Category: The Church

Discerning God’s presence

~ phroneticchristian ~ Leave a comment

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”  – John 9:37

This blog is about discerning God’s presence. He is here in everyday life, revealing himself to people. Even those who might not recognize it. God is making all things new, and everything in our daily routine – even its mundanity and sameness – is divinely preparatory to experiencing the truly real.  

I’m intent on knowing Jesus Christ as the destination of my inner longing. It began with a crisis of confidence in the terse doctrinal system drilled into my adolescent brain; namely that the world mostly contains people for whom there is no redemptive possibility. It preached that the only true belief was that an unalterable divine decree precluded the majority of humanity to have any opportunity whatsoever of living eternally with Him. Since Adam and Eve, men and women remain accursed and utterly without God, because pervasive sin makes people so filthy that they are repulsive to God.  We humans, have been stripped of our divine likeness. Irrespective of Christ’s mission to “preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind”, some, so they said, are unsaveable.  Hence, there is no point in bothering to share God’s reconciling love in Jesus Christ with the already-damned. God, according to the founding father of this particular movement, “determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms”.  

Nothing could be more cruelly bereft of God’s mercy and love. Like many Christians, we sought good grades on the Great Commission. But we flunked the commandment to love people in a way that makes them feel loved. It is reminiscent of the Pharisee who prayer-boasted: “God, thank you that I am not like other people”.  Recalling those days, if they were not numbered among “the Remnant” (just us select few), they were unworthy of compassion, God’s or ours.  That is historical Christianity gone wrong. Such dehumanization isn’t the Jesus who ignored artificial religious boundaries that forbade contact with lepers and detested non-Jews. And he healed the untouchables, like a Roman centurion’s servant, or a Gentile woman’s daughter. Still more serious, he “unlawfully” healed on the strictly-observed Sabbath day of rest. Even the dogs were to be fed from leftovers from his table. A God bereft of compassion is not worthy of my worship. He formed man from the dust of the ground, not from a pile of shit.

The late Rachel Held Evans mused, “I would hate to think that God creates disposable people”.  She believed in God’s promise to love each and every human being that has ever or will ever live, instead of what’s termed “limited atonement”. As Ms. Evans called it, unbelieving people who have real lives and real names were seen merely as “pond scum” in God’s eyes.  God only loves the precious few who win the Divine Lottery. Others – before they ever commit a single sin – are not afforded even a chance to be saved and are divinely auto-deleted. As one Calvinist professor explained, “Everything God does to or for the reprobate in this life is deliberately designed to prepare him or her for eternal damnation”.  It reminds me of a quote, perversely twisting the message of Jesus. It was uttered by a distinguished dean of theology about those who are not Christians just like him:

The other peoples of the world – Muslims, Buddhists, and those of other faiths, as well as those Christians not born again – do not concern Him.

And yet those people – over your backyard fence and all over the world – are searching for love. They’re rooting around for ultimate meaning. They are literally dying to see God as friend and lover. You know many like that, feeling devoid of any divine experience.

There are those who have learned to sing “hymns to an unknown God”; seekers who may never feel the spiritual need to get up on Sunday and attend a church. Some are church exiters, saying “I’M DONE” with oxygen-starved theology – especially with polarizing politics commingled with the Gospel. Others are nursing wounds after having been pushed under a busload of sanctimony. These may have given up not only on the institutional church, but also are resentful towards God, and will never again bow the knee. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the self-directed spiritual seekers, who have never knocked on a church door as the only hope for a lost world. God loves them, as well.

At the end of the day, Jesus did not come to construct systems competing for First Prize in the most correct theology. God will always know more than we do. Neither did he come not to organize a mega business/church that offers the best life – but only on our terms. Religion tends towards becoming sediments layered to reach God instead of a divinely-initiated encounter, exposing our hearts and souls to the mystery of being touched by him. Action-oriented “doings” primarily about what we do for Jesus, not about what He has done for us. This is Christless Christianity, as Michael Horton explains in his book of the same name, “our practices reveal that we are focused on ourselves and our activity more than on God and his saving work among us”. 

