, at certain feasts, and that's it
-- the passing along of counterfeit "folk" music, actually performance music, like "Do You Remember the Kind of September," only not nearly as good
-- the mincing baby-talk in the verses, along with a bogus primitivism, a la the Indians in Hollywood: "You are child of the universe."

Note, especially, that heretical "we are the Bread, we are the Body." As in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. We are most certainly not "the Bread." Nor are we "the Body." This kind of sloppy thinking, of celebrating sinners who pretend to be The Christ, is sickening.

Yes, there is that of God in each of us; the Inner Light, if one prefers Quaker testimony. And, of course, we are each of us made in God's image. But, brothers and sisters, let us never confuse our sinful selves with He who is without stain.

In the words from the Mere Comments posting, "It's narcissism, all of it."

7.16.2007 | Necessary and sufficient

"Necessary and sufficient" is the usual standard of proof for an hypothesis. What about the hypothesis that religion is a good thing? Well, this is a little tougher, as any proof depends on faith: belief in things that simply can't be proven.

However, I make the case that the Jewish and Christian religions are, at their core, good. They are better than good. They ennoble us. Here is my statement of necessity and sufficiency for this hypothesis, from Genesis chapter 1:

27So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

It doesn't get much better than this: being made in the image of God, who is good, merciful, slow to anger, and, as we know from Scripture, able to forgive for the most heinous of sins.

Exactly what "his own image" might actually mean is the subject of much debate, and has yet to be established with precision. We do know, however, the basics from Scripture. Do we live up to this great and good image? Not so much. Suffice to say that the evidence on the ground is that we humans are notorious for doing evil things to one another.

And this is precisely when we are not in "his own image."

7.15.2007 | A little C.S. Lewis

"Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

-- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

6.20.2007 | God works in mysterious ways...or not

Not too long ago I received a well-intentioned email from a friend who is a devout Christian. It was one of those treacly things about how God is always watching over us, in matters small, and great.

The theme of this particular message was about individuals who might have died on 9/11/01 but for happenstance. Here's a sample of the things that prevented a small group of people from being in the wrong place at the wrong time:

...the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

You get the gist. Just another day, with its random (or not) intersections of events. But this message concludes with this thought, that these events are not at all random:

Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can't seem to find the car keys, you hit every traffic light, don't get mad or frustrated; God is at work watching over you.

Now that's nice work if you can get it: God at work "watching over you." This is a school of belief in some Christian circles. That God is a personal God, a kind of celestial butler, who takes care of your every need and keeps you out of harm's way. I suppose that it's a small leap from Buddy Christ to God the Butler.

This kind of piety makes me sick unto puking. Does anyone truly think that those who did not make their appointed rounds with death, by sheer happenstance, were any more worthy than the 3,000 or so that did die that heinous day? Well, the usual answer by the pious crowd is the unanswerable "God works in mysterious ways."

Look, I happen to believe that God exists, and that he is the alpha and the omega. As for everything in between the beginning and end, it is simply beyond reason to think that those who lived but should have died on 9/11 have some special purpose in God's plan. Or that those who died are, as well, simply filling their assigned roles in that plan. Assuming such a plan exists in the first place.

I believe that God's given us the keys to the place while the big guy is off on some cosmic beach doing his thing. The nine-dollar term for those keys? Free will. Those who died on 9/11 were killed by terrorists that we were unable to detect and stop in time.

It is always on us that anyone dies "before their time" (another holdover from a more pious age) of anything but old age. Crime victim? We, i.e. our society, did not catch the criminal in time. Malnutrition? We did not assure that all have sufficient food. Flood victims? Why do we allow idiots to build homes in flood plains, anyway? And the list is endless...

Those who lived through 9/11 by accident, as it were? Lucky. No cosmic plan. Am I certain? Not quite 100%; it is possible that God selected those whose schedules were disrupted, and who survived. Possible; in the same sense as it is possible that all the oxygen molecules in the room I am in could, through random motion, cluster in one corner while I suffocate to death.

This all gets perilously close to theodicy, an attempt to explain why a loving God allows any and all of these heinous things to happen. I don't have an authoritative answer, all I have is a theory: that God will always hear our prayers, and grant them. Just not in the way we might have thought was best for us.

God knows.

6.03.2007 | Matthew 5:44

This simple verse is the source of major angst among Christians. It has led some, such as Anabaptists and Friends (Quakers), to proclaim that a peaceful response to any and all provocations is exactly what Jesus ordered.

If one simply read Matthew 5:44, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" it would be hard to argue with this. But, as with most other things biblical, one can't simply take a single verse and make it the totality of your Christianity.

The central problem with "love your enemies?" It makes God's love, which Jesus instructed us to emulate, overly simple and, actually, childish. God is not a child, and we mustn't impugn simplistic concepts to His love. A Christian may love his enemies, and still kill those who attempt to murder him.

A Christian may not murder, but he may kill in a just cause. Protecting the defenseless is always a just cause, and, as they say, the devil is in the details. I don't and won't address the war in Iraq; too much ink has been spilled on whether this is a "just war." My point, rather, concerns a global war that has been waged against Christians, and others who are not Muslim, for over 1,300 years.

Put at its simplest, Islam is a religion of conquest; of conquest not by persuasion or conscience, but by the sword. From the very beginning, and continuing to this very moment. They have, in fact, waged war against us. A global war. And this is a war that we need to engage on a global basis but seem to have left the field.

Sure, we brag about our forces in Afghanistan, and attempt to avert our gaze from the cockup that is the Bush legacy in Iraq. Every day, there is an atrocity, actual, or planned, by some Muslim group or another. The (thankfully) foiled plot by some Muslims to create havoc at JFK airport is but the latest incident. There will be more.

However, the war against militant Islam is only partly fought with armed forces. It is also a war of the spirit. Or, should I say, a war of the Spirit. As in Holy Spirit. Yes, we Christians must love our Muslim brothers and sisters, but must also not confuse love with surrender. We must, rather, love as God would love: with correction as needed to protect the defenseless. With correction as needed to protect our God-given right to worship the Son.

As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." (Ephesians 6:10).