Syncretism As the Solution?

This article from the Boston Globe contains an interesting take on how religions should consider each other. This article pleads for more than a peaceful coexistence. Instead it ponders a world where 9/11 and Mumbai would be impossible because the great faiths would get along and see that they only have a piece of the great spiritual pie to themselves. Many religions will be willing to join this kind of effort as they are linked by a spiritual core of explaining the world by the world. Despite the wishes of Jenkins (the author of the Boston Globe article) bemoaning an age past of syncretism, Christianity cannot be syncretistic in its outlook. We proclaim a faith of a Creator who is distinct from all and created all. Worship not directed to the Creator (Yahweh) is idolatry and finally can't satisfy the longings of the human heart. It is for this reason that syncretism is profoundly unloving and unsatisfactory. Only if we hate people should we go this route of syncretism between the religions.

Helpful Economic Perspective

I was forwarded in an email this article. I find it a much needed and helpful perspective. It's got me musing. Hope it does the same for you.

The Scary World On the Other Side of the Slider

For well over a year God's been working on me in a big area of rebellion in my own life. My big sin ... refusing to be content to be a mere creature. I've been tempted to dismiss this as a little thing. But the longer I've dwelt on it and meditated on my own attitudes in comparison to God's Word, the more I've become convinced it's one of the most insidious and prevalent sins I commit.

It's insidious because the more I think about it the more I realize that multiple daily sins flow from it. It's prevalence is staggering in that this sinful way of thinking has been for 19 years of Christian living my default mode of life.

Let me explain the title and then describe a bit of what I've learned. It's as though in my life there is a sliding glass door I can see through. The world on the other side of the sliding glass door is more pleasant, more honoring to God, less stressful, and involves living in the real world God made. I don't live in that world except rarely. I can see how nice that world would be but it scares me.

I've always been one of those annoying type A people (well at least annoying for non A's). I've always believed I could get it done in the world. And I did well in the world before I began doing ministry. Then things got scary.

For years I've taught that the more you believe John 15:5 the better your discipleship will go. But my practice of that verse has not kept up with my teaching of it. In the spiritual realm things are quite different than in the realm of making good grades or playing a sport or leading a team. While all of those activities require God given skills, if you use the skills you'll likely succeed in the world's eyes. Not so in ministry.

One can do all the right things in ministry and still not "succeed" as many measure success (Harry Reeder says a false way of evaluating success is the "nickels and noses" test). No, ministry is a God thing in which you play a part but don't fully determine (or many times even partially determine) the outcome. That is, there is much ambiguity in ministry as there is in life in general. And that's where things get scary for me.

Why are they scary? Because I can't be the one in control of how things end up. In my more lucid moments I can see that I'm not the one in control of how things end up and that this is a good thing. If only those moments were more frequent.

I look through the sliding glass door and see how wonderful it would be to be comfortable being a mere creature and yet I feel so far from that. I show all the symptoms of wanting to be God instead of being content to be a creature. What are my symptoms you ask? Let me name a few:

• Fear/worry/anxiety
• An "I can do it" spirit evidenced by relative prayerlessness
• Expectations of myself and others which are unrealistic
• Perpetual rehashing of things said or done with prayer and wisdom which didn't work out well
• Concern over the reactions of people to whom I've acted righteously but over whom I have no control

Maybe you exhibit some of these symptoms as well. With the help of CJ Mahaney's helpful little book Humility I've come to see that my unwillingness to be content within my creaturely limits is plain old pride. Like my first parents Adam and Eve I'm daily seduced by Satan's oldest line, "you can be like God". I'm coming to see that I wasn't made for that.

So much of the expectation I put on myself about the past, present, and future isn't stress God expects me to carry. I'm now in the business of trying to see that the world on the other side of the slider - where I'm content to be a mere creature - is the desireable world. I'm seeking for God to convince me of my limits and to help me embrace and enjoy them rather than living in unreality where I expect of myself that which God doesn't.

Unknotting a Challenging Text

This morning a good friend emailed me this question, "What's your take on Rom 7: 9;11? Paul, had already claimed to be dead in Christ, a bit confusing. Love to here your thoughts."

Here's my response....

Why don't you pick easy passage for me to interact with you about?

I think where Paul is going is to say something similar to Romans 3:20. Before we are aware of the expectation of God - to keep his commands perfectly - we think ourselves alive. But once we see ourselves in light of the law, suddenly we see that the way we've been living is sinful. To our apprehension what was "okay" before suddenly is seen in a new light. Where I thought I was alive I now realized I was actually dead and the knowledge of sin brought that about. I can't recall when you realized that you were a sinner. When I realized I was, it felt like I died. I had always thought I was a good kid and when God brought me to the realization that I was bad, not good, it was depressing.

