Tag Archives: Christian

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The Slick Suit Gospel

He’s the one with the syrupy smile and the bright, blinking eyes. The one who raises his hands and points with a half-curled fist for emphasis. When he speaks, he stands upon a stage that probably costs more than the entire budget I raised each year as a missionary. His suit looks like its worth more than my entire wardrobe. He gazes out into the spotlights and addresses a congregation numbering in five digits, and he tells them that the Creator of the Universe is intrinsically concerned with their financial and emotional security. He points to a saying of Jesus recorded in the scriptures and assures his audience that they have the power to move mountains, specifically those “mountains” that stand in the way of their success and most desired rewards. With that lilting, Southern voice, he exhorts the power of faith to bring about promotions and salary increases and profitable new contracts. He tells stories of people who have trusted in their ability to “move their mountains” and how, even in this adverse economy, they have reaped amazing blessings – more money, new cars, bigger homes. Why? Because they had faith. Real faith.

Any minute now…

Apparently, he has gleaned all this from the teachings of a guy who lived the opposite of an American success story, who said things like, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests to live in, but I’m homeless,” and “Life is not about the things you own,” and “Don’t waste time thinking about what you’ll eat or what you’ll wear; life is more than food and clothing.”

There are a myriad of things that should enrage Christians in America today: rampant starvation when we have food to spare, little children abducted and brainwashed into instruments of wars, villages of people dying from easily treatable diseases, a paucity of justice for women and minorities, the squelching of religious and political expression… However, in the midst of such prejudice and cruelty, we have dozens of channels devoted to the presentation of a message that poses as Christian theology and practice. Well-dressed, camera-friendly personalities loot the scriptures and twist selected passages into an exposition of extravagance.

If it looks like a preacher, and sounds like scripture, it must be Christianity. It must be what the teachings of Jesus were all about. Of course, for those willing to look behind the curtain of these pseudo-wizards who are all flash and no substance, it isn’t too difficult to perceive that the God they preach bears more resemblance to a genie in a lamp than an omniscient, omnipresent and almighty God of all that was, is, and ever will be.

Like this, except no way is God blue.

The sermons themselves are often vague exhortations on how to rub the lamp properly, or stories about people who figured out just how seemingly easy it was to get everything they wished for.

Tragically, this is what a lot of people assume the Christian message is concerned with when they momentarily click to one of these channels. And even if they don’t buy all the wish-fulfillment, or accept all the self-empowerment, the assumption remains that whatever real Christianity is, it’s not a far cry from what’s touted by these pastoral car salesmen.

“Come to Jesus this morning and I’ll waive the undercoating/rustproofing fees, guaranteed!”

After all, didn’t Jesus also say things like, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened…,” and “Everyone who leaves his house and family and possessions, for my sake, will get back a hundredfold,” and “If two or three of you agree about something and ask for it, it will be done for you” and, of course, “You can count on this, that even if you have just a tiny seed of faith, you can tell a mountain, ‘Move over there,’ and it will obey. Nothing will be impossible for you’”?

How do we reconcile Jesus’ teachings about self-denial with those places where he seems to be dancing around the concept of self-fulfillment? Is it no wonder that most people believe Christianity, or perhaps what is more often referred to as “Christian living,” basically boils down to doing more good than harm in one’s life – that God is all about putting our lives upon some cosmic scale and checking to make sure our poundage in propriety and moral uprightness outweighs our occasional pitfalls into naughtiness? Is Christianity merely synonymous with some wobbly standard of good behavior?

“I had no idea that cheating on an Algebra test weighed so much!”

If so, what’s wrong with decadence? What’s wrong with viewing one’s relationship with God in the same way we view our interaction with the American dream? Living well, working hard, and toeing the line bring reward and advancement. With a little nudging from Providence every now and then, (a nudging that is earned by neat n’ tidy living), I, too, can become Jay Gatsby.

A few months later, they’ll find you floating facedown in your pool.

On the other end of the spectrum of self-fulfillment Christianity are those who may overlook the desire for earthly prosperity, yet treat the promise of heaven more like a retirement plan than a gift of grace. Good behavior, faithful church attendance, and praying the right prayers at the right time ensures membership in God’s kingdom. It’s the American dream again, just on an eternal level.

Whether a corner office is the reward you’re hoping for, or some mystical imagining of a heavenly realm in the clouds, it is no easy thing to shut out the droning of a me-first gospel. And that is what it is – a me-first gospel. A self-centered religion. The only way to avoid its saccharine promises is to consider the heart of the message itself. Are the proposed benefits really about self-fulfillment and advancement? Is the chief concern your happiness and prosperity? If so, it’s not Christianity.

