Faith, Politics, Hope, and Civil Discourse

Hello everybody,

 

I am a firm believer in Church leadership trying to the best of their ability to keep from broadcasting their political views. Sure, faith has a place in politics as does politics in faith, but as someone who is being paid to teach, lead, and ultimately influence a congregation (or in my case a subset of that congregation) it just feels wrong to try to sway people's vote. Understand, that's not what I intend to do here.

 

I have been keeping a silent watch on my Facebook timeline, as people I know and love dearly have posted photoshopped images, which I suppose are this year's equivalent of bumper stickers. I have wanted to comment on several people's glaring inaccuracies on both sides of the isle. I have wanted to ask what the purpose of posting such snarky images was doing to add to the political discourse. I have wanted to ask where those facts came from, and if in fact they could handle the label "facts." But I do not. 

 

For one thing, we as a nation have completely lost sight of what it looks like to disagree civilly. If you support a woman's right to choose, I get to label you a baby killer and not listen to what you have to say. If you want to increase taxes on the wealthy to support programs like public education, I get to label you a socialist and not listen to what you have to say. If you are appearing on the other news channel than the one that I frequently tune to, I get to not listen to what you have to say. Come to think of it, it would appear that our nations political strategy (hear me on this, both sides of the isle) is to not listen while screaming our views even louder. 

 

Perhaps most frustrating is when both sides invoke God in their policies. You could make a pretty strong argument that the Republicans are trying to please God in their policies. You could make a pretty strong argument that the Democrats are trying to please God in their policies. I don't know anybody who could make a strong argument that God is being glorified in the way we treat those who disagree with us. Let's look at the best example we have. Jesus had disagreements with the Pharisees on a daily basis. He had some harsh words for them, and for the way they practiced their beliefs. But is there a scriptural example of Jesus not listening to their questions. There is not a scriptural example of Jesus reducing their argument to a cartoonish over-simplification. And while this is easy to forget, in the end when Jesus laid down his life for sinful humanity, he laid down his life for those Pharisees with whom he aggressively disagreed with.  

 

Let's get real. No one in the current climate would lay down their life for the other party, would they? Not when it's so much easier to shout our opinion louder and ignore those we disagree with. These are important issues we're discussing and debating. They deserve more than the easy route. They deserve more than a post on our Facebook. They deserve more than the ratings lifting snarky comment. 

 

So I'm not here to influence your political views. Like I said, if you stop and think about it for more than 30 seconds you can see that both sides have at their core a desire to glorify God, and I respect that. What I am hoping to influence (and this is a big dream on my part) is the conversation. What would it look like if you stopped posting or re-posting snarky images to your Facebook page? What would it look like if you questioned the validity of your facts before you used them in an argument? What would it look like to watch the other news channel for a while, if for no other reason than to get a feel for what the other side believes? What would it look like to take the attacks out of our politics, and replace them with a vigorous debate about ideas? 

 

At the risk of sounding overly patriotic, this political climate is not America. It's not worthy of the great nation that has lit the world with freedom for over 200 years. It makes a laughing stock of the gift of democracy to the rest of the world. It is an abuse of freedom in such a way that suggests we don't know what freedom really is. And it certainly makes a mockery of the God who makes us free through his Son to drag his name through all of it. It's time to stop. 

 

Will you join me? Will you stand up and speak out against this combative political discourse prevailing in this nation? Will you show love to the other side, whoever they may happen to be? Would you pray for your enemies, even in the political arena? Or better yet, will you come to the realization that the other party isn't the enemy, just people seeking to serve the nation in a different way than you see fit? 

 

Fear.

I've been reading some interesting things from Christians the last few days. Well, I would argue the Christians are always good for some interesting reading, but the last few months it's been kind of a bit of a circus. With the health care debate, the religious right seems to have found a few problems with our President, and have even begun to use the Bible to justify defying the government we find ourselves under.

Some of these arguments might carry some weight. Some wise people are weighing in with some ideas that perhaps we haven't completely thought through. I don't mind that. I don't mind a well meaning person challenging the ideas being suggested by our leaders. They absolutely must be kept in check. I have even found a few areas that I disagree with Mr. Obama.

