Moral Exemplar A Theory Of Atonement For Now?

Tony Jones has a new short eBook out on atonement theories. One of the thing he points out is that different theories answer different questions. The Ransom theory, (think C.S Lewis The Lion the Witch and The wardrobe) answers the question of how we deal with the devil? (the white witch). The Penal Substitutionary theory, (this is the one you grew up with) answers the question how do we deal with sin?

I'm interested in asking is what is the problem are people dealing with now? And therefore, what is an appropriate theory of atonement to be using.

I'm going to suggest it's not the Ransom theory as almost no one is wrestling with Satan and Satan's power. Anyway, for the past 1000 years most Xns have not been comfortable giving Satan as much power over God as the Ransom theory does. Similarly, I don't think the Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory will be helpful as few people I come across are wrestling with sin. This is not to say that either are not true, in some way, they are just not particularly relevant.

Now, I know there are some "PSA is the gospel" type people thinking this is heresy and I'm sure if we were to ask the average non Xn did they think they were perfect, they'd say no. It's just that they just won't see themselves as so horribly depraved they deserve complete exclusion from God. Now the usual move from a PSA evangelist is to explain that God sees your relatively small list of sins as just as bad as being a serial killer paedophile, hence the non Xn person is deserving of complete exclusion from God. It's not a great argument. Partly because Jesus (who we're claiming is just like God) seemed pretty comfortable hanging with sinners but mainly because it just makes God look like a complete jerk.

With that little aside out of the way we come back to the question, what is the problem people are dealing with now? I'm going to suggest that the question many people are asking is, how do we live in the world? Now, I know that many (including Tony Jones in this homebrewed Xy interview) are looking for a way that Jesus death and resurrection might address the systemic sin in our world, but I don't think we're going to find that. I think it'll be hard to find a theory to address that in the same way that it was hard for early Xns, who under Roman occupation saw similar if not much more extreme examples of systemic sin and injustice.

Whether it's the Roman Empire or our much more elusive capitalist empire. We are still left with the question of how do we live? How do we live when most of our clothing is made in sweatshops and there is not an obvious alternative? How do we live when taxes are being spent on war but there is no way to redirect our taxes from war to health care? How do we change the way refugees are treated when both electable political parties treat refugees appallingly? I believe, How do we live in a broken, corrupt, fallen world is the big question of our age. It is the question particularly in the west because we are not mere serfs trapped within a oppressive feudal system. No, we have a sense of freedom, a sense of connectedness and and a sense of potential to affect change that is perhaps unprecedented.

With this in mind I believe it is time to revisit the earliest atonement theory, The moral exemplar. This theory is that Jesus Christ is seen as a moral exemplar, who calls us toward a better life, both individually and corporately. Tony Jones talks more about this in this post.

Part of the problem of the Moral Exemplar theory is that Jesus death and resurrection seems not only secondary but completely dispensable.  I'm not sure what earlier adherents of the theory would have argued but, to me it's completely indispensable. Here is why. For most of the people I talk to the question is not "What is good?" or "was Martin Luther King or Oscar Romero good?" (to name but two Xn heroes whose actions changed systemic injustice) instead the question is how can we do the same?

How can we with our overwhelming senses of responsibility to get a good job, buy a house and a car, send our kids to a decent school, save for retirement and insure our health and our stuff. How can we overcome this all consuming reality and do something radical, something dangerous that might change the world? To do such things is too risky, too irresponsible. To challenge this way of thinking we need someone to break the current time space reality and show that reality is different, we need God to show us that what we think is reality is not actually reality. This, I contend is exactly what Jesus death and resurrection does for us. Like the red pill that Neo takes in the Matrix, Jesus opens our eyes to a new reality, a reality where the deaths of people like Martin Luther King and Oscar Romero are not deaths in vain. Where our greatest fear, death, is taken away and we are freed from spending all our time making our lives as safe and secure as possible. Indeed we are free to live in the radical way that Jesus did. "For freedom Christ has set us free".

Agnostics Anonymous Or Finding God By Embracing Suffering And Doubt

Hello my name is Chris and I'm an agnostic. I've looked at the proofs for and against the existence of God and I am under whelmed. Sure, if you have committed to one side or the other they can make you feel good about your decision but the reason loads of people are not flocking to one side or the other is that they are just not that compelling.

In the second temple period (Jesus time) Jews and Christians might have argued about where you could find God. For the Jewish people opposed to Jesus the one place God was guaranteed to be was in the heart of the temple, behind a huge curtain. For Christians (all Jewish) the place God was, was with Jesus. Yet, at the end of Mark's gospel the curtain in the temple is ripped in two and there is nothing behind the curtain. Jesus is on the cross, at his greatest point of greatest need, and after calling out "my God my God why have you forsaken me" there is no response and no reply. They are simply Jesus very last words in the gospel.

All Jewish people wanted their suffering at the hands of the Romans to end. The Pharisees hoped that compliance (and compromise) with Rome would end the suffering. The revolutionaries hoped that there might be some kind of Maccabean style uprising to end the suffering. Jesus followers, I'm guessing, were hoping for an expansion of Jesus healings and miracles that would somehow result in a takeover of Roman power and an end of suffering. None of these occur. Instead Jesus resolutely embraces an ultimate suffering in his death and he no longer believes God is with him. Despite feeling called to the cross he is now abandoned, swamped in doubt.

Having witnessed all this, despite having initially run away the disciples are inspired to emulate Jesus, give away all their money, give up their security and for most suffer execution. Sure the empty tomb helped them change their minds but, for many of the most confident Christians today (myself most included) our response to Jesus death and the empty tomb is to squirrel ourselves away in suburbia, put on a few Christians CDs and wait till we grow old and die hoping we get in to heaven. Hoping that even though the sinners prayer appears nowhere in scripture that praying this as a teenager was all that the call to follow Jesus could amount to. What if to follow Jesus, to pick up our crosses and follow means to follow Jesus in to both doubt and suffering?

