I like to be challenged. People lay challenges out before me often, and almost one hundred percent of the time, I will take their challenge, even if it is totally ludicrous.
When I was a freshman in high school, my soccer team traveled far away to a soccer game and got snowed in. Because the game was so far away and there was so much snow, the school decided it made more sense for us to stay up there over night than for us to drive back to the school and then have to return the next day to play. As high school boys do, we settled down to a lovely evening of general merriment. Cards came out, food was purchased, and various other boyish activities took place.
In the midst of the jollity, a friend of mine mentioned how it was impossible to lick your elbow. I, always loving challenges and seeking one for the evening, contested this fact. The two of us went back and forth for a bit before I decided to just prove to him that I could in fact lick my elbow. Now, between you and me, I had never even thought about attempting to lick my elbow before this moment in my life, but I was fairly certain that I could do it.
Everyone reading this right now is expecting me to write a paragraph right here about how I failed miserably in my quest, but sadly, you will be disappointed. Instead, I moved my elbow up, stuck my tongue out, and licked the end of it, much to the amazement of my teammates.
That is sort of a silly challenge, but it is the sort of challenge that I love. It is a challenge to do something impossible. I think I would be a great candidate to replace the guys on Mythbusters when they decide to retire because I am an eternal skeptic who loves to defy absolute impossibilities. When Mythbusters proved that it was, in fact, possible to fold a piece of paper more than seven times, I was thrilled because even though it spoils some fun fact fiascos, it proves once again how something impossible is possible to a sufficiently determined opponent.
Another ridiculous challenge came my way when I was in high school. An English teacher challenged me to write a paragraph of at least one hundred words that contained no repeated words. Certain words are easy to not repeat, but words like “an,” “a,” “the” and so forth are tremendously difficult to avoid reiterating. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually formed this, a one hundred forty one word paragraph with no repeated words:
“Once, when blackness became shrouded in darkness, tiny, feeble creatures emerged from nowhere, hoping to capture innocence with dignity. Haste was utmost importance, but there is no way that theft can be rushed. Yet, the odd thing visible through this matter becomes clearer as daylight dwindles. Figures masked furthermore having murky capes were not ones for fear, nor did they invoke harm. Merely and humbly, all these saviors held by black saved us at very last seconds. Creeping among flora, peculiar beings retreated fiercely homeward, so we could live forever on peaceful earth, without dreading death plus destruction. Abroad, threats exist still. Nothing will ever stop such ghastly beasts, or perhaps something shall destroy them after our time. Either living mortal may prevail, else loss wins. Rebirth separate of bullying solely brings licensed freedom. Life shares common space amongst love alone.”
Perhaps it’s not the most coherent paragraph you have ever read, but it works, and it won me my challenge.
It occurs to me, though, that humans routinely do things that are considered nearly impossible simply because they’re challenged. The Mythbusters guys have made a fine living out of disproving impossibilities. The fact of the matter is that people succeed at almost everything they are given to do if they put enough time, effort, and money into it. It boggles my mind, then, when I consider that God can do things greatly beyond our ability.
He is not limited in His creative power. Nothing presents itself to God as a challenge. Man may be able to move mountains, but it takes him years and billions of dollars and loads of manpower. God merely speaks, and entire mountain ranges are demolished or formed. It makes me stop in awe when I consider the works that God can do.
There are no challenges to God. He finds nothing difficult. That gives me great comfort, because when I finally find things that cannot be done by man or when there are insurmountable obstacles in my path, it means I can lean on Jesus. Whatever challenge I’m facing that day looks like child’s play to a limitless God. It gives me hope to know that nothing challenges my God.
My challenges to God seem huge in my eyes, but God picks them up without batting an eyelash. For example, when I worry about how I’m going to pay for college, I’m reminded that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the hills the cattle are standing on. When I’m worried about how I’m going to get all my work done, I’m reminded that He created work and time, and He is perfectly capable of weaving the two together.
God is not one who responds well to challenges because that would be questioning His sovereignty, but He is one who frequently does the impossible out of love for His children. Look at some of the cooler military examples from the Old Testament. When Gideon needed to rail on the Midianites and the Amalekites, God managed to do it without lifting a sword. Hezekiah was looking at Sennacherib’s army and seeing certain defeat; then God decided it would be best if a pagan king did not destroy His chosen people on this particular occasion, and He routed the giant army.
Then of course there was the whole deal where God reached down and picked up this helpless sinner out of a pile of sin, giving Him the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That alone was pretty impossible, but God is the God of challenges.
He does things that are impossible routinely.
So cast all your cares upon Him, for He alone can care for you.
(oh, and comment, would you? :-) )
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Witch Hunts in the Church
Adolf Hitler, probably the best propaganda expert to ever live, once said “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.” Throughout our history, Americans have proven Hitler correct multiple times, and we have set ourselves up to prove him right again. Throughout periods of our history, particularly through incidences like the Salem Witch Trials or McCarthyism, we have resorted to Draconian measures to extract what we thought was truth from those we thought were guilty, only to look back with chagrin on those times. Today, in a supposedly more sophisticated society, Americans are proving that we are still prone to believe big lies if we think our security is threatened. When we go on witch-hunts - proverbial or real - to solve our problems, we’re setting ourselves up for embarrassment when future generations examine their past.
In 1692, we the people of the United States decided it was in our best interest to hang nineteen of our fellow citizens and crush one to death. When things started going haywire in the communities surrounding Salem, Massachusetts in June of 1692, the general population bought into the lies of a few.
