September 11

Six years ago I was still teaching high school history and politics. I remember standing in front of the television in the high school library with many others, students and teachers, as it became apparent that the country was being attacked. Many of those watching were very liberal, but I remember all of us reacting that day, and for some time after, just as Gene Edward Veith remembers the response of the whole nation:

[R]emember...how we Americans were all unified, how we were bound together in love and compassion and mercy for the fallen and in the desire to defend our civilization against barbarians. Do you remember that? And how we honored the firemen, police, and rescue workers for their vocations and how they sacrificed their own lives to save others?

Do you remember the moral clarity? How trivial and absurd relativism seemed at the time, how even avant garde artists were hailing the end of irony and cynicism. How nearly everyone realized that multiculturalism is no excuse, that all religions are not the same after all, that Western civilization is worth defending after all.

But how quickly we have forgotten, as if 9/11 had never happened.

Cranach: 9/11 Remembered

Atheism is doomed

Alan Jacobs engages in a thought experiment about contradictions in atheism.

Rumors of Glory: The Future of Atheism - Books & Culture Magazine

Madeleine L'Engle, R.I.P.

Christianity Today has several items about Madeleine L'Engle who died last Thursday. She was a Christian and an author, especially well known for the trilogy of books that began with A Wrinkle in Time.

Apart from Lewis and Tolkien, I have always said, I am not a fantasy fan - but I read those books with pleasure - so I really should say, "apart from Lewis, Tolkien and L'Engle...."

The Christianity Today material includes an interview from 1979 and an article/review from the same year about the Wrinkle in Time trilogy, which includes the following:

She gives models in her books of what the Christian family can be. Religion may be out—but it's in for her. As to the question of realism versus fantasy, she follows her own sense of which form to put with which story. .... It is refreshing to read an author who writes out of conviction rather than from a desire to please the book-buying public. Such writers will always find a market. ....

The trilogy (which was never intended to be so, sometimes these things just happen with a writer) begins with A Wrinkle in Time (1962), continues in A Wind in the Door (1973), and concludes with [A Swiftly Tilting] Planet. (I do hope we will have more Charles Wallace stories in the future, though.) Each book focuses on a particular theme that is worked out in the plot. The struggle, as befits a story that contains the supernatural, is of cosmic proportions: good versus evil. Of course, all of L'Engle's books, whether other worldly or not, deal with that conflict.

Supernatural characters appear in each book. In Wrinkle we find Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which; in Door, there's a cherubim; and in Planet, a unicorn. These characters appear naturally, with little pretension and without calling great attention to the fact that they are supernatural. Such beings do exist, Christians believe. Why should we be so surprised? With another writer, a nonbeliever, perhaps, we might find the supernatural beings as rulers in the story, the prime movers in the universe. But not so with L'Engle. These characters are servants, just as much as Charles Wallace or Meg. And though not always stated, the person they serve is God. ....

Allegorical Fantasy: Mortal Dealings with Cosmic Questions | Christianity Today

In the already, but not yet

Many books have contributed to my understanding of Scripture and clarified what it means to be a believer - and especially, perhaps, what it means to live as a believer. C.S. Lewis, no doubt, more than any other author has influenced my understanding of the faith. But there have been many others: Chesterton, Sayers, Stott, Philip Yancey - particularly his Disappointment With God. Decision Making and the Will of God, by Garry Friesen came to my attention at an important moment.

I was reminded of another important book by a reference to Ben Patterson in something I posted recently. One of his books is Waiting: Finding Hope When God Seems Silent. It is one of the books of which I own multiple copies because I give it away. The title accurately describes the subject, and the problem is one that every believer confronts - and always has. Mother Teresa's experience seemed to surprise, shock, or even gratify many of those who reviewed or read about the new book of her letters, but most Christians understood it. If, by some chance, someone doesn't, Patterson's book would help.

