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I’m really pretty amazed at the continued sparring over the comments Glenn Beck made a couple of weeks ago regarding social justice and the Church (see here and here).  I sort of figured it would be something that would blow over after a day or two: another right-wing media figure spouting off some stupid remarks that get a fiery response from the Christian left and then after two days all that’s left is the smoldering embers on obscure blogs (like this one), but nobody really cares anymore.

What I find fascinating is that this one hasn’t burned away like previous ones.  Glenn Beck, instead of retreating or apologizing or actually thinking about the absurdity of his remarks, has heaped more fuel onto the fire by continuing to insist and emphasize his claim that the term “social justice” or “economic justice” in the church is akin to “Marxism,” “communism,” and “Naziism” and that if you hear such terms spoken in your church, you should run and hide and report your church to “the authorities” (sounds more Big Brother-ish than anything he’s fighting against!).

Now, I don’t want to just be another blogger going off on a tirade about how wrong Glenn Beck is…I don’t want to be the guy who’s helping to heap fuel on the fire…and I’m not going to try and defend the place of “social justice” or “economic justice” in Christianity or in the Church (mostly because I think it’s pretty plain to see if you actually read scripture…try Deuteronomy 15, Leviticus 25, Amos, or Micah…or for those of you who prefer the words of Jesus himself, try Matthew 23 and 25 or the entire book of Luke)…and most of all, I’m not going to try and weigh in on the national health care debate, the so-called “wealth distribution,” or any other issue (even thought I have lots of opinions).

But in an era of highly polarized politics and religion, I just want to toss out the question: Who is speaking for you?  Who is speaking for your Church?

Is it the Glenn Becks?  Is it the Pat Robertsons?  Is it the Conservapedias with their “conservative Bible project” (which is an abomination to me as an “aspiring Biblical scholar” and should be to anyone who wants to read the Bible well)?  On the other hand is it the “social gospel”?  Is it “tolerance”?  Is it President Obama and the Democratic party?

Or is it Jesus?  Do you (and your Church) stand above the polarized national debates and outside of American conservative/liberal culture to call out that culture wherever it needs to be called out?

I realize that most of the people that read this blog are probably a) my family or b) my friends who already mostly agree with what I think.  And so maybe this is futile or simply worthless. But I’ve got to get something off of my chest…

Our current national dialogue—be it regarding politics, religion, natural disasters, or basically anything—is riddled with sensationalism, fear-mongering, mud-slinging, misinformation, personal and national arrogance, and a whole lot more.  Every conversation, every issue is so clouded by hate and fear that there is no dialogue.  But worst of all, you have a bunch of people who are given a pulpit from which to preach slander and sheer distortions of the truth and of the Gospel!

The Gospel I read is a message of restoration, redemption, and renewal.  It is a story of hope and love and peace.  It is the story of God turning the world upside down with the coming of his son and the bringing of his Kingdom to earth.  That Gospel forces me to care about the poor and marginalized and to seek “economic justice” and “social justice.”  It forces me to care about the environment, to seek the preservation of species, the reduction of pollution, and the sustainability of my lifestyle. It forces me object to wars and oppression.  It forces me to sympathize, to understand and pursue relationship with those who are broken and sinful, even as I am broken and sinful. And it forces me to love those who disagree with me and to seek Truth and engage in civil dialogue and debate.

I’m pretty sure most people in the Church would agree with (most of) that.  I’m pretty sure that most of those who identify themselves alongside Jesus were cringing at Rev. Robertson’s words regarding Haiti and that most would also disagree on some level with Glenn Beck.  Yet, the mentality that they espouse—a mentality of suspicion, fear, individualism, selfish interest, American superiority, and capitalistic idealism—is destructive to the national dialogue, to the American Church, to the message of Jesus Christ, and to everything that we are called to be and do as Christians.  If we continue to tacitly endorse these folks and others like them (even if we think they represent the extremes) by our attitudes, our actions, or television viewing, our money, or our theology, then we are in grave danger of totally misunderstanding who Jesus was and of getting in the way of the Kingdom of God coming to earth.

You don’t have to be a “Christian leftist,” a “liberal,” a fan of Jim Wallis and Sojourners, or a “socialist” to agree with that.  You don’t have to give up Evangelical Christianity.  You don’t have to like President Obama.  You don’t have to give up on “conservative” stances on some issues such as abortion.  But you do have to seek to love your neighbor and promote truth-seeking and -telling…and I’d suggest that you prayerfully consider how those might impact how you view some other issues on our national table.

