The Lenten fast, let us repent of "politics."

"The hope for the world is not in Washington" -Erwin McManus during the 2008 elections

Today is the first week in the season of Lent. A time when Christians prepare ourselves to receive God's coming as the pilgrims in Jerusalem did on the first "Palm Sunday." This is a time when people often fast from one thing or another in order to examine conscience.

Here's an interesting thought, why not deepen one's spiritual life by giving up political news media? Forty days, isn't really that long.

It may seem like a strange recommendation, and what fast you choose is always what is best for you. It might be consistent with the Gospel, though. Chaplin Mike at Internet Monk wrote a great piece -that could be good sermon- on "repenting" of the political mindset. This does not mean repenting of being a republican, a democrat, or changing some stance. It means, it seems to me, repenting of the belief that the hope for the world is somehow 'in' our often hateful political system.

This is in fact, what a large part of Jesus' call to discipleship meant. During his time there were plenty of angry, oppressed, Jewish peasantry who had one way or another to get their vision of the world accomplished. Some wanted a violent overthrow of Rome. Others wanted a peaceful co-existence until God vindicated them. Many "sold-out" to Roman political power. A few decided to go off into the wilderness and ignore the "apostates." To all these people Jesus said, "drop your political agendas, and sign on for the Kingdom of God." If Jesus was here today, would he encourage us to stay-tuned to Glenn Beck, Rachael Maddow, or even the Daily Show? What if all such is building political towers of babel?

There is a second thing, and this is where it hits me the hardest. I used to enjoy talk radio and political blogs quite a bit. Then, as I grew older I began to realize something. Much of the political talk -and I don't mean just radio personalities- is ... rage porn.. Many pundits exist not to inform you, but to get you angry. Anger is actually addictive, and you'll probably tune in a bit more for the adrenaline rush. I think this is actually worse when it is on TV because most of your cognitive functions shut down when you're watching the zombie-glow of the plasma screen. I personally count anger as almost always a sin, and try avoid people who are making me so on purpose.

Most Americans, in my humble opinion, feel that there is something wrong with pundits, sensationalism, and rage-porn. As Christians, we might just have an added call on top of that: abandon your political projects, and sign up with the Kingdom of God.

What steps can Christians take do so this Lenten season?

Questions on Christian Hipsterism: Part II

Hello again, my fellow Christian Hipsters. Thanks everyone who responded to my previous post on this subject. You make me glad when you post comments. Today, I hope to continue this conversation on the important phenomena of Christian Hipsterism -whether you are at Mosaic, Mars Hill, or any other church.

I'm sure everyone already knows that this is not the first wave of "Christian Cool" or however you want to term it. Years ago, in the sixties and the seventies, there were people who also wanted to be hip, follow Jesus, and avoid the established Christian culture. They too, wanted a more authentic version of Christianity that did not simply mirror the culturally conservative, suburban, nuclear family, consumerist, American life-style.

They were called "Jesus People."

Now, they Jesus People have cut their hair. They traded their sandals for dress shoes. They have beat their VW vans into SUVs. They now puchase the veggie-tales videos for their kids. They help run Calvary Chapel. The patronize the Christian book stores. They vote republican. In other words, they became the Christian establishment.

So if the previous generation of edgy, Christian cool, eventually another nominally Christian establishment, what will stop the current trend from becoming the same thing? It does not have to be. The mistakes of the past do not need to be repeated.

There is another important question for a good discussion. I can't put it any words better than Brett McCraken himself. He wonders, have Christian hipsters simply traded one way of conforming to the world for another way of conforming to the world? This is a quote from the end of the Christainity Today Article:

Isn’t Christianity supposed to be distinguishable and set apart from the world? Christian hipsters are rebelling against a mainstream Christianity that they see as too indistinguishable from secular mainstream culture (i.e. consumerist, numbers-driven Fox News-watching, immigrant-hating, SUV-driving), but their corrective may not turn out much better. Some hipster Christianity is as indistinguishable from its secular hipster counterpart as yesterday’s megachurch Christianity was indistinguishable from secular soccer-mom suburbia.

Finally, he puts down an important challenge

The challenge for hipster Christians is to figure out what it means, in their cultural context, to put on a new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24). We are new creations, and the old has passed away (2 Cor 5:17). How does that mesh with the Pabst-guzzling, Parliament smoking nonchalant image that seems important to many hipsters?

So here are two questions everyone can answer in the comments:
1) How might the current trend in millennial Christian hipsterism, avoid the mistakes of the baby boomer Christian hipster-ism of the 60s and 70s? Specifically, how do we not simply turn into the next generation of SUV-driving suberbanites?
2) How can we be certain that we are really fulfilling Eph 4:24 and 2 Cor 5:17? How can be certain we are not simply conforming to the sub-cultural values of wider "hipsterisms"?

Thanks for reading... and for commenting!!

Iconic Images of Individualism

Internetmonk.com has a had a few blogs on individualism lately. There are particurlarly angry words against individualistic autonomy which is rightly contrasted with extremely communal living of some Christian traditions.

As Americans, individualism is the water that we swim in. We might not actually know what it is. If we do know what it is, we are used to praising it. I myself, am a incurable individualist at times. I do not think that individualism is bad per se, but it certainly affects Christianity in the United States. Pictures, however, are worth a thousand words. Here are some images I dug up when googling "Worship."