By the way, I think in background Paul is here reflecting in Romans 7 on both his pre-Christian experience and also his "in Christ" experience. These verses are a look back in my opinion.

Okay back to the main point. The commandments are supposed to be the best path, the best that life can be lived. They are to be life and joy. Paul isn't trying to say something like, "the law has the same power as the Holy Spirit to bring life to the dead". Though Psalm 119 says some great things about the law, that isn't the point Paul is trying to make. God's commandments are supposed to be a life giving blessing but when we realize that we can't and don't keep them we realized we've been duped and the law that was supposed to be good for us becomes a curse to us due to our disobedience. This deceit is like that of Hebrews 3:13.

How Many Assumptions Can You Count?

I was just reading this article on the Boston Globe website. It is stunning in the assumptions which the writer brings to the table. Let me highlight a few with a few comments thrown in.

• "An increase in the price for prescription birth control obtained at
  campus health centers has some college officials worried that students
  will be at greater risk for unwanted pregnancies." - unless the students were abstinent resulting in zero risk for unwanted pregnancies.
  
• "The price increase has left Massachusetts college campuses scrambling to accommodate students' needs." - this sure seems like a huge assumption. Since when has contraception been a "need" rather than a desire?
• "Imani Williams, a sophomore at UMass-Boston, said, 'If the problem is
  children having children, then contraception shouldn't cost so much.' - how can it be that no one is thinking about abstinence as a form of contraception that costs nothing?
• "Angus G. McQuilken, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood League of
  Massachusetts, said his organization has been lobbying Congress to
  change the law. 'Birth control is basic healthcare. Making birth
  control less affordable for college students and low-income women is
  bad public policy, and counter to the goal of reducing unintended
  pregnancies,' he said. - if it's basic healthcare then why don't we overtly tell young people who don't want to get pregnant that the healthiest they can be is abstinent?

The above, besides being annoying reveals that the culture assumes that kids are rabid sexual creatures incapable of not having sex and that we should do all we can to support them indulge their animal nature. This is not only harmful but demeaning to those made in the image of God.

A Brief Critique of Torture

Early on in my blog career I considered posting on torture when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. I'm not quite sure why I eventually didn't post anything. But the topic nags me periodically and today I felt like saying something.

My thoughts are not a well developed nuanced political philosophy. They more flow from some personal growth I've been experiencing in my own Christian life. Believe it or not I'm going to link my sinful tendencies towards worry, anxiety, and fear of the future to torture. I believe them linked because both seek knowledge of the future which isn't available to us as mere creatures. That is both are an idolatry, a seeking to be God instead of a mere creature.

Let me carry this brief critique forward with some questions.

1) Do individuals and governments have a responsibility to care for life taking measures to protect it? Yes. The positive side of the sixth commandment requires caring for our lives and the lives of others.

2) Can torture by a government be a legitimate means of caring for the lives of the people governed? No.

I know that seems bold and narrow and straight forward with no gray areas. Personal and and national security can be an idol. Perhaps you know a germophobe. They're miserable to be around because they try to so protect they and their children's lives from germs that they can hardly do anything with anybody. They're paralyzed by their fear. They do foolish things because of their fear of the future; knowledge of which is unavailable to them.

I liken torture to this same kind of thinking. Unwilling to trust God with what may well be a violent end to the lives of some of our citizens we instead disobey God through dehumanizing people. The seeking of information about the future can be an idolatry in itself. Is torture really something different than other clearly pagan ways of trying to find out the future? Isn't all this an inability to reconcile our finitude as creatures with our lust for knowledge? Isn't this precisely what Eve and Adam sought in the garden, to be like God?

These are preliminary thoughts for sure. But it's an angle on torture that I haven't heard but which needs to be heard.

NOTE: Below is an edited version of a post which originally went up in November 2005. I've reposted this in an edited form because I've become aware of a "must read" book that needs to be added to this reading sequence. See the section marked NEW below for that book and why I think it's important.

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In my last post I indicated the usefulness of reading the works of Dr. Peter R. Jones. In fairness to the reader I should mention that I'm a personal friend of Dr. Jones and also serve on the board of CWIPP, the ministry which provides a support structure for Dr. Jones' work. Thus I am not a neutral recommender but rather a enthusiastic supporter. But as I hope you'll find below, it's for good reason.

