We all own the crisis: America’s problems with thrift and sustainability by Robert F. Bruner, Dean, Darden School of Business.

"Pensees, pt. 2" or "Living in the Now"

"We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching.

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. the present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so."

There's something wrong with this picture

Three weeks ago, a guy on the Philly subway kissed his son, sat him down, and then took out a hammer from a backpack and ruthlessly beat another passenger. It's this kind of event that pricks our natural human intuition that something isn't right on this earth and renews a longing within us for a day when things will be put right, beauty restored, and justice accomplished.

[warning, the video below is fairly violent]

"Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Worthy of reverence because it really understands human nature. Attractive because it promises true good."

~excerpt from Pensees by Blaise Pascal (Pensees is an unfinished work with just a jumble of thoughts on Christianity that Pascal never got to put together)

I'm not even sure I completely agree with the above quote, but I find it worth thinking about. Pascal might not have been best known as a theologian, but he was certainly a smart man and he spent significant time thinking about Christianity later in his life. I just started reading the book (this was on page 2), so I'm sure there will be more to come.

Churches, nonprofit status, and politics

I've been lukewarm for quite a while about the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an organization started by the likes of Bill Bright and James Dobson which bills itself as the conservative Christian counterpart to the ACLU. They run the Blackstone Fellowship, in which many of my friends have participated. Right now it seems that my doubts about the organization are becoming a reality.

Right now they are mounting an effort to get pastors to disregard the nonprofit tax laws in order to build a freedom of speech claim against the IRS. The way 501(c)(3) status works, churches (and any other 501(c)(3) organization are strictly limited in their ability to lobby or promote political candidates. The ADF argues that this is an unconstitutional limitation on the freedom of speech. This is why this development upsets me:

Because the founders of the organization are such big names in the Christian community, the work of ADF is likely to be perceived as efforts by the evangelical community at large. At least in my corner of the world, I don't see strong Christian support for this. ADF is essentially calling on pastors to break the law. When Jesus said to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's," he was essentially supporting the tax law of the existing regime. While ADF might argue that part of the church's mandate is to tell congregants whom to vote for (I don't happen to believe that is necessarily true) and thus they much choose to either obey their God-given mandate over the tax law, this is a false conflict.

501(c)(3) tax exempt status is a privilege given to churches with the underlying assumption that churches give something back to society, so the government wants to subsidize it. If a pastor wants to be really involved in politics, the laws do not prevent that--the pastor can just not claim 501(c)(3) status for his church. The church can allow all tithes and offerings to be taxed and it will no longer get free postage. While there is a cost to this decision, there really is no conflict at all.

In fact, I think this challenge is more likely to hurt churches rather than help. As I said before, the tax exemption for churches is based on the understanding that churches are beneficial to society, but also historically, the exemption finds its basis in legislators feeling uncomfortable infringing on the sovereignty of the church through taxation. Now, given the increasingly secular culture of the United States, the value of the church to society is likely to decrease as is the recognition of the church as sovereign. My sense is that tax exemption for churches is already on shaky ground. Does ADF really want to draw attention to this? Is this really the biggest legal challenge facing the Christian community? This looks to me to be a case of one step forward for two step back.

Imposters

In last week's orientation for work, one of the speakers spoke on owning up to our mistakes. He claimed that the greatest fear of incoming lawyers is what he called "imposter syndrome," where lawyers fear that others may discover that they are not as good/competent/responsible as they try to present ourselves.

I've been thinking about this "imposter syndrome" concept this week. Everyone suffers from it. At its crux, the fear of being found an imposter is a matter of an identity crisis. There is a fear of being one's true identity being found out and a preference for a false identity we try to convince others of.

As Christians our identity is in Christ, so there need not be a fear of being revealed as an imposter (after all, the first step is to recognize our fallenness.). However, it's worth reflecting on whether we really claim that truth--whether we really live that out or if in some senses we do live in fear of being proven an imposter.

