I’m back. The big trip to Shaktoolik actually happened (!!!) and though it was a short weekend experience, it was very valuable and enlightening as I try to learn to better serve this group of students with whom I have the privilege to work.
The weekend was much like any other high school retreat. Kids from all over Norton Sound (that’s the part below the old man’s nose if you look at a map of Alaska) came to Shaktoolik—from Nome, Unalakleet, Elim, and others—to take part. We had the usual games, chapel services, small group time, and late nights (which took their toll on me as I’m now fighting off sickness…boo). I saw some pretty interesting sights: flying over the frozen Yukon River, the beginnings of the ocean freezing over (there was slush and ice washing up on the frozen shore),
the store where prices were anywhere from two to three times “normal” or more (the kids dropped $3.50 for energy drinks like Rockstar, which are pretty popular up here).
The most “enlightening” part of the weekend, though, had to do with the theological landscape. Being in the village was interesting and seeing the way they lived, but it’s not extreme poverty…I’ve seen far worse in Thailand and Ecuador. The Alaska Natives in these villages generally live a subsistence lifestyle, and they seem to do alright. But the theology and worldview was very different and at times even disturbing. I have seen student papers and heard students speak with what appeared to be a very strong dualistic sense of the world—a very stark good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell, God vs. Satan viewpoint—but now I understand a little bit better how they have come to that point. It’s what is in the villages.
As one of the other ACC staff told me the other day (a guy who is himself native), there is a great fascination with end-times stuff (eschatology) and often a very escapist mentality (the idea that this life is just a way-point that we have to suffer through before we can get to heaven). Frankly, I was deeply disturbed and distressed by this. I saw and heard some examples of pretty poor biblical interpretation to support theological ideas that I believe are flat out wrong. It seemed that all weekend long the message was about sin, death, judgment, Hell, Satan. It was about us getting out of here, about how we can hardly wait for Jesus to come back and save us from whatever it is that we are stuck in. But, if this is merely a testing ground to see if we are good enough to make it to heaven (even if being “good enough” only means that we have to believe in Jesus), then we are all just in purgatory…we’re paying our dues, putting in our time suffering. But this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It seems that I keep coming back to this point in everything that I talk about, but the Gospel is about Life (yes, with a capital “L”). 
It is about us living up to everything that God created us to be…about us realizing our true humanity…humanity as we’ve never experienced it before. It’s not just sin management. It’s not just good news for the elect few. We don’t seek forgiveness and salvation simply for the remission of sins. We do so because in repentance and forgiveness God offers to us and we embrace that true Life…life as it was meant to be lived, as we were created to live it, our true humanity! I fear that the church has for too long framed the Gospel in the negative, by saying “do this/believe or else.” Might we return to viewing the Gospel as a positive, as saying “do this/believe because it is inherently better than life in that other way.” Might we do better, might we better serve Christ if we offered something to people instead of threatening them?
I am certain that the Gospel is better than simply a get out of Hell free card…I know that it is, that is has to be truly good news.