Public Christianity

Today was the anticipated plea bargain for Michael Vick. There’s an endless debate online on whether he’ll ever play again, if the media firestorm is race-related, will the public forgive him, and on and on. So I won’t go down that road. But in the following press conference, which appeared genuine and sincere, it stood out to me that “through this situation,” he found Jesus, asked for forgiveness, and turned his life over to God because he (and this is my favorite part), “think[s] that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”

My question is, when is it not the right thing to do? Turning to God is an easy PR scapegoat when we get our hands caught in the cookie jar. Either that, or rehab. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure God appreciates being “turned to” and I know Jesus appreciates being “found” whenever we actually get around to doing it. After all God, “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:4) And we know that trials build our faith (James 1, 1 Peter 1). But it’s awfully convenient when one’s repentance is made so public.

On a related note, I finally caught an episode of “Saving Grace” on TNT. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a story of a cop who makes a desperate cry to God for help and help comes in the form of a tobacco chewing, beer drinking angel named Earl. Ok, it sounds hokey and borderline blasphemous, but it follows a similar mold as “Highway to Heaven”, “Touched by an Angel” and “Joan of Arcadia” where an angel comes to prove God’s existence to a skeptic while at the same time saving the day before the hour episode is up. This show isn’t much different, except it’s much grittier and I was surprised to hear cussing on TNT. I like how the show seems to be structured, the angel is helping Grace with one part of her very flawed character per episode, in tonight’s case it was lying. But I had a hard time being drawn into the story because the grounded storyline, investigating the brutal beating and murder of a woman, didn’t reflect the larger lesson Grace was supposed to learn. Now I admit to being pretty cynical while watching it and I also admit that my short attention span didn’t allow me to actually finish the episode (it was against MNF afterall). But I was intrigued just enough to want to see more.

What does this have to do with Michael Vick? Well, it perpetuates in the media the notion that repentance is easy and God is right there on-call whenever we have a crisis of faith. But if the goings not tough, we can forget about God for a while knowing fully well that he’ll be there when we really need him, as though we don’t always need him. Look, I hope Vick’s new found faith takes him down the same road as Reggie White. (Not meaning to link any of this scandal to anything done by White, but rather as an example of a professional football player who was also a minister) Just as I hope that people who see “Saving Grace” are moved to take a deeper look at their own faith and relationship with God, or lack thereof. But Hollywood has made me too cynical. However, my faith in God, and the ability of his word to be so sharp as to “divide soul and spirit” should cut through those chains of cynicism. Let’s hope so.

What? You were expecting something else after three-ish weeks off? Well, I’ve got a lot in my head, but it’s all stuck behind this, so bear with me. I’m a baseball nut, I can’t help it.

Back when we were anticipating the dawn of the Millennium, everybody and their dog had a list of the Top Whatever of the Century. ESPN had the Top 100 Baseball Players of the Century and there was a lot of debate on who should be on top. I remember debating with friends then, the merit of Barry Bonds. I would have had him in my all time outfield, and this was before he hit 73. Most of my friends thought I was on crack for thinking so, but you couldn’t deny the numbers. He was a 400-400 man. He was a pretty good fielder (at the time). And he hit lights out. He was like Tony Gwynn or Kirby Puckett with a lot of power. You couldn’t get a ball by him. And I was looking forward to watching him and Ken Griffey Jr. chase each other for the Big One. 755. Hammerin‘ Hank Aaron. But history took a different turn.

I remember there being a lot of debate on the inflated numbers of home runs in the league at the time, but little discussion of steroids. I argued that smaller parks, expansion and therefore thin pitching staffs, smaller strike zones, and a stupid rule on hitting batters that pretty much prevented any pitcher from pitching inside were to blame. Oh yeah, and then there was the “juiced ball.” But then came BALCO, and Canseco, and Game of Shadows, and that all changed. Never mind Brady Anderson hitting 50 one season only to never really be heard from again. Never mind (much to our shame) the downward spiral Ken Camenitti’s (forgive my spelling) life took before it prematurely came to an end. It was now all about Bonds and his inevitable trajectory to 755.