Notice a pattern? The images are always of the lone person communing with the God up on high. That individual worships God all by himself, with no one around. Such an emphasis on the individualistic Christian worship is so strong that it was lampooned at Saddleback church

I didn't stop there. If you have ever been through a Bible bookstore you have also seen images of individualism. Like these:




Like the images of worship, these book covers privilege a spirituality that is "me and God." It is a belief in sola ego with sola scriptura. The Osteen book even has it in the title: ...a better you. Again, individualism shows itself better through images than words can express.

There is also another way to notice individualism in our churches and worship. Listen closely to words used in worship songs. Do they emphasis the singular pronouns (I/me) or the plural pronouns (We/us)? The former emphasizes individualism. For sake of contrast here are the lyrics from two songs. First an old hymn:

A mighty fortress is our God.
A bulwark never failing.
Our helper he a mid the flood,
of mortal ills prevailing.
-A Mighty Fortress

here is a more contemporary song:

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise
-I will Rise by Chris Tomlin

Notice the pronouns I highlighted. The contemporary song uses individualistic language ("I will rise"), while the older hymn uses communal language ("our God"). Also, try reading both of the lyrics as if they were sentences in your second grade English class. If your teacher said "please underline the subject of this sentence," what would you underline in each of those songs?

Now again, I am not saying that individualism is bad per se, but it does affect American Christianity. This is something we need to be aware of, and evaluate our practices accordingly.

So what do "you" think? ;-)

Part V The Charity of The Listener

The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." -Hosea 3:1

Authenticity is a good. The practice of confessing leads us to this and other goals. I think that most Christians would be willing to be a bit more authentic. So what stops this from happening? I suspect this does not happen because there are few who are willing to listen, not because there are few who are willing to speak.

I entitled this blog the “Charity of the Listener (aka the Confessor).” By charity, I do not mean that the listener gives away money or something. I mean it terms of Christian Charity, which is Love that surpasses our conventional thinking of love. Christian Love goes beyond loving what is similar and good in order to love what is alien and ugly. It loves that which normally unloveable. A Biblical example is the symbolic marriage of Hosea to a prostitute. God loves Israel like Hosea loves his wife. God loves that which is alien and ugly, so Christians must be willing to do the same. We have to love sinful people -most of all sinful Christians.

Hearing, and really listening, to someone accuse themselves of sin is an act of Christian charity. It means not responding with judgment and not with quick fixes. However, this act of charity begins long before a friend comes to you and says, “I have sinned.” We need the reputation as the loving listener long before because who would think to come to us otherwise? I have decided that I want to be the kind of Christian who listens. I want to have a reputation of patience and charity. This is reputation that will be hard earned. The first step to do so is to avoid harsh “tough-love” rhetoric. Judging is easy, but graciousness is hard.

Before you think of commenting on what I have said so far, please do this thought experiment with me. Before you start, try to be in a private environment and take a few moments of introspection. If you’re ready, please try this with me: think of one of your worst sins. Think back to a time when you did something or thought something that made you feel ashamed, guilty, and filled with regret. This might be a moment of envy of someone else good blessing. It might also be failure to look out for the needy. Maybe you lost your temper and became hateful. I am not asking you to tell me or anyone else what it is, but think about. Then think about how it made you feel after you realized it was sin.

With that in your heart, imagine meeting a pastor or another Christian who had this to say in a sermon:

Some of you guys are a total joke. I have no respect for you at all. You can’t get a job, keep a job, you can’t keep your hands off a girl, you can’t stop downloading porn… (source)

Or barring that, how about a message like this?

Have you ever thought that there are people who go to hell today that never thought they’d go there? You indulge in your favorite sin…You don’t want to be like God. You just want people to back off when they reprove the thing that you are in love with! (source)

Now do these approaches make you feel like being more open about your sin, or hide it more? If you are anything like most people, these are likely to make you defensive, frustrated, and possibly even a little bitter. If it makes you feel more open, what motivates you to serve God? Fear of reprisal? Guilt? Need for an authority’s approval? How long will such appeals remain effective?

What kind of approach would make you feel comfortable in being open about your sin?

I admit, There was a point in my Christian life were such rhetoric and language really made sense to me. Think though, of how it made you feel. I know I no longer have a positive reaction to this kind of stuff. If I did not have a good reaction to this than likely most other people did not either. I realized that I could not stomach this kind of thing much longer, and decided that I would repent -yes repent- of such behavior and make a conscious effort to do the opposite. I would rather be the kind of person who reminds people of God’s forgiveness, than the one who accuses them of sin.

Christian Charity means a few things. We must put our love and compassion for a sinner above a zealous tendency to renounce sin. We have to replace open contempt with patience. We must drop petty justifications for harboring resentment towards (other) sinners. We must learn to be like God who loves things that are ugly. As God listens the prayers of sinful people, so might he make us able to be listen to them too.

Now it is time for your comments...

...or the start of the series.

Part IV What it Gives us

Now, at long last, we can finally get around to things mentioned in the first blog. That is, our quest for authenticity, community, and humility. Those of you have been patient enough to follow this series from its beginning very likely see where this is going. Hopefully, everything I say in this blog will be mere re-affirmation of you are already thinking and feeling.

Authenticity is surely very obvious here. Authentic Christians are Christians who do not put of a front, do not wear a mask, and do not attempt to hide their sins and their struggles. The practice of confession takes it a step further. It encourages Christians to expose their sins to one another, in order that they may be healed. Interestingly enough, authenticity does not mean a violation of privacy. Those who hear eachother’s sins are assumed never to gossip about them. I myself have a group of a few friends who I confess to and vice versa. I have heard some of their dark secrets and they have heard some of mine. There is no doubt that we keep all this all between us.