“Where’s the psalm that tells me how to properly invest my 401K?”

There’s the rub. At no point in the gospels does Jesus talk about his concern for our happiness. Even in the occasional moments when he is alluding to a future reward, a careful listener/reader recognizes that our personal happiness and stability has nothing to do with it. The guy who tells people to sell all their possessions and to follow him even at the cost of missing a parent’s funeral is obviously not bothering to preserve our happiness. On the contrary, what Jesus is interested in preserving is our joy.

There’s a difference between happy and joy whether or not a dictionary indicates it. You can have happy. It is something that belongs to you, that centers on you. “I am happy.” “This makes me happy.” “Once this happens, I will be happy.”

"Once I win that internship, I'll hire a nanny. THEN I'll be happy!"

Joy is different. You cannot say, “I am joy,” or “This makes me joy.” While someone might say they “have joy,” it isn’t something that can be controlled. And it doesn’t center on you. This is because joy involves giving something away or receiving from someone else rather than taking something as your own. Unlike happiness, joy is dependent upon something – or someone – else.

The odd thing about Christianity is that Jesus’ gospel seems focuses on us experiencing joy after first giving away our happiness. And this doesn’t mean only physical relinquishment. Jesus wants his followers to stop putting their very hopes in the things that they believe will make them happy, and to start hoping in the provision that comes from him – mind, body and soul. The former brings happiness, but the latter is a graduation from momentary happiness to continual joy

This gospel stands in direct contradiction to the syrupy sweet sermons of the slick-suit preachers who promise that God is about the business of turning your hope for happiness into easy reality. They assure their congregations that the way of the Christian is one of ascent. Meanwhile, Jesus himself reveals that to follow in his steps is to embark on a descent. It is a journey of humility, temperance, and selflessness. There are no detours around confusion, failure, pain and loss – only an assurance that the journey does not end with them.

…and you’re the one who’s under construction.

May we come to recognize these men and women who twist a gospel of sacrificial love and hopeful perseverance into a formulaic rewards program? May we not turn an ear to their lies. May we reject a Christianity that has been hemmed in and tailored to fit as carefully and crisply as the high-dollar suits worn by these preachers who are nothing but empty shirts. May the following prayer be ours as well:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen.

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7 Misconceptions about Christianity – Part Two

With the three major ones covered in my previous post, it’s time to move on to four more widely held misconceptions about what Christianity, and, by extension, living life as a Christian in America, is all about.

#4 – “Christian” is an Adjective

I’m not so sure my argument is going to hold up against the vast array of examples commonly spoken and written today, but here goes. What is most important to remember here is that while the word “Christian” may indeed come with a connotative sidecar in which it can be a modifier, the word originated as a noun. Today, if you were to look up “Christian” in a dictionary, you’re likely to see it listed as an adjective, too, but dictionaries today are also letting in verbs like “tweet” and “text,” and gerunds like “facebooking,” so it’s important to take what Webster says with a grain of salt.

You're just riding Arnold's coattails, kid.

Okay, so, what exactly is the misconception?

It is not so much that the word “Christian” is being misused so much as the original spirit of the word has been forgotten. The New Testament contains the story of the word’s inception; interestingly enough, it wasn’t invented by Jesus or by Peter or any of the other disciples, and it didn’t come out of Jerusalem or Rome. According to the eleventh chapter of Acts, as well as other historical sources, the term was applied to the “believers” living in Antioch, a city in North Africa. Most scholars indicate that the term was meant to be derogatory; essentially, it means “little Christs.” Indeed, a close reading of Acts 11 reveals that something very interesting was going on in that community: believing Jews had begun telling Greeks (often referred to in the New Testament as Gentiles) about Jesus Christ, and they had in turn become devoted followers. This local movement gained such strength that word reached the apostles in Jerusalem, and they sent to Antioch two of their most revered teachers, Barnabas and the recently converted Saul of Tarsus. These two ended up living with the Hellenist believers and teaching them for an entire year. Acts 11 claims “a great many people” were taught, so much so that the rest of the people of Antioch took notice and began calling this odd Jewish/Hellenist hybrid sect “Christians” because they found it absurd that the worship of this Christ figure had transformed the believers entire lives.

So, again, what is the misconception?

Simply the fact that these days the word “Christian” refers to a person who goes to church, or who lives a somewhat noticeable moral life, or is honest or polite or hails from Mississippi.