The experiences of Job and Abraham are central in the book. They had to wait for God's promises to be fulfilled - and wait and wait, without much evidence that the fulfillment would ever come apart from their faith, trust, in God. Patterson argues that the required attitudes, when things are very difficult, are not so much patience and perseverance, as humility and hope.

The epilog sums it up superbly:

More basic than patience or perseverance are humility and hope. These two are the attitudes, the visions of life, that make patience possible. Patience is a rare and lovely flower that grows only in the soil of humility and hope.

Humility makes patience possible because it shows us our proper place in the universe. God is God, we are his creatures; he is the King, we are his subjects; he is master, we are his servants. We have no demands to make, no rights to assert. I can be impatient only if I think that whatever it is I want is being withheld or delayed unfairly. As Chuck Swindoll put it, "God is not in your appointment book; you're in his." His superiority is not only in power and authority, it is in love and wisdom as well. He has the right to do whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it, but he also has the love to desire what is best for all his creatures and the wisdom to know what is best. He is superior to us in every conceivable way—in power and love and wisdom. To know that is to be patient.

Hope makes patience possible because it gives us the confidence that our wait is not in vain. Hope believes that this God of love, power and wisdom is on our side. It exults in the knowledge that, in the delays of life, he knows exactly what he is doing. If he moves quickly, it is for our good; if he moves slowly, it is for our good. No matter how things look to us, God is the complete master of the situation. There is an old theological word for this—providence. The venerable Heidelberg Catechism defines God's providence as:

The Almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were, by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.

There are no accidents, no glitches with God. He does all things well. Everything that comes to us comes by his hand and through his heart. He provides for our needs and fulfills our deepest desires in the fullness of time, not a moment too late, nor a second too soon. Hope assures us that in all things, even in the delays of life, God is working for our good. To know that is to be patient.

One of the surprise "goods" that God is working for us as we wait is the forging of our character. What we become as we wait is at least as important as the thing we wait for. To wait in hope is not just to pass the time until the wait is over. It is to see the time passing as part of the process God is using to make us into the people he created us to be. Job emerges from his wait dazzled and transformed. Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah.

Hope invites us to look at our waitings from the grand perspective of God's eternal purposes. In fact to be a believer is, by definition, to be one who waits. When Jesus won his victory over sin and death, he ascended into heaven, promising one day to return. We Christians wait for that return, poised between the times, in the "already, but not yet." ....

A cloud of witnesses

In Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons, Thomas More tries to persuade Richard Rich to become a teacher rather than pursue a place at court:

More: Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher. Perhaps a great one.
Rich: If I was, who would know it?
More: You! Your pupils. Your friends. — God. Not a bad public, that.

The play makes clear which of these members of Rich's potential "public" More considers the most significant. It is easy to forget who our public is, and that may be the greatest possible error for a believer or for a church. Everything loses its proper place in our hierarchy of values when we forget, but everything falls into place when we remember.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2, ESV).

When we rely on Him, looking not to ourselves, or our temporal achievements, or the admiration of our neighbors, or anywhere else, when we remember who our "public" is — that great "cloud of witnesses" testifies that we have got it right.

Get out of the way

From Jared Wilson at The Gospel-Driven Church:

Here's a choice quote on "making the Bible relevant" from a book by Ben Patterson called Preaching to Convince that I saw at Theocentric Preaching tonight:

This particular temptation used to be the sole province of the liberal theological tradition. But in the past few years, it has gained a number of victims in the evangelical community . . . The sin courted in this temptation is the presumption that it is the Bible that is dead and we who are alive . . .

Is the Bible relevant? Dr. Bernard Ramm once remarked, “There is nothing more relevant than the truth.” The longer I preach, the more convinced I become that the best thing I can do is simply get out of Scripture’s way.

Yes. Love that. "The best thing I can do is simply get out of Scripture's way."

I am a big fan of the notion we can't make the Bible relevant; it already is relevant.

Reminds me of that great Spurgeon quote:

Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself.

