They say people don’t read anymore. Well, maybe nothing beyond 140 characters. We’ve got smartphones and iPads, and video trumps the written word. I’m not sure I buy that. Just in case, I’m going to give you two helpings of Martin Luther King, Jr. today:
For the readers among us, take a few quiet moments and wrap yourself around “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It is so fantastic they should make everyone getting the day off read it.
And if you’d rather just watch, immerse yourself in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Cathleen Falsani’s latest piece, “Is Evangelical Christianity Having a Great Gay Awakening?,” touches on a small, but growing movement among Evangelicals to be more welcoming to gays. Or at least stop throwing them on the eternal fire pits of Hades. She talks about her own encounters with friends who “came out:”
“According to biblical accounts, Jesus said very little, if anything, about homosexuality. But he spent loads of time talking, preaching, teaching and issuing commandments about love.
That was my answer: Love them. Unconditionally, without caveats or exceptions.
I wasn’t sure whether homosexuality actually was a sin. But I was certain I was commanded to love.”
She then talks to Jay Bakker (son of Jim) who’s the pastor of Revolution NYC, a bar-based congregation in Brooklyn:
“The truth is that the Bible endorses all sorts of attitudes and behaviors that we find unacceptable (and illegal) today and decries others that we recognize as no big deal. Leviticus prohibits interracial marriage, endorses slavery and forbids women to wear trousers. Deuteronomy calls for brides who are found not to be virgins to be stoned to death, and for adulterers to be summarily executed.
“The church has always been late. We were late on slavery. We were late on civil rights. And now we’re late on this.”
Bakker also talks about what he and other believe are incorrect translations of the original Greek in the Bible. Instead of “homosexuality” he feels the correct translation is about male prostitution and the men who solicit them.
Which, to me, is kind of beside the point. Just read the quote above again. That’s the crux. It also brought back all sorts of wonderful memories of the following clip. It might have been the first time my jaw literally hit the floor while watching TV.
We’ve written many times in this blog about the competing forces of Christianity and capitalism, particularly in this country. I stumbled across this piece by Cahir O’Doherty and I couldn’t agree more. He talks about our war on a national healthcare system and our inherent disgust with helping poor people who get sick:
“Screw that, says America, toss ’em out on the street instead. Don’t give us any of your bleeding heart liberal compassion about our fellow citizens. It’s sink or swim here, and it always was, and it always will be, and just why should it be any other way? No one helped me, I’m helping no one.”
That’s really the crux of the matter, isn’t it? We Yanks believe in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, and if you don’t have any bootstraps to begin with, well, tough luck. Problem is, so many in our midst call our country a Christian Nation, founded on Christian principles. Hence the paradox.
The solution? Look no further than Stephen Colbert:
“If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition – and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”
Happy New Year, everyone. I love this time of year. You start a fresh new calendar, and everything seems possible. Resolutions are made and, hopefully, the soil is loose enough for them to take root. New goals to achieve, personal records to break, and new persons (kinder? more patient and tolerant? more willing to help?) to become.
Leave it to people like Marie Exley and Harold Camping to burst my bubble. Based on Camping’s reading of the Bible, they and the rest of Family Radio Worldwide are convinced that the Judgement Day is soon to be upon us:
“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment.” – Harold Camping
Believers will go to heaven on that day, and the rest of us will be left down here on Earth in torment until October when the leaves change the end of time comes.
Before I head off for our annual Christmas break, I wanted to create one more post. Christmas is a season for many things: families and friends gathering, over-eating, purchasing and exchanging gifts, and talking about the sanctity of “Merry Christmas” against the rising tide of the supposedly militant “Happy Holidays.”
Take a breath and simply enjoy. The gifts are wrapped, the roast is in the oven (or the tofurkey for folks like me), all the hard stuff is done and you find yourself surrounded by people you don’t spend nearly enough time with. Enjoy it.
Here’s a great summation of what I’m trying to say. Holly Stewart eloquently writes:
“Christian or not, we can all learn valuable lessons from the story of Jesus’ birth. Great men and women can emerge from lowly beginnings. Humility is a cleansing force. The redeeming values of faith and love are not to be taken lightly. Devotion is its own reward. Giving is better than receiving.
So celebrate in your way, or not. It’s your holiday. It belongs to everyone. Fortunately for us, Christmas is big enough for the whole world.”
Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Be festive and merry. We’ll be back the week of January 3.
What’s a Christmas season without a post about consumerism? As a person who went through 2009 without buying myself (virtually) anything other than food and energy, this post from Shane Claiborne was really fascinating to me.
Shane is an interesting, funny, charismatic dude. We featured a video of him speaking a few months back, and I always find his message to be relevant and lasered on point. He’s a Red-Letter Christian and works with the homeless in his neighborhood of Philadelphia. Read the whole post, but here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:
“I grew up in the Bible Belt. When I became a Christian, I learned I didn’t have to stop buying stuff — I just had to start buying Christian stuff. An entire world of retail spending possibilities lay before me: the Christian industrial complex. There were Christian t-shirts, bumper stickers, even Christian candy — “testa-mints” — peppermints wrapped in a Bible verse. We were taught “secular” was bad, and supplied with charts that countered popular mainstream bands with a Christian alternative. We burned our old tapes (which is what we listened to back in those days) and went to the Christian albums. We were often sadly disappointed. They just didn’t sound like Metallica. As a friend of mine quipped: “All these Christian artists say, ‘God gave me this song,’ and then you listen to it and know why God gave it away.” I later learned that Christian art doesn’t have to be a mediocre counterfeit of the original. And, I learned that Christianity is not about conforming to the world, but about being transformed by a God who is crazy about the poor, fond of toppling the powerful, and raising the lowly … and who I’m pretty sure would feel conflicted wearing a “God bless Rome” shirt or doting an “Army of One” sticker on the bumper of his SUV… I mean, hybrid. I mean donkey. Never mind.”
In the spirit of the Christmas season (which, by the way, would be nice all year long), I thought as we’re giving each other gifts, we might re-examine the true meaning of giving. That is, giving to those less fortunate who are really in need. Jesus had something to say about the subject:
“If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.” – Matthew 5:40-42
Brought to present day, here’s a nice story of a Waukegan waitress who took Jesus’ instructions to heart (whether she knew it or not).
John Micklethwait, Editor of The Economist, says that China will soon become the largest Christian nation in the world. There are reportedly 100 million Protestants already and as many as 10,000 Chinese citizens become Christians every day. Mind boggling. He makes many interesting points in the video, such as Catholicism is popular out in the boonies, while American-style Evangelical Christianity is what’s popping in the cities.
Incidentally, China will also soon become the largest Muslim nation in the world. Things could get very interesting in the next couple decades. Watch:
I never understood vandalism. Knocking over tombstones, smashing mailboxes, breaking windows, it just doesn’t make any sense to me how that can be an enjoyable way to spend your time. My tolerance stops abruptly at about the toilet-papering-trees point.
Last week, vandals got to the Glastonbury Holy Tree in England. Listen to the story:
This piece, by Rose Marie Berger, puts Christians’ stance on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) in an interesting light. A new Pew Research Center poll shows a majority of Americans, including Christians, now support allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, and with equal rights, in the military.
That’s great, Ms. Berger says. But what about how Christians feel about the military, in general? When Jesus says “Blessed are the peacemakers,” He’s saying war is wrong. Killing sons and daughters and husbands and wives to settle politicians’ debates is wrong.
She points out that early generations of Christians refused to participate in war. What about current generations?
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