Summer Reading

At University UMC, the rhythm of the year cannot help but imitate the rhythm of the university (University of Texas) year. (Isn’t there a parable about when the elephant moves, the mice scamper?) So, yes, while we strive to be liturgical and follow the Christian year, when the university shuts down, we all kind of shut down as well.

For me, it means fewer meetings and emails (yay!) and more time to enjoy family (mostly by skype these days) to take in great music in Austin, to enjoy food with friends and to get in some great summer reads.

Here’s six from my summer list; I’ve read the first four and have just begun the final two.   

Free Will, by Sam Harris

Harris is one of a trinity of writers that I and others call the “evangelical atheists.” The other two are the late Christopher Hitchens (“God is Not Great”) and the biologist Richard Dawkins (“The God Delusion”). Harris’s book explores the idea that what we normally  think of as free will is a fiction. His claim is that to speak of human beings having free will makes no sense. How, then, does one develop any kind of morality or hold people accountable for their actions, if they’re not free?  Good question. Harris takes it up with energy and style and it’s a short read.

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

What would happen if the earth began to revolve at a slower pace and the days and nights lengthened?  This is Walker’s first novel, a well-written , surprisingly hopeful sci-fi tale. The book inevitably shadows questions in light of global warming and the changes being wrought in the earth of reality.  

The Power of Parable, by John Dominic Crossan

Crossan is perhaps the premier New Testament scholar in our time, one of the best at taking a complex biblical topic and breaking it down. The subtitle is “How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus.” Crossan is interested not just in re-describing the parables of Jesus, but finding their pre-cursors in several books of the Old Testament. And then taking whole gospels as parables, that have an implied challenge or even attack. So, for example, Matthew’s gospel becomes an attack parable on a brand of Pharisaic Judaism that is in important ways in tension with the tenets of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. All in all, a fascinating, if at times far-fetched, journey with a great scholar.

Take This Bread, by Sara Miles.

Miles was the keynote speaker at the Washington Island Forum that Linda and I attended last month, an annual event sponsored by the Wisconsin Council of Churches.  Miles was a late convert to Christianity, wooed into St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church by communion. A former chef and war correspondent, Miles sensed a calling to start up a food bank for all-comers. And so the adventure with Jesus follows, filled with some incredible characters and stories.   And prayers: “O God of abundance, you feed us every day. Rise in us now, make us into your bread, That we may share your gifts with a hungry world, And join in love with all people, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

James Cook: Master of the Seas, by Frank McLynn

Magisterial biography of Captain James Cook and his three voyages circumnavigating the globe in the late 18^th century. McLynn gives just enough background to make it fascinating without getting bogged down. Cook is an amazing study of indefatigability and leadership.

2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years, by Jorgen Randers

Forty years ago, Randers and his colleagues at MIT produced The Limits to Growth, which was essentially a scenario analysis designed to answer the question, “What will happen over the next 130 years  if humanity decides to follow certain policies?”  It was not, however, predictive. 2052 is a broad forecast of what Randers and others believe is the probably global evolution in areas like population, climate, food and economics. Despite the fact that Randers believes that humanity will not change its ways, he remains hopeful about the future.  Hmmm …

 What’s on your summer reading list?

Dust-up in the Evangelical Blogger World

Sometimes my listening, pastoral side gets the better of me. The side that wants to hear people out, even if it’s something that I completely disagree with. For example, I’ve heard people say for years that the church—in this case the mainline church (that frankly needs a new name, because we’re really not “mainline” anymore)—must move beyond the issues of lesbians and gays. That there are more important issues out there. That calling lesbians and gays, many of whom are white, upper middle class, marginalized is a stretch. And so on.

And then I came across this. Mark Driscoll, hugely popular evangelical pastor of Mars Hill mega-church in Seattle, posted this little “gem” on Facebook: “So, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you've ever personally witnessed?”

I kid you not. It’s 2011, and a formidable leader in the mega-church world actually posted this question on his FB page, receiving 87 likes and 610 comments.

Rachel Held Evans, an excellent emergent Christian author, took Driscoll to task on her blog: “Mark Driscoll is a bully. Stand up to him.”

“Mark has developed a pattern of immaturity and unkindness that has remained largely unchecked by his church. In evangelical circles, he’s like the kid from high school who makes crude jokes at every opportunity, uses the words “gay” and “queer” to describe the things he most detests, encourages his friends to subject the unpopular kids to ridicule, and belittles the guys who aren’t “macho” or “manly” enough to be in his club.”

In a non-apology that followed his being called on the carpet by a host of angels in the evangelical blogger world, Driscoll explained the source of the question. His elders asked him to do better, to talk about “real issues with real content.” Which is an odd response in itself. Is the issue of gender identity and sexual orientation not a real issue? Are we not talking, after all, about real people who attend our churches?

After skimming my way through this strange exchange, I came away convinced that “the issues underlying the issues,” as Driscoll dubs them, are issues that most of us, evangelical and mainline, would love to shove under the carpet. We don’t really want to talk about gender and sex in the church, because, you know, they’re not polite topics. And there is so much shame associated with them for so many of us, that we have to move mountains even to engage the conversation. And so instead we join in “creative” theological rationalizations to shove the issue aside, claiming it’s not worthy of serious conversation. (By the way, Driscoll promises more talk about the issues and I have to give him credit for addressing them. However, based on what I’ve seen and heard, I have little hope that his take will move beyond exclusion and bigotry.)

However awkward and out of place this may feel in the church, this is a conversation that’s absolutely necessary. It’s a conversation that’s not going away and one where, frankly, culture is way of ahead of the churches. And it’s no more or less important than the dozens of other issues that the church is unwilling to face. Economic injustice and the growing obscene gap between the wealthiest and the poorest Americans. The untouchable U.S. Defense Budget and the growing prospect that we will have to start eating tanks. Ignoring our homeless brothers and sisters, most of whom are baptized Christians. Just to name a few.

We may need first to back up and create a safe space for conversation. But let’s not avoid the conversation altogether in the interest of preserving some kind of fake peace and unity that masks deeper divisions in the way we look at the world and that obscures the Biblical call to mercy and justice. My guess is that welcoming and affirming (reconciling) churches of every stripe, rather than being an unnecessary duplication of what every church should be or perhaps on some level already is, will be critical in the creation of that safe space for real dialogue about difficult issues.

Progressive Church

So here’s a brand new look to my old blog site. My hope is that we can engage the radical claims of Jesus as they impinge on life in the Christian community under the shadow of the empire.

To kick off my newest start, I’ve provided a video. Check out the link below.

Actually, before you check it out, be prepared. It’s a spoof of progressive churches using the cute/annoying Progressive Insurance schtick.

Here’s the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgYDE-mW7Nw

What do you think? Fair? Unfair? Cheap shot? High five?

Can a church be progressive without surrendering everything to culture? What does it mean to be progressive?