mnphysicists theological blog

An old friend is a teacher in CT pretty close to Sandy Hook… She writes the following…

” Believer, or non-believer, when in the midst of suffering grief, what we need is to be told we are loved and cared for. Not to be preached at or condescended to or told that somehow, we should expect such things in our society. I know the pain is felt worldwide, but from things I hear and read from people outside of this area, I honestly don’t think people understand how raw the pain is here. The theological arguments are better saved for a time when the pain is not so immediate, and maybe for when people actually ask for help.

They will know we are Christians by our love – but most of the “Christian” comments I have been reading are anything but loving. They are judgmental and condescending. They are hurtful in a time when the hurt is bad enough. Honestly, I have felt absolutely shattered by some of the things I have read in the name of Jesus. I am a follower of Jesus. But I do not believe many of the things written in his name, and even if I did, I would never in a million years use this as a time to say them. If there was ever a time to focus on loving God and loving others, and keeping what Jesus called the greatest commandments, this is that time – at least in this place. Because believe me, you feel the grief in the very air.”

I saw this and went argh….

What sort of a message is sent to grieving folks with this?

Granted, when folks get slammed hard with insurmountable grief, our inclination is to help… and in our own grief, when we find we can’t really figure out what to say, we try to rationalize things… and in the process often come up with things that serve to tear down rather than uplift, usually with a mix of pretty bad theology to boot. I’ve been there, done that, got burned and I try not to go there again…

The following is a pretty decent article I’ve come across as to how to help rather than hinder as concerns Friday’s tragedy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-emily-c-heath/dealing-with-grief-five-t_b_2303910.html

Getting back to my main point, God in the public schools…

Where is it shown in the scriptures that man and/or govt can escape God’s omniprescence? Where was it ever shown in the scriptures that its govt’s role to preach the Gospel, to provide for Christian education, to offer prayer, and to foster the great commission?

It may be that in the distant past, public schools did some of the above… but as one growing up in the 70′s, the only thing I remember is a short prayer in the lockeroom or on the school bus before heading out to the field for a football game. More likely, I sort of think God in public school was an idealized past where Christianity enjoyed social privilege and stature rather than govt overtly preaching, teaching, praying and evangelizing.

Mostly, I remember my parents and a whole bunch of church ladies and others making sure Christian ed and the great commission was not just a 45 minute deal on Sunday. I remember my parents making sure that prayer was not something that only went on during Sunday services. I remember many a convo with pastor over the fence or in his garage building a canoe. Bottom line, Christian ed and discipleship is a matter of responsibility for individuals, parents, and the fellowship of believers… its not the sort of thing one throws over the wall for Uncle Sam to provide.

A Republican friend posted a graphic in facebook which had the following statement. “Does anyone else think it is significant that half of the Democrat delegates denied God three times”. I was thinking about responding something to the tune of “which god”… but better judgment prevailed.

I find the whole deal troubling in a couple ways. On the one hand, I am exceedingly uneasy with using the god card for personal/political gain. On the other, to totally exclude God is not cool either. The article God and Political Platforms pretty much nails my thinking on these two issues.

Beyond that though, there is an aspect I find much more disturbing. The god card is rampant in a lot of sectors… but it is not without negative effect. Its gotten to the point that it seems the public doesn’t care which god. Going to an extreme, it makes me wonder if Christians would be cool with Freyja and Odin as gods as long as the word “god” was used frequently enough. Perhaps the unknown god Paul talked about in Acts 17 might be ok too. John Calvin once wrote. The frequency of casual use of the name of God has dulled the public conscience but that the commandment, with its penalty, still stands.

Granted, in a pluralistic society, God can range from the triune God of orthodox Christianity, to the non-Trinitarian Abrahamic gods of the Jews, Muslims, and Mormons, and in some circles, even to Freyja and Odin, and for some folks I suppose the god of the US dollar. To each his own I guess… but the use of the god card in the public sphere sure seems to run right up against the first couple commandments.