Little else will encourage humility more than telling another Christian that you have done something that you are ashamed of. If one is doing the act of confession, you are not in a position to excuse your behavior or otherwise lie to yourself about the mistakes you have done. Interestingly enough, the person hearing the confession also practices humility -by biting his tongue. He must admit to himself that he cannot understand someone’s actions as well as the person who did them. He must be slow to speak and quick to understand. This is not easy for many people to do, especially if they are the person who is used to being heard.

Finally Community both precedes before and comes after the practice of confession. Think of the people who you trust most to tell them the things that you are ashamed of. You are no doubt confident that these people love you deeply. If this is the case, then you are very likely already in a good Christian community. This community is deepened as we become closer to each other, when we choose to love each other as Christ loves us.

There will be one last blog, which points to Christian Love.

Part III Things Luther Said

Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ. -Martin Luther

Now that the Catholic blog is out of the way, it is time to discuss the story of Protestant’s golden boy, Martin Luther. Yes, Martin Luther had problems with the confessional, but it was not the confessional itself that was the problem. His personal struggles, and his reading of the Bible both lead him to a particular understanding of Grace and the priesthood that encourages us to play the role of either penitent (he who confesses) or the confessor (he who listens) for each other.

You may already know about Luther’s personal struggles. Luther once confessed that he could not love God, because he hated him. This was because Luther’s perception of God was that of a painful taskmaster. Luther knew he could be forgiven, but was constantly stressed –to the point of obsessive anxiety- over his sins. Luther could walk out of mass, in which all sins are forgiven, but then he would worry about sins he forgot to confess! Luther was on perpetual treadmill of personal holiness, and he knew he could never measure up.

Luther’s understanding of Grace, based on a reading of Romans and (what I think) a personal spiritual experience lead him to an enlivened understanding of grace. The idea is that a Christian is forgiven. This does not mean that a Christian is forgiven if that Christians pays alms, does the right penance, shows the fruits of the spirit, walks morally upright etc. A Christian is forgiven. There is no kind of “if” clause. There is no qualification. God cancels the debt of all sins, and there is nothing more to be said.

The Christian, will of course, continue to sin. They will always succumb to temptation. So a Christian, based on their behavior, will in many ways look like their same old unregenerate self. Nonetheless, God sees this person as spotless and clean. The Christian wears Christ’s righteousness, which is freely given to him. In Latin, the phrase Simul Justus and Peccator -at the same time justified and sinner- sums it up. Another famous metaphor is that we are sacks of garbage, but that God smells roses. This of course does not mean that a Christian should avoid seeking good and doing good, only that the failure to do so does not affect one’s standing with God and neither will more good deeds earn someone brownie points in the hereafter.

That is the grace of God that is extended to us. How might we extend this same Grace to our neighbors, especially other Christians?

There is another aspect of Luther’s works that is emphasized less: the Universal Priesthood of All Believers. Part of the reason why we forget this is not knowing what sacredotalism is. Sacredotalism is the belief that there is a special group of individuals (priests) who have a special kind of access to God that the ordinary Christian does not. In Catholicism, the priest, and only the priest (with some exception) may perform certain sacraments such as the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, and of course Reconciliation of Sins. The priest plays a mediator type role between individuals and God. Protestantism does not endorse sacredotalism and is said to have abolished it. I reiterate that this partially correct.

Evangelicals may consider it an offense that anyone can intercede between a Christian and God. Luther, however, did not find this as so offensive. He believed, as many Protestants still do today, that God placed us in church for a reason. That reason is that the work of the Holy Spirit is frequently done through other Christians. That Christians represent Christ to each other. How does this differ from sacerdotal teaching? Luther’s believed that there need not be a special group of consecrated individuals. Instead, he said that any believer is potentially a priest for any other. Thus, the priesthood was not abolished in Protestantism, but was expanded to include all.

This means that protestants need not go to a priest or even their pastor. All Christians are potentially priests for eachother. We are able to find people we trust and confess privately to them. Likewise, we have the chance to earn the trust of other people in hopes that they will fill free to confess to us.

Two very good things follow from this. If Christians are really “the same time justified and sinner,” then it encourages all Christians to look at each other in this light. Hearing someone’s confession encourages us to develop this kind of attitude. We can develop churches and communities in which the worst of us can feel accepted. If God really wants to work through us then it puts a huge responsibility on our part to do so. Christians know how our behavior affects our reputation with the world, and we protect our reputation with eachother. Would not people want to join our communities more if we developed a reputation for treating each other better than any other community?

At the beginning of this series, I pledged to connect Confession of Sins to authenticity, humility, and community. Already, you can see where all this might be leading. The specifics though, will be the subject of other blogs.

Thanks for keeping reading.

Part II What Happens in Confession

The First Point is to give thanks to God our Lord for the benefits I have received. The second is to ask grace to know my sins and rid myself of them. -The Excercises of St Ignatius 43

Because of my own upbringing, I really cannot help but think of confession and reconciliation within a Catholic framework. Most people reading this are probably well past the reactionary, fundamentalist, or otherwise fearful dogmatism and misinformation that sadly infects a lot of American Protestantism. Still, I think that there might be a little resistance to what I am about to write. I promise that that this can be put safely aside.

I will say three things to the apprehensiveness to anything “Catholic.” First, think of following important Christians beliefs: The Trinity, the Incarnation, deference to the poor, and need to evangelize the world. All of these are important to evangelicals and not to be missed. Yet, these are also important in Catholicism. Which one of these beliefs should be rejected because Catholics believe it as well? Obviously, I think the answer is none of them. Wouldn’t it make sense to be open to an idea, regardless of what group says it?