In the winter prior, Betty Parris, the daughter of Salem’s minister, had begun acting quite odd. She was contorted in pain, and she often would sprint from place to place in the house, diving under furniture and having epileptic-like fits on the ground. Historians have been unable to determine what started her fits; it may have been any combination of diseases such as asthma or epilepsy. She may have been abused or suffering from stress psychosis. Another theory about her delusions says a rare fungus that may have infested the wheat in Salem and poisoned her. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Salem’s reign of terror began with Betty Parris’ fits.
Shortly after Betty fell ill, other girls in the town began to experience similar symptoms. Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott all experienced some sort of convulsion that began to trigger mass hysteria throughout the village. As residents began searching for the answer, speculation began to arise that the cause of their diseases might be supernatural. As a staunch Puritan community, Salem’s citizens would naturally consider supernatural causes as part of their investigation, but their conjecture was further fueled by the recent publication of Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences. In this book, Mather, an influential Boston minister, laid out the symptoms displayed by a woman who was supposedly bewitched in Boston the year before. Since some of this woman’s symptoms mirrored the symptoms of the girls in Salem, it began to be assumed that the girls were being spiritually tormented.
Soon, rumors began to swirl throughout the village, and a lie was born. Historians differ as to why the girls used their sickness to wield such enormous power over the town, but in the end the result was sickening. The afflicted girls began accusing upstanding citizens of the surrounding communities of various acts of witchcraft. As the attention contiguous on these girls grew, more of them became part of the action. Though they had not experienced the same strange medical symptoms, Mary Warren, Susanna Sheldon, and Elizabeth Hubbard were allowed to make accusations about others being witches. In just a few short months, Betty Parris and her posse of teenage girls had gone from being legitimately sick to a gang of lying juvenile delinquents.
More than one hundred people would be arrested on suspicion of consorting with the devil before Salem’s lust for blood would ebb; nineteen would hang for their crimes, one was pressed to death, and at least four others died in prison. The evidence used to incarcerate, bring to trial, and convict these supposed witches and wizards was based solely on spotty circumstantial testimony about the spectral delusions of the girls. At no trial was hard evidence ever presented to prove that any of those accused had ever been involved in any sort of witchcraft at all.
Salem is not the only place where America’s citizens have gone crazy in their quest for security, however. Jumping forward in our history a few hundred years, post-World War II America creates the perfect atmosphere for yet another round of witch-hunts to take place. Since the vast majority of Americans harbored a deep-seated fear about a Communist takeover, it was easy for a Senator from Wisconsin to incite the nation against what he thought were Communist infiltrators in our midst. Senator Joseph McCarthy, along with other agencies of the government like the House Un-American Activities Committee, sniffed out those who they thought posed a threat to the immediate security of the United States of America. Their claims, when examined in the context of history, seem fairly ludicrous today, but at the time, they made perfect sense to the American people.
The House Un-American Activities Committee, or the HUAC as it is commonly called, was granted extraordinary power during World War II. This panel, initially chaired by Congressman Martin Dies, was given the ability to inquire into virtually anything they wanted in order to sniff out those who might be able to fell us from the inside. During the war, the committee was often investigating the activities of many German-Americans, but following the war, the focus of the committee’s investigations shifted. Beginning with the trial of Soviet spy Alger Hiss in 1948, HUAC interrogated hundreds, imprisoned dozens, and executed a few in their quest to rid the world of communism. While they rarely brought solid evidence against those they accused, the members of HUAC felt that their reasons for interrogation were valid; they were protecting the American people. Most significantly, the board subpoenaed a large group of Hollywood film industry moguls to take part in the proceedings. Since some of the films produced at the time could be considered un-American, anyone connected to them, ranging from actors to directors to producers, was liable to find himself standing before HUAC on charges of espionage.
Among the first called upon to testify before the panel were ten film industry witnesses who refused to cooperate. These men, who became known as the “Hollywood Ten,” believed that they were legally protected from answering the panel’s questions, citing the First Amendment guarantee of free speech and the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination. More than likely, these men saw the same thing looming in their futures that Giles Corey of the Salem trials had seen; regardless of the evidence and regardless of their testimony, they would be convicted. Corey had chosen to be crushed to death by stones in order to avoid almost certain conviction, and these ten chose to use the law as a defense against trial.
Their tactic failed. They were arrested on charges of contempt of Congress, and they were imprisoned for two to six months each. Future witnesses would claim similar defenses and be allowed to dodge appearances before the panel, but that did not mean that they were safe. Refusing to testify was often grounds for dismissal from a job, and there was the constant threat of being investigated by the FBI, an organization that sometimes used illegal measures to gain their information.
In the Senate, things were hardly better than they were in the House. A sister committee to HUAC, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee conducted their own investigation of anti-American communist activity within the United States. Another committee, headed by the aforementioned Joseph McCarthy, investigated first the State Department, then the US Army, then US media forces. While McCarthy’s direct influence was short-lived, his influence on the period was huge. Loyalty review boards were formed in nearly ever sector of society to determine whether citizens were patriots or communists. If you were found to be anti-American, you were sentenced to the modern equivalent of hanging; you were denied work, and sometimes had your assets frozen. While no one was sent to the gallows for being anti-American, many were economically ruined by the findings against them, which were typically based on nothing more than hearsay regarding comments that they had once made.
Certainly, though, we have moved on from the archaic ways of justice that were present in the latter parts of our history. Most of us would never dream of being McCarthyists today. Yet despite our best efforts, the United States, and I would say the Church, unknowingly expose ourselves to the threat of once again believing lies to ensure our common defense.
