Looking (Out) for the Helpers

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.

— From The World According to Mister Rogers, p. 187.

I've been thinking about this quote a lot lately. It's not that there's been any recent "disaster" in the conventional sense. At least, I haven't heard of any significant earthquake, or crime, or other such tragedy, although I'm sure that there are things happening all over the world to people that I won't ever know about. Indeed, the irony is that the "disaster" I have in mind is not only of a more figurative kind, but it's one that has specifically targeted "helpers" who... well, if you're reading this at about the same time as I'm posting it, you probably already know what's been going on. And if you don't, it's perhaps just as well. In another month or two, this event will fade into the recesses of memory, and I can only hope that things will return to normal enough that it won't matter that I ever had a specific incident in mind. The words will hopefully stand on their own.
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A Review of A Year of Biblical Womanhood

The first thing you need to understand, before I say anything else, is this: Rachel Held Evans loves the Bible.

This point is important, because many Christians, upon learning that she is (gasp!) an egalitarian, (shock!) votes Democrat, and (horrors!) supports gay rights, tend to assume that she therefore must not take the Bible very seriously. This impression was only exacerbated when Evans announced some time back that she was going to undertake a "year of biblical womanhood" where, taking a cue from A. J. Jacobs' book, A Year of Living Biblically, she resolved to spend a year living according the Bible's instructions regarding women as literally as possible. Some Christians who do indeed hold to what they call "literal" interpretations of Scripture were convinced that Evans' purpose in undertaking this project was to make fun of them, and even to make "a mockery of God and Scripture" itself (as one of her critics is quoted as saying on p. 285).
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Is Our God Too Big?

We evangelicals like to sing about how big and powerful God is. For example, here's the chorus of a recent song (just a couple of years old) that's been popular at our church:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God...

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Why Are We So Ready to Attack?

About a week ago, I posted the following paragraph from C.S. Lewis' famous work, Mere Christianity:

The real test is this. Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, “Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,” or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything — God and our friends and ourselves included — as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.

— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Chapter 7: Forgiveness)

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Trekkies, Trekkers, Evangelicals, and Labels

If you follow almost any science fiction genre at all, you're probably aware of a long-standing debate on what to call fans of Star Trek. Pretty much everyone knows about "Trekkies," but every now and again, someone will pipe up and comment that this term is incorrect, informing the misguided individual that the proper word to refer to fans of Star Trek is, in fact, "Trekkers."
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Give Me a Reason

When writing Monday's entry, I was reminded of a song that I hadn't heard in a while. It was recorded by Christian contemporary musician Al Denson. One of my college friends (we ultimately were roommates for a year) had attended a music camp Denson had coordinated a few years previously. As I understand it, this camp was a fairly exclusive gathering for talented young Christian musicians, and thus my friend got to know Denson in person. Through my friend, I got to meet Denson myself, and even enjoyed one of his concerts backstage on one occasion. In 1993, about the time we were finishing up our first year, the Reasons album was released. I think Reasons may actually hold the distinction of being the first CD I ever purchased (it was certainly before I had a CD player of my own. I had to play it on the computer at first). The song in question was the title track to the album. Here is the chorus:

Just give me a reason
And I'll come running
When I have reasons
I know the way
I'm pointing my feet in the right direction
Give me a reason*

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We Need to Offer Something the Secular World Doesn't

As part of her weekly "Sunday Superlatives" yesterday, Rachel Held Evans mentioned a New York Times editorial by Ross Douthat as "Most Likely to Start a Big Ole’ Argument on Your Facebook Page When You Share It." Since my Facebook account is one the primary venues whereby family and friends read my blog entries, I am probably therefore asking for trouble by commenting on it here. Arguments tend to flare pretty much whenever the labels "conservative" and "liberal" are tossed around, and although I try to be consistent about pointing out that the definitions of these terms depend on who's talking about what and in relation to what, they remain well-worn labels that convey some semblance of meaning in discussions about religion and politics. With that in mind, despite the fact that my positions tend to make liberals ill at ease whenever I try to claim to be one of them, and despite the reality that I'm increasingly suspect to certain circles within conservatism... here I go again.
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REPOST - Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

