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It’s the Culture, Stupid

Frank

This week my Facebook timeline blew up (no pun intended) with post after post regarding the 2nd Amendment. Part of it is the fact that many of my Facebook friends are from my hometown or college- a culture where hunting is a way of life and some children are practically born with a Remington in their hand. The other part of it is simply that some people really, really love their guns, some to the point of near-worship. In fact, roughly half of the employees in my building at work was in Las Vegas this week for the “Shot Show”.

Meanwhile, 9 people were killed by gun violence in Chicago last weekend. If this would have happened in a single place as an isolated incident it would’ve been front-page news. But it only added to the 500 homicides from 2012, making 9 a relatively small number.

We, as Christians, need to own up to the fact that we’ve lost the Culture War in America. We lost because we fought on the wrong front. We turned Christianity from a lifestyle to a political platform. We choose to fight immorality in our culture with legislation, putting our trust in politicians to enforce morality rather than allowing our lives to be Christ-like examples worth following.

We fought to limit abortions while neglecting the single mother. We fight against amnesty for immigrants while ignoring the Biblical examples of refuge. And now we fight for our right to own Assault Rifles, just because.

I don’t know what the answer is to gun violence. I know better than to blame video games. I want to blame fatherless homes, but that’s part of a larger problem. It wouldn’t be fair to blame gun manufacturers or gun enthusiasts. Really I need to blame you. I need to blame me. We need to take personal responsibility for pursuing the American Dream no matter the cost. We need to take the blame for leading self-centered lives that has turned neighbors into strangers and home into the place we go when we’re not at work. We need to point our fingers at the mirror and ask ourselves the hard question- do our lives look like Jesus, or do they look just like everyone elses’?

Makes Me Sick

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Leading up to New Year’s I’ll be posting a best-of 2012. This particular post was published in January and had the most comments this year (in fact, comments are still coming in!).

The tweet read “this is perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of college football.” It was followed by, “Filing this report made me sick to my stomach.” Obviously the first tweet caught my attention. The second made this a must-click. The tweets were from Yahoo Sports report Dan Wetzel, who broke the Gary Sandusky story. A simple recap if you’re not familiar (and a simple recap does not do this story justice): Gary Sandusky was a former assistant coach at Penn State University who headed up a youth foundation out of an office there. The first break was simply a report of Grand Jury testimony describing how a then-graduate assistant observed Sandusky molesting a young boy in the Penn State football locker room. Like most things of this magnitude, this was only the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, more names surfaced, Sandusky was arrested, and famed head coach Joe Paterno was forced out of his job. Sadly, last week Joe Pa passed away with this cloud still hanging over his otherwise record-setting legacy.

It’s a shame really. Just like you cannot say Catholic priest without conjuring up images of that scandal, so it is likely to forever be with Joe Paterno. Never mind anything else he had done over the course of his career, this is too awful to leave as a footnote in his biography.

I’m glad I didn’t get around to posting last week, as I really didn’t want to pile on. This story disgusts me, and I’m not writing about it just to get more hits to my blog. But the popular public face hiding the seedy underbelly of Penn State football, where Legends and Leaders are more important than integrity and protecting those who cannot protect themselves, kept coming to mind as I was reading the fifth chapter of Kyle Idleman’s Not A Fan, “following Jesus or following the rules?” In this chapter, Kyle calls our attention to the “seven woes” in Matthew 23 where Jesus lashes out against the religious elite.

Six of the seven woes begin, “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” While we throw around that word, hypocrite, we usually don’t think of what it actually means. I’ve read both that it means the actors in Greek plays or that it means the masks they wear. Either way, the word is synonymous with, duplicitous, two-faced, masked, or putting on an act. As more evidence of the Penn State scandal it appears that administrators at Penn State, including head coach Joe Paterno, were more concerned about the reputation of their university and football program than exposing, reporting, and prosecuting the truth. Literally, they were hypocrites. (And to be fair, it is still not clear the extent of who knew what, but the dismissals of their Athletic Director and famed head coach indicates that they knew enough to act, but chose not to. Their motives may never be known.)

But like I continue to say through these series of posts, this isn’t  a sports blog. Yet we can learn a lot from the headlines around us to cause us to pause and consider our own motives and our own religiosity. Christians are notorious for condemning vice from the soapbox while engaging in that very same vice behind closed doors; putting on our Sunday best while acting differently the rest of the week. It is the contrast between being religious and being faithful. Or in the context of this book, being a fan or a follower.

If we can learn anything from the Sandusky case, it is that not exposing the truth often leads to more hurt as bad behavior is enabled by inaction. We may be tempted to be hypocrites to protect some private sin, but that only allows the sin to grow. In the case of the Pharisees, their hypocrisy hurt not only themselves but also those whose very souls they were responsible for. The Pharisees were guilty of piling on rules upon rules that they themselves did not obey. And when we become more concerned about our spiritual image, we neglect the condition of our hearts.