I rooted against him. I prayed to the Baseball Gods (can I blaspheme on a blog about Christianity?) that something would keep him from it. I begged and pleaded that he’d just come clean, because face it, none of us would’ve cared if he would’ve come out when the firestorm began. Be contrite. Respect the fans and respect the game, and we’ll cheer you to 800 of that’s where you take us. But it wasn’t to be. Here’s a guy born into baseball with a silver bat in one hand and a golden glove on the other. And he knew it. And he wore body armor and hovered over the plate daring anyone to come near him with a pitch. And he hit home run after home run after home run.

I wanted to find a reason to root against him. He was limping to the record. Aaron never took all those days off, I’d rationalize. But then I’d remember how Ruth was an embarrassment to himself at the end. So the golden number really should’ve been something like 690 instead of 714.

But there I was, hoping for some baseball poetry a week ago to see if it would happen against Hank’s own team, the Atlanta Braves. This had some significance for me as well. My mom is from Atlanta and despite my allegiance to the Cubbies, I’ve easily been to more Braves games than all other teams combined. So it felt right to be there. And it was only right for the Baseball Gods to see to it that the game before went 13 innings so Bonds would sit that day. Go figure. I met up with my sister to see if we could see Swingin‘ Sammy hit any onto Waveland in that milestone year of 98. He went 0-fer both days we were there. So it’s only fair that he’d tie the record on the road against the Padres, where I couldn’t see it, while I was distracted doing something else.

This isn’t about race either. I found an article online on how if Bonds’ record is tainted by steroids, all these old records are tainted because the players from the Golden Age of baseball didn’t play against black competition. I was only able to read half the essay (about 10 pages) before my blood was boiling too much to continue. Not because I’m some racist. But because anyone who makes that argument isn’t a baseball fan. I hear it a lot on sports-talk radio, and poll numbers back it up, that whites are much more opposed to Bonds breaking the record than blacks. But why then, do we care so much that he’s passing another black player in Aaron? One who came out of a segregated and impoverished Mobile, Alabama? My other counter argument is that if that’s the case, then Aaron’s record should be considered tainted as well because he didn’t play against the Japanese. After all, the professional record isn’t Aaron’s, but Sadaharo Oh, a Japanese player. And soon, the all time record for hits in professional baseball will be held by a Japanese player–Ichiro. So do all those records not count?

We revere the records because they stand the test of time, not because of the era that produced them. We respect them because so many seasons come and go without anyone even approaching them. And the names that are spoken of with awe are regarded by history not by the numbers they put up but by the legends that surround them. Shoeless Joe Jackson is a great example of this. Despite the numbers put up by Charlie Hustle, his legend is sealed by his gambling. And regrettably, Barry Bonds’ legend will be forever tied to steroids. And it’s a shame too, because he’s one of the best to ever swing a stick.

I guess you could file this under Off Topic. But to tie it in, I recommend this book, “The Faith of 50 Million” on baseball and religion and baseball as religion. It’s pretty dense as an academic book, and I haven’t finished it yet myself, but it really puts into perspective why we’d root against someone like Bonds and for someone like A-Rod. It also puts baseball in a role as a cultural religion with living parables and endless moral lessons. So maybe this isn’t as off topic as you’d think.

Ok, so the week isn’t done yet, but tomorrow is my wife’s birthday and I plan on spending it on a beach, not blogging here. I hope you forgive me.

First a couple of headlines that are good follow-ups to my last post. A couple of days ago the Pew Research Center released a study showing more working mothers would prefer to work part time so they could be home with their children. The number that would prefer to stay home full-time has stayed pretty much the same. I’m a fan of the part-time option myself. As a personal testimony, my wife, a special education teacher, took a year off after our son was born. A year later, she didn’t want to work full time. She changed districts hoping for a part-time opportunity. She had her doubts, I encouraged her to pray about it, and we prayed together. She went in to interview and was told right off that there weren’t any part time positions available. Then one of the interviewers said, “wait you said you’re special ed?” Then, “whisper, whisper, whisper” to the other interviewers. Then, “we do have this one opportunity if you’re interested…” I’m confident God knows what is best for us. We need to trust him for the right opportunity and sometimes that means going out on a limb.

