Live Generously

The blogosphere is a funny place. Not that such a statement needs proving, but allow me to submit to you this little piece of evidence:

About a month and a half ago I spent a few days in Tijuana, Mexico, with my church doing a house build with Amor ministries. Before leaving for the trip, I wrote this post and called it “House Building for Dummies”. In the post I talked about the trip a little, but I mainly, in a very tongue-in-cheek way, talked about how I was a bit skeptical of my own ability to actually positively contribute to the building of an actual house that would be safe for actual humans.

Six weeks after the trip, I can tell you that, on average, about ten people get directed to my blog each week after doing a Google search for “house building for dummies”, or something close to that. To those who have ended up on my blog as a result of such a search (and there will probably be more of you now that I’ve referenced it again), I apologize that I’m not more helpful. I must admit, however, that the fact that there are human beings looking for a “for dummies” guide to BUILDING A FREAKING HOUSE is mildly concerning. But it makes me laugh, so that’s ok.

Even though it happened more than seven years ago, it remains tattooed on my brain.

It was my senior year in high school, and I was a member of my high school’s student newspaper staff. At the time, I was still in my they-will-know-we-are-Christians-by-all-of-the-Christian-junk-we-show-off stage, so I took pleasure in advertising my Christian faith through t-shirts, jewelry, as well as stickers and drawings on notebooks, backpacks, and other personal items (even though, lets be honest, adherence to the radical way of Jesus was the furthest thing from my mind). To a lesser degree, I advertised it on my journalism computer’s desktop background as well.

For most of my senior year I was seated in my journalism class next to a gentleman who was somewhat hostile towards Christianity. I certainly don’t mean to say he was a bad guy, I only mean to say that he often spoke pejoratively about Christians, church, etc. He was very intelligent, and was, as I remember, an excellent writer. He and I had actually been good friends when we were kids, but had long since had a falling out, and by this point we had no relationships to speak of, excepting the proximity of our journalism computers.

At the time I was a big fan of the now disbanded (moment of silence) Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy. I had found a cool collage of various Five Iron photos, fliers, cd covers and what not, and had set said collage as my desktop background. One of the concert fliers in the collage advertised Five Iron Frenzy as one of the bands performing at an event (or maybe it was a tour) called “Ska Against Racism”.

This deeply troubled the guy sitting next to me. He refused to believe, and in fact vehemently denied, that Five Iron Frenzy was a part of “Ska Against Racism”, something he was somewhat familiar with given his affinity for punk/ska etc. music (out of shear curiosity I googled “Ska Against Racism”, and the tour happened in 1998 and yes, Five Iron Frenzy was in fact a part of it). Now, the next couple of sentences are speculation, but I’m fairly certain my speculation is correct. This guy refused to believe that a Christian band would be involved with a project seeking to combat racism. That simply did not fit with the picture of Christianity he had been given. Christians are socially conservative, white bigots, who do nothing but sit on their ivory tower of superstition and look down upon others who don’t share their views while saying absurd things like “the reason God allowed 9/11 to happen was because there were homosexuals in the building”. They dress alike, they talk alike, and they have no tolerance for anyone who is different from them.

In other words, Christians don’t fight racism. Christians don’t stand up for the marginalized. Christians are self-righteous. Christians are closed-minded and anti-intellectual. Christians are homophobic. I could go on, but you get the idea.

On one level, this guy’s comments reflect obvious ignorance of Christianity, something that was expressed through a number of comments he made throughout the year (including saying that he wanted to go to the mega-church I attended dressed in all black goth-ish clothing and “see what people would do”….”I’m guessing nothing”, was what I wanted to tell him…not sure why I didn’t). His understanding of Christianity was shaped largely by the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world, and as such his understanding was sorely misguided.

