21st Century Reformation

Violence Returns to Iraq - democracy and Military Action

2011-12-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

Wave of attacks kills dozens amid Iraq's upheaval

The lesson here is to reassess how democracy promotion works. We cannot expect to be successful by enforcing democracy via military action. The entire endevor may prove to have been a total waste of lives and money.

Lesson learned: Empire isn't a good long term strategy for prosperity.

Bias Justice in Alabama: Executive arrested under Alabama immigration law

2011-12-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

Mercedes-Benz executive arrested under Alabama immigration law

A basic premise of justice is that justice must be without bias. Laws cannot favor the poor or the rich. No one is above the law. This principle of justice, obviously, is not understood by the good people of Alabama where a law is being reconsidered because it has been found to possibly harm rich folk.

Would a false arrest of a spanish speaking tax paying maid lead to the over turn of a law in Alabama or must the person falsely arrested be rich? The answer is obvious. Poor brown skinned people have been complaining about this law and others like it for months, BUT, as it turns out, the long arm of the law is only comfortable reaching downward.

This case is a perfect example of bias and, therefore, an unjust law which should be overturned regardless of who is being falsely arrested.

US Lawmaker Blocking Obama’s Pick for Ambassador to Russia

2011-12-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

US lawmaker blocking Obama’s pick for ambassador

Michael McFaul is the most clear eyed observer of Russia on the planet. He has legitimate pro-democracy street cred. If anyone thinks Mike will be fooled by Putin, they are either ignorant of Dr. McFaul's history or they simply are being disingenuous. You choose.

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable? - Kenneth Rogoff - Project Syndicate

2011-12-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?

As we think about "The Kingdom as Justice", it is helpful to take a self-critical look at our understanding of the world's political economy. What about our political-economic system is unjust? How are people and future generations harmed by a lack of care for the economy, the environment and our debt burden? Is it not unjust to leave a world of inequality, pollution, debt and rising health care costs to our children to fix? Certainly God cares about the well being of our children and has his sights on the well being of our children's children. Can inequality continue to go unchecked? The question is how do we fix these problems that are quickly evolving into crisis due to our petty self-interests and our lack of intellectual rigor.

In the above article, Kenneth Rogoff begins to ask questions concerning the sustainability of capitalism in its current form. We too need to look objectively and without bias (especially religious bias) at how to solve these policy problems which are at the heart of the problems of injustice in God's world.

John Rawls - Required Reading

2011-11-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

John Rawls

It seems only reasonable to me that such great thinkers like John Rawls should be required reading for all Christian leaders AND that the church should be a central place for public reasoning.

Did the Poor Cause the Crisis?

2011-11-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

It is hard to resist posting an article like this one. Justice compels me.

Been meditating on justice a lot lately.

Why Greece is so Important - Bailouts and Haircuts

2011-09-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Discussion of Greece proposing the possibility of 50 percent haircut on debt is a very important news item. For a Christian blogger to speak so much about economics might seem strange to some but consider 20th Century Europe's history of financial meltdowns.

First, I think Europe needs to take action to allow peripheral countries an orderly default. The longer the global community waits the greater the risk. My understanding of an orderly default is basically an agreed upon haircut. Banks holding Greek debt agree to write the value down and Greece agrees to pay the new payments on the new debt levels. Though a 50pc haircut seems drastic think about the options of more austerity.

Populations like Greece at some point will rebel against further austerity. Political unrest in Europe is the worst case scenario. Unrest will likely lead to a populist call for a disorderly default. The contagion of such action is completely unpredictable and likely to be more catastrophic than Lehman.

Why is this important? 1. Good policy and orderly cooperative action can avoid total catastrophe. It is vital to realize that while a natural catastrophe like a Tsunami cannot be avoided Financial Tsunamis can be avoided. The math can be done to make a balanced bailout and haircut options that equally effects banks and public services but protects all of us from wholesale disaster. As Christians, we ought to call for balanced sacrifice and wise solutions to avoid undue suffering. This is the compassionate and wise thing to do. 2. Human nature and the realities of life can cause suffering people to do horrible things. Poverty and economic collapse can lead to political instability. These things have happened before and it is unwise to believe that the 21st century is any different than the 20th.

India's Identity Project

2011-09-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

With National Database, India Tries to Reach the Poor - NYTimes.com

This is a great article about the India Identity Project. This is a project to register all Indians. India is notorious for leaving its despertely poor behind as it "develops". This project is an aim to monitor and measure the lives of the poor and be able to get these suffering people into the benefits process. The aim is to lower significantly corruption and the cost of India's bearocracy. This is great use of technology to move development forward.

It is also headed by the author of Imagining India, Nandan M. Nilekani. Imagining India is on my bed stand waiting to be read.

Currently Reading @ 21st Century Reformation

2011-09-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

My current reading list on the side bar is a bit outdated I need to update BUT here is what I am reading:

1. I just finished
The Bottom Billion - Paul Collier

2. I am now reading
Development as Freedom - Amartya Sen

Both are fantastic...highly recommended.

Development or Charity

2011-08-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

The Christian Obligation to Be Generous to the Poor

Of all the teachings of Jesus certainly laboring for the well being of the poor is of the most central. Any student of Jesus has to be struck by the ethic of sacrificial love and extravagant giving. Consider this teaching recorded in Luke 12:

29 And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In my own contemplation of Jesus, one of the most compelling aspects of Jesus is that more than anyone else Jesus challenges me to serve the poor. Many other passages of the New Testament challenge the follower of Jesus concerning our obligation to generosity. 1 John 3:16-18 commands the Christians,

16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Clearly, the Christian is to live by different set of values than those who are not followers of Jesus. As Christians, we are to use any discretionary resources to alleviate the suffering of others as opposed to our own luxury and pleasure. While we are called to serve the poor and suffering of the world, the question remains how ought we to go about doing this.

Many churches have food pantries. Many churches give to emergency relief funds. Is this the limit of our obligation? Are we merely to give charity and supply for the destitute emergency needs.

While we are commanded as followers of Jesus to demonstrate our faith in the love of God by being generous, we are often troubled by the observation that often charity in the form of aid is ineffective. This observation that often charity might actually do harm is quite demotivating. The question of how we are to help and serve the destitute can be answered if we consider the difference between development and charity.

To help understand the difference between development and charity or aid, I will make a few definitions. These definitions are not meant as being necessarily technically accurate but simply to be used as tools to help focus our efforts.

By charity, I mean giving materially to meet the immediate needs of people. The food pantry is a great example of charity. Currently, the world is seeing a famine in the Horn of Africa which may be the worst of our generation. Certainly, in these situations charity is absolutely necessary. These people need emergency aid and to stand by and watch such suffering is cold and inhumane. Nonetheless, wisdom compels us to think deeper about what we can do to help poor communities.

Wisdom compels us to consider the idea of development. Development is the process of growing a person or a community’s capability to provide freedom from suffering for themselves. Development respects the agency of the individual. For example, about one billion people on the planet lack the capability to provide for themselves and their family’s nutrition. In these societies, men and women lack the education or the resources to generate value which can be consistently transacted for food. In these communities, the individuals lack the freedom to avoid malnourishment. The community is underdeveloped to the extent that its citizens lack opportunity. Our obligation is to assist in developing the capacity in these communities to give opportunity to their people. When we can provide such capacities through the application of wisdom and planning and resources, it is development that is our obligation. We are obligated not just to blindly give charity but to wisely assist in development. For example, charity might see the need for medicine while development sees the opportunity to develop a health care system. A health care system includes building nursing schools and for-profit hospitals. In such a system, businessmen build businesses, local nurses gain employment and local citizens gain access to health care. This example illustrates a few important differences between charity and development.

Development requires leadership. Such a plan to develop, in this case, an improved health care system is a long term project. Intelligence is required to design a long-term plan. Emergency relief has its logistical difficulties but development of a health care system is far more complex. This involves the founding of schools and interaction with government agencies and educational institutions in the West. Such a plan is ambitious, but only such a plan for development actually brings prosperity and dignity to a community. Charity brings dignity to the giver while development brings dignity to the community being developed.
Development requires long-term commitment. Jesus taught us that when we make a plan to obey Him, we must consider the size of the challenge. Development is a commitment that requires extensive resources: time, money and intelligence. The church is an extensive institution that is prepared to make just this type of commitment. Christians are not alone in their plans to assist the poor of the world. We are perfectly situated to make long-term, even multigenerational, commitments to other communities around the globe.

The time has come for Christians to move beyond charity and consider our obligation to bring to the poor of the world actual development and dignity.

The Answers from Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate

2011-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Is Capitalism Doomed? - Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate:

This is so important to minimize global suffering. What is required is political courage:

"The right balance today requires creating jobs partly through additional fiscal stimulus aimed at productive infrastructure investment. It also requires more progressive taxation; more short-term fiscal stimulus with medium- and long-term fiscal discipline; lender-of-last-resort support by monetary authorities to prevent ruinous runs on banks; reduction of the debt burden for insolvent households and other distressed economic agents; and stricter supervision and regulation of a financial system run amok; breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and oligopolistic trusts.
Over time, advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy. The alternative is – like in the 1930s - unending stagnation, depression, currency and trade wars, capital controls, financial crisis, sovereign insolvencies, and massive social and political instability."

Famine and Hope in the Horn of Africa - Jeffrey D. Sachs on the Famine in East Africa

2011-08-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

Famine and Hope in the Horn of Africa - Jeffrey D. Sachs

It is discouraging how the West, both Europe and America, are ignoring the famine in the form of Africa. The Millennium Village Project is showing some hopeful strategies that the neighboring countries are attempting to use to make efforts more effective and the Islamic Development Bank is responding. Nonetheless, it appears to me that the catastrophe will be horrible if the west does not respond. Read more here

In Praise of Ban Ki-moon - Jeffrey Sachs

2011-07-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

Ban Ki-moon and the Age of Sustainable Development

This is a pretty compelling story of the good work of the UN in the last 5 years.

Ban Ki-moon

The Human Problem and the Kingdom (Part 1)

2011-07-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

In the last Discipleship 101 post, The Kingdom Solves the Human Problem - Intro, I introduced the revolutionary concept that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The human problem is met with the immediate availability of the Kingdom of heaven. The motto of Christianity that “Jesus is the Christ” means precisely that a new heavenly quality of life, which was previously unavailable to human beings, is now “at hand”. The kingdom is available. This is a revolutionary claim, and, to understand the true revolutionary content of this promise, this gospel, we must see with the human problem with God’s eyes. From God’s perspective, what is wrong with human life?

To understand God’s perspective on humanity, to see with God’s eyes, we must must accept one preeminent truth: God is a God of compassion. The living God is the defender of the weak. The second truth we must accept is like the first. This God of compassion has a global perspective. The living God sees the oppression and suffering of the world’s poor, and He hears their cry. To understand the kingdom of heaven and its promise, we must see with the eyes of God and feel with the love of God or we will miss the proper application of the kingdom of God. How can we live in the solution if we do not understand the problem? Only if we know the compassion of God will our perspective look at a world of incomprehensible suffering and define the human problem as God defines the human problem.

The human problem is suffering. This suffering is the result of man’s inhumanity to man and this violence and oppression is the result of man’s sinfulness. Looking deeper, we find that this violence and oppression is the result of man’s alienation from God. But before we dig into solutions, solutions that include a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we must look at the problem and, indeed, the problem is oppression and suffering.

A Word on Problems and Solutions

When I speak of the term “problem”, I am using this word in an almost technical sense. By "problem", I mean the observable concrete circumstance that people find themselves in. By problem, I specifically do not mean the causes or the root causes of these objective problems. For example, war and violence is part of the human problem. I make this distinction between problems and causes because unless our theology solves these ultimate outcomes and observable problems, our theology is worthless and irrelevant. If our "solution" does not solve the "problem" how can we call our solution an actual solution. Our so-called solutions are mere theory.
Human existence has very concrete problems which prophets and philosophers have attempted to solve for centuries. The Christian faith is that the solution to the human problem is Jesus Christ. The promise of the bible is that God will bring salvation to solve the human problem that is ever before the eyes of all reflective human beings. We are all aware that humanity has a problem. We are cruel and heartless to one another. If the 20th century taught us anything, it is that something is profoundly wrong with humanity. To say that Jesus is the Christ is to say that Jesus has the solution to these self-evident problems.

A Quick Look at the Root Cause of the Human Problem

In the paragraphs ahead, I will look at the details of the human problem by looking at the first chapters of genesis, but for now I would like to simply outline where we are going.

I have already stated that the human problem is suffering. I have given violence as an example. While describing the human setting, the setting of fallenness, Genesis presents the story of Cain and Able. In the prototypical human family, one brother killed another brother. Genesis is showing us that violence is an ugly problem that is endemic to the human character. Violence is part of our fallen DNA. This is a problem the Christ and His kingdom solves.