In 2003, members of Congress called for several professors at elite universities to be fired after they were reported as having made remarks that were anti-American. The center of the maelstrom was a professor of Middle East Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, who was charged with being anti-American after sketchy evidence reported him making anti-Semetic remarks during one of his lectures. The witch-hunt in American academia began afresh as the spring of 2003 saw more than a few professors at major universities lose their positions of tenure over remarks that they had made regarding the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, students found themselves subjected to similar measures. A museum in New York City dedicated to flamboyantly pacifistic art was closed down following allegations that the museum was promoting an anti-American spirit and fueling terrorism. FBI agents who did not possess a warrant raided another similar museum located in Houston. Prior to business hours, the agents came to the museum insisting they be allowed to investigate the activity inside the gallery. This museum, which contains an exhibit entitled “Secret Wars,” was being investigated because of the artwork it contained.
The exhibit contains images such as a poster of George Bush holding a rope with a caption reading, “We hang on your every word, George Bush.” While the artwork may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly doesn’t appear to pose any legitimate threat to American security, yet the museum was subjected to harsh scrutiny by the US government.
In our haste to protect ourselves from Islamofascists, we have once again allowed ourselves to be taken captive by the big lie that anything contrary to the status quo is dangerous. It is important to protect ourselves from the legitimate dangers that the world possesses, but engaging in witch-hunts as we have at other points in our history only leads to bitter divisions and a broken justice system. In order to stop the travesties of injustice from occurring again, we must be very careful not to let ourselves be carried about by every flighty rumor that comes our way regarding some danger we might be in.
You would think as Christians we would realize that witch-hunts are fruitless, but we use the same technique with our own members whenever they present an idea that is just a bit too risqué for polite conversation. We ostracize them, avoid their ideas, and even whisper about them behind their backs.
A friend of mine was rebuffed by a certain church’s leadership when he tried to start a ministry to divorcees. I admit that I can see problems with that program. For one, the church should not be endorsing divorce, and secondly, such an organization could quickly morph into a divorcee dating service. Nevertheless, the Church, which is very pro-marriage and very pro-family, should be doing something to reach an increasingly larger segment of hurting divorced people in our midst. Instead, we crucify those who try to reach them and refuse to fund or aid their programs. We starve out the ministry we do not like.
Another similar area is that of homosexuality. While the church spends lots of time defending the sanctity of marriage before lawmakers, there are very few churches that have active outreach to gay communities. Maybe we do not know how to reach homosexual people, but that has never stopped us before. With enough people getting creative, I’m certain we can come up with a way. It becomes difficult to minister to homosexuals without endorsing their homosexuality, but recognize that Jesus ministered to harlots. He did not shy away from the task of reaching a dangerous people group. Also recognize that the only thing that will make homosexual communities turn from a lifestyle of sin to a lifestyle of service is a relationship with Jesus Christ, whose love can reach to every heart.
Churches do not typically accept gay people into their midst with friendly greetings, nor do those who have a heart to reach those people find church members waiting to go witnessing with them. Prison ministries are popular; orphan ministries are popular. Homosexual ministries are incredibly unpopular. The devil is winning the battle over sexuality because he actively engages those who struggle with temptation. The Church not only fails to engage this culture; it ostracizes it.
Throughout its history, the Church has picked the ministry that’s not too messy and wholeheartedly devoted themselves to it; meanwhile, they use Darwinian techniques to kill off the ministries the Church does not like. Forcing ministry to take place in a “survival of the fittest-type” environment, the Church finds itself severely lacking in ministries to certain segments of society, most notably in the broken family department. Homosexuals are rarely ministered to; the number of ministries for boys who grew up without fathers is abysmally low; and ministries to those who represent immoral sexual lifestyles – namely porn stars and prostitutes – are practically non-existent. These people groups are easily accessible within our culture since all around us, just waiting and starving for the love of Jesus. They are ready to be reached and changed with the gospel of Christ, but the Church’s resources are too devoted to the programs that are safe – Awana, men’s breakfasts, women’s Bible studies, 5-day clubs, and the like.
To be fair, ministry to these groups is not easy. The Church must never find itself in a position where it endorses things that are contrary to the Word of God’s teachings. Ministering to kids in single parent homes is not easy because the vast majority of one parent homes are caused by arrest, addiction, or divorce. None of those things are positive or Godly, so we avoid them. Ministering to porn stars is not easy because we despise the profession that provides them with their income; therefore it is difficult for us to make them feel accepted and loved. Not to mention, it is not even a little bit polite to mention the name “porn star,” much less engage in the life of one to bring Jesus to him or her.
Plus, we must always be mindful of the Scriptural principle that says to be careful about causing others to stumble. When we engage in ministry to certain people groups, there are those in the congregations of the church who will not be able to minister to them with a clear conscience.
God designed each of the members of His body for a specific task, though, and we too often create an environment where some are unable to serve as God would have them serve because the Church refuses to reach a sector of the population. While there are legitimate concerns, there are also legitimate needs that go unfulfilled as the Church continues to feed the status quo.
The citizens of Salem learned the hard way that they should not be too hasty to jump to conclusions, and America has seen that using fear tactics to ensure safety is a poor way to create justice. Somehow we have managed to allow the spirit of Salem to creep into our churches, however, and we still employ the tactics of witch-hunts to keep ourselves secure in our Christianity. Let us not buy into the lie that we are at constant danger from that which differs in opinion from us, but let us instead find common ground in our differences and work towards reaching every segment of our society – regardless of their flaw – with the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ.