This makes my eyes bleed.

Do you see what I’m getting at? These days, we use the word more as a descriptor of behavior and/or religious affiliation than we do as the moniker for someone who is living a dynamically counter-cultural life – someone who has released his or her grip on the status quo and chosen to submit themselves completely to God and the salvation made available by the sacrifice of Christ. Sadly, there aren’t a lot of true Christians turning heads today. No wonder such a drastic yet wonderfully descriptive label has lost all of its intrigue and effect.

#5 – You Don’t Have to Believe in Miracles to Be a Christian

Sorry, but you do. There’s really no getting around this one, despite what some people who you may have run across believe. There’s something going around in postmodern America today that, at first glance, seems healthy, but has turned out to be nothing but self-actualizing fluff for most people. That is the abiding interest in developing a personal spirituality based on a hodgepodge of various religious ideologies down through the centuries.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy living in a pluralist society. I embrace the diversity of America and the freedom of people to adhere to the religion they choose. Religion should never be forced on anyone, young or old. It is the acceptance of  the existence of an ordered and purposeful reality beyond ourselves. To be meaningful at all, it must be freely chosen. However, the drawback to living in a pluralist society is that many people have come to believe that these religions can be gathered together as if in a buffet, and that you can stroll along filling your plate with whatever looks good while leaving behind the less-tantalizing aspects of these faiths. If you’re jonesing for a little mysticism to garnish your rationalism and scientific method, no problem. You take all the contemplative prayer or creative meditation you need to keep you feeling connected to a Higher Power.

"Ooh, it says here the Vedic Thought is free-range and grass-fed!"

The first thing many people are willing to leave out of Christianity is the miracle component. These are the same people who are quick to call Jesus a “great moral teacher” (sometimes, they might even label him a “prophet”) but will make that squinchy, well-I-wouldn’t-go-that-far face when you press them on whether or not he was the actual son of God, or if he actually rose from the dead. You see, a man who was fully divine while being fully human isn’t physically or empirically possible. Neither is resurrection from the dead. When it comes to these things, as well as all the miraculous works in both the New Testament and the Old, Christianity starts to weigh down the buffet plate. Accept all this, and suddenly your personal spirituality appears exclusive – it becomes its own meal – and requires a greater committment than people are willing to give to it.

If “Christian” means what it has come to mean today, I suppose you can go ahead and continue believing this misconception. However, if it means what it actually originally meant, then miracles can’t be left off the plate. They’re like vegetables – sometimes they’re hard to swallow, but they turn out to be what gives you the most strength.

"No offense, rabbi, but is the bread whole grain? Levi is on Adkins."

#6 – Christianity Helps You Achieve Success and Prosperity

It is extremely frustrating for a humble Christian dedicated to daily self-denial and sacrificial love that the most well-known and listened-to spokespersons for Christianity are those pearly toothed slick suits preaching to five-digit congregations every week while being broadcast all over the world. But even that wouldn’t be so bad if their message was true, if they were providing accurate, evenhanded exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The problem is that most of them don’t even come close to what the real truth of Christianity is. But why not? Do all these preachers really think that this whole “health and wealth” interpretation of Christianity is actually correct? Is Joel Osteen serious?

Here he is preaching or teaching his audience how to deliver a double knuckle sandwich.

I can’t really answer this. What I do know is that the gospel of Jesus Christ, as far as I understand it, outlines a lifestyle that is not nearly as attractive and desirable as what the majority of these televangelists are offering. Jesus himself saw most of his followers abandon him because of how tough his teaching became; at the very end, only a couple of women watched him gasp his final breaths. So, either these televangelists are better sales persons of the gospel than the actual Savior is, or somewhere the message has gotten off track.

This is not to say that all mega-churches are nothing but factories manufacturing lies. When you come to truly accept the gospel of Christ, you find it to be something infinitely more compelling than anything you’ve ever encountered, and you are all for joining with other believers to worship and pray and study together. The one thing you don’t do, however, is put this gospel to work for you as if it were some sort of investment incentive or financial benefits plan. Jesus is recorded as saying several different times something to the tune of, “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (see John 14-16). The difference between the Christians who commit themselves to justice, live mercifully, and walk humbly with God and the “Christian” televangelists who tell you that God is all about getting you that promotion or raise or new house or nicer car is … well … I think it’s obvious, don’t you?

#7 – America was Founded as a Christian Nation

There’s that adjectival use of “Christian” again. Uh oh.

