Posts Tagged ‘Church’

Past Futurism

Posted April 13, 2009 by Charles
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crew111bI’m sitting down watching the pilot episode of SeaQuest:DSV, and aside from being hilarious in production quality and silly dialogue, I can’t believe what some of the most creative set designers on TV thought would be in use technologically 20 years from now.

There are computers with 50 inch screens that are controlled by what look like steam-powered levers. The computers 0n the bridge are silver panels with giant plastic buttons, and there’s not a touch screen to be seen. Plus Jonathan Brandis is wearing a Marlins jersey…like they’ll be around in 2032.

The phones are corded, the walkie talkies are yellow and grey plastic, no headsets. And while space may be the “final frontier”, the sea is the next. We seem to think that the future holds no changes in thinking or approach, only the ability to do the particular things we dream about now. I wonder what we’ll think 10 years from now when we look back at Minority Report, or I, Robot?

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Category: Technology

Ideology is Good

Posted March 30, 2009 by Charles
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777-5w31prop8yesembeddedprod_affiliate4You can learn a lot about a culture by looking at how it’s language developed. Take Latin as an example. It’s got something like 38 different words for “kill” (that’s a rough unscientific estimate…from my head). Kill in war. Kill in battle. Kill in a duel. Kill a stranger. Kill your brother. Kill your mother. Kill a baby. Kill a schmaby. That’s because they did a lot of killing.

We’ve got our own issues with that. Do you know how many different words we have for things like “mad”? Angry, frustrated, resentful, livid, exercised, agitated, irritated, wrathful, heated, ticked, peeved, P.O’d…. Or sad: depressed, downtrodden, distraught, distressed, grieved…. Emotion is clearly one of our big concerns.

But in the last couple of generations we’ve begun to accumulate – or at least convert – a lot of derogatory terms for “strong-willed”. Rigid, dogmatic, doctrinary…. I can’t remember where I was reading today, but there was a comment on the post that used a phrase that is becoming utterly ridiculous: “ideologically driven”. Read more

Category: Politics

My Brother’s Keeper

Posted June 11, 2008 by Charles
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I finally got a chance to listen to Wade’s sermon, “Antihomosexual”. I’m going to have to listen to it again before I can comment though, because he said so much.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking on a couple of questions which, I’ve felt like I’ve had answered for a while, but have popped up recently, so I’ve been giving them some more attention. You’ll probably be able to infer the answers I’ve reached in the past by the way each question is framed, which is ok.

1. How do we deal with sin in the body?  Greed, gossip, and sexual immorality bounce around the church like so many pinballs, and nothing seems to be interfering.  What do we do about it?

Are we only responsible for our own sin, or are we responsible for keeping one another accountable?

2. Is there any sin that isn’t hurting anyone? Read more

Category: Theology

Archives

Posted June 9, 2008 by Charles
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I missed Wade’s sermon today, but we had a pretty lively discussion about it this evening. There was so much for us to talk about, but we had to get out of there early to put the little one to bed. The sermon was on the church’s approach to and treatment of homosexuality. Tonight we talked about homosexuality, sin, accountability, and a little church polity.

I’ve been thinking about the conversation all evening and have decided to dig up everything I’ve written on the subjects, each with a link and an excerpt. So here it is!

You Call That Protection? August ‘06

The institution of marriage has been around a looooong time. It’s survived centuries of men treating women as property. It survived the dark ages, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. It survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two Great Wars, and Vietnam. And it has stood strong through our society’s turn towards cohabitation and parents who avoid marriage. But it’s suffering some staggering blows. The traditional family in the US has been on the decline for 40 years. It’s almost rare for a child to be raised by both biological parents. People are choosing to stay single (but not celibate), and those who do get married do it much later and with much less commitment than in past generations. Even when they’re married they have a bag packed in case they aren’t “satisfied”. The marriage bond is weakening and prenups and no-fault divorce are just making it worse. Thank God someone figured out how to protect this sacred institution from further damage; by focusing our energy on making sure gay people don’t get married.

On the Narrow, October ‘06

In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession, Jesus rebukes him fiercely, calling him Satan. “You do not have in mind the things of God,” he says, “but the things of men.” Peter was working from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow his Son, the Messiah, to be killed. We, much the same way, work from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow someone to be born in a way that forces them to resist their natural desires.

Across the Board, November ‘06

I think that the church should take a more Biblical stance on sin. We tend to single out sexual sin as the only one that is bad enough to keep people out of the church: homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery. And adultery has to be really egregious to get real attention.

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Category: Theology

Progress?

Posted April 8, 2008 by Charles
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I’m in a pretty sour mood right now. At first it was because I’ve been hurting for that poor girl in Florida who got beat up for a YouTube video. Now I’m ticked off at her dad.

Her parents blamed the Internet for the incident.

“These Web sites are creating a space for criminal activity, beating, fights,” Patrick Lindsay said. [...]

“I’m very upset with these Internet sites,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children. I’m going to carry this as far as I can.”

Talk about tilting at windmills. How about blaming the girls that did this? How about blaming the people who watch the videos, thereby encouraging things like this? Even some indirect blame on the parents would have been acceptable…but blaming the internet and MySpace?

Granted, there’s plenty wrong with MySpace, which is why my profile still has a picture of my wife about 4 months pregnant. But when it comes to six people deciding to beat up an innocent person – Hell, even a guilty person – let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the perpetrators.

Ok, now that I’m over that, here’s the real point of this post. There are some Christians who believe that the task of the Church is to restore the world, whether that be through service or control. The group who truly believes that we are to do it by control (Dominionism) is so small that it barely merits discussion. Sure, you’ll hear people, particularly those like Andrew Sullivan (though he prefers the term “christianist”), attribute these qualities to “many evangelicals”…that’s bollocks.

Those who believe that we are to do it through service and love have a larger following. They believe that as a result of the influence of Christians, and good people from other religions (or no religion), the world is getting better. Progress has been, is being, and will be made. They are Progressives. Read more

Category: Church, Theology

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