Who speaks for you and your church? Be sure it’s Jesus.

1. Sunrise was at 10am this morning.  Certainly, dawn arrived much earlier, but I still tend to get this feeling that I’m in some sort of ethereal time-warp.
2. Yesterday was the winter’s first ski.  It felt good.  I’m about to head out for the winter’s second ski.
3. Healing takes time.  One of the advantages of being up here at ACC is that I get to take advantage of professional counseling from the counseling center.  So I’ve been going.  And I’ve been realizing that some scars still run pretty deep.  But I’m also starting to see that maybe the point isn’t to get rid of them but to be shaped by them.  After I got a stress fracture in college from overtraining, I had to learn how to run again, how to train again…I couldn’t go about things in the same way and expect to not get hurt again…and even now, when I start training hard, that same spot, the left tibia, sometimes acts up and I have to be careful.  Maybe emotional injuries work the same way.  Be careful, learn from it, be shaped by it, but never forget it, never act as though it isn’t still a deep part of me.
4. My application to Duke’s Ph.D. program is all submitted.  Now I get to wait around for a couple of months to see if I’m even in the running.
5. N.T. Wright is a phenomenal thinker.  I’m getting close to finishing Justification and though it’s a pretty heady book, I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to believe that maybe the message of Jesus is better than even we imagined.  I never used to like Paul much…but Wright is convincing me that I need to give him a new, better, more informed reading.
6. Somehow I’ve found myself “in charge” of organizing worship at the new The River Covenant Church plant here in Soldotna.  Challenging.
7. The semester is coming to an end.  Ethics was discussing food last week.  I ended on this topic because it ties together a lot of the other issues and shows how they are connected.  We are going to watch a documentary tomorrow, Food, Inc. I recommend that you all see it.  It will change the way that you think about what you eat and it demonstrates those connections to many other ethical issues.  Final exams next week.
8. I’m headed home in less than two weeks.  And by home I mean Portland and then Winthrop for a little while and then back to Portland to fly back here to Alaska.  Hope to see many of you then.

Well here we are…in the middle of Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day?  Are you fighting the man?  Well, in case you just couldn’t resist the low, low prices, don’t worry…I’m not judging you.  It’s about a lifestyle, not just a day.  So I continue to encourage you to join with me in the pursuit of a lifestyle of simplicity.

I wanted to follow up my last post with a few more ideas for you.  It’s easy to say “We should all give away money”…but the problem is how to do that in a constructive way.  I just wanted to highlight a few places that you could contribute:

1. I mentioned Advent Conspiracy in my last post.  Go to their website, see what they are doing in your area and get on board with it!

2. Clean Water For Haiti is an organization that my housemates in Portland and I contributed to last year.  They work on providing clean water wells to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

3. Kiva is an organization that provides micro-loans to people around the world, helping them to get on their feet and to be able to provide a living for themselves and their families.  One of the cool things is that most of the time the money is paid back as these entrepreneurs start to make money.  It goes back into your Kiva account and you can redistribute it to help out another person.  Sounds to me like a better use for my extra money than to have it sitting in a bank.

4. Finally, I’d just like to pass on an opportunity that was presented to me.  I went to Thailand for a semester during college and the program that I was part of goes back every year and revisits many of the same areas and people and villages, building ongoing relationships.  Well, as we get to know these people pretty well, Ajarn Mike (the guy who leads the trip…Ajarn is Thai for “professor”) looks for ways that we can help out with development and education among the Thai people and especially among the Hilltribes and so he will occasionally (and especially around Christmas) pass on these needs and opportunities to those of us who have participated in his program and built these relationships with the Thai people.  A couple of days ago, I received one of these emails from Ajarn Mike, outlining a couple of projects for which he is collecting donations this year:

The first is a school that will serve five Lahu and Akha villages, to be established in one of the villages that students have visited several times in recent years.  About $9000 more is needed to complete that project.

The second project is to help fund an orphanage.  It only costs about $25 dollars to feed a child for a year or about $1500 for the entire orphanage for the year (not much!).

If you would like to contribute to either of these projects, let me know and I will give you the information.  The great thing about these is that all the money is going directly to the people who need it!

