Pictures

For some reason I couldn't post this with the other entry.

This is me with Dr. Dobson. He's the one standing at the podium. :-)

Of course, I had to take the 'tourist' picture as well!

In the last picture you can see that the National Parks Service kindly reminded us that they had nothing to do with this rally!

Something's wrong ... Part 2

Chris and I just walked back from Mt. Rushmore where we had lunch and watched the rally in preparation for the important vote next week. Let me first say that I am very, very pro-life, that I believe marriage is a life-long covenant relationship between a man and a woman, and that I believe that legalized gambling perpetuates poverty. These are three of the issues that are being voted on in South Dakota next week, and the issues of most concern to evangelicals. I also believe that Christians should exercise responsibility in voting on these issues with a goal to protect unborn lives, uphold the biblical concept of marriage, and oppose laws that facilitate the cycle of poverty.

But there were still some troubling things about the rally.

First, it was repeated in various ways and forms that America will lose its privileged status with God if we don't legislate righteousness. It was righteousness for the sake of prosperity rather than righteousness because we follow Jesus.

Second, there was a lot of mingling of nationalism with generic teaching about God. Many Old Testament verses about God's covenant with Israel were repeated in the American context. We were regularly urged to 'conquer the land' (complete with verses from the book of Joshua).

Third, there was a lot of fear-mongering of what would happen if we don't get involved politically.

Of all the speakers, Dr. Dobson was the most responsible. He spoke reasonably, presented the facts, outlined a clear course of action and refrained from linking white, middle class, American culture with the kingdom of God. However, at one point he read through a list of issues facing Americans. When he mentioned being pro-life there was applause. Good. When he mentioned biblical marriage covenants there was applause. Good. When he mentioned support for the American troops in Iraq there was a standing ovation. Huh?

I'm not debating the rightness or wrongness of America's involvement in Iraq (I'll leave that for another day!). But the fact that this issue would generate a standing ovation revealed to me what this is all about. It's a culture war. It's about defending a concept of what the American way of life should be like. And we believe God is on our side. I agree with the moral positions of those who gathered at Mt. Rushmore, but I don't share their motivation.

I'm not afraid of what will happen to America. I'm not afraid losing economic, political or military power. 'Some trust in horses and chariots, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God.' God's work will continue. He can even use exile (marginalization) and persecution to accomplish his means. I'm not afraid that the church will be destroyed. Jesus promised to build his church and if the gates of hell will not prevail against it, why do we fear the Democrats? These rallies trouble me because the fear tactics weaken faith in God and encourage us to trust in man. They trouble me because linking the success of a particular political agenda with experiencing the continued blessing of God is not only the message of certain Christians, it is the message of Hezballah as well.

If you are voting in South Dakota, vote for life. But do it as a disciple of Jesus and not to 'take back the land' or usher in the kindgom of God. Do what the speakers this morning encouraged you to do, but don't do it for the reasons they gave.

On Fire

They tell you where you need to go
They tell you when to leave
They tell you what you need to know
They tell you who you need to be

But everything inside you
Knows there's more than what you've heard
There's so much more than empty conversations
Filled with empty words

When everything inside me
Looks like everything I hate
You are the hope I have for change
You are the only chance I'll take

And I'm on fire when you're near me
I'm on fire when you speak
I'm on fire burning at these mysteries

I'm standing on the edge of me
I'm standing on the edge of everything I've been
And I'm standing at the edge of me, at the edge of me

- 'On Fire' (Switchfoot)

I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what [God] will say to me,
And what I will answer when i am corrected.

Then the Lord answered me and said:

'Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time:
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it:
Because it will surely come. It will not tarry.'

The prophet Habakkuk (2:1-3)

Just some things I've been hearing this morning.

Something's wrong ... Part 1

I feel a bit weird tonight. Last week I had a 'chance' lunch with someone close to the situation with Ted Haggard. The day before the story broke I read this article in Harpers: http://www.harpers.org/SoldiersOfChrist.html . It had been forwarded to me by a friend. Since the story came out this link is plastered on blogs all over cypberspace. Tomorrow is a big political/religious rally at Mt. Rushmore to influence voters concerning the upcoming vote on abortion and same-sex marriage (among other things). Even James Dobson will be there. It's not the sin that's making me feel weird. It's the use of power and trust in power that is uncomfortable. There's something within me that says if Jesus were still walking the earth he would be avoiding Mt. Rushmore tomorrow.

While in a convenience store today the clerk showed me the back page of the local newspaper. A full page add called people to gather at Rushmore to listen to Dobson and show support for pro-life, traditional marriage legislation. Under the faces of the presidents carved in stone was Luke 19:40 - 'I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.' A quote was given from each president - Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln - about the sanctity of life. Clever, though a gross misuse of Scripture. I'll try to walk up to the rally tomorrow to take some pictures.

