Thoughts About The Church: Post 3

In times of presidential campaigning, such as now, I often fall for a certain candidate. I find myself asking questions such as; “Which candidate is ‘God’s man’ for the White House?” Yancey replies; “I have difficulty imagining [God] pondering whether Tiberius, Octavious, or Julius Caesar was ‘God’s man’ for the empire. The politics of Rome were virtually irrelevant to the kingdom of God.”

Thoughts About The Church: Post 2

Why are the words “evangelical” and “religious right” interchangeable? Why is “evangelical” defined as “someone who supports family values and opposed homosexual rights and abortion”? These are questions that Yancey poses in a book he wrote over ten years ago called, “The Jesus I Never Knew”. It is disconcerting to me that one can ask these questions ten years ago and that they are still pertinent today. The gospel of Jesus did not look like this. I guess I just don't think that the church (myself included) should be known for simply passing laws to enforce morality. I acknowledge that passing laws is good and necessary and anarchy is bad and all - it’s just that there has to be a better way. I have to believe it is better that we the church devote ourselves to something that actually solves the problem of the human condition instead of simply making that condition illegal. “We must continually ask ourselves: Is our first aim to change our government or to see lives in and out of government changed for Christ?” (Yancey)

Thoughts About The Church: Post 1

Over the next few days I intend to post several short writing that were inspired by Derek Webb, the documentary Jesus Camp, and Philip Yancey. The following is the first of those posts.

So I purchased the newest Derek Webb album recently. Nothing stirs me up about the state of the Church in America like Derek Webb. Sometimes when I look around at the Church, Christ’s bride, I want to avert my eyes. I watched the documentary Jesus Camp recently and you know, the church featured in Lees Summit, MO (a suburb of Kansas City, where I live) wasn’t really so disturbing to me when compared to the clips of Ted Haggard. I don’t think it would have even mattered if the scandal involving Haggard had been uncovered or not, red flags went up for me when he spoke.

It was Jesus’ intent to depart, to ascend, from the beginning in order to carry on his work in the bodies of his disciples and the body of his church, which is the new body of Christ. As St. Augustine said, “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hears.” It is beautiful language that conveys the truth of the church being where Christ lives. It is God’s plan to extend the healing, grace, the message of God’s love, that Christ brought to a few, through the church. But Philip Yancey makes a profound observation, “Living two millennia after the disciples, I look back and marvel at how little difference the church has made in such a world.” Yancey also comments on how he finds it much easier to believe that Christ incarnated as God into Jesus of Nazareth than in the people who attend American churches.

I see such an emphasis on politics in the evangelical church. I hear voices like Ted Haggard who say, “If the Evangelicals vote, they determine the election” (from “Jesus Camp). Yancey says it better than I can; “Political movements risk pulling onto themselves the mantel of power that smothers love. From Jesus I learned that, whatever activism I get involved in, it must not drive out love and humility, not otherwise I betray the kingdom of heaven.” The truth of this statement resonates in my heart. As Right and Left struggle to gain power, love is lost. The power of God’s kingdom is much more like a force that goes unnoticed. It works from within.