In my years of knowing Dr. Jones and ministering among different groups of people I've been asked with some frequency, "Why should I read what Dr. Jones writes?" At some point I get weary of repeating myself and so this post is an attempt to answer that question in a rather full form.

The reason why Peter Jones is an important current author to read begins with thinkers who ministered beginning in the latter half of the 19th century. As David Naugle has ably documented in Worldview: The History of a Concept (well worth the read on its own merits) worldview thinking while necessarily present since the beginning of time became more conscious from 1850 onwards. One of the seminal thinkers in developing worldview thinking was Abraham Kuyper. If the reader is to fully appreciate reading Dr. Jones' work your first stop on a literary trail must be Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism. This will introduce you to the concept of Christianity as total system of thought which touches every aspect of personal life and culture.

To understand where Dr. Jones fits into the picture we must move on from Kuyper to J. Gresham Machen. Machen's Christianity and Liberalism reads in the words of one of my deacons, "like it was written yesterday" though it hails from 1923. Machen, in the same stream of theological worldview thinking as Kuyper, prophetically (in the forthtelling sense of telling the truth as it is in foreboding terms) announced that Liberal Christianity was not simply an attempt to modernize Christianity (as it's proponents stated). In reality Liberal Chrisitanity - in Machen's words- was/is an entirely different religion akin to paganism. Dr. Jones' work is essentially the continuation of Machen's prophetic ministry but in more detail and covering other religious traditions in addition to Liberal Christianity. Machen wrote in a time when there appeared to be only two players on the world religious field, Christianity and Liberal Christianity. In our time a better metaphor would be that we have religious alphabet soup (see the previous 4 posts for how this metaphor works out).

But before we begin thinking about why Dr. Jones is important to read today we have stop at one more spot on a strand of the 20th century web of thinkers. Kuyper ministered into the beginning of the 20th century while Machen ministered in the 1920's-40's primarily. Dr. Jones took his PhD in the early 70's and didn't begin to write material about the resurgence of paganism until mid 1990's. In the years between Machen and Jones, Francis Schaeffer ministered ably through the work of L'abri. Most importantly for our thinking in this post is Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? (the link is to a recently released DVD set which is very reasonably priced. You can also find the book of the same name here.) If you've never had the privilege of reading this book or watching the film production, do yourself a favor and get it for Christmas. Schaeffer reviews simply and helpfully the history of the world relating historical events, religion, and the arts in a high quality production shot in fabulous locations. Most importantly Schaeffer stood (he produced How Should We Then Live in 1977 and died in 1984) in the prophetic tradition of Machen. Some details are important for helping the reader see why Schaeffer is an important figure.

Near the end of How Should We Then Live Schaeffer - after reviewing the worldviews which have existed in the world from the beginning - gives his opinion as to where he thinks things will head in the 80's and beyond. Prophetically he predicted that religion in the West having rejected rationality and the Christian worldview would begin to move eastern in its religious thinking. This as it turns out was an accurate prediction. The alphabet religious soup with interfaith services, Jewbu's (that is a person who is both Jewish and Buddhist at the same time, see this link for more details) and Liberal Christians emphasizing not only a lack of miracles (the issue in Machen's day) but also overtly pagan forms of spirituality (i.e. labyrinths, centered prayer, etc.) is a product of the West going East religiously.

NEW: One more work should be read before moving on to Peter Jones' works. That book is titled The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western Religious Tradition. It is by James Herrick, a rhetoric professor at Hope College in Holland, MI. The reason this book is a "must read" is that it fills in why and how Schaeffer's prediction comes true. If Schaeffer is the history of the last 2500 years of thinking, Herrick is an intense view of only spirituality for the last 500. This is one of my top books of all time.

Now we can talk about where Dr. Jones fits on this strand of the 20th century (and now 21st century) web of thinkers. Summarizing the above we could simply say Kuyper developed Christian worldview thinking while Machen observed the jettisoning of it in Liberal Christianity. Surveying the history of religious thought and the particular thought forms the 20th century produced, Schaeffer predicted that the outcome of what Machen observed would be that the West would become Eastern in its religious thinking. What Scheffer predicted Dr. Jones documents as actually occurring in our present culture.

