The Cool Kids

I think I was really close to becoming one.  I’ve used U2 while teaching Sunday School.  I enjoy Johnny Cash.  I'm often on my laptop.

I enjoy coffee.   

I have black, rimmed glasses that make me look smarter than I am.

But, something doesn’t quite jive. 

They love what Jesus loves, but don’t hate what Jesus hates.  In fact, I think they revel in their perceived naughty school boy rebellions. 

The latest Big Tent Christianity event just wrapped up.  So I have been reflecting on the first one, which I attended last year in Raleigh, NC.  Big Tent equals Emergent Christianity, or Emergent 2.0, or whatever new title we have this time.  But of course nothing has really changed and the concept is not new.

I was looking over some of the talks from last year’s event and came across the blog for one of the speakers.  Hugh Hollowell posted a pithy article asking “Do I Deny The Resurrection?” (1) by never answering the question, but by looking down on you for even posing it.

This is an (oversimplified example) annoyance I have with Emergent Christians.  They feel they are too smart by half yet, their theology feels shallow. 

McLaren makes a habit of making big statements and then saying “but I could be wrong about it all.”  Way to commit.  

Bell says things like, “what IF the Virgin Birth wasn’t true?” (2)

“I mean, um, I’m not remotely saying that, I’m just saying what if?”

Nadia Bolz-Weber started her talk last year with a rambling “spoken word”  (so much cooler than a poem) and wasn’t the first or last to throw out some curse words for effect. 

Almost every time I hear a minister curse in a talk I sense they think they came up with the idea.  I know Tony Campolo did it many years ago.  I doubt he was the first then, either. 

We are ministers that curse!  We are hard core!  Join us. 

They eschew dogma, wrestle with scripture, drop F-bombs like rose petals,  love rock music, slam poetry and visual art. (3)

Way to be completely different from the rest of the world. 

Back to Hugh Hollowell’s blog post though.  I think that’s why I started writing my own in the first place.

One annoyed reader named Mike commented:  “It’s clear that your position is that what you do is more important than what you believe, but I don’t understand the motivation behind hiding what you believe.  What would you lose by telling people the truth?”

Then Hugh follows that comment with  “Because I have no interest in pretending that God cares more about whether I intellectually agree to a historical fact than whether I love my neighbor as I do myself.”

Historical fact?  That makes the resurrection sound like a foot note. 

My Fun Facts Book:  
A:   Who quarterbacked the San Diego Chargers to their last Super Bowl appearance?
B:   Who was the first Black Miss America?
C:   Who was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead in 3 days, all to take on the cost of our sins on Himself?
See answers at bottom:

Whether it did or did not happen matters.
“I do not believe that kind of certainty is possible from such a distant event.” Replied another commenter, arguing (I think accurately) that Hugh Hollowell was saying we should act as if it happened, and whether it did or not is irrelevant. (4)

But you call yourself Christian?  If I chalked the resurrection up to a “maybe” then my heart surely wouldn’t be into Jesus.

If the resurrection did not happen, then to paraphrase CS Lewis (or Bono for my Emergent friends cuz he said it too) then Jesus was just a nut.  We can’t have it both ways.

Either he was a loon going around claiming to be God and getting his followers killed for their belief in this; or he actually was and is God.

And what kind of a God was/is Jesus?  According to some, He was all about love.  Love to the hippy point of view that anything goes. 

Do not misunderstand.  God IS love.  But saying any and everything in this world is ok in the name of love, is not biblical. 

God loves us.  A Father that reprimands is a loving father.    

But the cool kids are more moral than God. 

They believe in a God that is incapable of hating anything.  Anything including sin.  This is heretical on a monumental scale.

Sin is so important to God, his Son was tortured because of our sin.  We should not take sin lightly.  Nor should we feel we know better what constitutes sin than God.

You cannot out love God.  To think so is narcissistic to the extreme.

Answers:  

A:  Stan Humphries
B:  Vanessa Williams
C:  Jesus Christ

Sources:

     (1)     Hugh Hollowell  “Do I Deny The Ressurrection?”                 Tuesday, December 14 2010

    

     (2)  Velvet Elvis  (page 26)  By Rob Bell

    

     (3)  BTX in Phoenix: Big, Bold, Exciting and Scary

blog | February 12, 2011 | By Cynthia B. Astle

         
          (4)  Commentator appears to be Scott Shirley.  He can be                   found here: http://www.thechurchofchristgadfly.blogspot.com/

Big Tent Christianity

This article was originally posted on a different website, following the Raleigh, NC Big Tent Christianity Conference.  Since the second Big Tent Christianity conference is happening now, I figured I would repost here. 




