Intersections

As the title of my blog indicates, I am fascinated by the intersection of things that modern life has typically preferred to keep separate, like church and culture, religion and politics, faith and public life. So, I am naturally attracted to news stories and other media that highlight these amazing intersections. I believe these interesections represent opportunities for Christians to be aware of the the way God's reign is breaking into our world and cooperate with God's Spirit. The following are a number of articles I have discovered recently or were brought to my attention by friends.

STAUBLOG: Facing the Giants of Bad Art & Bad Theology
Dick Staub on living "in a culture that loves art but not Jesus and in a Christian sub-culture dominated by a Christianity that loves Jesus, but not good art."

The Barna Update - Has Faith Greatly Transformed Your Life?
Here, well known Christian researcher, George Barna, asks Christians whether faith as transformed their lives. He makes some observations that probalby serve to solidify many people's assumptions about liberal vs. conservative Christians. But what does Barna mean by "greatly transformed?" How would Barna's observations stack up against those made by Ron Sider in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience? (Kudos to John Anthony for pointing out this article).

Speaking of Faith on Deciphering the Da Vinci Code
This is a weekly radio program put out by American Public Media, self-dubbed, public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. You can subscribe to a free podcast. I have found this programm to be an amazing resource. This issue was a very thoughtful look at the issues behind the Da Vinci Code without obsessing about the novel/film directly.

God and Gays, from USA Today
A short piece on the recent struggles of some denominations to come to terms with the place of homosexuals in the church, especially the clergy. What of Adventist Churches that are explicitly welcoming? Can we even have an open conversation in our denomination about this? I have my doubts.

Comments

[Trevan]

Thanks for the resources. I'm looking forward to listening to some of the episodes from "Speaking of Faith." It looks like they deal with a lot of interesting issues.

I don't think we are ready to have a real discussion about homosexuality in the church. It would simply end up like all the other "discussions" the church has on issues that inevitably end with the conclusion that the most conservative and traditional (if we have a traditional interpretation on the subjecct) understanding is still correct. I think a major reason why true discussion on the issue will be difficult is because of the numerous myths about homosexuality many people believe. (I won't list them all here but I just blogged about them in the context of the gay marriage amendment. Please excuse the shameless advertising but I don't want to clog your blog comments with one of my ramblings).

I think the deeper question I have is: Do I want the church to take positions on difficult social issues? I see the value in both positions but lean towards answering this with "no." In some ways, I like the fact that the church has kind of stayed away from some of these hot issues which allows for some freedom of opinion and practice. If they do take a stand on an issue that I don't agree with, where does that leave me? It could easily become another one of the issues people use to distinguish true Adventists from rebellious Adventists. At the same time there are a lot of important issues that we probably should take a more vocal stand on like poverty, racism, the environment, and war. I just don't want us to become like many denominations who are a mouthpiece for the Republican party. Is there a way to speak out on social issues in a non-partisan, redeeming way?

[Jon]

I think we must have an open discussion about this issue in our church. This issue has the potential to be a flashpoint issue in our communities over the coming decades as the center of leadership, culture and politics shifts from older generations who tend to be conservative on issues of homosexuality to younger generations who tend to be much more open to allowing the homosexual community have full participation in society. We can't afford to be without a voice on this issue. Continuing to ignor this important issue, I believe, will be another example of our choice to remain irrelevant to the issues our communities are wrestling with.

Are we all going to agree? Of course not. Will the discussion become vigorous at times? I hope so. And whatever pain will come from such a discussion I believe will be worth it in the end because we must ask ourselves whether or not we can claim to be a community that witnesses to the transforming nature of God's grace and still remain silent on some of the stickiest issues are communities will be wrestling with