[more]

The Gospel-Driven Church: Nothing Wrong with the Seed: or, Getting Out of Scripture's Way

Radical, risky and controversial

Via Internet Monk, Jared Wilson proposes eleven remarkable innovations for the "Gospel-Driven Church":

This stuff is really innovative! It is completely "outside the box!" Implementing some of these radical approaches to church ministry and programming may be risky and controversial, but they may just revolutionize the spirit of your congregation and take your ministry to the next level.

1. Preach through a book of the Bible.
2. Talk about sin.
3. Celebrate the Lord's Supper more frequently.
4. Have a Scripture reading in the service.
5. Transition creative content from aping popular commercials and other media to creating your own, wholly original content.
6. Read, study, and teach theology.
7. Put as much effort and resources into men's ministry as you do women's. On the flipside, pair up younger women with wise, older women in mentoring relationships with the same conviction you have about men being in accountability and mentoring partnerships.
8. Hire from within.
9. In promotional material, use actual photos of actual people in your community.
10. Preach the Gospel.

And Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, proposes a few more.

The Gospel-Driven Church: 11 Innovations for Your Church!

Mere Christianity

Michael Spencer, in the podcasts he calls Coffee Cup Apologetics, begins a series titled "Lessons from Mere Christianity." The first can be found here as an mp3.

internetmonk.com » Blog Archive » Coffee Cup Apologetics 19

D. James Kennedy, R.I.P.

Christianity Today:

Dr. D. James Kennedy, founder and senior pastor for 48 years of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (CRPC) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., passed away peacefully in his sleep at approximately 2:15 a.m. at his home with his wife and daughter by his bedside, following complications from a cardiac event last December. He was 76. ....

"There are all kinds of wonderful things I could say about my dad," said daughter Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy. "But one that stands out is his fine example. He 'walked the walk' and 'practiced what he preached.' His work for Christ is lasting - it will go on and on and make a difference for eternity."

Dr. Kennedy, who is survived by Anne, his wife of 51 years, and his daughter Jennifer, preached his last sermon from the pulpit of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve Sunday 2006. He suffered a cardiac arrest four days later on Dec. 28, and has since been unable to return to the pulpit. .... [more]

Dr. Kennedy's ministry was important to my parents. When home on a Sunday morning I would invariably wake up to the sound of the Coral Ridge service on television.

D. James Kennedy Dies at 76 | Liveblog | Christianity Today

Justifying terrorism

Introducing an article about "Al Qaeda in Iraq," Frederick W. Kagan provides a useful description of the ideological/religious doctrines of al Qaeda and its allies. What is it that motivates the adherents of these extreme groups within Islam? An extended excerpt:

Al Qaeda's ideology is the lineal descendant of a school of thought articulated most compellingly by the Egyptian revolutionary Sayyid Qutb in the 1950s and 1960s, with an admixture of Wahhabism, Deobandi thought, or simple, mainstream Sunni chauvinism, depending on where and by what group it is propounded.

Qutb blended a radical interpretation of Muslim theology with the Marxism-Leninism and anticolonial fervor of the Egypt of his day to produce an Islamic revolutionary movement. He argued that the secularism and licentious (by his extreme standards) behavior of most Muslims was destroying the true faith and returning the Islamic world to the state of jahiliyyah, or ignorance of the word of God, which prevailed before Muhammad. The growing secularism of Muslim states particularly bothered him. According to his interpretation, God alone has the power to make laws and to judge. When men make laws and judge each other according to secular criteria, they are usurping God's prerogatives. All who obey such leaders, according to Qutb, are treating their leaders as gods and therefore are guilty of the worst sin - polytheism. Thus they are - and this is the key point - not true Muslims, but unbelievers, regardless of whether they otherwise obey Muslim law and practice.