What bugs me to no end is that some of the people who are so very against Mr. Obama and his agenda tend to attack not him, but the entire federal government and it's role in our lives. They would try to convince you that the federal government is trying to completely control our lives, based on the fact that they want to give us flu shots. Again, that doesn't bother me. Some people think that a larger government means less freedom for them. I disagree, but I understand their view point. What bugs me to no end is the fact that a lot of the people who are upset with our government are the same people who were singing it's praises when President Bush was in office. They're the same people who suggested that opposing a war in Iraq (again, I would remind you I'm equally as not happy with President Obama for the war in Afghanistan) were unpatriotic or anti-American. The fact is, it would seem to me that some folks oppose the government not for legitimate ideological issues, but simply because their guy didn't win, and fear is easy to sell.

As someone who (in spite of my hate of labels) finds himself lining up on the liberal side of the isle, I know this looks like someone just lining up to defend his President. While I would remind you that I have some pretty big disagreements with our President, I would also tell you that my real beef is that when we as Christians use all of our influence for politics, we are selling ourselves entirely too short. Jesus Christ has called us to be an influence in the world, to speak up for those who are oppressed and neglected. I don't know that the current political culture allows us to do that, or at least not through the arguments we're making.

Because I've been in trouble before brining up political debates, I wanted to make sure I threw in some scriptures that have been buzzing in my brain. The biggest one is Romans 13:1:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

So for those who would say that this government is not ordained by God, how does that square with this passage? God wouldn't let this happen if he didn't have a plan for it. But more than that, if I had to summarize this passage, I would say that Paul wants us to know that there are bigger things to occupy our time than getting tangled up with politicians. Jesus would seem to hammer home that same message in Matthew 22:21.

Now, of course there are some issues in the political sphere that we need to involve ourselves in. Anytime we hear the cry of the oppressed, or worse we discover the oppression is happening at the hands of our own government, we are obligated to act. And to those who do so, I applaud your efforts. But again, I feel like there's a healthy amount of anger and fear mongering that has nothing to do with anyone who's oppressed. It has to do with a particular political party who lost, and needs to take it out on someone. By itself that's no problem, but when we use Jesus to justify such actions, it makes a mockery out of the savior.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave some comments below!

Godspeed,

Jason

What if it's not there...

Hello friends!

I'm really trying to dig back into being diligent with writing and blogging. I have a bunch of ideas floating through my head, and I think it's best to get them out on paper (or in this case, the interwebs). So here's the thought of the day:

I was thinking through Matthew 25:14-31, otherwise known as the parable of the talents. Pastor Jim will be on vacation next week (though, he will be home for catacombs, and will be joining us for the entire evening, which will either be epic and awesome or utter disaster. keep your eyes peeled) and has asked me to fill in for him at his Wednesday bible study. This is awesome! The crowd at Jim's bible study is significantly older than most of my clientele, which allows me to have a bit of fun with them. I think it's good for us to step out of our normal routines every now and again. It keeps us fresh for whatever ministry comes next. But I digress...

As I was thinking about Matthew, I was working through how I typically interpret the scriptures. I was thinking through how I feel like God has given us all talents, and that it's our duty to actually invest our talents. If you're a talented singer, you should sing. If you're an artist, you should make beautiful art. If you have a warm smile, you should share it with others. We seem to have a pretty go handle on this idea in our current economy, but obviously investment comes with a certain amount of risk. You might not make back everything you put into the market.

For years, I have taught on this passage (it's actually the first passage I've ever preached on), and I have told people that these guys were just as likely to come back to their master with absolutely nothing as they were to come back with what they did. As I was thinking about that point last night, I kind of wished that Jesus had included that in his parable. What would it have looked like for the King if someone had tried to invest his talents, but failed to make anything, or in fact lost some of it? All of it? What would the King's reaction have been?

As I was criticizing the author of life for not being a good storyteller in my own living room, a thought (or perhaps something else...) popped into my head and said "yeah, but if it's not there that's part of story too, right?" So often, we spend time focusing on what the Bible says, which of course is a good thing. But sometimes, I think we look past the things the Bible doesn't say. We call Jesus the "author and perfecter of our faith", so why is it so unreasonable to imagine that the stuff that isn't in the story is every bit as important as the stuff that is? I mean, one of my favorite examples of this is the homosexual question. Of course the Bible brings it up, and has some pretty harsh things to be said about it, and we need to take that seriously. However, Jesus in all of his teachings doesn't bring it up. Not once in three years or four gospels does Jesus talk about homosexuals. Nope. Never. Doesn't that give us some insight to how highly this issue was ranked on Jesus' priority list? If it's not there, does that give it as much if not more weight than if it was?