I’m planning on giving away a significant chunk this year.  I don’t say that to be self-righteous, but just to let you know that I’m practicing what I’m preaching.  I have been blessed through support from many people for my time up here in Alaska and I feel that I should pass on that blessing to others.

Have a wonderful Christmas season as we reflect and stand in awe of the miracle of the incarnation of our God.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

And happy Black Friday Buy Nothing Day!

Well, we’re back to that time of year…the time when I start to feel a little bit anxious and uncomfortable and start blurting out things that are a little more barbed or more sarcastic than I intend…the time of joy and giving and celebration…and stress and over-spending and over-eating and (for some) too much family time.  Ah, the Holidays!

Last year, I perhaps crossed the line with my barbs and sarcasm.  So I am trying not to do that this year.  But as we come up on this pseudo-holiday that we call Black Friday, a day when we are encouraged to begin indulging ourselves beyond all that is reasonable, I would like to encourage us all to resist our impulses, take a deep breath, and think…

In my ethics class, I am currently talking about poverty.  On Monday, we discussed that currently, about half of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars per day.  Additionally, it so happens that in the U.S. we use approximately 30% of the world’s resources (for about 5% of the world’s population).  This seems a little bit disproportionate to me.

Last week in ethics, we talked about the environment.  Specifically, we talked about how our consumption rates are far, far above sustainable levels.  Now, sustainability is a hot word these days and it’s basically losing its meaning because it’s so overused.  But here’s the thing: we live in a world with finite resources.  Some of these resources are renewable but many are not renewable.  It’s easy to see that someday we will run out of those non-renewable ones.  But what is a little less clear is that we are using the renewable ones at rates far exceeding their ability to renew themselves.  This is especially a reality in here Alaska where many of the people live subsistence lifestyles and where their food resources are dwindling.

We’re also talking about economics.  Besides the poverty side, there is the simple fact that we as a culture are being told that our stuff is inadequate…our houses are inadequate…our lives are inadequate…we are inadequate.  And of course the only fix for these inadequacies is to buy things, to spend money on ourselves…then we’ll be happy!  Or will we…

I want to invite you all to join me in trying to see through this lie.  Join me this month in trying to live a simpler lifestyle, in celebrating Christmas as the time of the incarnation of our God who seeks restoration and justice and redemption and transformation, in reflecting upon the problems of poverty and the destruction of creation and doing something about it.

Here’s two ways to start:

1. Buy Nothing Day this Friday!:  Instead of falling into the temptation to go buy a bunch of junk on Friday, stay at home and read a book or bake some cookies or enjoy family or play some cards…just take a fast from the compulsion to buy, to want, to need, to consume.

2. Join the Advent Conspiracy: Get your church involved!  This is group trying to encourage each other to spend their Christmas money on local projects that help those in need…and also to just spend less!  Last year, my church in Portland was a part of this and a large chunk of money was donated to the city to help with projects for the homeless and for low-income neighborhoods.  Good ministry, yes?  Another thing that they focus on is clean water projects around the world.  Bad water kills about 1.8 million people every year.  And it’s such a easy and inexpensive problem to fix.  Advent Conspiracy estimates that it would take about $10 billion to fix this world problem.  How much did Americans spend on Christmas last year?   About $450 billion. That means that if we just diverted a little over two percent…2%!!!!!!…of our Christmas budget to clean water projects, we could basically solve this problem!

I don’t say all this to sound self-righteous.  As one dude once said, “I haven’t attained perfection and in fact I am the worst of sinners”…or something like that.  I’m not claiming that I spend my money well or that I don’t get caught up in consumerism.  But I am trying to see my materialistic compulsions for what they are and to do better.  I can’t solve poverty and hunger…but if I can give a cup of water or a piece of bread to “the least of these”…well, it’s something.

(This one’s for you Candice!)

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.

It seems I’m becoming a full on preacher!  Ok not really, but I did give the “sermon” or “talk” in chapel today.  We are working through Luke’s gospel and so I got to revisit Luke 4, what I consider to be one of the more significant passages in the Gospels.  The short version of what I said is this:  God is not confined to how we think he should work…he is doing something new…so get on board with what he is doing, where he is doing it.  If you’re interested in the long version, check it out here.  For those of you who looked at my previous sermonizing experience, I used some of the same ideas and even a little bit of the same material, but it’s mostly new…so you should read it!