I have not forgotten the Reformation adage of showing unity in the essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and charity in all things. But I wonder if all things means literally everything, or does this apply only to theological matters? I hope it is the latter, because I have trouble being charitable toward some things.
De gustibus non est disputandum. There is no accounting for taste. When the matter boils down to a difference in tastes, there is no point in arguing further. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So I hereby apologize in advance, not for my opinion, but for offending you, if such be the case, by condemning what I consider trash but what you might hold dear.
I am talking about Christian arts, crafts, and gifts. I received a catalog today from a reputable Christian book retailer. This was the Christmas gifts catalog. I was shocked by some of the things I saw.
Of course there were books, Bibles, CDs and DVDs. No surprise. And the usual: mugs, watches, and pens with crosses or fish silhouettes embossed on them. And the unusual: sword-like letter openers with Hebrews 4:12 engraved on them and 6-penny-nail cross pendants.
In the ‘questionable usefulness’ department are the rainbow Bible tabs, over-the-ear booklights, and multi-function Bible study pens featuring black pen, mechanical pencil, and red underliner.
In the ‘dollar store truckload sale’ section are resin and pewter sculptures and ornaments that, despite the Christmas themes, give black-velvet Elvis paintings a real run for their money. I think I even saw a velvet painting with an apocalyptic theme.
My favorite department was the ‘Christianity held captive by the culture’ collection of urban thug hoodies with inspirational messages and scripture verses printed on them. I liked the Bible Baseball and Bible Sudoku games too. I was especially intrigued by the Guitar Praise knockoff of Guitar Hero where you rock-till-you-drop just like the teen toker next door, only to the tunes of the Newsboys and Superchick.
Then there was the truly disgusting stuff, especially the all-weather door mat with Joshua 24:15 woven into it. The description said it has a recycled rubber base, but it did not say if it was for cleaning muddy shoes before entering or for shaking the dust off your feet when leaving.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Designer Churches
Back in the old days, maybe 30 or 40 years ago, some folks realized that transcontinental truck drivers’ chances of attending worship services were slim to none. So they hooked trailers fitted out with reefers and some seats onto their Peterbilts and Macks and traveled around to truck stops. There they invited truckers into the air-conditioned trailers to sing hymns and listen to some gospel preaching.
About the same time, some Wild One types did a similar thing, organizing Christian motorcycle clubs. At first glance it was hard to tell them from the outlaw cycle gangs because of their leathers and club insignia. They had rides and took the opportunity to present the gospel to the bikers they met at rallies around the country.
Both of these unconventional church styles consider the life circumstances of the people they intend to reach and take church to them rather than expecting them to come to church. They also meet those people on their own turf, so to speak. That is good, because a lot of churches would not put out the welcome mat for bikers and some others.
Other styles of churches have been cropping up lately. Some are being called seeker sensitive. They drop the old image of church and make it as inviting as they can. These churches offer Starbucks coffee at the door, casual dress codes, rocking bands with killer sound systems, and a hip, relevant preacher. None of that uncomfortable gospel fire and brimstone stuff here, just practical advice on how to have the best life you can work up for yourself.
In some parts of the country, cowboy churches are starting to dot the plains. It doesn’t seem to matter that there are five or six cowboy churches in a county with maybe 40 real, working-on-a-ranch cowboys. They must be importing cowboys from somewhere to fill the pews. Back in the old days, towns were full of young men wearing ten-gallon hats and boots. We called them drug store cowboys. Maybe this new bunch should be called Sunday school cowboys.
But since we are now committed to following trends and catering to every lifestyle, let me suggest a few new-style churches that some entrepreneurial pastors might consider establishing. To balance the cowboy churches, we should plant sheepherder churches. I hope they don’t have a range war.
We need newlywed churches, and bachelor churches, and gay churches (oops, already have those, don’t we?). How about churches for mechanics, retailers, television news crews, school teachers, and firefighters? You say these people already go to church with people from other walks of life and get along just fine? Get out of here! That is so un-American.
Well, then, surely we need churches for pimps and prostitutes.
About the same time, some Wild One types did a similar thing, organizing Christian motorcycle clubs. At first glance it was hard to tell them from the outlaw cycle gangs because of their leathers and club insignia. They had rides and took the opportunity to present the gospel to the bikers they met at rallies around the country.
