non-metaphysical stephen

I was in an awkward situation today in which I had to listen to one of my colleagues make anti-Obama comments. It was one of those tense moments where you find yourself thinking, “I wish I didn’t know that about you.” I found myself getting riled up, but since it wasn’t my conversation and since it was someone I work with on a regular basis, I had to act as if it didn’t bother me.

But why did it bother me? Why do I find political disagreement so much more aggravating than religious disagreement? Why am I tempted to write off people whose politics are different from mine? Is that would Jesus would do? Is that what Jesus did? (more…)

Huzzah!

My Proof of Faith: The Human God

Let me know what you think!

And congrats to Candace and her support team for winning the Great Nonprofits Pride Choice 2009 Award for the SE region!

A few weeks back the Sunday morning Gospel reading was the story of the woman with the hemmorhage who touched Jesus’ clothing and was healed. Rev. Bob mentioned that the insertion of this story within the story of the synagogue ruler Jairus is interesting because it means Jesus would have been ritually unclean after she touched him. Yet Jairus brought Jesus back to his house anyway. That’s a pretty powerful story in itself–that Jairus put aside his knowledge of the Law and trusted in Jesus’ purity. I wonder if her healing had any external evidence for the crowd to see.

Then I noticed an interesting variation between the accounts (Mark 5, Matthew 9 and Luke 8). (more…)

Are you effing kidding me????

The American Patriot’s Bible

Here’s the publisher’s description:

THE ONE BIBLE THAT SHOWS HOW ‘A LIGHT FROM ABOVE’ SHAPED OUR NATION. Never has a version of the Bible targeted the spiritual needs of those who love our country more than The American Patriot’s Bible. This extremely unique Bible shows how the history of the United States connects the people and events of the Bible to our lives in a modern world. The story of the United States is wonderfully woven into the teachings of the Bible and includes a beautiful full-color family record section, memorable images from our nation’s history and hundreds of enlightening articles which complement the New King James Version Bible text.

Quelle horreur!!!!!

I’m glad I didn’t know about this before July 4th. I had to give the opening prayer at church the following day and this information would have really set me off!

Thankfully, a lot of people are seeing this in the same way I do–as idolatry. (more…)

David’s relationship to Saul’s reign has always fascinated me. On the one hand, David refuses to kill Saul, on the grounds that Saul is still God’s anointed and therefore it is up to God to remove Saul from the throne. On the other hand, David spends a significant amount of time with Saul’s enemies, the Philistines. David is even willing to go to war with them against Saul; the only reason he doesn’t is because the Philistines do not trust him and send him away.

Still, if we think about what David’s actions must have looked like to those loyal to Saul (i.e., loyal to the government), he gave every appearance of being a traitor. I have to wonder how David’s actions would look to us today in the States–would David ever be accepted as a legitimate ruler given that he almost went to war against his own nation? Can you imagine anyone becoming President–a great President at that–after having joined up with our military enemies?

Interesting stuff. But today, as I read 1 Chronicles 12, I noticed something else. David was not alone! (more…)

Another interesting column from the same paper as the previous post, this one by Bob Gourley. He notes how the “battle for the Bible” has been tossed aside in favor of issues that have no connection to biblical teachings:

Associated Baptist Press - Opinion: Losing the Bible.

Today, the agenda of the Religious Right, including many prominent fundamentalist Baptists, lies outside the Bible. That their politically conservative but extra-biblical agenda is a construct of modernist thinking seems to be of no concern: they proudly pledge overarching loyalty to the human construct of inerrancy  and fidelity to unrestrained capitalism.

And later,

Rising hand-in-hand, Baptist fundamentalism and small-government Republicanism are adrift together, struggling to stay above water. Unable to reverse the demographics, Republicans hope to “increase their share of the minority vote“ (including Southern Baptists), while one fundamentalist Baptist response to denominational decline focuses on making more Baptist babies and Liberty University recently banished Democrats from campus. For some Baptists, procreation and political correctness offer hope where an inerrant theology has failed.

So true, and not just for Baptists….

Nice to see this kind of editorial in a Baptist paper — but look how predictable the comments are….

Associated Baptist Press - Opinion: Truly supporting our troops.