Like Job and many of the prophets before him, for Jesus to be faithful to his call meant that he would go into a pit of suffering, despair and doubt. As they let go of all they thought God was they moved into suffering into confusion and into doubt. It is only when their actions trump their beliefs that they meet God face to face. I suspect this was true for Mother Teresa who faced dark nights of the soul, doubted the existence of God but carried on with her call, pushed through the suffering through the doubt and despair and again found God. Chuck Palahniuk writes in Fight Club, "you have to give up", "it's only after we've have lost everything that we are free to do anything".

I cannot help think that at the moment Martin Luther King declared he had a dream, but that he may not get there (aware very powerful people wanted him dead) he would of experienced doubt. A "God why have you forsaken me" moment. Oscar Romero when he declared "they can kill a bishop“ would have experienced the same. But above their belief in God they had a call, a call about what it means to be human, to live life to the full, what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and they followed this. 

To follow Jesus is to embrace love which which will lead to suffering, which will lead doubt. When we have given up all the comforts all the riches all the soft options that life has to offer and all that we have left is suffering born out of love that is when we will cry "My God my God why have you forsaken me" and in that moment, that is where, having followed Jesus, we will meet God.

My name is Chris I am an agnostic but I have a call, a call about what it means to be human, to really live, to experience life at its richest. That call is to follow Jesus. My hope and my faith is that one day by loving as Jesus did I will no longer be agnostic.

Kevin Rudd: The Man Who Should Have Been An Activist

Lots has been said about Kevin Rudd in the last couple of months. Some have reflected on his Xy and seen it as not much more than a political stunt originally to take the "Xn vote" away from John Howard. And, that Kevin's true, less than Xn, self came out in the way he unfairly dealt with people. I think something less conniving was going on. I think Kevin Rudd was a man of principles (probably not all that I would agree with) and passion and, in the world of slow moving politics that passion is easily corrupted. I think it might have been Tony Blair who once lamented that even though he was Prime Minister he still didn't have the power to get done the things he wanted to get done. I suspect Kevin Rudd found himself in a similar position and pushed himself and those around him to follow his own agenda - which I'm sure might have changed as quickly as it does for any of us. It was a recipe for burnout, clashes and eventually mutiny. For all that his apology to the stolen generation and avoiding of the GFC (albeit on excellent advice from treasury) should be remembered as two great moments.

I think Kevin Rudd just made the wrong career choice. I think he should have been an activist not a politician. Activists create the space for politicians to make the right decisions (Ched Myers). With his passion and the way he could wrap the media around his finger he would be great at raising awareness and creating the space for politicians to make the right decisions.

Giving Up Theological Certainty For Lent

I was asked by someone at church if I was giving up anything for lent. I said "no". Saying I'm giving up "theological certainty" just made me sound like a complete tosser. Which probably isn't too far from the truth.

Christians from the fundamentalist variety through to the liberal variety all tend to make statements with great certainty about what God is like and how God acts in the world. For 40 days (plus Sundays) I've decided to look at my own certainties and the certainties of others and say "maybe", "perhaps" or "I don't know". My life has become for all intents and purposes agnostic.

For all this I doubt anyone around me would have noticed. I've still prayed, still read the Bible, still gave money to people in need and have not binged on sex, drugs and rock n' roll. With all the theological uncertainty in the world I am still asking myself, "What does it mean to be human?" and, "How best might I live?" In answering these questions I still find myself turning to the Xn story.

Maybe when talking about our faith to others it might be worth ditching the theology, trying to convince people of what we believe about God, sin and death and stick to the material reality of how we live and why we turn to the Xn story to inform that?

Valley Songs: Reverend Vince Anderson

Every so often I make the mistake of thinking that my Valley Songs collection is a closed cannon. Then right under my nose I discovered the Reverend Vince Anderson. I say right under my nose because I've been listening to the Revolution sermon podcasts for the last year or so and Vince is the co-pastor and occasional sermon giver there. He's quite talented at the sermon thing so my assumption was his music wouldn't be all that great. I was wrong. Watch this...

Pretty friggin awesome right? and his sermons are great too. Listen to this Sermon by Vince about Exorcism.

Although I decided to start The Filthy Jesus Experiment before discovering Vince I am now even more inspired. He describes his music as "dirty gospel".

My other favourite YouTube video of his is a cover of Johnny Cash's "Water in to Wine" I love Johnny Cash but was never a fan of this song. Now, thanks to Vince, I am.

You can hear Vince talk about his music here an interview on Heritage Radio.

If you search through the Valley Songs Pages on the side bar of this blog you will find the lyrics and chords for these two songs.

Christus Victor - Alternative to Penal Substitutionary Atonement

Usually I don't just copy and paste other peoples stuff. But, Tony Jones wrote such a great summary of Christus Victor, an alternative understanding of the Atonement, I've reposted it below. You can read it on his blog here.

In 1930, a relatively unknown Swedish bishop and theologian revived an understanding of the atonement that had largely been forgotten for 1,000 years. Gustaf Aulén’s book, Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Atonement was translated into English the next year, and it’s stayed in print ever since.

The Christus Victor model, Aulén argues, was the predominant theory for the first millennium of the church, and it was held by the majority of the church fathers whom we still revere. Along came Anselm and changed the game — for reasons I’ve written about before and will discuss in an upcoming post — and CV was relegated to history’s rubbish bin. Until Aulén.

Today, CV has had something of a resurgence. ;) That’s been led by Greg Boyd – who’s personal brand was called, until recently, Christus Victor Ministries — and others.