Both of these unconventional church styles consider the life circumstances of the people they intend to reach and take church to them rather than expecting them to come to church. They also meet those people on their own turf, so to speak. That is good, because a lot of churches would not put out the welcome mat for bikers and some others.
Other styles of churches have been cropping up lately. Some are being called seeker sensitive. They drop the old image of church and make it as inviting as they can. These churches offer Starbucks coffee at the door, casual dress codes, rocking bands with killer sound systems, and a hip, relevant preacher. None of that uncomfortable gospel fire and brimstone stuff here, just practical advice on how to have the best life you can work up for yourself.
In some parts of the country, cowboy churches are starting to dot the plains. It doesn’t seem to matter that there are five or six cowboy churches in a county with maybe 40 real, working-on-a-ranch cowboys. They must be importing cowboys from somewhere to fill the pews. Back in the old days, towns were full of young men wearing ten-gallon hats and boots. We called them drug store cowboys. Maybe this new bunch should be called Sunday school cowboys.
But since we are now committed to following trends and catering to every lifestyle, let me suggest a few new-style churches that some entrepreneurial pastors might consider establishing. To balance the cowboy churches, we should plant sheepherder churches. I hope they don’t have a range war.
We need newlywed churches, and bachelor churches, and gay churches (oops, already have those, don’t we?). How about churches for mechanics, retailers, television news crews, school teachers, and firefighters? You say these people already go to church with people from other walks of life and get along just fine? Get out of here! That is so un-American.
Well, then, surely we need churches for pimps and prostitutes.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Some of Us Sacrifice More Than Others
As you recall, President Obama called for us to sacrifice for the good of the country to get the economy moving again. Why not take time out to call the White House and thank the president for his most recent sacrifice?
Our president has been working very hard the last six months. He continued his campaign for president right on past the inauguration. He has travelled to the Middle East and Europe, where he sampled the good life in gay Paree. He has been busy calling up more troops for Afghanistan as part of his promise to get us out of Iraq. He came up with a plan to socialize medicine in this country, a plan that apparently would deny care to many more than the 46 million who do not have health insurance. He deserves a vacation.
And he is taking one in Martha’s Vineyard. Just the place for a man of the people, a poor kid from Chicago. And to turn aside criticism, he is picking up the tab himself for the $40,000 per week vacation home where he and the family are staying. What a sacrifice for the little guy in America! What an example for the city sewer department worker who was laid off from his $18,000 a year job. Where did he get all that money? He did not save it from his year and a half as Senator, did he? Wasn’t he a community organizer before that?
What is it about these populist Democratic Party politicians that talk so movingly about the plight of the working class while condemning the heartless, capitalist Republicans, but act like the Soviet Union’s party apparatchiks who watched from gilded penthouses as the people lined up for hours to get a loaf of stale bread. Remember Bill Clinton’s holding up airline flights in Los Angeles so he could get a $400 haircut? He and Obama would tell you they feel our pain.
Sometimes I think we would be much better off if we had a national lottery to pick our president from among Texas farmers or Pennsylvania Amish or Wyoming cowboys.
Our president has been working very hard the last six months. He continued his campaign for president right on past the inauguration. He has travelled to the Middle East and Europe, where he sampled the good life in gay Paree. He has been busy calling up more troops for Afghanistan as part of his promise to get us out of Iraq. He came up with a plan to socialize medicine in this country, a plan that apparently would deny care to many more than the 46 million who do not have health insurance. He deserves a vacation.
And he is taking one in Martha’s Vineyard. Just the place for a man of the people, a poor kid from Chicago. And to turn aside criticism, he is picking up the tab himself for the $40,000 per week vacation home where he and the family are staying. What a sacrifice for the little guy in America! What an example for the city sewer department worker who was laid off from his $18,000 a year job. Where did he get all that money? He did not save it from his year and a half as Senator, did he? Wasn’t he a community organizer before that?
What is it about these populist Democratic Party politicians that talk so movingly about the plight of the working class while condemning the heartless, capitalist Republicans, but act like the Soviet Union’s party apparatchiks who watched from gilded penthouses as the people lined up for hours to get a loaf of stale bread. Remember Bill Clinton’s holding up airline flights in Los Angeles so he could get a $400 haircut? He and Obama would tell you they feel our pain.
