Rethinking Christ and Culture

Liberal Protestantism has accommodated itself to culture at the point of the sexual revolution. The fruites of the sexual revolution are easy divorce, shallow interpersonal relationships and promiscuity, sexually transmitted disease and sterility, homosexual activity, routine abortion, contraceptvies and antibiotics as substitutes for sexual responsibility, increased poverty among women and children, and children growing up without secure relationships with both parents. All this is tragic--yet liberal Protestantism does little to stand against it.

On the other hand, conservative Protestantism has accommodated itself to culture by blessing the commercialization of all of life and the exploitation of the poor through global capitalism. The fruits of the worship of the market are the commercialization of nearly all public space, the constant preaching of materialism through advertising, the destruction of the environment, the mad scramble for money, and the trampling of the poor by faceless corporations that view people as nothing but units of labor and consumers. All this is tragic too--yet conserviative Protestantism does little to stand against it.

Ironically, having set out to transform culture, both liberal and conservative forms of Christianity in North America today find themselves greatly transformed by late-capitalist, liberal-individualist culture during the last century. It is little more that empty rhetoric, then, for liberals and conservatives to claim to be transforming culture and to accuse those who reject the Christ transformting culture model (of Niebuhr's Christ and Culture) as irresponsible and irrelevant. What could be more irrelevant than Christian leaders who beg the government to pass laws to coerce their own church members into caring for the poor or refusing the abortion temptation, when those Christian leaders cannot convince their own flocks to do these things on the basis of the Bible? There is a glaring parallel between liberal Christians lobbying the government to tax the capitalists in their own flocks and redistribute the money to the poor, on the one hand, and conservative Christians lobbying the government to outlaw abortion, so members of their own flock will not have it as an option. No wonder politicians often have so little respect for religious lobbyists.

--Craig Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006) 20-21.

Eyes wide open...

In prayer we wake up to the world as it is spread out before God in all its heights and depths. We perceive the sighing of creation, and hear the cries of the created victims that have fallen dumb. We also hear the song of praise of the blossoming spring, and feel the divine love for everything that lives. The person who prays, lives more attentively. Pray wakefully – that is only possible if we don’t pray mystically with closed eyes, but messianically, with eyes wide open for God’s future in the world. - Jurgen Moltmann

life...

The older you get, the more you need those who knew you when you were young.

Math Atheism

4 things

1) As long as we think that 'success' is the same as 'popularity', we will fail.
2) As soon as we forget the cross and what it means, we will make Jesus (and Christianity, for that matter) a means to our own ends.
3) We will think that 'being in positions of influence' will be the only way for real change when we forget who Jesus was.
4) Most of us read the Bible thinly and without a proper understanding of the context from which Jesus comes from and into which Jesus speaks. Therefore we fail to see the counter-cultural (read: subversive) nature of the Gospel, of Jesus, and of Paul (and the whole Bible, really). If this is the case, we will always be 'chaplains to power' and affirm the status quo.

To be an artist in world of dirt...

Thanks to AYT for this post:

Gandhi, Graffiti, and Christian Ethics

Rugged Individualism

"Every man for himself" is a doctrine for a feeding frenzy or for a panic in a burning nightclub, appropriate for sharks or hogs or perhaps a cascade of lemmings. A society wishing to endure must speak the language of caretaking, faith-keeping, kindness, neighborliness, and peace. That language is another precious resource that cannot be "privatized."

A quote from "Rugged Individualism," in The Way of Ignorance, by Wendell Berry.

John Yates & The Falls Church in the NY Times

Episcopalians Reach Point of Revolt
by Laurie Goodstein

"For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes that denounced them; theologians sure that Jesus was the only route to salvation, and theologians who disagreed.

Now, after years of threats, the family is breaking up.

As many as eight conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia are expected to announce today that their parishioners have voted to cut their ties with the Episcopal Church. Two are large, historic congregations that minister to the Washington elite and occupy real estate worth a combined $27 million, which could result in a legal battle over who keeps the property.

In a twist, these wealthy American congregations are essentially putting themselves up for adoption by Anglican archbishops in poorer dioceses in Africa, Asia and Latin America who share conservative theological views about homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture with the breakaway Americans."

Read the rest of the article here.

2 in a row!

What are the chances...

You scored as Moltmannian Eschatology. Jürgen Moltmann is one of the key eschatological thinkers of the 20th Century. Eschatology is not only about heaven and hell, but God's plan to make all things new. This should spur us on to political and social action in the present.

What's your eschatology?
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Which Theologian Are You?

Ironically, I started reading Moltmann about 2 weeks ago for some unknown reason. I don't know much about him at all.

You scored as Jürgen Moltmann. The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about. Jürgen Moltmann 73% John Calvin 53% Karl Barth 47% Martin Luther 40% Friedrich Schleiermacher 40% Paul Tillich 40% Charles Finney 33% Anselm 33% Augustine 27% Jonathan Edwards 7% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com