We Christians should be against all forms of deception, and yet, in an attempt to impose mandatory heterosexuality, we force many of our men and women in uniform to deceive their fellow soldiers. Besides the immorality of forcing our troops to lie, the present policy is placing them and our nation in greater peril. Since the policy was enacted in 1993, almost 800 specialists with critical skills needed for the defense of the homeland have been fired, of whom 323 are linguists — 55 of them Arabic experts. Think of the backlog of thousands of documents that cannot be translated — documents that, conceivably, could save American lives — because we are more concerned with whom a soldier loves than we are with his or her ability to do their job.

(Though I have to admit that I think the first commenter has a point about Christians and militarism. I don’t know if defensive campaigns are compatible with Christianity, but I do know that the early church kicked out people who joined the military. And even if defensive campaigns are okay (I think of the Israelites re-building the city wall with a sword in their free hands), I do not believe for one second that our actions in Iraq were justified in God’s eyes.)

When I was in Athens, I noticed that the supermarkets in the less-wealthy neighborhoods had noticably fewer options regarding healthy food. If I wanted something as simple as lo-fat cheese, I could find it at the Publix and the Kroger but not at the Bi-Lo. And even then, the healthier food was pricier.

A new study by the US Dept. of Ag confirms this phenomenon: Gross inequality in access to healthy food | theGrio.

According to the report, 2.3 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle. While this number might seem small, this number should ring some alarms, as the report goes on to say that the “urban core areas with limited food access are characterized by higher levels of racial segregation and greater income inequality.” People of color and low income communities are the ones most affected by America’s food crisis, and in the current economic downturn, this is not something to turn a blind eye to.

May God have mercy on the poor and raise up people to address and change the situation.

There’s an interesting piece over at Time Magazine about the Pope’s recent comments on economics: The Pope on Capitalism: Encyclical ‘Charity in Truth’ - TIME.

I’m glad to see comments like this coming from one of Christianity’s major leaders:

Benedict denounces the modern corporate business model, taking on the global Wall Street and its super bonuses, which lead to financial speculation and labor outsourcing. “In recent years, a new cosmopolitan class of managers has emerged, who are often answerable only to the shareholders generally consisting of anonymous funds which de facto determine their remuneration,” he writes. “Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”

But I’m curious to see how the “capitalism is God’s will” crowd will react to this revelation (emphases mine):

Indeed, according to Stefano Zamagni, an economics professor who was a consultant on the encyclical, Benedict believes that capitalism as such is now effectively “obsolete” and must be replaced by a new form of market economy whose driving force is not the maximization of profits.

“Capitalism is an old idea, where the market was supposedly morally neutral … where efficiency becomes an ethos,” said Zamagni during the presentation of the document in the Vatican press office on Tuesday. “This encyclical aims to overcome a dichotomy that characterized the 20th century between the economic and social spheres. If we can instead incorporate the idea of the social element into the economy, the market itself becomes a force for civility.”

I don’t know a lot about economics, and I’m certainly guilty of making Adam Smith into scripture (even before I had read him). But I’ve realized that capitalism is not really a biblical concept and may in fact be opposed to the spirit of Christianity.

May God continue to raise up leaders for the church who can point us towards a more biblical understanding of economics. Amen.

This morning at church I was asked to give the opening prayer–and of course it’s July 4th weekend, one of my least favorite holidays of the year. Thankfully, the service had almost none of the usual Holiday trappings–no patriotic songs, no American flags on display, no sermon reminding us how great this nation is. In fact, I may have given the service the only mention of the holiday–now THAT is ironic! Still, this is my first July 4th at this church, so I didn’t want to launch into a Jeremiah Wright style attack on our nationalist pride and arrogance–not sure how that would go over!

So, here’s the holiday portion of my prayer, as best as I can remember it:

Gracious God, on this 4th of July weekend, we lift up a special prayer for our country. We thank you so much for the freedom you have blessed us with, for the power you have given us to do great good in the world, and for the unbelievable wealth we have in this nation.

God, have mercy on us. Help us to use our wealth and power wisely to do good in the world. Instill in us a spirit of humility, a spirit of charity and a spirit of compassion, so that we might be agents of love, freedom and justice in this world.

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Amen.

I ran across this article from The Daily Kos, which reflects many of my own complaints against my former political party: a seemingly complete lack of compassion for other peoples, especially for peoples who have been prevented from having equal access to opportunity and/or denied their status as full human beings, and who are in many ways still aren’t given a level playing field.

To go one step further than Kos, I believe that empathy is a Christian value, and it’s one of the reasons I get so annoyed by hearing people on the Right spout off about Christianity this and God that. I left the Republican Party because I realized that the Bible seems more supportive of the values found today amongst the left: charity, compassion, humility, respect for differences, etc. In leaving behind the GOP, I broke out of the restraints that kept me from truly loving others.

