Life at a Lively Pace

I’ve been working on a facelift for a friend’s blog. Having run into some unruly code, I spent the better portion of a week in a computer cave, oblivious to the happenings in the world around me. I came up for air briefly last week, just in time to hear about Kent Hovind and the tax fraud allegations as well as the Ted Haggard scandal. It was enough to make me want to live in the computer cave permanently.

The blogosphere is chock full of blame and explanations as to who went wrong and why. Tim Challies has a good perspective on the matter:

“If we look to Ted Haggard as a representative of all that is wrong in Evangelicalism, I think we miss the most important lesson. The lesson we need to learn is that we are every bit as sinful and fallible and willful and depraved as Haggard; perhaps more so. It is only the grace of God that, like a spider being held over the flame by a nearly-invisible web, prevents me from giving in to all the sin that is in me and being dragged down by it. Oh, that He would continue to extend this grace! And oh, that I would take heed lest I, too, fall, for what is in Haggard is in me.”

There is a tendency for us Christians to vociferously agree with the statement that humanity is totally depraved. However, when we get to church, we behave and expect to see others behave in a manner that all but screams, “Look at me! Am I not all nice and clean? I don’t think nasty thoughts or do bad things ’cause I’m redeemed and the redeemed are above that sort of thing.” Honestly, how comfortable would you be describing your deepest darkest secrets, thoughts and desires to the average person in your church? I know I wouldn’t be because the average church-going Christian, at least the ones I’ve been around, would :

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An interesting article was posted on CNN’s website today. One of their reporters managed to track down one of Osama bin Laden’s childhood friends. Khaled Batarfi recounts what they were like as children and how they changed over time. Several times over, he noted that bin Laden had the potential to become anything he could want to be. Well worth reading.

The very end of the article struck me:

In his heart and head, Batarfi believes the boy he once knew has become capable of terrible things. When he sees videos of bin Laden, he feels terribly sad.

“He still had the same voice, the same smile, the same way of talking.

“Only the message is different now.”

A series of events over the course of a life can have a tremendous impact. The physical appearance and mannerisms may not necessarily change, but the motives behind one’s actions surely do. Osama bin Laden started out as a believer of the Islamic faith. He still is, though his actions and the motivations behind those actions have shaped how he carries out the tenets of his faith. This believer became a terrorist and his followers, the insurgents, are crossing all sorts of boundaries to destroy the infidels.

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Another piece of the problem

Rote memorization has its place. It is particularly useful in introducing new or abstract concepts when the intended student has no background information to which they can link the new data (i.e. - having young children memorize the symbols that make up their language’s alphabet). However, this method of teaching has its limits - it very rarely is able to affix the new information in the person’s long-term memory and it doesn’t explain the “why’s”.

Piggy-backing on the last thought, it is possible occassionally to drill the data into long-term memory, but when asked about the information, the person “parrots” back the information. The words get written/stated in the proper order, but there is little to no comprehension. Is this really what we want in our churches? A bunch of parrots repeating what they have been taught to say?

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Rote memorization was a standard part of my elementary years, especially in math and music. The most boring part of math was the mutliplication tables. On Fridays, we were given a very fast-paced quiz where the questions were shot out at you: 3×4, 3×9, 3×1, 3×7, etc. You had seconds to write your answer before the next question came. Afterwards, the quizzes were collected to be graded over the weekend. Following the quiz was next week’s memorization assignment: this week you did the 3’s, next week you had to memorize the 4’s (up to 12).

You knew what you were expected to do on Fridays and you also knew that you would be spending the next week memorizing numbers only to perform the act again on the next Friday. Not much excitment there - it was predictable.

Music, specifically piano lessons, also fell into this category. I had the privilege (if you want to call it that) of having several teachers that expected me to not only learn the piece - note for note - but to also have it memorized. I was not permitted to move onto the next song in the book (and I always had a minimum of 4 books) until I could play from memory. It didn’t take long to figure out that if I memorized quickly, I could go on to more interesting songs which were always at the back of the book.

