Add comment April 24th, 2009 05:29pm Artie
Interesting response from Brian McLaren.
What’s your reaction to President Obama’s recent statements to the Muslim world that “the United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam” and that “we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation”?
I welcome and celebrate President Obama’s statement, because not only is it true, it can help us confront some dangerous religious myths that we have grown too comfortable with.
7 comments June 25th, 2007 11:34am Artie
I’ve been silent for a while because I had no connection in St. Louis. We took a group of 13 teenagers and 3 adults to the St. Louis Dream Center, which was established and continues to be funded by Joyce Myer Ministries. This trip caused many intellecual and spiritual tensions to once again surface in my heart. As most of the 4 people who may read this all ready know, I grew up right in the middle of the Charismatic & Word/Faith movements. In my mid twenties I felt quite content to distance myself from these camps. There was much about this trip that reminded my of the old days and the old ways that were such a burden to me in times past. I experienced some parts of Charismatic culture for which I do not care. I witnessed scenes in the prayer room & devotions that might be great if I were wanting to film an intellectually dishonest documentary and call it, say, Jesus Mission. I also sensed some of the old “be careful to do this and not do this so that you can be annointed” spirituality that left me feeling like a constant unannointed failure.
But I also took time to listen to stories of the people whose lives are radically different both temporily and eternally because of the constant sacrificial efforts of my charismatic brothers and sisters. I engaged a world that allowed me to see the silliness of wasting my time pontificating about postmodernism and pagan philosophy if it is does not lead me to incarnationally connect with the suffering and the lost with the unambiguous call to follow Jesus as Lord - not simply because it is right, but because it is their (and my) only hope. I have spent so much time in my theological smugness and intellecual pride because I moved beyond the individualistic spirituality of “folk religion” and realtistically acknowledged my doubts. The problem was that my doubts eventually became the only things I aknowledged. This week those who live by a much simpler faith served to rebuke the stupid self deception of my so called intellectual superiority.
It was so easy for me to judge the over the top emotionalism of the long haired dude who made me feel uncomfortable in the prayer meeting. He was unlearned and cute in comparison to my passionless and joyless pseudo prayer. Then I heard part of his story; his past prison sentence and self destructive lifestyle. I remembered working with him 3 years ago when he first came to the Dream Center just out of prison. I could see the quantitative transformation that this guy had undergone during his time in the culturally charismatic outreach center. I experience the inspirational moral influence of his childlike joy in following Jesus. He had the audacity to believe that God might speak to him as he sought Him in prayer and bible meditaion during his “quiet time” - a practice I abandoned long ago in favor of more enlightened ways of seeking God. I felt as though I was reminded of what Jesus might have meant when He said that we must come like children.
I am not saying that I want to reembrace the trappings of charismatic cultural, but something in me changed. I realized that the moments in my life that have been the most joyful and in which I felt most alive were in the context of a charismatic pursuit of God the Holy Spirit and in seeking to reach out to those in need of experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus. In some ways, I am and always will be a charismatic christian and I am at peace with that.
Just the other day I had a quiet time. God was present and it was good and I did a better job of loving.
“Perhaps it’s time to make a simple decision: that we will believe the things we believe and therefore allow them to overwhelm us and to doubt the things we doubt and therefore deny them their power.”
I am convinced that Pete is right and I am making the decision. Later pilgrims.
3 comments April 26th, 2007 10:28am Artie
A friend of mine recently e-mailed me and referenced the satisfaction I must take in being “right” about something. He said this in sincerity - not in the Smart A sort of way. But it made me pause to think and my response to him was that I rarely feel right about anything, most of the time I am groping in the darkness with just enough light to see the step in front of me. This is the best summation of where I am on the journey home. I never know if the next step will take me to the edge of a cliff or back to the main road (if one even exists). My problem is that I am hopelessly optimistic. I’m like the stupid, annoying dog that you slap in the head and he keeps running back to you with his tail wagging!
I just want to encourage my 20-Someting brothers and sisters. Much of the past decade of my life has been filled with doubt, unanswered questions, cynicism and severe depression. There have been times when I have awakened in the night gripped with the terror that maybe I have been bamboozled by this entire christain enterprise.
But there have also been moments of the most intense clarity. Times when the veil between heaven and earth was merely a hairline fracture. As a direct result of being stuck in church I have relationships that are so close to my heart it is sometimes hard to breath. This whole venture is not what I expected it to be. As cheesy as it sounds, my theology at this point is more that amply summed up by the children’s song “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”.
Press on with courage my friends. Life is hard but your God is good - and He is faithful. Learning to love has been the most exhilarating experince of my life and it continues to astonish me by its wonder and simplicity.
I’m no longer striving for “excellence”, consistently adequate is fine with me.
Later pilgrims.
11 comments April 9th, 2007 02:05pm Artie
Many of my freinds and acquaintences that desire to embrace their Christian faith have fallen out of love with the church. Church for them seems at best to be irrelevent and at worst a detriment to their spiritual development. If this is similar to your own sentiment - tell me why. I want to know your thoughts and your stories, even if you think I all ready know them. For the sake of discussion, I do mean “traditional” Church in the sense of an organized expression, not just me & my buddies drinking beer and talking Jesus.