Some thoughts to ponder of course. Under no circumstances do I think I have all the answers about faith or the Bible. But I would encourage some lively discussion here at the J-Blog about the parts of the Bible that aren't there.

Your thoughts?

Godspeed,

Jason

The Value of Life.

³⁸"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'" ³⁹But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴²Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

It's pretty rare for me to venture into the world of politics on this blog. In fact, I even found myself in a bit of trouble a few weeks ago raising a question about the role of church leaders in politics on twitter. But hear me out...

Apparently today Vice President Cheney went on Fox and had a bit of a tiff about President Obama's (or rather, the administration's) decision to investigate those people involved in the interrogation of suspected terrorist suspects. For a point of reference, the articles I was reading can be found here, here, and here.

I'm not even really interested in the politics behind this argument. Even as I find myself sliding slightly to the left on some political issues, I would agree that an investigation of this sort surely has some sort of political motivation. More than anything I would imagine this has something to do with a sense of timing. Democrats haven't been doing such a hot job of explaining why their health care overhauls are important, and so it might behoove them to put the Republicans on defense. I get that.

What I didn't get a sense of in any of these articles (and perhaps I should try to find the video online of the original interview) was any kind of remorse for the horrible situation that such interrogations were in the first place.

"It's clearly a political move. There's no other rationale for why they're doing this."

I think that there could be a few reasons for investigating the devaluing of a human life. This is essentially what such interrogation techniques do, they strip a person of their humanity. When we put someone in a situation where we are in control of their feelings of drowning, we show them that we are more powerful than they, and they become less human. When we dress everyone in the exact same orange jump suit with black hoods over their heads, we rob them a little more of their humanity. And really, no matter what side of the political spectrum you find yourself, you probably agree with this. What separates us as a nation is that about half of us think robing people of their humanity is a terrible crime, while the other (rightfully so I might add) thinks that such techniques force people to give us information. But again, one could hardly argue that our actions did not rob people of their humanity at least a little.

And now we arrive at the real problem.

²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^{b]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]}and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

The scriptures (particularly this one in Genesis 1) indicate that our humanity actually holds a pretty tight connection with God. Our humanity is the imprint of the Divine, His all powerful signature in our lives. When we strip someone of their humanity, we both refuse to recognize God's presence in that person's life, and as well we act in direct rebellion to God and his creation. Whether we like it or not, God created all of us, even the people we call our enemies.

Which becomes an obvious defense of those who agree with such methods of questioning. I would venture a guess that a majority of those who find themselves in our camps and prisons aren't saints. They want to hurt us and our way of life, and in that sense are our enemies. I get that too. But I would again refer you to the scripture above. Jesus is VERY specific about how we should handle and relate to our enemies.

I'm also drawn to the story of King David. David absolutely had his enemies, but at every turn he treats them with as much respect as he can muster. For instance when David rose to the throne, he had all the authority and cultural support in the world to track down and persecute everyone who was out to kill him before. This of course would include everyone who was in King Saul's family. Which is what makes this scripture so phenomenal:

⁶ When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.

David said, "Mephibosheth!"

"Your servant," he replied.

⁷ "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table."

⁸ Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

David is unwilling to take things too far. He's unwilling to push someone to their limits just to exert his power over them. Above all, it seems as though David understood that people's humanity was to be cherished.

One of the reasons I try my best to steer clear of the political world is because it often has very few practical implications for our day to day lives. We could have debates back and forth on this blog in the comments section about what we believe, how we view the situation, what we think should be done. And then we will wake up tomorrow morning and everything will be exactly the same. Our influence doesn't reach very far I'm afraid (at least not on this blog).

So I would ask us how we rob each other of our humanity? I was incredibly guilty of this today when I was out driving. The people operating the vehicles around me were no longer people, they were morons driving stupidly (by the by, if you were someone being tailed by a green jeep compass today, I am so sorry). How are we robbing people of their humanity in our day to day life, and how can we remedy that situation?

That said, I'm certain there are people out there who would love to comment on this post and debate the politics with me. That's fine, and I'm all for having a little bit of fun. Just two rules: that we treat each other with respect, and that our opinions be backed up with scriptures (obviously the more you use, the more validity your argument has!)

And may God bless us all, even the people with whom we disagree.

Godspeed,

Jason

Wrecking Ball

Ahh, Twitter. I saw your ugly side today. It does not flatter you.

