The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett (Commonality Despite Differences)

I was inspired not only by the individuals Pastor Barnett described in his book, but by the commonality I saw in our Christian faith. He and his father come from the Assemblies of God, which is a denomination quite different from any church I’ve ever attended. I’m quite confident that Pastor Barnett and I would disagree on a number of theological points. But I was so encouraged that those points are not ones that he focused on in his book. Instead of emphasizing theology that might be divisive, he emphasized the tremendous needs of people and the imperative of trying to meet those needs. He takes seriously the call to be the hands and feet of Christ.

In his ministry, Pastor Barnett works with gang members, felons, people who use drugs, prostitutes, undocumented migrants and a host of other “outcasts.” Many in society look down upon such people. Sadly, many Christ followers mirror that same disapproval and condemnation. I was encouraged that Pastor Barnett did not seem to share that type of attitude. Instead, his writing seemed to evidence over and over again a tremendous compassion for such individuals. He describes heartbreak, not revulsion, when he is on Skid Row and a prostitute propositions him. He tells the story of a young gang member who used drugs, but in whom he saw leadership potential in ministry. In describing the story of Jim Bakker, Pastor Barnett did not go into the gory details, but simply talks in generalities of Mr. Bakker’s fall from grace and incarceration. The focus is not on the sin, but the redemption. I really admired that attitude.

I was also tremendously impressed when Pastor Barnett wrote about evaluating one’s ministry based on God’s metrics, not society’s. With humility he shares that when he moved to Los Angeles, he initially focused on building a great church with masses of people. He realized the futility of that goal when the small congregation he inherited shrunk to zero attendance! Hitting rock bottom in his ministry made him realize that he was focusing on his own goals, not God’s. Pastor Barnett had an epiphany that he needed to serve the many people in Los Angeles who were struggling and suffering. That was his calling, not building a church with huge numbers.

Pastor Barnett also wrote that when celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Dream Center, he sensed that the party the staff threw was not the appropriate way to mark the milestone. He knew that was the world’s way of celebrating—feasting and patting themselves on the back. As a more appropriate way to mark the milestone, Pastor Barnett felt moved to spend time (day and night) on Skid Row. He felt moved to be with the people he was trying to serve to better understand their plight. Those around him feared for his security, but he was undeterred. It was a moving experience once the initial terror wore off. I respect and admire his approach to celebrating. It is an example of radical love and courage to follow Jesus. It is also a reminder to reject the world’s values in favor of God’s. Being a Christ follower is supposed to be a counter cultural endeavor.

I sometimes get very discouraged by the great divisions in the church. And I am depressed at how Christ’s message gets warped to support politics and policies that to me are the antithesis of what Jesus would advocate. I feel hopeless at the attempts of fellow Christians to impose their own view of Christianity on secular society. But my faith in the church is restored to some extent when a Christian like Matthew Barnett, who I is so different in theology and social attitudes, clings so tightly to what I understand to be Jesus’s core teachings—loving and serving all of God’s precious children without judgment no matter what they have done in their lives.

Romans 14:10

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister ? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett (Inspirational Stories)

Recently, I took my kids to the library and en route to the children’s section I had a moment to look at the new arrivals. One particularly caught my eye: The Cause Within You: Finding The One Great Thing You Were Created To Do in This World by Matthew Barnett with George Barna. The title and the summary on the jacket cover intrigued me, so I checked it out that day along with a slew of children’s literature.

The book is an easy read, and less than two hundred pages in length. I really enjoyed it and recommend it highly. I appreciate the premise. I’m middle aged, and people at my stage of life are trying to figure out if we’re spending our lives the right way. And I work with a lot of young people at the beginning of their careers. Many of our relatives are senior citizens, and are at a phase of their lives when they are not sure how much time they have left. We all want to do important things with our time on this planet, but it is hard to figure out what we should be doing. Matthew Barnett’s book focuses on helping the reader discern his/her purpose and calling.

Matthew Barnett is from Phoenix, the son of a mega-church pastor. In his early 20s, Matthew Barnett took over a failing church in Los Angeles. He was a young man with a passion to serve God. But under his leadership the church continued to decline and hit rock bottom. Eventually he turned that apparent failure around to found the Dream Center. I had not heard of that institution before, but from what I gather in reading the book, the Dream Center is a very vibrant Christian ministry. There are worship services, as well as a number of innovative ministries of various types to help bring healing to hurting people.

Throughout the book, Pastor Barnett shares the stories of a number of individuals who’ve gone through difficulties in their lives but been transformed into joy-filled people with a passion to minister and serve others. It was a very inspiring book to read. There was a story of a troubled young man who was suicidal and doing drugs, but ended up spending years of his life passionately serving at the Dream Center as a volunteer to help the homeless. There was an anecdote about a couple who began ministering to hopeless people in a dangerous housing project and their ministry expanded to consume their lives in a positive way. Pastor Barnett also wrote about a young woman who had been a prostitute and had overcome addiction; she became inspired to start a new ministry at the Dream Center, an outreach to pimps.

One of my favorite stories was about the former televangelist, Jim Bakker. I remember being in high school when Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were the butt of jokes. Over the years, they have been the source of many negative stereotypes about Christians. When their televangelist empire crumbled and Jim Bakker went to prison, many cheered and others smirked. But Pastor Barnett and his father invited Mr. Bakker to the Dream Center, and he was apparently a transforming experience. Mr. Bakker arrived at the Dream Center a hopeless man who had been broken by his public disgrace and the abuse he endured in prison. He was called without forewarning to speak at a service, and felt appreciated and loved. He shared his experience in prison, and there were plenty of people in the church who had also had that experience. They did not judge him, they could relate to what he had gone through. Mr. Bakker ended up staying several months ministering in a variety of ministries to the homeless and the destitute. That service gave him back his hope and apparently transformed the subsequent part of his life.

After reading The Cause Within You: Finding The One Great Thing You Were Created To Do in This World, I have a real interest in visiting the Dream Center. The book was also an excellent reminder of the importance of serving others. I recommend it highly regardless of your age or your path in life.

Galatians 5:13

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Haiti: Then and Now

I appreciate Governor Palin going to Haiti and bringing some attention to the plight of the people there. It continues to be a heart-breaking, desperate situation. As we begin a new year, it is important that we not forget that fact. In that vein, I wanted to share two recent broadcasts about Haiti that have nothing to do with Governor Palin’s visit.

First, as we were driving home from Texas after Christmas and listening to NPR in the car, we listened to a report that explained in disturbing detail what has been going on in Haiti recently. The report sheds light on the flow of aid from international donors, the state of health care, the cholera epidemic and the recent election. One emphasis in the report was that Haiti will not be able to rebuild without resources and assistance from foreigners. For that reason, it is critical that we not forget about the needs of the Haitian people. The link below contains the transcript of the report.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/26/132341774/Help-For-Haiti-Slow-Frustrating

The second broadcast was a repeat of an earlier episode of the Diane Rehm Show featuring Isabel Allende. I had actually heard the original broadcast of the episode, but it was fascinating to listen a second time. Ms. Allende was discussing her recent novel, Island Beneath the Sea. The protagonist is a slave in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which would become the nation of Haiti after the widespread slave rebellion that led to the Haitian Revolution. Ms. Allende spent four years researching the history and culture before writing her novel, and she shared a lot of interesting insights during her interview with Ms. Rehm.

