American Heresy

is the title of Ross Douthat's post over on TheAtlantic.com. It relates to my post below regarding how culture shapes the church, rather than the church shaping culture, but looks specifically at at the American Church. Here's an excerpt:

The people who read Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer and The Prayer of Jabez may be more politically conservative then the people who read A Wing and a Prayer, and read certain passages of Genesis and Leviticus more literally, but the theology they're imbibing is roughly the same sort of therapeutic mush. Indeed, the big difference between the prosperity gospel that Osteen and his ilk are peddling and Schori's liberal Episcopalianism has less to do with any theological principle and more to do with what aspect of American life they want God to validate.

Take a look.

Church of England R.I.P.?

Here is a fascinating article from the Spectator, by Theo Hobson. His take on the current state of the Church of England is that the church was supposed to be diffused "liberally"through society under the state's laws and culture, but since Rowan Williams, (who previously was not a part of the state church, being from Wales), became Archbishop of Canterbury, his focus on the Anglican communion rather than solely on the Church of England, allowed the evangelicals to gain too much power and left liberated England out to dry, and now it will die.

What's fascinating to me about the article is how Machiavellian it is. There is nothing about what is true or scriptural. His explanation for the problems in the church is that the "bigots" have gotten too much control and the Archbishop inartfully let them have it by not sitting on the fence regarding homosexuality which would then have allowed the culture to transform the church in this matter.

This brings to mind that to those without faith, the matters of the Kingdom of God are incomprehensible, and for those of us with faith, often difficult. Hobson obviously cannot acknowledge that the purpose of the church is to transform culture nor that this is because Christ is the true King, Lord of Heaven and Earth - even of the Church of England.

Happy Birthday, Emma

Today, my eldest daughter, Emma, turns twelve years old. This is a photo of her from her May performance in Anastasia. She is growing into a fine young lady who is caring, thoughtful, always ready to have fun, (she asked for a zip-line this year), the only extrovert in our family, and a natural leader. Her ambition is to be an artist and a dress designer. Happy birthday, dear.

Segmented

One of the things that really bothers me about society is its segmentation of ages or life stages. Rod over at Crunchy Con has posted a letter from a single woman who can't find her way into the society of fellow crunchy cons because she is single. This is such a shame, particularly when most crunchy con's are people of faith. While society continues to fragment itself, the church should be moving in the opposite direction; building unity by having the old teach the young, letting the young aid the old, and everyone sharing their gifts with one another because we are all members of the body of Christ.

There is so much that needs to be done to rectify this, but one thing that could help would be to offer hospitality. Inviting someone to one's home who does not share the same station is a good start; whether they be older, younger, married, single, richer, poorer, working class, white collar, professional, etc... Hospitality is a command given to all Christians, and is even listed as a qualification to be an elder in the church, yet it seems to be one of those "old-fashioned" commands that is easy to ignore.

While not a cure-all, it could be a start. If you have any other suggestions, please add them in the comments.

Jesse Helms R.I.P.

God works in amazing and ironic ways. Who'd have thought that He would use a rock star quoting scripture to soften an old politician's heart? That's exactly what happened when Bono spoke to Senator Helms about the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Here is an ad. for an organization set up as a result of that change of heart. May I let God's Word soften my heart as well.

Happy Independence Day