CV falls under a broader umbrella called the Ransom Theory. In this understanding, the original sin of Adam and Eve placed all of humanity under subjugation to Satan. Christ, the second person of the Trinity, came to Earth and died, giving his life as a ransom for many.

At this point, CV may sound like the penal substitution model that many of us grew up with. But that’s where Aulén said we’re wrong. The early church did not understand the death of Christ as paying a penalty in some transactional sense that only God’s son could pay. The crucifixion is not, in that sense, cosmically necessary to reconcile God and humanity.

Instead, Christ’s death is God’s victory over sin and death. God conquers death by fully entering into it. God conquers Satan by using the very means employed by the Evil One.

Thus, the crucifixion is not a necessary transaction to appease a wrathful and justice-demanding deity, but an act of divine love.

God entered fully into the bondage of death, turned it inside out by making it a moment of victory, and thereby liberates humanity to live lives of love without the fear of death.

It’s a beautiful thing, the crucifixion, in this view. And, for those of us who are robustly trinitarian, it maintains an egalitarian view of the Trinity — one in which the Son and Spirit are not junior partners in the atonement.

The Filthy Jesus Experiment

I'm starting a band. A gospel band. A singing, hollering, foot stomping mess of a band that is taking the back-door to heaven through the drinking holes of hell. To raucous for the church we've been thrown out on the street to preach the lost gospel of down and out, love and laughter and a beer for everyone.

The band will be called "The Filthy Jesus Experiment" It will be gospel music like it was being played to a bar room of prostitutes, drunks and con-artists.

At the moment all I have is the seed of an idea but I'm excited I think it might have legs.

Tiny Houses, Minimalism and Junk

Lately I've been addicted to looking at tiny houses and reading about minimalism. I'm begging to feel weighed down by all my stuff.

For example, I have books on my shelf that I know I will never read again. Books like the beauty myth by naomi wolf (that i somewhat pretensiously used to give women as a 21st present). It was a great book a book that made me look at life in a new way but I will almost definitly not read again. But, I tell myself it "says something about me". It's a memory of something that was a turning point in my life. No one is going to walk out of my house saying "at first i thought you were a shovanist pig but then i had a look at your book shelf..." For what it's worth I may as well pass it on to someone and then photo copy the spine on to a packet soup box and stick that on my shelf.

And so it goes to other areas in the house. A jacket that I used to wear to work, not something I'll wear out but a good smart casual kind of look when you're wearing a shirt but not a tie.

Like the book I keep items like these because they might one day come in handy. Usually I think "I might be able to pass this onto someone one day". One day when Libraries no longer exist and when opshops won't exist. Opshops were me and a hundred other poeple have donated jackets like mine.

After a fairly sizeable cull of stuff about 6 months ago. I'm looking at stuff that I thought then was to valuable to just give away or sell. But it's just stuff taking up space. Stuff that reflects who I am as a person. Which is great if I'm not around or if I'm likely to forget who I am. But that's not going to happen.

Down With Materialism

Picture this... a picture of a green V8 4WD with biggest engine ever built. With the slogan "lets all go green"

Or perhaps, a man in office with deodorant on his desk and a bevy of scantily dressed female secretaries around him. With the slogan "for men who'd like a bit more sexism in the work place"

Or finally, simply an array of products made out of material (all imported from countries with labour laws far less stricter than ours) all on special with the slogan "down with materialism".

This last scenario is actually a real ad from Ikea. I can only assume that makers of the add were so convinced that the overwhelming majority of readers are so addicted to materialism that no one would complain let alone be offended (unlike the other scenarios). The add is now quite old so the ad makers were right. Our collective desire to to buy and own more and more and more stuff is not even up for debate. In a finite world with a growing population I just can't help that for people like me (in the richest 10% of the world) that's nothing short of insanely selfish to not be thinking about how me might curb our materialism.

The Worst Kind Of Blog

The blogs I find most irritating are the ones that are updated sporadically. Sometimes it's every second day and then sometimes there are months between posts. This Blog is one of those blogs. If you would like to avoid both missing posts and regularly checking a site that hasn't been updated you can follow me on twitter @churchlessfaith, subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe to get an email every time I post something new (you will not get an email about anything else).

Hanging The Washing Out Like A Real Man

From John Piper to Mark Driscoll there has been a bit of buzz of late about gender and God. Rachel Held Evans put out a call for blokes to respond to these (particularly John Piper's) views so I thought I'd add my voice to the growing throng. I've written some things in the past about my view about what the Bible says about gender here.

However, to be honest, beyond the whole biblical exegesis I just don't get the whole gender divide thing. Rather than thinking Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars I've always been inclined to think Women are from Earth and men are from Earth. People are different from each other and in any close intense relationship (like a marriage) those differences will become really obvious really quickly. Although I haven't asked, I'm going to bet that homosexual couples experience the same amount of difficulties and communication problems as a heterosexual couples does.

To be fair I'm not a typical bloke. I stay at home while the wife works. I've always done the sewing for the family, I now cook, clean and do all the domestic chores. My wife (like many husbands) is a better cook than me but I look after the washing much better than she ever did. I am generally more patient with the kids but hopeless at noticing mess around the house. At parties I'd hang out with the mums and talk about the kids rather than hang out with the dads and talk about sport or work (I did this even when I was working). When I hear some off the things the playgroup mums complain about things their husbands do they are often things that my wife does as well (although I prefer not to divulge my wife's faults - which are going to be far fewer than mine anyway). Things like not knowing where a particular item is kept although I've told her half a dozen times. These are really just a product of me being at home all the time and her being at home a heck of a lot less. At no point have I thought of myself as less male even though I don't have all the stereotypically manly traits.

