I am a Christian Too

I have been accused of being an emergent Christian, and since I don’t understand what that means, I don’t know whether to be offended or flattered. Hence, I’m reading A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren to learn about post-modern emergent Christian theology.

Early in the book, McLaren makes some statements that go to the heart of the Lordship of Jesus Christ (or lack thereof) among American Christians. Here are a couple excerpts, beginning with some statements that McLaren says could be made today (pages 79-80):
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The Los Angeles Times has an editorial proposing Bono as the next President for the World Bank.

Bono, the U2 rock star, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and he is a credible candidate. But we have a better idea on how best to recognize his effective lobbying on behalf of African development — Bono should be named the next president of the World Bank.
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This past Sunday, Pastor Tony Auer gave a sermon on the gospel text from the lectionary, which included the well-known John 3:16 verse. I found his sermon prophetic, and would like to share an excerpt that particularly moved me:

“For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, so that all those who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

We have all seen, and maybe we have on our car, a bumper sticker that says, “God Bless America”. What does that mean? America already has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. We have one of the highest standards of living in the world, we already consume two-thirds of the world’s natural resources. What does “God Bless America” mean? Bless us with more?

Yes, 3,000 Americans died in the World Trade Center and another 1400 have died in Iraq, and that is a tragedy. But that many people die in a week in Africa due to genocide, AIDS and starvation. Over 250,000 persons died because of the tsunami. When we say “God Bless America”, are we being exclusive? Wouldn’t we like God to bless Africa, and bring an end to genocide, war and starvation? Wouldn’t we like God to bless the survivors and the victims of the tsunami? Wouldn’t we like God to bless the Iraqi people who have suffered far greater loss than we have? If God so loved the world, wouldn’t we want God to bless the whole world, with no exceptions?

Keep your God Bless America bumper sticker, but maybe you should add to it: God Bless America…and the whole world, no exceptions.

For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, that through him all people of the world might have life and salvation. The Son is sent out of love. The purpose of the Son’s mission is not condemnation of those outside the “club”, but salvation for all the people of the world. God comes to us to bring us life not death. To bring us life now and in the future.

Some new (to me) progressive Christian blogs this week:

• The Grace Pages has a post about the imminent return of heresy trials in the Church of England for, among other things, preaching a liberal doctrine regarding gays. Hopefully they won’t be bringing back the stake as well.
• I just discovered The Feminarian, who happens to live in the same suburb of a major US city as I do, and is apparently attending seminary with several friends of mine. Regardless of the its-a-small-blogosphere set of coincidences, she has an engrossing series on Christian sex (!!), starting with this post.
• A new progressive Lutheran blog, FaithandPolicy, has a post with a quote from Ann Coulter, refuting which is the entire purpose of my blog and many like it. David counters with quotes from Luke and Martin Luther, both a bit more knowledgeable than Ann.
• From the Parish, a concept for a Christian magazine that I would not only read, but pay money for. As for a title, how about Progressive Christian: the magazine of the Progressive Christian Bloggers Network. Joking, but only kind of.

By now you’ve probably seen the Gary Brolsma Numa Numa video, and either found it hilarious (me) or just shrugged (my brother.) Apart from the comic value of lip-synching to Hungarian techno pop, what fascinates me is the nature of this blog storm. Think of this from poor Gary’s point of view: he makes a video and puts it on his blog for the amusement of a close circle of friends and visitors to his blog; the video sweeps exponentially through the blogosphere for reasons that are hard to pin down, other than its funny (kind of); Gary (I’m guessing) sees his web hosting bandwidth cap obliterated, and has to turn off his blog to avoid paying huge overage charges; NBC Today picks it up, and he is on national television, reaching people that have never heard of a blog, don’t know what techno is, and can’t find Hungary on a map. The sad thing is that, most likely, this 19 year-old has already peaked. His 15 minutes are over, and he will never again experience anything quite like this again. Ten, twenty years from now, his video will get 15 seconds in a VH1 nostalgia retrospective.
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From the Borowitz Report:

BUSH REAFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL WARMING
Makes Earth a ‘Homier’ Place, President Says

On the day that the U.N. Kyoto Protocol finally went into effect, President George W. Bush reaffirmed his strong support for global warming, arguing that the phenomenon helps to make the world a “toastier, homier” place.

