No Place for Truth

I supose this is really just another plug for a product, but it’s infinitely more important than Firefox.

I just finished reading a book for my Theology class by David Wells, a professor at Gordon-Conwell. The book is called *No Place for Truth,* Or *Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?* and I there’s a good chance that it ought to be required reading for every True Christian embarking on a path for ministry today. The basic premise of the book is that, in general, evangelical Christians, those of the heritage of the Reformers, the Puritans, the Methodists and the Charismatics, (and I suppose the Baptists too) have essentially lost their first love. Evangelical Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds recently, but they’ve accomplished this growth not by sufficiently challenging the surrounding culture, but by becoming enough like it that people find the evangelical Gospel acceptable to their social mores. For the most part, evangelicals have abandoned the knowledge of God (Theologos) and have replaced it with a kind of knowledge of man. The result has been that the Jesus we present has been dummed down enough that he’s finally acceptable to put on the shelf next to whatever other gods people have.

The first part of the book is a very difficult read, for several reasons. It consists of a scathing critique of modern evangelicalism, and a description of how and why we have abandoned our prior fascination with theology. Part of the difficulty with this part of the book was simply that it was written in 1993, just before the public started really gaining access to the internet. So a lot of his criticisms were just too outdated to make any sense to me. His discussions of how mass marketing and TV had inured our minds to thinking objectively were a bit amusing in light of RatherGate and the collapse of interupt marketing. The other thing that made it difficult is that I grew up pretty isolated from “modern culture.” I was in rural Oklahoma, and stupid wasn’t allowed in the house. You have to take that off and leave it on the porch. As a result, I haven’t ever really been aware of the broader evangelical culture, of which I seem inadvertantly to be a part. So some of his scathing criticisms seemed a bit off base. But then it occurred to me that, while *we* didn’t go to *those* sorts of churches, most nearly every other Christian we knew did. I had been fortunate, and unaware.

I do, however, have memories of people coming back to school from church and telling me that it had been prophesied: Revival was coming. Next tuesday. Be there.

But the second part of the book was well worth it. He describes the importance of Theology, why we need it, and what may likely happen to the church if we don’t get some of it out of the lofty universities and grounded in the actual church. While I wasn’t raised headlong in modern America’s “cliche culture” (to steal a line from the book), I was raised in a family with a pretty strong bias against formal education. Learning? All for it. But stay away from those schools: they’ll charge you an awful lot of money to give you a piece of paper, and you won’t really have gained much by it in the end. It’s a position I’m still inclined to agree with, much to Valerie’s chagrin. I remember when I got my English degree, the first thought that passed through my head was “now I finally know what it’s like to have a high school diploma.” *No Place for Truth* largely confirmed these inclinations. He points out that, while the church has lost it’s taste for rock solid truth, the university has lost its focus and understanding that the intended audience for theology (the persuit of the knowledge of God) is the church. If the church has no thorough concept of who God is and what he really wants from us, the church has very little reason for existence. And yet, even those people who point out the most adamantly that you have to know both the power of God **and** the scriptures, are pitifully ignorant of the scriptures in comparison to say, John Calvin. Incidentally, Wells also mentions that my current degree, the M Div, was a bachelors degree as recently as 50 years ago. It was “upgraded” officially to accord the same prestige to ministers that is given to doctors, lawyers, and MBAs, against the protest of older ministers who were stongly suspicious that there was a financial motive to adding an extra 4 years to the required education to get a theology degree. It was a gut-level sense that something like this was in place that persuaded me to drop out from school for three years, looking for the necessary theology education outside the accredited system. Honestly, it’s only because it didn’t work that I’m now back in school (still). My $30,000 in debt continues to persuade me that there was some financial motive in this “upgrade” to “professional status.”

The final chapter in *No Place for Truth* is the most impelling. Most of the book is written in academic style, with enough footnotes to choke a goat. But the last chapter is almost free of footnotes, and Wells speaks freely of his diagnosis: The evangelical church, progressing as it is, has become so much like the surrounding worldly culture that it is almost totally ineffective in making a true representation of Christ to the world. The salt has for the most part lost its saltiness. We aren’t changing the world nearly as fast as they are changing us. Even our revivals are pretty much human engineered, and so lacking the key ingredient to actually do what they’re supposed to do. We don’t need a revival: we’re lively enough as it is, and that liveliness has less to do with the actual presence of a holy God than it has to do with an engineered enthusiasm. What we need is a reformation.

