Artifacts of a Life Once Lived

My co-worker Ryan makes a poignant observation: “I saw a billboard for Celebrate Freedom the other day and the thought crossed my mind, “What freedom are they celebrating? Freedom from Sin? Freedom of religion? Freedom from Britain? Ah, yes, freedom as in Independence Day. Duh. Based on the chapter summaries you’ve been posting on your blog, the following thought just occurred to me… No indictments here, just observations…Celebrate Freedom = 2 days. 3 stages. 40+ musicians and speakers. It is the largest Christian Music festival in North Texas which typically occurs on the weekend before Independence Day. Is it ironic that one of the largest Christian gatherings in the metro-plex occurs around the same time that our Country celebrates itself? No irony here. What is ironic is the sponsor list, which includes the likes of the following: Interstate Batteries, Verizon, Capital One, CBS Channel 11, Gospel Music Channel, Dr Pepper, Texas Power, David McDavid Auto Group, DBU, Nati...

Our nation is in crisis, or so says the pre-revival advertisement published by www.thecall.com. The advertisement I picked up this morning proposes (or foretells???) an upcoming revival to be held on August, 16th 2008 at the nation’s capital in Washington, DC. With all good advertising mediums there is provoking graphic design along with the “hook” which tells the “buyer” that he or she cannot live without the advertised product. In this case, the “buyer” is most likely an evangelical middle-class semi-affluent white-suburban young-to-middle-aged American who will be “buying” revival for our nation. Revival too what, I don’t know, it doesn’t say. The “hook” of the advertisement states that there is a “crisis” in the once God-favored land of America (not the world mind you, only in the blessed land of U-mur-ca). The “crisis” is subtly tied to the American political system on the 2"x 2" poster-card as a photo of the White House and George Washington (?) on his horse decorates ...

I love my job, especially working for a “Christian” company. My favorite part of the day is when the mass emails intended to inspire, to lift office moral, and to make you just feel good pop in unexpectedly to my little outlook box! This one came forwarded to me from a co-worker. I couldn’t really tell if this was taken from The Flying Eggroll’s fortune cookies or if Joel Osteen coined the thought… but, realistically either is a likely explanation. Here’s what it said: “ When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly! The power of one sentence! God is going to shift things around for you today and let things work in your favor. God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close .” (emphasis mine) Nonetheless, I am reminded every day of the superstitious nature of the average person’s folk-theology. I don’t know the religious history ...

It has been pointed out by Jean Miller Schmidt ( Souls and Social Order ) and James Davidson Hunter ( Culture Wars ) that two fundamentally opposing views of religious progress and political progress exist in American expressions of both religion and political theory. One seeks change beginning with the individual and works up toward a common cooperate goal, where as the other begins with the cooperate identity and seeks to change down to the individual. In American Christianity both of these ideologies find homes, one in the "conservative evangelical" groups and the other in the "liberal social gospel" groups. The conservative evangelical begins with the individual, first to procure the eternal destiny of their soul and secondly to conform their actions toward a high morality. The liberal social gospel seeks to change the corporate group through moving society as a whole toward a brighter future for the purpose ultimately benefiting the individual. Schmidt writes, ...

Verse - Genesis 15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." Thought - How 'very great' is his love for us that He should be our reward.

For all the greatnesses and conveniences and powers of the internet, surely something has got to be unhelpful with humans spending the majority of their time wasting away in "megabita" land. Something is wrong. Others are noticing it too. The internet may be taking a toll on our abilities to concentrate. I read this and was like, "YES! That's me!" I can't read more than 5 pages in a book (unless its Harry Potter) without loosing my train of thought. God forbid I ever have to re-read something! I often find myself counting pages till the chapter is done so I can move on. Maybe I ought to "surf" a bit less and "sit" a bit more. Maybe you should, too.

I received a facebook message from a long-lost college friend and roommate the other day. In his cordial greeting he noted, and correctly, that I had just graduated with a Masters in Theology. I really appreciated the recognition and congratulations, but what bothered me was his next question. He asked if I was "going to be a Pastor or a Theologian?" I laughed, not because I thought the answer to the question was obvious, but because of the fact that he dichotomized the two disciplines as mutually exclusive. My first reaction was to respond with a smart alec remark about his ignorance and misconstrued views of Christianity and its relationship to education, but then I had to stop and remember that he graduated from the same undergraduate institution which I graduated from, and probably, like me, attended a 'fundy' church growing up. Reminding myself of this context cooled me off a bit and I kindly responded that I would hope someday to do both. Nonetheless, what his ...

John Williamson Nevin was Presbyterian by birth, but as a result of the welcoming of revivalism in his tradition he transferred personal alliances to the German Reformed Church amidst his teaching tenures. He was suspicious, and with good reason, of revivalism’s antics sweeping the churches in mainline protestant denominations, especially the Presbyterian. In response to the movement he wrote the pamphlet The Anxious Bench as review for the purpose of exposing 19th century revivalism demonstrating its “newness”. Nevin located faith within the visible church where salvation belonged, where one was confirmed in the covenant by way of the sacraments, and by way of the catechism. It was here, not within the revivalist tradition that true religion was formed. His religious experience at college was the means for his criticizing of the “new” way of faith, namely the newly exciting revivalism. Having grown up in a rigorously Presbyterian home where he was confirmed as a child in the Presbyte...

Why is it that American Christianity is so distinct in its colors and tastes and actions? What marks American Christianity as distinct from historic Christianity? It doesn't take a genius to observe. It is that American Christianity is plainly "American." That is, Christianity in America has become more American than it has become Christian. Witness the consumerist culture of American Christianity today. It is this way "today" because "yesterday" it was forged in the ideological fires of freedom, individualism, pragmatism, and as a result Christianity in "Amur-ca" only makes sense to the man on main street if Christianity is "relevant," if it is "practical," if it is "successful," etc. In the first chapter of The Lost Soul of American Protestantism entitled "The American Way of Faith," D. G. Hart paints a picture representative of the initial devolution of Christianity in America. Billy Sunday, the fam...

The Lost Soul of American Protestantism I have continued reading books concerning the history of Christianity; namely Christianity in America. Mostly for my own personal curiosity, secondly so that I might have some sort of contextualization concerning the faith which embraced me when I embraced it. Lastly, because I see myself someday as possibly functioning in a role which would require significant understanding of American Christianity. After just finishing Marsden's Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism I have, under the recommendation of a Lutheran Pastor whom I don't even know, begun reading D. G. Hart's The Lost Soul of American Protestantism . He begins with a lengthy introduction laying out the thesis of the book. Here Hart begins to make his case for the inadequate view of American Christianity's history as simply being traced as the typical double vein of Fundamentalists/Conservative Evangelicals pitted against Liberal/Mainline Denominational Prote...

I just finished reading George Marsden's Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and, as always, my brain exploded with understandings of my "O, so very interesting heritage." I grew up in the midst of a very sectarian group of "Bible Baptist" (heavily influenced by Peter Ruckman, Jack Hyles, et al.) fundamentalists who, like Marsden when describing fundamentalist, were a group of people who were "angry about something." The truth of this "anger" is testified by the very slogans of the yearly "Bible Conferences" (read: times where people gather for long-extended periods of time to hear preachers yell and scream so that the crowd bellows back, "AMEN! Brother!," "Preach it!," "That's Right!"). One year the slogan pins for the conference read "Bad Attitude Baptist Blow-out." No, really, I'm being serious. And we wonder why the non-confessing persons reject faith in God. Any way, ...