Will you be left behind?

I offer for your horror the following article:

Mega-church minister linked to paramilitary video game

As far as I have been able to research, everything in this article is accurate. The company web site is here.

Let me just say a few things:

1. I don't believe in the Rapture and find the escapist dispensationalist theology worthless
2. My seven year old can write better than Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins
3. I'm a passivist because Jesus was one too
1. Jesus was freakin' murdered you idiots! He didn't walk around with a freakin' sword stabbing the random people who disagreed with him, or the Roman soldiers who were trying to kill him! Are you so damned stupid you can't get that through your thick violent skulls !?!
4. It's people like these that give Christianity a bad name...if there is a hell, I can almost guarantee that Lahaye and Jenkins will be there....without butter! (sorry Cold Comfort Farm reference, if you haven't seen it, do. The best scene is when Ian McClellan is preaching a hell fire and brimstone message. I repeated that scene about three times and am still laughing.)
5. This is one of the many reasons that the Left Behind books are more dangerous to Christianity than the DaVinci Code.
6. That's all I can think of now...
   

I'm a Flexible Vegetarian

This will probably confuse everyone, but here goes. I'm a vegetarian...sort of. In my house, we don't eat any meat, don't let meat in the door, nothing like that. (We'd been toying with the idea of going back to a vegetarian house for a while and finally took the plunge about 5 months ago.) One person I know (who I respect very much) expressed her veganism as a part of her spirituality and I can relate to that. The reasons that I don't eat meat is based solely on decisions governed by my spirituality.

I posted before about being completely pro-life and what that means, including the humane treatment of animals. For me, that means among other things, not eating meat. Killing things just doesn't seem like humane treatment...call me silly. Genesis, specifically in the story of Noah, describes all animals as being filled with the breath of life, the same breath from God that filled Adam in Genesis 2. To me, that means we're really dealing with something special here, special treatment should be given to animals.

Another part of this spirituality, comes with the great weight that God puts on spilling animal blood, the blood of life. Eating anything with the blood still in it is a big no-no in the Bible (and in Judaism to this day). In fact, eating animals is a sort of concession God makes to humans. According to several other ancient texts and traditions the very reason for the flood was not sexual immorality as much as it was the polluting of the ground with blood. Animals were being slaughtered horribly and their flesh eaten, people were killing people and just leaving them to die and be picked clean by the scavenging animals. So God, seeing that man would inevitably eat meat, prescribed the proper way to kill the animal so that it would be humane (that's sort of a relative term) and respect the value of blood. God's original intent was for people to not eat meat (ala the Garden), so I strive to fulfill that original intent.

As anyone who grew up with me or has known me in person for any amount of time in the past, you probably know that I'm not really a veggie kind of person. When I was a kid (even to the present, really) I was a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I wanted big pieces of steak for dinner cooked as rare as you could get it and french fries on the side. A baked potato if I had to, but I would refuse to eat the skin. I tell you this because this gets to the flexible side.

I see vegetarianism as a higher level of spirituality. Something that is very difficult to maintain, especially in this culture of everything must have meat. (Do you realize every salad at Wendy's has meat on it except one? Does this seem weird?) I'm also very sensitive to the fact that many people are put out, can be judgmental, etc about vegetarians. Being vegetarian can be a dividing wall between us and the meatetarians. And I take very seriously the idea of not putting up walls when spending time with other people. Usually people don't even notice we don't eat meat and it's not an issue. But, if a friend doesn't know we're vegetarians and at their home all they offer us is meat, we eat the meat. It's not a big deal, because we're in fellowship and that's the higher goal. In every situation, we'll try to find ways to avoid meat (the vegetarian fajita at Chipotle, by the way, is the bomb), eating the cheese pizza, etc. but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Anyway, I just thought I'd explain my spiritual pseudo-vegetarianism.

Breaking the Silence

Hello all, sorry for the radio silence here! It's the end of the quarter which means papers, tests and other fun stuff. I have a long list of books to read this summer, and I am looking forward to studying what I want to study for at least 3 months, and catch up on some postmodern theological reading.