I am inclined to agree. Granted, not every church in the world is soaked up by the world. Maybe your church is *the* church in your town that is preaching the true gospel, complete with a holy and awesome God who is sovereign, and wholly other and above the world. So was Martin Luther’s church, even before he nailed his 95 theses. This doesn’t negate the fact that the church at large has no clue, and it is continuing to persue the path of cluelessness.

David Wells’ prescription involves a renewal of the place of theology in the local church. That can’t be all of it, of course. God is still sovereign and has his own purposes. He also does nothing that he doesn’t first reveal to his servants, the prophets. Nevertheless, if you accept the premise that the knowledge of God is key to a functioning church, then a church that has no place for theology has surely left it’s center.

Restoring theology to its rightful place in church life could be a good start.

Quick plug

For all of you who think the browser wars are dead, check out Mozilla Firefox. It’s pretty.

Plus it does things right when Internet Explorer won’t. A couple of examples:

You should note the fancy boxes around some menu items to the right over there. In IE, those are just static boxes. In Firefox, they’re bona fide drop down menus. Not that I have much set up to drop, but soon….

Secondly (and this is probably the most beautiful thing) , I haven’t tested it yet but it looks like Firefox has an RSS reader built into the browser (**R**eally **S**imple **S**yndication). That means you can subscribe directly to yours truly and other blogs directly through your bookmarks..

So anyway, I’m going to be using firefox for a few days to see if I like it better…

Thought to Ponder

Are you being Salty?

You know how most people have a preference for either sweet or salty things to munch on? Well, nine times out of ten if you ask me what I’d like to munch on it would be something salty. I’m not sure why but I prefer salt to sugar, which means I really have to be careful not to get dehydrated. I have something of a fascination for salts in general though (probably because I like the taste so much) so I have a tendency to perk up in my chemistry classes when they’re discussed. Now don’t look at me like that; I am a science major and sometimes really weird things are interesting to me like the like the different affects that salt has on people, plants and water.

Did you know that you need salt in your body in order to function properly? Take a look at this:

Vital Functions of Salt in the Body

1. Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, Contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure – in conjunction with water. Naturally the proportions are critical.

2. Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells.

3. Salt is vital for balancing the sugar levels in the blood; a needed element in diabetics.

4. Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

5. Salt is vital to the nerve cells’ communication and information processing all the time that the brain cells work, from the moment of conception to death.

6. Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.

7. Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.

8. Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and congestion of the sinuses.

9. Salt is a strong natural antihistamine.

10. Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps.

11. Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

12. Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm. Osteoporosis, in a major way, is a result of salt and water shortage in the body.

13. Salt is vital for sleep regulation. It is a natural hypnotic.

14. Salt is a vitally needed element in the treatment of diabetics.

15. Salt on the tongue will stop persistent dry coughs.

16. Salt is vital for the prevention of gout and gouty arthritis.

17. Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

18. Salt is vital to the communication and information processing nerve cells the entire time that the brain cells work – from the moment of conception to death.

19. Salt is vital for reducing a double chin. When the body is short of salt, it means the body really is short of water. The salivary glands sense the salt shortage and are obliged to produce more saliva to lubricate the act of chewing and swallowing and also to supply the stomach with water that it needs for breaking down foods. Circulation to the salivary glands increases and the blood vessels become “leaky” in order to supply the glands with water to manufacture saliva. The “leakiness” spills beyond the area of the glands themselves, causing increased bulk under the skin of the chin, the cheeks and into the neck.

20. Sea salt contains about 80 mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice of salt than other types of salt on the market. Ordinary table salt that is bought in the super markets has been stripped of its companion elements and contains additive elements such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous. Aluminum is a very toxic element in our nervous system. It is implicated as one of the primary causes of Alzheimer’s disease.

21. Twenty-seven percent of the body’s salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are twenty-two percent water. Is it not obvious what happens to the bones when we’re deficient in salt or water or both.

(* The information on salt intake is taken from Dr. Batmanghelidj’s book, “Water: Rx for a Healthier Pain-Free Life”.)

** This is also another really good site to look at: http://www.saltinfo.com/salt%20health1.htm

I read stuff like this and it makes me stop and say “whoa, way cool!” (Yes I told you already that I’m a science nerd…get over it.) But something even more than this makes me stop and think. Imagine having this kind of knowledge and reading this over again
13″You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14″You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” – Mathew 5:13-16

What does it really mean to be the salt of the earth? Have you ever really thought about it or just made a cursory glance at the verse, said, “that’s nice”, and went on to more important things? Now to give people credit…most people do realize that salt is a preservative and we are called to preserve/save the earth, but it doesn’t stop there by any stretch of the imagination. Look at the verse again; one of the first things that strikes me is the part about salt losing its saltiness…. What? How can that be? Salt’s still a salt right?