From the Problem to the Root Cause
One way to look at a problem is to start with a problem definition and then ask ourselves “why”. We repeat the “why” question until we are satisfied that we have arrived at the root cause of the problem. Genesis both describes the human problem and answers the “why?”s for us.

Problem: Broadly speaking the problem is suffering.

Why: Why is there suffering?

Cause: Suffering exists because people are fighting in order to “survive”.

Why: Why do people fight?

Cause: People fight because they fear the future.

Why: Why do people fear?

Cause: People fear because in a world of scarcity and doubt, we lack a great enough peace to overcome our fear.

Why: Why do people lack a peace about the future that is greater than our fear?

Cause: The answer to this fear problem has to be intimacy with God.

Why: Why do people lack intimacy with God

Root Cause: The answer to this problem is Discipleship...

The road to an enduring conscious contact with God that is powerful enough to produce fearlessness and to grant to the believer the courage to cease fighting for one’s self interest is discipleship. Jesus teaches us how to live in this quality of life that the world needs and needs to see in the church. This courage is available because the Kingdom is available. This intimacy with God leads to courage. This courage leads to generosity and self sacrifice, and this generosity and self-sacrifice meets the problem of suffering.

peace

Water Shortages, War, and Water as a Human Right

2011-07-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

I think it is best to treat water as a human right:

"A human rights approach to water, for Hassain, means he doesn't have to accept his fate as some inevitable tragedy," said Ignacio Saiz. "People have the right to expect access to a basic life resource like water by virtue of being human, regardless of the social situation they are born into."

Democracy in The Ukraine

2011-06-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Europe’s Ukrainian Test

We live in an moment where many states are being tested as to their commitment to democratic norms. Just such a moment is happening in the Ukraine.

What is interesting to note is how democratic norms have become the worldwide standard and all government are under the microscope as a result of the communications revolution.

The Kingdom Solves the Human Problem - Intro

2011-06-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

“The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” - Jesus, Mark 1:15

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Jesus, Matthew 3:2

The most revolutionary idea ever proclaimed is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In Jesus Christ, precisely because Jesus is the Christ, a new, truly happy and heavenly quality of life is within reach. This new quality of life is available to anyone who will repent and place their faith in Jesus the Christ to lead them into this kingdom life with power in this life. The promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the life of the kingdom. Jesus Christ has the power and authority to supply those who believe with every thing necessary to enter into this previously unavailable quality of life.

This is a revolutionary treatise. My intention is singular. With the clarity God grants me, I intend to articulate the means by which the believer today, in this life, can enter into this newly available quality of life. It is because of the advent of Jesus Christ, His work on the cross, His teachings and His on-going powerful work that we can live a life that was unavailable prior to Jesus’ appearance on the human scene.

The least in the kingdom is greater than the greatest prophet that lived prior to the moment that Jesus offered the kingdom (Matt. 11:11; Luke 16:16). To enter the kingdom even a little bit is a greater and more glorious life than the life of Moses. This is our faith, a faith of high expectations as a result of the advent of the Christ.

To understand the revolutionary and transformational message of the gospel, we must understand the human problem and how the gospel solves this problem. In fact, we must understand the revolutionary nature of the gospel to understand the message of the bible. The gospel message is that kingdom solves the human predicament, the problem of humanity. This, indeed, is the great news. To help us understand the human problem and it’s solution, first, we will look at God’s illustration of the human problem in Genesis 1-6 and, then, we will contrast this picture of human life with the the new testament picture of a new humanity living in light of the presence of the kingdom as seen in Acts 2 and Acts 4. Genesis presents the proverbial point A, the starting point where all humanity prior to Christ lives out human existence, and Acts 2 & 4 presents the proverbial “Point B”, the kingdom community immersed in the teachings and presence of Jesus Christ. It is only after we see these two points, the beginning of the journey and the end of the journey that we can begin to unfold, principle by principle and practice by practice, the process that takes us, the people of Jesus Christ, in this kingdom quality of life.

Next: The Human Problem: Understanding Genesis 1-6

Understanding Obama's Foreign Policy: Democratist - Book Review of Michael McFaul's "Advancing Democracy Abroad"

2011-06-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Book Review: “Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should and How We Can” by Michael McFaul. � Democratist

I think McFaul's book "Advancing Democracy Abroad" and McFaul's approach certainly informs the Obama administration's foreign policy. McFaul defines his approach as "Wilsonian liberalism with a realist core".

This approach considers it to be in America's best interest to make alliances with democracies and shun alliances with autocrats. The realist part would be to maintain the current alliances but place far more effort toward the promotion of human rights and democracy in these countries. Thus, changing the dymanic of these relationships. The realist approach simply makes alliances with nations without regard to regime type.

Another aspect of a more liberal approach would be that the use of military force, except in extreme examples like the obligation to prevent genocide (i.e. libya), should be avoided in order to maintain consistency with the ideals of human rights. America must maintain its moral high ground. This idealism is something that America from Reagan to Bush so readily sacrificed.

We can easily see that the idealism of Wilsonian Liberalism, which I strongly support, has led autocrats to feel far less secure and democracy advocates in these nations to become far more emboldened under the backdrop of the Obama Administration. Thus, the Arab spring!!!

Gender Oppression in Saudi Arabia

2011-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Sing Out, Hillary

I believe this is the THE issue of our time - women's rights. Gender equality under the law and in terms of economic opportunities touches so many areas from human trafficking to pornography.

Genesis teaches us that humanity has three fundamental problems the root of which is alienation from God. These issues are:
1. Material sustenance and poverty (sweat of brow)
2. Gender oppression (your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you)
3. Violence (Cain and Abel)

If we fight for a kingdom solution to these issues which are ever before the eyes of God, then our light shall break forth as the morning sun and the glory of the Lord will be our reward!!!!

peace,
brad

The Middle East’s Slow-Motion Revolution - The Church Needs a Revolution Too

2011-06-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Middle East’s Slow-Motion Revolution - Prince El Hassan bin Talal - Project Syndicate

I think when the whole blog and emergent thing started people thought, we were on the verge of a great move forward in the church BUT this has not happened as far as I can tell.

Nonetheless, a dramatic change in theology (hopefully toward a coherent kingdom theology that understands what it really means that Jesus is the promised Christ) and discipleship practices is needed to revolutionize the church.

I believe more that ever that the church is to be a new social order as expressed in Acts 2 and 4. These early pictures of possibility have been hijacked by a theology of other worldliness that seems to hope for Christ to come in the future more than a celebration of the revolution that already happened. It seems to me we feel our death will be more liberating than Christ's death. Christians still live in bondage and yet they are the only free people on earth.

Our new freedom is to be expressed in a lifestyle of simplicity and generosity, and, yet, we lack the distinction that living in a kingdom social order prescribes. Are we able to say as the early church did that there were none who lacked? Do we live in a social context of daily interdependence in the church? A new definition of family? Are we immersed in the presence of God as a people?

Instead, we wait.

Today, the Arab world is struggling to find its voice and its ideology. So too, the people of Christ remain locked out of the kingdom by a lack of imagination and courage.

peace, brad

Notes on: The New Social Order Called the Church

2011-06-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

The following are my notes/abstract on my intro to a Section on Kingdom Theology in Discipleship 101.

POINT: If we see the goal of the Gospel as an observable Morally Beautiful Community (an earthly expression of the kingdom in this age), then we submit all discipleship and mission to this goal. The root cause is spiritual and the outcome is a new social order called the church.

Key idea: A person must see the observable problem of violence, man’s inhumanity to man, marital strife and poverty as the problem and the kingdom as the answer to this observable problem. Therefore, if the kingdom has come, then the solution to this observable problem is being displayed in the church. Human society in its common state is the problem and the church in it’s glory in this age is the solution.

I will used the simplest of illustrations to explain the main point of this chapter to understand the true extent of the goodness of the good news. The illustration is a simple arrow going from the proverbial point “A” to point “B”. The principle is that we must begin with the end in site, We must know where we are and where God intends to bring us here in life in this age. The proclamation that the kingdom of heaven is within our reach is stating that humanity is at a place of great need and the kingdom of heaven meets this great need. Humanity, all human beings, have a problem and the kingdom of heaven is the solution to this problem.

How we define this problem will determine how good we see the good news. How we define this problem will determine what problem we have faith for the Gospel to solve.

A Description of the Goal.

The biblical description of the end to which we aim to arrive at is most clearly and practically depicted in Acts 2 and Acts 4. I will begin the passage with the conclusion of Peter’s sermon.

Acts2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 4:32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. 34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales 35 and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.

36 Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), 37 and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Thesis: The Church, the eschatological expression of the in braking of the kingdom, is a community with a radically distinct social order. The church is to be a clear and distinct expression of a new social order. This social order directly and distinctly solves the fundamental human problems of alienation from God and alienation from one another. The church as the community of the Christ vividly presents to the world a clear solution to the problem of wealth inequality and greed as the outcome of the rule and reign of the Christ in the life of the believers.

Food and the G8

2011-06-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

Food for Revolution by Harold James - Project Syndicate

One thing I am beginning to study is global food prices and their effect on the poor. This article makes a great point that food price instability has historically been the greatest source of revolutions in recent history. The revolutions in France in 1789 and Russian in 1917 were triggered by food shortages. The current Arab spring finds its immediate spark in rising food prices. Globalization and changes in monetary policy have a very inelastic relationship with food prices. Therefore, it is the responsibility of policy makers who set financial and monetary policies on a macro level to keep food availability and food prices in different regions of the globe at the forefront of their thinking when they make these policy decisions.

As Christians, it is our responsibility to keep the welfare of the poor at the forefront of our thinking and activities. It is time for us to become more knowledgable of these issues in order to advocate for the poor of the world.

The Extent of the Kingdom - What Quality of Life Ought We to Expect? Opening Paragraph

2011-05-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

That the kingdom is at hand is not such a revolutionary idea. What is revolutionary is to find the means to actually enter into the kingdom in this life. When one person says the kingdom is immediately available, “the kingdom is at hand”, he means something quite different than someone else proclaiming the same message. One has a high expectation of a new and beautiful quality of life, while the other expects merely an assurance of heaven and only a future deliverance. Yet, still another believes something in between these two options. The question is whether or not the coming of the kingdom in our life can have a truly revolutionary effect. Can we be free of all self interest and hoarding to such an extent that we live a simple and generous life, a life of daily faith in the provision of the Father? Is the life of communion with God, a life set free by grace and love, available? Is this the life of the few or is this blessed life available to all the followers of Jesus, the single, the married, the young and the old? Can our temperaments be tamed? Can we live without concern for the opinions of others, undisturbed by their judgments and slanders and threats? Can we love our enemies, our enemy-neighbors, even in the midst of the conflict? If we picture the highest ideal, a life fully delivered from the human predicament, and then believe for something even greater, are we describing the kingdom that is available in heaven or the kingdom that is available on earth? To what extent is the kingdom available to us in this life? This is the question. How we answer this question defines the nature of our faith? How we understand the extent of the kingdom that is available in this life determines the trajectory of our life, our expectations, our approach to the faith.

Discipleship 101 - An Outline (Part 1)

2011-05-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Over the past month or so, I have been meditating on the theology and principles that make up a kingdom approach to discipleship. It is the church’s primary job to deliver a kingdom quality of life, a truly happy and heavenly quality of life, to those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the path into the kingdom is rarely, if ever, mapped out in the church’s ministry program. As I wrote earlier, Dallas Willard says, “I know of no current denomination or local congregation that has a concrete plan and practice for teaching people to ‘do all that I commanded you’”. In other words, Willard knows of no church that has a discipleship program that leads people into the kingdom. This is a bold claim but it has been my experience as well.

The quality of life which Jesus offers, as those who have tasted it know, is significantly distinct from the quality of life one can attain apart from the Gospel. When the power of the Kingdom comes upon us we have a significantly higher quality of life in terms of righteousness, peace and joy. I am not saying that the believer abides in this place continually or even consistently, but as one learns and grows, we can learn how to pull ourselves out of our forgetfulness and revive the presence and power of God in our lives.

What follows is a very brief outline of, first, a kingdom theology and, subsequently, a kingdom approach to discipleship. My intension, though I rarely am able to follow through on my original intentions, is to write multiple posts on each postulate, hypothesis, and principle using this post as a basic outline. At some point, I will write a post with the remainder of the outline of the principles that give the believer a more complete understanding of the teachings of Jesus. So, in fact, what I hope to accomplish is a somewhat complete mapping of a discipleship process. These principles have been of great spiritual value to me and to others who I have had the privilege of walking with as friends and co-workers in the kingdom.

