9.20.2004
A Christian Counterculture?
Got this from Falwell this past week and thought it was pertinent but not for the reasons Jerry cites.
Here are some of my questions that we need to ask after we're done with the article (for those who manage to read all the way through):
1. Why do we have the presumption that marriage success in the Christian community is supposed to be better than the population at large?
2. If Christian marriage success 100 and 50 years ago paralleled the general population (i.e. there weren't very many divorces in either one at the time) then why should we be surprised to find that the statistics are parallel today?
3. Is Jerry really so naively stupid or blindingly obtuse as to really think that Christians live better lives than the general population? I know we, as Christians, would like to believe this but what in our history or experience gives us cause to assume that we are better than the general population? Seems kinda presumptuous to me. Is is any wonder folks don't take kindly to Jerry both in and out of Xianity?
4. In Jesus' day, a quick poll of "Christians" would have found a morality far worse than the general population. He hung with sinners, publicans, lepers and all manner of vile filth. The general population was far more moral and upstanding. The Pharisees and Saducees being the pinnacle of moral terpitude. So why should we aspire to be anything different. If anything the Christian population should have MORE divorce than the general population because we provide a safe refuge for victims of broken marriages and families not afforded the general populace. We should have MORE recovering alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes, HIV victims, etc. than the general population because we are where their deepest needs are getting met.
If you ask me, the fact that our stats parallel society's stats forces me to the same conclusion that Jerry reaches: we aren't doing a very good job of reaching the world. The difference is, he thinks our stats should be better, while I feel our stats should be "worse" than society. Anyway, here is the article:
Falwell Confidential
Date: September 17, 2004
From: Jerry Falwell
WHEN CHRISTIANS DIVORCE
The Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group has released a distressing report showing that marriages between born again Christians are just as likely to end in divorce as those who do not profess to be born again.
I find this particularly troubling because we in the Christian community have been leading the national effort to protect traditional man-woman marriage from those who wish to legalize same-sex marriages. The Barna report reveals that evangelical pastors simply must begin to more seriously deal with the issue of marriage in our churches.
As the pastor of a church of several thousand members, I have been saddened to witness the breakup of a number of families; such situations never fail to break my heart. I fear that many believers have allowed secular notions and trends to influence their decisions on marriage.
In our feel-good society, many often abandon their marriages when they stop being fun or when a stream of challenges enters the picture. But in the Christian life, we have a line of defense against such feelings, that being our Lord Jesus Christ, our perfect example who is capable of seeing us through any challenge.
Nevertheless, the Barna study revealed that among married born again Christians (35 percent) have experienced a divorce, the same percentage as those identifying themselves in the study as not being born again. Additionally, the study found that multiple divorces are also unexpectedly common among born again Christians, with Barna figures showing that nearly one-quarter of the married “born agains” (23 percent) get divorced two or more times.
I believe the most significant finding in this study is the fact that a majority of those born again participants — defined in the survey as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” — (52 percent) saying they did not believe that divorce without adultery is sin.
I see this as a major crisis that pastors must begin to immediately address. We must take on this issue head-on from the pulpit, in counseling sessions and in all aspects of ministry in order to halt this dilemma within the church.
Furthermore, I believe pastors must commit to getting involved in young people’s relationships before they get married. We must help them, along with their parents, to understand the commitment and responsibility a marriage requires. Lay people in the church — those who have successful marriages — can also be greatly beneficial in this regard. There must be a team effort within the church to ensure that we halt what the Barna study ( http://www.barna.org ) has discovered.
There is much work to do though, in terms of teaching people what the Bible teaches about relationships and divorce.
The Barna study said, “Although Bible scholars and teachers point out that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was involved, few Americans buy that notion. Only one out of every seven adults (15 percent) strongly agreed with the statement “when a couple gets divorced without one of them having committed adultery, they are committing a sin.”
This is a problem that I believe naturally occurs in a secularist society — the foundational truths of the Bible are forgotten and cast away. Secularist notions then invade even the church culture.
Throughout the New Testament, we see great emphasis placed on the “honorable” institution of marriage. These truths remain just as pertinent today as when they were written. We must recommit to teaching the principles of godly marriage, but it won’t be easy. George Barna, who heads the Barna Group, says there is no end in sight regarding the plague of divorce in our culture and within the church.
“You can understand why atheists and agnostics might have a high rate of divorce, since they are less likely to believe in concepts such as sin, absolute moral truth and judgment. Yet the survey found that the percentage of atheists and agnostics who have been married and divorced is 37 percent — very similar to the numbers for the born again population. Given the current growth in the number of atheists and agnostics, and that the younger two generations are predisposed to divorce, we do not anticipate a reversal of the present pattern within the next decade.”