Sometimes I think we would be much better off if we had a national lottery to pick our president from among Texas farmers or Pennsylvania Amish or Wyoming cowboys.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Strange Bedfellows
The Baptist Standard is the newspaper issued by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. On a visit to its web site, I could not help noticing how much coverage it gives to Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter seems an unlikely Baptist. Most Baptists are pretty conservative, and it would be a stretch to accuse Jimmy Carter of conservatism. It is becoming difficult to think of him as a Baptist.
In fact, Jimmy Carter has, on at least two occasions if memory serves, resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention. Now an individual cannot resign from the SBC, because individuals are not members of it. Churches associate with the SBC on a volunteer basis. A local congregation can withdraw from cooperation with the convention, but not an individual. Carter was just thumbing his nose at the SBC for the coverage that the press releases gave him.
The Southern Baptist Convention has moved back to its roots as a conservative, Bible-believing group over the last 30 years. Carter has been a member of an SBC affiliated church in Georgia for much longer. But his liberalism is at odds with the beliefs of most Baptists, hence his occasional fits of pique aimed at the SBC.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas has been moving to the left since before the SBC moved back to the right. Its animosity toward, and ongoing sniping at, the traditional Baptist ways embodied in the SBC has been reflected in its state paper, the Baptist Standard. That seems to be the reason the Baptist Standard gives so much space to 'news' about Jimmy Carter. It even printed an article favorable to Sen. Edward Kennedy, though one might expect that following the senator's death.
The general ill temper found in the BGCT and exposed in the pages of the Baptist Standard might have contributed to divisions among Texas Baptists. First was the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a national group formed for liberal Baptists to exile themselves from the SBC. The CBF is editorially praised by the Standard. Another was the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, formed by conservative Texas Baptists who were pleased to remain loyal to the SBC and increasingly disappointed by the left-leaning BGCT.
So you have Jimmy Carter, who would apparently fit in and be comfortable in Barack Obama's church in Chicago where Rev. Jeremiah Wright was pastor, but he remains a Baptist, though not a Southern Baptist according to his frequent announcements to that effect. And you have the Baptist Standard and the BGCT, staunch critics of the SBC, who remain a part of the national convention anyway. Strange bedfellows.
Jimmy Carter seems an unlikely Baptist. Most Baptists are pretty conservative, and it would be a stretch to accuse Jimmy Carter of conservatism. It is becoming difficult to think of him as a Baptist.
In fact, Jimmy Carter has, on at least two occasions if memory serves, resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention. Now an individual cannot resign from the SBC, because individuals are not members of it. Churches associate with the SBC on a volunteer basis. A local congregation can withdraw from cooperation with the convention, but not an individual. Carter was just thumbing his nose at the SBC for the coverage that the press releases gave him.
The Southern Baptist Convention has moved back to its roots as a conservative, Bible-believing group over the last 30 years. Carter has been a member of an SBC affiliated church in Georgia for much longer. But his liberalism is at odds with the beliefs of most Baptists, hence his occasional fits of pique aimed at the SBC.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas has been moving to the left since before the SBC moved back to the right. Its animosity toward, and ongoing sniping at, the traditional Baptist ways embodied in the SBC has been reflected in its state paper, the Baptist Standard. That seems to be the reason the Baptist Standard gives so much space to 'news' about Jimmy Carter. It even printed an article favorable to Sen. Edward Kennedy, though one might expect that following the senator's death.
The general ill temper found in the BGCT and exposed in the pages of the Baptist Standard might have contributed to divisions among Texas Baptists. First was the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a national group formed for liberal Baptists to exile themselves from the SBC. The CBF is editorially praised by the Standard. Another was the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, formed by conservative Texas Baptists who were pleased to remain loyal to the SBC and increasingly disappointed by the left-leaning BGCT.
So you have Jimmy Carter, who would apparently fit in and be comfortable in Barack Obama's church in Chicago where Rev. Jeremiah Wright was pastor, but he remains a Baptist, though not a Southern Baptist according to his frequent announcements to that effect. And you have the Baptist Standard and the BGCT, staunch critics of the SBC, who remain a part of the national convention anyway. Strange bedfellows.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Rabid
I was looking at one of those group forums the other day. This one was of people interested in religious things.
This is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, and there has been much discussion of his life and works. Some of the opponents of Calvin’s theological views, back in the day, tagged his five points of doctrine with the acronym TULIP. That stands for Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. Coming from his opponents, the word was intended to discredit Calvin’s theology, but the term stuck as a way of describing Calvinism.