If you’ve ever visited Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, you may have learned about a famous copy of the Bible known as the Jefferson Bible, the text of which is freely available online. The story goes that Thomas Jefferson, one of the most revered of America’s founding fathers, appreciated all the moral teachings of Jesus, but, like the type of people mentioned earlier in this post, was not ready to accept the miraculous side to him. He was a fan of the human Jesus, but Jesus the deity was too much of a stretch and, according to Jefferson, nothing but a way for priests to get rich. So, Jefferson took a razor blade and cut out all the passages in the gospels that contained miraculous events, and then pasted the rest together to provide a chronological account of Jesus, that great, sane moral teacher (who we’ll try to forget referred to himself as divine).

He also owned a copy of The Lord of the Rings with all those annoying elves and orcs cut out.

While some of the people who were a part of our country’s inception indeed professed an unwavering adherence to the doctrines of Christianity, the majority of our founding fathers – including some of the most well-known like Ben Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, and Jefferson – were deists. If they believed in a Higher Power at all, it was in God as merely the Creator, with the business of redemption left to the devices of humanity. It’s hard to blame them, really. They were products of the Age of Enlightenment, a time when the Western world saw scientific study grow by leaps and bounds, when France overthrew its government and bowed to the Goddess of Reason, and that great patriot Thomas “These are the times that try men’s souls” Paine could also pen lines like “My own mind is my own church.” Hence, science and reason became the keys to salvation, rather than submission, confession and repentance.

There’s a difference between founding a nation of Judeo-Christian principles, and founding it on the Judeo-Christian religion. Thus, while the formation of a democracy was a bold and dynamic move, and these men were careful about instituting law and order from a biblically moral perspective, there is nothing about the foundation of America that is exclusively Christian. Godly, maybe. Virtuous, sure. Honorable, absolutely. But “Christian?” Go back to number four and consider again what it really means to be a Christian, and then decide if the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution delves anywhere close to the depth of the Epistle to the Romans or the Gospel of John. Sure, the documents may mention God (invoking his name as “Creator” or as “Divine Providence”), but Christianity is about much more than a simple belief in a Creator. In truth, while our founding fathers should be admired for their extraordinary leadership in forming a new nation, assuming the United States of America is a Christian nation is groundless, and, ultimately, pointless.

To a lot of Christians, this may seem like a shocking statement. After all, there is a large contingent of churchgoers who are convinced that the separation of church and state is a thing to lament rather than to celebrate. In truth, we have a Baptist minister to thank for that, not to mention a handful of other ministers and pastors who ensured our founding fathers made the right calls when it came to religious liberty.

It always strikes me as odd that some of the people who whine about how crucial it is for America to return to its Christian heritage are quite often the same people who can’t even get along with the Lutherans or the Methodists just down the road.

This is all your fault, Reverend Leland!

A Final Word

So, how should we conceive Christianity? If these seven thoughts are wrong, what’s the right way? Is there even a right way?

I could begin to answer these questions. After all, I have laid down my life in submission to answering them. However, in the interest of bringing an end to what is already a very long post, I’ll just make a simple plea for now.

If there is one thing that I have learned about Christianity – and I mean true Christianity – it’s that it is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of people who have walked away from the Church or have given up on the whole Christian “thing” because of one or more of the misconceptions I have mentioned, as well as a great number of other misunderstandings I have failed to mention. The tendency in our modern society is to expect results as quickly as possible – to understand how something works enough to be able to control it and to put it to work for ourselves. We do this with iPhones, televisions, the Internet, our cars, even our paychecks. We have a bad habit of doing this with our beliefs, too. If we don’t see the results we expect, we reject what we believe in favor of an upgrade, or a different model. Some of us become so frustrated that we throw the whole system in the garbage, assuming that because we don’t understand everything about it, it must be defective.

All this to say, don’t let the bad habits of our modern society keep you from this beautiful mystery, this saga of runaways limping their way back home.

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7 Misconceptions about Christianity – Part One

According to some of the most recent polling data, somewhere between 70-80% of Americans identify themselves as “Christian.” According to the recent census, that’s roughly 220,000,000 people. Many of these polls break down the figures in smaller percentages under categories like “professing,” “active,” and “attend church occasionally,” as well as by various denominations and sub-groups. However, despite the obligatory clarifications, I find it hard to believe that if I bump into ten people on the street (I should probably stop playing Angry Birds while walking), at least seven of those people would, if asked, identify themselves as Christians.