Even before the earthquake last year, in the modern era, we Americans tend to think about Haiti as being such an incredibly impoverished nation. However, we are woefully ignorant of the nation’s history. Ms. Allende pointed out that prior to the Haitian Revolution, it was a land of incredible wealth and extensive resources. The riches of Saint-Domingue were cultivated via incredibly brutal oppression and inhumane working conditions of the enslaved Africans who were brought to the island. Ms. Allende pointed out that life was so miserable for the enslaved Africans that their life expectancy after being brought to the colony was only a few years. That unimaginable brutality created an environment where the slaves had a tremendous incentive to try to escape to just survive. This fed an atmosphere of constant terror among the Europeans who lived there. The interview with Isabel Allende is available at the link below.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-12-28/isabel-allende-island-beneath-sea-rebroadcast

Deuteronomy 26:12

" When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.”

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids by Drs. Diane E. Levin & Jean Kilbourne

The prior post noted my concern about the sexualization of children. Indeed, in the summer of 2009, I read a book on the subject and wrote an article reviewing it. The book was So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids by Drs. Diane E. Levin & Jean Kilbourne. The book was published in 2008 by Ballantine Books.

My book review was published this past summer in the American Journal of Family Law. That review is available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1673611.

The journal trimmed some of the article for publication. The original, full-length article is available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1653630.

My article essentially praises Drs. Levin and Kilbourne for bringing attention to this serious problem facing children and families today. However, I note that due to the ubiquitous nature of the problem, structural changes are needed. The one-off strategies the book’s authors suggest to parents are well-intentioned, but woefully inadequate. The authors’ discussion of the problem in their book, as well as my own experience as a mom and grade school teacher, leads me to the conclusion that parents dealing with this issue alone within their own family is analogous to the passengers on the Titanic trying to bail water with tea cups.

The full-length version of my article also takes issue with certain tactics of the book's authors. For example, I assert that they hurt their credibility at times by taking on small (and admittedly rather benign) fish when they railed against the horrors of the Disney Princess marketing behemoth. The Disney Princesses are much beloved by many and are relatively harmless. Citing them as examples of the problem of sexualization, the authors appear to be overly sensitive and alarmist. Such examples also potentially alienate readers who might otherwise be sympathetic to the authors’ general concerns about the impact on children of sexualized media and marketing.

Moreover, in their book Drs. Levin and Kilbourne needlessly alienate natural allies in the Christian community with dismissive and derogatory statements about the religious right. It is apparent in various references throughout the book that the authors have taken a firm stand on culture war issues, and they are not on the same side as Evangelicals and political conservatives. That is fine. Everyone is entitled to their own views. However, when the problem of sexualizing childhood is so ubiquitous and entrenched, it makes no sense to refuse to reach across the aisle and seek allies to make progress on this critical issue. It saddens me that in our current climate, people accept the political polarization and don’t even try to find common ground with people who have a different overarching philosophy or worldview.





2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful,
and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

A Christian’s Take on Ghosts

In recent posts on the debate between those who embrace the Theory of Evolution and those who embrace Creationism, I noted that scientists tend to like certainty and focus their attention on ideas that can be proven empirically. By contrast, religious faith involves concepts that are not provable in the same way, and requires an acceptance that we humans don’t have all the answers. Around the time of Halloween, I read an interview where an author discussed similar themes. The link below contains the interview.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/29/catholic-author-says-his-haunted-house-deepened-his-faith/?hpt=C2

In the interview, the author, Gary Jansen, indicated he is a Christian. He also indicated that his family’s home was haunted. He apparently wrote a book about the experience expressing that the experience was initially frightening, but ultimately deepened his religious faith. I have no doubt the interview was considered by CNN as a Halloween fluff piece, but perhaps surprisingly I thought it was actually rather interesting. Not exactly the typical story of Christians at Halloween.

I’m not exactly an expert on the subject of ghosts, but it is interesting that the concept seems to exist in all human cultures. Both the Old and New Testament have references to the concept. I’m not a theologian, but the concept of ghosts doesn’t seem to jive with basic Christian theology. Nonetheless, I know at least a few Christians who have shared with me that they believe earnestly in ghosts due to first hand experiences.

Many years ago, my husband and I were also intrigued by a sermon given by our pastor at a church where we were once members in Houston. He gave the sermon just after Easter, and the topic of his talk was that Jesus’s resurrection gives us courage to face each day despite the knowledge that our life on this planet is finite. I forget how it was relevant, but the pastor began his sermon with a ghost story anecdote. In much more compelling detail than I can currently remember, he described how he and another priest were living in the priests’ quarters at the church, and they were woken up several nights in a row by music. As I recall, each thought the other was playing the piano at night and was trying to not be annoyed with the other. Finally, one night it was particularly loud and woke the pastor up. He went downstairs to the room where the piano was. No one was in that room and the other priest was in his bedroom upstairs. I’m not doing the story justice, and can’t remember all the details. But when the priest told the story, it was very creepy. My husband and I were amazed that this priest apparently believed in ghosts. He told the story in such a sincere and calm manner. It was parenthetical to the focus of his sermon on the resurrection. Our pastor was a very somber, intellectual man. He was a very lovely and gentle person, but he was so rational and cerebral. He was also a learned theologian. As a result, this pastor was the last person we would have imagined to endorse the concept of ghosts!

Isaiah 29:4
Then deep from the earth you will speak; from low in the dust your words will come. Your voice will whisper from the groundlike a ghost conjured up from the grave.

Luke 24:39
Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.

Thy Kingdom Come by Randall Balmer (Battles Over Schools, Evolution & Environmentalism; Political Expediency & Hypocrisy)

Thy Kingdom Come provides insightful history lessons on a number of hot button issues involving the Religious Right. Balmer describes the growing debate over school vouchers and inadequate financial support for public schools. He goes into great depth to explain the continuing cultural scars to fundamentalists from the humiliation of the Scopes “monkey trial,” as well as the more recent quest for legitimization via the label of “intelligent design.”

Balmer also notes that one would intuitively predict Creationists would be passionate about conserving God’s creation, but that has not been the case in recent years. He explains how the Religious Right came to align themselves with conservative, pro-business politicians that worked aggressively to fight against any legal efforts to protect the environment. He also describes how some Evangelicals are beginning to rebel against this approach based on biblical principles of stewardship.

In his “Conclusion,” Balmer reflects back on the bottom line of the various themes he has explored. He concludes that the Religious Right has distorted the teachings of Christ by ignoring clear teachings on protecting the vulnerable in society and peacemaking in favor of politically expedient themes with flimsy biblical support. He notes the hypocrisies of leaders of the Religious Right including Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, William Bennett, and Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Balmer concludes that the ultimate aim of the Religious Right is to establish a “homogenous theocracy” analogous to that in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. But historian Balmer describes the lesson of Puritan New England as being clear:

Religion...functions best outside the political order, and often as a challenge
to the political order. When it identifies too closely with the state, it
becomes complacent and ossified, and efforts to coerce piety or to proscribe
certain behavior in the interests of moral conformity are unavailing.

Moreover, Balmer describes the Religious Right as more interested in moralism than morality, and are frankly “frightened by pluralism.” Consequently, the Religious Right is waging war on the First Amendment “in the interest of imposing its own theocratic vision” despite the irony that “no group has profited more from the First Amendment and the disestablishment of religion in American than evangelicals.”

Balmer ends the book with an exhortation to fellow believers:

[t]o reclaim their birthright as evangelical Christians and examine the
scriptures for themselves—absent the funhouse mirror distortions of the
Religious Right. For those equal to the task, I suggest a form of shock therapy:
juxtapose the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), arguably the highest expression
of Christian ethics, with the platform of the Republican Party.

Luke 11:9-10 (Darby Translation)

And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it will be opened.