This is the defining characteristic of al Qaeda's ideology, which is properly called "takfirism" (even though al Qaeda fighters do not use the term). The word "takfir" designates the process of declaring a person to be an unbeliever because of the way he practices his faith. Takfir violates the religious understanding of most of the world's Muslims, for the Koran prescribes only five requirements for a Muslim (acknowledgment of the oneness of God, prayer, charitable giving, the fast, and the pilgrimage to Mecca) and specifies that anyone who observes them is a Muslim. The takfiris insist that anyone who obeys a human government is a polytheist and therefore violates the first premise of Islam, the shahada (the assertion that "There is no god but God"), even though Muslims have lived in states with temporal rulers for most of their history. The chief reason al Qaeda has limited support in the Muslim world is that the global Muslim community overwhelmingly rejects the premise that anyone obeying a temporal ruler is ipso facto an unbeliever.

Today's takfiris carry Qutb's basic principles further. Some pious Muslims believe that human governments should support or enforce sharia law. This is why Saudi Arabia has no law but sharia. But to Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, it is not enough for a state to rule according to sharia. To be legitimate in the eyes of these revolutionaries, a state must also work actively to spread "righteous rule" across the earth. This demand means that only states aligned with the takfiris and supporting the spread of takfirism - such as the Taliban when it was in power - are legitimate, whereas states aligned with unbelievers, like Saudi Arabia, are illegitimate even if they strictly enforce sharia law. Some takfiris, particularly in Iraq as we shall see, argue in addition that all Shia are polytheists, and therefore apostates, because they "worship" Ali and Hussein and their successor imams. This distorted view of Shiism reflects the continual movement of takfiri thought toward extremes.

These distinctions are no mere theoretical niceties. The Koran and Muslim tradition forbid Muslims from killing one another except in narrowly specified circumstances. They also restrict the conditions under which Muslims can kill non-Muslims. Takfiris, however, claim that the groups and individuals they condemn are not really Muslims but unbelievers who endanger the true faith. They therefore claim to be exercising the right to defend the faith, granted by the Koran and Muslim tradition, when they endorse the killing of these false Muslims and the Westerners who either seduce them into apostasy or support them in it. This is the primary theological justification for al Qaeda's terrorism. ....

While takfirism is the primary theological justification for the actions of al Qaeda, it is not the only important component of the terrorists' ideology. Western concepts are deeply embedded in the movement as well, primarily Leninism. Qutb was familiar with the concept of the Bolshevik party as the "vanguard of the proletariat" - the small group that understood the interests of the proletariat better than the workers themselves, that would seize power in their name, then would help them to achieve their own "class consciousness" while creating a society that was just and suitable for them. Qutb thought of his ideology in the same terms: He explicitly referred to his movement as a vanguard that would seize power in the name of the true faith and then reeducate Muslims who had gone astray.

Bin Laden underscored this aspect of the ideology in naming his organization "al Qaeda," which means "the base." Qutb and bin Laden envisaged a small revolutionary movement that would seize power in a Muslim state and then gradually work to expand its control to the entire Muslim world, while reeducating lapsed Muslims under its power. Al Qaeda's frequent references to reestablishing the caliphate are tied to this concept. The goal is to recapture the purity of the "Rashidun," the period when Muhammad and his immediate successors ruled. This was the last time the Muslim world was united and governed, as bin Laden sees it, according to the true precepts of Islam.

Leninism (along with the practical challenges faced by revolutionaries in a hostile world) has informed the organizational structure as well as the thinking of al Qaeda. The group is cellular and highly decentralized, as the Bolsheviks were supposed to be. It focuses on seizing power in weakened states, as Communist movements did in Russia and China, and on weakening stronger states to make them more susceptible to attack, as the Communist movement did around the world after its triumph in the Soviet Union. Al Qaeda's center of gravity is its ideology, which means that individual cells can pursue the common aim with little or no relationship to the center. It is nevertheless a linked movement, with leaders directing the flow of some resources and ordering or forbidding particular operations around the world.

These, then, are the key characteristics of al Qaeda: It is based on the principle of takfirism. It sees itself as a Muslim revolutionary vanguard. It aims to take power in weak states and to weaken strong states. It is cellular and decentralized, but with a networked global leadership that influences its activities without necessarily controlling them. ....[the article]

Al Qaeda In Iraq

Religious freedom

The Hudson Institute is about to publish Religious Freedom in the World 2007. Christianity Today has an interview about its findings which includes the following:

How does a country's religious background affect its religious freedom?