I will outline this path using terminology that works for me. The terminology may or may not be best, but, certainly, that is not the point. It is our practices that make any approach to the faith actually work especially when we define “working” as bringing to people the promised kingdom quality of life. So here we go:

Postulate 1: Jesus is the Christ

In the Old Testament, God promises His failing people that He will send a Christ who will usher in a new covenant. This new covenant will not be like the old covenant which they could not follow. Instead, this new covenant will empower the people of God to obey his ways. The believer will be given a new heart, a tender heart. No longer will one person say to another “Do you know the Lord?” for every one will have an intimate and conscious awareness of God. This experiential knowledge of God will enable the people of God to obey God and, ultimately, this new covenant will enable the people of God to become the morally beautiful people that God has envisioned for His people. They will become a light on a hill and a city that cannot be hidden. Faith for the fulfillment of these promises, in our lives and in our churches, is what it means to believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Postulate 2: Since Jesus is the Christ, by definition, the kingdom of heaven is within our reach.

The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is best described as a truly happy and heavenly quality of life. This kingdom quality of life is the quality of life available in heaven. This heavenly quality of life is available today through faith in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This quality of life is available because the best part of heaven, God Himself, is available to us today. The kingdom is the answer to every evil that plagues humanity. The human plight, the dread of human existence, the existential angst of human experience, finds its resolution not in our death, but in the death of Jesus on our behalf. We have access to a significantly superior quality of life because Jesus, the Christ, has died and is alive, and His kingdom is immediately present to those who repent and believe this Good News.

Hypothesis 1: We enter the kingdom quality of life by putting into practice the teachings of Jesus.

This is the basis of all discipleship. Jesus’ call to His disciple in the bible and to His disciples today is “follow me”. To believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are to enter the kingdom through faith in Jesus means that we are to follow Jesus and he will lead us into this kingdom quality of life. All the centuries of confusion regarding faith and works is solved when we begin with a theology of the kingdom and the promise of an altogether superior quality of life. Faith is to follow Jesus into the kingdom. Because the kingdom is the solution to our present living, to have faith in Jesus is to believe that through the grace of God we can behave and live differently today. To experience victory in life, we must follow Jesus’ program and teachings. This truly happy and heavenly quality of life is founded entirely on faith in Jesus’ teachings and His modeling of who God, the Father, is. Therefore, as we will see, following Jesus begins and is immersed in an understanding of the love and grace of God. We learn to immerse every aspect of our lives with this love as we learn to follow Jesus into a life of infinite forgiveness, fearless faith, and unconditionally love.

Hypothesis 2: The source of power which enables the believe to walk in the kingdom quality of life, that is in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, is conscious contact with God.

The bible teaches us that the joy of the lord is our strength. We are morally strong when we are joyful. We can only have a morally powerful joy when we are in living from the presence of God. The power to be meek when we are tempted to be angry is the real knowledge of God and ourselves as His child. We can trust Him because our affections and emotions have been transformed through our life in the presence of God. No other path gives us the moral strength to be generous and loving and gentle and calm. There is only one thing needful and that is a close walk with God.

Hypothesis 3: Conscious contact with God is maintained through an orientation of absolute surrender with respect to the teachings of Jesus. This is the life of repentance.

The path to conscious contact with God is repentance. The key to maintaining the witness of the Spirit that we are children and therefore heirs is repentance from the heart. This absolute surrender is not merely an orientation in prayer but a commitment to follow through with obedience. This life of repentance requires a life of rigorous honesty and the cultivation of a tender heart. The life requires the work of the Holy Spirit, humility before the Word of God, and intimate, authentic community with other followers of this path of discipleship. Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God suffers violence and violent men take it by force. This zeal requires a life of rigorous honesty and confession. This life of rigorous honesty is the narrow road that, in reality, few are willing to follow in order to experience the kingdom life in this life.

Principle 1: The first teaching of Jesus, a teaching which must remain an element of every Christian practice, is that without the provision of God’s power and grace we are spiritually poor. All the resources we need to attain to this kingdom quality of life are a gift of His grace. This grace is needed moment by moment if we to experience righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus taught and lived and told parables about the grace of a loving Father. Jesus began His teaching life by saying, “Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. We are all without the ability to take one step toward God apart from His provision. He pardons, and He enables. All the theology of Paul is to be understood as an exposition of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus taught us through His words, His religious symbols, His life and ultimately in His death and resurrection that we need God’s grace and loving power toward us who believe. Baptism, the Lord’s supper, the parables, and the life and death of Jesus are all elements of the story of the Father’s provision for His children. Of all the teachings of Jesus, grace must remain front and center. Without being immersed in grace, we will fail to live a beautiful life. Of all the practices we need to learn receiving forgiveness and grace is first and foremost. As disciples, receiving grace from God needs to be a well worn path.

This kingdom life is attainable and God intends for us to understand how to follow Jesus into a truly happy and heavenly quality of life. Principles and theology help us to develop a daily cycle and an approach to life and prayer that we can learn and live.

Israel and Covenants - Just Saying

2011-05-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Man...I need to write more. So many issues to clarify...For example, I think Obama is being gracious with Israel by saying peace should be based on the 1967 (pre-war) borders with land swaps. Yet, evangelicals sound like kooks thinking that this is a deal with the devil. This is a theological issue with implications to the role of the Kingdom and the OT law etc. Some smart guy needs to use this moment as a launching point for a big theological dissertation on covenants.....not that it would do any good!!! As for me I gotta go to work and then Lacrosse with James then a banquet with David, then a daddy date night with Mercy and Lily...I'm swamped.

Christ, Our Leader and Term Limits on Pastors

2011-05-11T06:11:00.001-07:00

I have learned a great lesson in life that in organizations you have to provide practical value to the person in power. We can approach relationships this way in the church too. It works, in the church like the world, because in most churches a man is in power and it is not so hard to bless him.

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead in the church, Jesus was in power, and these power games were not played. A great way to make this a reality is to have term limits on pastors. The goal is to have the word and the Lord rule the church. A person has gifting and input into the life of the church but not power and leadership. All leadership is in Jesus and all power and authority is in Jesus. A great way to assure this is to follow the model of how the United States does it. In the United States, we have a constitution and term limits on presidents. These term limits are in place to assure the rule of principle over the rule of man. So this being true, I think the best model for the church is shared leadership and no leader should remain in leadership for more than say about 8-10 years in the same church.

Matthew 5:43-48 - Pray for Those who Persecute You

2011-05-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

The teachings of Jesus are so very practical. Matt 5:43-48 defines for us what spiritual maturity looks like.

Matt 5:43"You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.'

44"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

46"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

47"If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

48"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus is calling us to love our enemies. This teaches us to give and serve and bless those who are not giving and serving and blessing us. The actions of these people, our adversaries, make us less secure and less at peace, and, yet, we are to assist and to help secure their peace and well-being. Secondly, we are to pray for those who persecute us. For me, this command has proven to be ultra-practical. This command tells us that if another person is harming our reputation, we are to act to bless their reputation. So if, for example, a person at work goes to our boss and maligns us, we, the Christian, are to resolve in our heart, through prayer, to only say positive things about this person. This act of surrender is the way of peace. We surrender to God’s will and resolve to speak highly of everyone. We are to never speak ill of anyone. This is our goal and here in lies the path to conscious contact with God.

peace, brad

Discipleship 101: The Church as a Disciple-Making Community

2011-05-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

“Who are you discipling?” “Who is discipling you?” “What method do you use?” and specifically “what method of prayer do you teach?”

How we and the members of our church community answer these four questions reveals quite succinctly the health of the discipleship program in our churches and the intentionality of our lives as followers of Jesus. Often when preaching in churches, when I ask these questions, my point is simply to reveal to the church that they do not have a discipleship process at all. People look bewildered. “Who am I discipling? Ahhh...??...no one I guess. I have never looked at it that way.” “What method do I use? We don’t use methods. What is he talking about? And who does he think he is anyway?” “What method of prayer do we teach. What??? We aren’t buddhist. What is he talking about?”

So I ask you, the reader, “Who are you discipling?” “Who is discipling you?” “What method do you use?” and “What method of prayer do you teach people?”

The fact that most christians cannot answer these questions in detail nor carry on a discussion about what methods of discipleship work and do not work reveals to us that we have a crisis in discipleship in the church of the master discipler, Jesus Christ. Dallas Willard in the book “The Great Omission” speaking on the topic of the great commission concludes by saying, “I know of no current denomination or local congregation that has a concrete plan and practice for teaching people to ‘do all that I commanded you’” (72-73). Dallas Willard, after mentoring pastors and preaching in conferences around the world for his entire life, came to the conclusion that not one congregation has a definitive discipleship plan that attempts to fulfill the great commission to “make disciples of all people teaching them to obey everything I commanded you”. It has taken maybe centuries to get to this place of total abandonment of our calling. This maybe a harsh observation but I contend, and with Dallas Willard as my witness I am utterly convinced, that the church is in crisis with respect to the process of discipleship.

Jesus often used economic analogies to make his point clearer. The economic system of the day was almost exclusively farming. For example, to bring clarity and urgency to His followers, Jesus told parables that depict His followers as farm workers working for a farm owner. The owner, Jesus taught us, expects a profit from his farm. When the farm owner returns, he will say to us “show me the money”.

I have spent my career in the aerospace industry, so let me make a more modern economic analogy using airplanes. Picture a incredibly complex organization like an airplane manufacturer. The organization has literally 1000s of engineers and 100,000 employees. The process of designing and building an airplane takes years. When everything comes together the plane is sold to a customer and the plane does one thing very well: it flies. Imagine that this incredible endeavor produced a product that was perfect in every way except for one detail. The planes could not fly. Picture the first test flight. ABC manufacturer produces a plane, but it cannot fly. Imagine the press conference. The CEO steps up to the microphone and says, “ We do not consider this to be a problem. Our airplane is beautiful. It seating is state of the art. Every seat has its own private entertainment system. The interior sound levels are unrivaled. We have come to the conclusion that flight is not possible and therefore not to be a primary characteristic of airplanes nor a realistic goal for the airplane manufacturer.” This illustration describes the current state of the church. We are a disciple-making community and yet we do not know how to make disciples nor do we see this as a terribly urgent problem.

There's Gotta Be a Million

2011-05-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

There’s gotta be a million. Maybe a few 100 thousand

that are feeling like me

We are losing our jobs.

Some ass hole thinks he knows how to make this shit float

we are the scape goats

About a few hundred thousand

know the way I feel

There has gotta be a million

We read about the billions

Money makin money

Usury's a crime

Some boy with a spread sheet and a fountain pen

Just shipped my life to India

And his son is getting married and the party is in full swing

I wish I was married into money and I wish my parents were still alive

Maybe me and the kids could move in

with them

Cause there has gotta be a million

My Christian Friend - A Positive Testimony

2011-04-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

originally posted here: Deep Thoughts

Let me begin by saying that Joe is a good friend of mine. I admire his capacity to have a solidly evangelical friend like myself. He is truly a great friend, but this post is about another friend of mine, Dan. I was going to write a post that covered three of my best friends but I realize that in the world of blogging most folk do not have the time to read a lengthy post, so I decided to limit this to one friend instead of three.

I met Dan in 1999. He is the pastor of a local church in Bellflower, CA. Nineteen years ago he came to Bellflower from Michigan for a job interview at our church. He said to the council, “if you want someone to cater to the current culture of the church. You are looking at the wrong man. My vision is to build a multi-ethnic church that displays in a tangible way God’s love for all people and be a symbol in this city of community in the midst of diversity.” Nineteen years later, Dan has made good on his promise.

If you know anything about organizations, resisting the status quo and attempting to implement change on principle without regard to politics is a difficult and courageous act. Men and women who take this path are heroes. These people are those who suffer real loses and endure real hardship and real heartache for the sake of their principles. In light of recent American history, building bridges between cultures and amongst diverse people is the great task of our generation. Men and women like Dan developed vision for this work to build beautiful community in their youth in the 1970’s, and some, like Dan, had the wisdom, patience, and conviction to bring their vision to fruition.

I would not betray Dan’s friendship, but I know he has shed countless tears as his passions and convictions have been misunderstood through the years. Being an agent of change is lonely work, but it is worth the difficult times in light of the internal witness that you are on the right side of history. Just last year,I remember at an all nations service representatives from over 20 nations from the congregation stood up on stage and spoke a word of blessing over the congregation in their native tongue.

Personally, my friend Dan has been a source of comfort for me in some of my deepest trials. He has believed in me when it seems like only my wife and my very closest friends stood by me. Even greater, my friend has let me encourage him and stand by him in his times of need. Though in many ways, Dan is my superior, he has humbled himself and been a peer to me and shared the journey, as a friend.

I am not saying that only Christians can be friends like Dan is to me or that only Christians labor to make the world a better place, but throughout the world many, many Christians labor to build beautiful communities and those of us who participate in these communities find ourselves deeply indebted to the witness to ‘all that is good’ that these communities communicate to ourselves and our families. All of us, likewise, owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women that labor to build the institutional church in order that this witness will abide for future generations.

peace, brad

Capitalism and The Export of American Culture

2011-04-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Being a card caring member of the evangelical church, I often hear the rant that America "has changed so much in the last so many years". The sense is that our cultural values have changed from innocence and honesty to selfishness and sexual promiscuity. It would be a good study to determine to what extent this perception is true, but, for now, let's assume that things have changed culturally. Why is this so?