Respecting anothers beliefs, just as Paul respected the folks in Athens is a good thing… but going beyond that can easily morph into a mixed message thing which can lead to trouble. Just as I would not want to worship or pray to some Nordic god, neither would I want to worship a non-Trinitarian one.

The texts for this Sunday are fascinating. I see the reading from Acts as potentially an anti-Pelgianism text, a Charismatic wrench in the works, or in a related vein, an afront to “good order”. If one looks at the additional verses in the RCC Lectionary in comparison with the RCL, the afront to “good order” seems to stand out even more so.

Folks figured that God worked in a consistent and orderly fashion, A, B, C, etc… and then these gentile folks ended up doing the tongue speaking deal and they hadn’t even been baptised yet. (Acts 10:44-48). The text uses the term astonished… I’m thinking in todays society, indignant might be more typical. “How could this happen, God is one of order, this makes no sense, we need to have a meeting on this etc, who are these folks anyhow?”

Peter is way cool with it though. “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

hmmmm

Where does discipline, obedience, and “good order” fit within this reading? If anything, I think this is a place where love overshadows structure and order. If we consider the Gospel text (John 15:9-17) love seems to be the bigger deal. I think we get ourselves into an indignancy jam up when we try to project what we think is right and proper beyond the scriptures.

I remember some weeks back noticing some youthful communion assistants with attire far outside my scope of reverence… Initially I was thinking whoa, not cool, but then after a few minutes, it was like well, this is cool but in a different sort of way. Attire is not the issue, the heart is, and if someone is comfortable coming to God in such a way, there is a sort of reverence in such an act in and of itself. I had to put love and discipline in the right order… and put my personal opinions as to reverence aside.

Every once in a while lay presidency, the Augsburg confession / apology, and its good order counter make for a bit of a dustup. Granted there is the sticky deal with the Episcopalian full communion document, but love has to be at the bottom of it all. I think somehow or another, the issue becomes whether one is really willing to give up multidimensional comfort zones for love, or whether to hijack love and project our own preferences and desires onto it.

Such is a tricky deal indeed.

I’ve known a ton of youth ministers over the years, and a common headache that many experience is the search committee says one thing, but the church in actual practice wants something else. Its pretty easy to present the case of an optimistic church with a “run to win” focus on youth… but in practice, far too often the desired practice once a youth minister is on board, ends up being “fight not to loose”. I think the answer is brutal honesty upfront as to where one wants go, AND a commitment by the congregation to support steps to get there.

Most folks are well aware of declining young adult attendance, and likewise kids bailing from church post confirmation. As such, it seems like getting gung ho on youth ministry could well be a proactive step to avoid further young adult exodus type experience. The next step, an often overlooked one to folks peril…. is what is youth ministry?

As an idealist, I see youth ministry as:

A Safe Space for Questioning and Growth

An all-in approach to the Gospel, such that youth ministry is overtly Christian, not a Gospel of good behavior or works, nor moral therapeutic deism/theism, or any number of related variants.

Providing opportunities for putting ones faith into action.

An intergenerational and family approach which integrates youth with the entire congregation and ministry with the family.

By the same token, idealism often slams head on into reality, and youth ministry can morph into something else…

Safe space can freaks folks out… there are multitudes of very hard questions, where in canned answers are not going to fly. Hard core discussion on such are often perceived negatively. Ie consider Rob Bell’s Love Wins for example. Its a whole lot easier to morph into “do not ask/discuss those types of questions” than it is to embrace safe space. It doesn’t have to be things like “Does Hell exist” or “What about the inconsistencies in the Gospels”, but could be something like “Did Luther really say “Sin a little to spite the devil“.

A full bore Gospel centric approach sounds fine in theory… but a theology of glory is a much easier sale to parents and congregations than the theology of the cross. Consider how the following plays out in Ask Mr Moralism.