Good. I got that all out of my system. This blog, on the other hand, reflects my desire that all mankind let go of self and be enveloped by Christ’s grace, discovering the means by which we meet God.  I mean to say God really doesn’t hate you like others say. I’m grateful to have escaped the black hole of a retributive God to find a fresh vision of divine love. I invite all God-curious men and women into the true universe filled with the freely giving of the divine Self, which we call grace. Not only does God act in love, he awaits our love in return. Our proper response is the mystical experience known as faith, a heavenly wisdom superimposed over empirical knowledge, and extending well beyond. “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s house, for the new land that I will show you”, God told Abram and Sarah, saying “I will surely bless you”.  We all find ourselves needy and find it difficult to be truly at home with ourselves and at peace in the universe. God invites us to go beyond our own comfort zone and undertake a life pilgrimage to something infinitely better. God will move you quietly forward in grace as the time is right. It’s okay if you’re not yet ready to take that step in your emerging journey towards faith. Jesus said he didn’t come for the healthy, but for those who need a doctor.  The Physician is ready to see you now, but He also has a capacious Waiting Room.

The Old has Become New

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– 2 Corinthians 5:17

I began this blog 6 years ago, with the byline, “Welcome to a new evangelical blog”.

Well, things change, and so do people—and how they view reality. Truth stays the same; our viewpoints change. To keep it brief, this is no longer an evangelical blog. I have moved away from evangelicalism but not from Jesus. It feels more accurate to say evangelicalism has moved away from Jesus. This isn’t about being against evangelicalism; I’m just done and have moved on.

If you’re interested in exploring the remains of evangelical Christianity, I recommend Diana Butler Bass’ great book, Christianity After Religion.[1] She explains how things fell apart but also shows that Christianity has faced worse challenges in its 2,000-year history and is still here, thanks to the Holy Spirit.

“Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). That’s the guiding principle for this new direction. Many people believe in some kind of god and want to connect with the divine. But God is a spirit, and it takes a spiritual focus to see Him. Psalm 10 speaks about God being hidden: “Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (v. 1) The Psalmist answers: “In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (v.4). It’s our issue, not His.

God is present. He is not hiding; He is welcoming. While we might not make space for God, His Kingdom has room for everyone who has ever lived. There’s a lot to explore here, and it’s all very exciting. We’ll be developing these ideas moving forward, and I hope you’ll join me on this journey to God!

TGBTG

Stuart Thompson,

Twelfth Week After Pentecost

[1] Diana Butler Bass. Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. (New York: HarperOne, 2012)

First they came…

~ phroneticchristian ~ Leave a comment

My on-and-off again Christian blog, Under the Rubble, might as well be named Under the Radar. Few people read or follow it – but that’s not my point. The point is, what I write stays written. It’s a record of disruptive thought, sometimes even prophetic. And it is there on the ‘Net forever.

In the back of my mind, I wonder if all the negative things I’ve written about Christian Nationalism will someday come back on me. An old evangelical meme says, “if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” In an authoritarian court, my writings would be more than enough to convict me.

Should I be packing my toothbrush? Its very possible; many true believers could be apprehended and incarcerated under another Trump regime. The charge? For not being the right kind of Christian: a fervent Christian Nationalist. Trump – who never steps into a church – speaks of “our religion”. His pardoned flunky, Michael Flynn, claims America has to have “one religion”.  As long-time evangelical, Tim Alberta points out, Christian Nationalism has spread deeply into churches. This is not yet a Bonhoeffer moment, but way too many parishioners have pledged undying loyalty to Donald J. Trump.

It seems the loudest evangelical voices crying “persecution” can’t wait to return the favor. Based on the multi-millionaire tele-grifters and spiritual phonies Trump previously surrounded himself with, its not hard to imagine the religious flotsam a re-empowered Trump would appoint to oversee and purify American religion.  Churches, already riven by sectarianism and political intolerance, will be divided among perpetrators, bystanders, and resisters. And its not looking good for resisters. “They all have to be purged”, Steve Bannon says about those not Christian nationalists.