The reason for this I believe is obvious. Capitalism caters to our appetites. Couple this basic fact with the rise of media in the home and in all our culture, and you end up with a culture that is immersed in images that cater to immediate gratification and our lowest selves. So, if you judge the culture by media and teenager fascination with all that is celebrated in the media, you will inevitably believe that the culture has radically changed.

Pop media is a tool of what sells, and what sells will always point to the least common denominator. I think it is best to realize that this "for the masses" approach is the way markets work. For a company to be BIG, it has to sell to all of us and appeal to what we all have in common. We all have in common our appetites and our weaknesses with respect to our appetites. Therefore, privately owned, profit driven media will necessarily and always target shallow and emotion driven content. Media has to be big to effect us all. Therefore, what effects us all will always be shallow and sexualized. That is just the way a profit driven media works.

Think about it. When I was a kid, we used the term "sell out". To sell out meant to go pop. To go pop means to change your content to sex. Competition has driven a rush to the bottom. Think about talk radio. The more black and white the discussion the higher the ratings. To succeed, a person has to be dumb enough to preach passion without nuance. Nuance and analysis doesn't sell.

So the moral to the story is that pop culture is simply a reflection of our appetites. What has changed is the volume of media not us. This process has been evolving for a long, long time. We haven't changed but the capitalist market has become a greater part of the cultural noise.

The solutions are simple. We need to fast from pop culture and media in the home. We all need to take back the home from the market place. We need to teach our children that what you see on TV and in pop culture by definition represents only what is the least common denominator of our nature. If we desire to have dignity and to stand above the crowd by being honorable men and women, we must become distinct from pop culture. We need to simply realize that all that media is the market not our identity. We are people not merely consumers.

enough for now,

peace, brad

Prep for Tonight's Libya Speech

2011-03-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Perils and Opportunities for Obama in Libya They seem to agree with my post from yesterday. The only twist is a bit more on the perils for this intervention for Obama. The word on the street is that if the intervention is short and successful Obama wins but if it is long or unsucessful then real bad. Sucess is determiend entirely by the democratic bona fides of the Libyan oppostion.

R2P - The Responsibility to Protect and Its Intentional Misunderstanding in US Media and Politics

2011-03-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

The Dilemma of Humanitarian Intervention - Council on Foreign Relations

UN Security Council Resolution 1973 was based on the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. The genesis of this doctrine was the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Security Council Resolution 1973 is, it appears, a good use of the doctrine and represents a use of military force that is not essentially an act of war. It is this unusual circumstance that has caused confusion, intentional or otherwise, in the US political scene this week.

A few points can be made to clarify the situation:

1. The use of R2P is intended to save civilians from gross human rights violations and violence. Certainly, Ghadafi has proven that he is acting violently against his own people. The world has called his rule illegitimate due to his recent response to protests in Libya. The scope of "protection" of the citizenry through a no fly zone is intended to be very limited. To the military establishment and the media, the military action is depicted as both confusing and in danger of scope creep, but if the Resolution is followed and its use of the R2P approach then much is clarified and the limited scope is protected. My advise is that the administration be clear and uses the threat of a Rwandan type situation as the reason that we are willing use force and also to use very limited force in implementing the no-fly zone. The scope is limited yet we may stay "in the area" so that we are available if the Libyan regime attempts again to slaughter its citizens.

2. We need to beware of supporting protestors who do not appear to have much democracy credentials. Of course, none of us know the make up of the Libyan opposition. Talk is of tribalism more than ideological credibility. It is precisely the backing revolutions and opposition groups who do not have a strong resume with respect to democracy that has resulted in so many long term problems for both American interests and our reputation. This is the reason we cannot give wholesale support of the protestors. Without strong pro-democracy credentials, we have no idea how the end game will play out.

3. We need to explain this approach in the context of the other rebellions in the Middle East. Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, etc. We must balance each situation with respect to the prospects for humanitarian catastrophe and the long run promotion of indigenous democracy in the Middle East.

Hugs From Libyans - Libya Policy Politics

2011-03-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hugs From Libyans

I so wanna be Nichlas Kristof when I grow up. Kristof's article so clarifies the politics and scuttlebutt in Washington. I am of the opinion that all this chest pounding about the Libyan intervention is just that - chest pounding. The options in Libya are very limited and the mission was clearly limited to implementing a no fly zone. These limitations mean that the end game is intentionally unclear. Congress knows this and as always is playing on people's passions and ignorance. The populus does not have the time to think this through. Therefore, to intentionally play with people's passions and gut feelings about war and patriotism is irresponsible. We have played this perfectly, and it only seems responsible to applaud our nations wisdom.

The fact is we are saving the lives of Libyan civilians.

Rural Poverty Report - 2011

2011-03-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Global food prices have sky rocketed since the 2008 global financial crisis. As a result 100 million people have been driven into poverty. Read the World Poverty report of 2011 to learn more.

World Poverty Report 2011

IFAD Website - International Fund for Agricultural Development

Rural Poverty Portal

Libya Status - Rebels Lose Key Battle of Ras Lanuf and The Arab League Votes for No Fly Zone

2011-03-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

Arab League Backs No-Fly Zone Over Libya

This situation in Libya seems to be going from bad to worse. The rebels are quickly losing strength as they retreat from towns and as the Gadhafi's troops move further east.

Meanwhile, the Arab League voted to impose a no fly zone but will not be taking any military action. This seems to be a move forward but it still seems dire for the rebels. I could not imagine the fear these men are facing having rebelled against a diabolical dictator and now to be looking at defeat. It just shows how brave these men are. Lord have mercy on them and come to their aid. Maybe the UN will act more militarily. We can only hope.

Al Jazeera staffer killed in Libya

2011-03-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

Al Jazeera staffer killed in Libya

This is the kind of work that needs to be heard by the public at large. Objective reporting and journalism must be a stable institution in any society that calls itself free and open. Obviously, the Libyan regime does not want openness and truth. The promotion of democracy and freedom demands the support, in any way possible, of those who expose the suffering and civil rights violations of the autocrats of the world.

A Blow to Fundamentalist Paranoia - Free Speech Wins in Snyder vs Phelps et al

2011-03-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

As much as I deplore the speech of the Westboro Baptists, I nonetheless defend their right to free speech.
What I like about this decision most is that it puts to rest the paranoia that Christian speech in America is being or moving toward being censored.

The court is as conservative as it has ever been and our free speech is safe as ever.

Democracy and Al-Qaeda

2011-03-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

This audio is worth a good listen. This report supports the proposition that the demonstrators in Egypt and elsewhere undermine Al-Qaeda's narrative of the Arab struggle. Al-Qaeda's use of violence and rhetoric that only violence can over throw autocrats has been an utter failure, and, instead, moderate students did what the terrorists could not due. Now, the heros of the middle east are not the radicals but the moderates.

Listen here:

Why Is China Nervous - Is a Good Economy Enough

2011-03-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

This article begins for me an investigation into the various positions American policy makers have had in recent memory with respect to Democracy Promotion. Here, is a debate about whether China should be nervous. Does a good economy protect an autocratic regime from revolt? If yes, can America promote stability by just promoting economic growth or is democracy the best path to stability? Of course this is an extremely complex discussion and therefore, time to put our thinking caps on as we enter a new era of reflection on democracy promotion and ultimately what America's role and policy should be.
peace,

Al Qaeda and The Fall of Terrorism Through Non-violent Democracy Movements

2011-02-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Al Qaeda Finds Itself at a Crossroads

This new reality in the middle east deserves in-depth academic and journalistic analysis, but, at first glance, it appears the fall of terrorism is at hand. This reality which we have fought so hard and spent so much money to achieve is likely to happen at the hand of indigenous democracy movements.

Democracy gives people a means other than violence to air grievances and promote their own self-interest. Of course, disappointment is bound to follow and some democratically elected leaders could become strong men and refuse to leave power. The end game and stability is a long way off.

What excites me as well is how this just might prove, once and for all, that radical Islam was just a flash in the pan. Time to find another bogeyman.

Libyan Professionals and Intellectuals Ruling 80% of Libya and Controlling 80% of Libyan Oil Fields

2011-02-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

The future is looking more democratic and stable in Libya as the NY Times reports:

They said the city was now under the control of a committee of prominent citizens — doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers and the like — who were organizing its public services and continued defense. “We are really suffering for 42 years, and people are asking here for the same things as other people of the world — they want the real democracy,” said Ahmed el-Hadi Remeh, an engineer standing in the square.

Libyan propaganda proves false as this article reports

Uganda Police Outlaw Planned Election Protests

2011-02-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

Uganda Police Outlaw Planned Election Protests

If you know much about Uganda and I am just learning, the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has been in power for 25 years. The opposition has called for protests of the recent elections, Feb 18, 2011.

This call for real substantive democracy is getting serious everywhere. We are experiencing a tectonic shift in people's expectations of representation. This is the late 1700's all over again.
Consider how this speaks to the psychological power of truth. The truth is that a group of demonstrators has overthrown Western supported and thoroughly entrenched dictators in Tunisia and Egypt. This single fact has captured the minds of millions of oppressed people.

Change is great and change is needed. But, too much change is painful. Pray for all these people and for the work of NGOs and experts in democracy promotion.

Dallas Willard on Scripture Memorization

2011-02-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

I wrote about our family's two primary disciplines, reading the bible one page a day and scripture memorization at a pace of 2 verses a day. We have revised this to 10 verses a week, but anyway. Often people think scripture memorization is too "elementary" or too rote. Isn't bible discussion and bible story telling more effective and, well, cool?
Dallas Willard is a pretty smart and critical thinking kinda guy, and this is what Wilalrd says about scripture memorization in The Great Omission, p 58:

Bible Memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to - and of course I don't have to - choose between all the spiritual disciplines of the spiritual life and take only one, I would choose Bible memorization. I would not be a pastor of a church that did not have a program of Bible memorization in it, because Bible memorization is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what we need, "To have the book of the Law ever before us" (Joshua 1:8)

Simple as it sounds, a few verses a day and rehearsing these verse to and from wherever we are going is fundamental to spiritual transformation.
peace,

How Organized Religion Undermines the Spirituality of Its Leaders

2011-02-26T22:02:00.001-08:00

here

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Recipe for Corruption

2011-02-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

From Paul Krugman, Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.,

For example, the bill includes language that would allow officials appointed by the governor to make sweeping cuts in health coverage for low-income families without having to go through the normal legislative process.
And then there’s this: “Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).”
What’s that about? The state of Wisconsin owns a number of plants supplying heating, cooling, and electricity to state-run facilities (like the University of Wisconsin). The language in the budget bill would, in effect, let the governor privatize any or all of these facilities at whim. Not only that, he could sell them, without taking bids, to anyone he chooses. And note that any such sale would, by definition, be “considered to be in the public interest.”

That doesn't sound right considering the Governor's primary campaign contributor is the largest privately owned energy company in America....

Is Evolution and Christianity Compatible - Alvin Plantinga Thinks So

2011-02-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

A Tweet from the Street

2011-02-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

If Not Now, When? - The Changing Arab World

2011-02-23T05:55:00.000-08:00

If Not Now, When?

The link above is to Thomas Friedman's February 22, NY Times article. It is a good read and puts the Arab revolutions in perspective. These are some poor and oppressed people. Much of their oppression was funded and supported by our addiction to oil. This is a moral issue.

The reason buying pornography is wrong is not just because it is a bad habit but pornography oppresses women and is support for human trafficking. That is the tragedy of pornography. So too with oil. The dependence on oil and our dysfunctional relationship with Arab dictators is immoral. As a nation, we need to make tough decisions. This is a perfect example where we have to use our government to help us make decisions that we cannot make as consumers.

This is a Christian issue. As Christians, we are citizens and voices for the oppressed of the world, especially oppressed people who are different than us. But this is not something that we can do as consumers. We cannot voluntarily boycott our way to lower oil consumption. Instead, we make a sober minded decision to levy good policy at the national level.

What the exact policy is, I am not sure. I imagine it has to do with taxes. We levy a sin tax on gasoline. We use the tax to fund a new green economy. The time is now to make the change. If we do not we will get rocked by high gas prices anyway. Really, we are a few decades late to the party. But better late than later.

Libya - Massacre and the Role of Intellectuals and Religious Scholars

2011-02-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

Libya revolt spreads to Tripoli

'This is an urgent appeal from religious scholars, intellectuals, and clan elders from Tripoli, Bani Walid, Zintan, Jadu, Msalata, Misrata, Zawiah, and other towns and villages of the western area,' the appeal, signed by the group of leaders, stated.