Similarly, when the biblical writers attribute God with male traits I tend to think of them just as traits that happen to stereotypically belong to a male or in some passages traits that stereotypically belong to a female. I don't think of God being Jewish and therefore look down on anyone who is not Jewish. I don't think of God as free and therefore look down on people who are slaves. Although it'd be easy to pull out verses describing God as Jewish or free there is no point where we would think of God as not being able to engage with gentiles or slaves equally. Or that these categories would make these people so different that they should have different roles in the church community or there should be some kind of hierarchy when they relate to each other. No, in Jesus there is no Jew, etc...

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28)

Valley Songs - Compiled

It's been about four years since I started collecting "Valley Songs" - the kind of church songs I like to sing and usually the antithesis of "Hillsong" songs. Well now they are all neatly sorted on their very own pages. Most have you tube videos attached as well as lyrics and guitar chords and, the occasional song has guitar tabs too. 

Listed Below they are also one of the first things on the side bar too.

Valley Songs A-C
Valley Songs D-G
Valley Songs H-I
Valley Songs J-N
Valley Songs O-R
Valley Songs S
Valley Songs T-Z
 

Enjoy, and please let me know if you ever use any of them.

Rest And Skipping Church

Yesterday we skipped church again. Why? "It" just doesn't seem to fit with our family and "It" is placing too many demands on us.

The only problem with the above statement is that "It" does not refer to the church we hang out with. Rather "It" is the culture that we live in. My wife is out the door by 7:30 and back home around 6. Although it'll be later over the next three nights with after hours meetings. She's a teacher and a really good dedicated one. Now I know that plenty of people work similar ridiculous hours, that really, is the point. My daughter is in year one does speech therapy, is creative, imaginative loves being outside and struggles to do school desk work (like, I suspect, many 5 year olds). My son has Autism and is supposed to be at school 5 days a fortnight and at a therapy Kindy two mornings a week (but because the nearest centre to us is an hour away the morning will last around 5.5 hours).  Me I'm a stay at home dad who's studying part time. The one thing that we all have in common is that at the end of the day and week we are all exhausted. And, we will be facing a weekend of birthday invitations for both kids, church, family to visit and friends to catch up with. On top of this is all the usual around the house projects we'd like to do. That's without any weekend team sports or similar activities.

Our family has one stay at home parent and just two kids, which is much easier than many, but I feel like I'm dragging our family from pillar to post with little opportunity to sit down and hang out or have our kids complain "Dad, I'm bored".

So, this year I have added a new activity to our hectic schedule. Rest. A morning an afternoon and a night of unplanned family hanging out time preferably all on the same day. So far (for two weekends) we've stuck to it and "Rest" is already written in the diary for the rest of the year. It means that when we get invited to too many things on a weekend we'll just have to decline. Yesterday, it was church that got the flick. Next time, I'm not sure. All I know is "rest" will not be leaving the diary. On the seventh day God did not get up early and set up to play music at church nor did God drag the family to a birthday party of a some child that God's child hardly plays with at school. God rested. This year whether it's Saturday or Sunday or a combination of both this year our family will rest.

Jesus Was A Suspected Terrorist

Imagine a Muslim man walking through the streets saying "Allah will rule this nation!" he'd get strange looks and someone would probably call the police thinking he might be a terrorist. After all he's part of a minority religion, a religion that's tolerated as long as it does not affect the wider community. Furthermore we have a society and rule of law that functions perfectly well. In fact we think it's the best system in history.

This is exactly the situation Jesus was in. Part of a tolerated minority religion in a wider society and rule of law which (at the time) was considered as good as it could possibly get. Yet Jesus cries out "the kingdom of God (not Caesar) is at hand change your ways and believe this good news (not the news that the roman empire is as good as it gets)" It's highly inflammatory talk. Especially since there were Jewish revolutionaries (terrorists from the Roman point of view) trying to free the Jewish people from the tyranny of Rome.

I can't help but think that right from the start Jesus would have been a suspected terrorist. Sure he might of been doing some kind things - a facade to win people over. But, he did clash with the mainstream religious leaders - like extremists do. Everyone would have suspected that deep down he must be plotting something violent (Roman soldiers pull out swords to arrest him) because, that is the only way that kingdom of God could over throw Caesar's reign over the people.

Common Prayer (A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals) - Review

Growing up evangelical I never really got the whole reading prayers or having disciplined times for reading thing. As I've grown older and my beliefs have turned from black and white to grey and I've started to want some kind of ritual and structure in my life. After working for the Anglican church I felt like I really got to understand and appreciate why people loved liturgy. I also discovered I wasn't one of those people.

So, in many ways I feel like Common Prayer (A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals) was written with people just like me in mind. It doesn't follow the church calendar but will remind you that Advent, Lent and Pentecost are coming up. There is a different morning prayer and Bible readings for everyday of the year and a bit on the life of a saint. Saints range from St Francis through to Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero and Mother Teresa. There is one midday prayer and 7 evening prayers (one for each day of the week). There are also a bunch of prayers / liturgies for special occasions and the music for 50 classic church songs.

It is truly a great resource and something I now use every day.

If you want to trial it for free visit the website commonprayer.net. I bought the book because I'd rather not turn on a computer three times a day and for a book that's nearly 600 pages it was really cheap.

The Cartoon That Made Me Cry

Drawn by Leunig, this cartoon really struck me. I'm currently a stay at home Dad, mainly due to my wife's ability to earn more money than mean or to earn enough money to keep us living in a house which (like the picture) is full of industry and various refineries (to be fair though we're a long way from the industry). A few days a go we bought our kids a small classical guitar and that afternoon I was making up songs for all of my sons toys and the games they were playing, much to his delight. I could just see him thinking "Gee Dad, you're fantastic", enthralled by a talent that has absolutely no practical economic application. I highly recommend his "When I Talk To God" book of prayer.