It would be useful - as I've hinted at above - to read the works cited above from Kuyper, Machen, and Schaeffer (in that order!) before reading Dr. Jones' books. This is not required but it will help you get a sense of the theological and worldview environment which preceded our current alphabet soup. If you take up my exhortation to read Dr. Jones, the place to begin is with his little book Gospel Truth, Pagan Lies. (all of the books I'm going to mention are available from the online store at the CWIPP website) This may seem simplistic at first but will help lay the foundation for what else you may read. Next I would read Spirit Wars. This book documents the rise of the pagan worldview in the West. Then you'll be ready for Capturing the Pagan Mind. This work is less documentation of the rise of a new movement and more helping you relate what you've learned thus far to how to believe and practice your faith as well as equip you for the massive task of evangelizing pagans. Hasn't everyone and everyone's friend read the Da Vinci Code? Dr. Jones' latest work - co-written with James Garlow - responds to the worldview claims of Dan Brown's influential book. If you are seeking to talk to a friend about the true Christ who's been influenced by the Da Vinci code, this would be a useful read.

Well as I advertised at the outset, I'm not a dispassionate observer. One of the reasons I serve on the board of CWIPP is because the work which Dr. Jones is doing is absolutely crucial in equipping the church to answer thoughtfully a growing paganism in our midst. Tolle legge! (for those who don't know at least little Latin, that translates "take up and read")

I receive an email each week from Focus on the Family that highlights news they think will be of interest to their readers (in this case pastors). One recent news bite made me go searching for more. As many of you know, I'm good friends with Dr. Peter Jones and serve on the board of CWiPP the ministry that employs Dr. Jones. Over the last 10 years I've been highly influenced by Dr. Jones and his insightful work on the ongoing reemergence of pagan spirituality in America and across the developed world. With this background perhaps now you can understand why this article makes perfect sense to me. Go read it and tell me your reaction. Okay, did you read it? What was your reaction? I suspect something along the lines of being horrified. But to me - with Dr. Jones insights in the back of my mind - this makes perfect sense. The school is ELCA affiliated. The ELCA long ago abandoned Christian orthodoxy for radical Liberalism. Back in the 1920's J. Gresham Machen in his classic Christianity and Liberalism (which you ought to immediately go buy and read if you've not) pointed out that Liberal Christianity was not just an aberrant form of Christianity but rather it was paganism. Okay fast forward to St. Olaf hiring a Hindu to run their Religion Department. For a moment think of a beautiful cherry pie. Paganism teaches all religions are actually unified at their center. All the wedges of a cherry pie unite at the middle. Paganism realizes that all religious are not duplicate thus the reason that wedges of pie have some differences at the edge of the pie plate. But at their core - according to paganism - all religious are one. This is the kind of theology that St. Olaf has bought into. If all religions are one, then who cares whether an adherent to a religion other than Christianity heads up the religion department of a historically Christian school? Though - to an ELCA pagan - their version of Christianity and Hinduism have minor differences they are united at their core. This is the reason why this hire makes perfect sense.

BTW - this is also the reason why multiculturalism and diversity training are so big at colleges and universities these days. Cultures flows from worldviews which in themselves are inherently religious (I know that's a packed statement, see the articles at this link for background on that statement. Thus if all religions are one and none are thus superior then no worldview and thus no culture can be superior. Instead all distinctions must disappear and absolute leveling of cultures and religions must be forced upon people as the most basic tenet of pagan faith.

Recently a friend related she struggles with stress and worry. This struck a chord with me. Probably for my whole life in Christ, these particular concerns (fear, stress, worry, and anxiety) have marked my path prominently. But in the last year or so, theHoly Spirit has opened up my heart to me so that I might see what lies behind these sins. I thought it might benefit my friend as well as others if I shared how God is at work in me.

Before I do so, I should commend a book and an article to the readers of this blog. Although written for women, I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone Elyse Fitzpatricks Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety. You can buy the book at this link. I read this book quickly some years ago so as to know if it would help a struggling parishioner. For all I know all I say below is basically reiterating the book without me knowing it. I hope not, but at least youll know that the book is there.

The article is by Randy Alcorn whom I love as an author. You can find his ministry website at www.epm.org and a very helpful article for the worriers of the world at this link.

Now that Ive given you some resources written by others let me share what it is that God has been working in my heart.

Life is hard. We live in a broken place as broken people surrounded by broken people. Life is filled with many unknowns. Its filled with much pain, frequently from the hands of other sinners who sin around us causing havoc. My points below are not to minimize any of this. We are prone to think because of what the previous sentences say that our fear, stress, worry, and anxiety are acceptable, legitimate, or even necessary. I have thought this in the past. Im becoming convinced that those descriptors are untrue.

As Ive pondered with the help of the Holy Spirit my own heart, Ive recognized a major contributor to my fear, stress, worry, and anxiety is the fact that I cant see the future. Duh you might be thinking. But think more carefully. Who is the only person who knows the future? God alone knows the future. I can predict the future at times but usually Im worse at it than your typical meteorologist.

