Man of Depravity

I’ve been wanting to read Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God. I continue to hear nothing but awesome things about it. It has been interesting to read a discussion over at Jesus Creed about the book. Chapter 4 of the book is taking a look at the following: “If the Christian story is true, why has the Church been responsible for so much pain and injustice both large and small?”

I love that Keller is not afraid to deal with some of the more difficult theological discussions. In dealing with this question Keller looks at the church as a whole and the local church as well (This would be somewhat debated, but generally it is agreed that the church is universal and local. Catholics disagree).

Keller summarizes why Christians often receive a bad rap:

Think of people you consider fanatical. They’re overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian, but because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but they are not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathic, forgiving, or understanding-as Christ was. … What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and his gospel.

On how to answer the original question, this is what he has to say:

What is the answer, then, to the very fair and devastating critique of the record of the Christian church? The answer is not to abandon the Christian faith, because that would leave us with neither the standards nor the resources to make correction. Instead we should move to a fuller and deeper grasp of what Christianity is. The Bible itself has taught us to expect the abuses of religion and it has also told us what to do about them.

Ok, now for some of my thoughts.

• I think it was Tony Campolo who said the church is like your mother who is a whore. I think that is exactly where Keller is going here. Yes, the church (universal and local) has made some huge, glaring mistakes but she is your mom and she deserves your loyalty.
• I can’t count on my hands how many people have said to me something along the lines of…”yeah I believe in Jesus, but I don’t like church.” I think this is simply a selfish statement. Jesus has called us to gather in his name. This is for our own need and to bring glory to him.
• I do not think the church (local) is something that Jesus intended for only some Christians to be a part of.
• For me the question of why the church has caused so much pain is so difficult. Partly I think we are naive to the distortion that faith has when it is in the hands of public decision making and politics, and partly I think it is an example of our “religion” being so full of sinners. It is more a testament to the saving sacrifice of Jesus then it is our failure.

So…how do you answer the question of why the church has failed so much?

I find it easy to get into ruts of doing the same thing all the time. I get this way with my school work, my relationship with Rose, and with my free time.

I also think this happens with worship teams at churches all the time, Sunset’s included. We play the same style of song, same style of music, with the same instruments every weekend (obviously I’m being a bit of a pessimist here). This is good for the congregation inviting friends and family because they know what to expect. The other side of that is that things can just get old, and the passion is lost.

On Friday night I was inspired to get out of the rut of doing worship music the same way every Sunday morning. As I posted about last weekend, I saw Phil Wickham in concert (thanks to Amos for the pictures). It was his voice and his acoustic guitar and it was powerful. He played for 1 hour and 20 minutes. The average worship cd that comes out and is emulated by every church in the world has a completely full band, but I think seeing Phil was a reminder that worshiping God through music isn’t about having a full band or emulating a cd.

Coming in the summer we’re going to try at least one weekend with a very simplified instrumentation. Probably a piano, acoustic guitar, maybe some light rhythm, and a couple vocals. I’m excited to see what God can do with us changing up the pace. I have a feeling changing it up will allow people to enter into worship in a fresh way.

Creative Chaos #11 at the Soul.

I’m in the news. Well kind of. A few weeks ago I spoke with a Seattle Times reporter who had read some of my blog. She wanted to talk to me about young Christians who are no longer voting Republican, and more about how faith and politics intersect. Her and I talked for around 40 minutes on the phone.

I got a text from a friend of mine this morning saying that he just saw my name in the Seattle Times. Sure enough, the article was on the front page of the Seattle Times and the main page of SeattleTimes.com. Pretty sweet. I was curious to see what she would put in the article from our conversation. Ben Climer, who went to my high school a few years after me, was also featured in the article. The article has been the most read on the Seattle Times website today, and has been showcased on a few political websites and blogs.

So what did I say? Well the article ends with this quote from me. “I just keep thinking, if Jesus were alive now, he wouldn’t necessarily be voting Republican.”

Before you read the rest of my post, go check out the article here. I’ll include the full text at the bottom of this post.