In much the same way, early Baptists were called Baptists by those who considered them unorthodox. The group refused baptism to infants, administering baptism only to those who gave a credible testimony to their conversion and faith in Christ. The moniker stuck and is now used proudly by those who call themselves Baptists.
The particular forum thread I was reading was about fundamentalism. Fundamentalism reduces belief and practice to a fundamental core of doctrine. The movement began in the early 20th Century in reaction to a growing liberalism among the churches. It was a movement to stand firm on traditional, orthodox doctrine.
Like so many movements, a group of extremists gave it a bad reputation, and today “fundamentalist” has a bad connotation, used not only of some conservative Christians, but of Islamist suicide bombers as well. While Fundamentalists are good, though now rare, fundamentalists are considered bad, but most people do not discern the difference between (F & f)undamentalists. The forum group was mainly discussing the bad behavior of fundamentalists.
Back to the forum discussion, someone mentioned five key tenets of Christian Fundamentalism. Two or three others filled in the details as 1. the Deity of Christ, 2. the Virgin birth, 3. Atonement by the blood of Christ, 4. the bodily Resurrection of Christ, and 5. the Inerrancy of scripture.
Someone asked if there was an acronym for these as in Calvinism. One wag thought about it for a while and offered this catchy mnemonic: RABID.
This is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, and there has been much discussion of his life and works. Some of the opponents of Calvin’s theological views, back in the day, tagged his five points of doctrine with the acronym TULIP. That stands for Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. Coming from his opponents, the word was intended to discredit Calvin’s theology, but the term stuck as a way of describing Calvinism.
In much the same way, early Baptists were called Baptists by those who considered them unorthodox. The group refused baptism to infants, administering baptism only to those who gave a credible testimony to their conversion and faith in Christ. The moniker stuck and is now used proudly by those who call themselves Baptists.
The particular forum thread I was reading was about fundamentalism. Fundamentalism reduces belief and practice to a fundamental core of doctrine. The movement began in the early 20th Century in reaction to a growing liberalism among the churches. It was a movement to stand firm on traditional, orthodox doctrine.
Like so many movements, a group of extremists gave it a bad reputation, and today “fundamentalist” has a bad connotation, used not only of some conservative Christians, but of Islamist suicide bombers as well. While Fundamentalists are good, though now rare, fundamentalists are considered bad, but most people do not discern the difference between (F & f)undamentalists. The forum group was mainly discussing the bad behavior of fundamentalists.
Back to the forum discussion, someone mentioned five key tenets of Christian Fundamentalism. Two or three others filled in the details as 1. the Deity of Christ, 2. the Virgin birth, 3. Atonement by the blood of Christ, 4. the bodily Resurrection of Christ, and 5. the Inerrancy of scripture.
Someone asked if there was an acronym for these as in Calvinism. One wag thought about it for a while and offered this catchy mnemonic: RABID.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Word Swapping
Certain words lend themselves to confusion and misuse. Their, there, and they’re regularly substitute for each other. Likewise, its and it’s, an and and, where and were, and to, two, and too are often found working in each other’s stead. The list is long and growing.
I have noticed a new group recently: sight, cite, and site. I read a blog recently where the author spoke of a previous article on his Web sight. In the same blog, he wrote of something as a sin in the site of God. A recent newspaper article reported a government official sighting financial concerns and refusing to accept another failure.
This sort of misuse is rampant on the internet. We visit Web sites for shopping, news, gossip, and information. Blogs are favorite fare, and they are fertile grounds for typographical errors, misspellings, errors in grammar and usage, and word swapping. While books and magazines are checked and double- and triple-checked for these mistakes, blogs are produced and published “on the fly.” Some guy takes five minutes from his busy schedule at work to dash off a blog to express his opinion on the latest fashion trend or political move. He hits the send button and it is out there in cyberspace. Nobody proofreads or edits it beforehand. In many cases, it is obvious that he did not even read it himself before sending it.
Language changes over time, but until now the change has been slow enough not to confuse anyone too (to?) much during his lifetime. For example, the Authorized Version of the Bible was still understandable to most people over 300 years after its (it’s?) publication. It became unintelligible only in the last 50 years, probably due to an orientation to (too?) images instead of words and a ten-minute attention span engendered by television.