"Watch where you're going, %&$*! Oh, and peace be with you."

This begs the question, do all 219,999,999 of my brothers and sisters in Christ really understand what Christianity is all about? After all, having worked in churches for over ten years, I’ve met some people who don’t always seem to have the best grasp on what claiming to be a Christian really means. Meanwhile, there are a lot of folks not belonging to that 220 million figure that have their own ideas about what Christians believe.

Martin Luther nailed ninety-five clarifications to the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany. Right now, I’ve come up with what I feel are seven pervading misconceptions, the first three of which are contained in this post. Thus, what follows here is by no means an exhaustive list. But, hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, right? I think ol’ Martin would be proud.

#1 – Christianity Isn’t A Religion

This is the first, and most significant, misconception carried around today. Most of the time, the ones that have it wrong are the people who actually profess to be Christians. The problem is that the word “religion” carries a certain stigma these days. In the modernized West, a “religious” person is often considered old-fashioned, or backwards, or regressive. The word “religious” conjures up vague images of mysticism or superstition, or, at the very least, a close-minded or obstinate person. The connotative reality of religion is that it is obsolete. This is all the more reason why Christians (as well as many other people who subscribe to a particular system of faith) hesitate to label their specific belief as a religion. They’ll call themselves “spiritual” or people “of faith,” but it takes a lot of prying for many of them to agree that they subscribe to a specific “religion.” And, if they do, they are quick to clarify that it isn’t a religion like all those other ones that aren’t true and are therefore plain old religions for religions’ sake.

And it shows!

The problem with this is simple. Even if we can agree that Jesus never intended to start a religion (in actuality, he claimed to be the fulfillment of one), the simple fact of the matter is that Christianity is a religion. It is the belief in and worship of a supernatural power, specifically that of a personal creator – God. It has tenets and doctrines. It is driven by particular theological viewpoints and contains specific rites and observances. Some Christians can try to sugarcoat all this as much as possible, but there’s no getting around the obvious. Consider this: While living in San Francisco, I decide to buy an SUV. To avoid the stigma and the requisite criticism, I swear up and down that it isn’t really an SUV, but merely a convenient transportation device I use to get to and from Oakland. “But it’s an SUV,” you tell me. “No, no,” I say, “It’s really more of a Smart Car, or, if anything, it’s a Sedan.” “But,” you say, “it has ‘Expedition’ written on the side, it seats nine people, and you average only eleven miles per gallon.” “That doesn’t prove anything,” I say, and then I proceed to invite you to visit the dealership with me because, hey, everybody should have one of these. You might suspect I was losing my mind. How much more if I refused to acknowledge the simple, historical reality of the very thing upon which I posture my entire life?

It’s high time Christians stop trying to paint over the religion-y parts of their faith just so they can avoid a stigma that is founded on its own misconceptions, such as…

#2 – Christianity was Established by Powerful, Chauvinistic Men Only to Further Their Prejudices

You have probably heard this criticism, whether you consider yourself a Christian, a spiritual person, or an atheist. On the surface, there seems to be some evidence for this assertion. For one thing, every one of Jesus’ twelve disciples were men. Not only that, but the Bible instructs women to submit to their husbands, that they should hold no authority over men, and (if you read closely) that they not even speak during worship!

SINNER!

To top it all off, Christianity was born during a time and in a culture that embraced patriarchy both in the family and in government. Men ran the show at home, and they ran the show at work. The stigma of Christianity being backwards or regressive must be true, and, as such, any self-respecting person, male or female, should shake off its oppressive chains and start living in the twenty-first century.

Once again, this criticism is without compelling merit. While it is true that Christianity was born within a patriarchal – and, some might label, chauvinistic – society, time and again history reveals how little it conformed to the standards of the day. While the twelve disciples were men, they were by no means seasoned leaders, and they were by no means alone. In fact, according to the gospels, the first person entrusted to tell people that Jesus had risen from the dead (the first missionary, as it were) was a woman – Mary Magdalene – who, at one time, had been demon-possessed, but had since become a devoted follower of Jesus, emphasis on the “devoted follower” part.

Later, Dan Brown would remind us she was also Jesus' refugee wife with a penchant for scavenger hunts who liked to hide DNA evidence in France.

As to the instructions for women to submit and to hold no authority over men, never was historical context more important. The most significant passage suggesting this is found in the letter to the Ephesians, a society that contained a very influential cult of goddess-worship – Artemis Ephesia - the temple of which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the celebration of which included rampant promiscuity and debauchery, and the worship of which could sometimes go as far as objectifying women as divine beings and lead to the castration of some male worshippers.