Here's a question that Jaime has posed to me often, especially as of late. What is it about Evangelicals/Conservatives that bothers me? At first I would reply that I don't have a problem with them, but the problem I have is that they would have a problem with me. Just because I ask "dangerous" questions or come down with some "unorthodox" answers, I must not believe in Jesus. Just because I read him differently or think Paul should be read as dealing with a specific situation and it would be wrong to push the application of that teaching beyond that specific instance. Just because I'm trying to find answers that make sense to me, I must lack faith.

I don't lack faith, I lack certainty and I'm fine with that. That doesn't mean I stop looking for answers, but I find that certainty is often the opposite of faith. We try to grab onto and hold to dogmas that we've made up and call that faith. So it's faithless if we say, "Wait a minute, where did that come from? Maybe we should do away with that."

If we look at the great people of faith in the Bible it wasn't an extreme certainty they had in spite of everything else, instead they trusted that God was good and would provide for them and that was that. (In fact faith was less belief than it was action). Abraham argued with God all the time, and yet today we see the idea of arguing with God as lacking faith. Isn't the willingness to dialogue with someone (be they human or divine) the greatest show of respect? So why can't we have faith that God wants us to argue? Why is certainty the ultimate expression of faith? Isn't moving forward even with doubt or questions the real statement of faith? I don't know where my current questioning and dialoguing with God will lead me, but I trust that it will be someplace good. So I keep moving forward...

The Family

With my brother Ben having joined the fray here at Luther's Monkey, it is time for me to lay out the schematics of my family.

Ben is the only one of my siblings that needs to be explained as my step-brother (either that or I was such an SOB the parents wanted to try for a different Ben--which, if you know my violent past, is a possibility) but in my family there's no such thing as a step-sibling. We all call each other brothers and sisters except when it gets to the two Ben's. That's when everything falls apart.

To help clear up the confusion the family tacked on the initial of our last names. I was Ben I, and he was Ben K. This was fine for everyone else, but Ben and I really weren't too keen on this idea. I argued nobly that I was the older Ben so I should get first dibs on being just plain Ben and he should be Ben K. I forget exactly Ben's argument but I'm sure it was something horribly nefarious. Either way, it was a draw and the initials stood. (Although, frankly, Ben The Other--as he's been calling himself in the comments--is a pretty good designation--I wish I thought of that one).

There was the phase when all the kids were given nick-names (was it Jennifer who started that?) and I got the misnomer: Benign, and Ben received the worst of them all: Bengay. I can still remember the conversations trying to get him to buy into it. "It doesn't mean you're gay...it's like the medicine! You know...it's like saying your healing, helpful...Or it could mean gay in the happy sense! You're the happy Ben! Ok?" Needless to say this didn't go over too well.

Then came the summer when I was Big Ben and he was Little Ben. But he was already taller than me (most people are) and these names quickly fell by the wayside.

Anyway, I thought a break down of the family might be helpful to all those confused people who are not related to me--

The Siblings:
Jennifer, Brad, Sam, Ben, Ben (The Other), Anne, Mandy

• Jennifer, Sam and Ben (The Other) are my step-siblings
  
• Brad is my full brother from our mom's first marriage.
• Our mom and my step-siblings' dad got married and had Anne and Mandy.

The Next Generation:
Moira, Evie, Inga, Andrei, Alex, Elena and coming soon: Bulie!

• Jaime and I were the first to get married (when we were about 12 years old or something), and we had Moira and Evie
• Jennifer then got married to Dan and adopted Inga, Andrei, Alex and Elena (all in the span of about 5 minutes--or so it seemed).
• Ben (The Other) met and married the charming Irish lass Julie and they are now expecting their first child who, as of right now, prefers to go by Bulie.
  

When you add in Anne and Mandy's boyfriends (Ben and Tim, respectively--yes another Ben with the same middle name as Ben K.) needless to say, keeping things straight during family get togethers can be pretty crazy. Fun...but crazy.

Everyone is probably more confused than ever, but that's really the best I can do.

Does Culture Matter?

In the comments to the post on questioning scripture, Jaime brought up the issue of the hierarchy in the Jewish Bible. Questions were then asked about the Bible contradicting itself, how can that be if it's really God's word, etc. My quick answer would've been, yes it contradicts itself and yes it's God's word...I don't have a problem with that. Fortunately Jaime thinks about what she says more than I do and brought up the issue of culture. I think that this is an important question that we both have and so I thought I'd bring up here in an actual post.