Looks like I’ll have to be purged then as an enemy of the State – not to mention God. I’m not a flamin’ librul. I don’t have a martyr complex. I’m just a believer clinging to the words of Jesus, no agenda except His, with no creed other than Nicaea. Considering how evangelical Christianity is circling the political drain, I’m just wondering out loud, “where is it headed?”

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem

~ phroneticchristian ~ 1 Comment

Let us pray earnestly for the safety and peace for the people of Israel, entreats John Hagee. “I certainly am praying for the people, the Israelis”, declares Franklin Graham. “I’m not praying for their enemies. I pray that God will give them victory over their enemies.”  Sorry, no prayers for the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Christians are to be Jesus-centered peacemakers. He commanded us to:

•              Go and be reconciled (Matthew 5:24).

•              To first take the log out of our own eye (Matthew 7:5 NRS).

•              To forgive those who sin against us (Luke 17:3-4).

•              To love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

•              And to love our enemy (Matthew 5:44).

The ruthless, bloody Hamas incursion is something no Christ follower can condone.  I abhor it, and believe Israel has a right to defend itself, no question. Murderous, and totally immoral , there are no apologia for Hamas’s atrocities. Yet, unquestioning loyalty to Israel – right or wrong – is a defining element of many evangelicals’ religious and political identities. I happen to fall on the more irenic side. Contrary to John Hagee, I don’t think the attack was entirely unprovoked. “Therefore, this must be said once again—we told you so. Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places”, writes Amira Hass in Haaretz.

“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war”, as Orwell famously wrote.  It’s not as if the Palestinians are not the only “bad guys” here. Peace negotiations have repeatedly come and gone – high points full of hope: including Camp David, Oslo, Annapolis. At the end of the day, neither side trusted the other to carry through. There were no “winners”.  Each is a recalcitrant loser who will not concede defeat. “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”. (Jeremiah 6:14).

October 7th already represents the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Revenge is on the mind of Israel now. “The brutality of the surprise attack unites Israel around one goal: Crush Hamas”, reads a typical headline. “Every member of Hamas is a dead man,” Netanyahu said. Now is not the time cooler heads will prevail, where the blood lust of revenge easily outweigh sensibility and moral proportionality. It’s an emotional battle cry globally in conflicts that lead to horrific pain and desolation. “We are not going to stop until we capture the last remaining terrorist (gang member),” says the Salvadoran President of his country’s turmoil. Think of the sieges of Bakhmut and Sarajevo. And Vietnam: “We have to destroy the village to save it”.

Gaza’s situation was already dire before Hamas’s assault. And with Gaza now under siege, the Israeli energy minister has stated that no “electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter” until all hostages were freed. The Gazan population of 2 million has no food, no water, no electricity, no medical care, no shelter. Winter is coming – but no humanitarian help. Megapastor Robert Jeffress helpfully suggests that the biblical response (echoing word-for word Gen. Curt Lemay’s famous threat to North Vietnam)  is to bomb Hamas back into the stone age.. The collective punishment is only starting, with Israel planning a full scale ground invasion. Sitting ducks, Gazans have nowhere to escape, nowhere to live. The demographics of Gaza disclose that 65% of the population is under 25 years of age. There are almost 200,000 males in the 15–24 bracket. I worry about the life expectancy of innocent young men in that most vulnerable category.  And the children (on both sides). Especiallly Arab Christians, given Hamas perfidy in using innocents as human shields.

Shortly after the Bosnian war, I worked in international development. One inflection point involved the city of Mostar. On  side live the Muslims, the other is Catholic. It is split down the middle by the Neretva river, which for ages had been the city sewer. An international agency proposed a new waste treatment facility.  The quarrelling parties insisted there must be one for each side. They walked away without agreement. There was so much hate they didn’t want even their shit to mix. Another poignant story I overheard in Bosnia: God appeared to a one-eyed Serb, offering to grant him one wish. The condition was, that God would grant his Muslim enemy a double portion. The man thought about it a while, and then said, “take my other eye out”. Religio-ethnic conflict is the most difficult to resolve; intractable because it is holy. Each party is adamant that God is on their side. Both would prefer harming themselves than allow a blessing to their enemy.