'We appeal to every Muslim, within the regime or assisting it in any way, to recognise that the killing of innocent human beings is forbidden by our Creator and by His beloved prophet of compassion, peace be upon him... Do not kill your brothers and sisters. Stop the massacre now!"

brad

Banksy LA with the Kids

2011-02-19T22:37:00.000-08:00

We went to Westwood today to see the Banksy. It was way better than I expected. Quite incredible actually. I remember sitting in St Peter's basilica at the Vatican when I was 16. This was actually like that. Family memories: James and Lily!!! with Dean Gadberry. Peace,

Spiritual Disciplines 2 - Family Bible Reading

2011-02-13T07:17:00.001-08:00

Aaron and Hur Help Moses
During the Battle with Amalek

I mentioned scripture memory in this brief post, An Example of Spiritual Discipline - Scripture Memory - Two Verses a Day. Today, I want to suggest a very simple way to teach your children the basics of the bible.

Looking at most bibles, the history sections of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Ester, are usually about 350-400 pages long. For example in the NASB bible that our family reads, this portion of scripture is 369 pages. So as a family, our goal is to read one page a day for a year.

Using this one page a day method, we will read all the old testament stories in one year. I have six children and the little one's are not ready to understand the poetry of the prophets. So I do not consider the prophets as part of there basic bible education. To cover the prophets, we will pick a few key verses (i.e. promises and challenges) and memorize these together as a family. The same would be true for the psalms and proverbs.

So by coupling these two simple disciplines of one page a day bible reading through the historical books of the Old Testament and scripture memory, it is easy to give your children a solid biblical education.

An Example of Spiritual Discipline - Scripture Memory - Two Verses a Day

2011-02-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a very simple challenge. A lifelong discipline of scripture memory is an easy and effective way to a thorough knowledge of the New Testament. If a believer memorizes two verses a day, he or she can memorize the entire New Testament every ten years. If instead of memorizing every verse and only memorize key passages, in three or four years, a total mastery of the New Testament can be obtained.

Another benefit is that scripture memory gives a way to bracket the day with one thought with morning and evening meditation. Another benefit is that a single topic can be contemplated for about a week or so as most paragraphs are 8-12 verses long. Over the course of say 3-4 months, your meditation has been centered on one book of the bible, and, though this is a slower method to proceed through the New Testament, it is far more effective in learning the thoughts of the author.

Also, this is something, we can do with a friend or a spouse. This practice is my commitment this year, and, hopefully, by God's grace and the encouragement of friends, a commitment I could keep for the rest of the decade or even the rest of my life.

Great Read on the Muslim Brotherhood

2011-02-03T05:32:00.000-08:00

Egypt’s Bumbling Brotherhood

Main points: 1. The Muslim Brotherhood will not take power in the long run - the people will. 2. The Military will be in real power for the next couple of years until democratic institutions are more established and real democracy unfold.

A scene of violent chaos in Cairo - Video

2011-02-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

A scene of violent chaos in Cairo

President Obama on Transition in Egypt

2011-02-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

President Obama on Transition in Egypt

Statement of Egypt Working Group, Jan 29, 2011

2011-02-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

Statement of Egypt Working Group, Jan 29, 2011

The Quest for Dignity - Tuesday Brooks

2011-02-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Quest for Dignity

Brooks is agreeing with a statement I ended up deleting from a post last night out of fear that it was the wine talking.

The USA is continually behind events and ends up supporting authoritarian regimes in the face of people seeking freedom. It is the same old power seeking to sustain the status quo.

Egypt Protests - The Army Will Not Fire on the People

2011-01-31T22:18:00.000-08:00

The Protestors' Fight in Egypt - ABC News

So the Army will not fire on the people and tomorrow is the big day. I almost want to stay home and watch the news. The winds of change in the Middle East. The power of the media is at work for democracy.

US Egyptian Relationship after the Revolt and Democratization

2011-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

What the U.S. Loses if Mubarak Goes

One thing I notice reading this article is that the popular US perception of Arab politics as "moderates" vs. "radicals" is not likely to be reality.

Certainly, the internet and wireless has to play a huge role in the overthrow of closed and repressive regimes. When the printing press arrived so did the protestant reformation and ultimately democracy. Now, with the internet, another move toward power for the people is emerging. The question is will this people go the way of Gaza and place a Hamas styled anti-American party in power.

From Mansoura Ez-Eldin of the NY Times

Clearly, the scent of Tunisia’s “jasmine revolution” has quickly reached Egypt. Following the successful expulsion in Tunis of the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the call arose on Facebook for an Egyptian revolution, to begin on Jan. 25. Yet the public here mocked those young people who had taken to Twitter and Facebook to post calls for protest.

Where is Egypt Going? - After Mubarak, will Egypt face a void?

2011-01-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

After Mubarak, will Egypt face a void?
Top contenders:
Mohamed AlBaradei
Amer Moussa

Will Egypt Become a More Open Society - An eyewitness account of the Egypt protests

2011-01-29T06:46:00.000-08:00

An eyewitness account of the Egypt protests

It is hard to know what to think about the protests and possible revolution in Egypt. The protests seem motivated by the people's desire for democratization and against police and military oppression. It always comes down to the politics that follow.

This eyewitness account by Ahdaf Soueif (more) tells a picture of people taking back their country. Our hopes and prayers are with the Egyptian people that freedom and civil rights for minority peoples and minority opinions will win the day.

Live blogging from Max Fisher of the Atlantic

Live Blogging from Andrew Sullivan

and of course AlJazeera Live blog

China Goes to Nixon - More on China Currency Denial

2011-01-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

China Goes to Nixon

A few weeks back, i started to write on the need for China to let it's currency float with the market and rise in value. The Chinese currency is estimated to be 50% under value which greatly effects trade with other nations making Chinese exports artificially cheap and leads to inflation in China. All this is a mess the chinese are dealing with by tightening credit instead of solving the currency problem. This obviously is related to special interests in China probably US multi-nationals included.

History teaches us that this is all a very bad thing:

Krugman:

Could all of this really turn into a full-fledged crisis? If I didn’t know my economic history, I’d find the idea implausible. After all, the solution to China’s monetary muddle is both simple and obvious: just let the currency rise, already.

But I do know my economic history, which means that I know how often governments refuse, sometimes for many years, to do the obviously right thing — and especially when currency values are concerned. Usually they try to keep their currencies artificially strong rather than artificially weak; but it can be a big mess either way.

Plans being drawn up to let states go bust

2011-01-21T06:13:00.000-08:00

Plans being drawn up to let states go bust

The night of the 2010 election, I said to my wife, "This is very bad news for the states. There is simply no way California for example can make it without a bailout."

Not a good time to be a retired state worker in California.

Israel and the Stuxnet Virus

2011-01-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

This story of Israel's use of a commuter virus to partially destroy Iran's centrifuges which enrich nuclear materials is a wonderful story of multi-national cooperation. As reported here, Virus attacking Iran Nuke Plants is Israel, and here, 'Israel tested Stuxnet virus on Dimona plant', the Americans, the Germans, the Brits and the Israelis worked together to pull this off.

No bad press images. No civilian casualties. But the semi-successful efforts is reported to have put time back on the clock. Net result: a pretty big win for the good guys!

Banksy on Revolutionary Art

2011-01-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

I must admit, I am way into the democratization of media. Back in 2003 or so when this blog started that was the source of blogger enthusiasm. Too bad most bloggers are so nuts that it gave the whole sphere a bad rap. In the same way, street art and new media gives the power of art generation and distribution back to the people.

In the late '70's, this "everyone gets to play" motif was the idea behind punk rock. The whole point was that rock and roll needed to be given back to the everyday guy on the street. Having to kiss up to power is certainly antithetical to rock and roll.

So, how does Banksy fit into this?...Well, below, Banksy explains how Mr. Brainwash revealed that sometimes Banksy is the man too...very self-aware reflection.

Wired.com: Your work explores power, tests power and is therefore revolutionary, encouraging people to subvert the powers that be. Mr. Brainwash kind of did this to you. He looked at the power structure around him (you and Fairey) and exploited it for his own ends. Does that make him a student — or a con man?

Banksy: Thierry essentially trespassed into the art business, and even in the wild world of vandalism there’s a lot of conservatism — people don’t like to see the rules being broken. The story of Mr. Brainwash should be inspirational, and in the hands of a more cheerful director it probably would’ve been. The film might come across as a bit cynical, but it’s important not to forget these are revolutionary times in art.

There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell it, particularly at the lower levels. You don’t have to go to college, drag ’round a portfolio, mail off transparencies to snooty galleries or sleep with someone powerful. All you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count.

Love is in the Air - Banksy

2011-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

Banksy 2010

2011-01-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

I took a few pics from this post ...The Banksy 2010 Top 10
Here are more Banksy's from 2010. Every one of these is incredible.

Banksy Art

2011-01-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

Banksy's graffiti on the wall dividing the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the west bank.

My family and I watched a Banksy video yesterday. The commentary of his graffiti is inspiring. For more go here

It's Yuan Appreciation Day

2010-12-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

Gradual Yuan Appreciation Has Net Benefit To China - WSJ.com

See this post for my comment: Yuan Appreciation Great News

The Appreciation of the Yuan - Great News

2010-12-31T11:45:00.000-08:00

Yuan ends 2010 with a flourish, up 3.6 percent on year

Happy New Year!! I find this very comforting. As the Yuan appreciates against the dollar, US exports become more competitive in the Chinese market. Also, Chinese imports become less competitive in the US. This is good news for the US worker, like me, and for Hedge funds who are smart enough to go short on the dollar.

Man, if I only had, 100 million dollars of collateral, I would go short on the dollar for about a billion. It feels good when the big money and the American worker are in the same boat. I am bullish on 2011 (with the one exception of the housing market).

Happy New year, brad

Romans 1:1-5 From Paul's Perspective

2010-09-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Gospel and Redemptive History

Romans 1:1-51Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,2which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,4who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,

Sometimes the biggest obstacles to learning are the things we think we already know. If we think we understand someone else’s perspective, these preconceptions will cloud our ability to actually hear what is being said. When reading the bible or studying a book like the book of Romans, it is familiarity with the gospel and protestant teachings that can become the biggest obstacle to hearing what Paul is actually saying.
We often interpret the book of Romans in light of the monumental debates of the protestant reformation. How is a person justified before God? What is the relationship between faith and works? How can a person be assured of their eternal salvation? These are important questions and these questions are clearly answered in the book of Romans, but are these really the primary concerns of Paul? Is Paul answering people’s questions about how to get to heaven or how to be right before God? Or instead, is Paul’s argument about justification through faith for both Jews and gentiles part of a deeper, more profound question?
If we look at the opening verses and we think from the mindset of a Jewish apostle living in the 1st Century, if we look actually at the context in which Paul was living and preaching the Gospel, we hear these words with a fresh perspective.
Paul, as a Jew, longed for God to vindicate His name, defeat evil, and bring liberation to His people. The question looming in the minds of 1st century Jews was how is God going to defeat pagan unrighteousness and bring glory to His name. In this light, Paul, then, is asking and answering the question, “How is God conquering evil and glorifying His name through the gospel of the cross?” Paul’s heart beats with the Jewish hope for the victory of God. But how could a defeated crucified Messiah be bringing about this conquering of evil? The weakness of the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews. How could the “defeated” Jesus be the promised Messiah? In light of this paradox of a crucified Messiah, Paul begins this majestic presentation of the gospel.
Paul opens with these almost ecstatic words concerning the powerful Christ.

Romans 1:1-51Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,2which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,4who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,

Paul lists the key characteristics of the Gospel, this Good Proclamation, that He is commissioned to preach.

The Gospel was promised before hand by the prophets in the holy scriptures.
The Gospel is concerning God’s son who is of the Messianic lineage of David
The Gospel proclaims Jesus the Son of God with power through the resurrection from the dead.
The gospel has a purpose to bring about the obedience of faith among ALL the gentiles.