Does the Bible contradict itself? Again, I think quite obviously it does, and there are many scribal errors that have permeated the text we have now. Some examples that Jaime gave:

• In 2 Sam 24, it is the anger of the Lord that incites David to count his men, and so brings a plague among the people of Israel (interestingly this is one of the passages where God repents and changes his mind...but that's a different post). In the parallel passage in 1 Chron 21, the Chronicler had a problem with God punishing Israel for something that was His idea, and makes Satan the bad guy.
  
• Gen 20.12 makes it clear that Abraham and Sarah are half-siblings, a marriage which is not allowed in the Torah.
  
• Just for fun, a large scribal error is in 1 Sam 11. At some point the scribe missed a whole paragraph that gives some background to this story. We have a copy of the paragraph in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QSamA).
• Even in the same set of books though, there are differences, the most famous being with the Ten Commandments: Why are the Jews supposed to observe the Sabbath? Exodus 20: because God made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Deut 5: because you were slaves in Egypt so give your slaves a rest. Which is the right one?
  

This list could go on and on. Is it all God's word? This, honestly, I'm a bit hesitant on. Right now, I'll say yes, because I believe in a dynamic God--a God who takes into account people where they are and what they believe or know. God addresses different cultures and different people, well....differently. Very few things in the Bible are set in stone. The problem is how do we know what is cultural and what is truth?

I'm against the death penalty, because I believe in a God of second chances and forgiveness...but the Torah certainly shows a God endorsing the death penalty for everything from adultery to children who disrespect their parents. I think of it as God dealing with people and where they're at in their societies and times . We (most everywhere in the world but the US and fundamentalist Muslim regimes) have moved into a society that acknowledges the worth of people's lives over an arcane sense of justice. Isn't this a better place to be?

What else is a case of God responding to the culture of the time? Could homosexuality be one of those things? Certainly the role of women in the Church; certainly slavery and animal sacrifice. I guess this is the question: What's cultural, what's not? What should we die for and what should we be willing to be merciful on? Any thoughts?

Completely Pro-Life

Yes, I'm pro-life. I don't like to say I'm anti-abortion, because, for me, that only touches on one point of being pro-life. For me this is what being pro-life means:

• Against abortion, except when the life of the mother is in danger.
• Against the death penalty, period.
• Against genocide and any activity that suports, encourages or ignores it.
• For the civil rights of all people regardless of race, creed, color, sex or sexual orientation.
• For caring for the poor and needy, orphaned and widowed.
• For the humane treatment of animals.
• For responsible protection of the environment.

This is why I generally vote Democratic. As stated before, I have a real problem with people who want to equate Christianity with the Republican party. They only hit on one of my issues, and honestly, while I hate abortion, it is really only a blip on the screen as far as the Bible is concerned. I don't know of one passage in the Bible that is directly against abortion, but I know I can show you so many passages against the oppression of the poor it will make you dizzy. I can even show more verses for the ethical treatment of your animals than I can about abortion. So yes, I'm against abortion but I'm more for life and living than anything else.

Stone Mountain Confederate Fun

Having spent some of my formative years as a Yankee living in South Carolina, I can tell you that the Civil War is not dead. No, no, my friends, it is alive and well. If you haven't lived or spent time in the South, you might not know this, but it's true.

I was reminded of this yesterday when my grandparents stopped by. Despite being nearly 80, they still spent a lot of time traveling around the country visiting friends and lovely historical landmarks such as Stone Mountain Park in Georgia. Last night they were showing us some pictures of their visit to this "Eighth Wonder of the World" (according to the brochure).

The main attraction of Stone Mountain Park is a gigantic Confederate Memorial carving featuring Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis on horse-back. (The brochure didn't say Confederate President--just President. Hmmmm.)

On the front of the brochure was a large photo of a happy African-American family in the skyride that takes visitors 825 feet up to get a better view of the carving. Hmmmm. Does anyone else think this is in bad taste? What are they doing? Celebrating their oppressors? "Hey, honey, let's take the kids to see those fellas that would have kept us in chains. It'll be a fun day!"