The hypocrisy of the Sandusky case is stomach-turning. We need to have the same gag-reflex to spiritual hypocrisy. Our sin needs to disgust us to the point of being sick.

“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to [vomit] you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11)

This post continues my series blogging through the book, Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman. I encourage you to follow along by clicking on the Not A Fan label to the right. And I urge you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself.

The End

Frank

No time to write a new post. I have to get ready for the end of the world tomorrow.

Of course, this isn’t the first time to tackle the subject on this blog. In May 2011, we braced ourselves to be raptured according to Harold Camping’s predictions. Just a few months earlier, the Large Hadron Collider came on-line and some speculated it would create a black hole that would swallow the earth.

Two tries (three, if you count Camping’s second try that October) and I’m still here. I figure I’ll survive this one too. But just in case, I better get this post up early…

As a side note, an asteroid flew by the Earth last weekend and missed by only 5 million or so miles. I reasoned with my engineer coworkers that the Mayans did some pretty impressive math. 5 days and 5 million miles isn’t too bad if you propagate small errors five thousand years.

What are you doing tomorrow to celebrate the end of the world? Me, I’m taking my kids to Legoland!

God is Good?

Frank

It is hard to reconcile God’s love with what happened on Friday. The easy question to ask is how can a good God allow such bad to happen?

I like how a friend of mine puts it: “people wonder how there can be a good God when there is so much bad in the world, but I ask how can there be any good in a bad world if there is not a good God because I know how evil my heart is without God.”

It’s a good point and worth repeating. If there was not a good God, how could a organism that exists by random chance, that is advanced because of millenia of survival of the fittest (ie looking out for number one), feel any empathy or concern enough for others to hide innocent children while she herself is killed? Just like the despicable act cannot be explained, neither can that act of heroism.

My friend posted yesterday on Facebook,

I know many of us were tempted to doubt yesterday that God really cares, especially in light of the shootings in Connecticut.

But then today, I hear about a teacher who gave her life saving her students in one of the Connecticut classrooms.

I see photos of local adults, students, as well as our elected officials taking a Saturday morning to place wreaths on the grave sites of our American heroes: the Veterans.

We spent the morning with a group of people at a downtown Los Angeles hospital that dedicated the better part of their day to lighten up the lives of some children who will have to spend their Christmas in the hospital because of a variety of illnesses. These folks brought lunch, a magic show, a dance recital, the Laker girls, and of course, the man of the season, Santa Claus who handed out LOADS of presents.

How do I know God cares? Because He made so many people who care as well.

God’s love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on you.

Worshipping At the Altar of My Gun

Frank

My wife is at school today. In my kindergartner daughter’s class. Kindergarten. She turned five just a couple of months ago. I cannot for the life of me think about anything else right now.

26 dead. Most between 5 and 10 years old.

My son is soon to be 8.

Why, why, why?

After Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs killed his girlfriend and then himself, Jason Whitlock questioned just what in this world we worship. To satisfy the thousands depending on fantasy football stats from a single game, the NFL chose to to tell the Carolina Panthers go ahead and play in Kansas City the next day. Do we worship the athlete? The stats? Pro football as a whole? In Whitlock’s piece, he included a single line about gun control. During halftime of Sunday Night Football one of the best sports broadcasters alive, Bob Costas, leveraged that single line to pontificate about gun control and was roundly villified in social media for “self righteousness”, being a “glory hound”, for being “out of touch”. One friend on Facebook mocked Costas by suggesting that we regulate keyboards as they are the number one cause of typos.

One day earlier was a “shooting” in Casper, Wyoming. Ironically, the killer did not use a gun but rather a crossbow. Many pointed to this incident to make the classic argument “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

But, just a little more than a week later a gunman opened fire in a Portland mall, killing two before killing himself.

And now 26 are dead in Connecticut.

The truth is that sick people will do sick things. A pastor was killed in Texas a couple of months ago, beaten to death with a guitar. Gun or not, if I store up anger and hatred in my heart, the only logical conclusion is to hurt- even kill- another.

But why do we (some, not all) come to such an emotional defense of our “right to bear arms” when tragedies like this strike? Are guns that important? Do we need them to protect our eternal security? (And seriously, I could go on and on about many I know who call themselves Christians yet their membership to the NRA is just as important, if not more so, as membership to their church. This became evident leading up to the last presidential election.)

I’m not a pacifist. I don’t hold a doctrinal position on Just War. I grew up in gun country, where students would bring their guns to school just so they would be ready to leave as soon as the bell rang to go hunting. But to own those guns they were required to take hunter’s safety courses. In fact, it was practically part of my curriculum, taking it in 6th grade.

I understand the arguments. I have coworkers who collect guns. I have friends who frequent shooting ranges.