Guess what a salt by definition is a chemical compound formed by replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or electropositive radicals. What does that mean? It means that if you take two oppositely charged atoms or small molecules (like sodium and chloride…which are both highly toxic on their own, btw) and bring them together, they will form an ionic bond. Think of it as putting two kitchen magnets together. They stick together but they can be easily pulled apart, especially if you put that salt in water.

Now about salt losing it’s saltiness… When you put some salt in a solution like water it dissolves, right? Ok now you’ve got water with salt in it but you can still taste the salt. Now add some more water…add some more…keep adding until you can’t taste the salt anymore. The salt hasn’t disappeared but it has lost its saltiness. It’s become too dilute for your taste buds to distinguish.

What does the verse say about salt that has lost its saltiness? That’s right “It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” It becomes completely useless. It can’t preserve anything, it can’t make things flavorful, it can’t even be distinguished from tap water. You can become diluted by the world to the point that you’ve lost your saltiness and you become useless. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that if you just let this be a part of you or watch that in order to fit in that people will be more willing to listen to you. When you do that you’ve fallen into the trap of dilution.

Now here’s something else to chew on. As the salt of the earth, we are vital for the earth’s day to day survival. Do you remember when Jesus prayed for his disciples? One of the things he said was, “15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17). I believe that this prayer was not just for those original twelve but also for all of us who “have heard and believed” (John 17) and are now Christ’s disciples as well. We are the essential compound that keeps our world from immediate death.

‘A little bit of salt goes a long way,’ but if we have every Christian being the full potential of their “saltiness” the evil in this world cannot survive. I believe that we should be working towards a point where we become so salty that the ruler of this world burns his fingers and spits us out of his jaws. We need to be the irritation in the wounds that he receives from our prayers and the prayers of our spiritual leaders.

The sea is filled with salt and we would die if we floated in it for too long (and not because of the sharks either). Even then there is abundant life in the oceans.

The Dead Sea is filled with even more salt; to the point that fish cannot survive. But there is still life in the form of microorganisms that flourish even at that high salinity.

We need to be so salty that nothing born of the ruler of this world can take root and grow like in a field that has been salted. We are in a battle for the survival of this world; it’s time to start using those battle tactics.

“You are the salt of the earth
You are the salt of the earth
But if that salt has lost its flavor
It ain’t got much in its favor
You can’t have that fault and be the salt of the earth! “ (Lyrics from the song “Light of the World” in the musical Godspell)

Thought to Ponder

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” – Proverbs 12:1

Have you ever said, “Lord, change me” and then rejected the criticism of your neighbor? Now I don’t mean the kind of criticism that is said with a spiteful attitude and primarily about something temporary or physical. No, I mean the kind of criticism that hits a nerve because you know it’s true but don’t want to really listen because it would be too hard to do. The kind of criticism that could get you that “A” on a paper or be a more visible representative for Christ. Are you willing to open yourself up to other people for correction or are you planning to be mulish all your life? We can’t improve if we don’t know what needs to fix.

Also, stop fencing yourself in with excuses about your past failures. Your past cannot dictate who you are unless you choose to give in to it and the “oh woe is me” attitude that goes along with it. Now don’t get me wrong…some things that happen in people’s pasts hurt and have had an enormous effect on who they’ve become. But do you honestly think that you’re useless because of something that happened yesterday or fifteen years ago? Of course not!

God loves each and ever cracked, bruised and broken piece of us because they make us even more unique and better vessels for him to pour out life and healing in the cracked, bruised and broken world that we live in. If we don’t have these experiences, we can’t relate; and what is a ministry that doesn’t cross the boundary between heaven and the earth? We are the messengers. Your failings are the kinex that God uses to branch out with.

So the next time you ask God to “change you” if it’s really something that needs to be changes, listen to the criticism that he imparts to you through your neighbors and if it’s not, thank him for another opportunity to shine for him and pour out his healing into the lives of your fellow battered.

Wait for the Switch

This is a hack. This is only a hack.
Had this been a real website update, it would have looked *way* cooler.