Yes, I can just hear the white Southerners who created this bit of propaganda--"We're gonna put this family on the cover. Look how happy they is. Them black folk loved President Jefferson Davis. Nobody liked Lincoln. Them slaves knew they had it good. We was good to our slaves, but that Lincoln done got ev'rybody riled up about bein' free and NOW look at 'em! Nothin' but drugs and pimps and bling, bling. Well, we're gonna show them Yankees! Show 'em all the happy, well-adjusted blacks who knew what a good thing they had. Black folk celebratin' the Confederacy! We shoulda won that war."

Celebrating the progressive, integrated culture of the 19th century South.

Questioning Scripture

This question has been on my mind for awhile now, and, no, it has nothing to do with the DaVinci Code.

The main question I have about scripture is that the Bible never defines itself. So, what is in and what is out is by its very nature a tradition (something which most evangelicals have a problem with). Therefore, if you want to hold the Bible as authoritative, the only source of truth and understanding of God, you must accept the following paradox: the Bible is never defined in the Bible and as such is unBiblical, or you have to accept the authority of tradition, which I do, but by its very nature could be wrong on somethings, and could be challenged by a new insight or understanding. My understanding, right now, is that what is "scripture" is a tradition, and any tradition should be revisited and examined anew.

Part of the problem I have with the traditional understanding of the passage in 2 Timothy is that the New Testament didn't exist, and would exist for a couple of hundred years after its writing. If you look at the context of the letter surrounding it, Paul is encouraging Timothy to hold to the Scripture which was taught to him from his youth. If anything this is the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, not the New Testament. This verse used by so many evangelicals to give authority to scripture actually undermines the authority of the New Testament!

But, in the end, I wonder if we need to redefine what we are referring to as "scripture." Not in the sense that it needs to be more narrowly defined (i.e. only the Gospels; or the Gospels and certain Pauline letters, etc.) but more broadly defined. For example, Jude quotes the Assumption of Moses and Ethiopic Enoch (both Pseudepigraphic books which we have today); should these be seen as some form of scripture, because they make up such a large portion of this book of the Bible?

Or can a Christian accept the teachings of Christ, but feel uncomfortable with the direction that Paul took it? So maybe that Christian loves the Gospels and maybe other books of the Bible, also studies some other writings contemporaneous with the Bible but rejects Paul's letters. Or someone loves the Church Fathers and studies them as she explores Christ's teachings and tries to live her life as they interpreted Jesus rather than how Paul interpreted Jesus.

We could take this to modern writers as well, couldn't we? Should the writings of C.S. Lewis be considered scripture? What about Calvin, Luther or some other Reformation leaders? What about the Pope's writings? Some of what John Paul II wrote seemed quite inspired to me.

Finally, what do we do with those who disagree with us? Is it possible that trying to deal with 5 Christians you might have 5 different scriptures? Is that really a problem? Can't we find some way to accept diversity among Christians? Is the issue of scripture really a hill to die on?

Anyway, these are some of the questions I have on the authority of scripture, some of them are thought out and some are just off the top of my head. Any thoughts/comments/arguments will be welcome provided all remains civil!

A Cheap Attempt at Hits

This is Aviv:

She's a friend of mine in the Hebrew department about to get her 15 minutes of fame. She's one of the stars of the new MTV show Fresh Meat Challenge. I'm one of those sick people trying to ride on her coattails. So let me say this again: Aviv on the New MTV show Fresh Meat Challenge.

The sad irony is that, not only do I not have cable, I don't even have a TV, so I will not be able to watch Aviv on MTV's Fresh Meat Challenge. I think she needs to have a weekly party so that we can watch her do her thing on the Fresh Meat Challenge. I do have to say Aviv, who is staring in MTV's Fresh Meat Challenge, is a pretty cool person, and I'm sure she did great. She's got Israeli military experience, a can-do attitude and is a wonderful person that everyone gets along with.

It's actually kinda' funny, one of the freshmen in the department is a reality tv show junkie and is just soaking up this whole TV Star thing. But Aviv, to her credit, really isn't acting all big headed, and she's holding on to her knowledge about the show, Fresh Meat Challenge, pretty darn tight. She's not saying a word, not a single word. . . .um......So, I guess that's it...if anyone can watch it, and give her your support, that would be cool!

I have no shame so I'm going to say it all again just to make sure my blog shows up prominently in the google search: Aviv, Fresh Meat Challenge, FreshMeat Challenge, Aviv, mtv, Real World / Road Rules Challenge : Fresh Meat, Australia, Aviv, Cast of Fresh Meat Challenge.

