Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I Have Something to Say


What shall I rant about?

Last Sunday the Rhode Island State Council of Churches (RISCC) hosted its annual Unity Service. It is supposed to be a time for all different Christians from different traditions to get together, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya. We are supposed to show the world that we can get along for at least one hour or so.

This year the service was held at the Providence Assembly ofGod Church and was in the Pentecostal flavor. This meant that many people were uncomfortable. They were uncomfortable because the majority of Christians who are involved with the RISCC and other ecumenical groups tend to come from the more progressive traditions with classical services. They also tend to be white and this was a primarily African-American church. I’m not saying that white people are stiff and awkward, but…

So picture the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Catholics, and some frozen Baptists trying awkwardly to sway to the music, clap on the off-beats, and looking again and again at the one page worship bulletin and wondering where the prayers and prayer books were. And we didn’t sing Kumbaya.

I think the most uncomfortable part of the service was the sermon. It was not a “fire and brimstone” sermon with shouting and such, but it still held to a more evangelical strain. In the sermon the pastor asked when was the last time we directly told someone about Christ using words.

Such a question shouldn’t be too challenging, but remember the audience. The majority of people there were from the progressive, mainline, make everyone comfortable, aspects of Christianity. It is in the DNA of those movements to look to feed people, advocate for people, and help people first. Those are the most important things that Christ calls us to do – or so these Christians would suggest. If you were to push them about evangelism they would answer that it is through actions, through showing the love of Christ that they are sharing the good news of Christ. Someone might even share a trite phrase or two:

Go and share the gospel using words if necessary.

Christ came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted.

Say those phrases out loud and enjoy the smug sense of superiority that is a happy by-product of liberal, progressive Christianity (that isn’t to suggest that conservative, charismatic Christianity does not have their own smug sense of superiority – maybe the grace of God is to give us all a smug sense of superiority).

With this in mind, maybe you can understand why the pastor’s sermon could have been heard as challenging and uncomfortable. If your number one priority is to feed, clothe, visit, help, and advocate for, then telling someone about Jesus does not often enter into someone’s mind. In fact many do not talk about Jesus because there is a fear of turning someone off and losing a connection. So for at least fifty years a large portion of Christianity has been practicing a passive, silent Christianity, sharing the gospel with actions.

It has been working so well, right?

The pastor of the Assembly of God church did stress that it is important to feed, clothe, help, etc., but he continued to stress the importance of sharing the gospel with words. I think he has a point.

When was the last time you actually told someone, who was not a part of your church community and who was not an active Christian about your faith and why you are a Christian? Or better yet, do you think you could tell someone about your faith and why you are a Christian? We have been lulled into an assumption that everyone knows about Jesus, that we are living in a Christian-saturated culture, but here in New England, and elsewhere, I do not think that is the case. This means we cannot assume that people will pick up from the oddities of our actions the different nuances of our faith. This means we will have to tell people why we are Christians, and then do the shocking thing – invite the individual to follow Christ.

Obviously you should do this in a kind, relational way – put down the bullhorn and have a seat. Listen and then talk and share and invite.

I know, it is not comfortable, it is not something that we like to do, me included. You may end up offending someone, or making things uncomfortable. You may end up being ostracized, labeled, and looked at in a weird way. It may make your life slightly difficult. I understand. All Christ did was suffer and die on the cross, so go back to the incognito Christianity so you are not made to feel awkward. I’m sure Jesus will understand.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Dangerous Songs


Happy MLK day! I hope you brushed your teeth and changed your underwear for this important day (seriously, try to take the time to do the basics of personal hygiene for the greater good).

I recently purchased a new album that is apropos of this day: Song of America. Granted, it is an older album from all the way back to  2007, but it usually takes me a while to catch up to things happening. It is a complication of 50 songs “related to the history of America” and I would say coming out of the folk/protest genre of music. Right now I am listening to “Lift Every Voice” which is very, very appropriate for today.

Songs include “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” “Peg & Awl,” “John Brown’s Body,” “Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay,” “Brother Can Spare a Dime?”, and “Deportee.” That is just a small sampling, but hopefully you get the idea.

There is something sad about protest songs. They are a part of our history, a part of who we are as a people, and often they are lost. Either that are forgotten, or the meaning is forgotten. These are songs that were written to express the pathos of a particular group of people and when they are lost that experience is lost. When this happens the history of our nation becomes monolithic, safe, white, and boring. 

A safe history leads to a torpor of American consciousness; a dangerous compliancy that at the least weakens democracy and at the worst leads to a self-subjection of the people.