As the culture wars get hotter and hotter (and this is really about culture more than faith or morality), I keep thinking back to my time living in the Middle East. Anyone who thinks we can legislate morality needs to visit Saudi Arabia. Sharia' law demands a morality far more strict than the Religious Right, yet even it can't change the human heart. As the title to one bloggers entry reads, 'Haggard, Foley and the GOP Preaching Against the Very Vices They Can't Shake' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathaniel-frank/haggard-foley-and-gop-pr_b_33179.html There's some truth in the headline. We can't shake sin off. All we can do is ask for forgiveness and continue to take our own discipleship seriously. Maybe it's time to start paying more attention to the heart and less to the ballot box, folks.

Recently I heard someone pray, 'Lord, help us make this world into the place you created it to be.' That sounds a bit Islamic to me as well. It's time to get back to the Great Commission, which means we have to help people follow Jesus and love like Jesus. It means helping people become students of Jesus. We need to get beyond Sunday School classes that have endless cycles of 'How to have a better marriage,' 'How to raise happy kids' and 'How to manage your finances.' Instead of asking how we win the culture/political wars or how we can defend a way of life for our families, we need to start asking how we become disciples of Jesus and how we can help others disciples as well. I need to ask it, and you need to ask it. This needs to be the question that drives us.

For my birthday, my roommate bought me a copy of 'The Politics of Jesus' by John Howard Yoder. Yoder says (and I'm trying to quote from memory), 'We need be a transformed society more than we need to transform society.' Our mission is to be an alternative community - a community of discipleship. Are we?

Anyway, I'm starting to rant now, so I'd better stop ... I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Who is St. George?

Some have asked who St. George is? The legend of St. George exists in many parts of the world. As the story goes, he entered a village in North Africa only to discover that the villagers were in bondage to a dragon. Every year they had to sacrifice a virgin to appease the dragon, but when George showed up he killed the dragon and the entire village converted to Christianity. That's the short version ...

Additions, corrections and generational curses

Ok, once again I have to make sure a post is not taken to an extreme. When I talk about leading with the word of God, I don't mean that management and organizational skills have no place in the church, but leading by the word of God will be helpful in fulfilling kingdom purposes. Just imagine church leadership that diligently studies the Scriptures to understand what it means to be followers of Jesus in this age, and then leads the church based on their findings. Do pastors even have the time for this kind of Bible study? Imagine if top level leadership in the church was true spiritual leadership, where time was spent in Bible study, prayer, teaching, casting a biblical vision for the Great Commission, making disciples and equipping others to make disciples?

Today at Keystone we continued to discuss spiritual warfare. Too often we - at least in the West - neglect the spiritual powers at work around us. We had some teaching on generational curses. During the coaching session afterwords, my roommate Chris made the insightful comment, 'If I don't deal with my issues now I'll pass them on to my kids.'

How true!

Leading With the Word of God

Leading with the word of God is one of the positive things the Keystone participants are learning to do. Due to my seminary studies, I've had to read a lot of books on leadership and organizational development over the past few years. I can't remember a single book that addressed this. It seems that much of Christian leadership development attempts to sanctify conventional management and leadership theory, but doesn't equip church leaders to use the Scriptures in making decisions, determining values and priorities, reaching out to the community or managing conflict. We often trust in organizational theory to help our churches grow rather than cultivating leadership teams that walk in the Spirit and 'correctly handle the word of truth.' This isn't just about biblical preaching, but learning to live individually and as the people of God with the Bible as the primary resource to guide our spiritual and organizational formation.

When planning our programs, are we consulting the word of God? Do our values reflect the biblical mandate to make disciples of all nations? Are we really living according to our values? I've written further about this in the articles that were published in the Missionary Church Today ('The Secular Church') and on the Missionary Church website ('Inerrancy and the Authority of the Scripture'). Both articles can be found in the archives of this blog.

As long as we trust in management or church growth theory for healthy churches we will become increasingly irrelevant from the world we have been called to reach and increasingly disconnected from the God we have been called to serve.

'Send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.' (Psalm 43:3-4)

PS - Keystone is surrounded by beautiful wildlife such as these wild mountain goats.

Freedom of the Press Report

According to an article in the Cyprus Mail, a newly published report by Reporters Without Borders ranks the United States 53rd out of 168 countries in regards to freedom of the press. When the report first began (2002) the US was 17th. The reason cited was that US federal courts are increasingly requiring reporters to reveal their sources. Cyprus currently ranks 30th.