Soon after I saw “The Evolution of God” by Robert Wright listed among Amazon’s Top Ten “Christian” Best-sellers, a friend sent me a copy of a review from the New York Times. Seems it is one more, atheistic apologetic hedging its bets—simply put, the God of Abrahamic religions does not exist, but the idea of God does exist and has evolved over the centuries, leaving the existence of some sort of distant, inhuman deity or deities open for debate. According to Wright, man’s concept of God has “evolved” over the centuries as evidenced by the contradictory natures of God portrayed in the Old versus New Testaments and the changing interpretations of other sacred texts.
It mixes Islam, Judaism and Christianity into a meaningless sludge that can easily be dismissed.
My own speculation on the seemingly contradictory natures of the Old and New Testament God rests on Galatians 3:24-26 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
The old law is the “schoolmaster” that led us into the grace of Christ. God’s intent since the beginning, and pursued incessantly through both testaments, was to reconcile the world to himself through the sacrifice of his son. This purpose, like my attempts to teach English to rural Arkansas teens in the early 70’s, was hampered by a “stubborn and stiff-necked people”. I’m reminded of the humorous verse: "How odd of God to chose the Jews." God led them through every sort of deprivation and humiliation to teach them to accept a very human, very vulnerable Messiah.
When "unchosen" Gentiles recognized and accepted Christ, it became evident that God had been preparing them as well. Christians are the still-in-process result of this “evolving” theology.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Christian Mandate to Critical Thinking
My book, Murder by Accident: A Grit and Grace Mystery, is filled with acerbic observations about American Christianity. As I wrote, I questioned my motivation for having taken a stance somewhat “above” the characters in my book. I wondered if my conscious superiority was somehow unChristian or ungracious. I prayed about this circumstance and was sent to the following texts, one sacred, one secular.
Robert Burns,
To a Louse
On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion:
What airs in dress an gait wad lea'es us,
An ev'n devotion!
Ezekiel 43:10-12 (New International Version)
Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, believers are mandated to examine themselves, their faith and everything they accept as truth. (Lamentations 3:39-41; Acts 17:11; I Cor. 11:28; II Cor. 13-15, etc.)
God told Ezekiel to measure the temple, not because Ezekiel was sinless or superior, but because God gave him the measuring line. I believe that through the circumstances of my life as a thinking, questioning, suffering Christian, God has given me the tools to measure the temple and the insight to pick the lice off of ladies’ bonnets, maybe even my own.
Robert Burns,
To a Louse
On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion:
What airs in dress an gait wad lea'es us,
An ev'n devotion!
Ezekiel 43:10-12 (New International Version)
Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, believers are mandated to examine themselves, their faith and everything they accept as truth. (Lamentations 3:39-41; Acts 17:11; I Cor. 11:28; II Cor. 13-15, etc.)
God told Ezekiel to measure the temple, not because Ezekiel was sinless or superior, but because God gave him the measuring line. I believe that through the circumstances of my life as a thinking, questioning, suffering Christian, God has given me the tools to measure the temple and the insight to pick the lice off of ladies’ bonnets, maybe even my own.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Crying in Argentina
CRYING in ARGENTINA
Governor Sanford's tearful confession yesterday was just one more public breakdown of a highly respected figure that left many scratching their heads. What leads a man with everything: power, prestige, family, reputation, to ditch it all for a few hours of sexual pleasure? I have puzzled over this question since my teens when I tried to reconcile the sin and guilt I was exposed to with the Christian values I was taught, and I have taken note of men in clerical positions who “fall from grace”ever since.
My conclusion may not satisfy psychologists, but it explains a lot to me.
I believe that in many cases, infidelity is a form of suicide. Far from being a search for sexual fulfillment or conquest, though both are involved, jumping into an illicit affair guarantees the jumper that life as he knows it will never be the same. Secrecy, fear, guilt are new sensations to the “straight arrow” that give everyday living a certain tingle. And discovery virtually assures the guilty party that his previous existence is gone forever.
Answering to a church congregation or a political constituency for everything you do, say or think, is a burden none of us could bear for long. We expect super human effort and results from our leaders. Feelings of inadequacy are inevitable, and, if a leader mistakes the expectations of his public for demands from God, his only exit strategy is complete and utter failure. God's grace is sufficient. It can make us better than we want to be, and it can give us the strength to forgive ourselves for the everyday failures so we don't have to head for the exit.
Governor Sanford's tearful confession yesterday was just one more public breakdown of a highly respected figure that left many scratching their heads. What leads a man with everything: power, prestige, family, reputation, to ditch it all for a few hours of sexual pleasure? I have puzzled over this question since my teens when I tried to reconcile the sin and guilt I was exposed to with the Christian values I was taught, and I have taken note of men in clerical positions who “fall from grace”ever since.
My conclusion may not satisfy psychologists, but it explains a lot to me.
I believe that in many cases, infidelity is a form of suicide. Far from being a search for sexual fulfillment or conquest, though both are involved, jumping into an illicit affair guarantees the jumper that life as he knows it will never be the same. Secrecy, fear, guilt are new sensations to the “straight arrow” that give everyday living a certain tingle. And discovery virtually assures the guilty party that his previous existence is gone forever.
Answering to a church congregation or a political constituency for everything you do, say or think, is a burden none of us could bear for long. We expect super human effort and results from our leaders. Feelings of inadequacy are inevitable, and, if a leader mistakes the expectations of his public for demands from God, his only exit strategy is complete and utter failure. God's grace is sufficient. It can make us better than we want to be, and it can give us the strength to forgive ourselves for the everyday failures so we don't have to head for the exit.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Truman "Grit" Griffin and Amy Grace Willis
Grit and Grace are the college-age heroes of my clerical crime novel, Murder by Accident: A Grit and Grace Mystery. Potential readers include Southern humor lovers, murder mystery readers and thinking Christians.
My humor is passionate and pointed at petrified American Christian practices that camouflage and smother true religion.
I am a minister’s wife and former church secretary with journalism experience and writing credits in four states. My husband and I have attended or ministered to students at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX; Indiana University in Bloomington, IN; Harding College in Searcy, AR; University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK; Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, TN and Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. We have attended taught in or preached for countless congregations of the a capella Church of Christ and have been affiliated with five Christian schools.
Future posts will address the oppression of women in conservative Christian churches, Biblical teachings about alcohol, grace, worship wars, instrumental music in worship, Christian unity or any other topic you can't talk about in church.
My humor is passionate and pointed at petrified American Christian practices that camouflage and smother true religion.
I am a minister’s wife and former church secretary with journalism experience and writing credits in four states. My husband and I have attended or ministered to students at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX; Indiana University in Bloomington, IN; Harding College in Searcy, AR; University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK; Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, TN and Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. We have attended taught in or preached for countless congregations of the a capella Church of Christ and have been affiliated with five Christian schools.
We know where the bodies are buried, figuratively speaking.
Future posts will address the oppression of women in conservative Christian churches, Biblical teachings about alcohol, grace, worship wars, instrumental music in worship, Christian unity or any other topic you can't talk about in church.
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