Today, I read that fewer teens are having sex and there are fewer teenage pregnancies. This is credited to safer sex, but that doesn’t explain that fewer are having sex to begin with. I think both safe-sex education and abstinence education go hand in hand in this good news. Despite these programs though, we need to remember that the best place for our children to learn about sex is in our homes. And we, as parents, need to be open and frank with risks and consequences as well as realistic with the topic of contraception.

Finally, yesterday’s session of the Senate opened in a Hindu prayer and a couple of protesters were thrown out of the gallery. I want to first call attention to a quote from Barry Lynn (Americans United for Separation of Church and State) that the protest, “shows the intolerance of many religious right activists. They say they want more religion in the public square, but it’s clear they mean only their religion.” I seldom agree with him, but he has a point. The Senate can open up in any prayer they want. What ruffles my feathers is the focus of the prayer, opening, “We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds.” I don’t mind non-denomonational prayers, Hindu prayers, Muslim prayers, ecumenical prayers, and on and on. But this prayer was instead a proclamation of faith. Very different than something like, “God bless this Senate and the United States of America” which is vague, can apply to any God and/or any faith. It can be argued that Christians can pray publicly in schools or in government if they left out “in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.” But to call on a deity, describe him/her, and then ask for him/her to be glorified on the floor of the Senate seemed like nothing more than grandstanding. Contrast this with the memorial for the victims at Virginia Tech. Every minister of every faith called on the name of their own deity, except for the Christian minister. Religious political correctness has neutered even preachers of the Gospel. And that is sad. So instead of protesting a Hindu prayer, we need to more boldly proclaim the Gospel. Instead of being afraid of being politically correct, we need to pray with faith to our God, in the name of Jesus.

After a day celebrating the Fourth at a WWII memorial fundraiser at our local cemetery, watching Transformers, going over to a friend’s for swimming and now waiting for the fireworks to follow a Single-A baseball game down the street, I think it’s safe to say I’ve had a full day. And it was much better than the typical “beer, bbq, and blowing things up” that so many associate with this holiday. Actually taking the time to remember what this holiday is for. I wish more would.

So on to part 2. This is what I first prepared for my communion last Sunday. It’s incomplete because I changed the theme midstream to what you read in part 1. But it’s still worth reflecting on.

Wednesday is the 4th of July. A day to celebrate the birth of our country and the freedoms we have. Most of us have the day off. Many of us have plans we’ve been looking forward to for weeks. This is “the” summer holiday. But it only comes once a year. Once a year to wave a flag, sing the star spangled banner, go to a parade. Do we forget our freedoms the rest of the year? Do we go about our day to day forgetting our freedoms and living like we have none? Living like slaves? Living with the yoke of oppression? Of course not. Our freedoms allow us to live our lives the way we want. For life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every day, whether we think about or not, celebrate it or not.

But just as with the freedoms we have in this country, when we go about our regular routine, do we give thought to the freedoms we have in Christ? Sadly, many of us do live as though we’re still slaves to our sinful nature, deceived by the world, hopeless of our futures. We carry a weight we don’t need to. We feel like our lives can never change, never get better. The sin we’ve struggled with for as long as we can remember, we face every day. We look around and like David, see wicked men prosper while righteous men are downtrodden. This isn’t the freedom Jesus gave us when he died on the cross. This isn’t how we are supposed to live in Christ. John 10:10 reads, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Also, in Matthew 11 beginning in verse 28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This is the freedom worth celebrating daily, not reserved for a holiday once a year. Celebrating with transformed lives and renewed hearts, not fireworks and bbq’s. Celebrate the freedom we have in Jesus. Live as we are free. Give thanks to God.

Amen. Happy 4th of July.