I recently attended a Big Tent Christianity Conference in Raleigh, NC. Big Tent is another buzzword or offshoot of the Emergent Movement. Speakers at the conference included Brian McLaren (often attributed with starting the Emergent movement), Shane Claiborne, and Jay Bakker (Jim and Tammy Faye’s son).

Ministers and theologians spoke with passion about justice, denominationalism, and sexuality, among other things. We sang a few songs and at break times you could go around to different booths. Booths included “People of Faith Against The Death Penalty,” Wesley Seminary, Mars Hill Graduate School, and a table selling books by many of the big emergent leaders of today. Some of the writers were in the room.

Now I figured I might disagree with some of what was said. I knew this going in, but that is why I wanted to go. I wanted to feel challenged and hear some decent debate/discussion. Tony Campolo is lumped in the emergent pastor category often, and I have found him interesting, ever since I heard him speak in 1985.

Leaving the conference, I came away feeling, well, possibly sad. Now no, it was not a revival really, I get that. But everyone who spoke is a professing Christian. I heard Jesus mentioned. We sang a couple songs about “justice” and making our heart “green” was one lyric sang amongst all the Styrofoam coffee cups and numerous laptops.

But upon first leaving I did not feel filled up. Then I went home and thought about it all.

As much as we as Christians want to reach out to people, I feel maybe we have lost sight of something. It seems many are so concerned with reaching out and including all in this tent, that they are compromising the scripture.

Overall, it felt like there was just enough truth to be dangerous.

One comment I wrote down was, “Jesus never said he follows scripture. He said he follows God.”

It seemed to me that people were getting way too close to just disregarding the Bible all together.

I thought about how minister Rob Bell once wrote it would not really matter if we found out the Virgin Birth did not happen.

Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber, said, “I preach the gospel I actually need to hear.”

Interesting. Shouldn’t we hear all of it? Even the tough parts?

The topic of Big Tent Sexuality, quickly turned into a discussion on only homosexuality.

Kimberly Knight, a lesbian woman and a minister, stated “we look silly arguing issues of homosexuality to secular people.” I had to think, what does that matter?

Aren’t we supposed to stick out and look different than the rest of the world? We should not come across as rude or judgmental, but I did not think silly was an issue.

A general mantra seems to be: “why are we worried about this issue, when A: is happening over here and B: is happening over there?”

Just because there are all sorts of issues to deal with, doesn’t mean we completely ignore another does it?

Maybe the most interesting speaker for me was Brian Ammons, a gay man and member of the Alliance of Baptists. Brian had a take I had not yet heard; as he is offended by the arguments that “gay people can’t help it, they were born this way.”

Ammons says this was all strategy created in the 1970s. “It’s victimizing, it’s saying you have no choice. I have a choice with whom I’m sleeping with.”

Jay Bakker closed out this topic. He passionately preached about supporting his homosexual brothers and sisters and said “I don’t think it is a sin. But if you do, you must get past it.”

Concerning Jesus, he said, “If the Torah was his Bible, he didn’t follow it.”

This to me is a perfect example of a quote that needed some follow up. I mean, is it true? A little true; not true at all?

The one time I remember the panel being really tested by the moderator, was one of the most interesting moments. During the topic of Justice, the panel was asked, if they felt that the very safety net structures in society they always vote for, were actually hurting their ability to practice Christian Justice?

This was followed by an almost awkward pause, and eventual answers that made little sense. A better answer is out there, but I do not think the panel was even prepared to have to answer for themselves.

Bakker was the only person I saw with a Bible in hand. Raising it up, he stated, “Has this distorted our view of love?”

“I challenge anyone to prove me differently. The concept we have of gays or lesbians, the concept against two people in loving committed relationships, is nowhere to be found in the bible.”

“Don’t preach against my LBGT brothers and sisters. It’s not there! People say I’m picking and choosing, well maybe I am, but it’s not there!”

But homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible as wrong. The argument most people make is it’s not directly mentioned by Jesus, so therefore it can’t be wrong.

But don’t tell me it is not mentioned. Does monogamy make everything alright?

We seem to be ignoring parts of the Bible when they do not suit us. There are passages I have struggled with. It is why study and discussion is important to me.

A sentiment I felt through the conference was “we like the bible, but we wouldn’t mind ripping out a few pages.”