There’s this guy who says he’s a Christian, but he apparently thinks about his body a LOT. He works out HOURS a day, and poses for pictures in his underwear, knowing they will be displayed publicly.

He works at this place where they have dancing girls, getting paid to do sexy dances.

And there’s TONS of drinking there. His salary comes from an employer who’s made millions off alcohol sales!

Like I said, he says he’s a Christian. Should I take a stand to show people I disapprove?

Read the response… kids see this type of stuff for what it is all the time. Moral behaviorism is not the answer.

Faith into action is pretty cool… but we need to exercise care that such doesn’t morph into works without faith. An experienced Boy or Girl scout leader can run circles around most youth ministers when it comes to works alone, but then works alone isn’t really what we are after or is it?

Some have said that the old formula head -> heart -> hands appears to be changing to hands -> heart -> head. The problem with the order changing is that in some cases youth ministry implementation equates to a lower or even non-existent priority for everything but works. If the only difference between a youth ministry and a secular program is a prayer at the start, a couple minutes of scripture and then Jesus gets put aside for the rest of it, one has to ask if its really youth ministry.

Youth ministry when thrown over the wall and nearly separate from the rest of the church can sometimes work exceedingly well, at least in the short term. We’ve all heard or participated in the guru leader youth pastor who takes a youth group from 4-5 kids to hundreds, and amazing things happen. That is, until the youth leader leaves and/or the youth grow up.

Likewise, youth ministry separate from the family can pose no small amount of headaches when the value sets are at odds. If a family looks at a youth ministry to indoctrinate doctrine, and or instill morality rather than the Gospel, they will take issue when discipleship is the focus rather than rote memorization or white knuckle abstinence.

The elephant in the room challenge in youth ministry is often the varying degrees of idealism and pragmatism, combined with where a congregation is, and where they can realistically go. Folks will say on the one hand… we need to get serious about youth ministry, and then on the other, put so many barriers in place that real youth ministry ends up being near impossible…. and then wonder why they have such a high churn rate in youth ministers.

Bottom line… figure out what your vision for youth ministry is, figure out where your congregation is at, and see if the vision is possible. Plan as to how you will get there, and share this with your potential youth minister and what his/her role will be as concerns said vision. Assuming that a new youth minister is not only good to go to work with the youth, but will also primarily drive the congregation towards a vision they are not on board with, will be an exercise in frustration for all concerned.

RachelHeldEvans wrote this fascinating blog post called They Were Right (And Wrong) About the Slippery Slope. A selected bit follows:

It was easier before, when the path was wide and straight.

But, truth be told, I was faking it. I was pretending that things that didn’t make sense made sense, that things that didn’t feel right felt right. To others, I appeared confident and in control, but faith felt as far away as friend who has grown distant and cold.

Now, every day is a risk.

Now, I have no choice but to cling to faith and hope and love for dear life.

Now, I have to keep a very close eye on Jesus, as he leads me through deep valleys and precarious peaks.

But the view is better, and, for the first time in a long time, I am fully engaged in my faith.

I got thinking on this a bit, and a friends blog came to mind where he writes on the problems on datacentric approaches to education. I like how he tied data driven schools to Platos Allegory of the cave. Even more so, it also seemed to ring very parallel to what Rachel is writing about.

@anderscj nails it with this summary “The shadows are cast on the wall, and prisoner’s in the cave are made to spend their whole lives looking at the shadows and never allowed to turn around and see what is making them. To Plato’s prisoners the shadows are the real things and anyone who is freed and turned around to see what they are producing is thought to have “gone to the surface and come back without their sight” because spending time actually examining what has produced those shadows has made their ability to see the shadows for real objects worse.”