John 9: 25, 30, 33

Then he answered, I do not know whether He is a sinner and wicked or not. But one thing I do know, that whereas I was blind before, now I see.
The man replied, Well, this is astonishing! Here a Man has opened my eyes, and yet you do not know where He comes from. [That is amazing!]
If this Man were not from God, He would not be able to do anything like this.

Luke 18:9-14 (The Message)

He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.'
"Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.'"
Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

Thy Kingdom Come by Randall Balmer (Abortion, Homosexuality and Divorce)

Randall Balmer begins Thy Kingdom Come questioning the “odd choice” of the Religious Right to choose abortion as its defining issue to consolidate power in the 1980s because of the movement’s emphasis on biblical literalism and the paucity of biblical references to the abortion issue. Moreover, he notes those in the movement had taken inconsistent positions on the “right to life” in supporting capital punishment and “various armed conflicts.” Nonetheless, he explains that in the 1980s abortion was viewed as a political issue that had traction despite weak biblical arguments.

With similarly weak biblical arguments against homosexuality, Balmer notes that at about the same time the Religious Right pushed aside much clearer condemnation of divorce in the New Testament to focus instead on homosexuality as a rallying cry. He describes this as a politically motivated use of selective literalism to “locate sin outside of the evangelical subculture” by “designating as especially egregious” the conduct of others. Balmer asserts divorce was “too close for comfort” because many fellow believers had transgressed that prohibition (including Ronald Reagan, an early hero of the Religious Right). Balmer points out that to be consistent with their aim of making abortion illegal, the Religious Right ought to be expending equivalent effort to make divorce illegal (not just more difficult to obtain).

Balmer also notes hypocrisy on the abortion issue. Reagan and George H. W. Bush campaigned hard on antiabortion rhetoric, but never delivered on promises to outlaw abortion. Balmer also talks about the construction of an “abortion myth” that the movement began in direct response to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. He explains that in reality few Christians paid much attention to the decision when it was first issued, and those who did generally viewed it favorably. Instead, Balmer musters evidence that the inspiration for political activism was actually the 1975 IRS attempt to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University ("BJU") due to its racially discriminatory policies. Balmer asserts abortion was a much more expedient rallying cause that the tax status of BJU.

1 Timothy 4:11 (The Message)

Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity.

Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament by Randall Balmer (Sep. of Church/State)

This book was a revelation to me. I read it not long after it was published in 2006. It was a time when I felt increasingly alienated from the media’s portrayal of Christianity as well as many local faith communities in Texas where I was living at the time. When I read the words of Jesus in the Bible, I was at a loss to understand how they could be used to support preemptive war and economic policies favoring the wealthy, as well as to foster hostility towards efforts to protect the most vulnerable in our society and the health of our fragile planet. However, until I found Thy Kingdom Come, I had begun to feel like one of the only folks who saw any type of a contradiction.

Dr. Balmer’s Preface begins:

I write as a jilted lover. The evangelical faith that nurtured me as a child and
sustains me as an adult has been hijacked by right-wing zealots who have
distorted the gospel of Jesus Christ, defaulted on the noble legacy of
nineteenth-century evangelical activism, and failed to appreciate the genius of
the First Amendment. They appear not to have read the same New Testament that I open before me every morning at the kitchen counter.

Randall Balmer is a professor of American religious history. One of the aspects of Thy Kingdom Come that I found most compelling was the historical commentary he provided to put into perspective the relatively recent attempts in the United States to impose religion on government. Although he is a committed Christian and well-versed in the Bible, Balmer makes clear he is not a theologian. He explicitly leaves to theologians the analysis and interpretation of Scripture.

As someone with many friends and family who belong to Southern Baptist congregations, I enjoyed reading of the history of the Baptist tradition. Balmer traces its roots to reformers in sixteenth century Europe who were deeply suspicious of church-state entanglements. In the New World, the Baptist tradition took root under the leadership of people like Roger Williams and Isaac Backus, who championed the ideas of separation of church and state. Williams was concerned that state endorsement of religion would diminish the authenticity of faith. Backus shared such concerns and noted that Jesus “made no use of secular force” in establishing the first Gospel church. Later, in the nineteenth century, George Washington Truett, characterized the Roman Empire’s embrace of Christianity as disastrous because “when Constantine crowned the union of church and state, the church was stamped with the spirit of the Caesars.” Truett also championed the concept of religious liberty as the “chiefest contribution” of America to civilization; he also declared it “preeminently a Baptist achievement.”

Balmer then compares the traditional Baptist scorn for mixing religion and government with the modern trend of many Baptists to meld the two. Since the late 1970s, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was taken over by conservatives. (Ironically, this took place during the presidency of a Southern Baptist, Jimmy Carter.) Since that time, the SBC has aligned itself more and more with the political movement of the Religious Right. Balmer gives examples of Baptist leaders advocating a mixing of religion and politics in the context of court rulings on school prayer, same sex marriage, reproductive choice issues, and the posting of the Ten Commandments on public property. Indeed, some leaders mentioned in the book are promoting the notion that the separation of church and state is a “myth” propagated by political opponents.

Nonetheless, historian Balmer builds a persuasive case that religion tends to flourish in societies where it is independent and not supported by the state. Indeed, I have witnessed this phenomenon first hand when I have traveled abroad. In countries where the government provides financial support to churches and/or regulates the activities of the church, I have been saddened by the way religion is marginalized in society. Certainly I witnessed this when I have traveled to the People’s Republic of China, and worshipped with local Christians. But I have also seen this happen in Europe, a traditional Christian stronghold in the two centuries since Jesus walked on this Earth.

When I lived in Europe for a school year in the 1990s, I traveled a fair amount around the continent and worshipped at a number of churches in the towns I visited. There were not as many churches as one typically encounters in the United States. Moreover, many of the church buildings are no longer even used for worship. Instead, many are vacant structures left to decay or are in decent shape physically but have been reduced to mere tourist venues. The churches that do open their doors for worship services typically have just one or two services each week, and have just a handful of worshippers at even the most popular services. When I lived in Europe, I was often one of the very few persons under the age of 60 in the churches I attended. I always wondered what would happen when those worshippers died or were physically unable to come to church any more. I was not sure if the folks who were middle aged at the time might take their place, or if there would eventually just be no worshippers.

In his book, occasionally Balmer does step aside from his role as historian and does inject a bit of theology:

But I know of no concept more radical than Jesus’ declaration of love.

This radical notion of love doesn’t comport very well with most
political agendas. Politics and politicians concern themselves with the
acquisition and the exercise of power, whereas the ethic of love, more often
than not, entails vulnerability and the abnegation of power. For the Religious
Right, the quest for power and political influence has led to both distortions
and contortions—the perpetration of the abortion myth, for instance, or the
selective literalism that targets certain sexual behaviors for condemnation,
while ignoring others. History, moreover, teaches us the dangers of allying
religion too closely with politics. It leads to intolerance in the political
arena, and it ultimately compromises the integrity of the faith.

This last line rings true to me and causes me particular concern. As a citizen and patriot, I am concerned about the intolerant attitudes displayed in our political arena these days. That is not good for our country. But perhaps more importantly, as a Christ follower, it disgusts me that the beliefs I hold so dear are betrayed by some Christians and non-believers for short-term political exploitation.

Ultimately, it is all in God’s hands. As a Christian, I believe my creator is omnipotent. He can install whomever he chooses in the White House, Congress or any other political office. Even the longest serving politicians are in office for only a finite political term. We human beings forget that God’s time line is much longer. To turn our back on his teachings in order to gain earthly power for a brief period, it astoundingly short-sighted, imprudent and tragic.