Last Sunday I shared about freedom and what that means to us as Christians during our communion service. I have two versions of what I prepared. I changed it up after talking with one of my friends who was concerned about the lack of “true worship” in our church and reminded me that God freed the Israelites from Egypt specifically so that they could worship him. So freedom and worship go hand in hand. The wheels in my head started turning and out came this: (I’ll post my original version later today)

Wednesday is the fourth of July. A day to celebrate the birth of our country and the freedoms we have. But how does that relate to us, this morning, as we’re gathered to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? First of all, we’ve heard from this podium before, in fact I’m sure I’ve even said it myself from up here, that we should be grateful to God that we have the freedom to gather together to worship him without fear of death, injury, or persecution. We are guaranteed the freedom to worship publicly. But we’re also given the freedom to worship as we choose. And that’s a part that I think is often forgotten. If you look at the history of this country many of those who first settled here did so so that they could worship they way they wanted to: Quakers, Puritans, Catholics, and others all came to this land because they were required to worship a certain way where they came from and were persecuted for not doing so. So today we have the freedom to worship however we want to. This freedom enabled the different Great Awakening periods as well as the Restoration Movement that we owe our history to. So without this part of our freedom, we may have been able to worship publicly, but it’s unlikely we’d be worshiping in this church.

It is no different for us today, following Jesus. Jesus died so that we would be freed from the slavery of our sin. But he also died to free us from the religious tradition that ruled his day. Just because our country allows us to worship however we like, doesn’t mean we should. Paul said not to use our freedom as an excuse to indulge in sin. In the same way, we can’t use our freedom to worship as an excuse to make up our own traditions, our own rules, or bind old traditions to others arbitrarily. Please turn to John 4. Starting in verse 19, we read…

19″Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

To worship in spirit and in truth. That’s what Jesus died for and what we need to reflect upon when we celebrate our freedom. Are we worshiping in spirit and in truth? With the hundreds of denominations that exist today, I’d argue that we’re not. With the countless traditions, expectations, and doctrines that continue to divide, I’m certain that we’re not. This morning I want to call us to a higher standard, to worship our Lord in Spirit and in Truth.

So I left it hanging. What does it mean to worship in Spirit and Truth? Does it mean ecumenism, seeker-friendly services, Power Point slides, instrumental music or a-capella, emerging churches, speaking in tongues, etc, etc? I’ll leave it to you the reader to search this out for yourself. Let me know what you find.

There’s not a whole lot over the past week that I felt strongly compelled to post about. There were a couple of reviews of “Evan Almighty” that I’ll expand on once I see the movie. My fear is that either the movie panders too much to the religious crowd or it over the top mocks religion to its face. I’ll reserve judgment until I see it. I hope it proves me wrong like its predecessor, “Bruce Almighty” did.

I also have some updating of links I want to do that I’ll probably use my day off on the 4th to work on. I’m still learning when it comes to formatting and such and I don’t want to make this too busy but at the same time I want certain sites to be a click away whether or not they’re specifically relevant to my blog.

The big news of the week was the Supreme Court handing down 5-4 decisions in three cases relevant to our lives as public Christians. One of my roadblocks to blogging regularly is that I want to do enough research on issues that I don’t make a complete fool of myself in what I write. The consequence of course, is that by the time I get around to doing that whatever I was going to post about to begin with is old news and there’s a new topic worth tackling. That was the case with these decisions. I’m no legal scholar and I wanted to know more than what I was reading in the news. But the more I read the more confused I got and the opinions I was going to post started to change in ways I didn’t like. So I’m going to keep it simple, both for your sake and mine.

The first case concerned a student who held a banner reading, “Bong hits 4 Jesus.” The argument was that schools are legally drug-free zones and that while students have free speech when it comes to politics or religion, they do not have the right to promote illegal activities. This makes sense as schools are allowed to adjust dress codes to address gang-related fashion for example. A student can’t go to school wearing a t-shirt with a gun on it, or with a naked woman. The risk of this decision however, is that it explicitly calls out speech that promotes illegal activities. If you’ve followed the news the last year or so, there are efforts out there making religious speech, specifically with regard to homosexuality, “hate speech.” If these laws were to pass, then this ruling would extend to such speech. Not necessarily a bad thing, because few things make my blood boil more than people who call themselves Christians yet will hold signs saying, “God hates fags.” But there are many on the left who feel that any religious expression, especially in a taxpayer-funded school, is illegal and some district-level courts have agreed. If it goes that far then Bible clubs, group prayer outside of the classroom, evens such as “Meet Me at the Pole.” could then be curbed at the whim of a particular school’s administration. To take this further, this could also then apply to Muslim women wearing head-coverings as another example. I’m not sure I agree with the decision on these grounds. But for now, the Bill of Rights still protects the free expression of religion despite the mythical separation of church and state.