A prominent worship leader was tweeting today about health care reform. To be honest, I'm super conflicted on that issue to begin with. My wife sure needs health insurance, as do many people in our country. As of now, affording it on our own is pretty much completely out of the question given the amount of coverage she needs for drugs and such. Were she not going to school, we wouldn't be able to afford it at all. On the other hand, I am starting to get a bit weary of the amount of money the government is spending. I'm a bit of a saver myself, and it's starting to freak me out.

But that's not the point.

I asked a question of said worship leader that I ask a lot of people I know and respect. It was not meant as any kind of dis, or snarky attack. Just simply a question I challenge many of us with:

Should Church leaders be involved in political debate and discourse?

I honestly think it's a fair question. If God has placed me in a situation where people are looking up to me, and He has asked me to lead them closer to him either via Youth Ministry or Worship Leading or what have you, is it appropriate to attempt to sway people towards one particular political leaning or another? On the whole in my ministry experience, I've been leaning towards no. Never mind the idea of being one of those postmoderns who doesn't think there's such a thing as left and right divisions any more, is it appropriate to use my influence toward that end?

Of course Christians have a role in politics. Of course we should speak our minds when it comes to how this country we find ourselves in is run. Of course it's only natural to try to make people see the world the way you see it. All I'm asking is should Church leaders play a different role than that of everyone else?

Now, try to fit that into 140 characters.

I did this afternoon.

It did not flatter me.

One of two things happened, or some sort of combination of both. Either I did an incredibly poor job of communicating that I was simply asking a question with no malicious intent whatsoever, or people were defending their positions a little too tightly. My twitter account was flooded with mentions and messages, some of which weren't exactly positive and encouraging. Without even thinking about it, I apparently started a fight on the fastest growing social networking sites out there.

If anyone bothers to research this event, you will note (as it should be noted here) that the worship leader in question actually handled himself really well, and in fact we had a pretty solid e-mail conversation that followed my question. He gets mad props in all of this for engaging in a discussion rather than a spitball contest.

It should also go without saying that if my tweets today somehow offended people or upset them or made them think I was some sort of jerk, I apologize. I think if you read the blog or better yet asked some people who knew me, you would realize that none of these adjectives apply to me. I become absolutely terrified when people don't think highly of me, and so I did not gain your approval today, I am truly sorry.

I learned some things today that I think are worth sharing:

• Twitter is dangerous. 140 characters is nowhere near enough to actually make a point, though it is certainly enough to lose your point entirely. I have preached again and again and again that social networking sites are not a good place for high-minded debate, and today I refused to listen to my own advice.
  
• I am entirely too dependent upon the opinions of others. Like I said, I was a wreck today in the Giant Eagle because I just then noticed the hub-bub I had caused on twitter. I don't have a personal relationship with anyone from today's conversation, and yet I wanted to crawl in a cave and die if they didn't like me. The irony of course being that our dear worship leader in question has authored a song all about God's grace being sufficient in our lives, and while I will sing that song loudly and boldly in church, I did not in any way live it out today. Though perhaps the biggest and most dangerous thing I learned today was
  
• Questions are like wrecking balls. This all came out of a question. There really wasn't any malicious intent at all behind the question, though understandably the question itself can shake things up a bit.

Questions make us uneasy. Questions make us unstable. If someone questions something we've stood on for a very long time, the ground beneath our feet is no longer to be trusted. And we become nervous wrecks, and we start eating ice cream to ease the pain until we develop an eating disorder (or at least that's what I've heard...)

But the truth is, some of our ground could use some re-examining. The best thing that could happen to us is for everything we stand for and believe in to be called into question, only to find out it was exactly as true as we thought it was in the first place. Or perhaps we'll come to some sort of understanding that the ideas or concepts we defend the most are some of the least important, and that our resources could be better used elsewhere. Ideally, if we're journeying with the right people, we'll even make a friend or two along the way.

So again, if I offended you today, as a brother in Christ I am truly and deeply sorry. However, I beg you to at least examine what you stand for. Ask yourself the question you wish no one would ask. Test, probe, deconstruct. If what you have now is left standing at the end, then more power to you. Perhaps we'll end up with something even more beautiful.

As for me, perhaps some slightly more shallow tweets.

Godspeed,

J

HIStory

 

Hello friends,

I watched the Inauguration with the staff at Westminster today. It was interesting. We have such a wide variety of political views on our staff, but everyone seemed to understand the weight of what we were watching. I think I'm still digesting everything that's happened today, how far we've come as a country, how much we've accomplished, how much more we have left to get done. I totally dug the line "We will turn our tanks into tractors." Well stated.