The gospel is the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah, Jesus, who is the Davidic king who is filled with the power of the Son of God and who is bringing about obedience amongst all the Gentiles. This gospel, which Paul preaches, fulfills the Jewish hope which centers on one thing and one thing only – the victory of God. The purpose of the Gospel is ultimately not to provide a way for individuals to be at peace with God. Surely, the gospel does this, but, to Paul, the Gospel must be understood as the answer to the problem of the oppression of God’s people and the ever-present evil of paganism on the earth.
Before his conversion, Paul was violently opposed to the Christian idea of a crucified defeated Messiah. To the pre-christian Paul, the Christian message was anathema to the Old Testament promise of God’s victory over evil through the Messiah. If the Messiah is defeated, if the Messiah is powerless to defeat evil, then God does not get the victory in human history. So, the question which a Jew confronted with the Gospel of the cross must answer is “How is this message concerning this crucified Christ going to defeat evil and bring glory to God and therefore fulfill the prophetic promise of the victory of God and God’s people?”
Well , the answer or at least the outline of Paul’s answer is right here in these opening thematic verses. The gospel of the cross is the gospel of power and victory amongst both the Jews and gentiles in fulfillment of the words of the prophets.
When a Jewish believer thought of David, it was David the conqueror. Paul is proclaiming Jesus the greater David, the greater conqueror.
When a 1^st century believer heard the term Son of God, he or she thought of Caesar. Paul is saying that one more powerful than Caesar has come and is alive. He is the Savior and the one we are to place our hope for victory.
When Paul speaks of the resurrection He is speaking to a people persecuted and fearful of death. Well, there is one stronger and mightier than even death, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Christ has come to destroy evil and exalt the name of God through faith in Him and obedience to His teachings. The gospel is winning and turning men and women around the world from rebellion to the obedience of faith. Through the Gospel, Christ is proclaimed as king and His teachings as the way of God’s kingdom. Through the cross both Gentiles and Jews are invited and converted, and the people of God are united, forgiven, free and powerful.

UN Millennium Development Goals: Are they being reached? - CSMonitor.com

2010-09-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

UN Millennium Development Goals: Are they being reached? The UN Millennium Development Goals are a great example of the UN and people of good will at their best.Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower wome n
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Orszag on Health Care and Higher Education

2010-09-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

A Health Care Plan for Colleges - NYTimes.com

Health Care is still a vital issue effecting America's ability to compete in the 21st Century global environment. In this moment when America's ability to compete is threatened so many roads point to our broken health care system. Orszag's editorial this morning, explains how America's wealth is being funneled into health care and out of the educational and technological infrastructure that will enable America to complete with the other developed countries for middle class jobs.

In this article, Peter Orszag shows the correlation between rising health care costs and the states ability to fund eduction. American health care costs account for 17% of GDP while the next closest competitor nation pays a cost of only 10% of GDP. America pays 70% higher costs for health care. Because health care costs have risen to such a level, during a downturn, these costs put excessive pressure on state budgets. In such downturn generated budget crisis, higher education is the first thing to go. States cut education to pay for the Medicare costs which have risen along with the spiraling health care costs in general. The tragedy is that, when the economy recovers, funding for higher education is not restored to its previous levels. The result is that as health care costs have funneled tax dollars from education to insurance companies America has fallen from 1st to 12th in the percentage of young adults entering the workforce with a college education.

Anyone who runs a business knows that if our costs are 70% higher than our competitors, we are going to lose the competition. In this case, the competition is for capital investment in our economy. Companies invest in the quality of the national workforce and as our educational levels fall skilled jobs will move elsewhere. While other countries invest their tax dollars in education, in America, we pour our precious tax dollars down a sink hole of rising health care costs. This explains why the decision to fix health care in order to solve the structural economic problems was the right decision to salvage he long term prospects of the American dream even if the result is a political nightmare.

Clinton explains rising health care costs on meet the press this morning.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

peace, brad

Matthew 6:19-34 and the Decision to Not Accumulate Wealth

2010-09-11T04:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most profound errors in protestantism is the misinterpretation of Matthew 6:19-34. I have spoken concerning this topic many times. The bottom line is that when Jesus says "do not store up treasures on earth where moth or rust destroy but, instead, store up treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is their is your heart" He is calling the Christian to make a decision. This "not storing up treasures" is not a matter of the heart but is a call to not store up wealth in durable goods and money. Money is a form of a durable good like a house in that it can be stored without the value spoiling. This durability is the purpose for money. It is the durability of gold (gold doesn't rust) that led to gold being used as currency. Jesus is clearly playing with the idea of the seeming durability of money in light of more eternal and spiritual, i.e. kingdom, realities.

Many people interpret the passage "for where your treasure is their your heart is also" as saying "for where your heart is there is your treasure also" but that is not what the passage says. It is not where your heart is that determines where your treasure is but where your treasure is that determines where your heart is. If we have treasures on earth then that is where our heart is. If we have durable items stored on earth in the form of money and homes or land, then we must accept that our heart is worldly and carnal and void of the love of God. Therefore, the Christian, the follower of Jesus, is called to make a decision as to whether he or she will seek wealth.

The Problem of Wealth
The human ability to be selfish is manifested in the invention of a means to store up treasures beyond what is natural. This man made means was the invention of currency in the form of durable metals and money. This ability to quantify our wealth in currency has allowed us to "store up treasures on earth". This invention exasperated the problem of inequality. The problem of wealth and unnatural accumulation has been a human problem for a long time. Jesus is not a revolutionary. He is not calling on us to change this reality of the world as it is. Jesus is calling us to live differently and to make a decision.

John Locke was aware of the problem of unnatural accumulation but outside of religion he knew that the state couldn't and shouldn't try to solve this problem. It is just a fact of life that due to the existence of money people can horde wealth. This storing is the primary means that ALL humanity pursues happiness. This storing is ultimately a source of incalculable human suffering. Jesus is calling on Christians through our individual decisions to profoundly impact this most fundamental human problem. the problem of inequality and hoarding. Our response to this teaching of Jesus is central to the mission of the church and the witness of the church.

Jesus is calling the Christian to be different in a real and practical way. We are to make a concrete decision to not store up wealth. This concrete decision to give away our wealth and to refuse to store up money in accounts is the challenge of the passage.

The Decision and the Discipline of Mind
The Christian is called to forsake the accumulation of wealth through his or her labor. This decision is the most counter culture decision of all that the Christian makes. Because this passage is so counter culture and so contrary to all that is around us, precisely because of this affront to our worldview, this passage has been misinterpreted. The Christian must be a critical thinker in order to understand this passage. I have found in life that very few people have the discipline of mind to read the bible for what it actually says especially with respect to Jesus' teachings. The compliant mind assumes that what they have heard from other Christians or from the pulpit is true. This assumption that the church you are in is somewhat correct is the essence of compliant thinking. We must in all things be critical. Because the church is so wrong on this particular issue, we ought to wrestle with this and other hard passages of scripture in the privacy of our own devotional life. This wrestling alone with the text is the essence of being a critical thinker. This takes intellectual courage. What is needed is courageous thinking followed by courageous decisions.

Christians are called to be distinct. We are called to make difficult decisions. These decisions are made not out of fear or compulsion but out of love for God and His ways. We are called to walk by faith. We are called to be courageous. Of all the difficult and courageous decisions we are called to make, I believe this decisions to sell our durable goods and give to the poor is the biggest and hardest decision of all. This decision to empty out our bank accounts and give to the needs of others is a big decision and it is a decision that needs to be made many times over the course of our Christian life. This decision not to save for a retirement of leisure is a big decision, but is there any other way to read Matthew 6? I believe there is not.

Koran Burning, Civil Liberties and the Fallacy of Political Correctness

2010-09-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

Coverage of Koran Case Stirs Questions on Media Role

Here is the bottom line. We live in a very very open society, and there is a price to pay for living in an open society. We have a dilemna becasue a man wants to burn the koran in Florida, and this act puts American service men in danger. Though everything in us tells us that this act has no up-side, we defend this misguided man's right to speak. The fact that, in America, we will not simply stop this man from doing this act of ignorance is a testament that we truly are a free society.

The idea that somehow our liberties are eroding away is quite frankly a bald face fallacy. We live under the protection of quite possibly the most conservative electorate and the most conservative supreme court in US history. If the state in all its might cannot and will not stop an act of lunacy that puts American service men at harm during a time of war, we must conclude that the idea that our liberties are eroding is utter lunacy.

The reality is this. The American system of liberty is proving itself to be stronger even than the legitimate threat to the life of American service men. American might serves at the behest of the principle that although I disagree with what you say I will defend your right to say it.
More news, BBC
God Bless America,
Peace,
brad

The Four Story House of Discipleship

2010-09-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

One of the most striking deficiencies in the church today is our seeming inability to deliver the kingdom life to our community members. The gospel promises us that the kingdom of God is within our reach. The kingdom is a life that is striking in it's moral distinction. The beautiful and distinct life that is the kingdom is rarely experienced in our churches. Of course, there are numerous reasons for this deficiency including a stunning lack of understanding of the teachings of Jesus and the process through which Jesus leads us into the kingdom life. I call the teachings of Jesus, the wine.

While the teachings are the wine, the diagram above is an illustration of the wineskin.

The wineskin is the system of institutionalized practices that enables the community to deliver the wine of the teachings of Jesus to the individual. The institutional practices described in this illustration accomplish the task of immersing the members in the words of Jesus and the presence of God. Thus, the foundational concept that this illustration rests on is the reality that the community member needs to be totally immersed in the word and spirit in order to be socialized into this new way of life. Needless to say, these practices are almost impossible to institutionalize in the context of 21st century life.

The ground up process.

The other key to this illustration is that the various practices are both synergistic and sequential. The lower layers are more foundational and fundamental than the upper layers (sequential), but in order to perfect the lower layers, we need the assistance of the upper layers (synergistic). The life of private devotion is most important in the life of the believer but the other modes of relationships are necessary to grow in these private disciplines.

In this blog and in ministry in general, the ultimate goal is to build Morally Beautiful Community. To accomplish this task requires both institutional practices, the wine of the teachings of Jesus, and the power of the Gospel of grace. Hope against hope. One day at a time.

peace,

brad

Introduction to Karl Popper and Tolerance

2010-09-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

One of the most important thinkers of the 20th Century was the philosopher Karl Popper. Though he is most recognized as a philosopher of science, I believe his work on the defense of the Open Society will become more relevant in the immediate future.

Popper labeled himself a "critical-rationalist". My read on this term is that knowledge is the product of reason and sensory input and not merely sensory experience alone (thus the rationalist part of the term) and, that all our reasonings are theory-laden and prone to perspective laden bias (thus the critical portion of the label). Because Popper accepted that all knowledge is theory laden, he rejected the Newtonian idea of pure objective knowledge. From this premise, Popper narrowed the category of knowledge that is actually scientific to that which is falsifiable. Falsifiability becomes the test as to whether our knowledge can be asserted as scientific.

Critical-rationalism is inherently humble. If one understands that all his knowledge is theory laden, he will be inherently self-critical. This orientation toward one's own knowledge amounts to intellectual humility. One important ramification of Popper's critical understanding of knowledge is his attack on totalitarianism and Marxist historicism. As a result of this application of his theory of knowledge, Popper has a legacy of being a staunch defender of liberty.

Popper's Philosophical Defense of Liberty
Popper explained that a predictive system like Marxism (Marxism claims to predict history), if it is scientific, must be revised when its predictions do not come to pass. Moreover, for a theory to be scientific, it must be possible to construct a test in which if something other than the prediction occurs, the hypothesis is rejected. Marxism, as a system, refuses this type of critic and therefore is non-falsifiable. Popper, therefore, determined that Marxism is a dogma and is inherently non-scientific. This train of thought connects Popper's philosophy of science and his critique of Marxist historicism.

Marxism has the following components that tend toward totalitarianism. First, Marxist historical ideology states explicitly that history is taking a particular path. Marxism makes a prediction. Secondly, as a system of thought, Marxism proves itself to be non-falsifiable because Marxism has resilience against it's own predictive errors. In practice, if a Marxist makes a prediction and the prediction does not come to pass, the Marxist can explain its predictive failure using some caveat of Marxist theory. Thus, Marxism is not scientific because it is not falsifiable, Therefore, Marxism is a dogma.

Such a dogma would be harmless, except that Marxism takes this dogma into the actual realm of politics. Popper's point is that applying a non-falsifiable view of history as the ideological foundation of one's political agenda tends towards totalitarianism. The antidote to this poisonous concoction is liberal democracy. By liberal democracy is meant a democratic system founded on civil rights (e.g. the Bill of Rights).

The conclusion is that to support an open society we must support democratic ideals as opposed to our historicism. All of us bring predictive beliefs about economics and society into the realm of politics, but we must temper our dogma with a commitment to liberty and democracy. In the realm of politics, these commitments must be above all else. For the Christian, this requires a theology which understands the current limited means by which we are allowed to implement the kingdom of God.

Mystery and Evidence - NYTimes

2010-09-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am doing a little series on how non-believers attempt to understand faith. In this article, Mystery and Evidence, Crane is making a few mistakes in his attempt to understand who he is criticizing (i.e. the believer). He seems to apply a criteria for understanding what is religious by a "majority rules" criteria of what defines authentic religious faith. Crane's method concludes that if most religious people experience religion as a way to inject meaning into things then this is what religion is about. But

with respect to no other type of knowledge do we use this majority rules methodology. Is what the majority of biology students believe the definition of biological knowledge? No. Instead, in science, we find the best biologist to understand biology. Why not ask the best theologian or most winsome believer what true religion is? Isn't this a better way to understand religion, religious texts and religious experience.

