Posted by Chris on Jun 22, 2011 in
God 
I remember being taught all of the apologetic quips that were supposed to show the ridiculousness of evolution. There was the one about monkeys at typewriters were more likely to write Hamlet than evolve into human beings. The popular Christian response to evolution’s pervasiveness has been more about fear and pride than conversation.
The fact of the matter is, evolution isn’t going anywhere. Christians need to become conversant. This isn’t a call to change one’s beliefs, but to recognize that there are intelligent people who disagree with you. Just because they disagree with you doesn’t mean they are stupid, insincere, or incapable of following Jesus.
Francis Collins may be one of the smartest men in America. He’s a scientist, a doctor, the former head of the Human Genome Project, and the current head of the National Institute of Health. He’s also a Bible believing Christian.
The Language of God is part biography, part textbook. Collins tells of how his work as a doctor forced him to question agnosticism, and eventually led him to faith. He also explains how DNA works, how evolution works, and the shortcomings of popular arguments against evolution. His solution is BioLogos, which honors the truths of the Bible without ignoring the weight of science.
If you’re skeptical that the Bible and science can get along, or you just want to be able to converse intelligently on the subject, you should read The Language of God.
And if that’s not enough to convince you, listen to him SING!
[youtube]ob-r5MPa-ms[/youtube]
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Tags: biologos, books, collins, creation, creationism, francis collins, human genome, if you could only read one book, language of God
Posted by Chris on Jun 20, 2011 in
Church,
Culture,
God,
Life These questions begged a much bigger one:
Could the Church be involved in politics at all?
Here we were, responding to a jihad by declaring a crusade. I began to wonder how any of the words that Jesus ever said, especially in key teachings of the Sermon on the Mount that could warrant even the most just war. Moreover, could a Christian even be an American (or a Brit or Afghani or Brazilian)? What if we went beyond politics to lifestyles? Could a Christian pursue the American dream? Buy products produced unethically? Eat food slaughtered violently or grown in a way that endangers the environment? Prize safety and good neighborhoods over proximity to the poor?
These are questions I still struggle with today. On one hand, I believe that there is value in cultural engagement. The church cannot abandon culture. Yet history and experience teach us that in our attempts at relevance, we quickly take up the morays of the culture, and become something much less than the Church.
The Anabaptist movement, for centuries, has stood for unpopular things. They were martyred for their belief that an adult chooses their faith, not their family or the State. Even today, their mennonite and amish and christoanarchist descendants fight against the constant creep of civic religion. During Vietnam, Mennonite Conscientious Objectors were sent to staff psychiatric hospitals. Their humanizing treatment of the mentally ill has led to many advances in patient care.
When I asked an mennonite preacher what their hermeneutic was, he responded “The Sermon on the Mount.” As a person wanting to live like Christ in the midst of the longest war in American history, their way of life just makes sense.
My dream is to be a part of a community shaped by the story and teachings of Christ. The Church does this both in spite of the world, and simultaneously for the world. This may mean abandoning the comfort and structures that America has to offer, and living as a stranger in one’s own land. It may be that this countercultural, underground radical community grounded in obedience to the teachings of Christ is the best hope of us, our churches, and our neighborhood. We can thank Osama bin Ladin for teaching us.
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Tags: anabaptist, Bin Ladin, Bush, Harding University, hauerwas, just war, mennonite, niebuhr, pacifism, Peace, War
Posted by Chris on Jun 13, 2011 in
Church,
Culture,
God,
Life 
I have never understood how the Church and the Republican Party became synonymous. The Religious Right was nothing new, but it seemed like the culture wars reached a new high during the 2000 election. I often felt alone when I tried to explain why I believe that single issue voting does not make you a better follower of Jesus. With the blurred lines between pop-Christianity and the Bush administration, and an enormous flag greeting us every morning, the imminent wars produced a new message: Being a good Christian meant supporting your country in war.
This began to churn something inside me. I could see why understand dismantling Afghanistan, but chasing WMDs in Iraq was harder. It seemed that whenever such concerns being voiced, it resulted in one’s patriotism, and likewise their faith, being called into question.
My graduate studies in theology began in the midst of the 2004 election. There were wars of two fronts. About the time John Kerry was being demonized for his participation in anti-war protests, I was taking an ethics class.
We read Reinhold Neibuhr, the father of modern Just War theory. Then we read Stanley Hauerwas’ The Peaceable Kingdom. For the first time I encountered a way of being the church, in the midst of a war torn world, that seemed completely in line with the way of Jesus.
This wasn’t about individual morality or proper ecclesiological structure. It was a vision that
the church existed to stand with, and alongside the lost world,
as an inviting example
of what the universe would look like when the Kingdom of God was complete.
This was a different way to answer the questions that had flared up since bin Ladin had interrupted our lives. What if, instead of railing against the prevailing culture, we lived lives that showed how it was lacking? We could respond to abortion by setting an example in adoption. We could respond to marriage and sexuality discussions by working on our own marriages and standing in contrast to the American divorce epidemic. We could respond to violence by addressing the root issues of hatred and inequity.
This question begged a much bigger one:
Could the Church be involved in politics at all?
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Tags: anabaptist, Bin Ladin, Bush, Harding University, hauerwas, just war, mennonite, niebuhr, pacifism, Peace, War
Posted by Chris on Jun 9, 2011 in
Church,
God,
Life 
While I was meeting with my MAGL cohort in Colorado Springs, we talked a lot about books. Since books and audiobooks are such a big part of my life, a classmate suggested I create a reading list. This series will tackle that question.
If you could read only one book about Jesus, it should be The Divine Conspiracy. Dallas Willard masterfully explains the core topic of Jesus teachings, The Kingdom of God, and how we are to respond to them.
The book begins with a discussion of the very idea of a kingdom, how we each have our own, and what it means for God to have one. At it’s most basic, the Kingdom of God is “the dome under which God is King.” He then goes on to explain that if Jesus is God, he is also the smartest person that ever lived. He also explains that Jesus teachings were meant to be taken as serious ethical directions for individuals and societies. The majority of the book works through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.
What makes Willard’s writing so meaningful is that he is a foremost a highly astute philosopher. Yet despite his intellectual prowess, the majority of his teaching is based in the belief that we can, and should do what Jesus said. He shows how very simple, yet difficult, it is to live in the kingdom of God.
Divine Conspiracy is on my vert short list of almost yearly reads. When I read it, I feel like I am finally seeing who Jesus is, and how his teachings were meant to change our lives and the world.
You can find The Divine Conspiracy here in paperback, digital, and audio.
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Tags: books, Dallas Willard, discipleship, if you could only read one book, Jesus, spiritual formation, The Divine Conspiracy, Willard
Posted by Chris on Jun 1, 2011 in
God,
Life 
“I learned that Protestants belong as much to the Church as Catholics, that Hindus, Buddhist, and Muslims believe as much in God as Christians, that pagans love one another as much as believers, that the human psyche is multidimensional, that theology, psychology and sociology are intersecting in many places, that women have a real call to ministry, that homosexual people have a unique vocation in the Christian community, that the poor belong to the heart of the Church, and that the Spirit of God blows where it wants.”
Herni Nouwen, Spiritual Direction
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Tags: books, henri nouwen, MAGL, nouwen, quotes, spiritual direction