"Whoa! Is this cult still around? Count me in!"

Because the early Christian communities often had an issue of listening to false teachers or merging their beliefs with the local hot deity of the day, the writer of Ephesians sets a standard of leadership that would prevent the infiltration of goddess-worship ideas within the congregation. Perhaps the instruction sounds extreme, but the last thing you need are your women refusing to listen to their pastors and your men taking literally Jesus’ figurative statement that “some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God.”

Unfortunately, St. Origen didn't always grasp the concept of figurative language.

Does this mean the teaching that women should submit is not meant to be heeded in the church today? That’s not the point. Not only is that teaching used as an extended metaphor of Jesus Christ’s relationship with the Church, but context reveals that this has nothing to do with one gender holding the power. Rather, a good marriage is built on mutual respect and submission to one another in love. Of course, there are denominations today who still refuse to ordain women, and some that even follow Ephesians to the letter. This is their prerogative, but the structure of a local church’s authority was never the focal point of Christianity’s message.

So, what is that message?

#3 – Christianity is Chiefly Concerned with Getting People into Heaven

If there is one abiding belief that Christianity, more than any other religion, is most responsible for influencing the greater public with, it is the existence of a place called heaven. Cartoonish, groundless portrayals of heaven as some temporal realm in clouds aside, there are plenty of people who do not profess to be Christians but who still believe in the prospect of heaven. Many of these people are willing to state that there is a God, and he/she is in heaven, and after we die we get to go and live there, too. As far as the conditions for “getting in” to heaven, this normally boils down to a measure of moral fortitude and the cumulative number of good deeds outweighing bad.

"In your case, Robin, I fear there may be quite a lot of paperwork involved."

The thing is, Jesus was never all that concerned with the details of heaven, where it is or what it looks like. He spent his time talking about righteous living in the here and now, and telling story after story about what it looks like when the kingdom of God (often considered synonymous with “heaven”) is established in our world. At one point in the gospels, his disciples ask him to teach them how to pray the way God would want them to, and he imparts to them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Consider the first few lines: “Our Father in heaven, you are holy and we honor you. We want your kingdom to come and for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven…” When asked how to pray to God, Jesus opens with a call for God to bring heaven to earth. At another time, when some of the religious heavyweights were asking him when exactly they could expect this kingdom of God to come, he replied, “It doesn’t come in a way that you can observe and predict it, nor can anyone say, ‘Oh, there it is,’ or ‘Hey, here it is,’ because the kingdom of God is found within you.”

It may seem a bit Zen-like, but the main point to understand is that while salvation in Christ – sometimes referred to as justification by faith – is at the heart of the Christian message, it was never meant to be a stamp on your hand so you can pass by heaven’s bouncer without getting harassed or thrown into a dumpster around back.

Interestingly, "gehenna," the word often used to refer to hell, was Jerusalem's garbage dump.

Instead, it was meant as a complete life change. Call it a reversal, call it a paradigm shift, call it a clean slate – Christianity is concerned with the way we live our lives right now. Sure, there is a lot of talk in churches about “eternity” and “heaven,” but just like the churches that pay too much attention to the gender of their leaders, some Christians spend too much time thinking about “heaven by and by.” It goes beyond a comforting hope to a kind of obsessive escapism. Still, though, assuming such a notion is what being a Christian is all about is a tragic misconception that can cause you to miss out on the grander and much more wondrous reality of this religion we call Christianity.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but I think this is enough for now. We’ll continue with the next four next week…

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Stumbling onto Truth

For Elizabeth…

A former student recently asked me a very pointed question. From a Christian perspective, what should be the boundaries to a poem, specifically in regards to word choice and subject matter? In this post, I will seek to answer this question, or at least, as is common on this blog, draw as close to an answer as is possible.

Now, before I run the risk of coming across pretentious immediately off the bat, let me preface all that will follow with a particular quotation that has helped me keep this amateur writer’s feet on the ground and his head out from under the clouds. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who has penned such acclaimed stories as A Few Good Men, The Social Network and several excellent television series, never wrote a truer or more poetic statement than the episode of The West Wing in which Laura Dern’s character, the U.S. Poet Laureate, speaks to Toby Ziegler, the White House Communications Director and chief speechwriter. She tells him, “The goal of an artist is not to communicate truth. The goal of an artist is to captivate you for however long we’ve asked for your attention. If we stumble onto truth, we’ve gotten lucky.”