Secondly, someone might say to this that Protestants already know everything they need to know, about confessing sins and such. Now, this could very well be the case. Someone reading this may already frequently confess their sins to other Christians and have the kind of grace and Christian love that people feel comfortable confessing their sins to them, than there is nothing to be said. However, if you cannot honestly say that you have perfected this biblical practice (James 5:15-16), then is there not something that might be learned?

Finally, confession –whether public or private- is not merely a Catholic thing anyway. The Book of Common Prayer –which holds spiritual value for many protestants- contains liturgies centered around public confession. Lutheran church services also have a tradition of the confession of sin. More will be said on Luther’s –and his understanding of Grace- later on.

With these three things in mind, let’s move on.

The practice of confession and reconciliation is fairly simple. It begins with two people in a very private environment. The penitent is the one who has sinned (whether by commission or omission), and the priest plays the role of the confessor –the one who hears the confession. (Terminology is confusing, as “confessor” can mean the person hearing the confession or speaking the confession!) I will keep these definitions consistent, as one might describe two roles in a play.

The penitent knows that he has sinned. He knows that he has failed in some significant way. He knows that he willfully and consciously chose evil instead of good. This isn’t something like an accident. It is not something that can be excused by diminished capacity. The penitent is not confessing that he stubbed his toe and blurted out “God dammit” out of reflexive response. He is more likely confessing a sin he was more conscious of, such deliberate gossip, downloading pornography, or refusing to think well of one’s neighbor. It may not even be an action, but simply feelings of inordinate anger, envy or even despair. Any Christian probably knows what this feels like.

The priest (or any confessor) will play the role of Christ’s representative. He will work very hard (as I am sure they do) to love the sinner as Christ loves the sinner. In this way, he plays the role as the one who absolves sin, rather than reminds. When the priest prescribes penance, it is for the purpose of further healing, not punishment. He will also suggest to the penitent ways in which he can overcome this sin and replace it with right-thinking, feeling, and doing. It is for this reason that the sacrament of confession is usually referred to as the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Catholic Church.

It is very important to note that the priest never plays the role of the accuser. (This is, after all, Satan’s namesake) The penitent accuses himself of sin. He is, after all, the only one who can know well enough that he has done something wrong with full culpability. The act of confession begins with “I have sinned” not “you have sinned.” How different this is from what many of us are used to! It so obviously follows the advice of Jesus to see to plank in our own eyes. It is also similar to the fourth step of recovery ministries in which the addict takes a serious, personal, moral accounting –while the rest of the group is silent!

This point is so important I want to emphasize right here: the penitent and the penitent alone will accuse himself of sin. The confessor, who hears him, responds with patience, love, compassion, and never accuses the penitent of sin.

For those of us, Catholics or Protestants, who have experienced this, we can all remember the feeling of relief that comes confessing sin to another. The feeling of absolution is something that is not always found in confessing only in private prayer. Those who are close to us and those who love us can give us another set of eyes and suggest what we might do to be healed. Further, we also open ourselves up to accountability. Simply put, there is something profoundly different about speaking one’s sin to another, and then having that other not judge you, but remind you of Christ’s forgiveness.

There are doubtless a few objections that other protestants are thinking of right now. For instance, there seems to be little emphasis on church discipline or holiness here. The sinner is to easily “let off the hook” in this scenario. Some may think that since the priesthood was abolished by Protestantism, that this practice cannot possibly be facilitated in anything but Catholicism. These two objections, though sensible, can be discussed and overcome. First, holiness is of course important but that depends on what kind of holiness we are seeking. Secondly, we need not worry about the role of a priest because it is not totally accurate to say that Protestantism “abolished” the priesthood.

You’ll read a few more protestant things in the next blog.

The Value of Confession: Part I (What we want)

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." - James 4:16

Over the last couple of weeks I have given some thought to the idea of confession of sins in between believers. I am not only referring to a sin towards someone and then apologizing for that sin. I am talking about struggling with sin in general, and confessing that to another Christian. This is a practice that is facilitated well in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and could happen in evangelicalism. With the exception of Anne Jackson’s project, I do not know of any evangelical organization that focuses on such. Yet, I see a need for it in evangelicalism because it can point us to three things we hope for in our communities. Here they are.

Authenticity, for instance, is a mantra among Christians. This is especially strong among twenty something post-evangelicals like myself. No one likes pretense. No one likes duplicity. You, reading this, probably can think of times in which people felt the pressure to act good, appear holy and holier, and otherwise put on a smile when they are not feeling it. Now, I am by no means suggesting that everyone should hang their dirty laundry out the window. I am only saying that Christians really do want to be able to admit that they are, in fact, really sinful people. We all want to be understood as such. Christians who struggle with depression, addictions or anything similar probably know this.

Humility is also often in short supply. Now, humility is not self deprecation. It is a frank assessment of oneself and the limits of one’s abilities. It is the willingness to be slow to speak and quick to understand. It is the quest to consider others greater than yourself, but without falling into envy or despair. It is the willingness to recognize that we cause our own problems and to recognize where we must improve. All of this must be consistently practiced. It is a task that is never ending.