The post also contains another thing that REALLY grates on my Christian nerves: American exceptionalism, as seen in the passage quoted from Liz Cheney. I first noticed the ugliness of this belief years ago in a copy of The Limbaugh Letter, and I still can’t see how you can justify it as Christian. My Bible is quite clear that nationalism is a rebellion against God, a sure way to bring judgment upon the nation. (Just in time for July 4th–huzzah!)

May God have mercy on us and not deal with us as we deserve. Instead, may God instill within our hearts that compassion, humility and generosity of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today’s scripture readings from the ESV Daily Reading Bible are an interesting juxtaposition. The Hebrew text describes Babylon’s conquest of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar, while the Christian text describes the promised fall of Babylon the Whore.

It’s interesting to see these two texts side-by-side since God used the Babylonians to punish the faithless people of Israel, only to punish them later for their own sins and then to allow the name of Babylon to be forever linked with the worst excesses of human depravity. (While researching my dissertation, I learned that the Babylonian exile was not the worst experience the Hebrews faced–they may have had even harsher lives under later rulers–yet Babylon remains the symbol of unrighteousness.) God may not be the God of the Babylonians, but they are certainly under God’s power. Yet how strange it is that God would choose a people like this–a people destined for their own judgment–to act as agents of spiritual justice. How easy it is to forget that the God of the universe has authority to raise up and utilize all nations–and not only the just ones!

The passage from Revelation is also interesting for its stress on economics as a temptation to sin. It’s not just the kings who mourn the fall of Babylon–it’s also the merchants and the seafarers who have made their riches off of selling luxury items. Consider the list of goods mentioned in the text:

…no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

We get the picture of men and women who used material goods not for sustenance and/or for generosity and charity, but to make themselves wealthy–probably marketing to the extremely wealthy who can waste money on the most expensive, impressive, unnecessary goods.

I wonder how much John’s depiction of the economics of Babylon matches up with our modern culture. What sins do we accrue against ourselves through our economic values and policies. Are we as tied in to luxurious living as the Babylonians and the merchants and seafarers who lived off of them? Is our emphasis upon economic power an obstacle to our spiritual health? Are we bringing judgment upon ourselves by our posh lifestyles?

The Center for American Progress has published an article by Lester Feder–”Is the Religious Right Losing Its Grip?”–that resonates with me regarding the reasons I left the conservative Republican/Christian movement. And it suggests that the leaders of the evangelical right (Feder mentions Dobson, Perkins and Bauer by name) simply are not paying attention to what’s going on around them.

I should explain that one of the reasons I grew disenchanted with the Republican-Christian movement is that, through reading the Hebrew prophets, I realized that many of the values and goals of the Religious Right were the very things that the prophets warned AGAINST. That is, the Religious Right was being unbiblical. As I learned more about the scriptures (that is, reading something other than Paul and Deuteronomy), I realized that the Bible is very clear about the need to protect the poor, the weak, the oppressed, and the foreigner, and that the Bible strongly condemns nationalist arrogance, reliance on military, economic and/or military might, and the luxuries that come from greed, gluttony, power and wealth. And by and large, the latter have been more important to conservatives than the former.

So as I read Feder’s article, I saw that many of the reasons I had left the movement are still in place, in spite of many defections to a growing, more progressive evangelicalism that embraces the call of the prophets on such issues as social justice, poverty, environmentalism, imperialism, etc. (more…)

Today’s Hebrew reading in my daily devotional includes 2 Kings 3, which tells the account of the Moabite rebellion against King Jehoram of Israel. Like all the kings in the history of ancient history, Jehoram is displeasing to God, although he is not as bad as his father, Ahab–the scripture says that Jehoram pulled down the pillar his father had erected to Baal.

So it is not surprising that when the Moabites rebel (and we’re not told if this is a military attack or simply a refusal to continue paying the tribute of sheep and wool), Jehoram rushes off to battle without consulting God. And it is no surprise either that when things get rough, Jehoram quickly assumes that God is against them.

Which, in a way, God is. (more…)

Queer Brit over at Queermergent has a nice piece on a topic I’ve been wondering about a lot the past few years: the idolization of the family by the church. We hear it from several corners: marriage and the family are the foundation of Western civilization and without them, our culture will crumble. This sounds nice, but in effect, it makes the family into a kind of god — an idol.