That being said, he clearly had seen nothing, or at least little, in his lived experience to conclude that the oft judgmental, oft hateful, oft intolerant version of Christianity that he had seen presented by folks like those listed above was inaccurate. I remember the Five Iron Frenzy conversation (and many others), and I think about movies like Saved! (which every Christian should see), and always think, “that is what the world thinks we are.” And this is to our shame. In other words, I don’t hold this guy completely responsible for believing what he did about Christians. The indiscretions of Christians had instilled this understanding of Christianity in him, and that is an indictment against all of us who claim the name of Christ. There are many people in the world like the guy from my journalism class…I meet them every once in a while. It is up to us to demonstrate a Christianity that is different than what they have come to understand, and more important a Jesus who is different than what they have come to understand. I often wonder, what if people in the world, Christian or not, had such a radically different experience of what Christians were like that all of the caricatures that find their way into pop culture simply wouldn’t work anymore because they were so obviously inaccurate?

Jim Wallis likes to talk about changing the wind. He says that politicians are licking their fingers and putting their fingers up to determine which direction the ‘wind’ is blowing so that they can act accordingly. He uses this to encourage people, particularly people of faith, to organize to promote truly biblical values like the eradication of poverty, peacemaking, fair wages for working people, environmentalism, a consistent ethic of life, and a more socially conscious national budget. Not exactly your typical fair of issues that are important to conservatives, but then again, Wallis isn’t exactly a conservative (incidentally, neither is Jesus).

I often wonder what it would take for Christians to change the wind. What would need to happen so that future generations of people in journalism classes would expect that Christian bands would be involved in a concert tour promoting racial equality? What would need to happen to come to a place where people in the world may disagree with our spiritual beliefs but they respect and affirm our contributions to society?

Our task is to change the wind. In our work lives, in our families, in the seemingly meaningless interactions we have throughout the day. In our finances, in our time management, in the way that we show love to our friend and our enemy. In the way that we rise above theological squabbling and agree on the reality of Christ’s body broken and blood shed for the healing of the world.

May we be a people who change the wind.

The Onion has done it again. Recently they had a great story about a Padres game getting “sunned out”, and now they’ve got this great story about a planned merger of two San Diego institutions.  I can’t wait to go visit. I want to be a writer for The Onion in my next life.

I realize that I currently have two blog posts that I have said I will complete at some point (one of which I said I hoped to finish last Tuesday night), and I will complete them as soon as I finish my church history midterm…but in the mean time, I found a funny article on The Onion that made me happy to live in America’s Finest City. The Onion, by the way, is an absolutely hysterical satirical ‘newspaper’…and as this article helps us to remember, there is an ounce of truth in every joke.

The article in question can be found here, and I promise I’ll be getting back to writing with at least the appearance of depth very soon.

“If Pharisees were around today, they’d probably be bloggers. That’s not to say that bloggers are Pharisees, but where else can you flex your theological muscles, criticize, and then stand back and see what everyone else thinks about what you said?”

-A paraphrase of what Reggie Joiner said this evening at the Orange Conference in Atlanta, where my wife is this week. There’s probably more truth in that than I’d like to admit, haha.

Admittedly the video that I link to below is a few months old, but I just came across it for the first time thanks to a brief write-up it received in the most recent issue of Relevant.

I should say that if I had to make a list of the public figures I would most like to have a conversation with, Stephen Colbert would easily crack the top 10. No really, he would. And I don’t mean the character he plays on TV, I mean the real guy. While I very rarely watch his show (don’t have cable), I find it to be smart, clever, and pretty dang funny. More than that, I find Colbert himself to be both a brilliant actor (his character is amazing), and a fascinating individual (an opinion derived from both his show and the few out-of-character interviews I’ve managed to find). He talks about God quite a bit on his show, often in an either irreverent or tongue-in-cheek fashion, and yet maintains that he is a Sunday school teacher at his church.

