doctrine and spirit

"Thousands stand ready to split doctrinal hairs and instruct others in the fine meaning of Scripture words - but there are so few through whom the Holy Spirit can work to bring men to new birth in the kingdom of God.

The Pharisee rested so thoroughly in the law, that he rejected the Saviour to whom the law directed him. The sound evangelical thinks that when he has mastered the letter of the gospel, he thereby knows its truth and power. And thus, while claiming allegiance to Paul's doctrine, he knows little of Paul's spiritual experience which caused him to say, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'."

(William Law, 1761)

in justice (book review)

Alan Sears, In Justice: A Novel (Enumclaw: WinePress Publishing, 2009).

Many thanks to the folks at Alliance Defense Fund for providing me with a copy of Alan Sears' new work of fiction. Sears' heads up the efforts of ADF, and their work is greatly appreciated as a vital voice speaking for religious freedom. I have been aware of ADF since 2001, and their ongoing service reaches out to many. For those who are not aware of ADF - or think that it is not a necessary and vital organization - perhaps the scenario portrayed in this book will help change perspectives.

As I have often noted, I do not typically read fiction and do not in any way consider myself a literary scholar. Thus, I am unqualified and will not make an attempt to review this work on the basis of literature. To do so would be unfair to the author and those who actually know of such things. Rather, I want to convey the compelling nature of this book's storyline and the need for those who are endeared to freedom - Christian or otherwise - to consider the current path of our out-of-control-politically-correct culture.

The story begins in 2015, a date which appears to be carefully selected to distance itself from individuals or organizations presently active, but which conveys the urgency that such a course of events could quickly arise from our present socio-political climate. The plot opens upon an old minister, wearied by the demands of ministry in a shrinking congregation while holding out hope in the gospel which he has served for so many years. An unfortunate and coincidental series of events leads to the accidental death of a U. S. Marshal, and the old man himself. It is from here that the narrative opens up into a discussion of religious tolerance and the fruit of many years of attack on religious and political speech.

Drawn into events which never escape the shadow of the accidental shootings, the story follows the paths of two prominent men: Pat Preston, a megachurch pastor who must sacrifice everything for his public commitment to a kingdom message; and John Knox Smith, a rising star in the Justice Department who is using his political power as a means of silencing any speech or activity which is determined to be 'bigotry' and intolerant.

What makes this particular story so powerful is that it weaves together threads that are already in existence today, taking current legislation, debate and popular sentiment within our political system and drawing logical next-steps of possibility. In other words, the possibility of losing our opportunity to exercise free religious speech may be closer to probability than we care to recognize. The world which this book envisages might not be so different than what we have today.

Of special note for those of us who are in full-time ministry is the situation in which Pat Preston finds himself: unable to exercise his peaceable faith, but unwilling to compromise his commitment to the kingdom of God. By following his journey, the reader is confronted with all of the 'what-ifs' and 'what would I decides' which should be present in any discussion of faith and culture. This fictional pastor must learn the sacrifice of his faith, something that (sadly) many Western believers are able to handle. (This last point makes the response of so many other pastors in the narrative so believable - they balk in their message at the first sign of government opposition, watering-down instead of standing boldly.)

There is plenty of room for discussion throughout this story. One should be prepared to think as you read, for this is not a simple story about churchgoing. Instead, the reader is confronted with the real-life policies, agendas, laws and arguments which are clearly developed from the world of non-fiction. This is a book designed to make you think, to ponder, to move . . . and to pray. The intensity of these pages is heightened when one considers the actions of our government in our overly-politically-correct culture, for we are moving all-too-quickly into a time of decision of commitment that will demand the entirety of our lives.

least of these

BreakPoint Commentary

Charles Colson

A Slap in the Face:
Utilitarianism and Special Needs Kids

January 25, 2010

Suppose you received a letter asking for a contribution to help needy children. The solicitation was filled with heart-rending pictures and stories about the children’s plight and how your money can make the difference between a bleak future and one filled with hope.

Duly moved, you make a donation only to learn that the organization used the money for something else. How would you feel about that? I’m guessing angry.