Matthew 22:21

Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."


John 6:15

So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Mark 8:36 (Amplified Bible)

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [in the eternal kingdom of God]?

Night by Elie Wiesel

Like watching Hotel Rwanda, I found Night to be a very difficult book and almost didn’t finish it. I think it is an incredibly important document. Like Hotel Rwanda, Night memorializes one human being’s experiences amidst a genocide. It is a remarkable account for a number of reasons. Mr. Wiesel was only a teenager when he and his family were deported and sent to a Nazi concentration camp along with other Jews from his town. It is amazing that someone so young could process the horror of that experience in such a sophisticated way. The book is beautifully written, though the adverb “beautifully” seems out of place due to the subject matter. Mr. Wiesel’s prose powerfully conveys the experience of concentration camp prisoners because it is not a dry, removed historical narrative. Instead, he reflects profoundly on the experiences he endured, which intensifies the reader’s understanding of the horror he experienced.

There were a number of things that struck me about the book. He begins the book by recounting his relatively carefree youth in a small Hungarian town, and describes his fervent religious faith. He went to synagogue frequently, read the Scriptures and prayed passionately to the God whom he knew and loved. Through out the book, he describes how the horror of the camps led him to lose his faith and curse God. Obviously I am of a different faith that Mr. Wiesel. But Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and Jesus was a devout Jew. So, our religious traditions are interrelated, and similar in many important respects. But even if they were not, it is excruciating for any person of faith to read of the loss of faith of another. Despite theological differences, I don’t think any person of faith can relish the notion that another child of God would become estranged from our Father.

Nonetheless, it is hard for any compassionate human being to fault Mr. Wiesel. What he endured and what he witnessed at such a tender age is incomprehensible and would test the faith of much more mature individuals. Particularly as viewed through the eyes of one so young, it is overwhelming to conceive of the rupture of the family unit when communities were shipped off to the camps. Upon arrival at the first camp, Mr. Wiesel and his father were separated forever from his mother and sister as the women and men were segregated and received differing fates. It is impossible to imagine such brutality and not even getting to say final “good-byes.”

As evident in Mr. Wiesel’s account, people were put in such impossible, dehumanizing conditions, that human survival instincts often led them to betray those whom they loved most. He describes how younger adults and teens often turned on their relatively weaker parents in a desperate effort to save themselves. Indeed, Mr. Wiesel expresses that his own prayer was that he would not fail that test and turn against his father.

As Night progressed, the inhumanity seemed to increase exponentially. The end of the book depicts the forced death march to another concentration camp ahead of the advance of Allied troops, and the slow, agonizing death of the author’s father. Of course, the risk in such graphic depiction of overwhelming brutality is that the reader will become numb to it. There is only so much horror that one can take in before one shuts down emotionally. Indeed, Mr. Wiesel references many times his own numbness and that of his fellow inmates. But the reader must guard against such numbness as best as he or she can. The subject matter is too important.

It is also critical that we who are fortunate to live in relatively prosperous and peaceful countries not fail to see the lessons of genocide in our own communities. One striking aspect of the initial reaction of the Jews in Mr. Wiesel’s town in Hungary was the pervasive disbelief that anything bad would happen to them. When the Nazis invaded Hungary, they didn’t think that they would get around to deporting Jews in the small towns. When the Nazis actually came to their town, they initially rationalized the situation by emphasizing the cordiality of the Nazi officer in charge. When they were put in a ghetto, they didn’t think the situation was that offensive. It was not until they were told of their imminent deportation and they began to be crammed into trains that the horror of their situation was apparent. To me, this human tendency to deny or rationalize bad, even potentially very dangerous situations, continues to take place all the time. If one group of persons is treated differently, there is often an attempt to justify the treatment and deny that it is inferior treatment. That seems to me to be a potentially very dangerous human tendency, one which we need to recognize and guard against.

In reflecting on Mr. Wiesel’s book, I asked myself what ordinary people might learn from the experience of the Holocaust. What came to mind was a particular sermon my pastor gave a while back. Last spring, she did a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments. She began the series with a sermon on the commandment to not commit murder. She pointed out that many of us may think that commandment is so simple and has no application to our own lives because we wouldn’t ever even contemplate taking the life of another human being. But the Ten Commandments come from the Old Testament, and my pastor focused us on Jesus’s teachings on murder in Matthew 5:21-22, which gave added insight. In the book of Matthew, Jesus elevates the sin of anger to the sin of murder, and not by accident. Anger towards another is really the root that leads to the evil fruit of murder, and it is important to guard against it in our own hearts.

Matthew 5:21-22 (New International Reader’s Version)

"You have heard what was said to people who lived long ago. They were told, 'Do not commit murder.—(Exodus 20:13) Anyone who murders will be judged for it.' But here is what I tell you. Do not be angry with your brother. Anyone who is angry with his brother will be judged.”

Matthew 5:21-22 (The Message)


"You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.”

The “Christian Heroes: Then & Now” Collection

For decades, many have criticized the teaching of history in schools as being selective in emphasizing certain events and individuals, but overlooking many other important contributions to our society. When I was a grade school student, our study of history was typically limited to wars and presidents. I’ve mentioned before in this blog that when I took an African American history course to satisfy my undergraduate American history requirement, the knowledge I gained in that course was transformational. It opened my eyes in ways they had never been opened before. I learned so much about my own country’s history, to which I had never been exposed previously. I had a similar experience several years ago when I began to study Asian American history on my own. Again, as an adult, I was learning about fascinating parts of my own country’s history for the very first time. Such knowledge gave me a richer understanding of our country’s past, as well as its current debates and challenges.

Perhaps similar to the concerns of African Americans, Asian Americans, and many other groups in our society, some Christians feel that the secular teaching of history in the public schools has overlooked the important, positive contributions of their forbearers. The concern is often expressed that in an attempt to take a neutral stance towards religion, the schools gloss over the fact that religious faith was core to certain very positive aspects of history. Frequently cited are abolitionist efforts to eradicate slavery (e.g., William Wilberforce, Lyman Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison) and women’s efforts to gain suffrage rights (e.g., Antoinette Brown, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton).

I can appreciate these concerns. In my public school education, it seemed like the positive aspects of Christian history were ignored or downplayed. My biggest recollections of Christianity popping up in the curriculum were the following: the colonizing Spaniards who seemed to have little actual regard for the indigenous people of the Americas but wanted to convert them (at least nominally) to Christianity, the (overly) pious Puritans leaving Europe for religious freedom, the tragic hysteria of the Salem witch trials, the excesses of the Catholic Church that led Martin Luther to break from Rome, and then those crazy temperance movement ladies with the hatchets.

In my secular education of history, I do also remember some passing mentions of Christian abolitionists, but even they were not portrayed in the best light as I recall. I don't remember any exploration of the impact of their religion on their views on slavery; their religion was downplayed. Per the history books, they also seemed like dishonest zealots. I remember an emphasis that Uncle Tom's Cabin was written as a piece of abolitionist propaganda by someone who had never even been below the Mason-Dixon line.

As a result of all this, my general impression from my secular education of history (of course filtered through my own teenage atheism) was that Christianity did not really add much to our country’s history, its existence was merely a parenthetical fact. I also came away with the impression that throughout history the Christians were pretty wacko folks. They often did insensitive, misguided, and even violent things in the name of their religion.

It seems my experience was not completely atypical. As a result, Christian publishers have begun to publish books in recent years to enlighten people about the positive contributions of Christians. They are sold at Christian book stores, homeschooling conventions and various internet websites. Because this is a part of contemporary Christian culture that is unknown to many, I thought it would be helpful to flag its existence.