Speaking of the separation of church and state, another decision was 5-4 against an atheist group suing the present administration over advocating faith-based initiatives. I’ll concede that President Bush’s goal to promote faith-based programs treads a very fine line, but I believe that the intentions are honorable and not a ploy to promote a particular religion. In context, AA was formed with a strong religious foundation and many will drop coins for the Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmas time without considering that the Salvation Army is actually a church denomination. But I digress. The ruling stated that the administration’s action did not cause harm to the taxpayer and they had no legal standing to bring the case forward. An example of what this means would be an anti-war group suing the government over defense spending. The reason this particular case got as far as it did was a previous ruling in a case called Flast vs Cohen that made an exception for religious spending. Yet this ruling limited Flast to “earmarks” or spending on specific programs promoting religion. President Bush speaking at a church encouraging applying for federal grants is not an appropriation bill authorizing that x-number of dollars goes to y-specific church. On that, I agree with their ruling. In one of the discussions I read on this case, they worry that the exception I noted differentiating between an appropriation by Congress and an endorsement by the Executive branch sets a dangerous precedent that the Executive branch isn’t held to as strict a standard as Congress. To this I disagree (without wholly understanding the opinions by the Justices) because like I said, President Bush (or anyone in his staff) never told Congress to authorize spending on a particular church or even a particular program. If a president wants to speak in a church, it should be his right.

The last ruling involves spending on “issue ads” prior to an election. These are ads that are not sponsored by a particular candidate or party, but rather special interest groups. Therefore they don’t explicitly fall under efforts to reform campaign finance. Why this is relevant is the ad in question was by a pro-life group and never said to vote against a particular candidate, but rather called to account his voting record on that subject. Personally, I prefer these ads to the mud slinging candidates throw at each other. I’d rather see an ad describing someones views and voting records rather than something obscure they did 30 years ago. The risk of this decision however is it opens a door for a lot of corruption. What’s to define an “issue”? Would the Swift Boat ads count as an “issue ad?” Not to mention the choke-hold special interest groups (the dissenting opinion calls out unions and corporations specifically) have on politics. Since money is spent on these ads, it should be able to be regulated as commerce. If someone wants freedom of speech in campaigning, write a letter to the editor, or an op-ed piece. Or for that matter, start a blog and you’ll get lots of attention. (See the recent defeat of anything resembling immigration reform) So I’m on the fence on this one. It will be up to future Courts and future decisions to make this more clear.

So if you’re not completely bored by now, let me sum up. We as Christians need to follow what goes on in our government. Not just by our elected officials, but also our courts. We need to be aware of what could infringe on our ability to express our faith publicly. For these three cases, with the same split in the decisions, on the surface it looks like a shift to the right for the Supreme Court. But on closer examination, at least one if not two, of the decisions run the risk of biting the Religious Right in the behind after making such a big deal in the last presidential election over court appointees. I guess it goes to show, be careful what you wish for.

I’m back! Did you miss me? I have to say thank you to whoever responded to my last post by saying, “DUDE! Update your blog!” I’m glad at least one other person has visited this site. And since I listen to advise, here I am. Eight months later. Can that be right? Wow, I’m lazy! I’ve been struggling with wanting to keep up this blog. Few days go by where I don’t read something in the news, or watch a movie, or talk with someone and think to myself, I need to share this! News that I’ve missed: the passing away of Jerry Falwell and Ruth Graham, President Bush vetoing (again) stem-cell funding, Rev. Al Sharpton showing up on the news just about every day to say something I feel I need to refute, the release of “The Color of the Cross,” and “Jesus Camp,” Veggie Tales editing out religious content for NBC, myself reading two books by Dr. James Dobson and actually agreeing with what he says, and on and on. So I figured instead of trying to rehash all that, I’d start fresh with a mission statement of some sort. Background on why I’m writing what I’m writing. And so on. But then I actually visit my blog to start writing and I read my last entry and realize I already did that. Kinda. It’s incomplete in a lot of ways, but I think that will sort itself out as I post in the future. And don’t worry. I’m typing on a shiny new laptop that I plan to talk to Starbucks frequently to keep this puppy fresh and hip and all that. I might even be ambitious enough to put some videos from YouTube, because that’s what everyone else is doing and that makes it cool! But not today. Today I need to stay on point and chart a direction for the future of this thing called a “blog”. Web-log. I guess it’s better than calling it a “webl”.