Well, now you know how parents of children with special needs are feeling.

The stimulus bill passed last year by Congress included $11.3 billion in federal assistance to special education programs across the country. This doubled the amount from the previous year. Advocates for kids with special needs believe that the increasing funding could have had a “huge impact” on the lives of these kids.

Notice I said, “could have.” That’s because a lot of the money isn’t going to help children with special needs. Instead, schools are “redirecting” the federal funds to other uses.

That’s what happened in Broward County, Florida: They cut their special education budget by 32 million dollars after receiving $50 million from the federal government. Thus, children with special needs weren’t the principal beneficiaries of the federal grants – the rest of the school system was. Broward used the money to save 600 to 900 jobs unrelated to special education.

Broward is far from alone: a government survey found that 44 percent of the nation’s school district plan to do exactly the same thing.

Some school officials say that by redirecting the funds, they are benefiting more people than they could have otherwise: They can save jobs and fund other programs for more students.

This is simply another application of utilitarianism—a thoroughly anti-Christian worldview, which espouses “the greatest good for the greatest number.” If a small number of the most vulnerable among us are hurt in the process—like special needs kids—well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

But apply that utilitarian standard to medical care, it becomes very scary for everyone.

As if this weren’t bad enough, the way school districts become eligible for diverting these funds is what’s most outrageous: you only qualify if you meet certain goals, such as graduation rates. So what are schools, desperate for the money, doing? They are lowering their standards to improve their graduation rates and therefore get government money to use for the wrong purposes.

Finally, while the stimulus money is temporary, the local cuts in special education funding aren’t likely to be. So the most vulnerable kids in our schools are getting shortchanged now and they will be shortchanged later. No wonder one advocate for these children called it a “slap in the face.”

I call it shortsighted and cynical. As the grandfather of a child with special needs, I’m outraged that schools are using money intended to help these kids to make up for their own mistakes and lack of proper planning. Talk about punishing the innocent!

As a Christian, I’m worried about the effect of theses kinds of shenanigans will have on our already-tattered confidence in our government. How would people if they knew that the tax dollars they thought were going to help kids who need all the help they can get had been diverted?

I’m guessing even angrier.

basic passion

"Gentlemen, THIS is a football. Our goal is to get THIS ball over THAT line and prevent THEM from doing the same.

“Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.”

Vince Lombardi

when prosperity isn't enough

It has become interestingly sad to witness what can be accomplished when a prosperous people can become convinced that their never-before-imagined level of blessing and comfort is a worthless failure. This is profoundly antibiblical in nature, for it denies the individual the opportunity to exercise thanksgiving in hearts that are humble before their creator and spits in the face of his goodness and grace. Gone are the days when people expressed gratitude for daily bread, now whining for not having the luxuries of self-perceived rights. Should it surprise us that we no longer have the resonance of eternity echo through our pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

When prosperity isn't enough, where are we to go?

replacing god

Every time that the world witnesses a catastrophic disaster it doesn't take long for a religious leader of some sort to come out and make a connection to either 1) divine retribution, 2) supposed end-times sequencing, or 3) both. But simply noting the context of these voices reveals much - they typically come from Westernized evangelical cultures where suffering rarely happens and major tragedies seldom impact. And, in the wake of the crisis in Haiti, we have witnessed lame sympathies and shocking explanations that are supposedly based upon the gospel of the kingdom. I can't help noticing that they convey the same hallow wisdom that Job's four idiot friends give him in the midst of his suffering.

It has become clear, then, that these voices continue to replace God with some other theology which they have concocted on their own. Their own perception of the world, and their own eisegetical reading of Scripture enable them to say outlandish things which do not convey the true message of God's grace, love and (yes) judgment. That is to say, it is quite easy to misread judgment into our world by only seeing the specks in the eyes of everyone else.

But now there is a new piece being folded into this fabric of lunacy. Today it is being reported that a certain actor (those are his only qualifications, someone who makes money playing make-believe) has said that the crisis in Haiti is 'retribution' from the failure of the Copenhagen global-warming-mythology summit. This is quite interesting. If there is a retribution at work, then that would require some sort of external force to the cosmos - one that would have moral standards of right and wrong.