Hospitality and Immigration Policy

Interesting that my last blog post somehow got onto the second page of hits if you search for "the hope that we confess" on Google...but that's not what I want to write about.

Having some out-of-town friends over at our apartment has gotten me thinking about the concept of hospitality again. I've blogged about it before, but as I continue thinking and reading about hospitality, I do think that hospitality may be one of the most basic pictures of the gospel message. Henri Nouwen defined hospitality as “creation of free space where a stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy." Isn't that effectively what God did for us through Christ?

If we accept true hospitality as an important way to communicate the gospel, I would argue that the American Christian community needs to rethink its view on how it ought to treat immigrants. The general arguments for harsh treatment of immigrants on a policy level and an individual level are that the rule of law is threatened by illegals and the costs of caring for non-US citizens will burden US citizens. I have reservations about Christians blindly accepting those rationales. Certainly there are costs, but as Christians, we cannot be motivated solely by costs. In fact, we are promised that following Christ will cost of everything.

I'm still developing my thoughts on the topic, but I'll just leave you with a passage by Francis Schaeffer on hospitality from "The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century." It'll make more sense if you know a little something about L'abri.

"Don't start with a big program. Don't suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community…

How many times in the past year have you risked having a drunk vomit on your carpeted floor? How in the world, then, can you talk about compassion and about community - about the church's job in the inner city?

L'Abri is costly. If you think what God has done here is easy, you don't understand. It's a costly business to have a sense of community. L'Abri cannot be explained merely by the clear doctrine that is preached; it cannot be explained by the fact that God has here been giving intellectual answers to intellectual questions. I think those two things are important, but L'Abri cannot be explained if you remove the third. And that is there has been some community here. And it has been costly.

In about the first three years of L'Abri all our wedding presents were wiped out. Our sheets were torn. Holes were burned in our rugs. Indeed once a whole curtain almost burned up from somebody smoking in our living room. Blacks came to our table. Orientals came to our table. Everybody came to our table. It couldn't happen any other way. Drugs came to our place. People vomited in our rooms, in the rooms of Chalet Les Melezes which was our home, and now in the rest of the chalets of L'Abri.

How many times has this happened to you? You see, you don't need a big program. You don't have to convince your session or board. All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God's world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home."

The hope that we confess

I watched Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention last night. I was struck by his religious rhetoric. He alluded to the response of Cain to God when he said that we are our "brother's keeper," which I didn't find particularly objectionable. What I thought was more interesting was his final sentence: "Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess."

Though that snippet is from the words of Scripture (Heb 10), it certainly does not convey the meaning of Scripture. Obama calls Americans to strive for progress based on a hope in our own abilities. This is actually directly opposed to what Scripture says.

I am less concerned about what this conveys about Obama as much as I am intrigued and saddened by what this suggests about Americans at large. This was the type of speech that a whole committee spends days carefully crafting to resonate with a large segment of Americans. The fact Obama closed his speech the way he did suggests that something about Scripture resonates with the American public yet the meaning of the words is not something people understand or care about. A general sense of spiritual apathy across the country is more troubling than who ultimately wins this upcoming election.

Liturgy

"Renewing Liturgy" by Joel Garver.

Here's an interesting piece on liturgy by a local philosophy professor. Having gone from a lower church church to a higher church church, I did notice that the order of worship made a difference at least experientially. Garver (who heavily draws from Newbigin) makes some good points about why liturgy may be beneficial to the Church.

Church growth and urban planning: a lesson from Canada

"Fast-growing churches, frustrated with the slow pace of municipal planning, often find themselves pushed into setting up shop in rural areas on the edge of town, where they end up contributing to suburban sprawl...The small neighbourhood church of the past is fast being replaced by larger "destination" churches, Agrawal said, but congregations have trouble finding a large enough location for both the worship space and parking for all the parishioners." [Toronto Star]

HT: Planetizen