Queer Brit writes:

From the beginning Christianity was radically about a new form of extended community, as a visible expression of the invisible kingdom of God. This is the reason why the early church was persecuted, because in so doing, these little Ecclesia’s challenged the power of the Empire which sought to disempower minority groups, which the church, counter-culturally, sort to include. If you look at the book of the Acts, where people shared a common purse and lived together in extended friendship groups – it is all completely different from the ideal of conservatives with their 2.2 children, man at work and woman at home….

I’ve been reading the same thing in Kierkegaard: the family is not a Christian value, and there is no Biblical way to claim that it is.

I see this idea from the perspective of the Gospels and Paul, but it is hard to reconcile it with the Hebrew scriptures, which value family fairly highly — think of how many of the miracles have to do with having children. So, how do we find a biblical understanding of family that values them properly without making them the idol on which civilization is built?

Geocities is closing, so I’ve moved my stvp68 webpages, including this blog, to non-meta-stephen.com .

I’m moving my 360 blog over to this site, to be closer to my articles. This is the first post written on this site; everything prior to this post was imported from 360.

More from Ellul on Ecclesiastes….

In his section on the Myth of Progress, Ellul remarks on Qohelet’s comment in 1.8:

All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.

Ellul discusses this in terms of humanity as both creative and receptive: We run out of words, yet we continue to consume images and sounds.

Is this not true? I feel this all the time — there is too much to learn, too much to view, too much to read, too much to learn. And yet I run out of things to say — I have nothing to add.

The scary thing is that even with the overabundance of things to see and hear, there’s nothing new. I need to pay more attention to this: all those shiny objects that catch my attention? There’s nothing new in them. They don’t enlighten me. They don’t add anything of value to my understanding of the world or to the way I live my life. They don’t make me a better person or offer me any wisdom. They simply amuse/delight/distract me.

Even in my studies, the trap is there:

“When Qohelet tries to study everything that is done, he concludes that this is an evil occupation under the sun. You cannot draw any conclusion or lesson for the future from what happened in the past, because you know only the outer shell of things: piecemeal testimonies that enable us to tell stories but not to know the truth.”

Again, is this not true? I read literature, but all I can get are stories. If anything, it’s more honest than trying to read history, for I’d still end up with only stories. The inner truth of history is unknowable–we get appearances and effects, but cannot perceive the reality beneath.

May God give us the grace to accept the limitations of our knowledge and to learn wisdom from the Spirit of Christ.

This morning I re-read some of Ellul’s study on Ecclesiastes, Reason for Being — the section where he discusses the issues surrounding the translation of the Hebrew word hebel as “vanity.” For Ellul, the term makes the most sense, as it captures the sense of uselessness that Qohelet is trying to describe. It’s not that the world is “nothing,” but that it doesn’t lead anywhere except for the grave — no matter what we do, how much work or success we achieve, we all end up in the grave and therefore our work is useless. What good does any of it do us?

I was struck in particular with a paragraph in which he discusses how “vanity” has the sense of “illusion” or “mirage,” which he connects with ostentation and with the way we present ourselves to others–and to ourselves:

May God in God’s lovingkindness show me who and what I truly am, so that I might meet the world with more humility and become more fruitful for the sake of God’s realm. Amen.

Sigh.

Been one of those semesters. I’ve felt off my game all term. Probably part of being in my first year at a new school and not being certain if my job will be safe (it is, but that’s a recent development). Lots of uncertainty in my life, lack of clear direction, doubts about what I want to be doing, etc. General tiredness and a sense that now that I’m out of school, there’s no short-term goal to keep me focused.

So I don’t know. I’m not sure what I’m doing, where I’m headed, whether I’m on the right track, etc. And my sense of my own faithfulness to God is very weak. I want to be faithful, but I feel that I’ve jumped ship somewhere along the way without even realizing it. And I recognize how truly half-hearted I am and how attached to the world I’ve been. And yet delusional about my own ability to witness to the transforming work of God — I have a very inflated sense of self-worth.

Sigh. I even feel too tired to put in the effort to get back on track — I should pray, but I’d rather nap. Or I try to pray and end up napping — like the disciples in the garden.

LORD, forgive me — the spirit is somewhat willing, the body is both weak AND rebellious….

And then today I had this verse in my devotional reading:

Proverbs 17.5a:

Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker

May God grant that we be a people of compassion, of true charity, of Christlike humility, that we may live out God’s reign here in the midst of the nations.