This post is the final one I'll be doing to tie in with "A Week of Mutuality," hosted by Rachel Held Evans this week (the week of June 4-10) at her blog, rachelheldevans.com. You can head to this link to learn more about the project. I had to think long and hard about this one, since I've already posted this list twice previously on the blog, and was reluctant to post it for a third time, as I don't think just posting and reposting the same material is a good way to keep a blog fresh and interesting. However, this week has already proven to be an exception, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that I needed to post the whole thing one more time, taking the opportunity to put the list in some context while providing a fitting closure to the week.
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REPOST - The Importance of Sharing Stories

This post was originally written in observance of International Women's Day in 2008. As with all reposts for this "Week of Mutuality" event, I have updated the material somewhat.

One thing (among many) that I learned from David Scholer was the observance that it seems "especially true" that feminists thrive on sharing personal stories, as he says when he relates his own story of work on behalf of women in church ministry, as he wrote it for Christian Feminism Today back in 2006.
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REPOST - All Translation is Interpretation

When I wrote Monday's post, I argued for a different "starting point" for discussing women in ministry than 1 Timothy 2:11-12. I left open-ended the question of "so what, then, do we do with this passage?" This post, originally written in 2006, is one attempt at an answer. As with all reposts for this "Week of Mutuality" event, I have updated the material somewhat.


When I was a student, briefly, at a Presbyterian seminary in Kentucky, my professor of exegesis constantly repeated the mantra, "all translation is interpretation." I have often found this to be true as I've learned more about Biblical studies and interpretation, but in few areas as obviously as in issues relating to gender equality.
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REPOST - The Legacy of Dr. David M. Scholer

The following is an expanded version of an article originally published in the SEMI (Fuller's student newsletter) in October, 2008, which had devoted the issue to remembering Dr. David M. Scholer. I have revised and updated it somewhat to reflect a few changes in my wife's and my lives in the past four years.
---
When I joined my then-girlfriend Michelle in enrolling in David Scholer's course, "Women, the Bible, and the Church," I didn't realize that it would end up changing my life.

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that I had never given the matter of whether or not women were allowed to be pastors and ministers a second thought until I was in college. To at least some extent, this is undoubtedly because, as a male, I have had the luxury of never having had my own potential ability to become a church leader challenged. But it’s also due to the fact that, having grown up in the PC(USA), I was accustomed to seeing women in such positions from time to time, if admittedly nothing like as often as I’d seen men in those positions.
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Starting Points

"When looking to interpret difficult passages, clear passages should help illuminate unclear ones."

How many of you have heard this bit of advice when being taught how to read the Bible? Maybe it's just my seminary education talking, but I know I've heard it an awful lot. There are definitely ways in which this is good advice. Unfortunately, I've learned over the years that determining precisely which passages are the "clear" ones that help with which other "unclear" passages is, itself, an act of interpretation. Indeed, it's a very important act of interpretation, as the passage you choose as your "starting point" has implications for a great deal of not only how you come to understand what the Bible teaches, but consequently in how you live out your walk with Jesus and the Church.
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Where is the Good News?

I found this image through an entry at Kurt Willems' blog. He seems to have gotten it through a blog entry about "Funny Church Signs". It does not appear to be a Photoshop or otherwise computer-generated image, but rather apparently reflects an actual church sign out there, although I'll confess that I've not called the church to verify.^*
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On Religion, Relationships, and Stories

"It's not a religion. It's a relationship."

