Waving or Drowning?

A Blog Post of Olympic Proportions

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games, to be hosted in Vancouver and Whistler, will be upon us in less than a year. Many of you will know that I am not looking forward to this spectacle. It's been part of my own journey that I have gone from cheering the announcement of Vancouver's winning bid 5 years ago, to where I am today, a place which could accurately be labeled "anti-Olympic". The very short answer is that this has much to do with how the marginalized are victimized, and how my own views of power, and more to the point, the Kingdom, have changed.

Here's a couple of items for your consideration:

You can read more about this upcoming presentation and discussion on the Streams of Justice blog, but if you're anywhere in the area and have an interest in this, I'd encourage you to attend. Through various contacts and groups I've been witness to the full gamut of Christian reaction to the games. From those who are excited about handing out bottled water and tracts to visitors, to those of us with a somewhat more negative approach and a very real concern for our marginalized friends, you'll find it all here in Vancouver. This should be an interesting and challenging night.

On the same theme, Streams of Justice founder and my friend Dave Diewert has written an outstanding piece titled Two Incompatible Visions: Jesus and the Olympics - Reflections from Mark 3:1-6.

Here's a taste for you:

This episode presents a great challenge for us as followers of Jesus. His action puts us under obligation to open up space in the middle – the middle of our hearts, our lives, our homes, our communities, our social institutions – for those who are weak, marginalized, poor, excluded. The middle is the place of belonging, of being valued and deemed important, of being granted respect and dignity. It is the place of healing for those suffering from personal affliction, trauma, and the social exclusion that so often attends their experience. One might also argue that by situating the poor at the centre, a way of healing is also opened up for those held in the grip of the various pathologies that accompany the wielding of dominant power.

Yet this kind of radical action requires the dismantling of the norms of our current social order, where those who occupy the centre of attention and are ascribed greatest value are the wealthy, the beautiful, the strong, the successful, the educated, the experts, the professionals. Those with power, wealth and status stand in the middle and impose their intentions; they dominate through coercive force or economic influence or social weight. Yet Jesus displaces these ones, and puts the disabled, poor, impure, non-compliant one in the middle. Fidelity to him means that we take up this revolutionary and life-giving practice as well.

Of course, to do so would be to invite opposition from the authorities; such actions of non-compliance and reversal pose a threat to elite interests. Rather than locating the poor in the middle of our lives and our communities, the social norms and dominant cultural perspectives advocate that we keep them confined in systems of control to ensure their removal from our lives. Yet participation in the movement of God embodied in Jesus, which makes solidarity with the poor its fundamental stance, calls us to expose and resist the rationalizing logic and reinforcing behaviors of the status quo, and summons us to reorder our lives around and alongside the weak and the poor, to grant urgency to the alleviation of their suffering, and to prioritize their empowerment. This is the way of God in the world, and as Christ-followers, this is to be our way.

Dave's is a powerful voice when it come to the marginalized and the Kingdom of God, and it needs to be heard. Take the time to read the full pdf file here. I hope many of you will be willing to wrestle through these issues with us. We can start the discussion in the comments section.

New Book From Dallas Willard II

Now that the link to the sneak peak to Dallas Willard's new book Knowing Christ Today mentioned here actually works (sorry), take a few minutes to have a look. Included is the entire Introduction, as well as excerpts from the first several chapters. This book looks fantastic.

Someone commented to me on Facebook that they understood that Willard had turned down all speaking engagements in 2008 to write this. I"m not sure if that is true, but this is obviously something he has laboured over, and it is no doubt a dense, important work.

Here's the end of the Introduction:

I should alert readers to the fact that this is not a devotional book and that it will require considerable mental effort to understand. This lies in the nature of the problems to be dealt with. I have tried to ease the pain as much as possible. One result of the displacement of faith from knowledge, which we are dealing with in this book, is that many people now believe you do not need to think deeply and carefully to follow Christ. C.S. Lewis makes a very penetrating comment about this matter:

"God has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have. The proper motto is not "Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever," but "Be good, sweet maid, and don't forget that this involves being as clever as you can." God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all... One reason why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself."

I hope that doesn't scare you off, and instead excites you.

New Book From Dallas Willard (UPDATED)

If you're a fan like I am that headline probably got your attention. Here's what the folks at The Trinity Forum have to say about the new work:

Senior Fellow Dallas Willard has a new book, Knowing Christ Today. How well does Jesus do at answering the deep questions of existence? Willard shows how Jesus’ answers can be evaluated on the basis of the evidence, and compared with the answers offered from other worldviews, to become a true and reliable basis of knowledge for public action in all spheres of life. Includes an extensive discussion of a Christian basis for pluralism. (You can preview the opening chapters here).

The Trinity Forum will be hosting an evening Conversation with Dallas about his book in Washington, DC on July 15. Further details are forthcoming, but mark your calendars now!

Another one for the wish list.