I’ve been thinking about starting a blog since the last presidential election when I observed an unhealthy connection between faith and politics. Contrary to a lot of people’s opinions, I didn’t see it in the candidates themselves, but in the talking heads—the newscasters, the commentators, the freelance writers, the talk-show hosts, and on and on. I remember hearing everyone gasp at President Bush when he claimed he believed it was God’s will for him to be president. I have news for you. He won, therefore it was. If you don’t believe me, read Romans. That when asked if he ever went to his father for advice, he answered that there was a higher father he turned to. Wait, he can’t say that! He’s president! OMGICBHJDT! He was held up as everything wrong with religion and politics and the separation of church and state. Because of this, he was asked during one of the last presidential debates what role his faith plays in his life. He answered that he prays every day that he does the right thing, that he trusts that God will get him through hard times, and that he gets encouragement and strength knowing others pray for him. That holy roller! That Bible thumper! How dare he! Then the question was posed to Sen. Kerry. His response? That he believes the Bible spells out how he should live and how that should direct his politics. He then laid out the standard “social Gospel.” No one beat an eye. That’s when I knew something was wrong. What violates the infamous separation of Church and State more, praying every day and trusting God, or getting your politics from the Bible? Yet the line was already drawn. The sides were already chosen. And the public at large were force fed a doctrine inconsistent with both reality and the Bible. And ever since, every politician has tried to capture the “Christian” vote.

So here we, gearing up for ’08 while the talking heads are saying that neither Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, nor John McCain can get the Republican nomination because the “Religious Right” will never back them. Wow, I didn’t realize I had that much power! These talking heads are falling all over themselves for Sen. Fred Thompson, reflected by him shooting up in the polls. So what am I to do? Obviously my mind must already be made up, since that’s who I’m being told is the only candidate that can appeal to me as a Christian. Nope. Not going to buy it. I’m not here to endorse, I’m here to inform. And not only that, but it’s too dog-gone early! So my goal between now and the elections for this blog, is to spell out how I think our convictions as Christians should relate to our politics. How our faith should be lived in the public square in the context of political debate. And maybe drop a book recommendation or two. I’m building up a reading list to prep for the final election. I’ll share that next time. I’m open to recommendations, although Amazon helps. Just type in one of the recent best sellers and I’m told that people who bought this also bought that, that I might also be interested in this, and what other people thought of that book. If I read all those recommendations, I won’t have time to sleep, much less go to work, take care of the family, or do anything fun. So I probably won’t get through everything, especially since I need to balance it with what I’m reading for my own spiritual growth. But hopefully, I won’t run out of things to post and I’ll actually keep up with this blog. Come back again. There should be something new to read.

Due to an inability to keep any sort of consistent posting schedule, the author of this blog has been sacked.

The person responsible for sacking the author has also been sacked.

Henceforth, all blogs will be written by a pack of wild llamas.

(Forgive me for not remembering exactly how the opening credits to the Holy Grail but I think you get the idea)

So it’s been three weeks since my last post. I pretty much took last week off for the holiday and have been traveling a lot for work. I guess this is motivation for getting myself a laptop- just so I can keep up with my blog. During that time, I’d catch a headline, make a note to myself, and then stress out about not logging in to post before the topic became irrelevant. So I have a lot to write about, but little time to do it. This blog is supposed to be an outlet for all that swims in my head and it’s getting pretty full up there. Instead of regurgitating everything up there, I’ll instead take this time to reflect on what the point of this blog is in the first place.