No one likes to consider themselves a prisoner, or to merely be seeing shadows… yet

1. Consider how really massively huge the scriptures are.

2. Consider Paul telling us we see dimly in 1 Cor 13:12.

3. Consider how comfortable and safe a cave environment could be in contrast with the unknown dangers outside of it.

If we flee from growth and/or difficult questioning, I think there is a real danger of becoming Platos shadow observers. A projection show in a cave is safe, comfortable, and easy. We dont really feel like prisoners of our own making… Likewise we will never experience the rejection as have those who have “gone to the surface and come back without their sight.”

Otoh, a prisoner of ones own making sort of shoots a hole in studying to be an approved workman, and makes discipling others near impossible.

Yep, even comedians like Jay Leno are having a bit of a field day over 3 republican candidates leaving the campaign trail being that all of them said God told them to run… Some atheist friends are having a field day with this as well. Likewise, some Christians are wiggling around a bit, and saying, “Well God just told them to run, not that they were going to win” I dont see a point in continuing to raise the noise floor with speculation, but I do think its worth discussing discernment a bit.

God told me you need to do this or that!

For years, I used to hear from folks that, God is leading them to tell me to do this or that… almost always, it was something that said individual personally wanted, and much of the time, it was also contrary to the scriptures.

Personal gain + contrary to scriptures = This is not of God

Folks, be honest, dont try to invoke some type of god card to get what you want. It makes God look like a carnival rabbits foot, or some type of pawn to sway anothers opinion to their viewpoint. Jeremiah 23:16 has some words on this… it is not cool.

God is leading me to do this or that!

Ok, so how is this happening? If it was some type of supernatural blinding light Damascus road deal, God is not leading, he is telling, and you best be on it like yesterday. There is of course the issue of whether said supernatural deal is from God or from Satan. The key thing to remember… not all supernatural stuff is from God, such must be tested. 1 John 4 and 2 Cor 11 talks about this. Also bear in mind it is likely society, Christian and secular will see you as off your rocker… or at a minimum be exceedingly skeptic. Otoh, if it is really of God, doing the Jonah thing would not end well.

What if its not a supernatural blinding light deal, but it appears a still small voice in a whirlwind… Test it as above, is it in alignment with the scriptures, is it from God, or a bogus angel of light, and but also bear in mind self deception is very real. Consider St Augustine. ” Man’s love of truth is such that when he loves something which is not the truth, he pretends to himself that what he loves is the truth, and because he hates to be proved wrong, he will not allow himself to be convinced that he is deceiving himself. So he hates the real truth for the sake of what he takes to his heart in its place.”

The thing is, for most folks, Damascus road and still small voices do not occur, or when they do, they end up failing the aforementioned tests. Rather, we might consider discernment along the following lines:

• We need to be open to hearing God… not too busy, not too narrow in focus, not too encumbered to hear. The sacraments,  the daily office, the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, and even nature/spiritual focused spiritual practices could be of much help in this regard.
• We need to consider the counsel of others. Many non-connected individuals are telling you similar messages which seem aligned or at least not in conflict with the scriptures can be a plus. Said individuals also have skin in the game, such that it is not merely human praise and good feelings, but they are willing to go to the floor with you if need be would be a real positive.
• A sense of peace occurs after significant prayer about a potential direction.
• Said peace is pointing towards God, rather than merely an internal peace blooming from within. Again refer to the self deception thing Augustine talks about.

Lastly, I think its critically important to distinguish paths of which God is leading one to paths which align with God’s will. Ie, discerning God’s lead can be a challenge, determining if a given path is aligned with God’s will, ie it is not counter to the scriptures is pretty easy. An hour on Biblegateway can provide a whole lot more guidance as to alignment or lack of alignment with God’s will than months of discerning God’s leading by other than Damascus road or still small voice in the whirlwind experiences.

Its huge… from when I first got a link to it on Tuesday and it had just under 300 views to last time I checked this afternoon when it hit 10,000,000 it’s definitely struck a nerve with a lot of folks. I think its an incredibly cool video… and it likely will bring a whole lot of seekers and folks who had wandered from the church back into it. I pray the church does receive them.

