"Daddy, would you feel safer in the world if there were no guns or swords?"
This was the question posed to me by my eldest daughter. She had apparently picked this question up at school somehow.
No, I said. I wouldn't feel safer. Unfortunately people have been finding ways to kill each other since the very beginning. And they didn't need guns or swords to do so. The problem is not with guns and swords, it's with our hearts. When we choose to hate instead love or to be angry instead of forgiving, we start to walk down that way that leads toward death.
"I know that." she says.
It's good to know that at seven she already knows as much as me. There is hope for the future.
You know this analogy breaks down, but I wonder sometimes what would have happened with this "war on terror" if we'd had sought out more creative ways than just "shoot 'em up" to deal with the problem. Sometimes war is inevitable, I know that. And what happened on September 11, 2001 was more than "unjust". I'm not advocating pacifism, but sometimes (and as Christ taught) there are more creative ways to make statements about injustice; ways that dignify the human spirit and restore humanity to both the both our enemies and the innocents. As a student of History I am well aware of the "myth of redemptive violence" that says it is only force which can restore peace. Cain was was sure that killing Able was one way to get justice from his favored brother. And there has been very little progress since. Creative non-violent approaches to injustice is certainly a "Christ(ian) value".
As a people, we in America are of the most resourceful, creative, inventive, and giving people on the face of the planet. I wonder what good America could have done for the entire world with 4 trillion dollars spent differently. Perhaps it will have to be the future generation that will move us out of this myth of redemptive violence and into the age of "redemption" that Christ inaugurated.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Quoting Moby
I was reading HM Magazine today and found an interview with Moby (www.moby.com). Granted many evangelicals don't like Moby because he tends to lean a little left of (far right), but I have found that he knows more about the central message of Jesus than most evangelicals (and he doesn't go to church).
When asked whether or not he agree's with Jesus' claim (which is really a fancy way of asking if he believes like most evangelical chrisitian's views of that claim) that He is THE way THE truth and THE life, and that no one gets to the father except through him... Moby answers:
You know what? I don’t even know where my fingernails come from, so it’s very hard for me to speak knowledgeably of the grand objective truths about the universe.
Way to go Moby! Apparently you learned much about Jesus when you read the New Testament.
When asked whether or not he agree's with Jesus' claim (which is really a fancy way of asking if he believes like most evangelical chrisitian's views of that claim) that He is THE way THE truth and THE life, and that no one gets to the father except through him... Moby answers:
You know what? I don’t even know where my fingernails come from, so it’s very hard for me to speak knowledgeably of the grand objective truths about the universe.
Way to go Moby! Apparently you learned much about Jesus when you read the New Testament.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Praise God, NO TEMPLES
A friend of mine shared this passage at church Sunday and it has stuck with me all week. From Revelations 21 and it speaks of a day I can't wait for.
...No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is it's light. The nations of the earth will walk in [his] light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory it.
NO TEMPLE COULD BE SEEN IN THE CITY...
I've lived in Grand Rapids for more than 9 years now and no matter where I travel there is always more churches than McDonalds resturants. There's first and second and third and fourth reformed churches, and Bible churches (whatever those are) and Baptist, and evangelical, and evangelical free, and protestant reformed, and community churches (because all the others are not of the community) and we have Lutheran and Catholic churches... We have people from this church who don't like those from that because [insert stupid reason here]. And those people let women teach. That one is a cult. They don't believe the the elements are the actual body and blood... Those people don't even have classes before baptism.
Come Jesus, that your light might guide us back to truth, back to you, and back to unity.
...No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is it's light. The nations of the earth will walk in [his] light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory it.
NO TEMPLE COULD BE SEEN IN THE CITY...
I've lived in Grand Rapids for more than 9 years now and no matter where I travel there is always more churches than McDonalds resturants. There's first and second and third and fourth reformed churches, and Bible churches (whatever those are) and Baptist, and evangelical, and evangelical free, and protestant reformed, and community churches (because all the others are not of the community) and we have Lutheran and Catholic churches... We have people from this church who don't like those from that because [insert stupid reason here]. And those people let women teach. That one is a cult. They don't believe the the elements are the actual body and blood... Those people don't even have classes before baptism.
Come Jesus, that your light might guide us back to truth, back to you, and back to unity.
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