How many times have you and I stressed, worried, fretted, been anxious and fearful about something that never transpired? For me, it is 95% of the time. The 5% of the time what Ive worried about has come true, it likely not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I look back on a life filled with worry as a wasted life. I spent much time and energy worrying instead of working.

As I indicated above, God is changing my perspective. I sense that God is seeking to convince me that Im only a creature and all He expects of me is to fulfill my responsibilities as someone who only knows the past and present, not the future. Let me unpack those two insights.

Im only a creature. The temptation Satan used against Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden revolved around them becoming like God. We still fall for the same thing only more subtly. Wed never say out loud to anyone that we want to act like God. But what are we seeking to do when we fear, stress, worry, and are anxious? We are seeking insight into a future that is unavailable to us. We are fighting against the fact that we are merely weak creatures and we dont like it. We are seeking to have the knowledge only God has and getting emotionally upset because we cant have it. But yet we keep trying to get something which we cant have, werent designed to have, and would be dangerous for us to have.

The second insight is move from habits of heart to habits of daily life. What God is teaching me is to ask a particular as I go throughout my day. Heres the question, Lord, what do you expect of me right now.Why this question? I have found to my great shame that Ive been consumed with seeking knowledge and taking responsibility for matters for which God doesnt hold me responsible. Ridiculously, Ive been holding myself to a standard that God does not. This sad result of this is that things that God would have me do, I havent done because Ive been busy doing things He doesnt expect me to do.

An example would probably help flesh this out. This past Saturday I had the privilege of moderating a portion my local Presbyterys quarterly meeting. A few minutes before the meeting was to start the moderator approached me and asked if I would moderate a portion of the meeting because he wanted to participate in the debate. I acceded to his request but immediately began getting anxious. I thought to myself, Well if I knew that this was coming up, I would have brushed up on my Roberts Rules, I would have prayed more ahead of time, I would have .... In retrospect I was anxious because I was surprised and didnt like it. I didnt like the out of control feeling of it all (even though I was honored by the request). Frankly, I didnt like being a creature with limited knowledge at that moment. I sought in that moment to be responsible for preparation that was impossible for me to bring about and that is what caused my anxiety.

What did God expect of me in that circumstance? He didnt expect me to be prepared. He didnt expect me to have any time to pray or practically prepare except for a few moments of desperate pleas for grace for a responsibility Id never undertaken before. He expected me to lean not on my own knowledge or strength but to lean on Him, His knowledge, His grace, and His power at work despite my weakness. This I find is what Im resisting in the midst of fear, worry, anxiety, and stress. Im resisting simply being a limited, dependent creature and resisting in the form of rebellion that goes by the name self-reliance.

So heres the practical way Im seeking to move forward and perhaps a way you can move forward if you struggle with stress, worry, fear, and anxiety by Gods grace. First, I ask myself as I begin to struggle, Is knowledge about what Im stressing over (or fearing, worrying, being anxious about) available to me as a creature? Second, ask myself, What does God expect of me regarding this circumstance?

Why do these questions help? What I find is that the first question gets me off my own hook that I put myself on. I couldntknow that my friend was going to ask me to moderate a portion of that meeting last Saturday, so I have permission to not beat myself up that I wasnt prepared. I couldnt have been prepared. The second question makes me realize that a hook of Gods making exists and thats where I need to go. I need to go there because God does know the future, He loves me, what is going on doesnt surprise Him in the least AND He has a good plan for how He is going to work all things out. When Im tempted to worry I need to know what He would have me do TODAY regarding an issue rather than speculate about a future I cant know as a mere creature.

Seems simple doesnt it? I agree. But as I ponder my anxiety, worry, fear, and stress these are the things going through my heart. Im seeking a control I dont have. Im seeking a knowledge that is impossible for me to obtain. Im seeking to be self-sufficient and smart enough to anticipate the future and avoid embarrassment over being simply a creature. Im seeking to be independent of God instead of radically dependent.

Let me know what you think in the comments about your experience with fear, worry, anxiety and stress and how God is at work in you revealing your heart sins and producing heart change.

You might be interested to read this article in the Washington Post. It seems some other people in the world are also concerned about children in particular reading the "other book". Sadly "ministers" or "Christian leaders" are not on the list of concerned people. One wonders if most of the people mentioned in the Post article are concerned because they think children - from the pagan point of view - will miss that they are one with the world if they never get into the world. Obviously as Christians we ought to be concerned to not only enjoy God's world but also to "get behind" Creation to the Creator who is to be worshipped.