But at some point we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what, exactlly, are we worshipping? Why are guns so important?

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus told said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

The Day After

Frank

I looked outside my window and I saw something that surprised me. The sun was peeking over the horizon. It might actually rise today. I opened by Bible and found that the words haven’t changed and that Jesus is still Lord. So with that comfort I can sit back and enjoy my coffee.

I don’t want to mock those whom are justifiably upset about the election results last night nor do I want to minimize their legitimate concerns. There are those whose jobs are at risk because of last night’s outcome. There are lifestyles that will be threatened. I am sympathetic, but at the same time I think that would have been true regardless- just for a different set of people.

In this month’s Coffee Break from the ministry of Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram asks us to imagine sitting around a table with some of the Bible’s greatest heroes and to picture laying our concerns out on that table. What would they say? What advice would they give? Regardless of who won last night, half of us were destined to be upset about the results, so this exercise applies to all of us.

  • Abraham would say: “Trust God” Focus on God’s promises, not the world’s problems (Romans 4:20-21)
  • Joseph would say: “Forgive the Opposition” God’s Will will prevail. (Genesis 50:20)
  • Moses would say: “Confront the Culture” The truth sets people free. (John 8:32)
  • Esther would say: “Risk Rejection” You are where you are for just a time as this. (Esther 4:14)
  • David would say: “Fight the Giants” God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. (1 Samuel 17)
  • Daniel would say: “Pray Fervently” God can move rulers and authorities through prayer. (Proverbs 21:1)
  • Paul would say: “Preach the Word” The Gospel is the only thing that can change people, cultures, and countries. (Romans 1:16)

And last but not least,

  • Jesus would say: “Go Make Disciples” Our work here is not done. (Matthew 28:18-20)

What do you think these heroes of the faith would say to you right now?

Vote Schmote

Frank

You don’t have to worry about voting tomorrow. The outcome is already determined by the results from a football field. If you think that is crazy (statistics cannot lie) some could argue the same for believing that the election results are pre-ordained, or guided by some form of supernatural providence. You could call this karma, or fate, or just open your Bible to Romans and come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what your political leanings may be- God has already chosen the victor. With such a conviction it might be tempting to sit this one out (at least it’s tempting for me). Yet despite nothing happening outside of God’s will, we are still fallen and broken humans making a choice based on feelings that therefore can only lead to an imperfect outcome.

I started a longer post, but couldn’t keep myself from ranting and raving. That’s not what this space needs and that’s not what needs to be communicated prior to Election Day. What we need are humble hearts in submission to Jesus. For the right attitude and approach, check out these posts:

And leading in to tomorrow, here are some fun quotes to keep in mind when you pull that lever:

“democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried.”
–Winston Churchill
“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time.”
-E.B. White
“Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority are ignorant.”
-John Simon
“Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.”
-Laurence J. Peter
“A democratic people gets the kind of government it deserves”
-Father Charles Coughlin (interestingly after stating “A godless people will chose a godless leader” while critiquing FDR.)

Chicken With a Side of Politics, Business, and Religion Causes Indigestion

Frank

One night while I was in college, I was pulling an all nighter with some friends when the munches came. So like any other college student, we debated what brand of cheap pizza would torment our stomachs in the morning. “I will not eat Domino’s” expressed one friend. She then explained how the CEO of Domino’s donated significant money from the company’s profits to pro-life groups. It was also right around this time that Eddie Vedder wrote “pro-choice” on his arm with a sharpie prior to playing a song on MTV. You might say this was a coming of age moment for me. No longer were brands apolitical. Even favorite musicians had an opinion; often strong ones at that. The innocence was gone.

At this time I identified more with the College Republicans than with campus ministry. The Michael P Keaton capitalist in me recognized that a private company had the right to spend their profits however they wished, just as consumers had every right to not give those companies their patronage. Musicians could hold an opinion, and listeners could choose not to buy their albums.

With this attitude in mind, I really wanted a Chick-fil-A sandwich yesterday. One, because I happened to be traveling in the Southeast and there aren’t any restaurants back where I live. And two, I thought it would make a good anecdote for this post. Unfortunately, my terminal at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport didn’t have one, so I settled for pizza instead. From Pizza Hut, not Domino’s.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to wade into this debate. The doctrinal and political leanings of Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy are not news. And I think this whole firestorm has been fed by fuel poured on by the media. Yet the heart of the issue is right in the wheelhouse of the theme of this blog- in our democratic, capitalist society, what is the best way to stand up for our convictions in the public square?

In the context of the Freedom of Speech, Cathy didn’t do anything wrong. But was it the wisest approach?

Jesus was relatively apolitical. When the Pharisees tried to trap him into speaking out against Rome, he turned the tables on the instead. Paul wrote about soldiers who don’t concern themselves in political affairs while instructing Timothy to not get wrapped up in useless quarrels and debates.

