TDT Summer Updates

We’ve moved the blog from www.throwdowntheology.wordpress.com to www.throwdowntheology.com.

Hopefully you won’t even see this post, because you should be automatically redirected to the new site. If not, please let me know!

You’ll also have to re-subscribe on the new site. There are instructions in the latest post there, along with a movie recommendation for the summer.

Thanks!!

Kevin

Needlepoint prayers and popsicle stick frames – been there, done that

For many of us who grew up in the church, it can be very easy to develop a “been there, done that” attitude towards just about everything religious.  We think we “know” things because we’ve heard them a thousand times.  And the more basic and simple the truths are, the more we think they somehow belong in a box in the attic with our Vacation Bible School popsicle-stick artwork.

Like the Lord’s Prayer. 

For me, the Lord’s Prayer brings up images of old needle-point and Sandi Patty — both of which probably need a little dusting off — and neither of which is all that inspiring to me.  I could probably say the whole thing backwards with just a little work.  I really can’t hear the Lord’s Prayer without thinking of a tediously long wedding song with a three octave range.  And as hard as I’ve tried, I can’t say it in any other translation than King James.

But I recently heard a teacher who encouraged his listeners to pray the Lord’s Prayer daily.  Literally.  Word for word.  As an actual prayer and not just as a “model prayer” as some might call it.

So I decided to try it.

It’s been an interesting exercise, and if nothing else it has brought focus and discipline into my life at a time where I needed it badly.

It has enlightened me more than I ever imagined, but there’s one story in particular that I’d really like to tell.

I’ve been tutoring a high school freshman from Guatemala.  It’s just one day a week, barely even for thirty minutes, so please don’t think that I’m trying to boast about my “good deeds”.   The point of this post is just to tell my story of experiencing the truth and beauty of the Lord’s Prayer.  (And since I can’t sing it like Sandy or needle-point it like Mamaw, this blog post is going to have to suffice.)

Every time I’ve gone to Midwood High School for the past three months I’ve prayed this Prayer.

I stop and kneel right in the middle of a crowded hallway and loudly recite this prayer in my most authoritative voice (with the aid of a bull horn) while a hoard of teenagers try to avoid tripping over me.   Sometimes they throw things at me.  And on two occasions, the security guard has had to escort me off the premises as I’m kicking and screaming about my First Amendment rights.

Oops, sorry.  Wrong story.  Mine’s not quite that dramatic.  ;-}

Actually, I pull into the visitor parking lot, frustrated by traffic, distracted by the conference call that I’ve just finished while driving, and check my BlackBerry for the call that I’m going to have to make as soon as I’m done tutoring.

Our Father Who Art in heaven,

I make sure I have my pre-algebra textbook, some paper and a pencil, and silence my cell phone.

Hallowed be Thy name.

I round the corner of the classic red brick southern colonial style building, double-checking to see if I really put the phone on silent.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done

I walk past the tall white wood-framed windows, down the crumbling side walk, noticing the weeds in the lawn.  I’m too picky about weeds.  My daughter says I have OCPD.  I also wonder sometimes if I have ADD too.  So I quickly start the prayer over, because now I’ve forgotten where I left off.

Our Father, Who Art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,

I approach the unwelcoming, out-of-place, metal doors that look like they belong on an industrial warehouse rather than a red brick school house.

On earth, as it is in Heaven.

I sign the visitor’s log and fill out a name tag.

Give us this day our daily bread.

I say Good Morning to the secretary.  I don’t think she knows my name, but I can’t say that I’ve done a good job at remembering hers either.  I should probably pay more attention.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Today, I’m actually early.  First block isn’t over yet, so I find a seat outside the office and soon start to worry about how I’m going to get everything done after I leave here.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And I wait for the bell to ring.

And then for twenty-five minutes or so I try to explain point-slope formulas for a line.

And y-intercept formulas.

And the Pythagorean Theorem.

But sometimes we just talk about cars and what he’s going to do this summer.

None of it really feels like a kingdom and bread and debts and temptation.  But somehow it’s all related, and mumbling the words to this prayer has begun to help me make a connection.  Maybe I can’t explain all of the theology, but I know as I leave the building that somehow I’ve seen a glimpse of a literal place – a Kingdom — where all things are as they should be, where kids have fathers who haven’t been deported, whose mothers aren’t working two jobs to make ends meet, and children don’t have to ride a bus across town to a last-ditch-effort school program that’s trying to get a handful of  kids back on track academically because the system has failed them miserably.

I don’t know how this all works, but I know that something “cosmic” has just happened that I can’t fully understand or explain.

But I have to leave, get back in my car, check the BlackBerry and continue my conference calls.

And I’m saddened that this brief relationship with this young man will probably be over in just a matter of weeks.  Father, please protect him…

… for Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the Glory forever.