On this day when many people are spending time saying what an important person Martin Luther King Jr. was we need to look at and remember more and more of our story. The person of MLK evokes the darker side of our nation’s story but also a side where true and real heroes are found. I would encourage you to read of other movements, other times of suffering, and learn of other American heroes. Read about the plight of the immigrant in the 1840s, the struggle of women, the struggle of the Native American, the struggle of the Chinese, the Japanese, the worker, and on and on. And then learn the music. The music will connect you with the experience of the suffering better than any history book can.




Finally ask yourself who is suffering in America today. We are not a perfect nation and we still have a lot of work to do. Who are the forgotten, the lost, the oppressed, and the silenced and what can you do to help them?

Postscript: I just purchased two versions of "Strange Fruit," one sung by Billi Holiday and the other sung by Nina Simone. Both are fantastic and powerful. This is a perfect example of the dangerous music I am talking about. If you don't know the song, sit down and just listen. If you aren't moved at all, then you must be a bastard or dead (or a Vulcan).


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

You Don't Know Everything!


I’m trying to get back on track. I admit that this is not easy because I have a couple of projects in the hopper as well as other things that demand my time (like the screaming and crying children around my feet) and a church that wants me to work more than one day a week. But I recognize that my readership yearns and craves my wit and wisdom, so let me kick the children aside, ignore my other responsibilities, and give you, the reader, your necessary theosnob fix.

A local church in the neighborhood has a banner advertising an Alpha series. Some of you may be familiar with the Alpha series. Some of you may have even participated in this program and may now be in the Beta series which is basically an Alpha detox.

I don’t care much for the series, but that is not the point of this particular rant. What gets me is the promo on the banner:

Got Questions? We’ve Got Answers.

This is the hook, the advertisement – that they have the answers. Now I recognize that it is supposed to be answers to the basics of Christianity, the simple questions like,

Who wrote the Bible?
What do you mean Jesus is the Son of God and is God and is a man?
Why does it hurt when I pee? (A Zappa reference is never out of style)
Did God hate those children who were killed in Newton, CT?
Does God hate the millions of Hindus in the world?
Why does everyone in this church look the same?

Maybe you get the idea. The Alpha series is supposed to be an introduction to Christianity, albeit a certain, specific, rigidly orthodox understanding of Christianity, but an introduction nonetheless. The promo doesn’t seem to suggest that this is what the church is offering. What the promo seems to suggest is hubris.

Really, you have the answers? You have the key and the solution to everything I have been wondering about, praying about, and staying up late over? You mean all of those years at seminary, doctoral studies, searching and wondering are wasted because you have the answers. Oh.

No, you don’t have the answers, because you don’t know what you are talking about because you are talking about God. No one has the market on God.

Now if I were to redesign the banner it would be something along the lines:

Got Questions? So do we, let’s talk.

Christianity is a journey of questions.
Scratch that.
Religion is a journey of questions.
Scratch that.
Life is a journey of questions.

Christianity offers not answers, but one way to engage and wrestle with the questions. There are moments when we make truth-claims but they are based on faith. We must make some kind of claims with a level of assurance, but at the same time with the honest realization that we could be wrong. That is a large part of the risk of religion (and why spirituality without a community/tradition is wussy – no risk). We are in essence saying, we don’t know, but we believe this and will now journey with that hope and belief.

Sure, I have answers about things like different views of eschatology, different ways to engage scripture, and why Baptists are so stubborn. Yet these answers are just options for the journey of questions. The answers of Christianity are options for the journey of questions resting on faith that we are walking in a way that will deepen our life and bring us closer to God (and to believe in the existence of God is also a leap of faith).

Got questions? Me too. How about we sit down, have a slice of this humble pie and talk.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

My Pop Culture Year - Readings


Now that you have had the opportunity to see all of the movies I watched last year, here is a list of the books and periodicals that I read. I have to admit I do not think I read as much as I should and this upcoming year I am going to strive to read more. I have kept track of the periodicals because they have value and should be counted for something.

Books

Fiction: Some of these books I have read because I am working through Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon and am trying to read the classics that he suggests. That would be War and Peace and Peer Gynt. Except for The Story of the Eye (which I would not recommend) the rest are short stories

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Peer Gynt – Henrik Isben
The Smile – Ray Bradbury
The Conversion of the Jews – Philip Roth
The Destructors – Graham Greene
The Guest – Albert Camus
La Grande Bretêche – Honoré De Balzac
The Gift – John Steinbeck
The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy
Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille

Nonfiction: I have already commented on some of these books elsewhere in my blog. These are fairly thick and academic but overall good reads. That is except for Cinematic Mythmaking. That was not a very good book. The rest I would recommend for the philosopher/scholar.