Remember, we were once strangers and foreigners, too, but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Remember that one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Finally, remember that Jesus Christ brings peace. Bring Him wherever peace is needed, making the Church an ambassador for His peace.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” –Ephesians 2:14
In 1692, we the people of the United States decided it was in our best interest to hang nineteen of our fellow citizens and crush one to death. When things started going haywire in the communities surrounding Salem, Massachusetts in June of 1692, the general population bought into the lies of a few.
In the winter prior, Betty Parris, the daughter of Salem’s minister, had begun acting quite odd. She was contorted in pain, and she often would sprint from place to place in the house, diving under furniture and having epileptic-like fits on the ground. Historians have been unable to determine what started her fits; it may have been any combination of diseases such as asthma or epilepsy. She may have been abused or suffering from stress psychosis. Another theory about her delusions says a rare fungus that may have infested the wheat in Salem and poisoned her. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Salem’s reign of terror began with Betty Parris’ fits.
Shortly after Betty fell ill, other girls in the town began to experience similar symptoms. Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott all experienced some sort of convulsion that began to trigger mass hysteria throughout the village. As residents began searching for the answer, speculation began to arise that the cause of their diseases might be supernatural. As a staunch Puritan community, Salem’s citizens would naturally consider supernatural causes as part of their investigation, but their conjecture was further fueled by the recent publication of Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences. In this book, Mather, an influential Boston minister, laid out the symptoms displayed by a woman who was supposedly bewitched in Boston the year before. Since some of this woman’s symptoms mirrored the symptoms of the girls in Salem, it began to be assumed that the girls were being spiritually tormented.
Soon, rumors began to swirl throughout the village, and a lie was born. Historians differ as to why the girls used their sickness to wield such enormous power over the town, but in the end the result was sickening. The afflicted girls began accusing upstanding citizens of the surrounding communities of various acts of witchcraft. As the attention contiguous on these girls grew, more of them became part of the action. Though they had not experienced the same strange medical symptoms, Mary Warren, Susanna Sheldon, and Elizabeth Hubbard were allowed to make accusations about others being witches. In just a few short months, Betty Parris and her posse of teenage girls had gone from being legitimately sick to a gang of lying juvenile delinquents.
More than one hundred people would be arrested on suspicion of consorting with the devil before Salem’s lust for blood would ebb; nineteen would hang for their crimes, one was pressed to death, and at least four others died in prison. The evidence used to incarcerate, bring to trial, and convict these supposed witches and wizards was based solely on spotty circumstantial testimony about the spectral delusions of the girls. At no trial was hard evidence ever presented to prove that any of those accused had ever been involved in any sort of witchcraft at all.
Salem is not the only place where America’s citizens have gone crazy in their quest for security, however. Jumping forward in our history a few hundred years, post-World War II America creates the perfect atmosphere for yet another round of witch-hunts to take place. Since the vast majority of Americans harbored a deep-seated fear about a Communist takeover, it was easy for a Senator from Wisconsin to incite the nation against what he thought were Communist infiltrators in our midst. Senator Joseph McCarthy, along with other agencies of the government like the House Un-American Activities Committee, sniffed out those who they thought posed a threat to the immediate security of the United States of America. Their claims, when examined in the context of history, seem fairly ludicrous today, but at the time, they made perfect sense to the American people.
The House Un-American Activities Committee, or the HUAC as it is commonly called, was granted extraordinary power during World War II. This panel, initially chaired by Congressman Martin Dies, was given the ability to inquire into virtually anything they wanted in order to sniff out those who might be able to fell us from the inside. During the war, the committee was often investigating the activities of many German-Americans, but following the war, the focus of the committee’s investigations shifted. Beginning with the trial of Soviet spy Alger Hiss in 1948, HUAC interrogated hundreds, imprisoned dozens, and executed a few in their quest to rid the world of communism. While they rarely brought solid evidence against those they accused, the members of HUAC felt that their reasons for interrogation were valid; they were protecting the American people. Most significantly, the board subpoenaed a large group of Hollywood film industry moguls to take part in the proceedings. Since some of the films produced at the time could be considered un-American, anyone connected to them, ranging from actors to directors to producers, was liable to find himself standing before HUAC on charges of espionage.
Among the first called upon to testify before the panel were ten film industry witnesses who refused to cooperate. These men, who became known as the “Hollywood Ten,” believed that they were legally protected from answering the panel’s questions, citing the First Amendment guarantee of free speech and the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination. More than likely, these men saw the same thing looming in their futures that Giles Corey of the Salem trials had seen; regardless of the evidence and regardless of their testimony, they would be convicted. Corey had chosen to be crushed to death by stones in order to avoid almost certain conviction, and these ten chose to use the law as a defense against trial.
Their tactic failed. They were arrested on charges of contempt of Congress, and they were imprisoned for two to six months each. Future witnesses would claim similar defenses and be allowed to dodge appearances before the panel, but that did not mean that they were safe. Refusing to testify was often grounds for dismissal from a job, and there was the constant threat of being investigated by the FBI, an organization that sometimes used illegal measures to gain their information.
In the Senate, things were hardly better than they were in the House. A sister committee to HUAC, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee conducted their own investigation of anti-American communist activity within the United States. Another committee, headed by the aforementioned Joseph McCarthy, investigated first the State Department, then the US Army, then US media forces. While McCarthy’s direct influence was short-lived, his influence on the period was huge. Loyalty review boards were formed in nearly ever sector of society to determine whether citizens were patriots or communists. If you were found to be anti-American, you were sentenced to the modern equivalent of hanging; you were denied work, and sometimes had your assets frozen. While no one was sent to the gallows for being anti-American, many were economically ruined by the findings against them, which were typically based on nothing more than hearsay regarding comments that they had once made.