In the interview below, he talks with Philip Zimbardo, a professor at Stanford (and conductor of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment that anyone who has ever taken a post-secondary psychology or sociology class has studied ad naseum), about his book The Lucifer Effect. To make a long story short, Colbert seems to slip out of character towards the end of the interview and gives Zimbardo quite the theological lecture. While he uses a rather unfortunate selection of words at the end, the preceding 30 seconds provide an interesting dose of Arminian theology…not exactly standard fare on the late night talk show circuit. The reaction of the audience to his outburst is also intriguing. My interest in what is actually going on in Stephen Colbert’s head has been further piqued.

I couldn’t figure out how to post this video directly onto my blog, but you can find it here.

And now, for a quick break from my theological/political/church-related musings…

As of Monday morning I have made a significant, albeit short term, lifestyle change. I am going to be a vegetarian for the next week. Lasting the whole week might be a bit of a challenge, since I’ll be ending the week in Mexico where my dietary choices will be greatly reduced, but I’m going to try. If it goes well, maybe I’ll think about making this a little bit more permanent.

There have been several things that have influenced me to try this little experiment. In a handful of classes at UCLA I had somewhat hippie-esque professors who would rail against the evils of eating meat, some from the perspective that it was cruel to animals, others from the perspective that raising cows and other animals was (and is) a horrendously inefficient use of land. Their pro-vegetarian preaching intrigued me, but it was never enough to get me to make the switch (the fact that I lived in a house with 34 other males may have had something to do with that…forsaking meat would have most certainly invited mockery). Nonetheless, the idea was planted in my head, and the more I have thought about it, the more I have liked the idea of trying to live in a way that leaves a bit less of a footprint on the Earth.

Since Christie and I got married I’ve done most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. Shopping with Joe has made me actually look forward to grocery shopping…the place is awesome (and I am a huge nerd). Every time I am there I pass by the vegetarian section, and I see all the faux-meat products beckoning me to give them a try. To this point I had resisted, but finally I have been worn down and am now looking forward to trying some of them. Along with that, the health benefits of going vegetarian are certainly appealing, as I often wonder what damage I am doing by constantly eating so much meat.

So then, partially motivated by curiosity, partially motivated by a desire to live a more environmentally friendly and animal friendly life, and partially motivated by a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, it’s all bread, cheese, peanut butter, fruits, vegetables, and protein powder for me this week. So far, so good.

My church is in the middle of a series called “Faith in Action” for the month of April, and to go along with the series a few of us have put together a series of videos about the “Faith in Action Linebacker”. They’ve been a lot of fun, so I thought I’d post one of the videos below (I’ll post the rest as they become available). It bears mentioning that the whole concept is a rip off of the “Evangelism Linebacker”, whose video can be seen here (and it’s dang funny), and that itself was a rip off of Reebok’s “Terry Tate Office Linebacker. Enjoy.

So I know it’s been quite awhile since I last posted. There has been a lot going on and I have a lot I’d like to talk about. There isn’t a particular reason why I haven’t been posting…other than the fact that I’m lazy. It has been a good last couple of weeks, and here are a few things that have caught my attention:

1) We had a truly fantastic Easter last weekend at New Song. I certainly was not at my best, but I was very proud of our church. I thought everyone did a great job with Sunday morning, and we had a wonderful time of worship together on Sunday night. It was really a great day of celebrating the resurrected Christ.

2) During my spring break I read the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project. My dad, who is not a Christian, recently read the book and he seemed to like it, so I decided it was worth getting a copy of the book and giving it a read. I felt that Collins did a great job of showing how what he knows to be true from his scientific training and what he knows to be true as a Christian need not be seen as contradictory. It particularly recommend the book to those who are Christians and find theories such as young earth creationism and intelligent design to be intellectually unsatisfying. What I most appreciated about the book was Collins’ fair-mindedness. I felt he was very even-handed in his analysis of the various issues that he was considering, and he was cordial towards those with whom he disagreed. I never sensed that he was overly dogmatic, nor did I sense that he sought to belittle those with different persepctives. We need more people who can present their perspectives in the way that Collins does, particularly in the church.