If his method is erroneous, so is the finding itself. His conclusion that religion is how people find meaning is simply not how people with a vibrant religions experience would describe their experience of the divine. This is not why people with vibrant faith believe.
People who have a vital and life changing religion believe on the basis of an experience with the divine or as the result of a test with God that worked. For example, the seeker pleads, "please deliver me from my obsession". When deliverance comes the seeker becomes a believer. These types of conversion are much more common. Also, a very common form of faith is the direct knowing toy of faith. This believer says, "I do not know why I believe I just do." This is the C.S. Lewis version of faith. C.S. Lewis said he went on a motorcycle ride and he left an atheist and came back a believer. No where do you see vibrant people with distinctive lives who came to faith as the result of injecting meaning into things of deriving meaning out of things.
The moral to the story is that at the root of Tim Crane and other's attempt to understand faith is an unwillingness to accept that faith is actually what people of faith say it is, a direct experience of the divine or the direct result of the activity of the divine on the individuals life.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby

2010-09-05T01:56:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hawking's big bang gaps | Paul Davies

2010-09-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hawking's big bang gaps

I think this idea of a God of the gaps is a straw man.
(Update: God of the gaps is the idea that faith in God exists to fill in the gaps of our understanding of the universe. A trite view of a retreating God somehow intimidated by the progress of scientific knowledge).
No one who actually has faith has faith on the basis of a God of the gaps. People do not hold faith in order to answer a question of origins or to fill in some cosmological gap. People come to faith in response to a moral and spiritual sense of life. Others seek God to resolve a real life trial or to solve the problem of a character defect. People find resolution to a life problem and experience assistance from God. People who are arguing with this "God of the gaps faith" are arguing without any real living proponent of this position. This is a classic straw man.

I remember when I was in school anthropologists sometimes held a view of religion as a primitive type of science, but I do not believe that any anthropologist worth his weight in salt still maintains such a patronizing view of religion. It is strange that some in the scientific community still hold such an archaic view of faith as if our faith could be threatened because physics discovers that the universe could be created without God. People with relationship with God know that the universe exists that we might have relationship with God. My physicality exists as a means to enjoy God. How physics got us here is not relevant. Hawking doesn't understand the phenomenology of religion. This phenomenon will remain because God will continue to invade human consciousness.
Other Articles (Headline News) (The Archbishop of Canterbury's Response).

Ben Bernanke's monetary policy - What's Next?

2010-09-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

Next steps by Chris Payne guardian.co.uk
(This post has been slightly revised.)

This is a dire article. But the gist is as follows: Bernanke has very little policy left. The next actions are to prop up the bond prices up by buying moor securities. They then print money to pay for them. They also need to make a stronger statement that interest rates are going to stay real low for a real long time. This is really just a confidence builder. Really the last thing is to change the targets to desiring inflation. This means that their models change and they take more stimulative action.

BUT here is the problem. None of this is real action. All this leads to the big fact that the only way out is further fiscal stimulus. The problem with this is that congress can't pass such a stimulus. The republican appointed Bernanke can't team up with a bi-partisan group of moderates and the administration to do what is only rational and reasonable. The math is all pretty simple. All this is pretty discouraging.

The root cause of this inability to solve this problem is I think an American populous that doesn't understand the macro-economics necessary during a crisis like this. Americans seem to not understand the need for policies that fit circumstances and, instead, remain transfixed in their partisan ideologies.

Blessed are the Merciful and the Discipline of Mercy

2010-08-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

The teachings of Jesus are immersed in a handful of foundational principles. One of these principles is that the follower of Jesus is to be an expert at showing mercy from the heart. The source of this mercy is our abiding awareness of God’s mercy toward us and our continual, frequent and recurrent need for mercy.

Foundational Principles

Before, we jump into the discipline of mercy, let’s review Jesus’ way of discipleship. First, the first principle of all Christianity is that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus taught us that it is upon this rock, this first truth, that He will build His church. To believe that Jesus is the Christ is to have faith that the answer to the human predicament is solved by Jesus Christ. Jesus came to set the world right. Our faith is that by believing and following Jesus, we will experience a new quality of life. This quality of life is called the “Kingdom of Heaven” or the “Kingdom of God”. This kingdom is from the inside out. Jesus’ teachings center on heart management and life transformation. He teaches us to love our enemies from the heart. He teaches us to be humble and meek and merciful. By following Jesus, the King, we enter and experience His kingdom. This process of following Jesus and experiencing the kingdom is called discipleship. We experience the kingdom as we begin to pattern our lives through the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, we apply the teachings of Jesus in order to enter the quality of life called the kingdom.

Another key verse that helps us understand the kingdom as a new quality of life is Romans 14:17. Romans 14:17 says that "the kingdom of God is righteousness peace and joy through the holy spirit”. Paul is saying that the kingdom of God is a quality of life to be experienced as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. This quality of life is described as righteousness, peace and joy. Putting the call to discipleship together with Paul’s definition of the Kingdom and we conclude that through the process of discipleship we are promised to enter a quality of life characterized by righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Another key principle of the discipleship process is the very first teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The first principle of Christianity is that Jesus is the Christ and the first principle of discipleship is that it is the “poor in spirit” that enter the kingdom. The teachings of Jesus all rest on this one teaching of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. All our following must follow this principle. The kingdom of heaven is only entered into by people who are spiritually bankrupt and are aware of their spiritual poverty. In other words, the way in and the way on in the kingdom is GRACE. We are spiritually without means, we are poor beggars. We lack power or ability to live the kingdom life. We need help. We need healing. We need power. We need grace. We need Jesus. The gospel is an arrow downward. The gospel of the kingdom is about God, by grace through faith, giving forgiveness and power to a sinful and powerless people. Any step we take forward in our quest for a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy spirit is the result of God’s grace. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for it is those who reach up to God for help and healing. The poor in spirit receive the forgiveness and the ability by His spirit to live the life that can only be described as heavenly.

Therefore, as we seek to be merciful and to receive mercy, we remember a few key foundational principles. First, that we follow this path of discipleship because of the promise of the immediate availability of the kingdom of heaven. The goal is to enter, through following Jesus, a new quality of life, that is the kingdom. Secondly, every step in following Jesus is made by weak and needy people. Every step is informed and empowered and enabled by grace. This life is for the spiritually poor and needy. Upon this foundation, we begin to consider the discipline of mercy.

The Discipline of Mercy

The text we are looking at is Matt 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”. This text is asking us to take action. The action Jesus is directing us to take is to be mercy or to show mercy. But this is by no means the only text in the teachings of the Christ regarding mercy and the exhortation to be merciful. The following texts also give us the spiritual direction to show mercy.

“Father forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who have trespassed against us” from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. Paul also states, “Forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you”.. These texts teach us that we are to forgive both because we have been forgiven and because we know that we need to be forgiven. In the same way that we are forgiven, we are to forgive, and, wonderfully, in the same way we desire to be forgiven, this is the manner in which we are to forgive. People stumble over the theological questions that these texts imply. Is Jesus saying that our forgiveness is contingent on our forgiving? Does our forgiving merit our forgiveness? This completely misses the actual point of the exhortation. Jesus' point is so wise and compelling. It is impossible to withhold forgiveness when you ask God to forgive your sins only to the extent that you forgive others. Try to withhold grace and mercy from your neighbor when in prayer you ask the Father to extend mercy to me in the same manner and measure that I extend mercy and grace to others.
The other core text in the gospels that elaborates on mercy and forgiveness is in Matt 18. Starting in verse 17 the gospel says the following:

²¹Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" ²²Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. ²³"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. ²⁶"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' ²⁷The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. ²⁸"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. ²⁹"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' ³⁰"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. ³²"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' ³⁴In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. ³⁵"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

The point again is so clear. The poor in spirit know the pile of debt that they are in spiritually and their absolute dependence on the mercy of God. Any person with this awareness will show the fruit of being merciful to his neighbor. For us to be merciful, we must be immersed and again I say immersed, in an awareness of our own continual dependence on the mercy of God. This awareness describes the first discipline of being merciful - receiving mercy.

The Same sin 50,000 times

As I reflect on my own life, I am made aware that my character defects lead to the repetition of the same sinful behaviors over and over again. I think of speaking harsh words. I imagine I have done this same sin maybe 10,000 times over the course of the last 25 years. Sure, I have moments of meekness but I nonetheless violate the law of love numerous times a day, yet God is patient. How many times do I need God to forgive me of this sin? How many times do I want God to forgive me of this sin? Such sins flow out of my character defects and the circumstances of life. I imagine that if the number of instances of a given sin is 50,000 then I need this many and more instances of mercy. This continual need makes me continually reliant on God’s infinite patience. If I make it a pattern of my spiritual life to receive this mercy and to reflect that this mercy is needed day after day, season after season, then my heart response is to become a fountain of praise and thanksgiving to God for His infinite mercy. This awareness of our need and our joyful acceptance of God’s provision in Jesus Christ for our forgiveness is the source of our mercy to others. Process of receiving mercy and becoming merciful is how the gospel transforms us. Therefore, we are to first immerse ourselves in receiving mercy. This process tenderizes our heart and makes us compassionate, patient and merciful.

Form this grace in which we stand, we begin to give to others the same measure we are expecting for ourselves. I cannot exist in any level of peace if God does not provide this continual grace for the same sins that I sin over and over. Hallelujah, He does. Therefore, I am to measure to others the very same measure that I myself am relying upon. In no instance, do I desire God to withhold from me His mercy. This decries the process by which we are to become merciful through the gospel.

The Discipline of Forgiving Others

We all have friends and family. We all have neighbors. We all have churches that we are in relationship with. All these relationships are with people. All these people are just like us. Some are less mature than other, yes, but essentially, we are all very similar. We all speak and act. We all experience circumstances that are out of our control that we respond to. Our responses are not often well prepared but are, instead, reflex responses to the stimulus of life. Therefore, we are all inflicting varying amounts of discomfort and pain upon one another on a daily basis. At some point in relationships, we just want to say, “I’m done. This guy is just too much of a jerk for me to put up with.” We lose relationships. This is the natural end of a relationship that is not immersed in mercy. When this happens, mercy has been withheld many, many times. The teachings of Jesus and the discipline of mercy takes the exact opposite course and results in long abiding relationships with real people in the real world of stress and character defects. What being merciful means in real life is forgiving people for every little thing as a regular discipline of life. Here is how I have learned to practice mercy in my daily relationships.

On about a weekly basis, I take out a sheet of paper and I ask the Lord to reveal to me every small slight that I have received and every resentment, even the smallest little tinge of judgment, that is in my heart. I list the peoples initials and write a word or five that describes what happened. I write these out as rows and every time just about every person I know is on the list. It might take two pages or it might take five pages. For example, I might write, “JH - she goes to bed too late” or “MB – he thinks I have ADD”. Some of the items are big and some of the items are small. I intersperse this with prayers of “Lord, bless this person and give them spiritual success”. Sometimes items remain on your list many times because the resentment and the memory remains. You can feel in your heart that you still can be disturbed by the person or the memory of the incident. Some people’s lives have really been disrupted by other people’s sins and charter defects. A mother is an alcoholic or a friend is an egomaniac or is damaged and insecure. These people hurt us or they disturb us regularly. Our desire is to find mercy for them and compassion for them in their brokenness just like we desire God to find mercy on us and be compassionate toward us as we struggle with our brokenness. In all things, compassion.

When the list is complete and I can find no more initials or instances, then I begin at the top of the list and forgive each person and pray for their spiritual success. I may find that I am overwhelmed by compassion for one person on my list. I may find that this wellspring of compassion overtakes my time of prayer. In such cases, I go with the spirit and pray for this one person. Then, the next day I come back and continue the list. The result is that my soul becomes filled with compassion and mercy. Always, I find that in the days following such an exercise, I am surprised by how happy and near to God I am. I have take action in light of the teachings of Jesus and, lo and behold, it works.

Peace
brad

Jonathan Edwards on Law and Affection

2010-08-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Jonathan Edwards makes this incredible point concerning why the law actually drives us to sin and the gospel to holiness. There are certainly people on this earth that are a gift from God and JE is one such gift...

The natural reason why it is as Romans 7:8 ff. [says], "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence," etc. [The]9 reason why man
has the more strong inclination to moral evil when forbidden, is because obedience is submission and subjection, and the commandment is obligation. But natural corruption is against submission and obligation, but loves the lowest kind of liberty as one of those apparent goods that it seeks; and when he disobeys, he looks upon it that he has broke the obligation. When he thinks of the perpetration of such a lust, and thinks how he is strictly upon pain of damnation forbidden, tied by such strict bonds from it, it makes him exceeding uneasy, the consideration is so against corrupt nature; which uneasiness takes away all liberty of thought, and makes the mind dwell upon nothing but the contrary and supposed good, the liberty, causes [him] to meditate upon the pleasantness of the act, and makes it appear much greater than otherwise it would do. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. The motives to believers to perform the commands of God, are [not]1 because salvation is [upon] the condition of doing them, and damnation what we are obliged to for disobedience; but the amiableness of God, to whom sin is contrary, the loveliness of virtue, and its natural tendency to happiness, which has no such tendency as the other.2 Wherefore now in gospel times, 'tis requisite that all ceremonial commands should be abolished, which have no intrinsic direct loveliness, nor agreeableness to the lovely God, or tendency to happiness.