I'm sorry Dr. Dobson

Yesterday, I received the weekly newsletter that I subscribe to from Sojourners in my inbox. The title was Dr. Dobson, Let’s Have a Real Debate Instantly, my interests were stirred. I am sorry to say that they were stirred but they were nonetheless. It’s just that I have learned some things about Dr. James Dobson in the last year or so that caused me to be a bit leary or aprehensive of him, so I was interested in this curious title. See I grew up with Dobson and the ever-present Focus on the Family (his organization) in my own family probably sense the womb. He was the guy on the radio whose show always seemed to be on, no matter when we were driving. It was either Dobson or oldies when in the car. Also, my parents got his newsletters, his magazine, Focus on the Family radio theater and Focus on the Family movies. I recall all of it being great stuff and believing Dr. Dobson to be one of the most valued Evangelical leaders of this day in age. First Billy Graham, then Dr. James Dobson. If one of those guys died I knew we would be in trouble. But I moved out of my Focus on the Family saturated home and I started to see Dobson’s face show up in places I wasn’t as familiar with. Political places. I started to hear his name slandered by gay people I met and democrats in the media. And I wasn’t all that surprised that he was being slandered either. I wouldn’t be very happy with Dr. Dobson if I was gay or if I were democrat for that matter. I guess I started to disagree with Dobson a bit too, probably about the time I started to learn more about what “Right Wing Evangelical” meant. So, upon reading his name in a liberal Christian publication I became quite curious and I am I am sorry to say that I was courious in a gossipy way. I feel badly about it because I knew I was about to find some ammunition that I could use against the man who was the background music to much of my evangelical childhood and for some reason. I guess felt like I needed some.

The Sojourners newsletter begins with a quote about impeaching our president, in typical Sojourners fashion, then proceeds with the story I was eager to read; “Last week, James Dobson and a number of other Religious Right leaders wrote a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals, claiming that work on climate change was a distraction from ‘the great moral issues of our time.’” And terrible of me though it was, I found there my own justification to slander Dr. Dobson.

I read on to find that Jim Wallis, who is the Sojourners guy, Brian McLaren, another guy who write for Sojourners quite a bit, and a bunch of others are inviting Dobson to debate the question, “What are the great moral issues of out time for evangelical Christians?” This debate sounded pretty good to me as I read it for the first time, but the shenanigans of my brain did not last much longer. I began to wonder why I was encouraged to find that Liberal Evangelicals are now strong enough to engage the Religious Right? I began to wonder, “Oh my God, what is happening?” I began to see this debate as a further struggle for more power or a struggle to be seen as more powerful in this culture in order to make more progress for whichever cause it is that the side is fighting for. But what good is more power? Do we really think God views one side as more powerful than the other? This is nothing but divisiveness extending itself further into Evangelicalism.

I have been reading a book, slowly, that I have read before, and as a result it has been featured a few other times in this “Grace to Upend” blog. It’s a book by Donald Miller called “Searching For God Knows What”. I want to include a few passages from that book that spoke directly to me about this issue.

“Paul loved the people he had previously hated; he began to take the message of forgiveness to Jews and to Gentiles, to male and to female, to pagans and prostitutes. At no point does he waste his time lobbying government for a moral agenda. Nobody in Scripture who knew Jesus wasted their time with any of this; they built the church, they loved people.”

“Morality in this way, can be a circus act, giving a person a feeling of superiority.”

“I think most Christians . . . want to love people and obey God but feel they have to wage a culture war. But this isn’t the case at all. Remember, we are not elbowing for power in the lifeboat.”

I spoke with my Dad on the phone last night. My Dad is a fairly brilliant man, so I thought I would talk to him a bit about this complicated issue. He told me right away who he agreed with; not Dobson and not Sojourners, but he agreed with Donald Miller. He also told that he admires James Dobson for some of the tremendous work he has done but when it comes to Dobson’s political agenda I guess my Dad would call him a bit of a clanging gong. I told my Dad I was angry at the whole situation and he me that I should not judge Dobson for his political agenda or judge Wallis and the rest of Sojourners for that matter. It makes sense really. As a judge of Dobson or of Wallis I accomplish nothing. I ended being just like them in that I am choosing sides. Apparently my Dad used to keep up with the Christian politics and used to act on some strong opinions, but he doesn’t anymore and hasn’t done so for a while. He doesn’t know the reason he stopped, he just stopped doing it and he tries to do what our friend Donald Miller talks about, build the church, love people. The rest is just noise.

Like I said my Dad is pretty brilliant. Maybe wise is a better choice of words. Either way, I think I am going to align myself with my Dad’s thinking on this one. I am going to listen to Miller as he points to Scripture and asks me what I find in the person of Jesus. Love Dr. Dobson, love Sojourners, build the church, love people.