Amen.

Is Your Church Different (Like Everyone Else’s)?

This is so good, it deserves it’s own post:

Renewing your mind (this might take a while)

Lately I have been reading several books by N. T. Wright, including his latest book, After You Believe.

Among many other topics, he writes about being transformed by the renewing of your mind. It’s a great book, and when I have time I’ll try to write a review of it.

This post really has very little to do with N. T. Wright, but his book made me start thinking about the various ways that we have to renew our minds. There’s the obvious bad stuff we all face, but sometimes there’s also some “un-doing” that needs to take place in our theology too.

By the time you’re in your mid-forties, I suppose you can sub-consciously accumulate a lot of questionable theology. For me, some of it (ironically) came from Christian comic books.

Some of it is easy enough to shrug off and forget. But not all.

For instance, here’s an image that’s not easy to forget:

What the...???

This was actually from a Christian tract.  Great bedtime reading for an elementary school kid, huh?   And what’s with the creepy hand???  I honestly have no idea where I got this stuff. I guess while the rest of the neighborhood kids were trying to take a peek at their dads’ dirty magazines, I was reading graphic Christian comic books and tracts. (Yeah, I know. Strange kid. But my Dad didn’t have any dirty magazines, so what else was I supposed to do?)

The world was a scary place in the seventies. It would appear that I was only months away from having to choose between a 666 forehead tattoo and guaranteed starvation.

At least the good news was that the torture wouldn’t last long, since the world was almost definitely going to be obliterated by 1974 1977 1979. (And I was kinda pissed when I realized that meant I’d never get to finish elementary school junior high, much less get to kiss a girl.)

Of course no one knew the “exact hour” that the world would end, but apparently a lot of people could narrow it done to a particular year, especially since God made it so obvious with His complex charts and graphs. (All without Power Point, I might add!) The end was obviously close, even to the most casual observer, and I sure as hell heck wasn’t going to question the validity of a God’s Outline of History in a comic book.

Fortunately for all of us, there were chiseled, square-jawed white men reassuring us, while still warning us of the REAL danger in this world — RUSSIA!!!

I can see Russia from my house!

Men like this were a God-send to a young boy’s inquisitive (and terrified) mind. Together with their African-American friends, they taught me so much about the evils of the world around me, especially in the theaters:

Yeah. Right on, Bro!

And I wished I had a six-pack like my Bro.

Not a real six-pack of beer, of course. Tanya wouldn’t approve of that.

Fortunately, the white pothead chick got saved, and stopped craving cheap beer and instead developed a taste for southern cooking. (Although, I think they both might have benefited from some corporate “Diversity Training”.)

And it’s a good thing she got on the right path, knowing what her skanky future had in store for her otherwise. As far as I could tell, there were blood-slurping, appendage-eating, Satan-worshipers just waiting to get their bony hands on all of us. Best to stay away from movies and beer just to be safe.

Fortunately, none of this stuff mattered much to me, since I was assured I’d be a part of the “Great Snatch”, where apparently the, um, most “perky” went to the front of the line. (And don’t tell me you wouldn’t have noticed if I had not pointed it out…)

But 1974, 1977 and 1979 came and went, and I was able to finish elementary school and junior high with nothing on my forehead that Clearasil couldn’t take care of.

Fortunately for me, the Imperials and Amy Grant would soon arrive on the scene just in time for High School and replace my short-lived love affair with Christian Comics.  And slowly but surely they would begin to alter my thinking about God. (Very slowly…  it’s been a long road.)

Now if I could just shake all of those creepy images.

(And if you’re wondering, yes, I really have these comic books… safely hidden from my children!)

Worship Leader Diseases

Several months ago, our church hired a new WL (worship leader). Unfortunately for those of us who aren’t legally deaf at our church, it’s been a rather painful transition. Now I realize that you can’t necessarily measure worship solely on the criteria of how it sounds, but there’s something left to say when only 25% of the congregation seems to sing along on a regular basis and the WL himself sings on key roughly the same % of time.

A big part of the limited congregational worship participation seems to be directly related to the unfortunate rampant “Christian Artist Wannabe” disease that many WL’s have been plagued with.  As defined by C. Tomlin’s Christian Medical dictionary: 