Certainly, though, we have moved on from the archaic ways of justice that were present in the latter parts of our history. Most of us would never dream of being McCarthyists today. Yet despite our best efforts, the United States, and I would say the Church, unknowingly expose ourselves to the threat of once again believing lies to ensure our common defense.
In 2003, members of Congress called for several professors at elite universities to be fired after they were reported as having made remarks that were anti-American. The center of the maelstrom was a professor of Middle East Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, who was charged with being anti-American after sketchy evidence reported him making anti-Semetic remarks during one of his lectures. The witch-hunt in American academia began afresh as the spring of 2003 saw more than a few professors at major universities lose their positions of tenure over remarks that they had made regarding the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, students found themselves subjected to similar measures. A museum in New York City dedicated to flamboyantly pacifistic art was closed down following allegations that the museum was promoting an anti-American spirit and fueling terrorism. FBI agents who did not possess a warrant raided another similar museum located in Houston. Prior to business hours, the agents came to the museum insisting they be allowed to investigate the activity inside the gallery. This museum, which contains an exhibit entitled “Secret Wars,” was being investigated because of the artwork it contained.
The exhibit contains images such as a poster of George Bush holding a rope with a caption reading, “We hang on your every word, George Bush.” While the artwork may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly doesn’t appear to pose any legitimate threat to American security, yet the museum was subjected to harsh scrutiny by the US government.
In our haste to protect ourselves from Islamofascists, we have once again allowed ourselves to be taken captive by the big lie that anything contrary to the status quo is dangerous. It is important to protect ourselves from the legitimate dangers that the world possesses, but engaging in witch-hunts as we have at other points in our history only leads to bitter divisions and a broken justice system. In order to stop the travesties of injustice from occurring again, we must be very careful not to let ourselves be carried about by every flighty rumor that comes our way regarding some danger we might be in.
You would think as Christians we would realize that witch-hunts are fruitless, but we use the same technique with our own members whenever they present an idea that is just a bit too risqué for polite conversation. We ostracize them, avoid their ideas, and even whisper about them behind their backs.
A friend of mine was rebuffed by a certain church’s leadership when he tried to start a ministry to divorcees. I admit that I can see problems with that program. For one, the church should not be endorsing divorce, and secondly, such an organization could quickly morph into a divorcee dating service. Nevertheless, the Church, which is very pro-marriage and very pro-family, should be doing something to reach an increasingly larger segment of hurting divorced people in our midst. Instead, we crucify those who try to reach them and refuse to fund or aid their programs. We starve out the ministry we do not like.
Another similar area is that of homosexuality. While the church spends lots of time defending the sanctity of marriage before lawmakers, there are very few churches that have active outreach to gay communities. Maybe we do not know how to reach homosexual people, but that has never stopped us before. With enough people getting creative, I’m certain we can come up with a way. It becomes difficult to minister to homosexuals without endorsing their homosexuality, but recognize that Jesus ministered to harlots. He did not shy away from the task of reaching a dangerous people group. Also recognize that the only thing that will make homosexual communities turn from a lifestyle of sin to a lifestyle of service is a relationship with Jesus Christ, whose love can reach to every heart.
Churches do not typically accept gay people into their midst with friendly greetings, nor do those who have a heart to reach those people find church members waiting to go witnessing with them. Prison ministries are popular; orphan ministries are popular. Homosexual ministries are incredibly unpopular. The devil is winning the battle over sexuality because he actively engages those who struggle with temptation. The Church not only fails to engage this culture; it ostracizes it.
Throughout its history, the Church has picked the ministry that’s not too messy and wholeheartedly devoted themselves to it; meanwhile, they use Darwinian techniques to kill off the ministries the Church does not like. Forcing ministry to take place in a “survival of the fittest-type” environment, the Church finds itself severely lacking in ministries to certain segments of society, most notably in the broken family department. Homosexuals are rarely ministered to; the number of ministries for boys who grew up without fathers is abysmally low; and ministries to those who represent immoral sexual lifestyles – namely porn stars and prostitutes – are practically non-existent. These people groups are easily accessible within our culture since all around us, just waiting and starving for the love of Jesus. They are ready to be reached and changed with the gospel of Christ, but the Church’s resources are too devoted to the programs that are safe – Awana, men’s breakfasts, women’s Bible studies, 5-day clubs, and the like.
To be fair, ministry to these groups is not easy. The Church must never find itself in a position where it endorses things that are contrary to the Word of God’s teachings. Ministering to kids in single parent homes is not easy because the vast majority of one parent homes are caused by arrest, addiction, or divorce. None of those things are positive or Godly, so we avoid them. Ministering to porn stars is not easy because we despise the profession that provides them with their income; therefore it is difficult for us to make them feel accepted and loved. Not to mention, it is not even a little bit polite to mention the name “porn star,” much less engage in the life of one to bring Jesus to him or her.
Plus, we must always be mindful of the Scriptural principle that says to be careful about causing others to stumble. When we engage in ministry to certain people groups, there are those in the congregations of the church who will not be able to minister to them with a clear conscience.
God designed each of the members of His body for a specific task, though, and we too often create an environment where some are unable to serve as God would have them serve because the Church refuses to reach a sector of the population. While there are legitimate concerns, there are also legitimate needs that go unfulfilled as the Church continues to feed the status quo.