We also desire an in-depth Christian community. It is true that our implicit individualism keeps many from even wanting this, but I feel that many Christians have realized that “Just me and my Bible” or “Just me and the Holy Spirit” is not the kind of faith we were really meant to have. Rather, we all believe that God puts us in church for good reason. The work of the Holy Spirit is frequently accomplished through other people in our lives. Another person’s look at scripture will improve ours. Most importantly, we realize that as much as we want to represent Christ to the world, we also want to represent Christ to each other. This, again, is something that is not easy to do, but is part of what it means to be a Christian.

These three things –authenticity, humility, and community- are all things Christians desire. They are all things that Christians need. They are all good things that we know we should have, but usually do not have. We want to live in a community of authentic human beings who love each other enough that none are afraid to admit their faults. We want to be the kinds of Christians who listen before we judge. However, we all know that this does not happen as well as it should.

I will write on the nuts and bolts of confession and reconciliation next. Please keep reading because of those future blogs.

De Fabulas Fidorum

"Concerning the Stories of the Faithful"

If God wills it, I will be helping lead a "guided autobiography" at Mosaic in the near future.

If God wills it.

In any case I have been thinking about personal stories in Christian churches, or as they are commonly referred to as "testimonies." Everyone has one. The new converts have them and the older Christians have them. Whose do we hear more often?

I think, for better or for worse, churches tend to privilege a certain kind of personal story. The personal stories that get told through the projectors or in front of the mic are often the most dramatic. Usually, churches look for stories that follow the following narrative:

1. Before I knew Christ, I felt like a totally unfulfilled loser.
2. Then I met Christ.
3. Now I don't feel like a unfulfilled loser anymore.

Through design or habit the stories are often those who overcame the drug addiction, severe depression, hateful sin, or where the rock bottom losers before they knew Christ. They can be inspiring and hope filled for other people in the congregation. They serve as tangible reminders of God's work in people's lives.

I think there is a small downside though. In privileging personal stories like this, there is a tendency to ignore the personal stories of those who have been faithful their whole lives, or have been Christians for a very long time. The celebration of personal stories tend to be from new converts only, and it is seldom that you hear the stories of those who have not had such a rocky, emotionally shaky, journey to the Christian faith.

How do the long-time Christians see the personal stories of the new converts? Almost always in a positive way, for sure. Older Christians love to listen to these as much as the new converts love to share. Yet I remember something I read in an interview with Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman years ago. He confessed that he always regretted just a little bit that he, as life-long Christian, did not have the a personal story as dramatic as those of the new converts. I think he speaks for a lot of people.

There are probably two ways to look at this. On one hand, this could be a strange kind of envy. Remember the parable of the prodigal son? Remember the other brother? It is that kind of envy. The other brother was clearly jealous of the prodigal's special treatment when he returned home. Life-long Christians and older Christians need to guard carefully against this. Envy, after all, steals our joy and gives us not even the most vaporous benefit in return.

On the other hand, I think Churches should be careful to listen to the stories of the life-long Christians as well. The personal stories of those who converted long ago or even when they were children may not follow the sought-after narrative, but are important testimonies of God's work as well. They help the church become more self-aware, as these stories might put to light unseen failures or uncelebrated successes. It also ensures that older Christians do not eventually feel marginalized as their struggles and victories do not go unacknowledged by the rest of their churches. Everyone, after all, wants to share their story.

Please understand, I am not saying that we need to cut back on the dramatic, new convert, stories and replace them. I think that there is plenty of room for both. There is no need to think of this as a competition of whose stories are more worthy for celebration.

What's your story?

Have Yourself a very Civic Christmas

Isn't there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?! -Charlie Brown

Yesterday was the the third Sunday of Advent and I am yet to comment on Christmas.

I am such a bad Christian.

I had hoped to do a series of worked out, fully fledged, articles for this Advent season, but my school schedule, my quest for summer employment and to some extent even Christmas shopping got the better of me.

In other words, I was sucked into the civic side of Christmas.

It seems, when Christmas comes around, Christians really wind up celebrating two different holidays at the same time. One, is the secular holiday; henceforth "x-mas." X-mas is marked by the traveling stress of coming home from school during winter break, (or waiting for your kids to come home if you are the parent). It is about the big day of shopping of black Friday. It is about getting presents under the tree. Hanging stockings above the mantle. Getting gifts and receiving them, and shopping while hearing "Jingle bells" or "I'll be Home for Christmas" or something else vaguely "Good will" orientated. X-mas, is the secular, cultural, holiday that all people of any religious or non-religious persuasion can enjoy.

Do I think any of these things are bad? Not at all (except the shopping). I enjoy giving and receiving gifts. X-mas remains the one time of year when I really look forward to going home. Decorations are still fun. As long as there is not a great deal of stress, I will have a good X-mas this year.

The thing is though, I really want to celebrate Advent and Christmas during December. I want to prepare myself as if Christ was coming on December 24th. I want some time to take emotional, spiritual, and even mental inventory and redirect everything towards God. I want to show Christian charity through acts of Christian charity. I want to sing Christmas songs that reflect the importance of Christ's birth. I want to be amazed by the incarnation.

I found this Advent, and many others like it to be an unstable balance of X-mas and Christmas. It seems every year, that the aspects of X-mas, because I am so stuck in the culture, eclipse Christmas. Never fully so, obviously, but a little to much in my mind.

This year, though, I did get all my shopping done by November. Next year, I will pay special attention Advent and will hopefully be able to decorate my apartment accordingly.

Thanks for reading.

What I did for All Saint's Day/Day of the Dead

It looks like I did do something for All Saint's Day/Day of the Dead after all.

