why the spiritually mature are leaving the church

a fascinating article from out of ur, christianity today’s leadership blog.

part 1.
part 2.

here’s george barna’s book, revolution, which deals with the subject a bit more in depth.

and then there’s duin’s quitting church, why the faithful are fleeing and what to do about it.  interesting book, though i’m not sure i find her solutions particularly helpful.

sarah palin’s interview with katie couric

this is just embarrassing.

political coverage = sports + reality tv

i recently got cable tv, and every now and then, I tune into the cable news channels to watch coverage of the presidential election.  

and today, i decided to watch some coverage of tonight’s debate.  

it sounded strangely reminiscent of the weekly pre-game show for monday night football.  

they were talking about tactical strategies. obama should attack mccain by doing this. mccain should counter obama’s attack by doing that. mccain looks like he’s going to take risks going down field, obama looks like the more confident player.

then, they cut to a sideline reporter who asked the screaming crowd decked out in the paraphernalia of their favorite presidential team who they thought would win, at which point everyone goes nuts screaming their heads off, high fiving one another, and spilling their beer all over themselves.  

msnbc talked about who had the home field advantage. cnn actually came up with a live scoring system.

after the debate tonight, there will be much discussion about who won the debate. then, there will be a lot of political posturing, maneuvering, spinning, and other worthless PR moving designed to dupe the thoughtless among us. 

then, on november 4, america will be polled to determine who will be voted off the island.

holy moly, she can sing…

I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me. 
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my houseguests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green. 

I had a dream 
That I could fly from the highest swing. 
I had a dream. 

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who I’m supposed to be. 
The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie. I said a prayer and fell asleep. 

I had a dream 
That I could fly from the highest tree. 
I had a dream. 

Now I’m old and feeling grey. I don’t know what’s left to say about this life I’m willing to leave. 
I lived it full and I lived it well, there’s many tales I’ve lived to tell. I’m ready now, I’m ready now, I’m ready now to fly from the highest wing. 

 I had a dream 

[priscilla ahn - dream]

representation over reality

typically when i’m at my parent’s house, we invariably end up talking about wedding stuff. well, a couple weeks ago when i was home, we chatted about some heirlooms and gifts that would be passed down to carrie and me. lots of cool stuff that’s been in the family for a really long time.  

my dad said, “y’know, if your brother was still here, we would be giving half of these things to him and half to you.” 

my mom nodded in agreement.

then my dad continued: “he would’ve graduated now and he’d be a doctor right now and…”

my mom interjected: “no, he did graduate.”  

it’s not as if i thought we were all done grieving, but it confirmed to me that dennis’ presence/absence continues to loom large in our lives, always near the front of our minds. i remember chatting with one of my professors about her brother’s passing many years ago – it changed the dynamics of every relationship in her family. there’s one thing she said that continues to stick out to me — she said that ”what he represents now has superseded who he actually was.” i can better understand what she meant, but i don’t think i detest it any less. 

the idea that an object’s representation has left the object itself unknown implies that said object is already long lost. and i think in many ways, we are as fearful of losing dennis now, as we were when he was sick.

this is an outstanding book

“So in Jesus’ own teaching, in his choice not to avoid confrontation with the temple leaders and their Roman overseers, we find that his most definitive calling is neither to cultivate nor create — though, as we have seen, he did both extensively.  The core calling of his life is not something he does at all in an active sense–it is something he suffers. The strangest and most wonderful paradox of the biblical story is that its most consequential moment is not an action but a passion — not a doing but a suffering.”

[andy crouch, culture making]

on love and contracts

For instance, take the example of two people getting married with the firm conviction that the union will last as long as they both live.  In this state of obvious delusion no real decision needs to be made.  The future is believed to be so certain that the decision to marry requires no decision at all.

Yet if two people understand that their relationship will face various hardships, that the future is uncertain and that there are no guarantees, then, far from preventing a decision, this is the very point when a real decision needs to be made.  The vows of marriage are not so much affirmations of what one believes will take place but rather promises that one will work towards ensuring that it will indeed happen.  To decide for marriage knowing that all manner of things may conspire against the union is to make a truly daring and authentic decision – the only type of decision worthy of the name. 

Here we can see that doubt provides the context out of which real decision occurs and real love is tested, for love will say ‘yes’ regardless of uncertainty. 

A love that requires contracts and absolute assurance in order to act is no love at all.

peter rollins, how (not) to speak of god

who owns the pond?

give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. 

but the real questions are: who owns the pond? who’s been polluting the pond?  why aren’t there enough fish for everyone?

this summer, i’ve been doing some interesting research in education, and i particularly enjoyed one research article called, “poor, black, learning disabled, and graduating: an investigation of factors and processes associated with school completion among high-risk urban youth.”  the article looked at how individual, familial, peer, and school factors contributed to the success of students who are statistically unlikely to graduate from high school, and i was really encouraged to read that almost all of the graduating students interviewed cited a caring teacher as a significant factor for their resilience in school.  

but the great results were tempered by a discussion of the magnitude and complexity of challenges facing the students. they’re enormous. an “excessive number” of poor, black, and learning disabled students do not graduate, and the resilient youth of the study were by definition the few that somehow beat the odds. while it is good to build up the families, schools, and communities to provide the necessary supports for each student, it is equally important to work toward the elimination of the broader social and structural inequities that create the context for studying resilient students in the first place.  

and so now i wonder how and what to teach students about the ponds they fish from, and what we can do about the situation we find ourselves in. my undergrad experience was enriched by the fact that i took classes that allowed me to examine my own context, beliefs, and values, and during my examination, it struck me as odd that such conversations are usually reserved for the social elite that get to attend university, when our increasingly pluralistic society requires these conversations take place everywhere.

thinking good thoughts isn’t good enough

while i was in school, it became increasingly en vogue for christians to “engage the culture.” this was novel at the time, since christians would more commonly withdraw from culture into a safe enclave of fellow believers. leaving the enclave to engage with the larger culture was refreshing.

but this had some problems (not the least of which is the fact that there’s no such thing as THE larger culture). according to andy crouch, engaging the culture today is almost synonymous with merely thinking about the culture, with the frequently false assumption being that action would come soon after reflection. the belief was that cultural artifacts like film, art, music, etc. emerge from deeply-rooted philosophical beliefs/world-view, and we must study these because they should be engaged rather than ignored. but when trying to engage the culture by watching movies and viewing contemporary art, the viewer gets better at thinking deep thoughts (thank you CHID!), but gains no such wisdom in how to participate in the hustle and bustle of creating culture, which is where i think the task of cultural engagement actually lies.

so, when talking about addressing america’s social ills like racism, sexism, etc., you may have heard people say, “we just gotta change people’s world-views” via dialogue, criticism, or some events that promote awareness. the hope is that an increase in awareness (or change of world-view, thought) will lead to new cultural artifacts (like laws) that address said social ills. it isn’t enough to critique & expose racist representations in the media. it’s not enough to think good thoughts — the impact of the best social criticism will never rival the cultural impact of the ipod. so i’m starting to wonder if we’ve got it backwards — the task of changing an internal world-view actually begins with the external development of new cultural artifacts, and not the other way around.