Now that you have read it…let me clear some things up.

• While I did tell her that right now I am leaning towards voting Obama, I never said it had anything to do with Iraq. I did tell her that for me the war is one the lesser issues. I see valid reasons for staying or going.
• I’m glad she included the part of me saying that I haven’t fully decided yet, because I haven’t.
• Overall, I’m happy with the article and how I got included. I’m sure my grandparents are going to start wondering how the devil got to my brain, but I’m ok with that.
• I haven’t shared my opinion on politics much on this blog. I guess that all changed with the article getting published.
• It’s ridiculous that I’ll get labeled as “liberal” by many. Not ridiculous…sad.
• Here is an example of where I do not want this conversation to go. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that many people are extremely passionate about politics and faith.

So what do you think?

Young, evangelical … for Obama?

By Haley Edwards

Michael Dudley is the son of a preacher man. He’s a born-again Christian with two family members in the military. He grew up in the Bible Belt, where almost everyone he knew was Republican. But this fall, he’s breaking a handful of stereotypes: He plans to vote for Democrat Barack Obama. “I think a lot of Christians are having trouble getting behind everything the Republicans stand for,” said Dudley, 20, a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University. Dudley’s disenchantment with the GOP isn’t unique among young, devoutly Christian voters. According to a September 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 15 percent of white evangelicals between 18 and 29, a group traditionally a shoo-in for the GOP, say they no longer identify with the Republican Party. Older evangelicals are also questioning their traditional allegiance, but not at the same rate.

But, Howard Dean, don’t count your chickens quite yet. College-age and 20-something Christians may be leaving the GOP, but only 5 percent of young evangelicals have joined the Democrats, according to the Pew survey. The other 10 percent are wandering the political wilderness, somewhere between “independent” and “unaffiliated.” Shane Claiborne, a Philadelphia Christian activist and author of “Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals,” has a different name for these folks: “political misfits.” Claiborne has traveled around the country the past several years, speaking and preaching mostly to college-age Christians who are “both socially conservative and globally aware.” That makes them disenchanted with both major parties, he said. “It’s not about liberal or conservative, or Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a new evangelical left. … There’s a new evangelical stuck-in-the-middle.”

UW communications professor David Domke said some young evangelicals are breaking with the GOP for the same reasons many people broke from the party in the 2006 legislative elections — the unpopular war in Iraq; the Bush administration’s abysmal approval ratings; or, now, because of the tanking economy. Others broke from the party when John McCain, who hasn’t held much appeal for evangelicals in the past, became the presumptive nominee. The Arizona senator hasn’t been a consistent foe of gay marriage, and he supports federally funded embryonic stem-cell research. James Dobson, head of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, announced in February that if McCain was the GOP nominee, he’d sit out the election. But students at a recent bipartisan political union meeting at SPU say there’s something more going on with young Christians than disenchantment with McCain. In an informal poll of the political union, the majority supported Obama.

“I think it’s a new movement starting,” said Amy Archibald, 19, a sophomore at the evangelical school. “Most of us would never blindly follow the old Christian Right anymore. James Dobson has nothing to do with us. A lot of us are taking apart the issues, and thinking, ‘OK, well, [none of the candidates] fits what I’m looking for exactly.’ But if you’re going to vote, you’ve got to take your pros with your cons.” Eugene Cho, a founder and lead pastor at Seattle’s Quest Church, which caters to a predominantly under-35 crowd, urges young Christians to look beyond the two or three issues that have allowed Christians to be “manipulated by those that know the game or use it as their sole agenda.” “While the issue of abortion — the sanctity of life — must always be a hugely important issue, we must juxtapose that with other issues that are also very important,” Cho wrote in his blog on faith and politics.

Polls have shown that young Christians aren’t any less concerned about the “family values” issues that have traditionally driven Christians to the Republican camp. (In fact, a study by the Barna Group, an evangelical polling organization, shows young Christians are actually more conservative on abortion than their elders.) It’s just that they’re also concerned about issues such as social justice and immigration, issues traditionally associated with Democrats. Judy Naegeli, 25, who works at a Christian philanthropy, says easy access to information about the world via social-networking sites, YouTube and blogs is the reason her generation is more concerned with social justice. “It’s changed our perspective. … Each generation chooses their cause, and ours is AIDs in Africa, or poverty or social justice,” she said.