Santa's Elves Are Chinese Slaves

It's Christmas and this documentary reminds me of how I get to live such a luxurious life. Watching my wife work so hard (I'm a stay at home dad) and living in one of the lower socio-economic parts of my city it's easy to think that everything I have is purely from my (or my wife's) hard work. The truth is it's not. It's built on the back of slaves. We just can't see them. I'm wondering if, like Moses, it will not be possible to change the system from within. Maybe we to are being called into the wilderness, to disconnect from the luxury of a system built on the back of slavery. Will that be easy? Of course not. We'll be grumbling that it was easier to be a slave in the system than to live in the wilderness. The question of course is where is God calling his people?

9 Reasons I'm Not A Good Evangelical And 9 Reasons I Won't Be A Mainline Liberal Any Time Soon Either

Why I'm Not A Good Evangelical

1. Christian music makes me feel nauseous.

2. I feel like I need to shower after leaving a Christian bookshop.

3. When I hear an atheist debate an evangelical I end up rooting for the atheist.

4. I didn't like "A Purpose Driven Life"

5. I worry about the "values" that could be taught to my kids at their Christian school.

6. When someone says "you know that Hillsong song we've been singing at church every Sunday for last 2 months" have to honestly say "no".

7. Penal substitutionary atonement drives me batty. (Atonement is so much bigger).

8. When I hear an evangelical preacher speak on just one verse from the Bible I quickly open mine to prove that in context the verse is unrelated to what he (OK once or twice it's been a she) is saying.

9. I'm OK with gay.

Why I'm Not A Mainline Liberal

1. Organ music makes me sleepy.

2. I like it when church has people under 55 in it.

3. When I hear an atheist debate an mainline liberal I'm not sure why they are a Christian (apart from growing up that way and now making some sort of living by saying they are one).

5. I think Rick Warren sounds like a great guy, and does some great things. (he gives away 90% of what he earns and works for his church for free. There's a reason he wears daggy Hawaiian shirts and not Armani Suits).

6. Even though they think social justice is more important than evangelicals they still don't give more money or do more than evangelical churches who think it's a minor concern.

7. Giving the bible and Jesus to the evangelicals so they could keep liturgy was not a good idea.

8. I just can't handle watching the newcomers getting completely lost flipping through the book of common prayer.

9. Robes look ridiculous.

Church Buildings And The 11th Commandment

The church I'm hanging out with is building a building and it's painful. To be honest more painful to watch than to be involved in as I would rather be cleaning the toilets every week before I'm on a committee dealing with cost blow outs, money, design and all of the levels of the denomination who'll need to be happy with what's happening. And then there will always be the possibility of infighting about what the church needs, what the building looks like and how much should be spent.

In the midst of thinking about this I was reading the 11th commandment. It didn't make it on to the tablets but it was the first command given after the famous 10.

Exodus 20:24-26

You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it."

Here God's people are asked to build just a simple alter just out of earth, nothing more, and if we build something out of stone it must be unhewn. That is not cut, just a pile of rocks. It's a directive to meet and worship God outside in the wilderness like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus all did (to name but a few). I know this is "unrealistic" it wouldn't get council approval, people would not come. But I'm starting to not care about all that. As I was walking through the nearest bushland with my son I felt more connected to God than I do in church and I don't think this is an uncommon experience. Maybe outside in the simplicity of the wilderness is where we are meant to meet God. After all when temple curtain ripped in two behind it was... nothing. The Bible doesn't describe how God suddenly escaped, at that point God is outside of the city hanging on a tree.

My Big Gay (affirming) Post

This is a big issue. To assume that the debates about Homosexuality in Christian churches are just about sexuality is, I think, to miss why people argue so passionately about it. Conversely to say that it's all about biblical interpretation is also to miss how deeply our own beliefs about sexuality affect us. For many who believe that homosexuality is a sin, at stake is not whether two people are in a relationship but rather it's reading something in the bible which seems to clearly say something is wrong and then choose to ignore the bible and to ignore what their tradition has said is a sin.

Personally, I take the Bible pretty damn seriously. I grew up not just evangelical but Sydney evangelical. I think it's helpful to start by trying to set aside the passages in the bible and ask if their was to be passages in the bible what might we expect them to say. This will either help you to tackle the issue afresh or tell you which way you are biased towards.

I like everyone have a few underlying beliefs which colour the way I read scripture and I feel I should lay out.

1. Homosexuality is not a choice and especially not at high school, when usually people start to figure out there sexuality. High school people may want to be different from their parents but they desperately want to be like everyone else. I cannot imagine a scenario where someone would choose homosexuality. My own heterosexuality was forcefully thrown upon me by my hormones not by any choice. Three of the guys I hung out with at high school have identified as gay I just can't imagine them choosing that as an option in the same way you might choose what you have for lunch. (sadly, in a poor reflection of my own high school studliness they averaged more girlfriends than me)

2. I had thought of homosexuality a part of fallen world something analogous to say someone who is born blind. Something that wasn't meant to be or not part of the ideal but, none the less in the same way I wouldn't ask a blind person to give up their guide dog and live as if they weren't blind I wouldn't ask someone to give up their homosexuality. Lately, however, I've found it harder to think this way. Partly because I know a few more gay people but probably more because I have son with Autism. Before my son I would have seen autism like homosexuality, as a "disorder", part of this fallen world. As I get to know my son his autistic traits are something that make him who he is. In the same way each person's sexuality is also deeply ingrained in them and makes them who they are. I'm now wondering whether people who are not neurotypical or sexual-typical are just a part of Gods wild and varied creation. (See "theology of pizazz" for more on this text and MP3)

Of course these ideas will colour the way I read the bible as does anyone else's beliefs and ideas.