So, let it be stated at the outset that, for the purposes of this blog post, I am not declaring that prose or poetry or any form of expressive art is salvific. In other words, while a poem or story or song or painting can have an effect on us – while they can sometimes even incite change – no person will ever be saved by them.

So, then, what is the ultimate purpose of creative expression? What is the paramount reason to write a poem?

I believe it is to enliven the reader. To inspire.  Of course, the writer cannot redeem the reader – he can only propel the reader on a path toward redemption. But expressing oneself in a manner that even lays the groundwork for this is a lofty task. It requires the poet to be a keen observer of the world and its inhabitants so that his re-creation on the page is compelling. Henry David Thoreau writes in his classic work Walden, “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.” He explains that anyone can create a work of art, be it a painting, a sculpture, a poem, etc. But, “It is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

So, for a poet who is also a Christian (rather than “a Christian poet,” which uses the word “Christian” as an adjective that categorizes and thereby boxes in the writer), I believe poetry should be viewed as evangelistic. A poem should carry the aroma of the euangelion, the “good news” of salvation. Why? Because, if it doesn’t, it is a lesser poem. Like a private who shies away from the front, it is not being all it can be.

However, there are two caveats to this assertion.

First, it must be understood, in light of the quotation from The West Wing, that a writer who is solely concerned with an end goal – a protest or an argument or a specific persuasion toward truth – is no writer at all. He or she has ceased to be a poet and has instead become a preacher or a politician. This is because everything takes a backseat to expounding upon the determined point or message. The poem (and, as an extension, the story or song or even the painting) becomes didactic, or preachy. Remember, the only goal of an artist is to captivate the reader. Not to save, and not even to change. Only to encourage – to nudge the reader in the direction of both. And it works both ways. If I am not captivated by a particular work, I will not be inspired, which is the catalyst for change. If I feel that I’m being barked at by the work, then any chance there was in growing or coming to a deeper understanding of life or faith or God goes out the window.

So, while the poet may desire to effect change, he has a responsibility, first and foremost, to captivate. To entertain. To awake the imagination. To enrapture the mind’s eye and expand the mind. How does he do this? With every bit of skill he has, every technique he can execute. Language. Tone. Rhythm. Motif. Imagery. Metaphor. Symbolism. Whatever arrow is in the quiver that is suitably weighted  for the flight. It is the quality of the writing – not the intention – that truly moves the reader. How that reader will respond is out of the poet’s hands.

The second thing to remember, and perhaps what cuts to the quick of the question my student asked me, concerns what, if anything, is off limits. In my opinion, depending upon the theme, subject, character or level of realism, no speck of language is taboo. Word choice means word choice, not choices. For example, I am currently reworking a story that I first wrote for a college creative writing class. The story’s two principle characters are poor, washed-up, lonely men who live in a pauperized small town. One is unknowingly battling severe depression, while the other is bipolar and prone to violent, vehement outbursts. Now, the question is, as a Christian, should I avoid putting words into the mouth of these two sad, downward-spiraling men that I would not say myself in a church sanctuary or (as is a popular “what if” to morally-righteous folks) if Jesus suddenly appeared and sat down next to me?

First of all, if Jesus suddenly sat down next to me, I don’t think I would have much to say at all. I’m pretty sure I’d be speechless. Secondly, if these two men from my story use salty, offensive language when they speak, I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t be surprised. It comes down to what I value more: my moralism or my realism. It has taken me several years, but I have come to value the latter, mainly because I believe that my job is, first, to tell a compelling story, not construct a squeaky clean one that avoids offending even the most conservative of readers. This may mean I have to give up the possibility of some “Christian” publications accepting my work, but that is a concern that shouldn’t be hard to relinquish when I remind myself that the point of my work is meant to be evangelistic. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12).

But, as I’ve stated, this faithfulness to realism doesn’t simply concern language. The poet’s honesty must extend well beyond language. It must not shy away from portraying the darkness and the depravity in the world if the focus of the poem or the vision of the poet turns in this direction. T.S. Eliot wrote some of the most extraordinary poetry during the early years of the Modernist movement, and part of the reason he is remembered was that his images were strikingly truthful and relatable even in their metaphorical or symbolic depth. Eliot had a quiver crammed with techniques, but what makes him a great poet is not that he was good with words, but that he was not afraid to shoot them at any target, be it divine or disturbing.

