Pledge of Allegiance

Perusing some friends Facebook profiles, I am happy to say that I have friends on both extremes of the political spectrum. The truth is, there is room for gray areas more than the most outspoken critics liberals and conservatives are willing to declare. Disregardless of one’s political opinions, there are significant problems with the viewpoint most Christians employ when describing their allegiances. Derek Webb’s “King and a Kingdom” assists with this issue:

The truth is, I am both an American and a member of God’s Kingdom. I am not an American Christian, I am an American and and a Christian. The difference in one conjunction is massive, as my first allegiance is not to patriotism, stars and stripes, a Constitution, or elected officials. This system of government, however dazzling its foundation may or not be, is secondary.

By opting to be a Christian first, my ethics, political opinions, and viewpoints of current events should be subjected to the ethics, opinions, and viewpoints presented by the Church and Scripture. I am not a Republican, a Democrat, a Whig, a Reformer, a Libertarian, or any other flavor of platform. These each have platforms that, while each including some measure of truth, are not the expressed opinion of Christendom. Liberalism and conservativism are not necessary (though are not sin) for the Christian. These are both worldviews just as much as Christianity is a worldview, and therefore, are not necessarily a requirement to be a Christian. It is acceptable to study Scripture thoroughly and have views that are the same as another worldview, but any resemblance to a particular party or worldview are a coincidence.

Many Christians find their worldviews by following various entities, but border on making these their Gospel. Radio personalities like Hannity, Limbaugh, and Maddow should not be our only source of truth. Television entertainers such as O’Reilly, Cooper, and Olbermann can be consulted for opinions, but are not to be viewed as truth. Bloggers such as Huffington, American Thinker, or Savage are entities that, if they are not primarily pushing God’s Kingdom instead of a particular worldview, are not our only source of truth. Politicians such as Obama, McCain, Pelosi, Palin, and Gingrich will never be the saviors, gatekeepers, or builders of God’s Kingdom regardless of their rhetoric. Most of them are running for re-election more than their beliefs, anyways.

The ethics of the Kingdom are often in direct opposition to what we initially want them to be. We are conditioned from birth to have a certain worldview about economics, war, and other areas by our environment. This conditioning makes it difficult to truly allow God’s ethics to penetrate what we believe to be truth. Issues like torture, privacy, pregancy, are all subject to the Kingdom of God (though with room for gray in a lot of situations).

America is not the Kingdom of God. In fact, 96% of God’s good Earth is comprised of non-Americans. God is building a global Kingdom of people whose allegiance is not to Britain, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Brazil or America. This nation, this Jesus nation, wants to restore God’s creation to its original goodness, from people to planet. And my first allegiance is to this Kingdom, now and forever.

Worship as a Drug

In the late 1990s, several “Christian bands” began introducing projects with songs dubbed “worship songs.” Artists such as Sonicflood, Delirious, Matt Redman, and others ushered in a wave of chorus-driven songs that were easily transferred into church services, given a few instruments and the ability to axe the organ as the primary instrument. An entire genre of music was born, not surprisingly fueled by corporations who presented Christian labels that were owned by larger companies (which begs the question, “why was there ever a Christian vs secular music debate?”).

I was right in the middle of this movement in my late teens, which made me one of their favorite consumers. Disposable income is a potent tool, especially when a product like Christian music needs a buyer.

Church services employed this music, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But in some worship “experiences,” this music was injected into already hyper-spiritualized church cultures that hinged on taking attenders into what amounted to a spiritual frenzy. Don’t take my word for it: consider the imagery that pops into your head when you hear the word, “worship.” Let me guess…something like…

Or the proverbial…

So entire camps and conferences were orchestrated to have entire groups of people have an “experience with God.” I, for one, was totally on board. But then the unavoidable kicked in.

The Law of Diminishing Returns - a production system with fixed and variable inputs (say factory size and labor), beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields smaller and smaller increases in output. Conversely, producing one more unit of output costs more and more in variable inputs.

This law applies not just in economics, but in everyday life. For example: suppose a person became addicted to a small dose of drugs, such as cocaine or ecstasy. Eventually, the small dose won’t produce the desired feeling, so increasing doses or combinations must be used to get the same or a better feeling. We see this elsewhere in theme parks, foods, and more. Its a hallmark of consumerism and branding, which makes it a perfect fit for America.

Back to the church experiences, people were attending church services and conferences seeking another injection of a spiritual frenzy, needing the needle of “crying out to God” to be placed firmly into their veins to ensure their connection to God was continued. Whether or not these experiences were genuine doesn’t matter so much as their impact. When someone’s entire Christian life is lived from one “experience” to another, they are destined for failure when the that pursuit dries up.

Not surprisingly, many who thrived on these sort of experiences have either done their best to move from church-to-church seeking these experiences or have given up. For many who have thrown in the towel, since their entire Christian experience was based on this pursuit, they aren’t even Christians anymore (partying and drugs might satisfy that better, in their opinions).

Perhaps Brother Lawrence of France had the right idea. According to Skye Jethani:

“…Brother Lawrence worked in a kitchen and it was among the pots and pans that he would experience a sweet communion with God. He believed firmly that all of life was sacred, and those who believed times of corporate worship drew closer to God suffered from a ‘great delusion’.”
‘Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him’?”