In that vein, I recently became aware of the “Christian Heroes: Then and Now” series, which is published by a company called YWAM. Following up on the prior blog, because of our family’s interests in medical missions and different cultures, I recently bought several children’s books about Western missionaries. My kids and I are currently reading a biography about David Livingstone, which is pretty engaging. My older daughter loves science and African cultures, so she is particularly enjoying this book. I also bought my kids a biography of Corrie ten Boom, a really fascinating Dutch woman whom I mentioned in a recent post.

When I was browsing the “Christian Heroes: Then and Now” collection, I have to say I was a little taken aback. There was a similar series in a separate stack nearby called “Heroes of History.” The series had biographies on George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman, and Clara Barton. However, they also had biographies of several of our founding fathers, whom scholars insist had deist beliefs and/or attended church services for social--not spiritual--reasons. I also was absolutely horrified to see a biography of Ronald Reagan in this collection--Ronald Reagan: Destiny at his Side. I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area at the tail end of the Cold War during a period when the rate of homelessness increased dramatically. My memories of Ronald Reagan’s presidency are much less favorable than the book seems to portray.

As I was browsing these books, I was primarily drawn to the “Christian Heroes: Then and Now” collection, and did not buy any of the “Heroes of History” series. It is not entirely clear to me from the book titles and the individuals chosen for inclusion in the series whether “Heroes of History” is attempting to portray individuals like Benjamin Franklin and Ronald Reagan as Christian historical figures. (In that throughout his adult life Ronald Reagan consistently chose to not attend church on a regular basis, and his beloved second wife was passionate about astrology, our fortieth president would not have made my short list of notable Christians.)

Because the biographies of such individuals are not included in the “Christian Heroes: Then and Now” collection, my hope is that the publishers weren’t trying to re-write history through an inaccurate Christian lens. However, I’m unsure because the publisher, YWAM, describes itself as a “resource for high-quality Christian books” that tries to “encourage Christians to make a difference in a needy world.”

The first link below provides some information about the YWAM publishing company. The second link provides information about the “Christian Heroes: Then and Now” collection.

http://www.ywampublishing.com/default.aspx

http://www.ywampublishing.com/c-70-christian-heroes-then-now.aspx

Matthew 10:1

Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

1 Timothy 1:12

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller

The last post spotlighted an essay written by Donald Miller. However, some readers of this blog may have no clue as to who Donald Miller is. I myself had never heard of him until I went to a Women of Faith conference several years ago, and heard him speak. He and Max Lucado were the only male speakers. Miller was probably the youngest person who spoke to the conference. He spoke on the history of the church; he described how the church has often reflected the mainstream secular culture through the centuries. Most of the other speakers spoke about very personal struggles in their lives and/or shared humorous anecdotes, so Miller didn’t fit the mold at the conference. Although I may have been in the minority in that auditorium, I found him very engaging and soon after the conference sought out his books.

Miller has written several books, but his break-through was his second book, Blue Like Jazz. It was published in 2003. It is an autobiographical collection of rambling essays about Miller’s life and his personal struggles to live out his Christian faith. Blue Like Jazz is the only of Miller’s books that I’ve gotten around to reading, but I enjoyed it very much.

Miller was raised in Houston, Texas by his mother in a single-parent home. When he was in his early 20s, he left Texas and traveled to Portland, Oregon where he now lives. Blue Like Jazz describes Miller’s experiences in Portland while he audited courses at Reed College (a notoriously liberal Liberal Arts school) and as he grew in his faith community at an atypical church called Imago-Dei.

Although Miller is very close to my age, his writing is similar in style to that of Relevant. In other words, it is down-to-earth, cool and edgy. The following passage is illustrative of his style:

The goofy thing about Christian faith is that you believe it and don’t believe
it at the same time. It isn’t unlike having an imaginary friend. I
believe in Jesus; I believe He is the Son of God, but every time I sit down to
explain this to somebody I feel like a palm reader, like somebody who works at a
circus or a kid who is always making things up or somebody at a Star Trek
convention who hasn’t figured out the show isn’t
real.

Until.

When one of my friends becomes a
Christian, which happens about every ten years because I am such a sheep about
sharing my faith, the experience is euphoric. I see in their eyes the
trueness of the story.

Blue Like Jazz describes several of Miller’s closest friends, many of whom are Christians who defy traditional stereotypes. They are hip, worldly, non-conforming counter-culturists with an appreciation of intellectual and artistic pursuits. The cast of characters includes Andrew the Protestor, Tony the Beat Poet, and Reed students Penny and Laura. His friend, Curt Heidschmidt, cusses frequently and hates going to church, but tithes faithfully.

In Blue Like Jazz, Miller comes across as a man who wants to explore the world and stay true to his faith. He seems to delight in getting to know people of very different backgrounds and to find commonality even though they don’t always share his religious convictions. He reminds me of a Christian Jack Kerouac.

Miller’s politics are left of center. He sometimes displays bitterness towards the conservatism and the Republican Party, which were important parts of his up-bringing. But in Blue Like Jazz, he doesn’t seem to be particularly active in a different political party or movement. Instead, he seems to be more concerned with issues that are important due to his faith. At one point in the book, Miller describes attending a protest rally with his friend Andrew the Protester when President Bush came to town:

Andrew’s sign said ‘Stop America’s Terroism’—he spelled terrorism wrong. I felt
empowered in the sea of people, most of whom were also carrying signs and
chanting against corporations who were making slaves of Third World labor; and
the Republican Party, who gives those corporations so much power and freedom. I
felt so far from my upbringing, from my narrow former self, the me who was
taught the Republicans give a crap about the cause of Christ. I felt a long way
from the pre-me, the pawn-Christian who was a Republican because my family was
Republican, not because I had prayed and asked God to enlighten me about issues
concerning the entire world rather than just America.

Subsequent to writing Blue Like Jazz, Miller delivered the first night's closing prayer at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and has served on President Barack Obama's Task Force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families.

Mark 13:10-15

Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you use nothing but stories when you speak to the people?"
Jesus answered:
I have explained the secrets about the kingdom of heaven to you, but not to others. Everyone who has something will be given more. But people who don't have anything will lose even what little they have. I use stories when I speak to them because when they look, they cannot see, and when they listen, they cannot hear or understand. So God's promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said,
"These people will listen
and listen,
but never understand.
They will look and look,
but never see.
All of them have
stubborn minds!
Their ears are stopped up,
and their eyes are covered.
They cannot see or hear
or understand.
If they could,
they would turn to me,
and I would heal them."

Children’s Books about St. Francis

OK, ok. I realize that if 3 out of 60+ blog posts to date have been about St. Francis of Assisi, I am probably at risk for sounding a little obsessed about the guy. I’m not obsessed, but I did want to mention two children’s books about the saint that I’ve recently found. I’ve been encouraging my kids to read biographies and we found two about St. Francis at our local library. They were both by famous authors, so we gave them a try.

One book is by Tommie de Paola, the celebrated children’s author. Our family has enjoyed other books by Mr. de Paola like The Legend of the Bluebonnet and Strega Nona. Having taught elementary school prior to attending law school, I was pretty familiar with Mr. de Paola’s work, but never realized he had written a book about St. Francis. The other book our family borrowed is by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Beyond being the son and namesake of the late senator, Professor Kennedy is also a law professor and environmental activist.