That said lets jump into the Bible. Very often I've seen gay affirming types dismiss the bible as an old homophobic text that can be ignored because it does not keeping pace with modern western values of what is loving and moral. This, I think is, dangerous. Rather, I'd like to propose revisiting scripture in the same way as people have around the issues of slavery, race and gender equality. Wondering if there are other ways to understand texts that we've always been told can only be understood one way.

Fortunately there are only a very small number of passages. I've done lots of reading around this but to avoid making this post enormous I'm going to look at them in pretty light detail but hopefully enough to give a good outline about my thinking around them.

Leviticus 18:22: this passage is part of a ritual manual for Israel's priests. This prohibition follows after the prohibition of the idolatrous sexuality of worshipping Molech, whose cult included male cult prostitutes and bestiality. Leviticus also has a set of "every sperm is sacred" type passages (no sex during menstruation for example) all designed to keep a small isolated people in the wilderness alive and growing. Like all cultic practices the practice in Leviticus 18:22 is described as an abomination.

Sodom and Gomorrah: Should I bother with this one? No. You can google it. Plenty of conservative scholars will say that Sodom and Gomorrah's sin was not homosexuality. Even Ezekiel 16:49 says "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."

1 Corinthians 6:9: The NRSV translates this word (used only here in the New Testament) as "Male prostitute". The family that this word belongs to is used in Matthew 11:8 and Luke 7:25 where Jesus describes robes as being "soft" (NRSV). The first time word was translated as homosexual was 1958 by the Amplified bible. None the less lets say The NRSV and the more conservative NIV (who also uses male prostitute) translations are correct. If we can see heterosexual prostitution as a sin but not a heterosexual relationship then the same should be true for homosexual prostitution and homosexual relationships

1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10: the Greek word (Arsenokoites) is again rarely used, only twice with no context. The NRSV translates it as "sodomites" which all things considered isn't too bad. The word refers to someone who rapes or dominates someone (male or female) using anal sex. Just like in the Sodom story. Again if vaginal rape doesn't make vaginal sex a sin then logically the same would apply to anal sex.

Romans 1:24-28: For me, this is where the rubber really hits the road. We're not talking about an Old Testament book with laws that Xns mostly ignore (Take almost any random passage in Leviticus) or the the translation of just one word in a list of sins with no other context to the meaning.

Romans 24-28 describes the consequence of something that has happened, that is the people have sinned and this is the result. Romans 20b-23 lets us know what this something is; worship of false Gods. I think (from what I've read) that this most likely refers to the worship of pagan fertility gods. This worship often culminating in ritualistic orgies that involved anal sex with priests and priestesses.

The word translated as natural in the key passage of Romans could also be regular or usual. So that is to euphemistically say men were having anal (unnatural) sex with women and even with other men. These of course were usually men with wives at home, hence the extra astonishment over the sex with men.

What all of these verses have in common is that they are denouncements against domination and abuse as well as against pagan worship. This is, I believe, is why lesbian sex is so absent from all these verses and the rest of the Bible.

This is just my rough thumbnail overview. If you want more detail, gaychristian101.com is not a bad place to start particularly if you're a more evangelical leaning kind of person.

So does all this mean that Paul thought homosexuality was not "unnatural" in the way we think of the term "unnatural"? Quite possibly not. If Paul's own urges to be heterosexual were as powerful as mine are and given that he was surrounded by ritualistic anal sex as a key part of pagan worship and pederasty a part of Greek and then Roman Culture - which would usually involve heterosexual men dominating or abusing someone beneath their social standing it would be difficult for Paul to imagine homosexuality outside of these pervasive contexts. Having said that I don't think Paul could imagine a world without slavery. Or, could imagine a world where women were not considered property and were educated to the same level as men. That doesn't mean he wouldn't say that in Christ there is no male or female, no slave or free, no Jew or gentile, and no straight or gay.

Now, if you're one of the many people who read this in horror feeling I've watered down scripture and I'm just being a wet liberal, It's worth asking ourselves why do you care so much? More about this issue than say divorce? Divorce being something that's far more plainly written about in scripture, yet we are generally prepared to say "it'd be great if it didn't happen but since it has lets make sure all involved get as much love and support as they need". If you find yourself getting heated up and thinking "but this is different!" it's probably worth asking yourself why. It won't (probably) make you think differently about the issue but it will help you realise what you are bringing to the text before reading it.

I have written this post like all my other posts primarily for myself. To document the thinking that I have gone through and to explain how I can be both Christian, evangelical (as much as I hate Xn labels this is probably still the one that comes closest to describing me) and gay affirming. 

Autism

I have son, a beautiful son who I love more than I ever thought possible. Recently my son was diagnosed with autism. My wife has started blogging about it here. She is insanely articulate and emotive.

Confession: I Support Child Slavery And Animal Torture

It was a Friday night - party night... Well, sort of, with two young kids "party night" means a DVD and some chocolate. The DVD arrived in the mail, the kids were in bed so I grabbed my skateboard to go and get the chocolate. And, there I stood at the supermarket in front of a huge range of chocolate. A huge range but only one had the blue and green fair trade logo on it. It belonged to a boring block of milk chocolate which unlike almost everything else was not on special. Only one piece of chocolate I knew did not have child slave labour involved in it's production. I did not buy it. In my justified that it's not fair that there is only one fair trade option and my wife would be disappointed if I bring back the most boring and expensive chocolate option.

Only hours before I was at another supermarket doing the weekly shopping. There I was faced with the option of expensive free range meat or cheaper innocuously unnamed meat. Meat that surely was produced in factory farming conditions. Chickens in battery conditions and pigs in stalls where they can't move.

So here I confess that I support child slavery and animal torture. I confess this because it feels horrible to write this and confessing is compelling to change my behaviour to match what I say I believe.

