Posted December 14, 2009 by Charles
This morning in church the pastor quoted C.S. Lewis’ well known “lunatic, liar, or lord,” trilemma during his sermon. I didn’t sleep much last night, so I was primed to chase a rabbit, and this was it.
Immediately this argument, which I had accepted wholeheartedly as a freshman in college and held in the back of my mind ever since, struck me as problematic. It became clear that the problem for me was the assertion that a person isn’t “morally reliable” if they are deceived or deceptive. In either case, it is not only acceptable, but perfectly logical to accept moral teaching from a lunatic or a liar.
In the Modern era morality is not the stable and absolute entity that it is in earlier times, and in the postmodern era it is no longer even broadly coherent. It is understood as a social and cultural construct, and in the pluralistic societies of the Western world, it is also understood as an individual construct. We can, as individuals or societies, develop our own personal or local moral codes through our own invention and through collecting the parts of existing codes that we accept as valid.
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Posted May 14, 2009 by Charles
I’ve spent the last 8 months or so, since shortly before the launch of A New Kind of Politics (now all but defunct), immersed in news and discussion of politics, social action and issues, energy, environmentalism, and education. I’ve logged countless hours reading up on everything that comes through the news or through my own life. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized that it’s all crap.
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Posted October 16, 2008 by Charles
I was just reading GetReligion, as I am wont to do, and I came across some commentary on an article and the resulting letters to the editor in the New York Times. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. This article has nothing to do with liberal media bias or the election.
The article was about religious strife in India. Hindus and Christians in one of the states are battling it out, and some Indian-Americans took offense at the way it was portrayed in the Times. But lo, that isn’t what stopped me from reading. What stopped me was this:
About halfway down the GR story I saw this line:
Christian families
. . . say they are being forced to abandon their faith in exchange for their safety. The forced conversions come amid widening attacks on Christians here and in at least five other states across the country, as India prepares for national elections next spring.
and my first thought was, “If they chose their safety over Jesus, they weren’t real Christians anyway.”
I know. I didn’t even have time to be repulsed by myself. I immediately had a vision of someone storming in with a knife, my wife and son in the room with me, and forcing me to make the same choice. I don’t know that I would do the right thing. It’s the scariest thing I’ve thought of in a long time.
H/T GetReligion
Posted July 24, 2008 by Charles
Life is an exercise in trust in Christ. Do we trust him to act on our behalf, to bless us and sustain us…or do we try to do it ourselves? Do we trust him to initiate our salvation and be faithful to finish what he started in us, or do we focus on our own behavior or good deeds or morality to justify us? I tend to rely on myself too much. But, I love it when Jesus decides it’s time to splash a little cold water in my face and wake me up.
We have worship team practice on Wednesday nights, and overall we’re pretty good. But sometimes we forget what it’s all about. Last week was a good example. We got caught up in the songs that were chosen (“I’mnot singing that.”), and in the parts we were singing, and completely ignored the whole ‘worship’ angle. I caught myself a few times not even singing the words, but just humming along, because I was so worried about singing the right notes. Read more
Posted April 5, 2008 by Charles
First off, ChurchMarketingSucks.com got the ball rolling on a network of local church marketing labs, one of which is located in Tulsa. The first meeting is Monday the 7th. If you’re interested in marketing, communications, graphics, or web design for your church, meet us at Panera Bread at 71st and Garnett at 6.
I’ve started reading Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. In the early chapters he makes some statements about faith and doubt, and it occurred to me that, at least in recent history, the church has done a terrible job communicating the limits of faith and the benefits of doubt. Read more