The 20th Century saw accelerating change in the English language. Technology added words, teens invented slang, and now instant communication that bypasses traditional media are used more and more without the safeguards of editorial quality control. Add to that the invention of language specific to a purpose, such as texting, instant messaging, and tweeting. These have become the chosen means of communication for a generation whose (who’s?) extraordinary prowess in Mafia Wars or Guitar Hero is exceeded only by its (it’s?) monumental ignorance of literature and history. Where CUL8R can be substituted for a complete sentence, anything becomes permissible and word swapping might quickly become the norm rather than an aberration.
Sea ewe l8r.
I have noticed a new group recently: sight, cite, and site. I read a blog recently where the author spoke of a previous article on his Web sight. In the same blog, he wrote of something as a sin in the site of God. A recent newspaper article reported a government official sighting financial concerns and refusing to accept another failure.
This sort of misuse is rampant on the internet. We visit Web sites for shopping, news, gossip, and information. Blogs are favorite fare, and they are fertile grounds for typographical errors, misspellings, errors in grammar and usage, and word swapping. While books and magazines are checked and double- and triple-checked for these mistakes, blogs are produced and published “on the fly.” Some guy takes five minutes from his busy schedule at work to dash off a blog to express his opinion on the latest fashion trend or political move. He hits the send button and it is out there in cyberspace. Nobody proofreads or edits it beforehand. In many cases, it is obvious that he did not even read it himself before sending it.
Language changes over time, but until now the change has been slow enough not to confuse anyone too (to?) much during his lifetime. For example, the Authorized Version of the Bible was still understandable to most people over 300 years after its (it’s?) publication. It became unintelligible only in the last 50 years, probably due to an orientation to (too?) images instead of words and a ten-minute attention span engendered by television.
The 20th Century saw accelerating change in the English language. Technology added words, teens invented slang, and now instant communication that bypasses traditional media are used more and more without the safeguards of editorial quality control. Add to that the invention of language specific to a purpose, such as texting, instant messaging, and tweeting. These have become the chosen means of communication for a generation whose (who’s?) extraordinary prowess in Mafia Wars or Guitar Hero is exceeded only by its (it’s?) monumental ignorance of literature and history. Where CUL8R can be substituted for a complete sentence, anything becomes permissible and word swapping might quickly become the norm rather than an aberration.
Sea ewe l8r.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Beyond Petroleum, Beyond Belief
BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, has lately been airing TV commercials touting their commitment to the environment and alternate energy sources. One series of commercials suggested that only BP gas stations are clean enough for the motoring public. They want us to believe they care for us. Others suggest that BP is a ‘green’ company, safeguarding the environment.
In recent years, however, we have heard about BP’s allowing the Alaska Pipeline to become corroded until there was a huge spill. It is reported that BP intimidated, harassed, and destroyed the reputations of pipeline inspectors to keep the problem quiet and unsolved. When the pipeline spill occurred, BP was accused of timing its response to make a windfall profit, raising the price of oil by over two dollars a barrel. Also, BP allowed conditions at a Texas City, Texas refinery to deteriorate until a disaster happened there. They also pollute Lake Michigan with byproducts from an Indiana refinery. The list goes on.
BP is only one bad guy among many. And they are not alone when it comes to pretending to be a good neighbor while acting irresponsibly. Their actions are inexcusable, but the most irksome part of it all is their hypocrisy. They wink and say they are on your side, then shovel manure onto your dinner plate.
Beyond Petroleum, Beyond Belief
BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, has lately been airing TV commercials touting their commitment to the environment and alternate energy sources. One series of commercials suggested that only BP gas stations are clean enough for the motoring public. They want us to believe they care for us. Others suggest that BP is a ‘green’ company, safeguarding the environment.
In recent years, however, we have heard about BP’s allowing the Alaska Pipeline to become corroded until there was a huge spill. It is reported that BP intimidated, harassed, and destroyed the reputations of pipeline inspectors to keep the problem quiet and unsolved. When the pipeline spill occurred, BP was accused of timing its response to make a windfall profit, raising the price of oil by over two dollars a barrel. Also, BP allowed conditions at a Texas City, Texas refinery to deteriorate until a disaster happened there. They also pollute Lake Michigan with byproducts from an Indiana refinery. The list goes on.
BP is only one bad guy among many. And they are not alone when it comes to pretending to be a good neighbor while acting irresponsibly. Their actions are inexcusable, but the most irksome part of it all is their hypocrisy. They wink and say they are on your side, then shovel manure onto your dinner plate.
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