Christian-background countries in general score high. Many of Muslim background score low. Catholic-background countries score more or less the same as Protestant-background countries. That would not have been the case 30 years ago. The Orthodox tend to score lower. Some of this is Communist holdover. But the Orthodox traditionally have had a close relationship with the state. So the idea of new religious groups operating in their territory is still very difficult. [the rest]

Q&A: Paul Marshall | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

How to make the intolerable tolerable

S.M. Hutchens describes the "time-honored technique ... used when one wishes to overrule scripture and several thousand years of church authority with some obnoxious innovation." [the method]

Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: How the Experts Do It

Religion and political freedom

Michael Barone has been reading this summer and, at the US News site, reviews several of his choices. One of them seemed particularly appropriate to the concerns often addressed at this site:

Michael Burleigh, Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror. Burleigh is a British historian who has written on 20th-century Germany; he also wrote Earthly Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe From the French Revolution to the Great War (to which Sacred Causes is a sequel). Burleigh paints a vivid picture of a demoralized Europe after the horrors of the "Great War," as it was then called, and shows how the totalitarian regimes of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler created "political religions." He highlights the strong statements and considerable actions of the Catholic Church against persecution of the Jews. Pius XI, the pope from 1922 to 1939, vividly denounced persecution in Mexico and Soviet Russia and in 1937 issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, written in German, which denounced Nazi doctrines and actions, and made sure that copies were smuggled into Germany. This encyclical was prompted and written by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Burleigh doesn't make the point, but the fact that Pacelli chose to take his predecessor's papal name suggests a ringing endorsement of his policies. Catholic leaders had to take account of the fact that the dictators had physical power over their followers and the institutional church, and Burleigh notes that they did not do everything we might want them to have done against totalitarianism. But, as he also points out, the Protestant churches of Germany, with only a very few exceptions, did very much less. They cooperated with and gave legitimacy to the Nazi regime. It's an interesting question why scholars who have been harshly critical of the Catholic Church seem to have little or no interest in the record of the Protestant churches.

Burleigh's larger point is that churches and religion have often been forces for freedom and against domination by totalitarian regimes. ....

Summer Book Review - Michael Barone (usnews.com)

Is there anything good about men?

Roy F. Baumeister, Professor of Social Psychology at Florida State University, thinks that, considering only the scientific and historical evidence, there may be something to be said for the value of men.

When I say I am researching how culture exploits men, the first reaction is usually “How can you say culture exploits men, when men are in charge of everything?” This is a fair objection and needs to be taken seriously. It invokes the feminist critique of society. This critique started when some women systematically looked up at the top of society and saw men everywhere: most world rulers, presidents, prime ministers, most members of Congress and parliaments, most CEOs of major corporations, and so forth — these are mostly men.

Seeing all this, the feminists thought, wow, men dominate everything, so society is set up to favor men. It must be great to be a man.

The mistake in that way of thinking is to look only at the top. If one were to look downward to the bottom of society instead, one finds mostly men there too. Who’s in prison, all over the world, as criminals or political prisoners? The population on Death Row has never approached 51% female. Who’s homeless? Again, mostly men. Whom does society use for bad or dangerous jobs? US Department of Labor statistics report that 93% of the people killed on the job are men. Likewise, who gets killed in battle? Even in today’s American army, which has made much of integrating the sexes and putting women into combat, the risks aren’t equal. This year we passed the milestone of 3,000 deaths in Iraq, and of those, 2,938 were men, 62 were women. .... [all of the essay]

Denis Dutton: Is There Anthing Good About Men?

Bonhoeffer and Spong

Scott Stephens, writing at Faith and Theology, compares John Shelby Spong to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to Spong's distinct disadvantage.

