Pacifism....not really.

Up until 4 or 5 years ago, I was your typical “war is a necessary part of life” type of guy. Then, something changed. I was reading about Christ and realized that He would not have been a “war is a necessary part of life” type of guy. This belief, based on Jesus’ teachings about turning the other cheek and generally suffering under evil, rather than retaliating against it, got me to thinking. So here we go....

I am not a pacifist, but I’m really close. I believe that the only time violence is an option is when it’s the only option for stopping the extreme abuse and/or murder of another. In practice this means that I believe in “just” war. A just war is, in my eyes, when a country goes to war to save those who cannot save themselves. The war in Iraq could have been such a war, but it was not. If our president said “I’m not going to stand by and watch Saddam Hussein commit genocide in his country” then I can support that... unfortunately it ended up being, primarily, about other things. Protecting our national interests, ridding the world of “WMDs”, blah, blah, blah.

That said, I don’t think a “just” war occurs very often. In fact, I’d venture to say that less than 5% of wars are just. As I mentioned above, they may be veiled in justice, but it’s usually just an excuse to further the attacker’s purposes. And here’s the other thing; even if you go to war for a just cause, it doesn’t mean you then have permission to behave like an animal. I was recently reminded of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m not generally a real mushy and compassionate person, but it makes me literally want to throw up to think of the lives lost in those events. If you’re truly about just war, it’s hard to justify murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, unless you view them as less important than yourself. I recognize the background behind those bombings, and it really is a discussion for another time, but there is always a way to fight the evil powers within a country that doesn’t involve murdering those who aren’t to blame.

War aside, I also believe in protecting the innocent on an individual basis. I’m not going to watch someone beat down another person just because I don’t believe in violence. There is clearly a difference in suffering under evil and in watching others suffer under evil. What this doesn't give me permission to do, is to kill someone who enters my home, though that's not to say I won't. If I believe it's unavoidable to protect my family, I would do it. But, there are usually other ways to subdue or chase away an intruder. I just shudder at the thought of taking a life... taking away a chance for someone to repent of their evil and to follow God. When I pull that trigger, their current choice is locked in for eternity, so I'd better be sure it's my only choice.

I believe in putting myself in the line of fire to save others, and I believe that leaders of powerful nations should be willing to stand up and put a stop to oppression and genocide. Oh, how I dream of the good that a superpower (though that term is dwindling) like the U.S. could do... if only we were less concerned about posturing and furthering ourselves. Whether it’s Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia, or Rwandan genocide, there’s always evil that needs to be stopped just because it’s evil. Not because it will benefit me.

I guess I can summarize my thoughts by saying simply that I don’t believe in harming others without a really good reason. And the only reason I can come up with is if I have to harm another in order to save another...I guess that’s when I’ll cross the line.

Charisma vs. Character

It's an all out, cage fight, deathmatch!

Ok, no it's not... but it is an interesting conflict.

I encountered some interesting thoughts on this conflict awhile back and it seems to be cropping up a bit lately in my thoughts. So, you might be wondering, what exactly is the conflict? Here it is in a nutshell... People tend to view those who are charismatic and/or gifted as more desirable and worth pursuing relationship with. Additionally, we tend to view these people as more mature Christians.

But, as D. Martyn Lloyd Jones pointed out in "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount", these personality traits are not the same thing as Christian maturity. Someone can be naturally very kind, humble, loving, etc., but without an ounce of love for God. On the other hand, someone can constantly battle their personality... they may naturally be very terse, down, proud, etc, but maturing as a Christian by leaps and bounds as God shapes them despite their shortcomings.

It saddens me, mostly from a selfish perspective, that people who are not charismatic are often ignored while the world clamors over the attention of those who are charismatic. And yes, I understand why... charisma is attractive. Just realize that those who aren't charismatic can have much to offer...often times even more that the charismatic. But, ultimately, it isn't a battle between the two... or at least it shouldn't be. Both are valid personality types and should be pursued as worthwhile relationships.