The citizens of Salem learned the hard way that they should not be too hasty to jump to conclusions, and America has seen that using fear tactics to ensure safety is a poor way to create justice. Somehow we have managed to allow the spirit of Salem to creep into our churches, however, and we still employ the tactics of witch-hunts to keep ourselves secure in our Christianity. Let us not buy into the lie that we are at constant danger from that which differs in opinion from us, but let us instead find common ground in our differences and work towards reaching every segment of our society – regardless of their flaw – with the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ.
Remember, we were once strangers and foreigners, too, but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Remember that one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Finally, remember that Jesus Christ brings peace. Bring Him wherever peace is needed, making the Church an ambassador for His peace.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” –Ephesians 2:14
Monday, June 18, 2007
Don't Eat Your Soul to Fill Your Belly
My friend Jon is truly one of the oddest boys you could ever meet. The picture of the rebellious, sometimes-passionate Gen X teen, Jon is impulsive, introverted, witty, and strange. He somehow manages to win our affections, but through it all, he maintains an air of oddity that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in another human being.
I should also mention that Jon – undisciplined, lackadaisical, and sociable – weighs about one hundred pounds soaking wet, yet is almost six foot three inches tall. It came as a shock to me, then, when Jon let me know mid way through our senior year of high school that he had enlisted in the Marines. I shouldn’t have been surprised; it’s that kind of impulsive behavior that seems to define Jon. He’s the type of boy you would expect to grow up and live in a yuppie neighborhood of a major city, drinking Starbucks four times a day while dressed in blaze orange jumpsuits and wearing horn rimmed spectacles.
In case you’ve never noticed, Gen Xers like my friend Jon often have a very philosophical side to them. If you’ve never seen the musical Rent, I’m definitely not recommending it, but there’s most certainly a philosophical leaning interjected in nearly every phase of the musical. Instead of being apathetic adolescents, Gen Xers actually are often passionate people, committed to certain causes with insatiable zeal. Sometimes the causes are beyond what you would expect from such individuals, too. In Rent, the plot centers on themes like AIDS, homophobia, and racial tension. Yet, for reasons unbeknownst to the audience, there is a wonderfully dramatic moment in the middle of a scene where one of the characters exclaims, “The opposite of war isn’t peace; it’s creation.”
It curious to me that this yuppie generation, of which I am a proud member, would bother to insert passion into an otherwise apathetic existence. Yet instead of sitting around playing video games all day, there is an increasingly large segment of twenty-somethings that spends a hearty portion of time waxing philosophical. Rather than abandoning ancient art forms like poetry and painting because they are outdated or require too much energy, this otherwise lazy generation embraces such forms, attending art galleries and often supplying said galleries with their works.
Generation X is chock full of contradictions. The members are all at once listless and zealous, lethargic and energized, nationalistic and individualistic, carefree and depressed, satisfied and insatiable. It is a dynamic that sociologists and psychologists are baffled by, and as a member of this generation, I am no less perplexed by the yuppification of society. Certainly the roots of this generation are visible in history – the erosion of values, the overemphasis of philosophies, and the brainwashing of despair and science make it nearly impossible to prevent such a generation from being formed. Nevertheless, their name is fitting. Generation X is the generation of variables, a society where every moment of analysis shows you once more that the themes and structures of the generation are unknown and likely to remain so.
It is against this backdrop that my friend Jon fits. I love him to death, and he loves others to death, and there’s no day that goes by where something surprising does not come forth from his wellspring of randomness. In the spring of my senior year of high school, Jon and I, along with the rest of our classmates, traveled to New York City for our class trip. Most of us were suburban kids from middle class New Hampshire homes, so New York City, to us, was a giant playground. In the midst of the trip, however, Jon appeared one night wearing a black shirt on which he had pasted a bumper sticker reading, “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly.”
Now, I do not have the foggiest notion where Jon got this sticker, nor do I care. The fact of the matter is, I think that “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly” is a wonderfully Gen X way of saying what we as Christians have been preaching for centuries. Thus, I think Christians can and should learn two things from my friend Jon’s shirt.
First, we should realize that unique ways of reaching people are good. Since the Word of God finds itself as a lava lamp, repackaging the same message to a different audience, our message, while never compromising truth, should come to crowds in a way that is appealing to them. Gen X kids are more difficult to reach than most generations before us because we don’t follow any one trend. If that’s so, then the gospel needs to be available tons of different ways. If a bumper sticker reading, “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly” can accurately convey the person of Jesus Christ to a lost child, then it is an effective means of sharing the gospel.
Yet, we as Christians tend to shy away from such forms of evangelism. It’s almost like we feel that certain methods or certain places are inappropriate scenarios in which to share God’s love. Some unique opportunities present themselves for Christians to present Jesus to a dying generation, but we often let the pitch slide by, content to sit back and take more conventional routs of presenting.
My church has taken on two brand new means of reaching the lost that I happen to think are stellar outreach mechanisms. The first involved considerable cost to the congregation, but paid for a team of professional Christian bodybuilders to come in and break stuff. Over a series of days, the guys demolished thousands of dollars in sports equipment, construction supplies, and other various objects as they proved they had loads of strength. They ran through walls of ice, snapped baseball bats (even metal ones) like twigs, and rolled frying pans up like tacos.
Some people would not lump such behavior with evangelism, but I witnessed it with my own eyes. A whole new set of people wandered into our church over those days, and some of them have stayed. Hundreds went forward to accept Christ as Savior when these powerful men shared their testimonies and their faith in Christ’s blood. Maybe the method was a bit out of the box, but the results prove that it was an effective means of reaching a segment of the population.