Faith and Theology: Bonhoeffer versus John Shelby Spong

For the Calvinists among us

Reformation Art offers something for the theologically inclined Calvinist. There are pictures for sale, for example, John Knox, and a variety of Reformed personalities from several countries and eras. There is free computer wallpaper for those who would profit from having J. Gresham Machen or John Calvin looking back at them from the screen. And there is also a t-shirt with the benign visage of the great Reformer [thus far, the only t-shirt offered].

reformationart.com

Christian Classics

Christian Classics Ethereal Library has a "Recommended Readings Bookshelf" with links to the texts of the books. It is a good list, with Augustine's Confessions, Pilgrim's Progress, Chesterton's Orthodoxy, The Imitation of Christ, The Practice of the Presence of God, Dark Night of the Soul by St John of the Cross, and others. If you need to catch up on the classics of the faith, this could be a good place to start.

CCEL Recommended Readings | Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Books on the Christian mind

Via The Christian Mind, at a site called Hearts & Minds Booknotes, a list of contemporary books: "Top Books on the Christian Mind."

Hearts & Minds BookNotes: Top Books on the Christian Mind

Dr. John Thorndyke

Having been reminded of The Hardy Boys and of other books I enjoyed when young, I decided to re-visit an author I discovered a little later. Dr. John Thorndyke was the CSI of the first half of the 20^th century — solving crimes using science. Most of these books, by R. Austin Freeman, were what was known as an "inverted" detective story: the book started with the crime, from the criminal's point of view, and then you observed Dr. Thorndyke, as he inexorably moved toward discovering the criminal (although not always exposing him). I'm reading Mr. Pottermack's Oversight, first published in 1930, and came across the following, reminding me that plot is not the only reason I find Freeman so enjoyable:

Temperamentally, Dr. John Thorndyke presented a peculiarity which, at the first glance, seemed to involve a contradiction. He was an eminently friendly man; courteous, kindly and even genial in his intercourse with his fellow creatures. Nor was his suave, amicable manner in any way artificial or consciously assumed. To every man his attitude of mind was instinctively friendly; and if he did not suffer fools gladly, he could, on occasion endure them with almost inexhaustible patience.

And yet, with all his pleasant exterior and his really kindly nature, he was at heart a confirmed solitary. Of all company, his own thoughts were to him the most acceptable. After all, his case was not singular. To every intellectual man, solitude is not only a necessity, it is the condition to which his mental qualities are subject; and the man who cannot endure his own sole society has usually excellent reasons for his objection to it. (p. 105)

Apart from the reference to the "intellectual man" — which I would not claim — that seems to me a pretty good description of me, or, no doubt more accurately, how I would like to be.

Say it isn't so, Gandalf

Thank goodness actors on stage and in movies say words written by others. Tolkien would not approve. Via HolyCoast.com:

AUKLAND, NZ, August 30, 2007(LifeSiteNews.com) — British Actor Ian McKellen who has used the mega-stardom he achieved playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films to promote homosexuality, has admitted to ripping out pages of hotel bibles that refer to homosexuality.

In an August 10 interview on New Zealand's TV1 Close Up program McKellen was confronted by the interviewer questioning the truth of the rumour "He's the one, that when he stays in hotels rips the part of the bible out that criticizes homosexuality."

"Yes it is true," responded McKellen in even tones. "Its Leviticus 18:22 that I object to, or is it 22:18, I've always got to look it up. Thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman, it is an abomination. And they, I think the punishment for an abomination was being stoned to death," he said.

McKellen added, "I think it's rather obscene and pornographic, and shouldn't be there, so I remove it."

Asked how many bibles he has vandalized, McKellen replied, "I have no idea, but other people do it as well, people send me evidence that they have been removing that."

McKellen has been vandalizing bibles in the same fashion for at least a few years. He first admitted publicly to the activity in 2004 in an interview with the UK Telegraph. (see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4UNBF1... )

VIDEO: Lord of the Rings Film Star Ian McKellen Admits to Ripping Out Hotel Bible Sections Against Homosexuality