“Right now, Hawaii has a climate that is the envy of the world,” Mr. Bush said at a White House briefing. “If global warming continues at its current pace, by 2050 the whole world will be as hot as Hawaii, if not hotter.”

President Bush added that global warming – far from being the threat to the world’s eco-system that many experts say it is — may actually be the best long-term solution to the world’s energy problems.

“If the world got a few degrees warmer every year, we wouldn’t have to turn up the darned thermostat so much,” Mr. Bush said. “Thanks to global warming, the world will be a toastier, homier place.”

Mr. Bush said that each and every American can do his or her part to help increase global warming, adding, “Instead of walking to the corner, drive your SUV.”

“A lot of folks think they can’t do much to produce greenhouse gasses, but that’s just not true,” Mr. Bush said. “Every little bit helps.”

From the January 22nd show of A Prairie Home Companion, courtesy of Tony.

“Pastor Ingqvist was so glad about the snow. He was thinking he might have to do a sermon on the Lutheran church, its announcement of its commission on its position on same-sex relationships and the ordination of same-sex people. But then he thought, “No, I don’t really need to do that. People are thinking about snow.” Nobody had really asked him about this commission report, which was a masterpiece of muddling through – just a masterpiece. It was a beautiful piece of writing. It’s a case where you establish a commission to take up a question that militants on either side are waving their bright shining swords, and (more…)

Thanks to the Big Lowitzki for the heads-up to this site: the Moral Politics Test. Here are my results, but I have to say that I think something is missing in their classification scheme. I have no problems with capitalism per se, and plenty of problems with socialism, so I’m not too pleased about being called a borderline socialist.

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A few things I’m reading in the blogs these days:

• Lefty and Father Jake both address abortion, and both in personal and profound ways. I share their struggle with this issue.
• Progressive Christian has a post about what sounds like a wonderful play written by a high school student that was blasted by a State delegate for promoting a gay lifestyle.
• Andy Borowitz at the Borowitz Report has a satirical look at one more effort to keep marriage safe.
• Carlos and Lefty (again) have posts about a seminar, the first in a series, given by the National Association of Evangelicals at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where they distance themselves from the conservative Christian excesses past and present.
• Steve at Gutless and Chuck Currie comment on Bush’s immoral budget (I’m sure I’ll be posting on this as well at some point.)

Update: This just in…kitten-eating America-and-Jesus hating liberals exposed!

What I’m reading in the blogs…

Vaughn Thompson at Ichthus has some posts (this one, and this, and this) on Time’s cover story on the top 25 evangelicals. What struck me about the article was how many of the evangelicals were quoted about poverty and hunger instead of abortion and gay marriage. Also, what is it with Tim LaHaye?

Also at Ichthus, Vaughn picks up his series on the Purpose-Driven Life. I know that several members of my congregation found this book very helpful in their spiritual journey, but Vaughn is approaching it with a more critical eye.

Chuck Currie and FaithForward have posts on a disgusting theological assault on our faith masquerading as righteousness. This is the worst of the worst.

Chris Tessone at Progressive Protestant has a post with an update linking to a parody of DaVinci’s Last Supper. What struck me in this Guardian article is that in its description of the photo, it says “One man, John the Baptist, sits on a woman’s lap, his torso bare and jeans riding low.” So John the Baptist was at the Last Supper? Interesting display of secular ignorance of Christianity. I agree with Chris…the picture is pretty cool.

Finally, a wonderful post from Father Jake, using Jesus’ own words to remind us that dialogue is not always possible.