Who ARE We?

What does it mean to be Presbyterian?

Indeed, what does it mean to be Christian?

Is it about what you do?

Is it about what you believe?

Is it a combination of both?

Who decides?

There's an inherent tension, I believe, between making sure that we stand for something, and not putting too much focus on policing member belief and behavior. We believe, after all, in the priesthood of all believers. But not all differences, not all principles can be cleared away with a rhetorical flourish.

Who is to judge? And how?

The root problem is that our systems rely on humans. Human humans, the kind with strengths and weaknesses, love and pain, doubts and sins and failures of every kind.

I know more Christians than I can count who work hard for a greater good, doing important works without calling attention to themselves, trying as best they can to follow Jesus' example.

I have seen good Christians behave in horrible ways to others in their communities: lying, manipulating, scheming, hurting all in the pursuit of an end they believed important.

The vast majority of Presbyterians I know serve honestly and with integrity. It pains and annoys me to say that like in every other organization, there are some Presbyterians who really like to be in the middle of conflict, who thrive on behind-the-scenes politicking, who believe that the ends do justify the means, who lose sight of larger goals in pursuit of immediate minutia, who seek power for its own sake.

(Disclosure: someone very dear to me was once viciously pursued and professionally harmed by a career administrator/executive who engaged in gossip, lying, secret meetings, and horrendously unprofessional behavior from a position of denominational power. This experience . . . shocked off my rose-colored glasses. It was actually a lot like a certain Ministry of Magic official - hem hem - in the fifth Harry Potter book/movie. It might have been laughable if it weren't so real.)

I'm sure there are damaged apples in every part of the tree, from youth to member, staff, clergy, executive, moderator, volunteer. We're all damaged apples, one way or another.

what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? MICAH 6:8 NRSV

I don't think our system is irrevocably broken. I just think we need reminding, every now and then, what we're about. I think we'll do bad things, sometimes, as individuals and as an organization, precisely because we're human. We fail and we fall short and we pick ourselves up to try again.

Still, I'd love to know what you think about this essay, called: The Inquisition.

For me, the single-word answer for how I feel is: unsettled.

Where I am right now, I tend to look for justice and kindness and humility on a personal scale before seeking out a larger context. I think it's hard to go wrong when facing this direction; the personal can and should be expanded outward to the global, while the neighbor can be disregarded when the focus is on the entire world.

Paper Chase P. 3 -- The Atheist and Jerry Falwell

This series was not planned. I just happened to read a book about a seminarian. Then, cruising around the Kindle store I saw a book that I thought was something completely different; but it turned out to be another book about someone going through a form of religious education -- Catholic that time. About the same time I ran across a third book with a different twist on the combination of education and religion, and a series was born. Let me introduce you to, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. The author, Kevin Roose, spent his freshman year at the liberal bastion Brown University. He then spent spring of his sophomore year at Liberty University, founded and run by Jerry Falwell himself.

Relevant background on the author is that he was studying English and Journalism at Brown. He worked for the author of a Year of Living Biblically, so this type of experiential, Gonzo journalism was something he had seen first-hand. He was raised by essentially non-observant Quakers, and he says early in the book that before he started at Liberty he could have named the four Gospels -- if you gave him a few minutes.

Frankly, I expected a smear job. Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed that, mind you. I live in the same State with Oral Roberts University. I was surprised. The author made a serious effort to bridge the God Gap, to find out what makes conservative Christians tick and who they really are as people. He claims that he wanted to learn and to understand, not to judge; and as hard as this is to believe, the book does come across that way.

We say that we want to know what non-Christians see when they visit a Church and how they perceive Christianity. Well, this is a good start. The fact that it is a pleasant and easy read doesn't hurt. Oh, and one of the great details in this story, the author managed to talk his way into doing an interview for the school paper with Falwell himself. Falwell died a few days later. That just happened to be the last print interview Jerry Falwell ever gave.

Two days ago John Shuck posted a book review on his blog, Shuck and Jive. He was reviewing a book by a Professor at the University of Texas named Robert Jensen. If the name rings a bell, you might have heard of Prof. Jensen. Several years ago he was admitted to active membership at an Austin PCUSA congregation without making a profession of faith -- because he was an avowed atheist. He was ultimately moved to the Baptized Member roles (a nice usage of that classification that I doubt I would have thought of). He has since written this book reviewed on Shuck and Jive, called All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path in the Prophetic Voice. The book review is on Tuesday May 12. On Wednesday May 13 began a discussion, connected to the book, of how we define God and religion and how non-Christians (or at least some non-Christians) perceive that we define God and religion. What caught my attention is that some parts of what I read on Shuck and Jive correlate nicely with a series of discussions I have had recently with a Seeker.

Two very different views of Christianity from the outside. Personally, I prefer the atheist from Brown -- but I'm from Oklahoma, I've never been a Longhorn fan.

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Sunday Devotional - Beware the Golden Compass

Audio version here

There’s a new movie coming out just before Christmas called “The Golden Compass.” It’s a fantasy movie based on a best selling trilogy by the author, Philip Pullman. It’s the usual good vs. bad story, with the heroes winning the day. The only trouble with the book is this: the Church is perceived as being bad, whilst being a free spirit - without being encumbered by God – is the ultimate good.

In the first book, the clergy are portrayed as being kidnappers of children, who want to enslave their spirits to serve the Authority, which is God. The whole series is about rebelling against the Church and ultimately killing the Authority, in order to achieve true freedom. There’s a subtle message of atheism being glorified and religion being diminished in the book. Philip Pullman is aiming the series at children because he wants to mess up their relationship with God and lead them into the lonely wilderness of atheism and chaos.

You may decide to take your kids to the movie or read the books for yourselves. That is your own free choice. But don’t do it without evaluating your relationship with God and Christ’s Church first. If your faith is ambivalent and your notion of the Church is flimsy, you may put your beliefs on the line and end up disregarding God’s sovereignty. You may also be putting your kids in harm’s way and leaving them with more doubts about God, Christ, and the Church.

Whatever you decide, remember that Pullman has his own agenda, which certainly isn’t God’s. He wants God dead in the hearts and minds of people, so that we can live in a free-spirited world where anything goes. We had that once before, in the centuries preceding Christ. Human sacrifices, paganism, and dark forces ruled the hearts and minds of men during those times: are we sure that we want to regress back into those days, or do we instead choose to remember that God rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of Christ?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, grant us the rare gift of discernment in our lives, so that we will make better choices. Help us to know what to do about this movie and these books. Keep us from being persuaded by the hidden messages that we may encounter. Help us to deepen our faith in You by remembering that the seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas are times when we honor and glorify You. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes the daily devotional "Heaven's Highway," as well as illustrating the political cartoon site "Pushing the Envelope."