For those who did not read my Halloween rant, Day of the Dead/All Saint's Day is the day of the year when Christians remember those who have passed on and will be raised by God again on the last day. It is a day that everyone remembers not only the "big name" Christians, but also the every-day Christians.

Anyway, at the LMU library this Sunday, there was a small alter for Dia de Los Muetros (Day of the Dead). People had put a few picture of their loved ones, and written letters short letters to them. There was the usual painted skull mask, which although "creepy" was not as scary as you might think. There was an invitation to all students to take a moment, write on some canvas, and pin it to the burlap on the altar.

I took a few moments to remember my long deceased Grandfather. He loved children (which I have inherited), and was married to the same woman for over 50 years. He came from the greatest generation and fought in World War II, yet never became a bitter man. He had a hard life when he was younger, as his parent's died, and never made it past the 8th Grade. He was devout and simple Christian of the Billy Graham generation, and I will never forget how often he prayed at dinners with and for his Grandchildren.

He died at a strange time in my life. I was in the middle of a faith crisis and generally frustrated with my life. I had, at that time, finally decided that set some goals for myself and was going to get through College and probably get a graduate degree. I am now working on that degree. In many ways, I am strangely beyond my grandfather in my understanding of my religion. Most likely, I will also see more of the world than he did, and not because I am getting shipped off to shoot people.

But I think back to that funeral and can remember that my Grandfather still is way ahead of me in many ways. Few people I know died with more loving friends and family around them. He was described as honest and humble businesses man and a gentle lover of children. He impressed even the nurses of his rest room with his kindness. And yes, he remained faithful and married all the years of life.

In that letter, I pinned to the altar, I wrote that my Grandfather's life still inspires me.

Expectamus resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam futuri saeculi. Amen.*

Who did you remember on November 1st?


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*we look foreward the the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Why I Need God in Silence

Internet Monk posted a nice article recently that made me think about my own devotional life; specifically my tendency towards contemplative meditations and Liturgy. Also, it helps me understand why I can see some styles of worship as gaudy and over powering, while others can see God through them.

There are a lot of reasons why I need contemplative silence in my spiritual life.

I am an intellectual. Christian intellectuals have a role to play in the life of the Church and the world. We do a lot of the heavy lifting that others (often mercifully) don't have to do. There is a downside though, we are often always talking and we frequently get the point where we simply love to hear our own voices. Philosophy and Theology can become "mental masturbation" as my friend put it. Silence reminds us to shut up.

I am a Musician. Musicians love music and we love being heard playing music. I am no exception. I have done music for the approval of others and for my own enjoyment. Bad thing? Of course not. Yet like being an intellectual, it is often a mixed bag when it comes to one's relation to God. Do I need a worship CD -whether that be Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vespers or rock-worship on a Sunday night to see God? The answer, when I think about it carefully, is no.

I am an Incurable Extrovert. I am often to outgoing for my own good. Maintaining friendships is so important to me that I often do not know when to say "no." I am the first to assert that our encounters with God are rightly also encounters with other people -most specifically those Christians whom we pray, eat, and live with. Yet still, this does not mean that I can ignore times of reflection on the life of Christ or on the psalms or whatever else might be guiding my prayer life.

Learning how to shut up and listen, even when bored, is an on going process for me.

Christian Reasons for Vegetarianism: Part IV

This is the end of perfect virtue for all alike-that, even while still desiring it, we should approach with restraint the food that we are obliged to eat in order to sustain our lives.
-John Cassian ”The Institutes”

Welcome to the fourth and final blog on Christian reasons for Vegetarianism.

Let me remind (admit to?) everyone that I am not a vegetarian, will likely never be one, but nonetheless like finding ways to cut back on my meat consumption. I don’t believe in prescribing vegetarianism as a kind of dogmatic rule for all Christians, but I hope everything I write here will challenge all those reading to examine their consciences on the matter. One way or another, I feel Christians should follow the advice of John Cassian, who is quoted above.

In the second part of these blogs, I wrote about things Christians believe in: fasting, greed, concern for the poor, and the environment. In the third, I described some realities of food production and the finite nature of what we can grow and produce. In this blog, I will finally put them together and offer some practical ideas of practices Christians can take up, if they feel so compelled.

The Environment

Many Christians I know drink water out of reusable aluminum bottles, recycle their soda cans, and even drive a Prius. We all do this because we are well aware of the impact our garbage and our gas have on the planet, which we regard as God’s creation to be cared for. We do this even knowing that the problem is “to big” for a few of us to solve. Regardless of what industries might do, we know that our individual “footprints” on the earth can be lessened.

Eating habits are a nice extension to the things just mentioned. Food is usually not high on the list of environmental concerns, but it is there. Growing meat requires a significant amount of resources. In my state of California, that means fresh drinking water for cattle in addition to the water that was already used to grow crops. Also, even though cars come first to mind, the raising of cattle produces significant amount methane into the atmosphere.

Fasting

Imagine giving up on meat one or two days a week consistently. What might someone learn by going through this simple process when combined with prayer and personal reflection?

One thing that someone might learn is that meat is a luxury. Now, I know that term comes off as rather strong. It needs explanation. I do not mean luxury in the common sense of “something that everybody wants, but few people have” like a Rolex watch or Lexus SUV. I mean it the sense that eating meat is non essential to human well being. It does not meet any of our basic physical needs like nourishment, shelter or clothing. Likewise, it is not needed for any of our higher needs such as our need for good relationships, aesthetic and artistic needs, intellectual needs, spiritual needs etc. Neither (except in very special cases) does it meet our need of economic survival in a society such as ours.