Tyler Braun, 23, a Portland seminary student who opposes abortion and gay rights, said he’ll probably vote for Obama because he would like to see U.S. troops leave Iraq. Anika Smith, 23, who works for a think tank in Seattle, said she’s concerned with the same issues, but she plans to vote for McCain: “I’m worried about the war and the economy and social-justice issues. But, the abortion issue is still nonnegotiable.” Nathan Johnson, the executive director of the King County Republican Party, says he is skeptical that young, socially conservative Christians will desert the GOP this fall. He agrees young Christians appear to be looking beyond the two or three issues — abortion, gay rights, stem-cell research — that have made Christian voters loyal in the past. “But that doesn’t mean they’re no longer Republican. “Once the primary is over, and we get into a head-to-head contest, Obama’s voting record will come to light,” said Johnson, 24. “Then there will be a lot of young conservative voters who won’t be able to tolerate what he’s stood for in terms of abortion and other socially conservative values.”

Young evangelicals are more of a swing constituency than they’ve been for decades, said Andy Crouch, an editor at Christianity Today, a national evangelical magazine. “This could turn out to be the election where both parties realize that the evangelical vote is so hopelessly split down the middle that it’s not worth courting them at all because what parties need are blocs that can be appealed to en masse,” Crouch said. “Paradoxically, evangelicals would become less relevant than ever before.”

Braun, the seminary student, said he’s not totally committed to any candidate yet. “I just keep thinking, if Jesus were alive now, he wouldn’t necessarily be voting Republican,” he said.

True Love is one of my favorite songs right now. It is by Phil Wickham. Rose, Janet, and I went and saw him record a live, acoustic, worship album tonight. First off, the worship concert was awesome. Phil played his stuff and mixed it in with some well known hymns. He is one of maybe 4 or 5 Christian artists who can be awesome with just an acoustic guitar and his voice.

Earlier in the day I had some time to get together with Brody and Randy. It was awesome to get to know both of them a little bit. They work with Phil and a few other Christians artists. Primarily they help with the online presence of each artist and even more specifically they help them have an effective blog. I’ve been reading Brody’s blog for a while now, so it was cool to hang out with someone who I met through blogging (it works people). What happened tonight was lots of conversations between Phil and Brody about doing something like this tonight: making the live album free, and showing the live feed of the show on Phil’s blog. So even though I was there to experience it all, many more will experience it by downloading the songs from his website and others watched the concert live on his blog tonight. Very cool.

Brody gets it. Music is changing. Artists have to change with the times. Tonight was an example of how to succeed in the changing music industry.

I watched the Dove Awards a few weeks ago. For those who do not know, they are basically the Grammys for Christian music.

Back when I was 17, I had just started to learn to play acoustic guitar and I was leading worship for my youth group. I had purchased Chris Tomlin’s first cd which included lyrics with chords for each song. I spent hours on end every day pounding away until I was able to play and sing with the cd.

When I first met Chris I told him how grateful I was to him for having a heart for the church to worship God and for writing songs that even a terrible player like me can hang with. When Chris first got into writing worship songs and making albums and touring, he wasn’t that great of a musician. Sure his music now is more complex for musicians with more complicated vocal parts, but Chris is not a rock star and he will not blow anyone away with his musical abilities.

Back when I was 17, Chris Tomlin inspired me to lead my generation in a cry of worship to God. That inspiration flows into everything that I do today. Simply put, I wouldn’t be doing what I do if it wasn’t for Chris Tomlin.

The past 2 years he has won the Dove Award for Artist of the Year and this year he won for Male Vocalist of the Year. God has taken Chris’s heart of worship to turn him into the premier artist in Christian music.

Thanks Chris, for your passion to worship Jesus and for leading a generation that desires to seek after what it means to worship in spirit and truth.