In Christ,
Amen.

This weekend we watched all four episodes of the documentary The Century of the Self, which discusses the way Freudian ideas were imported into British and American culture through Freud’s daughter and nephew. The final volume looks at the impact on politics, especially on the Reagan/Thatcher revolutions and the later Clinton/Blair victories.

One thing in particular chilled me: In discussing Reagan’s rise to power, he says that Reagan found favor with the American middle-class by giving them permission to reject calls to charity (e.g., the welfare system) and instead to blame lower-classes for their own situations.

Is this really what a “Christian nation” is supposed to do? How can we continue to associate Reagan conservatism with Christianity?

These questions came to mind as I read the chapter this morning:

Other than Luke, Paul had no chronicler–wouldn’t it be great if we knew the daily details of his ministry? And what about Timothy and his time in Thessalonika? What did he do there? What were the Thessalonians like?

If we truly believe that God chose how all the scriptures were to be written, isn’t it interesting that almost all of our records of the apostles’ lives come from the epistles? Why do you think this is?

And when Paul praises the Thessalonians for their endurance during affliction, he doesn’t single out any leaders. I’m curious what made this group of Christians able to persevere when it seems other groups weren’t as strong, and I’d expect to learn that their were certain leaders (if no pastor) in the church who continued to provide good instruction and counsel. But Paul doesn’t mention anyone by name. Perhaps the group was just that small?

Either way, it makes me wonder about the emphasis we place on pastors in our churches. Not that pastors are unimportant, but perhaps we underestimate the importance of the laity–that is, we underestimate our own responsibilities as congregants. Do we place too much of a burden on our pastors to maintain our spiritual health? Do Paul’s comments suggest that the laity is far more responsible for each other’s health than we allow?

I’ve often wondered why it would be important that Jesus should come from the tribe of Judah rather than the priestly tribe of Levi or of any other tribe. But check out this passage–Jacob’s sons must convince him to allow them to take Benjamin with them to Egypt so that they might get more grain.

And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.”

Could this be what Jesus told God about us? He is the pledge of our safety, promising our Father/Mother to return us safely home.

How wonderful is that? Thanks be to Christ Jesus for his lovingkindness toward us! Amen!

Today’s Hebrew lectionary reading tells of Joseph’s success in dealing with the famine in Egypt, and several things interest me:

• Joseph’s plan to preserve Egypt’s food supply during the seven years of plenty would probably not go over very well today. He doesn’t allow the people of Egypt to use all of their resources, but demands that some be stored up every year for the future. And how many people today would believe Joseph that there were seven bad years coming? I cannot imagine our U.S. government trying to institute such a policy today, even though it was clearly the right thing to do (and God had ordained it). I know some will complain that our government does try to do this, but their complaint shows just how controversial God’s plan would be today. (Side note: I seem to recall reading that when the economy started going south a few years ago, only one state escaped a budget crisis; that state had the foresight to make a contingency plan.) I also wonder what our modern analogues to the famine are: the environment? the economy? What if we had been told after WW1 to prepare for a major depression? What if we had been told after WW2 to prepare for an environmental crisis? I’m realizing just how self-centered and in-the-moment we are as a culture. How do we as Christians convince people to change their ways? Even to give up what they see as their “rights” for the sake of the common good?
• I had forgotten that Joseph’s sons were born before the arrival of his Hebrew compatriots. But even more surprising to me today is to realize that he married the daughter of an Egyptian priest! I know that from a practical point of view, Joseph could not look for a Hebrew wife. Still, it is interesting that he married into a priestly family. Not only is there the question about religious syncretism (does Joseph raise them as Hebrews rather than as Egyptians? I suppose this became possible once his family moved there…), but there is also the surprising fact that two of tribes of Israel are part Egyptian!
  
• His second son’s name, Ephraim, is said to mean “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” I’ve been thinking a lot lately about maintaining our faith in times of difficulty (see my posts on the Wilderness) and how we need to trust that God can not only see us through these times, but also can use them for good. Ephraim’s name is a wonderful testimony to this fact: Even when our circumstances seem to be against us (Joseph was not in Egypt by choice, and he had to endure two years in prison before becoming Pharaoh’s adviser), God can still bless all that we do, even using us to benefit those around us, friends and enemies alike.
• God’s role in ordaining Egypt as a land of salvation during the time of famine. God truly is LORD over all the nations!