“I don’t worship the Bible, I worship Christ. If this (the Bible) gets in the way of love, then throw it out.” -Jay Bakker

My main concern is, are we loving our brothers and sisters to hell? Maybe that puts too fine a point on it, but I do not know any other way to say it.

I am reminded of a video one church made where a man is drowning. Another man sees this along the beach and shouts out, “I love you! I love you! Be my friend!”

Of course the man drowns. So how loving are we really, if it just helps lead to one’s destruction?

I realize some people will never agree with me on the Bible. Some would say, it was written a long time ago, by men, and just take it for whatever good you get out of it.

But I just cannot make myself do that. If Christianity means anything to me, then the whole book matters to me.

Jesus is not only responsible for the words in red.

W.C. Fields; that famous comic actor, was also well known at the time for being an outspoken atheist. A famous story goes that a few weeks before he died, a friend visited him at the hospital and found him in his bed reading the Bible. His friend asked what he was doing and Fields responded, “I’m looking for loopholes.”

There were some good things said in Raleigh last week. But if shaping the Bible to any way that feels more comfortable to us is an answer, then count me out.

I want to make sure God is shaping me, and not the other way around.

Uncommon Sense

John Shore is a Christian writer who wrote an article titled, “Toward a Christianity of Common Sense.”

I would like to comment on some of his points, because I think the article articulates a lot of what is wrong with many Christian leaders of today. I do not feel they quite understand Christianity. If they do, they are attempting to make it something else, and by that, make God something else. We can all try to be better Christians, but when we decide we are more moral than God, that is when I have a problem. We should not be shaping God into our image.

Mr. Shore begins with this statement: “Without question, I’m a Christian.” And I won't argue that point.

If he has asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior and repented of his sins then who am I to say he is not. But then if he is, I find it even more disturbing that he (and many others) seem to be giving believer and non-believers some odd information. (His statements in bullet points)

• "'No one comes to the Father except through me' does not mean that only Christians will be allowed into heaven. It means that Jesus decides who does and doesn't make the cut."

And he has this insight, how? I mean, I believe Jesus decides, but the inference is that you do not have to believe in Jesus.

But, Jesus said you do. Examples:

John 14:6 “No one comes to the father except through me.”

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

John 10:1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I do not read that to say, “that whoever Jesus feels is best, will have eternal life.”

Shane Claiborne has mentioned John 3:17 as a way of proving his view of Universalism.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

Now if this was the one verse, maybe I would agree with Claiborne. But we have the very famous verse before it, as well as this one right after.

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only son.” (John 3:18)

Now we all have friends who are nonbelievers. Family members. Nothing seems worse than thinking they might not join us in eternity. So we try not to think about it at all. We tell ourselves they are good people, so they will be fine.

They are not good people. No matter how much good they might be doing for others, they are not good. Neither are you. Neither am I.

Not one of us is truly “good.” That is why we need God’s grace. Good luck getting to perfect without it.

• "God's will and intention is to forgive and teach us, not judge and punish us."

This is one of those loaded statements that I love oh so much. It is saying that God does not judge, when it is very plain in Scripture that He does. Does He want to forgive and teach us over judging us? I would say so. But we can’t leave out the uncomfortable parts of God, just because we want. He is right to judge and has all authority in doing so.

• "The only person who should be actively endeavoring to convert non-Christians into Christians is God. Jesus does not need our help drawing people toward him. He does need our help -- or could certainly use it, anyway -- making sure that people know that they are loved."

This is my issue with these statements. Telling a nonbeliever about Jesus Christ is showing them love. If I love someone, I want them to be aware of something I’m really into. But some people will gladly show you the latest film or music they are into, but not ever mention Jesus. Why? Because then you are pushing religion on them? I’ve never been accused of pushing Beethoven on to anyone. If you don’t like the music, I’ll leave you alone. But I am going to play it for you, because I think its great music. And I think a relationship with Jesus Christ is a bit more important than Beethoven.

If we truly love someone, we help them. We ask them to be with us serving the Lord for eternity.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19)

• "The single most telling indicator of a person's moral character has nothing to do with how he or she defines or worships God, and everything to do with how he or she treat others."

Ok, I believe this is called “Moralism.” Moralism is not Christianity. Should Christians have strong character? Yes. If we have truly repented, then we are actively trying to be more Christ like. But the implication here is that we can work our way to Heaven. The whole point is that we cannot do it on our own. You are never going to reach perfect. Only Christ accomplished that.

What Christ did for us does not make common sense.