I was impressed by the words both authors used to express their motivation for writing a children’s book about Francis and what the saint meant to each of them personally. St. Francis was pretty radical, he isn’t a role model for Christ followers who just want to play it safe and easy. He renounced his birthright, wore rags, and ministered to lepers when others wouldn’t go near them. He took very seriously his role in the Body of Christ and his responsibility to witness God's love to others. It was really encouraging to read about the vital role faith played in the lives of both Mr. de Paola and Professor Kennedy, and how the example of Francis was particularly meaningful to each of them. I recommend both books—to adults as well as to children.

Deuteronomy 18:18 (New American Standard Bible)

I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

God Has a Dream by Desmond Tutu

When I was in high school and living just outside of Washington, D.C., South Africa’s brutal system of racial segregation and oppression—apartheid—was one of the leading social justice issues of the day. The outrageous unfairness and brutality of the situation in South Africa made it a no-brainer. Everyone I knew was against apartheid. Some of us also protested at the South African embassy, signed petitions and boycotted companies that did business in South Africa. During this period, a soft spoken man in a funny clerical outfit attracted attention for his efforts to fight apartheid with nonviolent means. His name was Desmond Tutu. In 1984, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. During this time, I was still a staunch atheist. I admired Desmond Tutu, but conveniently ignored the facts that he was a Christian and his activism was rooted in his faith. I suppose at the time, I thought of it as a freak coincidence.

Over the years, as I embraced and grew in my Christian faith, I’ve come to admire Archbishop Tutu even more. His book God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time is eloquent and beautiful. Each chapter begins with the words “Dear Child of God” and then relays in an intimate tone Archbishop Tutu’s thoughts on a specific religious theme. To illustrate these themes, he writes on personal, historic topics including his own role in helping to bring about the end of apartheid. But he also brings insights from less high-profile experiences such as being a family man and a local church leader. He gives practical advice on living God’s will in a variety of roles and situations, from being a spouse to being a parent to to being a driver stuck in a traffic jam. He does all this with pervasive references to Scripture, and a down-to-Earth sense of humility as well as a little humor. It is a concise, but beautiful book of passionate love and unwavering hope.

The book was published in 2004, at a time when the Christian voices most often heard in the media (and in most churches in the part of Texas where I was living) espoused very rigid interpretations of the Bible, as well as conservative positions on social and political issues. However, in the book, Archbishop Tutu bears witness to a more tolerant, more inclusive Christian viewpoint. He writes in unequivocal terms to denounce the mistake of marginalizing women in society and the church. He also writes with acceptance and love of homosexuals.

One of my favorite parts of the book is at the beginning. Archbishop Tutu writes:

“During the darkest days of apartheid I used to say to P.W. Botha, the president of South Africa, that we had already won, and I invited him and other white South Africans to join the winning side. All the ‘objective’ facts were against us—the pass laws, the imprisonments, the teargassing, the massacres, the murder of political activists—but my confidence was not in the present circumstances but in the laws of God’s universe. This is a moral universe, which means that, despite all the evidence that seems to be to the contrary, there is no way that evil and injustice and oppression and lies can have the last word. God is a God who cares about right and wrong. God cares about justice and injustice. God is in charge. That is what had upheld the morale of our people, to know that in the end good will prevail. It was these higher laws that convinced me that our peaceful struggle would topple the immoral laws of apartheid.

Of course, there were times when you had to whistle in the dark to keep your morale up, and you wanted to whisper in God’s ear: ‘God, we know You are in charge, but can’t You make it a little more obvious?’”

I agree with the archbishop and share is confidence. But of course, I’ve never had that confidence put to the same kind of test that he and other black South Africans endured. I am awed and encouraged by Archbishop Tutu’s faith. I pray that if I am ever put to such a test, mine will remain just as strong.

Deuteronomy 23:5 (Contemporary English Version)

But the LORD your God loves you, so he refused to listen to Balaam and turned Balaam's curse into a blessing.



Psalm 59:16 (Contemporary English Version)

But I will sing about your strength, my God, and I will celebrate because of your love. You are my fortress, my place of protection in times of trouble.

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Final Thoughts)

In a chapter entitled “The Ties That Bond: Family and Community Values,” Wallis shares his thoughts on the “Controversy over Gay Marriage.” But those thoughts are not shared until well into the chapter. Instead, Wallis devotes much time describing how he thinks family values are under attack in our culture.

Wallis decries reality T.V. shows that encourage the paid participants to have sex with one another, and relays the observation of a friend that such arrangements fit the definition of “prostitution.” Wallis also queries how Fox can get away with “preaching conservative politics and family values in their news and commentary shows while produce such a sleazy lineup of ‘entertainment’ programs.” He also notes that the 2005 Super Bowl half-time show was made infamous by the baring of Janet Jackson’s breast, but in actuality that was simply the “crude climax” to a crassly sexualized half-time show and a barrage of violent and sexualized images in the commercials. Wallis says:

“You want to know why people join the religious Right? It may have less to do with wanting to take over the country than being desperate to protect their kids from the crass trash and degrading banality that media conglomerates like Viacom (which owns both CBS and MTV) seem to think is just fine family entertainment for Super Bowl night. Fortunately, my kids were in bed before the half-time show, but next year we may just go with Mary Poppins in the other room.

Again, some people think that only right-wing conservatives care about such moral pollution. Wrong. Most parents I know, liberal or conservative, care a great deal about it, as do most self-respecting women and men. It defies ingrained stereotypes to suggest that a healthy, moral consistency applies to personal and sexual ethics as well as to social and political values. It’s time to break out of those old ideological shibboleths and forge a unified front against the amoral corporate agree that violates all our ethics—personal and social—by creating a system that sells beer and breasts in the same advertising plans just to make a buck.”

Later in the chapter, Wallis adds:

“Being new parents ourselves, with two young boys, Joy and I talk to lots of other parents. Our experience suggests that mothers and fathers across the political spectrum now regard parenting in America as a countercultural activity. When I make such a statement on the road, all the parents in the audience begin nodding their heads—whether they are political liberals or conservatives. The values of a materialistic and hedonistic culture are clearly arrayed against our raising children with moral and spiritual values.”

Proverbs 22:6 (New International Version - UK)

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Wallis's Views on Abortion)

Wallis has some interesting comments on the issue of abortion: “Religious and political conservatives often raise the issues of abortion and gay marriage. I have clearly disagreed with the Democrats on abortion, believing that Christians can be both progressive and pro life. I’ve urged the Democrats to be much more respectful and welcoming of pro-life Democrats. Someday, a smart Democrat will figure out how both pro-choice and pro-life people could join together in concrete measures to dramatically reduce the abortion rate by focusing on teen pregnancy, adoption reform, and real support for low-income women. That would be so much better than both sides using the issue as a political football and political litmus test during elections, and then doing little about it afterward.”

Wallis also stated: “If the Democrats could be persuaded by both good political sense and sound moral values to moderate some of their positions by becoming anti-abortion without criminalizing an agonizing and desperate choice, and being pro-family without being anti-gay, they would change politics in America by giving permission to millions of voters who would naturally vote for them except for the cultural and moral divide they feel with Democratic language and policies.”