The Bible, Historical Events And A Helpful Analogy

You've probably heard people (scholars) say that there is lots of stuff in the bible that is not historically accurate. This is sometimes out rightly rejected but more often than not clarified by a statement along the lines of "well historical biography is not the style that the gospels (or other books) were written in". Which leaves the lay person asking "so what style were they written in? Make it up as you go along style?" Well I think I may have a modern day writing style that is analogous to many of the biblical writings (particularly those dealing with events that have taken place in history) It is the political cartoon.

The political cartoon accurately and often in a very quick way tells exactly what is going on without necessarily being historically accurate. So in centuries to come someone might look back at two cartoons of the historical event of the Australian prime minister meeting the American president, one cartoon might have the prime minister laying prostrate before the president and another might have the prime minister kissing the president's bum. Now a historian might tell us that it is unlikely that either events took place and that the two cartoons contradict each other. But, as 21st centurary cartoon readers we know that these cartoons are actually an accurate telling of what is going on, in many ways far more accurate than a photo of the two leaders shaking hands ever could be.

I've found the political cartoon analogy really helpful. If ever I hear someone say that something in the bible didn't or couldn't happen the way it is recorded to ask is this similar to how a political cartoonist would have recorded this event?

Agents Of Future: Worship Music That Actually Rocks

Last week I downloaded a recent episode of Homebrewed Christianity. An episode on worship music. I was hesitant to listen, decent worship music is very rare to find. Interviewees Angie and Todd Fadel talked about the lack of honesty, lament and anguish in worship music, all good stuff but having a great theology of music and making great music can be two different things (still love you Brian!). Then there was a gap in the conversation and they played the first few bars of "Nothing In The Way". It gripped me and shook me. Todd plays piano line Pete Townsend plays guitar and the vocals were a cross between between Queen and Courtney Love; multiple tracks with vocal passion always trumping precision I'd heard it before, on triple j no less, but would never of picked it as "Worship Music". With that that I downloaded their album Sneak Peaks. It's great. You can listen to the whole thing at the bottom of this post or listen to it here. Best of all you can buy CD quality files for less than the cost of iTunes.

If you don't have the patience to listen to the whole podcast this you tube club is a good introduction.

Stream the "Agents Of Future" album "Sneak Peeks"

You can get more of their stuff from agentsoffuture.bandcamp.com

Relationship or Power

A great zoologist has been working with apes for years. She has finally made a major breakthrough with an ape she has been working with and knows that the next baby ape she starts with she will be able to unleash it's mind and give it the power to think reason and love to so the same degree as any human. Will she do it?

A computer programmer has been working on artificial intelligence for years finally he has cracked it he has designed a robot with software that lets it have independent choice and the ability to learn new things just like a human. Will he build the robot?

The question in the two scenarios is the same. If you could create a human like being would you? It’s a dilemma because by creating a human like being you are relinquishing control of that being. They will have the power to love you or leave you or do things or be someone you don’t like. Once you train the ape or build the robot to be like a human you are no longer “all powerful”, they control how you relate to each other.

Xns will often describe God as “all powerful” without even a moment’s thought. As humans if we were to give something the some human qualities that will reduce our own power, but also increase the possibility for relationship. Having created two children in my own image (so to speak) I am very aware that although I maybe powerful I am not all powerful and once they become adults (completely in my adult image) I will have virtually no power what so ever, only possibility of relationship. If we believe that God has created us in God’s image and desires to have a relationship with us, maybe we need to stop calling God “all powerful”.

Scripture Classes and Chaplains in High Schools

If you are one of my friends who sends me save our chaplains or scripture classes you may be disappointed by this post so maybe just stop reading now. Also, this was supposed to be a short pithy post but it's not, Sorry.

When I went to high school we didn't have a chaplain and we hardly ever had scripture classes. Twenty years ago, as far as I knew It was only private Xn schools who had chaplains. Public high schools were supposed to dedicate one period a week to scripture classes. The school I attended finished one period early every Friday because a previous principal had just got rid of scripture altogether. By the time i was attended the school scripture happened once every six weeks or so much to the annoyance of the teacher who's class scripture cut into. Most people did not turn up to scripture and I always sighed a small sigh of relief every time my non Xn friends wagged scripture because at a time when being cool was really important nothing made Xy seem more uncool than scripture.

Without scripture and a chaplain Xy thrived at our school. At one point 10% of the school attended the weekly lunchtime meeting for ISCF (Inter School Christian Fellowship) a student led Christian meeting that was overseen by just one teacher. As great as Mr Bradley was the real key to the large number of Xns at my school was, I think, the strength of the local churches. My church for example had a weekly high school youth group with 24 volunteer leaders (split over 2 groups) who would faithfully turn up every week. This was not a mega church but a medium sized parish church. With that kind of role modeling by the time it was my turn as 16 year old to be one of the ISCF leaders it didn't seem daunting at all.

If you had asked me if I wanted scripture to be taught every week I would have said “no”, asked me if i wanted a chaplain at the school I would have said “no” too.

For me the beauty of the Friday lunchtime ISCF meeting was that it was "opt in", purely the students own choice. Scripture on the other hand was "opt out" (if you could convince your parent to write a note) otherwise it was compulsory.

Fast forward 20 years to now and the same well-meaning daggy scripture teachers are doing their best to jump the generation gap (for those 23 and over) or the credibility gap (for those 23 and under) and I'm still unsure if it's the best thing people could be doing, especially without a really well people resourced youth ministry at the local church.

Perhaps another fact of the current debate that I struggle with is that pro scripture / chaplaincy people often talk as if either program is a constituted right and not an absolute privilege. Anyone who knows me knows that I've done quite a lot of Xn stuff in schools but I have always done those things with an absolute sense of privilege to be invited onto school grounds.