UPDATE: The preview link actually works now!

UPDATE: Follow-up post here

The Sick Bastard Rate

A few weeks back I failed to get much of a response to my post A Fragmented Gospel. In it I addressed the recent poll that indicated 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants said torture of a suspect could be often or sometimes justified. (My theory is it ties back to racism.)

Yesterday Fred Clark did a much better job of looking at this issue. Drop by when you have a moment.

U.N. System Lacks 'Serious Focus on Gender' Issues, Opinion Piece Says

"The most lamentable and heart-breaking dimension of multilateralism" is the "absence of any serious focus on gender throughout" the United Nations system, Stephen Lewis, founder of AIDS-Free World, writes in a London Independent opinion piece. He adds, "I can cite chapter and verse, but let me start by telling you that whether it is poverty alleviation, or HIV and AIDS, or sexual violence and conflict, the whole panoply of discrimination visited on women around the world, particularly in developing countries, the U.N.'s agencies and the Secretariat have been profoundly delinquent in their response."

According to Lewis, the "struggle for gender equality has become the most important struggle on the planet; the continuing marginalization of 52% of the world's population is simply unacceptable." He adds, "So we're now engaged in an effort to create a new international agency for women, a fascinating undertaking that I hope will engage" governments. "Nothing approximates the possibility of finally having a vehicle that would give voice and resources and support to the struggles of women around the world," Lewis writes, adding, "Everyone knows what's happening in these areas about women's vulnerability but there is never a consistent voice to bring it to the attention of the world community, to continue to hammer it home, to demand action from government." He concludes, "So the emergence and creation of a women's agency I think would be a godsend internationally and would overcome the record of the United Nations on gender" (Lewis, Independent, 5/22).

In My Place? Some Thoughts on Atonement (UPDATED)

I've been doing some thinking about atonement lately, and it looks to me like I'm not alone.

It seems that as many of us struggle with what it means to follow Jesus--as opposed to following the religion of Christianity that many of us grew up with and in--atonement is an issue that must be confronted. And if you're like me, this might be yet another case of abandoning the single theory, the non-negotiable, the deal-breaker you once bet the farm on, and becoming comfortable with not replacing it with something equally exclusive. Instead, this is an area of theology I'm learning to hold loosely. Oh, I've got some ideas that I'm partial to, and I'll share them here, but I'm open to the notion of being wrong. (As I've said many times before, I'm quite sure half of what I believe is wrong. The problem is I don't know which half.) And it's not about having no views. As far as I can tell, it's about new views, and how we hold them. The old ones haven't brought us very far.

This is not meant to be a primer on atonement. There are a lot smarter people than I who have dealt with this issue, so there is plenty out there for you to read. (Personally, I've just picked up a copy of Saving Power: Theories of Atonement and Forms of the Church, by Peter Schmiechen, which I plan on getting to soon. After that, I think it will be Stricken by God?: Nonviolent Indentification and the Victory of Christ, edited by Brad Jersak and Michael Hardin. But, I digress.)

In a nutshell, atonement theory attempts to deal with the issue of forgiveness of sin, and why Jesus went to the cross. It seems that those who believe all agree that Christ on the cross is critical to our faith, but for some reason we can't agree on exactly why he did it.

I won't keep you in the dark on what I think any longer. The notion that I have let go of is the Penal Substitution theory of atonement. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this particular theory, which seems as good a definition as any:

Penal substitution is a theory of the atonement within Christian theology, especially associated with the Reformed tradition. It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), thus satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins. It is thus a specific understanding of substitutionary atonement, where the substitutionary nature of Jesus' death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary punishment.

I'm sure there are proponents of penal substitution who may take issue with the wording of this definition. Feel free to do so in the comments. I put it this way: God can't stand sin, so somebody had to pay the price. (Why do I feel the urge to insert "G*ddammit!" here?) We are the sinners, so we should pay the price. Thankfully, Jesus came to take our place, to take our sins upon himself, and to pay the price for us.

As I continue on this journey of learning to follow Jesus, there are many reasons why this theory no longer makes any sense to me. I should first tell you however that I no longer think that any one single theory--of anything, really--can adequately explain God. God is not two-dimensional. I'm constantly amazed at the arrogance of humanity when we believe that we can clearly explain some aspect of the Creator of the universe in a couple of sentences. As I've said before any god that I can fully understand and succinctly explain cannot be God, but is more likely an advertising slogan.

Before going on, the other thing I should share is what finally prompted me to write this post. The last straw was struggling through some of the transcript of this interview with Paul Young, author of The Shack, which I somehow found here.

Adams: “Ya, many see that as Christ being the agency of our reconciliation but that when, you know, that Christ was taking the wrath of God upon him, I, I take it that you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t agree that the cross was a place of punishment for our sin.”

Young: “No. I don’t, I am not a penal substitution …reformation…point of view.”

Adams: “But isn’t that the heart of the gospel? Is that the heart of the gospel?”