Wallis warns that political “liberals generally fail to comprehend how deep and fundamental the conviction on ‘the sacredness of human life’ is for millions of Christians, especially Catholics and evangelicals, in forming their view of abortion.” Such “pro-life” Christians may be economic populists, feminists, and even radical on other issues of peace and justice. Wallis decries a political litmus test amongst Democrats that alienated Robert Casey from the opportunity to speak to the party convention in 1992 and 1996, and “virtually forced” Jesse Jackson to change his pro-life views to run for president. Wallis also criticizes the Republicans as too rigid on their pro-life platform, and as not vocal or active enough in efforts to bring down the number of abortions in our country. By contrast, Wallis endorsed the emphasis of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin on a “seamless garment of life” that links the “life issues” of abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, nuclear weapons, poverty, and racism.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (King James)

11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Wallis's Views on Homosexuality)

Wallis says he supports gay civil rights and legal protection for same-sex couples. He admonishes liberals for not being vocal enough on issues affecting the family. But he condemns the religious Right’s “mean-spirited crusade” against gays. He states: “To say gay and lesbian people are responsible for the break-down of the heterosexual family is simply wrong. That breakdown is causing a great social crisis that affects us all, but it is hardly the fault of gays and lesbians. It has very little to do with them and honestly more to do with heterosexual dysfunction and, yes, ‘sin.’ Gay civil and human rights must also be honored, respected, and defended for a society to be good and healthy. It is a question of both justice and compassion. To be both pro-family and pro-gay civil rights could open up some common ground that might take us forward.”

Wallis also comments: “We can make sure that long-term gay and lesbian partnerships are afforded legitimate legal protections in a pluralistic society no matter what our views on the nature of marriage are. But the question of gay marriage is important; it is a major issue in the religious community, and it is unlikely to be resolved for many years. Many in churches and the society believe that the long-standing and deeply rooted concept of marriage as being between a man and a woman should not be changed, but same-sex couples should be granted the rights of ‘civil unions.’ That’s still my own view. For others, only gay marriage fulfills the requirements of equal protection under the law. There are at least three different views being debated in the churches. Most Christians still believe that the sacrament and theology of the church on marriage should not be altered, while others are exploring new rites of church ‘blessings’ for gay and lesbian couples committing to lifelong relationships, and still others want full sacramental inclusion.”

Leviticus 11:10, 42 (New King James Version)

But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you.
Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination.



Leviticus 18:19-30 (New King James Version)


19 ‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity. 20 Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her. 21 And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
30 ‘Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.’”

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Wallis's View on Fundamentalism)

Jim Wallis states that at heart he is a nineteenth-century evangelical born in the wrong century before the movement was “humiliated as a result of the famous Scopes trial in 1925.” Before that time, fundamentalism was often socially allied with the Left to support economic reforms that would benefit its mostly working-class constituency. However, Wallis observes that modern fundamentalism has moved to a theocratic movement, which “is really a betrayal of the biblical faith that regards political power much more suspiciously.” Wallis states that like the Taliban and al Quaeda the religious Right “desire their religious agenda to be enforced through the power of the state.” Wallis characterizes this as “primarily, a religious mistake.

Wallis expresses that with the move to theocracy, modern fundamentalism too easily justifies violence as a tool for implementing its agenda.” He also notes that “fundamentalist arguments for violence quickly become more political than religious.” He notes, “It’s always striking to me that when I listen to the Christian fundamentalist justifications for violence I don’t hear them asking that question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ From a fundamentalist Christian point of view, shouldn’t that be the key question to ask? What is more ‘fundamental’ to Christianity than Jesus? Perhaps the teachings of Jesus most unpopular with Christian fundamentalists (and other Christians too) are his statements about loving our enemies and not just seeing the ‘specks’ in your adversary’s eye, but also the ‘log’ in your own.”

In reflecting on our nation’s reaction to 9/11, Wallis criticized “American Bush theology” consisting of a struggle between “good and evil—we are good, they are evil.” Wallis stated, “we are not the good. That’s bad theology. Jesus teaches us to see the beam in our own eye, and not just the mote in our adversary’s eye. George Bush is a Methodist, but he sees no beams in the American eye.” Wallis contends, “We must act so that the world will not be remade in the image of the terrorists; and we deny the terrorists their victory when we refuse to be changed into people of God has not called us to be.”

Wallis also gives examples to support his conclusion that George Bush has made the same mistake “over and over again of confusing nation, church, and God. The resulting theology is more an American civil religion than Christian faith.” For example, at Ellis Island, making a speech to mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Bush stated, “This ideal of America is the hope of all mankind...That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it.” Wallis points out that the last two sentences are derived from the Gospel of John in the New Testament. However, in the Bible, the light is the Word of God and the light of Christ. By contrast, Bush’s reference of light is to America and its values.

Wallis suggests that this “bad theology” is being used to justify empire building and that the United States is beginning to resemble the Roman Empire. Of course, such an analogy is particularly poignant coming from a Christian like Wallis. The Roman Empire persecuted Jews in Jesus’ time, and also persecuted Christians after Jesus was crucified. Wallis repeatedly uses the term “Pax Americana”—a play off the term “Pax Romana.” As a more effective and theologically more enlightened approach, Wallis suggests following the prophet Micah, who emphasized that common security was the most effective means of self-defense.

Micah 4:3-4 (New Living Translation)
The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has made this promise!

John 1:1-5 (New American Standard Bible)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Religious Leaders and Political Power)

There is a fascinating passage of God’s Politics where Wallis compares “the two major faith-inspired movements of the last fifty years that have tried to influence national politics: the black-church-led civil rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s and the religious Right movement of the 1980s and 1990s, exemplified by Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition.”

Wallis’s comparison is based on part of his reading of Blinded by Might by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, who were former leaders of the religious Right. Wallis writes in God’s Politics that the religious Right “bristled with pride” when the media publicly gave them substantial credit for Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. Shortly thereafter, Falwell entered a packed auditorium with an ecstatic crowd on their feet as “Hail to the Chief” was played. Wallis states, “All of a sudden, conservative evangelicals who felt ignored and ridiculed for so long in the cultural backwaters of American life, almost since the infamous Scopes trial in the 1920s, were now in the national spotlight and getting their pictures taken in the Oval Office with the president.” Falwell and Reagan spoke regularly, and when Reagan was about to nominate Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court, Reagan asked Falwell to “trust my judgment.” Wallis states, “Perhaps anxious to be a player, a winner, an insider, Falwell went along, and a series of compromises began. Direct mail strategy and fund-raising came to dominate the religious Right’s political agenda over previous moral concerns. Political success defined as keeping political power, eventually became more important that the issues that initiated the formation of the religious Right in the first place. It’s an old story.” Thomas and Dobson lament in their book that little of their Christian agenda has actually been accomplished, and the religious Right have failed in their mission.

Wallis also noted that liberal religious leaders have also been “mesmerized by political power.” He observes that many were “reduced to defending Clinton’s indefensible moral behavior in a sexual and political scandal (or at least maintaining an awkward silence). Access clearly has its price.”

In contrast to those religious leaders who seek access and proximity to political power, Wallis observes that the civil rights movement succeeded because it was morally based and politically independent. The movement’s strength and base was not primarily inside politics, but rather at the grassroots. This helped its efficacy; it changed the way the American people thought about race and sought to affect the values of the culture. Wallis concludes, “The religious Right went wrong by forgetting its religious and moral roots and going for political power; the civil rights movement was proven right in operating out of its spiritual strength and letting its political influence flow from its moral influence. Other great social causes led by religious communities—abolition of slavery, child labor reform, women’s suffrage, and so on—all followed the same strategy.”

John 12:24-26 (The Message)

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.
"If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Politicians' Use of Religious Issues)

Wallis is critical of Democrats’ hesitancy to speak in religious terms. He rejects Howard Dean’s admonition to stay away from the issues of “guns, God, and gays” and to focus instead on jobs, health care and foreign policy. By contrast, Wallis approved of John Kerry’s references to Scripture and his own faith during the 2004 presidential election. Wallis suggests that those references were simply too few and too late in the campaign to have been politically successful.