Not that church services are the problem here, but the mental thought that we need a drug-like injection of worship at a service just to remain Christians is dangerous and will ultimately fail to satisfy. Jesus didn’t come to present a commodity, but a lifestyle. Genuine Christians should worship in groups, but also commune with God throughout their everyday experiences. Worship need not be a frenzy, but Christians simply joining the rest of Earth in thanking God for his grace. Whether that be in a posture of sitting, standing with eyes closed, musing while mowing the lawn, staring at an open starry sky, or joining others in a service, worship need not necessarily involve screaming and singing.

Worship is not a drug. Worship is a choice.

Leaving Behind “Left Behind”

As a high school student, I was an avid reader of Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” books. For those who missed out on this phenomenon, LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins authored a series of books about Christian doctrine of the “rapture” and what takes place thereafter that went on to sell 40,000,000 copies, spawn three movies, spin-offs, and more. It became a 1990s phenomenon that my church even adopted for a production of the same name. If you’re already familiar with it, just scroll past the bullets if you want.

In the series, the dispensationalist doctrine of the rapture takes place. As the world picks up the pieces, a group assembles together to create an alternative community of Christians who warn of the judgments of Revelation coming. A figure-head of a global government arises named Nicolae Carpathia to rule the globe (with his trusy sidekick, Leon Fortunato playing the part of “the false prophet”). A literal interpreation of Bible prophecy is transformed into a narrative story that slowly covers three years (or so) in 16 books.

Early on into the eighth book called The Mark (which I spent months anticipating), I had this sudden thought of, “why am I reading these books?” Faster than you can say “you just wasted $30,” I threw the book down and began pondering exactly what I had been reading. This wasn’t really Bible prophecy – this was an artisitic twist on speculative events. Something instinctively made me realize I was wasting my time.

Years, a college education, and a lot of reading later, I’ve revisited a look at what I missed. Apparently not much:

• I saw the first Left Behind movie and thought it was awful. Poor quality and not at all believable. They went on to make two more movies that were even more terrible.
•  A CD for the series was released with a “who’s who” of CCM. I’ll spare you the gory details of who’s part of this compilation, but let’s just say most of it leaves creativity and beauty in music as an optional component.
• Comic books – for those who can’t read, I guess.
• Left Behind: Eternal Forces was a video game where players “use the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.” Not only was the game awful by video game standards, but it begs the question, “What is spiritual warfare?”
• 40 kids books, 5 novels, 2 spin-offs, and a partridge-in-a-pair tree

I paint this picture to let you know that this is a juggernaut – and one I was extremely familar with. Sadly, I’ve been reading some of the “wrong books,” that theologians who read Left Behind don’t read.

• Surprised by Hope
• The Secret Message of Jesus
• Jesus for President

In these books, a different picture is painted of Revelation and other such theological texts. Consider a few thoughts:

1. 1 Thessalonians 4’s “meet Him in the air” was a common phrase in the day for greeting a prominent person and escorting them into a city – sort of like southern hospitality. See this document for more.
2. Revelation was a story John wrote, largely to emplore early Christians to come out of empire through allegorical language that made sense in the day and now seems cryptic.
3. The infamous “mark of the beast” was happening as Revelation 13 was being written. A person who wanted to shop in a first century supermarket had to check-in as they entered the store, pledge allegiance to Caesar, and take a stamp on their right hand or forehead with Caesar’s emblem on it. 666 is a simple math equation – nrwn qsr (knowing that Hebrew letters also have numerical values) that add up to NERO CAESAR.

I could go on and on, but you can do that on your own if you’re interested.

So what am I saying? I’m here to offer casual Christians a means to re-think what we have been told for quite sometime.

Consider the fact that the “rapture” wasn’t an existing doctrine until 1861 thanks to Margaret McDonald & John Nelson Darby. It spread a bit in Europe, but spread like wildfire in America. It rarely caught on around the world to the rest of Christians – you need only look at worldwide sales of Left Behind to see the proof. This is a Western phenomenon. No one in the early church had this idea. It would seem that something so critical to doctrine would have a whole lot more about it listed in Scripture than one verse and a few loose references.

I really don’t know much about Bible prophecy – I used to know everything if you’d asked me. Eschatology (as its called) is something that should have more questions than answers. Want proof? Find your favorite Bible prophecy expert and order their books from 20 years ago. If Christian doctrine swayed as much as their Revelation Unveiled “truth,” this religion would have never gotten off the ground.

The eschatology I do know is that Christ is one day coming to literally be grand emperor of Earth. I don’t mean this figuratively – I mean that all the states and nations will have one ruler to rule them all. Those who are “dead in Christ” will rise to join along in this new Kingdom.

Christianity for Strangers (Madea)

A previous post, Facing Illiteracy, faced the harsh reality that we are entering an age when the upcoming generation has a horde that are not fluent in Christian thought, ideas, stories, etc. I suppose that using this platform, we have both positive and negative to deal with.

Using that, I present to you, Madea teaching Peter walking on water.

Osteen

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were perusing the games section at her workplace, Hastings, and I beheld a mystery. There, in plain sight in the games section, was Brother Osteen.

Now, I graduated with a business management degree, so I’ve taken my share of marketing classes. I get the concept of branding, and other concepts in the marketing world. But I also understand the concept of putting your ministry alongside Rich Uncle PennyBags, the Operation Guy, and of course, Hungry Hungry Hippos. Osteen is a really big deal right now. Wal*Mart, Borders, and others are more than happy to put his grill at the front of their “self-help” sections. Maybe its just me, but I’m just not totally getting this one. If anyone has some light to shine on this subject, please let me know because my wife and I prefer playing “Apples to Apples,” which was right next to Mr. Osteen.