What should Christians do? We must do what Jesus did. Christians need to be walking in Jesus’ sandals, and align our loves with the divine love. Jesus himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:13-14). That commits us to put aside war-mongering over against peacemaking in Jesus’ name. We should uphold the sanctity of all human life.- both Israeli and Palestinian – as bearers of God’s image, . “Accepting compassion and offering aid to the Palestinians in Gaza is morally imperative.” I like how Ilhan Omer put it: “Peace and justice will not come from the barrel of a gun. And that targeting an entire civilian population will only sow more discord and perpetuate the cycle of violence. The political solution to this horror, as ever, is a negotiated peace—with Israelis and Palestinians enjoying equal rights and security guarantees.” Otherwise, we surrender Christian morality to right-wing theocratic thugs like Pastor Greg Locke, who calls for Israel to “make the Gaza Strip a parking lot”.

The average Christian’s helplessness to alter these circumstances should breed a deeper sense of dependence on God to intervene. We need prayers of repentance and supplication. Our prayers should “extend beyond the immediate cessation of hostilities to encompass a broader and more enduring aspiration that both Israelis and Palestinians may come to embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior.” That all will “know that this man really is the Savior of the world”. (John 4:42).

Don’t share your cookies!

~ phroneticchristian ~ 3 Comments

I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit.  – Tony Campolo

Sometimes, when I’m really bored, I’ll click on the Christian Post for a helping of warmed-over evangelical propaganda. They specialize in gripe features, when they’re not fretting about losing white Christian control over everything.

This CP article over the Christmas holidays really helped explain what the Evangelical Tribe is all about. It involves a church in densely populated urban Seattle that is experiencing a major problem. (It’s a Greek Orthodox church, but the CP commenters piling on here were assumedly evangelicals). The particular area is known as one of Seattle’s most popular nightlife and entertainment districts, and home to a historic gay village. It’s going through the throes of gentrification, where the birthplace of grunge is scaling up to a more expensive grunge. Trip experts rave about loads to do, but warn not to stray from the main drag.

Seattle has become a magnet for the homeless. They are hanging out on street corners and camped out in public parks. Tourists complain the area is overrun with pan-handling drug addicts. The local church in question has the same issue, and parishioners are afraid to attend. They blame the police for doing nothing. “We need help”, the church pleads.

The question is, would WE invite these dead-enders and abused losers to worship with us? No. These folks just wouldn’t fit in with our kind, especially at the pleasant après-worship featuring coffee and sweets. Instead, we’d be dialing 911 and sending them to jail. Like a Baptist church in California, where a homeless man who entered the church looking for assistance was arrested. He had stolen some $2 worth of cookies!  Who is the “we” who really needs help?

Last month, most of us in America endured one of the most frigid, pipe-busting Decembers on record. While the polar vortex winds blew, how many of us driving to our comfy Christmas Eve services, gave any thought to detour past a Wal-Mart or other big box store?. After dark, on any given night, any number of dingy cars and vans are parked in the dark corners of the lot. People live in them. We call them “homeless” people, but they are not. They are un-homed, discarded, hungry and unloved. Go ahead and check for yourself.

Like the church in question, many Christians imagine the world’s problems might be solved if needy people outside our churchly comfort zone would just magically disappear. Commenters to the article tried to paint the church as victim:

  • “Police are so kind to homeless people. Seize their property and then roust them 9 times out of 10.”
  • “If you don’t like rampant crime and homelessness, then don’t vote Democrat.” 
  • “These are not poor……….These are addicted to drugs”
  • “Want to get rid of them?  Go out and start preaching to them all day every day.”
  • “Put these people in prison, and, whilst they are in prison, get them dried out, teach them life skills, and, with any luck, make them productive citizens.”