Wallis notes that in declining generally to discuss overtly religious topics, Democrats have essentially been playing to Republican hands and letting the GOP define the terms of the debate. He states, “The ‘religious issues’ in an election get reduced to the Ten Commandments in public courthouses, gay-marriage amendments, prayer in schools, and, of course, abortion.” Wallis is adamant that there are a much wider array of political issues with religious significance including combating terrorism, remedying poverty, preserving the environment, and eradicating racism from our society.

I myself am very sensitive to his concern that the “religious issues” have been erroneous circumscribed to abortion and gay rights. However, many progressive Christians like myself have been repulsed in recent years by the exploitation of faith to achieve fleeting political power. I would not want the Democrats (or any other political party) to follow the tragic and misguided approach of the Republicans in that vein. I think there is a fine--though perhaps somewhat elusive--line between honestly referring to one’s faith as a guide to one’s political decisions, and exploiting the faith of voters to gain their political support. The former is transparent and natural. The latter is horrifying and completely lacking in integrity. I don’t understand God to be vengeful, but I certainly believe he is omnipotent. Consequently, I would not want to test my understanding that he not vengeful by consciously exploiting his Word for earthly gain!

Nonetheless, Wallis raises an important point that Christ followers should broaden our sense of “religious issues” in the political sphere. Both abortion and homosexuality are mentioned in Scripture in only fleeting ways (if at all). By comparison, poverty and justice are pervasive themes. However, I’m not convinced it is the responsibility of politicians to remind us of that. It seems to me that is more the responsibility of each Christ follow as he/she studies God’s Word, and also the responsibility of our church leaders to guide us in our understanding of the teachings of Scripture.

Matthew 8:3-4 (The Message)

Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be clean." Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, "Don't talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done."

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis (Prophetic Voice of Religion)

Jim Wallis is an Evangelical pastor and the founder of Sojourners. He has written several books, and this particular one was written in 2005. At the time, much of the country was still dissecting the 2004 presidential election, and the role of conservative Christians in re-electing George W. Bush in a very tight race. Wallis notes that after the election, the media focused on the “moral values voter.” A poll revealed that 80% of voters, who said “moral values” were the most important issue influencing their vote, had voted for Bush. Wallis points out that such polls are flawed. Abortion and gay marriage are typically viewed as being key to “moral values” politics, but Wallis notes that is a simplistic and incorrect way to look at the issue. Poverty and war are also “moral values” issues, but that point is overlooked by the media and pollsters.

In God’s Politics, Wallis is critical of religious leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who claimed that God was on the side of George W. Bush and Christians had a duty to re-elect him in the 2004 election. He decries single issue voting, and raises the importance of analyzing political candidates based on issues with biblical roots like caring for the poor, protecting the environment, respecting human rights, avoiding wars and truth telling.

Wallis laments the “enormous public misrepresentation of Christianity” in the media which has led to people around the world thinking that the Christian faith “stands for political commitments that are almost the opposite of its true meaning.” He asks, “How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American?” He notes that the religious Right tends to focus only on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the “weightier matters of justice.” Wallis states, “Most people just don’t get it, because they know that Jesus was on the side of the poor and the cause of peace. The politics of Jesus is a problem for the religious Right.” He observes, “The religious Right’s grip on public debates about values has been driven in part by a media that continues to give airtime to the loudest religious voices, rather than the most representative, leaving millions of Christians and other people of faith without a say in the values debate.”

However, Wallis is also critical of leaders on the left who want to negate or diminish the important role of spiritual values in shaping social policy. He warns that “[t]he spiritual component in all this is absolutely crucial. An understanding of how sacred the blessing of life is must undergird all our efforts for justice and for peace....each of those forgotten souls [the poor and victims of war] was made in the image of God and carries that sacred value.”

Wallis advocates a “genuinely ‘prophetic’ spirituality to the urgent need for social justice.” He clarifies that “[p]rophecy is not future telling, but articulating moral truth,” and the “prophets diagnose the present and point the way to a just solution.” Wallis states: “In politics, the best interest of the country is served when the prophetic voice of religion is heard—challenging both Right and Left from consistent moral ground. The evangelical Christians of the nineteenth century combined revivalism with social reform and helped lead movements for abolition and woman’s suffrage—not to mention the faith-based movement that directly preceded the rise of the religious Right, namely the American civil rights movement led by the black churches. The truth is that most of the important movements for social change in America have been fueled by religion—progressive religion. The stark moral challenges of our time have once again begun to awaken this prophetic tradition.”

Wallis explains the power of prophetic religion with a specific example from our country’s recent past. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, Dr. King met with President Johnson to tell him that the next critical step was passage of a voting rights act. Johnson was sympathetic, but explained he had used all of his political capital to get the civil rights law passed and a voting rights act just wasn’t a political possibility. Instead of giving up, Dr. King and the SCLC began organizing a protest on the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Alabama. On Bloody Sunday, civil rights protestors were beaten savagely by Sheriff Jim Clark and a large group of white police officers. In response, two weeks later, hundreds of clergy from various Christian and non-Christian denominations across the country came to Alabama to take part in the march from Selma to Montgomery. The civil rights struggle had become a religious one for many of the participants, and the whole nation was watching. Five months afterwards, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted by Congress. King and his allies had shifted the debate and public opinion to enable President Johnson to boldly go to a joint session of Congress to call for a voting rights act. Wallis gives other examples of such prophetic religion such as Desmond Tutu, Alan Bosak and Frank Chikane of South Africa, Oscar Romero in El Salvador, and church leaders in the Philippines during the reign of Ferdinand Marcos and in Poland during Communist rule. He also notes the success of Christian organizations like World Vision, Bread for the World and Habitat for Humanity, and the faith-inspired movement of Jubilee 2000.

Wallis asks, “With the Republicans offering war overseas and corporate dominance at home, and the Democrats failing to offer any real alternatives, who will raise a prophetic voice for social and economic justice and for peace?” Wallis answers the question by stating there has never been a clearer need for leadership by churches and the religious community. However, Wallis warns that to be effective, prophetic voices need to not just protest but to offer alternatives. He states: “Many people will engage in protest, but even more are likely to follow an alternative that offers a better way. To offer an alternative is always more challenging than just protest; it requires more work, creativity, and risk. Like many others, I came of age during the 1960s, when the struggle for justice was embodied in the archetype of protest. We learned our lessons about politics in the streets, and the habit of protest is still deep within us. But protest can become static and formulaic. The aim of effective and transformative protest should be to illumine a society to its need for change. In other words, protest must be instructive to succeed, more than destructive. It should, at its best, point the way to an alternative, rather than just register the anger of its demonstrators. Protest must not become just a ritual of resistance, offering a laundry list of grievances.”

Observing a recent time when prophetic religion was absent, Wallis lamented the lack of a “serious national debate before” invading Iraq. He blamed the lack of debate on the Bush administration, which “seemed to equate dissent and even debate with a lack of patriotism.” Wallis quotes from a sermon given by the Reverend Peter Gomes at about that time where he stated, “This is a frightening time, and if one cannot speak out of Christian conscience and conviction now, come what may, then we are forever consigned to moral silence...What is and has always been lovely about our country is our right and our duty to criticize those in power, to dissent from their policies if we think them wrong, and to hold our alternative vision to be as fully valid as theirs.”

Matthew 10:27 (New Living Translation)

27 What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!

Amos 5:24 (New International Version - UK)

24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Matthew 23:23 (New International Version - UK)

23 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices— mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law— justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.