I don't know about you, but I've heard this particular evangelical talking-point more times than I can count. It "preaches" well (perhaps not least because of the convenient "rel-" alliteration), and on at least one important level, I think it's intended to highlight the central place that Christians, perhaps Evangelical Christians in particular, put on having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (I almost put that in quotes, too, as those words are used in precisely that way so often). I agree with the essential need for knowing Christ in such a personal way. Something that goes deeper than mere assent to a list of facts about who or what Christ is. Without that relationship, our faith is indeed empty.
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Reaching Out to Ex-Evangelicals: A Response to Frank Schaeffer

Earlier this month, Frank Schaeffer posted an article commenting on his observations that there are a lot of people out there who, having grown up with evangelical backgrounds, now find themselves disenchanted with that tradition (especially its connection with right-wing politics), and who have left that tradition in search of some other way of living out their faith. Schaeffer further observes that, by and large, these ex-evangelicals are not coming to older mainline churches, despite the fact that (as he puts it) "in terms of world view the older denominations should be a good fit for the progressive former evangelicals." When he has asked if the mainline churches have made any attempts to reach them, the response is usually "no."
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Finding Hope in Failure

A classic Peanuts comic strip opens with Charlie Brown lamenting the loss of yet another baseball game:

Charlie Brown: Another ball game lost!! Good grief! I get tired of losing... Everything I do, I lose!

Lucy: Look at it this way, Charlie Brown. We learn more from losing than we do from winning.

Charlie Brown: That makes me the smartest person in the world!!

Of course, we don't feel very smart when we lose. In fact, I imagine that most people would just as soon forget their failures. Sure, we learn valuable lessons from those failures, but the price of that knowledge is so high that few of us bear it willingly.

I'm reminded of a speech originally given by a Senior Professor in Fuller Seminary's School of Psychology, Dr. Archibald Hart, to a group of students about to graduate in 2002. I don't believe I was actually there for the speech when it was originally given (although I actually did graduate earlier that spring, I believe I had attended the previous year's Baccalaureate service), but I definitely must have heard it not too long thereafter, as it was one of the speeches I was asked by former Provost Russell P. Spittler to transcribe for Fuller Voices, which itself was published in 2004.
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Majority Tools

Shortly after being elected to the office of Student Body President at my college, my Vice-President and I had a conversation with the Dean of Students about what was ahead for us in the coming academic year. Among other things, he suggested that we needed to guard against the "tyranny of the majority."

I have to confess, it wasn't until several years after I graduated that I really understood what that term meant. While I did have some concept for using my own judgment not to just follow along if it seemed like everyone else was doing something I knew was wrong, I nonetheless generally assumed that the best way to be fair to the most people was to do what the majority wanted.
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A Case Against "Masculine Christianity"

What says "masculine"
better than the
Old Spice guy?

In what is only the latest in a long series of comments by Christian leaders advocating for the supremacy of men over and against women, John Piper has recently explicitly said that he believes that "God has given Christianity a masculine feel." Now, when he says such a thing, I do not imagine that he would actually say that he believes men are "superior" to women. The usual complementarian line, which I understand Piper to embrace, says that the genders are equal, but that they merely have different God-given roles. That said, it's difficult to read a belief in a "masculine Christianity" without feeling like a belief in male superiority is actually at play, whether Piper acknowledges it or not.
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Musical Misdemeanors

I've observed in the past that all churches, even those who don't consider themselves "liturgical," nonetheless do have a liturgy, by which I mean that each church has a set pattern by which that community worships God. A pattern that, if it is disrupted, the disruption is not only noticed, but often resented. I am by no means immune to this observation. I worship with the congregation I do for many reasons, but one of them is that I find myself more or less "in tune" with the patterns of worship there, and when those patterns are disrupted, I don't always like it.
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Montreat! Montreat! Montreat!

Although I've certainly shared videos, myself, I have to admit that I really wish that people didn't share videos on Facebook and elsewhere as much as they do. I would much rather everything shared was text. The reason for this is that I do much of my browsing during downtime at work, and I don't wish to disturb my co-workers with the sound (obviously, an audio-only piece can be even worse). Also, it's much easier to leave a page of text alone when a task comes in, and come back to it once I'm done, than it is with video.

All this means is that, when I started to see this video of "Stuff Presbyterian Seminarians Say" making the rounds on Facebook Monday morning, I waited until I was at home that evening to finally watch it. You can watch the video for yourself after the jump, or just go straight on to my comments.
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