This is where pastors and church leaders must enter the picture. Pastors, we must boldly and lovingly reach out to struggling couples, attempting to help them heal whatever wounds are preventing them from moving forward in their marriages. It will require hard work and dedication, but it is apparent that the soul of the church is at stake here. Every church suffers when members within that setting choose to divorce.
Furthermore, if evangelical churches cannot offer clear alternatives to the secular culture, specifically in terms of marriage, we will lose our way in reaching out to a lost world. May we prayerfully commit to turning around this acute problem within our own ranks so that we can continue to be a beacon of hope to our communities and to the world.
Got this from Falwell this past week and thought it was pertinent but not for the reasons Jerry cites.
Here are some of my questions that we need to ask after we're done with the article (for those who manage to read all the way through):
1. Why do we have the presumption that marriage success in the Christian community is supposed to be better than the population at large?
2. If Christian marriage success 100 and 50 years ago paralleled the general population (i.e. there weren't very many divorces in either one at the time) then why should we be surprised to find that the statistics are parallel today?
3. Is Jerry really so naively stupid or blindingly obtuse as to really think that Christians live better lives than the general population? I know we, as Christians, would like to believe this but what in our history or experience gives us cause to assume that we are better than the general population? Seems kinda presumptuous to me. Is is any wonder folks don't take kindly to Jerry both in and out of Xianity?
4. In Jesus' day, a quick poll of "Christians" would have found a morality far worse than the general population. He hung with sinners, publicans, lepers and all manner of vile filth. The general population was far more moral and upstanding. The Pharisees and Saducees being the pinnacle of moral terpitude. So why should we aspire to be anything different. If anything the Christian population should have MORE divorce than the general population because we provide a safe refuge for victims of broken marriages and families not afforded the general populace. We should have MORE recovering alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes, HIV victims, etc. than the general population because we are where their deepest needs are getting met.
If you ask me, the fact that our stats parallel society's stats forces me to the same conclusion that Jerry reaches: we aren't doing a very good job of reaching the world. The difference is, he thinks our stats should be better, while I feel our stats should be "worse" than society. Anyway, here is the article:
Falwell Confidential
Date: September 17, 2004
From: Jerry Falwell
WHEN CHRISTIANS DIVORCE
The Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group has released a distressing report showing that marriages between born again Christians are just as likely to end in divorce as those who do not profess to be born again.
I find this particularly troubling because we in the Christian community have been leading the national effort to protect traditional man-woman marriage from those who wish to legalize same-sex marriages. The Barna report reveals that evangelical pastors simply must begin to more seriously deal with the issue of marriage in our churches.
As the pastor of a church of several thousand members, I have been saddened to witness the breakup of a number of families; such situations never fail to break my heart. I fear that many believers have allowed secular notions and trends to influence their decisions on marriage.
In our feel-good society, many often abandon their marriages when they stop being fun or when a stream of challenges enters the picture. But in the Christian life, we have a line of defense against such feelings, that being our Lord Jesus Christ, our perfect example who is capable of seeing us through any challenge.
Nevertheless, the Barna study revealed that among married born again Christians (35 percent) have experienced a divorce, the same percentage as those identifying themselves in the study as not being born again. Additionally, the study found that multiple divorces are also unexpectedly common among born again Christians, with Barna figures showing that nearly one-quarter of the married “born agains” (23 percent) get divorced two or more times.
I believe the most significant finding in this study is the fact that a majority of those born again participants — defined in the survey as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” — (52 percent) saying they did not believe that divorce without adultery is sin.
I see this as a major crisis that pastors must begin to immediately address. We must take on this issue head-on from the pulpit, in counseling sessions and in all aspects of ministry in order to halt this dilemma within the church.
Furthermore, I believe pastors must commit to getting involved in young people’s relationships before they get married. We must help them, along with their parents, to understand the commitment and responsibility a marriage requires. Lay people in the church — those who have successful marriages — can also be greatly beneficial in this regard. There must be a team effort within the church to ensure that we halt what the Barna study ( http://www.barna.org ) has discovered.
There is much work to do though, in terms of teaching people what the Bible teaches about relationships and divorce.
The Barna study said, “Although Bible scholars and teachers point out that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was involved, few Americans buy that notion. Only one out of every seven adults (15 percent) strongly agreed with the statement “when a couple gets divorced without one of them having committed adultery, they are committing a sin.”