Yes, no shame at all.

I Just Gotta' Be Me

After 20+ years of trying to be everything to everyone, I'm finally learning what it means to be me. Scary, ain't it? This is coming out of a series of conversations with a friend of mine at my church who has been trying to get me to sign up for the church's softball team. I tried to be polite: "I'm not really the athletic, softball type." He didn't let it go at that, but kept pushing. The fear of conflict person in me said, "I'll think about it." That bought me some time, but not a full reprive. The next time he mentioned it, I must have given him some sense of commitment, because, when it came time to sign up for the league last week, he was utterly amazed when I said I wasn't going to do it. I don't think he heard me right, because this morning he asked me again, and again I said no, and again he was totally shocked.

You said you were going to do it!
No, I didn't, I said I would think about it.
Come on man, I was looking forward to spending our Mondays together!
Bob, I gotta be who I am and sports is NOT who I am.

Finally, he got it. You see sports in any form is really not who I am. My dad loves sports of most anykind, but especially baseball. My brother is equally a sports fanatic. Somehow this passed me by. I'm not athletic, I'm not co-ordinated, my eight year old is probably in better physical shape than I am. Come on! I nearly failed Gym class in High School! I kid you not! I got a C. . . One of the most humiliating parts of my high school career was an exam in Gym class where I had to throw a soft ball from third base to first without it touching the ground. I had three tries. Did I make it? Not even close. So am I going to sign on to the church softball team and humiliate myself every week for who knows how long? Heck no!

So, no more being who I'm not. This softball thing is just the beginning of a process for me. I've spent too many years being afraid of what people thought of me, and it's been really damaging. This is playing out in my social/church world and in my blog. Part of why I've been lacking posts is because I'm kinda' in a theological/spiritual funk, which oftenmeans a lot of questions and no answers. I'm getting comfortable with that, but often I come down with some...unorthodox answers, and I'm afraid to share them. Or I'm afraid to share what I'm questioning (and I've questioned practically every major Christian doctrine known to man) because I'm afraid of backlash and attacks.

When I get in these funks, I'm inclined to write about them but I'm also afraid that too many overly angsty/deep/theological posts might scare people away (all three of you). Or bore people, or some such thing. But I started this kinda' as an online journal where I can write about anything and get feedback on anything. So that's what I'm going to do. Unfortunately for you that means having to slog through some boring, possibly trite discussions and questions about Christianity and what not. So that's my fair warning too everyone......so there....Oh, and if you're out heretic hunting I offer the following:

Relief

I have written before about being an idiot in front of my Hebrew professors. Last time, I blamed it on the lack of coffee, but in all reality being an idiot in public is a big fear of mine. Especially now that I'm going for my graduate degree, I'm always thinking to myself. "Why did you say that? You know it's not that! Now they think you're an idiot!" Or some other less intelligent person or slacker in the class actually knows the answer and shows me up, because I was having a brain lapse. I hate that.

But today, I got some relief from all of that anxiety. One of my professors said, he doesn't care when we have a brain lapse, or just say the first thing that comes to mind even if it's wrong. For him, it's a part of the learning process. He said he doesn't even grade on class participation, because he's experienced that some people come to class and just soak it in, but man they get it. They'll hand in some terrifically amazing paper or midterm but never say a word in class. They have to process it and that's cool with him.

This is a relief, because I have a running list of every stupid, idiotic or basic mistake I have made in front of my professors. . . and it keeps getting longer and longer. I gain some sollace from my other friends in the Hebrew program, as we hangout laughing at our stupidity and sharing our anxiety. At least I'm not alone. But now, I can toss it all out the window! No worries! I can forget about the time I was reading Hebrew in front of my advisor and just couldn't for the life of me pronounce the most basic word right. I can forget about shouting out the wrong answer to the same question three times in a row today in my Biblical Hebrew class (I'll spare the boring geeky details). I can forget, everytime I get something wrong about the Prophets or Genesis or some basic idea in front of the person considering me for a TA position for course on the Prophets. Because mistakes are a part of learning!


All my catalogued wrongs will just go right out the window!





Who am I kidding? No they won't. . .