Young: “No! Ha, no! The heart of the gospel is that we are, are so pursued, the heart of the gospel is in Ephesians 1:5...

Isn't penal substitution the heart of the gospel? No! And I agree. To borrow a line from Paul (Young, not the other guy) the heart of the Gospel is that God is "particularly fond of us." The heart of the Gospel is grace. And I believe the heart of the Gospel is that Jesus came to reveal to us God's plan to redeem all of Creation.

As I see it, the penal substitution theory positions God as less than God. Our sin must somehow be eliminated before we can commune with God. It must be. It's like God has no say in the matter, which is to say that God is less than all-powerful. This simply cannot be: God is not subject to rules. God makes the rules! And breaks them should God choose to do so. God is the Source of Everything. I can't help myself; when I think about penal substitution I see a cigar-chomping, Edward G. Robinson-type God saying, "Look kid, I'd like to help you, see? But there's this problem of your sin, and it has to be done away with first, see?"

Another issue for me is the incompatibility of this theory with grace. God so loved the world... that he had to murder his son. I don't see it. I know some will bring up "the wrath of God", but I have a feeling we are seriously deluded as to what that really means. 

Finally, the biggest issue for me here is the failure to place the atonement within the larger Story of God.

Picture this for a moment: Imagine life in Israel before Jesus dies. Or to really reinforce the idea, imagine it before Jesus was born. How was sin dealt with then? It was dealt with according to the Law. A sin offering was made. A young bull, a goat, pigeons, grain... whatever was called for. Are you telling me that what was forgiven with a bull one day required the death of the Son of God the next? I don't see it. (Of course, we could run down this rabbit hole of considering how people were "saved" prior to Christ, which I actually think reveals the fallacy in that way of thinking.)

Yes, I believe everything changed with the coming of Jesus. Yes, I believe the Old Testament is no longer the agenda for the church the way the New Testament is. And yes, I believe Jesus when he said he was the fulfillment of the Law.

I believe one of the reasons Jesus went to the cross was this: Jesus died to symbolize the final sacrifice. The People of God had become addicted to the Law, and we were no longer moving forward in the Story God had written for us. It's as if God was saying, "Look, enough with the chickens and goats already. Your sins are forgiven, once and for all. Now, can we get back to my plan to redeem all of Creation?"

And 2000 years later we've made a new law out of the Cross. Tragic.

But, things are afoot. Questions are being asked, and this is good.

That's enough from me for now. Cautiously, the comments are open.

UPDATE: A couple friends have carried on the conversation on their own blogs. Check out what Darryl Dash and Ryan Dueck have to say on the subject.

Jonah III

Just a quick word of thanks from both Jonah and me. He'll be at the Amahoro Gathering in South Africa in a couple of weeks, due to your generosity.

Thanks everyone.

Resistance

Just got off a Skype call with Wes, where he quoted the closing of The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Now that our copy is back from Bangkok I'm going to reread it. David and I talked a lot about the book while we were writing at Linwood House a couple weeks ago. I've talked about it with Kelley in Bujumbura, Burundi as well. As I signed off with Wes this afternoon I saw that Tom was tweeting quotes from the book.

Here's the last page for you:

The Artist's Life

Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don't do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or to write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us out of your contribution. Give us what you've got.

That highlighted paragraph speaks volumes to me. I know--notice my use of the word know. I didn't say, "I think", or, "I hope", I said, I "know"--that is exactly the reason I am here on this earth. One millimeter.

And I suspect it's why you are here too.

Bonus:

The Forward to The War of Art was written by the brilliant Robert McKee. Below is a clip from the movie Adaptation, starring Nicholas Cage. Brian Cox plays Robert McKee's character in the movie. The setting is one of McKee's famous Story seminars, and it is fantastic.

CAUTION: Only press play if you can handle multiple f-bombs, dropped frequently and at increasing volume.

Can't say I didn't warn you.

Jonah II (UPDATED)

OK Friends, we're almost there. We need another $50 to cover the usury-like fees we'll encounter getting this money to Jonah.

I think it's time to call out the pastors.

I know, times are tough and giving is down. Budgets are being cut. I'll bet your education allotment has even been cut. Well, Jonah doesn't have an "Pastor's Education" line in his budget, he just has you and me.

I'm looking for 5 pastors to chip in $10 each and we're done. Or, if you'd like to spread the joy, 10 pastors at $5 each will work too. Help an African colleague get to a conference with his peers that will be a source of sorely needed encouragement.

Thanks.

UPDATE: OK Pastors, a self-described atheist has taken care of the $50. (And we've kept going from there.)

Now I know that you're going to want to participate now, as an act of witness to our friend. Come on, step up. Any funds we raise over $400 will be distributed to someone at the conference who needs the money. I'll let you know when I get back.

Easy, Now...

Are you living just a little and calling that life?
(Annie Dillard, via inward/outward)