A Radical Jew – Daniel Boyarin
Theory of Religion – Georges Bataille
The Sacred Canopy – Peter Berger
The Meeting of East and West – F.S.C. Northrop
Cinematic Mythmaking – Irving Singer

Nonfiction – Practical Application: Activate is about starting small groups in a church and Feel the Fear… is more or less a self-help book. It is important to read this books so I can keep my skills up.

Activate – Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – Susan Jeffers

Periodicals
This year I did not renew my Newsweek subscription, and I am not sorry for it. I also have a couple of Atlantic Monthly issues I have not yet finished as well as a number of issues of The Journal of the American Academy of Religion and The American Baptist Quarterly. I am not in any rush to finish these issues, as you can see – for the most part the information is remains relevant.

Newsweek November 7, 14, 2011

Christian Century September 6, 2011 – May 16, 2012
            19 Issues

Harper’s November 2011

Wired October 2011 – January 2012
            4 Issues

Total – 42 Works, 5,925 pages

Like I said, I feel like I should have read more. This is a new year and it is my hope that I will get through more books and periodicals. Along with a good amount of writing that I am doing we shall see. And maybe I’ll finish my basement along with everything else.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

My Pop Culture Year - Movies


I know I am a little late for lists, but things have been on hold for a while, so here we go. I’m going to start with the movies that I watched in the past year. I have been watching anything that was nominated for any kind of Oscar (including best costume) from 2009 to 2012, Films that were on the AFI best films of the 20th century, and other films for fun as you’ll see below.

First, a couple of the Oscar movies that jumped out as particularly good:
The Visitor, Rachel Getting Married, Winter’s Bone, Rabbit Hole, Animal Kingdom, and Dogtooth.

All of these deal with, in one way or another, family function and dysfunction – Dogtooth at the most horrific level one could imagine (I suppose I could add The Descendants to this list). I enjoyed the action films, they are fun, but not as fulfilling as these movies. This is not because they offer a great picture of family life nor do they all have a happy conclusion. Instead, they speak to reality in such a way that I can find places of connection or reflection with my own life or the lives of people I know. I will say that none of these are happy, go-lucky movies, but instead carry a good deal of pain. In an odd way I think this might be a good thing.

Movies:

OSCARS
127 Hours
The Visitor
Barney’s Vision
A Better Life
Country Strong
Milk
Toy Story 3
The Help
Salt
Rachel Getting Married
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1
True Grit
My Week With Marilyn
Another Year
Doubt
Winter’s Bone
The Town
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Rabbit Hole
Bolt
The Illusionist (Animated)
The Artist
The Tempest
Changeling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2
The Way Back
The Dark Knight
Tangled
Anonymous
Tron: Legacy
Hereafter
The Descendants
Blue Valentine
Frost/Nixon

Foreign Films
Australia
In A Better World (Hæven)
Animal Kingdom
Dogtooth


Animated Shorts
Day and Night
The Gruffalo

Short Films
The Confession
The Crush

Documentaries
Gasland
The Inside Job

This is my second go at the AFI top 100 list. I am using a marriage of the first list and the updated list. As one could expect, some of the movies are on the list because they were significant at the time, but do not hold up today, and others continue to be solid, great movies. Of the ones I watched this year Buster Keaton’s The General was new, so it was the first time I had ever seen it (the first Buster Keaton movie I had ever seen). If I had to rank them I would put Some Like It Hot and The General on the tier, The African Queen and Star Wars (A New Hope) on the second, and Sunset Boulevard, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and All About Eve on the first. Great movies!

AFI 100 Best
Sunset Boulevard
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Some Like It Hot
Star Wars (A New Hope)
All About Eve
The African Queen
The General

This final list of movies is thanks in large part to Netflix streaming – it makes it so very easy to watch almost anything!

FUN/OTHER
Sin City
Bunraku
Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief
The Punisher
Searching for Bobby Fisher
Sheirk
The Lincoln Lawyer
Revolver
Rango
Mr. Deeds
Mississippi Burning
The Muppets
Airplane
A Knight’s Tale
Thor
Melencholia
Blood and Bone
Chocolate (Fury)
Good Will Hunting
Hoosiers
You Kill Me
God Bless America
Extract
Red Dawn (original version)
Paranorman
Rounders
Shooter
The Longest Yard (Remake)
War Inc.
Mean Girls
The Incredible Hulk
The Avengers
Megamind
The Hobbit

The following I watched while reading Cinematic Mythmaking by Irving Singer

The Lady Eve
My Fair Lady
Pygmalion
The Heiress
Washington Square
La Belle et la Bête
Beauty and the Beast
2001: A Space Odyssey

Total – 96 Movies

Just in case you thought I was lazy, I also watched two seasons of Sherlock and all of Battlestar Galactica (the newer version).