Chaplains, is another fascinating and different issue. As soon as the policy was introduced I was sure it wouldn't last longer than one election cycle. I was wrong. The Dictionary definition of a chaplain: A member of the clergy who conducts religious services for an institution, such as a prison or hospital. The Government definition of a school chaplain: is a basically a youth worker who will not engage in religious activities. General public definition of a chaplain: Well that'll depend on who you speak to... It'll be some combination of the above.

Personally I'm off the opinion that mixing Xy and government is like mixing ice-cream with dog poo. The dog poo (government) stays pretty much the same but the ice-cream (Xy) gets ruined.

At the moment we have someone chosen to do a job on religious grounds (although recent legislation has been passed to change this) and then instructed to do nothing religious. The political idea is that church wins because it gets to feel like it's doing something by having a "Xn presence" in every high school and the government hopes that non-Xn voters don’t mind as the chaplains are not allowed to do anything religious.

If were to rename chaplains "under paid Christians happy to help out an under resourced over stretched education system" I'd have no problem with that. The problem is that we are calling these workers chaplains and misrepresenting what they are actually doing.

The point of the chaplaincy program is to buy votes and the Xn community is buying up big because we can see how disconnected young people are from Xy and from church. We think that sticking chaplains in schools or keeping scripture compulsory will get kids back in church. Of far more value would be 24 adults willing to commit to meeting weekly with a group of high school aged young people once a week every week of the school term. This is highly unlikely as we (voting Xn adults) are so committed to other things. This is what I think really needs to change.

Jesus Dojo, Mark Scandrette - Review

About a month ago I was lucky enough to win a copy of Mark Scandrette's new book Jesus Dojo care of the great guys at Homebrewed Christianity. Jesus Dojo is one of those rare magical books where once you've read it you give it to your spouse demanding she read it too. It was a radical yet gentle challenge to change my life and follow Jesus in a far more practical (rather than esoteric) way than i have for a long time. The kind of meaningful changes that you have to bring your spouse along with you on.

The book is part a guide on how to do church differently and part personal story as Mark and his church try to live it out a new way of being Xn. The book is based around the idea of a dojo. A karate dojo (where you've most likely to have heard the term) is just the place where you learn the way of karate and obviously it's very hands on. So there won't be lots of singing about karate followed by a long talk about karate. The Jesus Dojo is based around a series of experiments that participants do that come out of reading the gospels. So when John the Baptist challenges his followers to give up half of what they own that's what the participants do. Importantly the experiments are experiments they are not permanent changes or a set of guidelines, but they may lead to these. Sometimes experiments work wonderfully other times they don't. Either way there is plenty to be learnt.

So if you find yourself sitting in church thinking "Is this it?", "Has choosing to follow an incendiary revolutionary come down to badly singing some songs listening to some guy talk and then eat tea and biscuits?" Then this book is for you.

In short this book is friggin' awesome not just for what's in it but for what it will propel you to do in the future. The only downside is you'll have to convince some friends to join you on the journey.

Carry Us Over - Valley Song

I've got a bad habit of constantly being on the look out for "worship music" the kind of songs you could sing in church. Every so often I get to introduce a new one to the church I hang out with, but lately I've been singing and playing Xn songs a lot and since I really just can't stand Xn songs of the Hill Song variety that kind of makes looking for those songs a whole lot harder. I recently, care of Homebrewed Christianity, came across The Agents of Future who I will post on later. They recommended Kelli Schaefer and I came across the song "Carry Us Over". I love it and can't stop playing it.

Here is a some what beautifully shambolic playing of the song - shambolic because it's very much anyone with an instrument can play and "the band" is not turned up loud enough to drown out anyone who isn't singing perfect pitch or clapping exactly in time. It's friggin' great.

If you want a nice studio recording of the song go here

And the chords and lyrics...

Carry Us Over

C G Am
Jesus turn this wine back in to water
C G Am
So we can quench our poor thirsty souls
C G Am
This dessert's dry as hell and getting hotter
C G Am
And the truth is only your love makes us whole

C G
So carry us over the finish line
Dm F
we can see the end but our feet are so tired
C G Am
It's Obvious we're useless on our own
C G
So carry us over the finish line
Dm F
We can see the end but our feet are so tired
C G Am
We don't know how to be sober
C G C
So Jesus Carry us over

But if this wait is gonna kill me
well kill me then and bring me home to you
But if my destiny’s amongst the heathen
Well tie me to your rope and pull me through

C G Am
We want to come home
C G Am
We want to come home
C G Dm F
We want to come home
C G C
We want to come home

© Kelli Schaefer

Oh and when there is no one else around she sounds like this...

Passion Gone

I'm loosing the passion for blogging. I had a big break not so long ago and now i feel like I'm going to do just what a blog shouldn't do, slowly fade away. I think a few things are happening. 1. I'm feeling less and less like i have ideas that are worth other people reading. 2. Too much other stuff is happening in my life... Kids (one with autism and one with a language processing difficulty), uni and the usual stay at home dad stuff. These are obviously way more important than a blog and while my brain might be processing stuff anyway it's just too much effort to formulate those ideas into a coherent blog post. 3. I just am a little bit more comfortable living in the grey and the unknown at the moment.

So you may never get to read the following half thought out posts...

Chaplains: Why i think they, under the current arrangement, they are not such a great idea.

Confession: About the the slavery and animal torture I'm involved in.

Relationship Vs Power: where I continue to muse around the idea that God is not "all powerful" and why that makes relating to God possible.

Big Gay Post: where I outline all the thoughts and reasons as to why I am Gay affirming.

It was twenty years ago today...

20 years ago my musical world went from this...

to this...

Kurt, Chris and Dave. Thank you.

To be completely truthful I spent most of my high school years listening to sixties and seventies rock, but that Kylie and Jason kind of music was always there in the background.