Relationship

It’s interesting how much of Christianity is relational, and yet we constantly see people trying to break apart that relationship. Creation or evolution? Both. Faith or deed? Both. And tonight I came across another example that takes away from a large number of Christian leaders’ theology and mission. Many people say that simply by loving people, you are showing non-believers God, and fulfilling what God has asked of us. Although at first glance this may seem like a fairly unarguable statement, tonight I began realizing it has both truth to it as well as being narrow. “Actions speak louder than words.” This has been the proverbial argument of people that believe that words are an ineffective way of showing people God, and that love is the only way we can show God to the world. This comes as a response to ineffective theology, or misinterpreted theology. “God is love” is another phrase they have in their arsenal to back up their belief. But I do not see this. Yes, love is a good thing. Yes, God is love. But it is also very clear in the Bible that the love of God is unconditional. Human love at its best is conditional. It is just one of those things that we cannot get away from due to our humanity. So maybe when people saw Jesus they did see God through his love, because JESUS' love was unconditional. But as humans we cannot rely on our love for others to be the sole designator that we are Christians. FACT: Non-believers are capable of love. Love does not make you a Christian. Being a moral person does not make you a Christian. Abiding by morals, obeying legal obligations, and being generous are not unique designators of Christians. Sure, all of these are required of Christians, but they are not attributes that make you Christian. Loving your neighbor is not enough. Or should I say, “loving your neighbor is not the most important thing.” There is a relationship between loving people and belief. This is simple “faith without deeds is dead” and vice versa. The two are inseparable; yin and yang. You can have good deeds/love without faith. But you cannot have actual, legitimate faith if you do not show it through love/action. That is why I disagree with these Christian-based social justice activist/humanitarians. Being a humanitarian does not make you Christian. Helping the poor does not make you Christian. But if you are a Christian, then all of these things are required of you. The thing that distinguishes you between a Christian and a typical nice person is belief. As much of a curse word as it is to some humanitarian Christian-types, theology is not a bad thing. Interpretation of theology, sure, that can be iffy. But Biblical theology and belief is not bad in and of itself. It is the first step, and a required step which requires for the rest to brought shortly afterwards.

Happiness

I sit here in my lobby at the end of a weekend that brought with it numerous puke-sessions and a broken phone. Yet I sit here listening to some new music that I just got on Friday and am the most at ease that I’ve been in over a week. Not half an hour ago I was pissed off at numerous things that have been building up all day, and honestly a few that are hitting peaks from a semester’s worth of build up. Yet I am borderline-giddy at the moment. As I sit looking at other people’s pissed off, sad, tired faces, I sit here with a glee that none of them see. In a moment where 1 + 1 does not equal 2, I am happy. I realize that our life’s purpose/mission/goal is not happiness. If you shoot for happiness it will leave you let-down, sad, depressed, angry and pissed off. God has a goal for us, and from that mission comes happiness, most apparent when we follow that mission. There are plenty of things that we point to as being the “true way to happiness”, but how does being drunk match up to the purpose that we are given? How does having all the newest stuff help us along that journey? Along that road? Happiness is understanding that God is in control regardless of all the bad things that happen throughout life. When you have this happiness, very little can bring you down.

Economic Crisis

I had a conversation today that introduced an interesting statement to explain where I am emotionally at currently. Thanks to a very specific person I have incredibly high standards for what the ministry and the Church should be. At times when I begin to think about what ministry and the Church should be I become overwhelmed and depressed. I see the great divide between where I may be at present and where either I need to be or want to be. And the statement that brought things full-circle: “You’re life is currently at an economic crisis.” Doing the old has gotten me into this approaching disaster. The only things that I am left to are new ideas. I do not want to change, but I see a cliff forming on the horizon. I desire to be a pastor in the near future. It is in these moments of crisis that we see the divide between where we are and where things should be, and that the only thing that is going to get you from one side to the other is God.

The Reaction of the Failed Church

Through the World Civilizations II course that I am taking this semester I realize how much of the Church’s failures have fueled and created a rise in atheism, as well as the secularization of the world. Specifically what we’re discussing is the Plague, and how prior to the epidemic destroying Europe, the Catholic Church was the most powerful organization in Europe. They were in charge of hospitals, education, land ownership, as well as being the main employer of most of Europe. So when the Church practically went bankrupt due to the Plague, they could no longer fulfill their responsibility to the people. From this deficiency the people looked for alternatives apart from the church for survival. Out of their loss of power, the Church attempted to regain power by becoming harsher with their moral restrictions. When “modern” medicine was becoming archaic, doctors looked for new ways of practice which included human dissection. The Church’s response was to condemn it. When traditional Catholic schools did not update their curriculums, educated people wrote new ones outside of the church, and started schools with funding from private non-Catholic contributors. Simply put, when the Church was unable to provide, people looked to other means. When the Church is in charge of so much, any group would fail in at least some areas. And when the Church then tries to gain control over something they shouldn’t have power over, they overcompensate by become stricter, only pushing societies to secularism and people to atheism.