This would be, I guess, phase 1 of my switch to a whole new blog. I’ve brought everything over from MovableType to WordPress, which, contrary to what Jared Bridges seems to think, is pretty hard work. I’m pretty sure the only thing I’ve got to do on this end is go through and update all the poetry. WordPress recognizes linebreaks differently than MovableType, and as a result, everything on here in verse (pretty much) has been converted to long, senseless, lines of text. I’ve got to go back and add in those breaks manually (gulp!).

If you’re the sort of person who goes aimlessly browsing through other people’s archives, now would be the time to do so. I could use your help. If you see typos or other obvious mistakes, put a comment on the post (thereby also testing the new comment system). Hey, if you’re really vigorous (and I can trust you with a login), I might even teach you to put in those linebreaks for me!

Phase 2 will be coming shortly: the new site design complete with new url (and a new banner from one I love dearly). I’ve seen the prototypes. It’s **nice**.

Phase 3 is going to be the tricky part. We need to figure out the best way to run both blogs on the same site. I welcome all suggestions…

Thought to Ponder

A story from one of my dailies that I really thought was special:

A visitor at a school for the deaf and dumb was writing questions on the blackboard for the children. By and by he wrote this sentence: “Why has God made me to hear and speak, and made you deaf and dumb?”

The awful sentence fell upon the little ones like a fierce blow in the face. They sat palsied before that dreadful “Why?” And then a little girl rose.

Her lip was trembling. Her eyes were swimming with tears. Straight to the board she walked, and, picking up the crayon, wrote with firm hand these precious words: “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight!” (Matthew 11:26).

Change of Place

It’s late, and I actually just climbed myself out of bed, but I’ve been trying to get to a point where I could say things all day. I’m just not able to get thoughts organized and on paper unless I’ve had a few hours of peace and rest behind me. Men are supposed to become like their fathers, like women are supposed to become like their mothers, but at least in this one case, I’m more like my mom: I have to have a few hours solitude (which nearly amounts to boredom in some respects) before I can really be worth anything at all.

Speaking of solitude, I seem to have had enough of it yesterday, for I woke up this morning with my head bursting with ideas. Well, perhaps more “whelming” than “bursting” but still… I had thoughts which seemed to me to be inspired. Some of these were little things, like new enthusiasm for some story ideas I had mostly set aside (ideas which, of course did not get written down). But one idea seemed more fundamental: I think I need a name change.

I’m speaking of web domains, not my personal name.

When I came up with the Puretext “brand” I had a different view of what I’d be doing with this site. I was spending most of my online leisure reading online comics, and so was imagining my web presence mostly in terms of entertainment. I don’t do pictures, I write stories and poems. So I called the site Pure Text.

But Pure Text isn’t really an accurate description, any more, of who I am and what I’m trying to do. Granted, I still don’t do pictures, but neither do most webloggers, so that’s not much of a distinction. Pure Text is interesting in terms of an entertainment site, but says nothing in terms of a unique perspective for a Christian weblog. In fact, it doesn’t really communicate that I’m a Christian. Who’d a thunk that I’d ever find myself facing a personal criticism that I’m not effectively communicating that I’m a Christian?

But the truth is that “effectively communicating that I’m a Christian” wasn’t actually very high on my list of priorities a couple of years ago. I had shunted aside a call to “ministry”, and had embraced the idea that I would be some amalgam of art and business. Unabashedly Christian, no doubt, but not in the traditional form of Christian ministry.

I think I may have gotten it just a little bit backwards. More and more it seems to me that it’s the form which needs to be traditional and the substance which needs to be unique. That is, I need to go ahead and give up on this idea that ministry for me won’t look like a normal pastor in a church, and I need to go ahead and accept the fact that the way I think and the way I present myself will always be a little… odd. Because I am a little odd.

All that to say that, if I’m going to have a blog, it’s not going to be an entertainment blog; it’s going to be a ministry oriented blog, because I’m a minister. And it’s not going to be a showcase of what I can do (or have done) but simply an expression of who I am. There have been any number of things that I haven’t blogged about because they didn’t fit with the original vision and I didn’t have a new vision yet to contain them.

Another reason for wanting to change the name is that, when I started this weblog, it was basically a product of me. I’m not going to be a “me” much longer. In a year or less, I’m going to be a “we”, and frankly “Pure Text” is a terrible description of the other part of “us”. Valerie isn’t particularly verbal, and I want to try to include her in any expression of “us.”

So who am we? (oh dear. This grammar thing is getting confusing. I think I’ll just stick with “I” for now.) First and foremost, I am a Christian, a servant of Jesus Christ. My life is forfeit in comparison with his grace and calling. I don’t say that lightly, or like some kind of masochistic cliché. A long time ago, I laid down everything for Him. I haven’t given up my uniqueness and humanity, and I haven’t become some kind of robot. Nevertheless, if I know that God has said it, I’m doing it. Period, Point-blank, no questions asked.