Can you hear what they’re really saying? Funny, how few of these armchair “experts” saw this as a spiritual problem the American church has disowned. “Are there no prisons?” “Are there no workhouses?” Each year, a Texas church boasting 49,000 members puts on a Christmas extravaganza bigger and better than Broadway. A $60 ticket to see the 1,000 member performance buys angels flying across the ceiling, a choir and live orchestra, a cast of on-stage animals, along with a first act featuring Santa. Duas tantum res anxius optat: Panem et circences. And we don’t have resources to help those in need??? Or is it because we don’t give a shit? When Christians turn our backs to the visibly invisible in our neighborhood, it should shame us to be the truly homeless ones, having souls with “no room at the inn”.

“The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared? – Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Credo… Credimus

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But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.  1 John 1:7

 “I believe… We believe…” Modern English language is densely rich, but one shortcoming rests in addressing a whole bunch of people.  We have no linguistic way of differentiating singular and plural “you”.  It wasn’t always this way. In English at the time of the King James Bible, “ye” was the second person plural pronoun (i.e.- not the performer previously known as Kanye West). As in, “prepare ye the way of the Lord”. To make that distinction today, English speakers need to resort to awkward work-rounds like “y’all” or “you guys”.

I’m not trying to inflict a grammar lesson; this linguistic deficit affects how we interpret the Bible and our approach to faith.  The majority of St. Paul’s epistles, for example, were addressed to congregations, to be communally received. We can easily misread passages where Koiné Greek expresses the collective you. Especially given our hyper-individualized evangelicalism, which embeds the assumption that the Apostle’s instructions were addressed to “Me”, “Mine”, or “I” rather than as pluralized instruction to a community.

The collapse of American community has been recounted in Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone”.  The disconnectedness of our society influences how evangelicals relate to one another. Or, to be more precise, how they don’t. The message of the gospel becomes a message “for me” personally. This branding of the idealized modern American Christian begins as the sale is closed, typified by the “I have decided to follow Jesus” style of proselytizing popularized by Billy Graham in his mass crusades. My religion is exclusively between me personally and Jesus.

Asking Jesus into your heart – just say the magic words, and now you’re totally free in Christ. What more is needed after that? The problem with retail grace is that Jesus did not say go and make Christians, but disciples who were to be baptized and taught. The magic words spoken in a crusade do a great job answering what I need to be saved from; what I am being saved to – not so much. John Stott comments: “We tend to proclaim individual salvation without moving on to the saved community.” Jesus didn’t tell people to accept him, but to follow him. And that needs to happen within the loving arms of a body of believers, whose practices embody the biblical story.

When Paul the Apostle speaks to the Galatian church about growing “… until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19), he wasn’t talking about weekly meet-ups for religious consumers, or feeding the fast food aggregate of “I”s. He meant a new identity lived out in community. It is where Christians (“we”, “us together”, “among”, “in common”…) put into practice the habits to live Christianly, to encourage each other in godliness, and invoke mutual obligations of care and concern. Worship is connection; brought together with God and each other. Bonhoeffer describes this in Life Together (Gemeinsames Leben). Other cultures have excellent words for this concept English can only vaguely approximate, like the Russian word Sobornost (Собо́рность) or the Greek Koinonia (κοινωνία).

Now, worshipping apart from the evangelical tradition, I’ve begun to think in terms of corporate spirituality, gaining a fuller perspective on life together. In worship we pray, “Our Father in heaven…”  We also profess our faith publically with the Nicene Creed, starting with “We believe (pisteuomen) in one God …” The “we” of the Creed’s opening statement is not only a recitation of doctrinal unity, it also implies obligation and responsibility to one’s neighbor. What is true for me applies to each member of my family of faith, standing together as the church.

Some time ago, the military came up with a recruiting slogan, “An Army of One”. “If you want to be an ‘Army of One’”, one critic noted, “you probably want to join the Hell’s Angels, not the U.S. Army.”  The same can be said for Christianity, where there is no single-person church. The plural use in Nicaea dates back to the early church, and given the post-modern primacy of the individual and its jettisoning of common identities, is especially relevant today for the self-centered “my faith” in isolation from the church, versus the allness of  “our faith” as corporate witness to the Living Word, re-enacting his presence among us in water, bread and wine, and being the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit moves.

We believe!