“Christian Artist Wannabe” disease:  ”Christian Artist Wannabe” disease, commonly referred to as “CAW,” is a disease caused by the unfulfilled dream of becoming a famous Christian singer/songwriter that most commonly infects the worship leading style of many worship leaders. In most people, the infection first manifests itself in Christians during the teen years when the individual is inspired by contemporary Christian music to learn the guitar and become a famous Christian artist themselves one day.  The infection continues to grow once the individual realizes that they in fact aren’t talented enough to make it as a Christian artist, thus turning to the perceived next best option – leading worship.  At this point, the infection becomes full-blown as the individual proceeds to use worship leading as a mechanism to fulfill their lifelong “contemporary Christian artist” dream by forming a band (“worship team”), playing to their adoring fans (congregation), and often even dressing like a rock or pop star.  Symptoms include (but are not limited to): going on unnecessary runs, changing lyrics mid-song, ending a song by repeating a verse/chorus a minimum of 4x, choosing fast tempo songs that the congregation can’t keep up with (naturally leading to solo performances by the WL), finishing a song with “whisper singing” (eg “we love you Jesus”, “we thank you Jesus”, etc), or other methods designed to exclude the congregation from singing.  These symptoms generally often persist over the course of an entire worship ministry career for most CAW sufferers.

I’m sure you’ve witnessed the CAW at churches you’ve visited or even currently attend.  It often leaves you feeling like you’ve attended a 91.9 sing-a-long during the concert time of worship.   No exaggeration, our church has sung a minimum of one Chris Tomlin song just about every Sunday ever since our new WL assumed the throne (can you tell who he aspires to be?).   On top of that, said WL often chooses non-congregational friendly songs that his fans  the congregation cannot keep up with due to it’s quick tempo (eg.  My Saviour My God by Aaron Shust).  This leads to an unfortunate solo act by the plagued CAW sufferer. 

Now I don’t place the blame squarely on the WL’s shoulders for CAW.  The church in general is as much at fault as the WL, as they in fact hire these types of individuals and often encourage this type of worship experience. Maybe I’m just too cynical as I get older or maybe I’ve contracted “early onset bitter old man” disease, but my idea of a good worship leader is someone you don’t even notice during worship.  Someone who gets out of the way.  Someone who doesn’t ”lead” you to focus on them, but on Who we’re supposed to focus on.

How ’bout you?  Have you witnessed the dreaded CAW at any churches you’ve attended?  Have you ever been part of a CAW-free worship experience?

I SUCK at Lent

Well, it’s Holy Week. Lent is ending soon and I wanted to share with you my, um, not-so-intense spiritual journey.

I thought about trying to put a more “spiritual” twist on this. But what the heck, I figured you all would see right through it anyway. ;-}

I decided that rather than taking the usual passive “give something up for Lent” approach that I would attempt more of an active “self-discipline” approach. I’m always frustrated by my lack of time to be creative, so I decided that I would actually “create” something every day of Lent, even if it was just a 5 minute sketch of a stick man.

Hey… it’s not a terrible idea. I’ve seen similar suggestions in art books, so I figured it could easily apply to Lent too, right?

So here are a few excerpts from my Lent Journal:

Day 1: Went to Binders and bought a cool sketch pad with brown-paper-bag colored paper and some black, white and gray colored pencils. Came home and did a “Lent” graphic sketch. Not a bad start. Nothing worth showing, but still quite pleased with myself for trying.

Day 2: Worked on another blog entry. Decided that creative writing counts too. It doesn’t have to be visual art.

Day 3: Sent an e-mail to a friend. Decided that e-mail counts as creative writing. Hey, it took some serious thought to go head-to-head with him on witty quips.

Day 4: Talked about joining a mens Bible study group. The guys in the group are mostly graphic designers. Micah said that just thinking about hanging around creative people would count. Just in case, I’ll do an extra sketch tomorrow.

So yeah. That’s it. And that’s actually the whole journal – not just a few excerpts.

Uh… was Lent 40 days or 4? I forget. Blame it on my Baptist upbringing.

Will it still count if I just stay up all night and produce 40 sketches? Lent’s not over yet — I can still make the deadline! That always worked in college. Can I turn my work in late and still get partial credit?

Aw crap. I should have just listened to my wife and given up sweets.

And you’re right, honey, Cool Whip doesn’t count as long as it’s on fruit. ;-}

Don’t Click Here if you’re a Commie

When Micah and I started this blog, I warned (on the “About” page), that “you might want to put your sacred cow into a witness protection program”. Well, this might be a good time to buy Bessie a big blond wig and dark sunglasses and start looking for another barnyard.

If you’re not aware of the recent comments from Fox News’ Glenn Beck on “social justice”, read here for a little background info:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/08/glenn-beck-urges-listeners-to-leave-churches-that-preach-social

Beck recently equated Christian “social justice” with Nazism and Communism, and urged Christians to flee from churches that claimed to be concerned about social justice. He even went as far as to hold up signs with the Communist Hammer and Sickle and a Nazi Swastika, while the words “Social Justice” were on the TV monitor next to him.

I won’t tell you the first thoughts that came to mind, but most of them (regrettably) contained various symbols. @$%&*!.

