Everything That's On My Mind

I know I haven't written a blog entry in a while, between vacation and other things I just haven't had time. To be honest, I may not have time to write a full entry for another week or so, but for now I will leave you, my gentle readers, with a bit of sillyness. As a recovering Trekkie and a fan of Monty Python, I just couldn't resist sharing this video.

Independence. Our country was founded in a fight for independence. To this day, our society worships at the altar of independence. Herbert Hoover called us a country of rugged individualists. From John Wayne to John McLane, the great icons of our society are the lone heroes who save the day single-handedly. The problem with this is, the idea of independence is completely contrary to the design of God. We’re designed to be dependent.

Right from the beginning, God said “it is not good for man to be alone,” yet right from the beginning man has tried to go it alone. American society, however, is unique in its obsession with individuality. In his book Against the Night (out of print) Chuck Colson compared the rise and fall of Rome to modern western society and concluded that the barbarians are at the gates and a new “dark age” is upon us. The beginning of the end, Colson argued, was the rise of individualism; when man became “the fixed point around which everything else revolved.” The U.S. is the primary purveyor of this kind of thinking, and unfortunately the church has often been infected with the same kind of thinking.

Mutual inter-dependence is a central theme of scripture. Beginning with Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” the resounding answer has been “Yes!” This flows through to the New Testament, where Paul reminds us that we are all members of the Body of Christ, each one dependent on the other. Individualism is not something for Christians to celebrate, it is something for us to un-learn. We are designed by God to be reliant creatures, who live and breathe community. Our dependence on God and on the community of faith he has placed us in is central to who we are.

To be clear, I’m talking about independence; not individuality. Individuality is God-designed diversity. No one can look at His creation or the scriptures and not understand God’s love for diversity and individuality. Too often people confuse the two. Individuality is something to be enjoyed and celebrated. Independence, however, is a mindset that is contrary to everything that God teaches us. Dependence is a forgotten virtue, especially in American society. We’ve forgotten (or maybe never learned in the first place) how much we need each other, and how much we need God.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our country and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. We should be thankful for and celebrate the freedom we have. As Christians, however, we must remember that our ultimate citizenship is in the Kingdom of Heaven. We cannot confuse American values with godly values, for they are often in conflict.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome my very good friend Keith Schooley to the blogging community, or as it has been described elsewhere, "The Cabal of Self-absorbed Part-time Theologians." He certainly doesn't qualify as "self-absorbed," but he makes up for it by being a full-time theologian. As you may have noticed, Keith has been clogging up contributing to the comments section of my blog for months now. Now I have the opportunity to return the favor. I guess that makes me a blog parent of sorts.

Check out Keith's blog at The Schooley Files. The truth is out there.

I’ve heard it said that the last person who knew everything (i.e. all the accumulated human knowledge at the time) was Erasmus. Of course we have no way of confirming that, but the fact remains that it is no longer possible for one person to absorb all the information that humanity has gathered. We all have to specialize in one way or another. The challenge today is incredible volume of information available to us. How do we filter for the important stuff and not be distracted by the trivial? How do we find reliable sources of information?

Joe Carter’s latest post over at the Evangelical Outpost got me thinking about this. His post focuses on the news industry, which in my opinion is becoming more and more irrelevant. I was in college studying broadcasting and working at the college radio station when USA Today began to be popular. I remember my professors decrying it as “McPaper,” fast-food news without any meaningful content. I don’t know if that was the beginning of the end or if it goes back to Edward R. Murrow, but news has become entertainment rather than information.

I used to be a news junkie. I read the newspaper, watched CNN (this was pre-FoxNews), and listened to talk radio all day long. In the end, I don’t think it was really profitable. Joe may have it right, it may be no better than watching the mindless sitcoms. All the news outlets use the same sources anyway. They just wrap it up in different clothes. I still listen to the news on the radio (WWJ) in the morning to see if there’s anything “breaking” that I need to know about. I still read the Sunday newspaper, at least some of it. They’re not my major sources of information anymore, though.

These days I try to focus on gathering information that helps me be what God has called me to be…a pastor, a father, a husband, a friend. Blogs are an interesting new tool for that kind of information gathering. They’re not a perfect source either. There are far, far too many for any one person to read. They can suffer from the same problems of triviality, and many are untrustworthy sources or have a particular axe to grind. I’ve found a few blogs that focus on the kind of information I need. By paying attention to the books they quote, the sources they cite, their links and blogrolls I find other possible sources.

I’m curious. How do my many (hee hee) loyal readers filter the noise of our information culture to find relevant information?

I really sympathize with Mark Roberts, who is one of my favorite bloggers. For those of you who don't read Mark's stuff, he's a PCUSA pastor who is much more conservative theologically than the majority of his denomination. It can't be easy watching your fellowship slip from its commitment to biblical principles. I appreciate the honesty and gentleness he has shown in his response to the recent changes in the PCUSA.

I can't imagine that any thinking person would always agree 100% with every decision made by their fellowship. I know I don't always agree with the decisions of the A/G. (NOTE: I said decisions, not doctrines As Christians, however, we're called to submit to one another out of love. Of course, that's infinitely more difficult for someone in Mark's position, where the changes address "hot button" issues.

It's a constant struggle for any thoughtful, sincere Christian to stand firm while showing gentleness and love, especially when it comes to disputable matters. I'm speaking on what I think is a "disputable matter" tomorrow, so I suppose I'll get some practice...and so will our church. Pray for me as I pray for Mark.

I read a good article today that I thought I'd share. The author makes some interesting points about God's judgment and the "culturally acceptable" sins of our society that we tend to ignore. The point of the article (as I see it) is not redefining sin, but recognizing the fact that we focus too much attention of certain sins while we turn a blind eye to others. How can we most effectively communicate the Gospel and make disciples instead of enemies? I think we need to start by recognizing planks in our own eyes.

This is really cool.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20 (NIV)

I don’t think I’ll ever understand the feminist agenda. Why is it that they insist on defining a woman’s value by her earning power? Elizabeth Vargas recently resigned from anchoring the CBS World News Tonight to have more time for her family and the child she is expecting. She made it abundantly clear that it was her choice and she wasn’t forced out or fired, yet the feminists can’t accept that. They can’t understand why anyone would do such a thing; she must be lying for the network, they say. How incredibly narrow-minded. Motherhood is the most valuable and influential occupation anyone could have. Salary.com has calculated that a fair wage for the average stay-at-home mother is over $134,000. In the end, that means the feminist agenda is all about money. I suppose they won’t be satisfied until moms are actually paid a six-figure salary.

It seems to me the logical conclusion of the feminist agenda would be a society without marriage altogether. Anyone wanting children would go to the local reproductive clinic and hire a surrogate mother; whoever carries the child to term should be paid too, after all. Then once the child is born, a nanny would need to be hired and paid a lucrative salary for raising the child. Pardon me for being a Neanderthal, but I don’t want to live in that kind of society. I’ll stick with God’s plan, thank you very much.

Now for any readers who don’t know me personally, I will clarify that I don’t mean that women shouldn’t have careers. I’m simply saying that the feminists should (but never will) recognize the power, value, and appeal of good, old-fashioned motherhood.

BTW, my congratulations to Elizabeth Vargas and her husband Marc Cohn. Marc is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters. May their child arrive healthy and be a great blessing to their home.