This is a problem that I believe naturally occurs in a secularist society — the foundational truths of the Bible are forgotten and cast away. Secularist notions then invade even the church culture.
Throughout the New Testament, we see great emphasis placed on the “honorable” institution of marriage. These truths remain just as pertinent today as when they were written. We must recommit to teaching the principles of godly marriage, but it won’t be easy. George Barna, who heads the Barna Group, says there is no end in sight regarding the plague of divorce in our culture and within the church.
“You can understand why atheists and agnostics might have a high rate of divorce, since they are less likely to believe in concepts such as sin, absolute moral truth and judgment. Yet the survey found that the percentage of atheists and agnostics who have been married and divorced is 37 percent — very similar to the numbers for the born again population. Given the current growth in the number of atheists and agnostics, and that the younger two generations are predisposed to divorce, we do not anticipate a reversal of the present pattern within the next decade.”
This is where pastors and church leaders must enter the picture. Pastors, we must boldly and lovingly reach out to struggling couples, attempting to help them heal whatever wounds are preventing them from moving forward in their marriages. It will require hard work and dedication, but it is apparent that the soul of the church is at stake here. Every church suffers when members within that setting choose to divorce.
Furthermore, if evangelical churches cannot offer clear alternatives to the secular culture, specifically in terms of marriage, we will lose our way in reaching out to a lost world. May we prayerfully commit to turning around this acute problem within our own ranks so that we can continue to be a beacon of hope to our communities and to the world.
9.12.2004
Growing Up in God
Church tonight was revalatory but not in the way intended by the preachers. The pastor was out tonight so the boys had the floor. They both did well what they did but I have to confess that I seem to have grown beyond where they are. This is hardly surpising with a 20 year age span separating us but I tend to hope for better in the spiritual leadership.
The unintended theme tonight was guilt. Guilt at...
... not witnessing enough
... not reading our Bible's enough
... not being humble enough before God
... not depending enough on God
I found I have turned into my father-in-law. I stood there asking, "OK, so what if I am already witnessing enough, reading my Bible enough, humble enough before God and depending entirely on him for everything?" Without going into the question of how much is "enough" I must say that the breast-beating, while sincere, was also shallow. There was very little positive action that was taught, just what we "ought" to be doing.
I can't really articulate the sensation other than to say a lot of Al has taken root in me. Candy says that Sunday night doesn't hold a lot of attraction for her and I can see why. It's nice as far as it goes but it doesn't go very far. It's good for what it offers but it doesn't offer much. It has breadth with no depth. It's a nice switch from being raised in depth without broad application but neither extreme is worthy.
Am I holding out too much hope to ask for a church with both breadth and depth?
Church tonight was revalatory but not in the way intended by the preachers. The pastor was out tonight so the boys had the floor. They both did well what they did but I have to confess that I seem to have grown beyond where they are. This is hardly surpising with a 20 year age span separating us but I tend to hope for better in the spiritual leadership.
The unintended theme tonight was guilt. Guilt at...
... not witnessing enough
... not reading our Bible's enough
... not being humble enough before God
... not depending enough on God
I found I have turned into my father-in-law. I stood there asking, "OK, so what if I am already witnessing enough, reading my Bible enough, humble enough before God and depending entirely on him for everything?" Without going into the question of how much is "enough" I must say that the breast-beating, while sincere, was also shallow. There was very little positive action that was taught, just what we "ought" to be doing.
I can't really articulate the sensation other than to say a lot of Al has taken root in me. Candy says that Sunday night doesn't hold a lot of attraction for her and I can see why. It's nice as far as it goes but it doesn't go very far. It's good for what it offers but it doesn't offer much. It has breadth with no depth. It's a nice switch from being raised in depth without broad application but neither extreme is worthy.
Am I holding out too much hope to ask for a church with both breadth and depth?
The Unrighteousness of Self-righteousness
Fred Peatross (who, alas, is no longer blogging)
Sep 12, 2004
It's all too common for Christians to be in God's family while stranger to his affections; to be heirs to his whole estate yet living lives "short-changed" of the riches of his grace. The younger son in Luke 15 could not experience his father's love until he realized the depth of his own unrighteousness. Conversely, the older son world never move out of the orphanage of his hard heart and onto the dance floor of his father's delight until he saw the ugliness of his self-righteousness.