Another project my church took on was reaching bikers during Bike Week, an annual event that takes place in New Hampshire each summer. This week literally attracts millions of motorcycle enthusiasts into our state for a week of testosterone driven fun on loud and fast motorcycles. Seeing an opportunity, some men in my church took it upon themselves to put together a program to reach the bikers who flocked to our state. If people are literally pouring into your area, there is no better time to reach them with the gospel.
In case you haven’t noticed, there are tremendously successful churches that seem to use marketing more often than theology to reach the lost. I do not think it is the job of the Church to commercialize Jesus, and some churches turn their evangelization into an entertainment industry. Others, though, effectively engage audiences with Christ’s message because they present it in a way that is attractive to a particular demographic.
One of the masters of this craft is Bill Hybels, a man whose degree did not come from a seminary, but rather holds a degree in marketing. His church, Willow Creek, has touched millions for Jesus Christ. You may not agree with Willow Creek’s theology or even their method, but they have had an undeniable impact of the lives of people all over the world. The Church could do well to take a page out of their evangelism book.
The second point Jon’s shirt revealed to me is that too often we as Christians trade in eternity for the moment. We “eat our souls to fill our bellies,” as the sticker said. Christ has called us to live distinctly Christian lives that are completely sold out to Him in every aspect. That’s not always easy and it requires self discipline. The self discipline required is so great that the apostle Paul even said he beat his body to bring it into subjection.
One of the signs of maturity is the ability to delay gratification for a more profitable gain. Businessmen understand this concept. Sometimes it is necessary to spend money to make back a larger sum later. While it may hurt to shell out the capital to begin with, the promise of future gains is worth the cost.
Parents understand this concept, too. Even though most dads would love to own a boat or a summer home on the beach, they recognize that the pleasure derived from that sort of thing would last about eight minutes. Instead, paying for the education of their son or daughter takes priority and gives a lasting reward far greater than the pleasure the recreation could provide.
Unfortunately, most of us do not carry this level of maturity over into our Christian walks. Our eyes become bigger than our brains, and we cave into whatever pleasure we want in the moment. Instead of taming our tongues, we use scathing words because we are frustrated. Instead of hiding our eyes, we indulge in the images of scantily clad people floating across our screens. Instead of changing the radio station, we listen to the abominable music that blatantly mocks the things of the Lord. Instead of controlling our urges to eat, we gorge ourselves on the cake in the kitchen. Instead of encouraging a brother, we keep to ourselves because we don’t want to be mocked. Instead of showing up at church, we head to the NFL game or the ballpark. Instead of praying in the morning, we spend our moments sleeping in just a bit longer.
We eat our souls to fill our bellies all the time. We exchange eternal reward for temporal pleasures, and the result is that we have a consumer driven, self-centered, egoist society that has no idea how to live like a New Testament church. When we live in light of God’s principles, it requires work and it usually results in temporary pain of some sort. We may have to delay the pleasure we seek or avoid our own gratification. Despite this, God promises eternal reward far better than the gain we get in the moment. He gives us true joy in exchange for our momentary happiness, and He gives us lasting peace in exchange for our fleeting pleasure.
Live like a Christian should. Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly.
I should also mention that Jon – undisciplined, lackadaisical, and sociable – weighs about one hundred pounds soaking wet, yet is almost six foot three inches tall. It came as a shock to me, then, when Jon let me know mid way through our senior year of high school that he had enlisted in the Marines. I shouldn’t have been surprised; it’s that kind of impulsive behavior that seems to define Jon. He’s the type of boy you would expect to grow up and live in a yuppie neighborhood of a major city, drinking Starbucks four times a day while dressed in blaze orange jumpsuits and wearing horn rimmed spectacles.
In case you’ve never noticed, Gen Xers like my friend Jon often have a very philosophical side to them. If you’ve never seen the musical Rent, I’m definitely not recommending it, but there’s most certainly a philosophical leaning interjected in nearly every phase of the musical. Instead of being apathetic adolescents, Gen Xers actually are often passionate people, committed to certain causes with insatiable zeal. Sometimes the causes are beyond what you would expect from such individuals, too. In Rent, the plot centers on themes like AIDS, homophobia, and racial tension. Yet, for reasons unbeknownst to the audience, there is a wonderfully dramatic moment in the middle of a scene where one of the characters exclaims, “The opposite of war isn’t peace; it’s creation.”
It curious to me that this yuppie generation, of which I am a proud member, would bother to insert passion into an otherwise apathetic existence. Yet instead of sitting around playing video games all day, there is an increasingly large segment of twenty-somethings that spends a hearty portion of time waxing philosophical. Rather than abandoning ancient art forms like poetry and painting because they are outdated or require too much energy, this otherwise lazy generation embraces such forms, attending art galleries and often supplying said galleries with their works.
Generation X is chock full of contradictions. The members are all at once listless and zealous, lethargic and energized, nationalistic and individualistic, carefree and depressed, satisfied and insatiable. It is a dynamic that sociologists and psychologists are baffled by, and as a member of this generation, I am no less perplexed by the yuppification of society. Certainly the roots of this generation are visible in history – the erosion of values, the overemphasis of philosophies, and the brainwashing of despair and science make it nearly impossible to prevent such a generation from being formed. Nevertheless, their name is fitting. Generation X is the generation of variables, a society where every moment of analysis shows you once more that the themes and structures of the generation are unknown and likely to remain so.