Yet, there are those who dont get it. Its sad really… folks on the one hand will take offense when Jefferson (the video’s author) brought up the bit about God not loving the single mom. No church teaches such, its not in the scriptures either… but it sure didn’t take long before Christians started bashing single moms who responded positively to this video either on youtube or on facebook, and telling them they were going to hell.

Likewise, some folks cant seem to see the difference between the church, Christ’s bride, and “false” religion, and with such a view rightfully took the video as a church bashing thing, completely missing the point where Jefferson says he loves the church. Granted, more explicit language to distinguish the two might have mitigated such… but the number of folks missing the point in this regard is small. Its pretty easy to see the false religion of legalism, hypocrisy, and related as being counter to the bride of Christ.

There were a number of folks who semantic issues. Ie the whole Christianity is, is/not a religion thing which opens up a can of worms and dictionaries fly and all sorts of poking at each other begins. Folks for whom the video was intended will see where Jefferson is going, folks outside the audience will see it as a logical inconsistency.

And of course, there are the Pelagians and other related legalists who had serious heartburn. Ie, the folks who wish to replace God’s role with their own. You could about see em sputter… “but, but, but” Pelagianism and man’s pride is alive and well in our era, then again, its nothing new. Pope Innocent I condemned it way back when on January 27, 417, it looks like Mr Jefferson Bethke is having a much needed go at it again 1600 years later. Go get em sir!!!

Lastly, like all things, it is possible to read into things, and go too far…ie Jesus and me is not the answer, we do very much need the community of faith. I address gospel add-ons, pelagianism, and the Jesus and me thing in a bit more depth in my own video response.

Special thanks are due to Cindy at undermuchgrace for permission to use the cool graphic on grace. Libby Anne in her post “How Creationism Drove me out of the Church” brought up some very good points about adding things to the Gospel.

Some questions were asked on star measurements and the age of the universe in a forum I hang out at. Being I taught observational astronomy for a bit, I figured ok I can chime in on this… So, here we go with star measurement methodologies.

1. For nearby stars one uses geometry based upon the earths rotation around the sun. The math and measurement approach is solid. It can be observed in ones own backyard with very modest equipment. The observational data is then modeled and a distance is calculated. The geocentric worldview which was derived from the scriptures was in conflict with this… It took many years for the church to accept, but the geocentric worldview was finally known to be in error. As such, the interpretation of scriptures leading to such a worldveiw was proven to be in error.

2. For more distant stars, one looks at their color distribution and brightness. A given color distribution must have a known brightness… if the brightness is lower than its color distribution would suggest, the star is further away. This too can be observed in ones own backyard with pretty modest equipment. This data is then modeled and a distance is calculated.

3. For very distant stars, one looks at their color distribution and how far it has shifted towards the redder colors, not unlike hearing the pitch of a train whistle or car horn decrease as it proceeds away from a person. This too can be observed in ones own backyard, but it takes a fair amount of work. This data is then modeled and a distance is calculated.

As Christians, what we have is the following:
A. The scriptures and how we interpret them.
B. What we can see with our own eyes, how we interpret what we see, ie observations, models, and conclusions.

This leads to the messy situation, where in your buddy sees a orange cat, and yet you tell him its white as thats what the Bible says it is. Even worse, you tell him its white with great authority, even though you have not taken the time to go look for it yourself or even consider that how you are interpreting the scriptures could be in error.

What if the cat really is white, and your buddy needs to get to an eye doctor fast?

What if the cat really is orange, and your interpretation of the scriptures is in error like the geocentrists was… Have you put a stumbling block in front of your buddy?

Does the color of a cat, or the age of the universe really matter as concerns issues of faith or practice?

If it does matter in areas of faith and practice, what will happen to your belief system should star distance measurement denial follow a similar course as geocentrism?