In practice I think this would allow for financial support for causes when done in private, or vocal support when independent of business. I think you get yourself in trouble when you mix the two. But then again, I think it gets messy when you mix religion and politics in the first place.

Yet you could argue this is a moral issue, not a political one. But if it were not for the politics, would we even hear about this? And since Cathy so strongly supports “traditional marriage” is he as vocal opposing divorce? Or warning against workaholism? So how should he have expressed his convictions and how should we, as Christians have responded?

Others have written plenty on this already. Matthew Paul Turner, Rachel Held Evans, Alise Wright, David Kenney are just a small sampling. And Get Religion has done an excellent and thorough job scrutinizing the media attention this has received. (In order, Where’s the Beef, The Internet Honors Stupid Stories, The Media’s Irrational Fear of Chick-fil-A, Shocking AP Quotes, Hating on Chick-fil-A)

Please review these viewpoints, the pros and cons of boycotting or “eating mor chikin”, and tell me what you think the most Christ-like approach would be.

Update: A friend of mine, who also happens to be gay (yes, it is possible for a conservative Christian to have gay friends; shocking, I know!) posted this link showing the “Top 50 homophobic Chick-fil-A tweets” on his Facebook account. I know this is polarizing, but does it necessitate this kind of response? Warning in advance, the language in those tweets are beyond crude and definitely NOT Christ-like.

(Hah! I just noticed a typo of financial was auto-corrected to fanatical, completely changing the point of that sentence. Typo corrected, carry on)

Small World, Short Life

Frank

On April 20, 1999 I was driving down to Boulder, Colorado to look for apartments for school. Once I got a few minutes out, I couldn’t get any music on my favorite radio stations. I kept flipping around trying to find music and instead only heard breaking news. I didn’t want to hear breaking news so it took a little while before I actually stopped to listen. It was the news of the Columbine shooting. In the campus ministry where I was converted, many disciples had just graduated from there, and knew the victims. My home town was also personally hit as one of the victims was there the summer before for a football camp.

In 2007, a teenager opened fire at a mall in Omaha, Nebraska, killing 9. I was there the day before.

One week later a man opened fire at a Youth With a Mission office in Arvada, Colorado, just a mile or so south from the church where I spent many Sundays early in my spiritual walk. He would later go down to Colorado Springs and open fire during a service at New Life Church. Between both locations, 4 were killed and 5 were injured.

And of course, early Friday morning a gunman opened fire at a theater in Aurora, killing a dozen and wounding almost 60 more. One brother in the campus ministry tweeted that he was going to go to the movie, at that theater, at that time, but changed his mind last minute. One of the victims was from my community and whose mom works with a sister in my church.

It’s a small world.

While we search for answers, we need to accept the reality that it could happen here. It could happen to you. It could happen to me. I don’t want to be a downer, but the reality is Jesus could return any moment, or God could call you home any time in any way. We are not promised tomorrow.

In Luke 12, Jesus taught this parable:
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”(v 16-21)

James 4 reads, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”(v 3-4)

Finally, in Hebrews 3, we read: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (v 13-15)

For whatever purpose, a sovereign God has put you exactly where he wants you to be today. Do not harden your hearts to seek his will, for today may be your last opportunity to do so.

Forgiveness

Frank

Funny how things work. Long before the Aurora shootings, I was planning on these songs from Matthew West and Tenth Avenue North to be featured for a Music Monday post. But they take on a different tone now in the aftermath. All that I was planning on writing about these songs, forget about it.

Key verses:

Show me how, to love the unlovable
Show me how, to reach the unreachable
Help me now, to do the impossible
Forgiveness
***
Seventy times seven times,
Lord it doesn’t feel right
for me to turn a blind eye,
though I guess it’s not that much
when I think of what you’ve done…
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losing

And the important story “behind the music” to Forgiveness.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

A dozen lives lost. A number that could rise in the coming days as doctors struggle to keep others alive. Seventy total shot. That is seventy times seven people directly affected: parents, siblings, spouses, children, and closest friends. Then there are those indirectly affected but only removed by a single degree of separation (more on that in another post). Add to those a full theater of witnesses.

Forgiving seventy times seven times sounds impossible. That’s the point. We need God’s grace to overcome our own reactions of anger, hatred and revenge. It sounds impossible, but it’s not. The video above testifies to the power of forgiveness. Another great example is that of the Amish in Pennsylvania who not only forgave a school shooter, but embraced his family through the pain of recovery. While that side of the story is well known, here’s an update from the other side to show just how powerful forgiveness can be.

Can we forgive James Holmes to the same degree? Even if we cannot, there is a merciful Father in heaven who can, as hard as it may be to fathom. Jesus died for him too.

Father, give me grace to forgive him. Help me to do the impossible.