It is against this backdrop that my friend Jon fits. I love him to death, and he loves others to death, and there’s no day that goes by where something surprising does not come forth from his wellspring of randomness. In the spring of my senior year of high school, Jon and I, along with the rest of our classmates, traveled to New York City for our class trip. Most of us were suburban kids from middle class New Hampshire homes, so New York City, to us, was a giant playground. In the midst of the trip, however, Jon appeared one night wearing a black shirt on which he had pasted a bumper sticker reading, “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly.”
Now, I do not have the foggiest notion where Jon got this sticker, nor do I care. The fact of the matter is, I think that “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly” is a wonderfully Gen X way of saying what we as Christians have been preaching for centuries. Thus, I think Christians can and should learn two things from my friend Jon’s shirt.
First, we should realize that unique ways of reaching people are good. Since the Word of God finds itself as a lava lamp, repackaging the same message to a different audience, our message, while never compromising truth, should come to crowds in a way that is appealing to them. Gen X kids are more difficult to reach than most generations before us because we don’t follow any one trend. If that’s so, then the gospel needs to be available tons of different ways. If a bumper sticker reading, “Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly” can accurately convey the person of Jesus Christ to a lost child, then it is an effective means of sharing the gospel.
Yet, we as Christians tend to shy away from such forms of evangelism. It’s almost like we feel that certain methods or certain places are inappropriate scenarios in which to share God’s love. Some unique opportunities present themselves for Christians to present Jesus to a dying generation, but we often let the pitch slide by, content to sit back and take more conventional routs of presenting.
My church has taken on two brand new means of reaching the lost that I happen to think are stellar outreach mechanisms. The first involved considerable cost to the congregation, but paid for a team of professional Christian bodybuilders to come in and break stuff. Over a series of days, the guys demolished thousands of dollars in sports equipment, construction supplies, and other various objects as they proved they had loads of strength. They ran through walls of ice, snapped baseball bats (even metal ones) like twigs, and rolled frying pans up like tacos.
Some people would not lump such behavior with evangelism, but I witnessed it with my own eyes. A whole new set of people wandered into our church over those days, and some of them have stayed. Hundreds went forward to accept Christ as Savior when these powerful men shared their testimonies and their faith in Christ’s blood. Maybe the method was a bit out of the box, but the results prove that it was an effective means of reaching a segment of the population.
Another project my church took on was reaching bikers during Bike Week, an annual event that takes place in New Hampshire each summer. This week literally attracts millions of motorcycle enthusiasts into our state for a week of testosterone driven fun on loud and fast motorcycles. Seeing an opportunity, some men in my church took it upon themselves to put together a program to reach the bikers who flocked to our state. If people are literally pouring into your area, there is no better time to reach them with the gospel.
In case you haven’t noticed, there are tremendously successful churches that seem to use marketing more often than theology to reach the lost. I do not think it is the job of the Church to commercialize Jesus, and some churches turn their evangelization into an entertainment industry. Others, though, effectively engage audiences with Christ’s message because they present it in a way that is attractive to a particular demographic.
One of the masters of this craft is Bill Hybels, a man whose degree did not come from a seminary, but rather holds a degree in marketing. His church, Willow Creek, has touched millions for Jesus Christ. You may not agree with Willow Creek’s theology or even their method, but they have had an undeniable impact of the lives of people all over the world. The Church could do well to take a page out of their evangelism book.
The second point Jon’s shirt revealed to me is that too often we as Christians trade in eternity for the moment. We “eat our souls to fill our bellies,” as the sticker said. Christ has called us to live distinctly Christian lives that are completely sold out to Him in every aspect. That’s not always easy and it requires self discipline. The self discipline required is so great that the apostle Paul even said he beat his body to bring it into subjection.
One of the signs of maturity is the ability to delay gratification for a more profitable gain. Businessmen understand this concept. Sometimes it is necessary to spend money to make back a larger sum later. While it may hurt to shell out the capital to begin with, the promise of future gains is worth the cost.
Parents understand this concept, too. Even though most dads would love to own a boat or a summer home on the beach, they recognize that the pleasure derived from that sort of thing would last about eight minutes. Instead, paying for the education of their son or daughter takes priority and gives a lasting reward far greater than the pleasure the recreation could provide.
Unfortunately, most of us do not carry this level of maturity over into our Christian walks. Our eyes become bigger than our brains, and we cave into whatever pleasure we want in the moment. Instead of taming our tongues, we use scathing words because we are frustrated. Instead of hiding our eyes, we indulge in the images of scantily clad people floating across our screens. Instead of changing the radio station, we listen to the abominable music that blatantly mocks the things of the Lord. Instead of controlling our urges to eat, we gorge ourselves on the cake in the kitchen. Instead of encouraging a brother, we keep to ourselves because we don’t want to be mocked. Instead of showing up at church, we head to the NFL game or the ballpark. Instead of praying in the morning, we spend our moments sleeping in just a bit longer.
We eat our souls to fill our bellies all the time. We exchange eternal reward for temporal pleasures, and the result is that we have a consumer driven, self-centered, egoist society that has no idea how to live like a New Testament church. When we live in light of God’s principles, it requires work and it usually results in temporary pain of some sort. We may have to delay the pleasure we seek or avoid our own gratification. Despite this, God promises eternal reward far better than the gain we get in the moment. He gives us true joy in exchange for our momentary happiness, and He gives us lasting peace in exchange for our fleeting pleasure.
Live like a Christian should. Don’t eat your soul to fill your belly.
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