faithasawayoflife

best review title of my book Faith as a Way of Life

Lance Logan, the Youth and Family pastor at Montgomery Church of Christ in Albuquerque, NM writes this in a pastoral letter to the congregation.  I feel out of my chair laughing, having lived in the south and eaten many times at Waffle House.  If you haven't, it might not seem so funny. 

Gathered & Scattered is not an order at Waffle House

Several times a year I’ll sit down at a Waffle House with some good friends of faith to eat a meal and discuss theol-ogy and life . Only at Waffle House is ordering interesting. Consider some of the ways you can order hash browns: smothered, peppered, scattered and who knows what all. During these meals my youth minister buds and I talk about ministry or life woes. Recently we talked about common remedies to faith illnesses that don’t work. Let me share one.

It would seem that conventional thought on how to “recover” or “move out of” spiritual weakness is simply to get serious about your faith. Getting serious about your faith is often translated into being at church more.

Great effort is put into the endless activities and opportunities to connect at church. When individuals don’t have a great commitment to these activities a snap judgment by other Christians can be made that others will not grow deeper in their faith. It doesn’t take long to evaluate that long hours spent at church does not equal increased faith.

Christian Scharen shares, “faith is lived out in daily life. Church, therefore, plays its part—but faithfulness does not equal hours clocked under the shadow of its steeple.” Faith is not simply a time frame found within your week.

Anon, and peace :-)
Chris

Problem-based seminary education

I love Mark C. Taylor's bracing and imaginative proposal for changing higher education in today's NYT.  and it has obvious parallels to theological education.  What if, as he proposes, we abolished departments and instead focused our work around the challenges we face in this time of contested faith? Mission, and not matainence then comes to the fore. The actual leadership needs of our students, and not our academic disciplines then come to the fore. Hmm.  It connects deeply to the conversations I've been trying to start about how practical theology ought to learn from and work alongside what Paul Rabinow and others are doing in the anthropology of the contemporary.
Here is Paul Rabinow giving a lecture on this topic at Oxford last year.

Anon and peace,
Chris

More (and louder) atheists?

An interesting article from the NYT about atheists discovering the joys of congregating. Something we Christians care about and have lots of experience with. Perhaps we can have a dialog about that!

However, the article shows a graph stating the rise in 'atheists' to 15% of the U.S. population. While the numbers are growing, the actual number of 'atheists' is fairly low compared to the total number of people who say they have 'no preference' (see the huge Pew study of religious affiliation last year). While the Pew study shows nearly 16% of Americans chose 'no preference' in terms of religious affiliation, among that group the number who pick 'atheist' is under 2%.

I've had two comments on my series on atheism in lent (see here) from self-proclaimed atheists. One was grateful for my thoughtful engagement with the reasons for non-belief and the other was hacked off that I'd 'use' an atheist song for 'Christian purposes.' And they were comments on the same post! Just makes my point about how there is not an 'atheism' but 'atheisms', that is, particular sorts of rejections of God and faith.

Anon, and peace,
Chris

Preach Christ Risen or Sit Down: An Easter Rant

I've heard some fine preaching this Easter season. Not once has someone taken on the obvious question, however.  The one about Jesus actually being raised, I mean.  I hear a lot of preaching. Sundays plus every day at chapel. Saturday is a merciful break from the barrage of 'good news.'  Phew.  If I have to find ways to see metaphorical 'resurrection' in my life or in the world around me one more time, I think I'll keel over in need of some actual raising.

I sort of expect it from the more or less liberal Protestant leaning of the Christian tribe in which I have grown up and live now as a pastor and teacher (Lutheran, if you don't know).  Yesterday, however, it really hit me. This thing has to be dealt with head on because Jesus won't let us get a way with turning his resurrection into a metaphor.  In the Gospel from Luke yesterday:

"Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.  Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

After that, just to pound the message into their famously thick skulls, he asked for something to eat and they gave him a piece of fish, which he ate.  Then they had bible study.

 I think sometimes our preaching has within it a kind of closet atheism. Or at least a kind of sly self-despising. 'We don't actually believe that (embarrassed smirk).  But it is a powerful metaphor, though, kinda like spring.' So then our Easter preaching can become more or less about our blooming, and that can look a lot like Joel Olsteen cheering us on as we live 'our best life now.'  Or about moments of 'life' shining through, and they are touching moments, believe me.  It is just not very well connected to the totally unexpected and quite unsettling fact of Jesus raised, flesh and bones.  We just don't seem to know  what to do with that kind of crazy story. It seemed crazy to the biblical writers, so I don't know why we can't approach it with wonder and questions, instead of feeling like we need to 'bury' it in metaphors.  I continue to think a key aspect of preaching for mission, that is, to those who don't believe or who have rejected the church, deeply connects with those present in church who've half-left but continue to come, fragile faith, barely believing, wanting help in making sense of the confusion of their life. The sweet stories, the metaphors, are like candy. They taste good but don't last. The sugar high wears off in the face of the real pain of our lives and the horrors and brokenness of the world. For all its drama, I do think Paul has a point in in his letter to the church in Corinth. 

"Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there's no resurrection, there's no living Christ. And face it—if there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked your life on is smoke and mirrors."

I used to take a line from the creed I had trouble believing and find a book about it to read for Lent.  One year, the line was "I believe in the resurrection of the body".   I read a little book by Ruben Alves, a Brazilian poet and theologian, titled I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body (Fortress, 1986).  I mostly don't remember his arguments, although I remember being very moved by the book as a whole.  However, one thing has stuck with me.  He made the connection between the suffering of the poor in Latin America and the promise of the resurrection in such a way that I felt like doubting it was a luxury of the well-off. Those whose bodies were torn apart by repressive regimes in the 1970s and 1980s (Chile, for example, or Alves' own Brazil) don't want a metaphorical resurrection, a spiritual 'Spring' in which to bloom. No, Alves wrote so hauntingly and powerfully, the promise is actually a resurrection of the body.

Anon, and peace,
Chris

Frank Rich nails it: the US tortured to build the case for invading Iraq

In my class on worship and ethics, we read William Cavanaugh's Torture and Eucharist, a book about Chilie under General Pinochet.  One comparison students made with the US was that while in Chile the torture was to gain false confessions renouncing communist or marxist allegiance, in the US the object was information that would keep us safe from future terrorist attacks.  Frank Rich's amazingly clear case, built in the op-ed he has in today's NYT, shows our government's reason for torture (enhanced interrogation techniques) shifted in the aftermath of 9/11.  Early on traditional interrogation techniques were used to gain such "protective" intellegence.  But as pressure grew internally to make the case for invading Iraq, the aim shifted and torture methods were okay'd in order to gain 'proof' of the Iraq-Al Qeada connection. They cynically believed that only such information would turn the fearful US 100% behind the administration's desire to overthrow Sadam Hussein. 

Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality.

Read the rest of Rich's column here.

We're in the season of Easter, called into the post-resurrection rejoicing. Yet I find myself responding to such circumstances as Rich writes about with much more like an Advent spirit. Advent is the cry of the in-between. Yes, we know Christ's life, death, and resurrection center all of history in God's fundamental word of mercy and life in response to this world's perpetulation of judgment and death.  Yet all is not completed, our suffering under mutual condemnation and death continues, and the suffering seems so deep, so broad, so high, that only something as dramatic as the return of Christ to judge the nations and renew all of creation seems appropriate to the challenge.  So here's an Easter cry for today: Come, Lord Jesus.

Anon, and peace,
Chris

Finding Manchester Orchestra Again

When I saw Kings of Leon in October 2007, they were playing at the small New Haven rock club Toad's Place. I blogged about the experience, and about KOL here.  Now that they're selling out Madison Square Gardens I don't think they'll every play a couple hundred tiny gig like that again. Well, the opening band that night from Atlanta was pretty compelling even though they only played for about 20 minutes. After one song, I leaned over to Jason, the guy I was with at the concert, and said, "If I didn't know better I'd say that song was about God.  Sort of the Prodigal son." The lead singer was compelling and a bit off-very intense and sporting a big beard.

Well, as I was looking through my new Paste magazine, I ran across the article "The Thinkers" that reviews the new album "Mean Everything To Nothing" by Manchester Orchestra.  And it was them. This is that band, I thought, smiling.  And they ARE all on about the big questions, including God.  In the first song on the album, lead singer Andy Hull sings "I am the only son of a pastor I know who does the things I do."

Check them out. Paste gave their new album a 91. In the same issue they gave U2's No Line on the Horizon a 62. I like Paste because they look for and give props to the new and edgy.  Rolling Stone, on the other hand, has a cover story on Kings of Leon, as if they're 'new on the scene' and edgy. No, they've made it. They're huge.

Happy Saturday to all.

Anon and peace,
Chris

Twin Cities do the Seven Deadly Sins (Badly)

Okay, so as a religious person (and a Christian in particular) I regularly am shocked by how lame pop culture adoptions of our stuff are.  Like this sooooo stereotypical adoption of the seven deadly sins for the City Pages "Best Of" issue.  I mean really, a scantily-clad woman dressed like an angel and wearing a 'come hither' look.  Please. That is so lame. After spending a week talking about torture in my class at Luther, I know that there are some awful seductions the desire for safety can tempt us to accept.  Here's the beginning of the City Pages article, meant to be fun, but actually in its dismissal of sin missing the actual horrors of what we do to one another in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. 