Facebook is a perfect place to see this in action. I've watched as a charismatic person posts something inconsequential, only to get 20 replies, while a less charismatic person posts something thought provoking and only garners his/her closest friends interest.

So, at the risk of this sounding like a rant, we (I) should not act so superficially.

Just give me a sign! *WHAM!*

Just a short time ago I explained to Corey that I was frustrated with God. I felt like my prayers were constantly being met with silence. Don't get me wrong, I didn't necessarily blame God, because I also constantly battle with doubting my salvation. So, when God doesn't seem to answer my prayers, it (in my mind) casts doubt on my salvation.

Anyway, this rant basically went like this:

I've been praying a few things for a long time and have gotten no action on them. God seems to be ignoring me. They're good things...things which I KNOW God would want for me (seriously). So, why is He ignoring me? I want, just once, to have a prayer answered in a BIG way... a way that is CLEARLY God. I want to see God work in a way that unbelievers cannot refute as "coincidence". I have little faith that he'll answer me.

So, after that pity party, God showed me about a dozen reasons and ways why I am a fool. And now, I'd like to share a few of them with all my imaginary internet friends. So, here goes:

1) Job - Job couldn't figure out why God was seemingly detached and not involved in his struggles (and prayers) and so he, like me, called God out. It ended badly for Job. God was clearly, at least it was clear when you can look behind the curtain, intimately involved in Job's situation.

2) When I test God by expecting "big" miracles from Him, this only leads to an expectation for Him to always act in that manner. Basically, if He were to oblige, and do something dramatic when I think I need it, rather than just acting faithfully and lovingly on my behalf, even in a mundane way, then I would constantly expect the extremely miraculous. (and probably on an escalating scale)

3) David's victory over Goliath could be explained as coincidence. When I think that, in order to glorify God, I need a miracle that cannot be "explained away as coincidence", I... well, I'm wrong. Many of the miracles in the Bible, such as the smooth stone of a shepherd boy killing a gigantic killing machine, could be answered with "oh, that's just luck or coincidence". It was good enough to make it into the Bible, so maybe I should be okay with it. Not all of God's interventions are like as dramatic as how He set fire to Elijah's altar (1 Kings 18:16-40).

4) Pharisees asked for a sign too. Uh-oh. This may be the most damning one out of them all... The pharisees asked Jesus for a miracle so that they could believe. Yeah, that's right... the PHARISEES. Not a group I want to be lumped in with...

So, anyway, God's first intervention into my life following my complaint about His lack of intervention into my life? Intervening by showing me my failure to recognize and appreciate His constant intervention in my life. Yeah.

More thoughts on contextualization... kinda.

This is closely related to my recent entry on contextualization. I've been listening to some music lately which quickly makes me nervous, due to my extremely moralistic past. Some of the artists I'm enjoying have a tendency to, occasionally, erm, well, uh... you know....swear. *gasp* I know.... shocking. So, as a Christian, is it wrong, or even sinful, for me to listen to this? I think that not only is it not sinful, but it can be shown to be good. How? Read on...

First of all, we should get one thing out of the way. As Christians, we have much more freedom than we often give ourselves. Or, maybe it's better to say, we have more freedom in some areas than we give ourselves, and we have less freedom in some areas where we give ourselves lots of freedom. Got it? Oh, nevermind... read on. Because of my freedom in Christ, I can listen to music containing swearing. I can watch TV with sexual innuendo. I can take in a movie containing violence. But besides this freedom, is swearing even sin? No! Surprised? Our heart is the seat of sin and as such, someone can swear with a pure heart and, conversely, someone can say "Oh my!" with an evil heart. Someone famous (Jesus) once said that we should not wash the outside of the cup while neglecting the inside... more on that in a moment.

But, for the moment, lets suspend reality and pretend that swearing IS always sin and that it's just like violence, sexual sin, or not loving others. (funny how that last one just doesn't seem to fit… does it? But it DOES!)