Last night I was spending time with friends and the topic of politics, religion, and the ongoing culture war came up. My specialty. My friends shared a couple of anecdotes which illustrate exactly why I’m doing this. Since it’s now after Thanksgiving, we’re officially in Christmas season so it’s time for all the talking heads to start to talk about the War On Christmas. Well one friend heard on the radio how one city was pressured by the ACLU to not hold their traditional holiday festival since it was too Christian. My friend was shocked such a thing actually happens. One of my other friends described how he was watching TV and some celebrities came on talking about raising money for the tragedy in Sudan. My friend said it was about time someone is noticing and the person he was with asked, “what’s going on in Sudan?” Gee, only the largest slaughter of Christians since Nero.

Both stories show that many Christians are simply unaware of what’s going on in the world. The extent of their Biblical Worldview is only what they hear from the pulpit. And unless their church is active politically, chances are the issues aren’t heard. And the risk if their church is politically involved is they will only know the side of the story they hear on Sundays. So you end up with a large segment of the population ignorant of issues that directly affect them as Christians. My conviction is that mainstream American Christianity is luke warm and expects next to no commitment. This results in a church body that only plays the religion game on Sundays, or when it’s convenient. If the 85% or so of Americans that claim to be Christians aren’t actually living daily like one, it’s easy for issues that etch away our rights or our civil morality to continue unabated. This issue is compounded when a church culture, that may be Biblically committed, is only concerned with itself. Namely, my church over the last two decades has isolated itself from the rest of the Christian world. So anything happening outside its walls was either ignored, dismissed, or mocked. Bridges are now being built from our island, but I would argue most of my brothers and sisters in Christ still don’t know the issues facing mainstream Christianity. So that’s why I’m here.

Another illustration comes from a comic book message board I frequent. The entire thread can be read here. It concerns the movie Jesus Camp. I admit I haven’t seen it. And honestly I have no desire to. But the comments reflect the attitudes the average (as average as someone posting on a comic book message board can be) Joe on the street. It begins with this comment:

“…this kinda bugged me. I went to Bible Camp and all that, went to Church every time the doors were open, don’t go anymore because most of the time the preachers harp on the same ____ over and over like the Bible was about as long a read as the instruction manual for Pac-Man. So maybe I’m out of the loop, but…At what point did it become acceptable to ANY Christian to have their kids bow down and praise a cardboard cutout of a politician? When did parents decide it was ok to raise their kids with the same extremist indoctrination used on terrorists?”

GOOD QUESTION! The first response reflects my opinion on mainstream Christianity, but put much better than I could:

“it’s all part of this new christian system in America with the megachurches and an organized religion more focused on being a reactionary force to what they perceive as attacks upon them. it’s religion with victim mentality… but this is what you get in an environment where people aren’t willing to take the time to study and understand a text for themselves and would rather someone just tell them what it means and go with that. “

The scripture that comes to mind is John 18:34 where Pilate asks Jesus if he’s the King of the Jews. Jesus replies, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” The point being, our convictions must me our own idea. We need to come to the conclusions ourselves. Many people don’t want to talk religion because “it’s personal” or are offended when invited to your church because that’s “just between God and me.” Yet we take no personal responsibility for our lives and rely on others to define what our convictions are. “Outsourcing” our spirituality if you will. The truth is, the culture war that many talk about isn’t against Christianity, but against a segment of christianity (note the little “c”) that has distorted the Gospel to meet their own personal or political ends. It will continue so long as real Christians (with a capitol “C”) stand by silent expecting political solutions and not actively engaging in the fight.

This blog is titled “Public Christianity: The Opposite PC” because that’s what it will take to fight and win the culture war going on around us and ultimately win the world for Christ. There isn’t anything more un-pc than the Gospel of Jesus. It is exclusionary. It is hard. It does have high expectations. And we’re expected to actually live our faith, not hide it in the name of political correctness or tolerance. The challenge is making this our “own idea” and understand all sides of the debate. Because there are whackos on both telling us loud and clear what to believe. This blog is to inform and educate. And urge us to live as Public Christians.