Rote Liturgy
I have been lurking outside of an open window at the bar and overheard a conversation a few days ago regarding the “rote-ness” of liturgy. One tavernista remarked that the participant could very well develop an immunity to the meaning of what is being said, to which the bouncer/head bartender replied:

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Though journalists are supposed to be the professionals that keep the world informed, they will sometimes ask a question that makes your head shake. The only thing more confounding than that is the reply of the supposed authority who is being interviewed.

This Q&A also came from the interview mentioned in the last post. While it kind-of-sort-of fit (thematically) into the interview, it would not have fit into my last missive. So, here it is:

You recently donated a whole lot of money for a hockey rink at Liberty University. If these are the end times, why make an investment like that?
[Laughs.] My strategy is that Canada and Northern America produces the bulk of hockey players. We use the ice rink to get the hockey players to come to Liberty University where many of them are exposed to accept Christ. Many of them come because they are Christians. They are challenged to go into the ministry, and we’ve already had some of the guys in the earlier classes that graduated, and they’re going home to Canada to start churches.

Proselytism with a hockey puck?
“Evangelism with a hockey puck” would be better.

Huh?!? At first glance, the initial question is a little silly. If someone believes that the end is at hand and that their worldly possessions cannot be taken to the next world, the money might as well be spent on something in the “here and now”. You’d think a reporter could come up with a more penetrating or pertinent question. The response, though, practically justifies the goofiness of the question. More »« Less

I believe that there are far more pressing matters in Christianity than whether or not Christ will return in our lifetime. While He was still on earth, Christ stated that no one except the Father knew exactly when this would take place. Yes, we are to be watchful and ready, but our lives should not revolve around eschatological questions we can’t answer anyway.

Newsweek has a web-exclusive article entitled “Q&A: Are These the End Times?“. (HT: JollyBlogger) They chose to interview Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series. His views are a representation of eschatological possibilities, but not the only one. Unfortunately, his views tend to be promoted as the sole belief of all Christians. This was once sequence of questions in the article: More »« Less

While I have lost my mind, I have not lost “it”.  “It”, in this case, defined as wonder - wonder at God’s magnitude, His love for us, His creation, etc.  Jeff, over at the Dawn Treader, posted his thoughts on losing the wonder and asked how does a Christian go about not losing the wonder. My upbringing and the various things that have happened to me during my formative years (I will not go into that here) should have caused me to lose the wonder.  I should have become incredibly jaded. Very, very jaded. Somehow, in His grace, God preserved me from that.

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Being the research rat that I am, I offered to do a large share of information hunting for our search committee. In the last 48 hours, I have read through 90+ doctrinal statements of various undergraduate and seminaries/graduate schools. I ran across this pamphlet written in 2005 by Paul W. Powell of Truett Seminary.  He was attempting to explain to the average lay person the nature of the changes and conflicts in the SBC (at least, in Texas).  I found the following quote very “spot on”:

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) has taken on a new form - a flash game.  The FSM folks, while trying to be funny, have made a point. Don't misunderstand me - I wholeheartedly believe that the God created everything in the universe.  However, the manner in which ID is being presented has within itself a vulnerability that the FSM folks are exposing.  The problem here is that, by leaving out "God of the Bible" as the definition of the Designer, you leave the gate wide open to anyone's interpretation of who the Designer is. And the FSM folks have wheeled in their Trojan Horse.

Over the course of the last few months, I have spent some time digging into some of the "isms" present in theology. My conclusion? Our God is SO much bigger than any system of theology man can create. He can (and often does) defy human logic. On a lighter note, I just found this: Manila Drive: The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism It's funny and it hurts at the same time. All too often, we function as if Christianity were a formula - if you take this, add this, subtract that and multiply, you will have salvation/redemption/pick-any-"tion"-you-want. Kudos to Manila Drive for giving us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves and think a little harder.