As I mentioned in a previous entry, effective gospel contextualization requires we know something about our culture. Depending on your set of friends, different aspects of culture, such as relevant music, can be extremely important. And not just knowing about it scientifically, but liking and/or relating to it. It helps us to know the pain, suffering, joy, struggles, etc. that others go through. You can quickly gain or lose credibility with others depending on this. I'm not saying that you have to see every new movie and buy every top 10 album or anything, but you should at least have some kind of clue what's going on in the culture around you.

One of the problems with hiding from abrasive content is that, if we're so sensitive to coarse words or other peoples sin that our saintly little ears can't stand to hear it, how can we realistically expect to engage unbelievers? I shudder when I remember, several times, in college hearing people praised when they said that they've had to ask unbelievers to watch their language around them.... Wow. Way to be Christ to them... Jesus was always trying to clean the outside of the cup, right? Uh, wrong.

So yeah, fitting in can help to give opportunities for spreading the gospel. And while it's good to be known as a Jesus freak, it's not if it's just because you like crappy music. (Sorry... but I think a lot of "Christian" music is sub par in quality.. and this coming from a guy who has spent a lot of time and effort in years past trying to find good Christian rock. Let me save you some time, it doesn't exist...okay, okay.. it does, but it's not common at all. That's why most Christian rock stations play the same 10 songs over and over again for 6 months straight.... but I digress.)

In general, cloistering ourselves away, trying to keep "pure" is more dangerous and worthless than being engaged in our culture. As if listening to certain music or swearing defiles us anyway… remember that Jesus said it's what comes out of the heart that defiles us. Jesus was accused of being a glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners, for a reason; He didn't write off sinners because they sinned, and we shouldn't write off songs or artists or TV shows just because they portray sin. I believe that doing so would be moralistic and Pharisaical, and unbiblical...

And remember my list from earlier? (violence, sexual sin, or not loving others.) If we're genuinely going to attempt to stop participating in any form of entertainment that portrays any form of sin, well, I think we'll find ourselves without any entertainment.

All that said, I think it's definitely worth understanding that bad content (for example, songs glorifying rape, murder, etc.) is different than music with swearing or TV shows with sexual conquests. This is, essentially, the argument that we need to not let the world soil us, being in the world but not of the world, bad company corrupts good morals, etc. This is true. Each person has to know themselves and know their threshold. Know what you can handle.

Oh, and I know we are pretending that swearing is sin right now, but I just need to point out that hearing excessive swearing is not likely going to generate wicked thoughts or actions. The worst it should do is make you swear a bit more frequently.

I'd say that, in terms of something like music, the following guidelines might be useful. If it advocates a belief or lifestyle or habit (such as sexual sin, swearing, homosexuality, theft, etc.) but not something that damages another person (rape, murder, abuse), then you're probably okay watching or listening to it. I'd never want to support an artist who promotes harming others (rape, murder, abuse), but an artist who promotes other beliefs is simply being a sinner.... like you, me, and everyone else. I've heard it described before, I think by Mark Driscoll, that with each piece of culture that we encounter, we can choose to redeem it or reject it. So, if you can find good, valuable nuggets within it, then redeem it. Find a way to relate the gospel to it and to view it through Christ's eyes. If it's not redeemable, such as with something like pornography (extreme example, I know), then we should reject it altogether. Either way, we should have plenty to talk to people about.

So, clearly it's dangerous to completely immerse yourself in art glorifying sin that harms others, but music like this is rare. The point is that while I want to be culturally relevant, I also don't want to be seen supporting art that advocates damaging people. But, as I hope I've demonstrated, songs containing swear words don't do this.... (The same holds true of sitcoms that feature gay people, movies that contain premarital sex, etc) I haven't really processed how I feel about movies promoting excessive violence... Maybe I'll touch on that another time.

Oh, and just so you know, I personally don't swear because of the negative connotations involved in our culture. Just not worth it to me... So there, now you can't even label me as a leftist hippie. Ok... I'm sure some of you will, but I love you anyway. Peace. ;)