 

I had an interesting day at work today. We've been working for a long time to get an updated sound and projection system at the Bridge. I had a meeting about it today, and things are progressing. I just frequently get frustrated at how limited our sound system is, and how long it takes to get stuff done in a church of our size. But, I need to keep telling myself to count the blessings (for they are many) and keep my chin up.  

  

In the meantime, I have updated our worship software, and I'm going to be fixing it up a bit so that it will be ready and rarein to go for Sunday. 

The best news of my life: The J and Ed Variety Show is already shot and ready to go for this week! Excellent!

 

Watching the game. It's 1-1 after the first, but dang we looked good in the first period. I'm just exceptionally excited to relax tonight at watch the game.

More tomorrow!

Godspeed,

Jason

MLK

Today is Martin Luther King day. In all honesty, I've never really given a whole lot of thought to this day and what it means, but today it seems all the more important, given the events that will take place tomorrow.
I have known for a couple of days that I wanted to do a blog post about MLK. I just don't know which direction to take it. There are so many aspects of this man which are worth noting in our modern context, so many lessons that can be learned. I feel like my little blog is incapable of handling the vast weight of such an enormous historical figure. I feel like my fingers on the keyboard are incapable of getting the record straight.
I think we have to start with the idea that Dr. King saw an injustice, and was compelled to speak out against it in the name of Christ. He was after all a Christian pastor (which by the way, if more people spoke the way he did, our churches would be radically different). For him, this wasn't about power or recognition, doing the right thing so other people would notice. I even saw on a documentary today that he was rather embarrased by the fact that he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't want anyone to mention it at his funeral.

Secondly, few people in the world have taken Jesus' message of non-violence to heart quite the way King did. As I watched film footage today of the marches in Alabama, I was struck by how little the protesters were actually doing. They were simply walking, and to the police officers of the day that was enough to beat some of them severly. But King and his followers never used violence back. They would not bring down their cause to that level. Instead, they just protested the wrong that was being done to them. As I watched today, I couldn't help but think of Jesus in a garden, repairing a Roman soldier's ear. He could have fought back, but that just wasn't going to glorify him or his cause very much.

I know some people would point out that King wasn't perfect. I know that he had affairs, and by no means is that acceptable. But I think when you start pointing out other people's imperfections in the face of their great Kingdom accomplishments, you're missing the point. If people who have sinned cannot advance the Kingdom into this world, what hope do we have?

This is not about hero worship. This is not about idolizing a man. For me, this is about looking at someone who was intent on living the life Christ called him to in every aspect of his world. He was right, and he knew he was right all along, but he never seemed arrogant about it. He never insisted on his own way. He simply lived a life according to what Christ was speaking into his heart. Nearly 40 years after his death, as the first African-American President is going to be sworn in tomorrow, I wonder what he would think about all this? I wonder what he would say about very tiny steps being taken in the name of love?

Obama, Blackberry, and the "Right Now" Culture.

At the risk of getting too political on a youth ministry blog, I came across this story today, and thought it might have something to say to us about youth ministry, particularly when it comes to the idea of a right now culture.

To summerize quickly, Obama has a self professed "addiction" to his mobile communication device (is there any point in refering to it as a phone anymore? Do any of our kids actually make phone calls?). However, because of the security and legal issues that might surround the President owning such a device, his staff is threatening to take it away. Obama has suggested that "They're going to pry it out of my hands.", drawing his line in the sand. Hopefully better than these guys:

While it's a cute story that news agencies are reporting because they have no desire to focus on how little money we all have, it's gotten me to thinking. How do we do effective ministry in the instant culture? When our President can no longer live without instant text messaging and e-mail in his pocket, what are we simple youth ministers to do?

Of course, the advertising companies have already caught on to this. People hardly have need for the simple flip phone I would have killed for in college.

(Ahead of his time)

This Christmas, the fine makers of my phone debuted an advertisement series that attempted to make their phone's look cool, but only wound up making many of us hate Santa:

(Weight Watchers?)

I suppose the gist of this post is a question: should we speak out against the "need" for constant information and connectedness, or should we embrace it and attempt to use it for the better? Veritas already has a Facebook page, and a txt message service to keep our students up to speed on things, but should we embrace this culture even further, or run from it as fast as we can?

Your thoughts?

Godspeed,

Jason