You have to realize that I still consider myself a political and theological conservative…. or at least a right-leaning moderate. And I would have to agree that there are definitely churches out there that have strayed far away from anything that even resembles the Christian faith, and many of them probably support “social justice” causes.

But Beck’s comments are offensive on SO many levels. If you ask me, he’s spewing a ridiculous mish-mash of half-cocked politics, armchair theology, and scare tactics. He’s urging people to go to their pastors and priests and ask them if they agree with “this social justice thing”, and then run screaming in the opposite direction if they say Yes.

Grab the torches and swords, folks! Kill the Evil Beast!! Off with his head!!
All this “feed the hungry” crap is just a trick to get you to give up your God-given rights!

But then I saw an e-mail from Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and author of several books, including “God’s Politics”. For the most part, I think Jim Wallis has at least tried to be a voice of reason, even if his political leanings are sometimes different from my own. The e-mail subject line said “Tell Glenn Beck: I’m a Social Justice Christian”. There was even a link in the note… “Click here to Tell Glenn Beck that you’re a Social Justice Christian”.

Let’s all band together and send massive amounts of e-mail to Glenn Beck!
Overwhelm the Ignorant Beast!! Off with his Empty head!!
All this “Fundamental Conservative” crap is just a trick to get you to vote Republican!

The first thing that jumps out at me (from both men) is the sense of URGENCY. Hurry! Run to your pastors! Click this link! Call in the next 3 minutes and you’ll also receive this free gift! Come on gents, are you trying to sell a ShamWow here? The tactics aren’t much different. Even worse (and mostly from Beck), is the play on FEAR. Fear of losing religious freedom, fear of the government taking too much control. And the fear feeds into a MOB MENTALITY. If we all band together, our collective strength can overcome these horrible forces of evil.

Something is telling me to run screaming from BOTH of them.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with urgency, fear, or joining forces for a greater good, but sometimes the combination can be volatile.

Is this what we’re becoming?

I believe it’s important for all of us to think long and hard about the implications of both sides of this debate. The issue of social justice is too complex to address in just a few lines of a blog, but every day I feel more and more convicted that God is calling all of us to do more than we’ve been doing in regards to the needs of those without food, shelter, jobs, education, and protection from all sorts of oppressive and immoral behavior. I suppose the issue isn’t so much the “what”, but the “how” – especially in regards to the role of the American government. But we have to deal with this – one way or another — and the Faithful cannot ignore the issue of the plight of the Oppressed.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah 1:16-17

Read the rest of Isaiah Chapter 1 in context. Regardless of your political leanings, it’s hard to deny that the issue of “social justice” is core to this passage. This is not just a verse lifted out of context. And there are many other similar passages, addressing many other times and places in the history of the people of God.

So for now, I guess I’m going to have to join the ranks of other card-carrying “Communists and Nazis” like Isaiah.

But I still just can’t bring myself to get caught up in the whole “click here” and tell Glenn Beck I’m a “Social Justice Christian”.

We’ve got to move beyond just aligning ourselves with labels and parties and political ideologies and get busy doing the good works we’ve been called to do.

Non-Inspirational Photo of the Day

Is there any question why I avoid going to the office at all costs?

Who Am I?

My God creates life.

My God values life.

Therefore I value life.

Therefore I do not choose, but allow my child to have life.

To see life.

To experience life.

To live life.

To choose to ignore the poor and needy’s life.

To choose to fight in wars and take a child’s life. 

My God creates life.

My God values life.

Therefore I value life.

A Post is worth 1,312 words

I tend to over-analyze things.

Like what you order from the menu at a restaurant and how it reflects on your personality. And how if two (or more) people order their meals before you, and they happen to order the same thing you were planning to order, then you have to change your selection. Otherwise you will look like someone who just follows the crowd and orders whatever everyone else orders.

There are rules, people!!
I’m just surprised at how many people aren’t aware of them.
That’s normal, right? Everyone thinks like me. Don’t they???? ;-}

Oh well, my point here actually has nothing to do with self-consciousness or entree selections.

My point is that I was sitting on my deck last Saturday and took this picture, and I now I really, really, really want to over-analyze it.

But I won’t.
Not much anyway.

This is the last of a flat of flowers that should have been planted in the Fall. Most of them found a permanent home next to the mailbox, except for this one container that is now just sitting on a table on my deck. Oddly enough, I don’t think they’re completely dead.

Regardless… this is not the intended purpose for these flowers. They were meant for something better.

Maybe this has just been a rough week and I’m tired of my corporate job and the constant struggle of just paying the bills, but maybe it’s something bigger than that. Or maybe I just need to hire a yard man and stop navel-gazing.

But this image keeps haunting me.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I figure you got your money’s worth with my additional three hundred twelve.

I started to call this “Hope for Pansies”, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I didn’t want any of you over-analyzing the word “pansy”… ;-}

Kevin