CLIMBING THE WALLS

There are, as I’ve said, two major problems with contemporary American culture, both of which the church, if it were smart, would key in on. One is the absence of deeper meaning in our culture. The shallow explanations offered by our secular world regarding the serious issues of life surely fail to convince or assure.

But another big issue is community. We seem starved for a genuine version of it, rather than the pale abstractions that define our nondescript, theoretical, modernist sense of community today.

With the advent of the large administrative state, citizens have been freed from the responsibilities that ought to go with the freedoms our culture provides. Viktor Frankl, the famed holocaust survivor, neurologist, psychiatrist, and author even suggested that we erect a “Statue of Responsibility” on the West Coast as a corollary (and antidote) to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Continue reading “Sharks and Community”

During my senior year in high school, in 6^th period English class to be precise, I was assigned a seat next to a guy I’d barely known. He didn’t appear to be interested in the class and was a bit of a cutup, to tell the truth. Yet he was a very funny and interesting guy. I liked him.

Of course, we both went off to college and I never gave him a second thought. Until, that is, he authored a book in the late 70s entitled, A Walk Across America. It became a bestseller.

Turns out, Peter (Jenkins) had grown disenchanted with his life and future, so decided to walk from New York to Oregon – just because. During his journey he found Jesus. Continue reading “Elitism and Community”

My mother was a lovely woman, but she was no theologian. As a case in point, she often would say, “All religions can be reduced to love. It’s all about love.”

Now I’ll admit, it’s hard to argue against love. But there are all kinds of love. In fact, some of the worst acts in history have been committed in the name of love. As with most things, then, the devil is in the details.

At the risk of sounding like a heartless curmudgeon (though I was genuinely happy for the couple and pray they prosper), I found the sermon during the royal wedding this past Saturday to be decidedly wanting. This, despite the fact that everybody seems to be going gaga over it. Continue reading “On to the Omega Point”

The local paper a few years back published an article by a retired pastor who made a startling point. At least I thought it was startling. Which is ironic, since one would have assumed his argument to be altogether obvious.

He began by citing statistics of declining church attendance, then offered this curious explanation: people don’t actually know what the gospel says or what the church stands for. That’s because, these days, Christian doctrine is rarely explained much less discussed, even in our churches.

What one finds instead is a glossing-over of the difficult parts of biblical and doctrinal claims. Pastors either avoid the subject or re-interpret it. Continue reading “A Royal Priesthood”

This past Monday was the anniversary of the official end of the Vietnam War – April 30, 1975. It is a day that, for Americans, should shame us. For the residents of South Vietnam, however, it will always be a day of unfathomable sorrows.

Of course, as we all know, Vietnam was a watershed moment in the United States. Endless debates continue to this day as to whether the war was ever justified. While some feel it was a necessary effort to prevent the spread of communism (the Domino Theory), others feel it was a senseless war we never should have gotten into.

Regardless, we entered the war. And then we left. Continue reading “An Ignominious Anniversary”

Cigna, the insurance company, just came out with a report that reveals a startling level of loneliness in contemporary America. According to the survey, nearly half (46%) of the U.S. population reports feeling sometimes or always alone, while a full 47% feel “left out.”

27% rarely or never feel they are understood by anyone. Two in five sometimes or always feel their relationships lack meaning, while 43% say they are isolated from others. One in five say they rarely or never feel close to anyone; 18% say there’s simply no one they can talk to.

These numbers are not good. Yet why is this so? Why are we so isolated from one another? Continue reading “Surviving Progress”

Most of us agree society is adrift. The public square is full of shrill voices demanding our attention. We hear a lot of talk about “freedom” and “equality.” But we never seem to discuss what it means to be a people. Or to reside in a particular place. With a particular history. A place we call home.

In my last post, I questioned the sovereignty of universal claims. Which goes for both the “liberal” and “conservative” variety. And that’s not because they don’t presuppose the good.

For we human beings really do desire the good. We aspire to something more than what is, something better. We’re hardwired that way. Continue reading “Free Falling”

Over the years, I’ve been asked repeatedly to teach a class on other faiths. As religious people, it’s natural to want to know more about what other people believe.

But I always demurred. Why? Not because much can’t be gained, but because the church first needs to know what it believes!

The underlying assumption of these requests, I suspect, is that all religions are the same. Learning about other religions helps us learn what is basic to all. Continue reading “A Victim of Its Own Success”

In a recent phone conversation with my oldest brother, Chris, we got onto the subject of church. Why don’t people seem interested in it? And what might they be looking for?

These are big questions, but I took a stab at it. I cited 9/11 as a case in point. In the weeks following the attacks, I reminded him of the great influx of people into our churches. After a time, of course, they drifted away.

But what brought people, who otherwise had no real use for church (or at least not enough to rouse them out of bed on a Sunday morning), to fill the pews? Continue reading “The Grand “Sez Who?””

You may be wondering what all this history has to do with religion. Well, the Chinese have a saying, or at least I think they do: “If you want to know about water, don’t ask a fish.”

Because we swim in today’s cultural waters, we often have little objective sense of what defines that culture, what it stands for, and, more critically, how it came to be.

Which is to say we give little thought as to why we function the way we do. In such a climate, it’s easy to forget that our culture’s values and norms are not necessarily the same as, say, Christianity’s. And that’s the rub. Continue reading “From Buzz Cuts to Man Buns”