This definition of luxury is broad. Most things we labor for in our society would probably be luxurious and most people have them regardless of their economic standing. However, would this perhaps not be something that God might want to teach Christians in affluent nations? Ecclesiastes reminds us of how seeking things, including food, does not make us happy. It is one thing to read about it and learn it, but the Holy Spirit also teaches us when we take up certain habits. The simple truth: “we have too much in America” is not something that is easily learned by book reading alone.

Overcoming Greed

People like Christian anti-debt advocate David Ramsey and many other financial gurus offer a profound piece of wisdom: eat beans and rice until you meet certain financial goals, like paying off debt. What is the connection here? The idea is that meat is usually more expensive than beans and other vegetables. In fact, the price of meat is kept artificially low though government subsidies for crops that serve as food for cattle or other industry. If it were not for these subsidies*, the price of meat would be so much that I am fairly certain most people would be de facto vegetarians.

Bottom line is this: the less we spend on meat, the more we have to either be financially stable ourselves or to simply have more to give away to those in need.

Keeping the World’s Poor in Mind

Most of us can think of a meal-time prayer -usually before a large amount of food at family time- in which someone asks God to “help us to remember those who have less.” All Christians want to keep the world’s poor in mind, but why not pick a more practical way to do it? In other words, why not eat like the poor of the world every once in awhile?

Obviously, I do not mean do not eat at all. But why not have a (as one Christian called her nights in) a “poverty night”? Instead of inviting friends over for a barbeque, why not take one of the simpler vegetarian recipes from the Mennonite inspired More-With-Less Cookbook? Eating like those who don’t have meat will surely help us to remember those who don’t have what we have. Another popular classic on this subject is Diet For A Small Planet, which details out eating habits from several perspectives.

End

Hopefully, by now the idea of eating meat is something on everyone’s mind. Again, I don’t think that vegetarianism is a kind of mandate for all Christians. I do think, though, that our eating habits need to be on our consciences. The ecological realities and the spiritual practices that Christians accept, really do make this an issue that cannot be ignored.

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*To be clear, I am not opposed to government subsidies for food per se. It is important to keep the cost of food whenever possible. The question is: does it have to be in favor of the meat industry? There are other issues worth considering. For instance, given that meat is not a biological necessity, is also an inefficient expenditure of resources, is it reasonable to provide food-stamps for chicken and steak?

Christian Reasons for Vegetarianism: Part III

Part III

In the last blog, I explained some universally held Christian beliefs. While it may not seem that these important practices connect to vegetarianism, I think after explaining some realities of the world it will be a little bit clear.

When discussing food, especially meat, we need to ask where it comes from. No, I don’t mean Ralph’s and Costco.

The Energy Pyramid

There’s one thing we all learned in high school biology called the energy pyramid. Basically, there is a certain amount of energy that comes from the sun. It is continuous and inexhaustible, but only comes in at a constant steady rate. This energy in turn helps produce plants, which provide energy for herbivores, which are then eaten by predators and so on up the food chain.

What results is a loss of energy at each link on that chain. It works like this: the sun makes a plant grow. This plant has certain amount of potential nourishment for a mouse. The mouse eats some of the plant, and then uses that nourishment to move about, dig holes, squeak, etc. The mouse is now potential nourishment for the snake. Because the mouse used some of the energy from the plant, it now has less potential energy to give to the snake. Likewise, once the snake eats a few mice, it then uses some of that nourishment stored in them. So the snake provides even less nourishment to the hawk. At each step, the total energy that first came from the sun is lost. This is one reason why there are more mice in the world than hawks and more plants than mice.

”Growing Beef”

Agriculture is no exception to this reality. Growing a large land mammal like a cow for purpose of steaks is something that heavily taxes the resources of the planet. Cows eat quite a bit and they also need quite a bit of water to survive. It takes the equivalent of twelve loaves of bread to produce one pound of beef. Beef is one of the most extreme examples of this kind of resource consumption, but the same principle applies to chicken, pork, or fish.

Twelve loaves of bread could go further than a hamburger. Maybe this isn’t such a problem though. After all, the population of hawks still survive even though they eating snakes. This is certainly true, but Americans –who eat meat with nearly every meal- must understand how much they are consuming. There is not enough fertile farmland on the planet for everyone in it to eat like an American. According to the UN, if all United States citizens abstained from meat just two days a week, we’d be doing the world a huge favor.

The consequences of this issue are put best a scholar wise than myself:

12.9 pounds of grain could have been converted to 12.9 loaves of bread that could have, in turn, been fed to world’s starving poor. Instead, that grain/bread is wasted, just so people in affluent nations can eat meat and other animal products. There is no way around it: Whenever one purchases a pound of beef, one is supporting a system of agriculture that effectively squanders 12.9 pounds of grain for every pound of beef produced.*

The point then is clear. You can probably already imagine where I am going with this in my final blog. Eating is wasteful. My last final blog will explain how abstaining from meat, given everything I have said here, connects with the things that Christians already believe. Then, I will offer a few practical suggestions to cut back on our meat consumption.


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*This quote comes from Mylan Engel, Jr. in his 2003 article “Hunger, Duty, and Ecology: On What we Owe Starving Humans”

Christian Reasons for Vegetarianism: Part II

Thank you for reading the much belated Part II. As most of you know, bloggers often apologize for not writing more often. Tonight, I write to with (likely) many mistakes and am sipping a cup of coffee to keep me going.