LET'S FACE IT: Sinning just isn't what it used to be. Take the infamous Seven Deadly Sins, for example: Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Anger, Sloth, and Envy. These days, they don't seem quite as deadly. Pride is now called "self-esteem." Gluttony is just a typical American diet. And Greed is rewarded with a government bailout.So this year, City Pages decided to take sin a step further and make virtue out of vice. In our 2009 Best of the Twin Cities issue, we celebrate everything that's sinfully good about the Twin Cities. Here you'll find the Thai restaurant worth lusting after, the athletes and artists we envy, the CD store we're greedy for. Sure, things get a bit naughty (Best Store for Sex Toys, Best Place to Break Up, Best Caramel Roll), but everyone deserves a few guilty pleasures.Judging by our Readers' Poll, plenty of Twin Citians agree. Thousands of you were all too happy to tell us your choice for Best Strip Club, Best Happy Hour, Best Pizza, and dozens of other temptations. You'll find the results on page 14 and throughout the issue.Still, we realize that not everyone is into sin, so we have something for you, too. For every one of the Seven Deadly Sins, there's also a Heavenly Virtue. Under each fatal transgression, our fallen angel from the cover will introduce you to its corresponding virtue, along with a bit of advice on how to assuage your guilt.For the rest of us, we have a garden of earthly delights to explore. In fact, why stop at just seven Deadly Sins—on the following pages you'll find nearly 300 things about the Twin Cities that are "to die for."The hell with Minnesota Nice. It's time for a little Minnesota Vice.

One could do a riff on the dissappearance of sin, the secularization of guilt and rejection of 'vice' as bad. Sin has never been undesireable, actually. That's the point, folks. That's why discipline and self-control are part of a life lived in love. To hell with Minnesota nice?  I hope not, but perhaps.  As people drift away from the practice of faith (which they are, in increasing numbers) we might actually have cause to worry.  'Minnesota Nice' has been rooted in a cultural impulse fostered by the stories and practices of hundreds of churches and synagogues that have taught 'love your neighbor'.  Pride is self-esteem. That's a good one. No, actually, the danger is that self-esteem is a cover for narcissm.  That's one we're actually prone to mistake.

Well. Early morning rants and reflections, not that coherent, but pointing somewhere that could be . . .
anon, and peace,
Chris

Miserable and crotchety, I wake early nonetheless and sing

I love the changing seasons and what better time to give thanks for the birds I hear each morning when I take Cosette out than this day, Earth Day.  Our little flowers are poking out after a long winter. Grass is greening.  Buds are unfolding on the trees. The sap has run full and furious on our maple in the back.  Here's one of my favorite poems of earth and heaven, humility and glory. Thanks, Mary Oliver, for being the poet who helps us sing thanksgiving for earth.

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety –

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

(Why I Wake Early, 2004)

Anon, and peace,

Chris

Bono: Op-Ed on "the dying and the living that is Easter"

How does he do it? An Op-Ed in the NYT that ends up as a meditation on the liturgical year and the power of Easter as a festival of baptismal renewal would be hooted off the pages if most traditional religious leaders wrote it.  But there it is, in Sunday's edition, now number three on most emailed articles in the Times.  He writes in part:

Then comes the dying and the living that is Easter.

It’s a transcendent moment for me — a rebirth I always seem to need. Never more so than a few years ago, when my father died. I recall the embarrassment and relief of hot tears as I knelt in a chapel in a village in France and repented my prodigal nature — repented for fighting my father for so many years and wasting so many opportunities to know him better. I remember the feeling of “a peace that passes understanding” as a load lifted. Of all the Christian festivals, it is the Easter parade that demands the most faith — pushing you past reverence for creation, through bewilderment at the idea of a virgin birth, and into the far-fetched and far-reaching idea that death is not the end. The cross as crossroads. Whatever your religious or nonreligious views, the chance to begin again is a compelling idea.

Read it all here. He's just a very thoughtful and very compelling personality. What can be done to break ourselves open to matter for the 'the least of these'?  That is a good question for Easter. That's the point of being joined to Christ's death and resurrection, that we might become 'like' him and live 'in' him.  Martin Luther said, 'we are Christ's/Christs, with and without the apostrophe."

Anon and peace,
Chris

Torture editorial: transparency and accountablity

A powerful editorial from the NYT on the torture memos released last week . . .

In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary.

These memos are not an honest attempt to set the legal limits on interrogations, which was the authors’ statutory obligation. They were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country’s most basic values.

It sounds like the plot of a mob film, except the lawyers asking how much their clients can get away with are from the C.I.A. and the lawyers coaching them on how to commit the abuses are from the Justice Department. And it all played out with the blessing of the defense secretary, the attorney general, the intelligence director and, most likely, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

We'll be discussing this in my class on worship and ethics where this week we're reading William Cavanaugh's book, Torture and Eucharist, an examination of torture under Pinochet in Chile during the 1970s. I'll post more on this book and our conversation later this week.  Seems like atheism was my theme topic during Lent, and torture will be during Easter.
Anon, and peace,
Chris