3 ) The Bruins somehow made it to the Final Four. There were some tense moments along the way, but they made it. That is a good thing. The tournament has been a lot of fun this year and has produced several great games. Speaking of March Madness, while my bracket has totally stunk this year, my wife is currently in the 99.9 percentile on espn.com with her bracket. I am humbled and amazed.

4) I just started reading N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope the other day. N.T. Wright is a terrific scholar and I am always challenged by reading his writing. So far this book has been about the resurrection, and it appears so far to be a helpful theological corrective. He acknowledges that perhaps the biggest problem when it comes to understanding the resurrection and other issues of life-after-death and eschatology (end times stuff) is simply that many Christians don’t understand what the Bible actually says.

5) Last night at Seven24 we had a woman from Elam Ministries come and share. Elam works to distribute Bibles and otherwise equip the underground church in Iran. It was remarkable to hear stories of what God is doing in Iran. I was both inspired and challenged as I heard about the hunger that the Iranian people have for the Word of God. We have it so easy over here. Towards the end of her talk I asked the woman what we as American Christians in Southern California could learn from our brothers and sisters in Iran. She suggested that perhaps the church in America needs a little bit of persecution in order to wake us up spiritually (not her exact words, but that was the basic gist). I often wonder if she is right. I encourage you to click to their website above and read about some of the terrific work that Elam does.
6) School starts tomorrow. I’m very excited to have another class with Dr. Craig Hovey. He is by far the best professor I have had in my year and a half at Fuller. This class is on political theology and it promises to be a good one.

7) I recently subscribed to Relevant magazine and I have greatly enjoyed the magazine so far. They are speaking the language of twentysomethings at Relevant, and I’ve been impressed with several of the articles I have read. I particularly enjoyed a short essay from the most recent issue that I also just discovered is posted in its entirety here. The piece is called Will We Obey? and it’s written by a guy named Winn Collier. He begins by admitting his distaste for Christian cliches that over simplify faith (a distaste that I fully share), but he then turns the mirror inward and confesses that his frustration with oft cheesy Christian culture has led him to a place of spiritual passivity. In his words:

“I’m noticing the uncomfortable fact that I have used my distaste for Christian cliche as well as my desire for authentic faith illicitly, as a cover for my spiritual passivity. If I imagine everything must be so hard, so complex, so confusing all the time…If I believe honesty requires me to constantly rehash, rethink and circle round and round and round…then I excuse myself from the responsibility of trusting what I do know and from obeying God wherever ) and whenever) He has spoken clearly.”

Collier raises an important point. I believe we are right to acknowledge that faith is more complicated than perhaps we make it out to be, but we are in big trouble if we turn this acknowledgment into a tacit excuse for spiritual passivity. He goes on to quote the great Eugene Peterson, who once said that the most important question we can ask of a passage of Scripture, “What can I obey?” I was deeply convicted by the entire article, as I see in myself and others like me a desire to question and otherwise commiserate about various spiritual issues under the facade of seeking authentic spiritual maturity that is instead hiding a desire to avoid obedience (I’m not sure if that sentence made sense, but oh well). I wholeheartedly believe that questions are good, especially when it comes to faith. But I (we) must not use our questions as a sort of implicit excuse for obedience. Give the essay a read, it will take all of two minutes.

8 ) I got to hang out with my buddy James on Saturday morning. We had a great time talking about our lives and working through various theological issues we have been struggling with. He just returned from Uganda, and is working on starting a great socially pro-active business called Acholi Beads.

9) And finally, I’m teaching on a particularly important passage of Scripture from Mark 9 this weekend. I spent a couple of hours at a coffee shop today studying for the message, and I’m really looking forward to writing the rest of it. It is my hope and prayer that we will have an honest, convicting, and encouraging discussion together this week at Seven24.

That’s it for now…I probably could have written a whole post about all of the above items, but I wanted to at least make a brief mention of all of them. I’ll try to post a little bit more regularly this week…

This is amazing…we need public safety messages like this in the United States.