There's little question—it's easier to be convinced of our unrighteousness than our self-righteousness. Unrighteousness is usually in direct opposition to Scripture or conscience; it's external, observable and often easy to define. But self-righteousness is more subtle. In reality there is no greater unrighteousness than self-righteousness. Jesus most scathing remarks were directed not at pagans and "sinners" but at religious people blind to their own graceless hearts.
I'll confess; I am no less capable of falling into either graceless pattern today. I've been both a prodigal and a Pharisee. I love the way Jerry Bridges says it, "Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.
The older brother was so near, yet so far away—so "right," but so wrong. He stood on the premise of grace, but was a stranger to its promises. So much of his behavior seemed so commendable. But he had the heart of a grace-less beast.
Until we learn to identify and despise our own self-righteousness, we remain strangers to the music and the dance of the gospel. The only righteousness that meets God's requirement is the righteousness of Jesus.
Fred Peatross (who, alas, is no longer blogging)
Sep 12, 2004
It's all too common for Christians to be in God's family while stranger to his affections; to be heirs to his whole estate yet living lives "short-changed" of the riches of his grace. The younger son in Luke 15 could not experience his father's love until he realized the depth of his own unrighteousness. Conversely, the older son world never move out of the orphanage of his hard heart and onto the dance floor of his father's delight until he saw the ugliness of his self-righteousness.
There's little question—it's easier to be convinced of our unrighteousness than our self-righteousness. Unrighteousness is usually in direct opposition to Scripture or conscience; it's external, observable and often easy to define. But self-righteousness is more subtle. In reality there is no greater unrighteousness than self-righteousness. Jesus most scathing remarks were directed not at pagans and "sinners" but at religious people blind to their own graceless hearts.
I'll confess; I am no less capable of falling into either graceless pattern today. I've been both a prodigal and a Pharisee. I love the way Jerry Bridges says it, "Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.
The older brother was so near, yet so far away—so "right," but so wrong. He stood on the premise of grace, but was a stranger to its promises. So much of his behavior seemed so commendable. But he had the heart of a grace-less beast.
Until we learn to identify and despise our own self-righteousness, we remain strangers to the music and the dance of the gospel. The only righteousness that meets God's requirement is the righteousness of Jesus.
9.06.2004
The Big Question
Fred Peatross pops the question on the question at Off the Map . His provacative little piece teases us, not so much with an answer, but more questions. If Jesus never asked The Big Question that Evangelism Explosion asks, then what questions did Jesus ask?
I also read a quote from John Stuart Mill, "In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny." This applies to theological debate as well. As long as Fred doesn't deny the validity of the question, then his affirmation remains balanced.
I still believe that "Christ is the answer" but I also believe we have not even begun to plumb the depths of the questions. Our chief danger is not that in Christ we have the answers, but that we are too fearful of asking too many questions. Jesus, like Aslan, is not a tame lion and will force us to come to grips with the parts of us that most need to be dealt with. He may have to rip our dragon scales off like Eustace or shake us vigorously like Trumpkin, but we will always come out better in the end. By constraining our questions, we try to tame the lion, put him in a box and make him accessable to our small, narrow minds. How many of us have allowed the machinations of apes like Shift to put a skin over an ass and call it a Christ? It's easy to spot in the fundy faithful and liberal left, but what about our own lives?
These thoughts continue to intrigue me and my life is an exploration, not just of the answers but the questions. And not the questions we are asking but the ones we are too afraid to ask.
Fred Peatross pops the question on the question at Off the Map . His provacative little piece teases us, not so much with an answer, but more questions. If Jesus never asked The Big Question that Evangelism Explosion asks, then what questions did Jesus ask?
I also read a quote from John Stuart Mill, "In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny." This applies to theological debate as well. As long as Fred doesn't deny the validity of the question, then his affirmation remains balanced.
I still believe that "Christ is the answer" but I also believe we have not even begun to plumb the depths of the questions. Our chief danger is not that in Christ we have the answers, but that we are too fearful of asking too many questions. Jesus, like Aslan, is not a tame lion and will force us to come to grips with the parts of us that most need to be dealt with. He may have to rip our dragon scales off like Eustace or shake us vigorously like Trumpkin, but we will always come out better in the end. By constraining our questions, we try to tame the lion, put him in a box and make him accessable to our small, narrow minds. How many of us have allowed the machinations of apes like Shift to put a skin over an ass and call it a Christ? It's easy to spot in the fundy faithful and liberal left, but what about our own lives?
These thoughts continue to intrigue me and my life is an exploration, not just of the answers but the questions. And not the questions we are asking but the ones we are too afraid to ask.
9.02.2004