Realism

Along with my last entry entitled "Presentation", and an idea that I came across about "practical atheism" (the belief in God, yet living as if you don't), I come to a general feeling that Christianity today (at least American Christianity in large part) has lost all sense of realism. Christians have this fictional, fantastical view of Jesus/God/religion that is so far from reality, that I don't accept it as being authentic anymore. Jesus was killed, was crucified. He was hated. In the Pharisee's eyes, he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with a mob, getting ready to overthrow the Roman Regime. Jesus was seen as a social injustice savior/messiah and political/militaristic threat, not a religious/spiritual Christ figure.

Not only do I sense a general unrealistic representation of history being told by Christians, I also see their opinion of anyone not-Christian as being incredibly limited and degrading. Jews are "those silly/stupid Jews, they got everything wrong." Christians throw the word "crazy" around a lot to explain anything that's not-Christian, as if nothing that is not-Christian has any kind of merit. Sadducees are condemned for their ignorance of Christ, yet the Christian Church today is the Biblical-Time's Sadducees. Atheist, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh are not mindless attempts. Philosophy is not mindless. Hating religion is not a senseless view.

Christians have painted such an elaborate fantasy that they have created a myth: it has some truth with a lot of falsehood, exaggeration, and ignorance.

Presentation

I was sitting in my English class this morning, and a girl went up to the front of the room to give a PowerPoint presentation on an author she researched. In one of those "could not have asked for it"-epiphany moments, I saw things a little differently. The girl, like a large portion of students do, read word-for-word what she had putu on each slide. She turned her back on the audience, and read what she had prepared. Her monotonous speech did not help anyone believe she cared at all about the subject, either. And I began to think about how much of Christians are like this today. They have their nice, safe little belief all written out, and when prompted about it, they give the same monotonous speech that has absolutely no meaning to them. It is merely verbatim what they have always said. This kind of presentation is as meaningless to the audience as it is to the presenter.

A Few Scattered Thoughts

So instead of going too in-depth into any of some of my thoughts, I thought I'd just list out a few that have been going through my mind recently:

1) I've been realizing how people's geographical setting/ubringing, as well as the time period in which they grew up in affects their theology. Without pointing to specifics, I have pinpointed one Christian author/pastor/leader as coming from the hippy-era. He is pro-love, pro-peace, pro-everyone has their own thoughts/relativism. His age matches up and it makes perfect sense with what his ministry surrounds and focuses on. The second person I started thinking about came from the Cold War-era. His views on issues of good and bad are clear. He sees a specific thing as being the bad thing, and then goes about making the bad thing as bad as possible (just like the crisis between America and the then USSR). It's kind of funny that the movie Watchmen sparked this revelation, but then you don't really ever know where thoughts will come from.

2) I heard a guy say the other day that he was tired of "just" reading the Bible. Coming from a guy that has heavily debated the relevance of the Bible and its authenticity, I can say from experience that anyone that says they are tired of just reading the Bible...to me that yells out the fact that they were never really reading the Bible intently in the first place. That they gave it a shot, didn't get the right response/outcome they wanted and gave up on it, discrediting the importance to reading the Bible.

And lastly...
3) I'm reading Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great About Christianity? right now. It's a very interesting book that I'm juggling with a handful of other books (including a book written by a Muslim analyzing American history since the Vietnam war, as seen by the Islamic communtiy). And within the first three chapters a phrase that he used struck a chord with me that has been reverberating since. The phrase is "practical atheism", and it is when those that admit they believe in God live as if they don't believe in his existence. I feel as if this is a very accurate way to label a lot of Christians. I am hoping to be a small group leader at one of the groups on campus next year, and this theme may come up a few times: without any religious jargon, without any moralistic reasoning (as Christian morals are not solely Christian), why do you believe what Jesus says is true? Should be an interesting discussion, and I'm sure one that will make a few people sqirm in their chairs.

So here are the thoughts at present. Hope to be writing more soon.