In other news: Stargate

The Subject at Hand

In my previous blog, I mentioned arguments that I do not intend to use and to find persuasive towards vegetarianism from a Christian conscience. I mentioned that despite the weakness of those arguments, there are things that Christians believe that I think will guide us towards vegetarianism if we prayerfully examine our consciences towards that end. Here they are.

The Principle of Fasting

Fasting is something that all Christian believe in one way or another. It is most famously found in the Gospels in which Jesus fasts for forty days and is tempted by the Devil. Traditionally, fasting from food for a short amount of time gives us more time to pray. Also, it teaches us to discipline our bodies so that we better resist temptation. After all, if one can resist the natural desire for food, than one can learn to resist other desires as well.

Of course, it is worth noting that food need not be what we fast from. After all, I remember during lent one year I gave up facebook. Nor does it have to be all kinds of food, but perhaps a specific kind. Fasting is flexible. The duration of it and what kind it may be is left to the individual conscience of the believer.

Freedom from Greed in order to be Generous

No Christian I know denies the special admonitions to help the poor, yet still Christians fail to give even the paltry 10%. Understandibly, this is because we are in financial straits ourselves and are habituated to self-preservation first. But equally, we too easily fall into the pattern of the world around us.

Part of what prevents us from giving is our natural greed. Greed, very broadly spoken, is giving ourselves some kind of non-essential luxury when that money might be better used to provide life-sustaining essentials to another human being. So I do not need new video-game, pair of shoes, Blue Ray player, or expensive book. That money is better spent either in my church nearby or sent to a World Vision child across the oceans.

With the idea of Christian charity comes the idea of solidarity with the poor. Can every Christian, take up his cross, sell all he has, and live in a semi-homeless state like Jesus and the apostles did? It turns out not all of us are cut out to be Franciscan Monks. Nonetheless, all Christians need to be aware of, understand, and keep in mind the world’s poor. Again, we must remember the poor near us and the poor across the ocean.

Environmental Concerns

The Christian Environmental conscience is, sadly, weak. Nonetheless it is there. More and more Christians are beginning to understand that the earth is a creation to be cared for, and not a resource to be plundered. Some may object that I have stepped into the world of new-age religion at this point, but how seriously ought we to take the idea that earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it? It seems that if we recognize God’s creative purpose for the world and his ownership of it, than we have a good reason to think that care for the earth is important.

This point is especially strong depending on your view of eschatology or “end-times.” Many Christians believe that the “end” is restoration of the present world. In other words, when God re-creates through a liberation from the effects of sin, not a cataclysmic “reset button” in which God smites the entire planet. Yet even if Christians expect this world to be destroyed by sin first, that is no reason for Christian to stand by and watch it happen.

Onward and onward

If you’ve read this long, you’re awesome. Thanks for sticking with it. In part III, I will show how these Christian beliefs, when combined with environmental and economic realities, point us in the direction of vegetarianism.

Thanks for reading.

Christian Reasons for Vegetarianism: Part I

Opening Thoughts

I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat most days of the week, although I avoid red meat like I avoid soft drinks. I do not think that I will ever feel the need to become a full, strict, vegetarian either. I certainly could never become a vegan. I also do not believe that I am willing now, nor should ever be in the future, able to commit to a “cold-turkey” (no pun intended) instant cut out of meat from my diet.

Nonetheless, I believe that there are good reasons for Christians to cut back on meat consumption. I have, imperfectly, committed myself to refraining from meat on Sundays. I find that I am losing my need to eat meat and am fully satisfied with not eating it once a week. I hope to eventually take this into other days of week.

Scaling back and even eliminating meat from our diets is something all Christians should consider.

Why avoid meat when Scripture doesn’t say so?

To begin, here are some arguments I am not using in these blogs.

I am not, for instance, arguing from a perspective of animal rights. Many people argue against eating meat by virtue that animals are moral equals in the universe. While the points they bring up are often of great value, I believe that Christians are right to point out that many of the animal rights activists do not so much as elevate the moral status of animals, but rather bring down the spiritual status of humans. Humans, so said by animal rights activists, are very well evolved animals, but not above the animal kingdom or better than our cousins the chimpanzees. Whatever reasons people may have for this, I think it is right for Christians to reject these appeals on the grounds that we do believe that we are above animals via our special relationship with our creator.

Neither do I argue that eating meat is intrinsically wrong. Christians have often said that the raising of animals for slaughter, consumption, and obviously sacrifices cannot violate the laws of God. These things happened in scripture and received no condemnation from God and sometimes even his mandate. Many of the early patriarchs in the Old Testament domesticated animals and treated them as property. God also called for the sacrifice of animals. Several other passages, such as the famous example of eating meat before idols in the New Testament, could be added here. So the point is this: If God ever felt that the killing of animals by humans was wrong, and this includes eating them, then it would seem he has contradicted himself.

Furthermore, I am not arguing that we need an explicit, clear biblical command to refrain from meat in order to do so. Many things Christians do (like blogging) come not from a clear command in scripture, but rather from careful reflection on what the Christian life is (which includes scripture), and an application to our contemporary habits of living. Thus I would never say that vegetarianism is “Biblical” but rather that it is “Christian.”

There are few things that Christians believe that influence how we think about our diets. Likewise, there are some facts about the economy that we live in it that should make us think about what the real cost of a nice steak is. When two things are put together, I think it seems that Christians can be light of the world more fully if we, as the Church, pass on the capon when eating dinner.

Stay tuned for part II. It will be up by Monday.