To pull the reins on a poem in order that it avoids controversial, depressing or unpleasant subjects and images is dishonest, fearful writing. The poet robs himself of the challenge of identifying the threads of light that might be woven even through the darkest of fabric, and he robs the reader of the experience of taking that journey through the valley of the shadow that often comes before we reach the green pastures and still waters. Madeleine L’Engle writes, “There is nothing so secular that it cannot be made sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.”

So, what are the boundaries? They are the borders constructed by our conscience, but patrolled by our courage, and our courage is known to have a restless spirit. Where are the boundaries? They lie as far away from our freedom – a freedom that is as spiritual as it is literary – as our freedom can stretch us.

Poetry, not to mention all forms of true writing and true art, should be as challenging and inspirational for the poet to compose as it is for the reader to read.

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De-Sanitize Me

I think that the Church is the only thing that is going to make the terrible world we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that is it somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it, but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.      - Flannery O’Connor

This morning I was talking with a couple of guys who work here at BFA about the waywardness of American Christianity, or, to be more specific so as not to generalize and offend, the ways in which our “Christian” upbringing completely missed the point. Now, sitting in a little office meeting area in the early hours of a new day as outside the dawn breaks upon Germany all blue and frozen, it was hard not to feel an inkling as if we were talking about America behind its back. However, I know that the only reason I find myself interested in discussing such things is that I am genuinely concerned for the allegiance to God’s kingdom that is slowly and consistently dissolving within my home country. I think many would agree that sometimes you have to separate yourself from something (or someone) in order to understand your relationship with that thing (or person) in a clearer light. 

Mainly what we were remarking was how much we notice the American Church upholds a sanitized faith. What I mean by this is that the reason most so-called Christians in America do not faithfully live out a dynamic, transformational relationship with the Christ is they believe very little of their lifestyle plays out counter to his message and will. We have all known people who assume they will wind up in Heaven one day because they were “good,” or at least because they did more good deeds than bad. We Christians tend to shake our heads at that relativistic logic. However, so many of us uphold the same idea without really noticing what we are doing. If we truly cultivated a full awareness of God’s intimate participation within our lives – if we learned how to practice the presence of God in our day to day lives – I do not think we would continue to perpetuate certain beliefs and attitudes, let alone commit certain deeds. I am not referring to such specific things such as that old, principled resolution to not watch R-rated movies or to abstain from alcohol. Quite the contrary. It is resolutions such as these that reveal the very sanitization about which I am writing, not because they are misguided or pointless decisions, but because they often reflect a person’s desire to avoid the world based on the belief that the world (a.k.a. the “secular” world), being secular and unredeemed, can only corrupt; it cannot bless. Therefore, one should avoid the darkest parts.

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I remember owning an old, 8-bit Nintendo game distributed by a Christian company that offered a Legend of Zelda-like gaming experience. Instead of pieces of a “Triforce,” the hero was searching for the different pieces of the armor of God. They lay hidden all over a city. While the player commenced to searching the parks, streets, basements and shops of the city, he avoided being waylaid by undesirable punks and conniving tempters by hurling actual pieces of fruit at them. These human obstacles would then either drop to their knees in prayer (supposedly for salvation) or turn into winged demons that would flap towards you, requiring more Fruit of the Spirit projectiles to repel them. If this weren’t absurd enough, I recall one harrowing period of game play where I diligently searched everywhere for the Breastplate of Righteousness. When my options of hiding places dried up, I chose to enter a building with a sign out front that read, “BAR,” figuring that perhaps the object of my search was concealed in its basement or somewhere similar. However, to my utter shock and game-playing anger, I was immediately greeted by an angel in all its 8-bit video glory, sporting a disapproving look and informing me that I had no business in bars. This divine messenger then proceeded to take away my Belt of Truth and Helmet of Salvation, as well as my ability to fling Apples of Joy and Pears of Peace at bad guys. I was forced to start the game all over.

Sanitization. The world is dangerous. It cannot be trusted, and no good can be found within it.

Not only does this idea perpetuate an us vs. them ideology, but it only serves to make most Christians believe that if they avoid the world they are somehow living as genuine Christians, when in reality they are living only sanitized, “Christian” lives. The distance between these two lifestyles is as vast as the Pacific, and it can be frighteningly tumultuous to cross from one side to the other, not the least reason of which is that, typically, you find yourself voyaging alone.

May we not be afraid of the world or tremble in the darkness. Cultivating a full awareness of God’s presence means that he is with us even there. May we rest assured in his light, and may we take this light and shine it into the darkness to expose the beauty and wonder that is hidden within.

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