Tried With Fire

I started Body Broken yesterday and finished it this morning. I ordered a used physical copy because there are too many good passages that need to be underlined, passages like this one: "If the crucified and risen Messiah cannot hold Democrats and Republicans together under the same roof, if he cannot enable them to work through their differences, then he is not much of a Savior - he certainly is not the Messiah of the world. Stories like Woodland Hills 1 "prove" that in the final analysis, we are a social organization just like any other social organization - united by the same sort of bonds that unite other human groups, and apt to dissolve for the same reasons that other human groups dissolve. This is more than unfortunate. It is disobedient, a betrayal of our Saviour, the cause of which he has called us, and the purpose for which he died. It proves that we have allowed our vision of America to capture our hearts more deeply than God's vision for us as his amba...

I normally don't read from my Kindle so I forget what books I've downloaded, usually ones that were free. As I was skimming the index, I found this book - Body Broken: Can Republicans and Democrats Sit in the Same Pew? by Charles Drew. I am not looking forward to the upcoming election cycle. If we are already this polarized, can it get any worse? So I started reading. Those who bemoan the moral and social disintegration of American culture are often right. But when they speak to us in such a way as to stir up fear and panic in our hearts, they are wrong. God reigns, and therefore we need not - we must not - be afraid as we exercise our civic responsibilities no matter what seems to be going on around us. Consider the damage panic can bring. First of all, panic impairs judgment. If we give in to the voice that cries "Act now, or our great country will the forever lost!" we will find ourselves demanding easy and quick solutions to our nation's problems, when in...

pg. 272, Please don't try this at home. American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism , Matthew Avery Sutton, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014, 459 pages. About 10-11 years ago, I underwent a major theological shift from Arminianism to Calvinism and eventually becoming confessionally reformed (if LBC 1689 counts.) Because of this change, I felt compelled to find the answer to this question, "Why did I believe what I used to believe?" So I began to read church history specifically of the late 19th and 20th centuries. But the more I read, I realized that other forces shaped the formation of American Christianity. So my reading broadened beyond the history of the church to the history of the nation. American Apocalypse is the latest of these books that I have fondly categorized as -  grimly fascinating.  Different historians have looked at the rise of fundamentalism and evangelicalism from different angles such as the Scopes trial 1 or the ...

This is an excerpt from Tempting Faith by David Kuo, quoted in Believe Me    by John Fea. Kuo served in George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. As a conservative, pro-life Christian, he wanted to serve the poor and believed this political position would help him influence policy towards a more "compassionate conservatism." Kuo quickly learned that power and compassion do not mix very well. His efforts were largely ignored unless there was political gain to be had, and any influence from Christian leaders was token. "Making politically active Christians personally happy meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda." This involved inviting them to events as part of the crowd and giving them "little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper" to take home and show "just how influential they were." For... the White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not peo...

After many nights of working in the evening, I've had a break. It's been nice to be able to relax after the dishes are done and read "depressing books about where America has gone wrong." That is my daughter's opinion of some of my reading material. It's not that I like reading depressing books. I want to understand the mindsets and fears that led us to where we are today. My current "depressing" book is One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse. "Grimly fascinating" would be a better descriptor, though. It's fascinating to learn how easily America was satisfied with civil religion. The generic nature of God didn't seem to bother many people as long as "God" was mentioned in some vague way. But this casual appropriation of God is rather grim and led to a syncretistic mishmash of outward practice minus any theological foundation. During Eisenhower's campaign for the presidency, he "vowed to take the vague religion ...

I tend to be careful about airing my political opinions because it can be so divisive. However, I need to get these thoughts out of my head or I will have trouble sleeping again tonight. These are my opinions. Feel free to form your own. The cognitive dissonance must be off the chart when professing Christians, who make a big show of being pro-family and pro-life: 1. Are instrumental in electing a sexual predator to the highest office in the land. 2. Feel torn between losing a senate seat and electing an alleged pedophile. This has flabbergasted me even prior to last year's election, and I continue to be astounded as self-appointed Court Evangelicals 1 make a trumpery (yes, I used that word intentionally) of Christianity. But I am also troubled that average professing Christians are more  willing to turn a blind eye to what would be condemned in someone of the opposing political party. At this point, being a "Christian" or an "Evangelical" is rapidly ...