Secondly, I am an evangelical. That means that I believe that one of the primary callings of the Christian is to declare who Jesus Christ is, and what He has done for us. I believe that telling people that they can be saved from sin is as clear and simple as telling someone to boil impure water. There is no justification on my part for occluding knowledge which could save another person’s life. Understand, I don’t assume an obligation to force people to boil their water, or to boil it for them if they don’t want it boiled. But I must not, under any circumstance, withhold any kind information that could benefit another person’s life.

Third, I am a charismatic. That word gets tossed around a lot, and can mean anything from energetic to maniacal. In terms of Christianity, what it really means is simply that I believe that God is actively, presently involved in the lives of men, sort of the dramatic opposite from the deist position. God is interested and involved in people’s lives, not just in the bland “Providential” sense, but in the particular and in the supernatural. “Charismatic” derives from the Greek word “charismata” meaning “gifts” or “graces,” and I believe that the grace that God has given includes the “spiritual gifts” described in I Corinthians 12-14. (It’s a small point until somebody says God doesn’t do that anymore.)

So, reflecting all this, I’m considering a name change. I’m still in the considering stage, so I would appreciate some feedback. The name I’m thinking about is “neumatikos.org.” “Neumatikos” is the Greek word most often translated “spiritual,” as in ode neumatikos, a spiritual song—from Ephesians 5:19 “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord”. I’d probably put that verse at the top somewhere.

The new name would fill 3 major goals: It would be much more blatantly Christian, it would still have an aspect of the creative in it (at least with the “ode” tacked on somehow) and it would be broad enough that I could include other people (i.e. Valerie) and a greater variety of content.

So thems the thoughts. And now I adjourn to bed.

Stuff You Probably Didn’t Want to Know about Me

I’ve been on a soap kick lately. Usually I don’t go in for bar soap. I like the scrubby gel stuff. But I was at the Body Shop the other day and saw they had a bar soap version of my favorite face wash and I figured, what the hey. So I bought the soap. And I used it, and it was good.

But then my tiny little bar of soap ran out. I suspect it wasn’t designed for full-body use. It was just a little two-inch bar. But it ran out, and I was already in the habit of using a bar of soap in the shower. So I looked down and I saw this other bar of soap that I’d had for a while and decided that it would do.

Bad idea.

I think it was originally some kind of bathstuff gift to Valerie that somehow got to my place and never got used… um, because she doesn’t usually take baths at my place. But I figured somebody had better go ahead and use the stuff or we might as well throw it away. So I used it.

It was some kind of “moisturizing” hand-made stuff with giant swirls of purple that smelled like lavender. But it lathered and got me clean. And then I stepped out of the shower and my first thought was, “wow, I need deodorant.” My second thought was that maybe lavender swirls and male body odor were never meant to go together.

So I plastered the deodorant on thick this morning, and considered pasting the stuff over every inch of my body that I had previously desecrated with lavender swirls. I decided against it on the basis that two wrongs don’t make a right. And contorting my body around in front of the bathroom mirror while lathing deodorant on parts of my body where normally it would never go definitely counts as a wrong in my book.

As a result, today I smell like a purple flower, and I am carefully avoiding any kind of activity which might incite me to sweat, thereby forcing me to smell like purple flowers draped on a stinky horse. With any luck no one will stand close enough to me today to notice either way.

I have also sworn off ever again using any kind of soap which has been clearly designed for a woman.

Two poems

Valerie and I were working on wedding invitations tonight. She found the stationary that she’s been wanting at bargain prices, but we had to order them immediately. This meant that, in order to get our own wording on the cards (instead of stock phrasing), we had to write them up tonight.

We searched for poetry already written that said what we wanted to say, but found none. So I tried my own hand at writing Hallmark poetry.

The first attempt wasn’t so… appropriate:

They called it love when we held our hands together
And called us fools when we allowed not love to take its course
But greater love has none of us than charity
Which lays down its life and takes up another by its choice

It’s a bad omen to mention fornication in the wedding invitation, right?

The second attempt seemed much better, so we’re going with it:

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves
It is He who has brought us together
His is the tie that shall bind us as one
And His mercies that guard us forever

I would like to point out that it’s been just under a year since I wrote poetry last, and now I’ve written four in as many days. When it rains…

And now it’s late. I’m going to bed.