The thing is, these leftists and statists who ram anthropogenic climate change down our necks do not believe in God - or any sort of being that has any type of morality that can be made standard from one person to another. What has happened? Another replacing of God. Those who deny God do not live a life without commitment to something external, they simply replace God with whatever is most important to their own well-being. This could be (as in case number one) a God who is modeled after human desire or (as in this second case) something inanimate, such as the earth.

In the words of G. K. Chesterton, "Somehow one can never manage to be an atheist."

In the end, something has been further revealed which many of us have known for a long time: Anthropogenic global warming is a god for many of those who hold to it, replacing the rightful Creator of the universe (who also knows it is a perpetuated hoax and continues to be unintimidated by the arrogance of humanity).

b-i-b-l-e

Some snippets from a report issued by The Barna Group, summarizing 2009 data . . .

"Most self-identified Christians are comfortable with the idea that the Bible and the sacred books from non-Christian religions all teach the same truths and principles."

"Half of all adults (50%) argue that a growing number of people they know are tired of having the same church experience."

". . . Feeling freed from the boundaries established by the Christian faith, and immersed in a postmodern society which revels in participation, personal expression, satisfying relationships, and authentic experiences, we become our own unchallenged spiritual authorities, defining truth and reality as we see fit."

"71% say they will develop their own slate of religious beliefs rather than accept a package of beliefs promoted by a church or denomination."

"Three-quarters of adults (75%) believe that God is motivating them and others to connect with him through different means and experiences than were common in the past."

"Only one-third (34%) believe in absolute moral truth."

"Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people's understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles."

"The problem facing the Christian Church is not that people lack a complete set of beliefs; the problem is that they have a full slate of beliefs in mind, which they think are consistent with biblical teachings, and they are neither open to being proven wrong nor to learning new insights."

"Less than one out of every five born again adults (19%) has a biblical worldview, which is unchanged in the past 15 years."

"Just half of all self-identified Christians firmly believe that the bible is totally accurate in all of the principles (not the facts, just the principles) that it teaches."

"An overwhelming majority of self-identified Christians (81%) contend that spiritual maturity is achieved by following the rules in the Bible."

The current state of evangelical Christianity is definitely in trouble, which can be seen in this data. Further, it explains the cultural collapse that we are currently witnessing, as truth and godly principle are all but forgotten on average persons. May God have mercy on us, especially his failing church.

oddity

'You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd' (Flannery O'Connor).

I have been reflecting on this statement for quite a while, particularly because I think that it is so true that it is difficult to explain. There are so many ways that it captures the essence of genuine spirituality, even if that fundamental distinction is lost on modern evangelicalism. Although it is true that at various points throughout the history of Christianity there have been moments of great moral and spiritual defiance of secularism, accommodation seems to have won over much of the current generation of believers.

Are there identifiable issues which the church uses to distinguish itself from culture, or have we become so engrossed in our inherent need to participate in the world that Christianity has compromised itself? If we are to hold to a lifestyle of holiness, then we must understand that holiness is essentially otherness - this is what we imply (among other things) when we say that God is holy, that he is completely other and separate from us. How is it possible for us to participate both in the otherness of God while having the sameness of the world which runs opposite his character and truth?

This is why God's truth demands that we become rather odd. Yet we are not to become peculiar in the sense that we can be easily dismissed by our culture. Instead, we are to be odd in that our perspective is not the same and our truth appeals to a higher authority. And perhaps we now find why so many of the patriarchs and prophets and saints were considered odd themselves. It all began with the odd fellow who said that it was going to rain, and then built an ark.

In the midst of a culture which is promoting death and destruction, the oddity of the church is to stand for life and liberty for the whole person. This is not a political statement, though it has political ramifications; it is not a moral statement, yet it demands every aspect of our morality; it is not a cultural statement, though its assertions will shake the foundations of our culture. It is a spiritual statement which encompasses all of who we are supposed to be.

And in an age where Christians are finding accommodation of their faith and (what is infinitely worse) the gospel of the kingdom of God, it is time for the truth to make us odd once more.