This is a link to Kim Riddlebarger's article - Civil Religion: The Chief Rival to Biblical Christianity . Given the press about the "evangelical" vote in the last election and that many "evangelical leaders" vie for  political connections for the sake of "Christianity," I think Riddlebarger's warning is worth considering. It is very interesting that in his first paragraph, he argues that those who buy into the "Christian America" myth and those who are uncomfortable with exclusive Christian truth claims are both pursuing a form of civil religion. My first impression would be that the myth crowd would be on opposing sides from the non-exclusive truth claim group, but perhaps they have much more in common. While the myth crowd claims to be under the authority of God's Word (see 2nd paragraph quoted below), does one have to compromise the truth at some level to maintain the myth? Also are both groups looking for affirmation and power wi...

I was in the 5th grade at my elementary school. I don't remember much about the actual building, but I remember the stairwells. Metal hand rails with chipped paint, well-worn steps, and the combined odor of sneakers and Janitor-in-a-Drum. There were swinging wooden doors with glass panels at each floor so you could see if someone was on the opposite side and not knock them over by accident. I was getting ready to go down the stairs and was in the process of pushing the stairwell door when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I will never forget the shock when I saw my face. I saw an Asian girl with glasses looking back at me. It may sound crazy, but I was so used to being around white kids that I forgot I was Chinese. I don't know what I expected to see, but it wasn't me. The Immigration Act of 1965 had been in place for several years, but you could still count the Asian families on one hand. White students outnumbered black students probably 5:1, if not more...

There's always been a level of syncretism in this nation where Christianity and patriotism become so intertwined that America begins to don the mantle as God's chosen people. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be on the rise again. Thus I found this quote from George Marsden very interesting: 1 America's religious heritage also contributed to a sort of deification of the national enterprise. In recent years, this tendency, first seen during the American Revolution, has been tagged "civil religion." Civil religion is the attributing of sacred character to the nation itself. Throughout history rulers had claimed divine sanction either by saying they themselves were divine (as Roman emperors did) or that they were chosen by the God or gods of the nation... But now America had a problem. How could they claim religious sanction for their nation? Thomas Paine, for instance, was a notorious infidel. After the Revolution he authored scathing attacks on Christian...

I had several hours last Friday morning with nothing to do but read. What a treat! So I started reading  Religion and American Culture by George Marsden, which was languishing in my to-be-read stack. The main reason I read history is to try to understand why we think the way we do today, and this book did not disappoint. The following quote is from chapter 3 - Protestant and Progressive America: 1860-1917 : The standard view, still taught in both college economic texts and in popular literature after the Civil War, was built upon the premise that God created the world with a system of rewards and punishments. People who worked were rewarded, while lazy or profligate people suffered from poverty. The right to own private property was considered a sacred right, since it was essential to the operation of the reward system. It was important also not to interfere with the natural mechanism, as in strikes or government interference. Charity was an important duty toward the truly ...

Several years ago, we helped my parents move to an independent living facility. For those of you who have moved elderly parents, you know what it's like. If your parents lived through the Great Depression or a similar economically trying circumstance, you also know the added challenge. Not only is there the accumulation of decades' worth of stuff, nothing is thrown away for fear it might be needed. Consequently we sorted through trunks, boxes, and bags not sure of what we would find. There were treasures such as correspondence between my dad and his siblings during his college days. But there were also many items over which we just shook our heads and then tossed into the trash. This wasn't my junk. I didn't tuck it away in the attic, but it was my problem because it was my family. I was talking to my daughter recently about the difficulty in discussing racial issues among Christians. Some think others are making it out to be more of a problem than it currently is....

But if a Christian is consecrated, does this mean he will be in a big place instead of a little place? The answer, the next step, is very important: As there are no little people in God’s sight, so there are no little places. To be wholly committed to God in the place where God wants him—this is the creature glorified. In my writing and lecturing I put much emphasis on God’s being the infinite reference point which integrates the intellectual problems of life. He is to be this, but he must be the reference point not only in our thinking but in our living. This means being what he wants me to be, where he wants me to be. Nowhere more than in America are Christians caught in the twentieth-century syndrome of size. Size will show success. If I am consecrated, there will necessarily be large quantities of people, dollars, etc. This is not so. Not only does God not say that size and spiritual power go together, but he even reverses this (especially in the teaching of Jesus) and tells us t...