Edwards' point is so clear. The law because it is based on obligation arises in us a desire for liberty or freedom from obligation. The desire for freedom is greater than we can resist so we find joy in disobedience. This is the nature of law, obligation and fear. BUT the gospel because it is relationship with Jesus and not the law (Romans 7:1-4) motivates us out of affection for God, the love of God, attraction to the winsomeness of virtue, and the knowledge that virtue leads to happiness. Therefore, we must rid ourselves of any false holiness that is not pure and beautiful in and of itself and seek only true holiness which is the fruit of the spirit out of a heart of affection for God and the beauty of His excellencies.

peace,

David Brooks, Dick Cavett and Mayor Bloomberg on the Manhattan Mosque

2010-08-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Numerous articles are being written in response to the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan and the on-going debate about the civil liberties of people of faith. It seems to me unreal that we are even having this discussion in America. Here are a few articles:

A Case of Mental Courage - NYTimes.com

Brooks' point is that, in America, we have lost a theological belief that the battle against sin requires strenuous mental work. This belief led to a strenuous intellectualism. But today our politics betrays an ignorance and a laziness with respect to understanding even the most basic issues like when to raise taxes and when to defend people's civil rights.

Dick Cavett, Real Americans, Please Stand Up.

This is a must read. The behavior of people who claim the same Lord as I do are so blatantly refusing to follow Him. The racist and fear-based responses of some people of faith is sad indeed.

A highlight of course is Bloomberg's speech.

Hopefully, I will get time to write a more thorough treatment of this topic. I think it is important with respect to mission. People who are confident in the victory of the resurrection of Jesus do not resort to hate and fear as a means to accomplish our mission.

Review of Dave Matthews Band Live August 23, 2010 Hollywood Bowl 8/23/2010

2010-08-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

When you wake up the next morning and all you can say to your wife is “WOW, that was pretty amazing”, then, ahhh, you probably saw Dave Matthews last night. Dave Matthews really is that good.
Highlights:
Jam Band Related

Tim Reynolds! It is hard to overshadow Carter Beauford but Tim Reynolds on electric guitar is the one that steals the show. Tim’s tone is perfect. His rig is usually either a strat or a Les Paul through a pair of Mesa Boogie rectifiers. It sounds to me like he is probably playing through the classic mode on the Mesas. The tone is just filled with the classic woody yet nasally midrange. Reynolds job is to make the main riffs that the songs are built around stand out and he does the job perfectly and never misses a beat.

Jeff Coffin from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones really does add a lot to the jam band side of things. It is just great to hear a band that gives a platform for good musicians to play improvisation. On #41, the opening song, Reynolds, Coffin and violin player, Boyd Tinsley, all took extended solos and set a great expectation for the night.

The return to real jam band numbers didn’t come until the end of the show but WOW the last 6 or so numbers at the end was just incredible.

Highlights

Songs
My favorite Dave Matthews song is probably “Don’t Drink the Water” but in concert “Two-Step” was far and away just beyond belief. The entire end of the set, Cornbread, Two-step, You and Me, Some Devil, Why I am and Ants Marching was just jam band heaven. The band does this simultaneous punch thing so well. The full band hits hard in unison from the baritone to the bass to the kick and Dave while Reynolds keeps soloing and they just keep it all in the groove of the song and just keep going and going. The aim is to get bigger and bigger and two-step got the biggest and the baddest of them all.. The Two-step outro was very good both visually and acoustically, heavy and fast and psychedelic.

At the end of the show for the encores my son and I moved forward up by the sound board and the sound quality is so perfect. All I can say is that when I grow up, I want to be in a band that sounds like that!!!

Ground Zero Mosque and American Values

2010-08-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

This subject deserves a full essay but for now lets just state the themes. First, it is a threat to American values and our liberal democracy to deny freedom of religion to anyone. Christians should be standing up for Muslims to build a center or a Mosque anywhere they please. Secondly, as Christians, we will. It should be impossible for Christians to be baited into fear politics. We have nothing to fear from the world.

It is a sign of the weakness of our faith and the shallowness of our love that Christian leaders are not standing up for the freedom of other faiths. Now that would be a good witness.

peace,

Doing Mission Like Jesus - First Impressions

2010-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our Universal Pre-existing Condition

The principles that guide our mission methods differ from the principles of discipleship. Mission is relating to people on the basis of our common humanity. All humanity is in a predicament. Some aspects of this predicament are beyond our control and some aspects of our predicament are self inflicted. Humans suffer from sickness and our natural inability which are thrust upon us by our common humanity. While at the same time, other aspects of our predicament are caused by our sinful and foolish lifestyle choices. In mission, we are not concerned with such matters. We do not question the causes of an individual’s tragic circumstance. Love covers a multitude of sins. We are all the same under the gospel. We are all victims of our own humanity, and we are all responsible to some remote degree for our suffering, but, in mission, we are not concerned with the causes of people’s predicaments. Jesus’ love to humanity is unconditional. The only question that Jesus asks during the mission process, the process of introducing Himself to human beings, is “where does it hurt?”. We all suffer from a pre-existing condition called humanity, and we all need the healer to come set us free. The gospel has no interest in condemning people because we are all already condemned and suffering from the fruit of the folly of our forefathers. Therefore, since we are all the same and there is no distinction, there is no use asking any questions to triage who is qualified for God’s love and mercy. Either we are all qualified for grace or we are all disqualified for grace. The cross of Jesus proclaims clearly, “we are all qualified for grace through the work of Jesus” to the glory of God.

In Mission We are Giving People a First Impression of God

All of us need to build our life with God on a foundation of His grace and love for us. Therefore, in mission we are giving people a first impression of God that is unconditionally loving and gracious. We do not ask the prodigal son or daughter how they got so stinky and dirty. We do not expose but, instead, we cover their shame. We do not interrogate the woman or man caught in the very act of adultery. We simply say “I do not condemn you”. We advocate for sinners and the weak. We bring healing. We are the spiritual Red Cross. The Red Cross brings nursing to both sides of a war. Injured Nazis get medical care from the Red Cross to the exact same level of care and urgency as the American liberator. This is an incredible metaphor for mission. When a dying soldier sees a Red Cross nurse or doctor, he is filled with a glimmer of hope in the midst of his suffering. This is the impression the church is to give to a dying world.

We have a lot of work to do.

Doing Mission Like Jesus

2010-08-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

I am doing some study for a sermon. The sermon is going to be on doing mission like Jesus. My friend and pastor keith says, "Jesus got invited to all the good parties". This is a great probing phrase because it begs the question, "Do we get invited to all the good parties?" If not maybe we aren't doing mission like Jesus.

So here is a great blog post from Rob Wilkerson on the subject of "Doing Evangelism Like Jesus". Let the revolution begin.
peace,

iMonk on Genesis and the Post Evangelical Wilderness

2010-07-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

I totally agree

Music and the Mind

2010-06-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

A Conversation With Aniruddh D. Patel - Exploring Music’s Hold on the Mind

This article discusses important research that reveals how the human brain enables us to sing, dance and play music. The key is that music is the ability to imitate with our bodies, our hands, our voices, what we hear. Music ability is the ability to hear sounds and imitate them. This is why all the great musicians learned music by listening to records or concerts and spending 1000s of hours trying to play what they hear.

My son is going to spend the whole summer transcribing jazz solos. Thanks to "Snowball the Cockatoo".

This article and this video

How to Make Soccer Work for American Fans - Better Drama and More Offense

2010-06-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

FIFA 2010 World Cup Scores

Looking at these scores for Group C, the group the USA is in, it is easy to see that soccer has a problem. Three of the four games are ties with only Slovenia defeating Algeria 1-0. The bottom line is that good sports equals good drama.

Because the offense is at such a disadvantage, as proven by the scores, the sport lacks the ability to distinguish between good and mediocre teams. The result is that the sport lacks drama and is rife with controversy.

In American sports, especially American Football, the sports governing authority reviews the rules to encourage more offense and a better experience for the fans. The result is incredible drama, incredible quarterback performances and the greatest fan loyalty of any american sport.

How to promote more offense in Soccer

My idea is simple but revolutionary. Here it is. The current field at the World Cup is surrounded by a fens that is about three feet high. It is the fence covered by the advertisements. I would stiffen up this fence and use it as part of the field. In other words, there would be no out of bounds unless the ball went over the fence. The players could ricochet the ball off the fence. Currently, the fence is slanted up a little. I would make the fence rigid and perpendicular to the field. I would keep it the same height.

Here is the revolutionary part. I would keep the fence as it currently is behind the goal. This way the players could run plays behind the goal like in hockey. This would totally change the scoring.

Now, if the governing body doesn't want to make this as radical a change then they could keep the out of bounds lines of the current system on the ends. But, I think the behind the goal aspect is the key. WOW!!! This would totally make soccer high scoring and the better team could be easily discerned as the scoring would have the ability to differentiate between good and mediocre teams.

Blogging

2010-06-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

I realize I haven't been blogging much lately but this blog still gets good traffic so I would like to increase blogging. The problem is my day job goes through very demanding times and I need to keep food on the table and do my job well. For example right now I have to rise at 4:30 to get to work on time and obviously that leave no time for writing in the morning.

Some day, I plan on switching careers and probably going into academia or some type of teaching/writing profession. For now I think I will blog shorter and more frequent posts.

The Beauty of Discovery and the Discovery of the Way of Happiness

2010-05-23T16:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I was reading a book about William Paley and Charles Darwin and I began to tear up. The scientific revolution is so beautiful to me. To me this era was a high point in human history. Deep in my being, I have come to believe that God has made discoverable all his secrets and the greatest dignity a person can experience is the dignity and joy of discovering God’s hidden but discoverable secrets.

So too, the greatest of the greatest of these joys is to discover God’s way of happiness and yet it is the proclamation that we have discovered something so hidden from most that is so offensive.

Jesus clearly intended to teach His followers that they are called to discover the way to happiness. Jesus teaches us, “Happy are the poor in spirit, happy and those that mourn etc.” In the Gospel of John, John records these incredible but true sayings of Jesus, “He who drinks of the water that I give will never thirst”. What an absolute promise. If we learn to drink from the wisdom and power of Jesus, we will never thirst.

Never thirst. Jesus is promising that we will find resolution to every tangled mess of phycological angst and frustration. What I have learned is that of all the promises of Jesus, these promises of joy and peace are the most offensive to the post-modern mind. This postulate that solutions to how to live life can be found and learned and practiced consistently undermines the false premise that no one really knows any real answers. To many, this premise is seen as humility but in reality this pessimism is unbelief. Jesus has promised that we will never thirst. Jesus has taught a path to abiding joy and happiness. To claim that the believer cannot discover these hidden treasures is to call Jesus a liar. But the fact is we serve a God of love who has taught His secrets to babes who are simple enough to put the teachings of Jesus into practice to the same degree and simplicity which Jesus has taught.

Of all the things I have learned in my life, this is it. God in Jesus has taught us how to be happy. This discovery is available to the follower of Jesus. He has not left us orphans, but He leads us into all truth. He who seeks finds. When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth.

Amen

Feeling Deflated = Mr. Krugman

2010-05-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

Feeling Deflated

Exactly!!!

"Much worse than Expected": BBC News - Monstrous underwater oil plumes found in US Gulf Coast

2010-05-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Monstrous underwater oil plumes found in US Gulf Coast

It is possible there will be dead zones in the Gulf 10 miles long and 1 mile wide. This is getting really sad and ugly.

BBC News says:
The find suggests the scale of the potential environmental disaster is much worse than previously feared since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up on 20 April, killing 11 workers.

We've never seen anything like this before - it's impossible to fathom the impact

Professor Samantha Joye
University of Georgia

Obama: No more cosying up to oil

Samantha Joye, a marine science professor at the University of Georgia, said: "It could take years, possibly decades, for the system to recover from an infusion of this quantity of oil and gas.

"We've never seen anything like this before. It's impossible to fathom the impact."

The experts say the oxygen depletion is likely to continue, endangering sea life and raising the prospect of underwater dead zones.

The scientists said the chemical dispersants BP has been dumping underwater may be preventing the oil from rising to the top of the ocean.

Official estimates doubted

The oil giant has said the chemicals, which it began deploying on Friday, have already resulted in less oil surfacing.

BP's battle with oil leak continues

Some scientists cast doubt on official estimates of the oil flow rate, saying the widely repeated figure of 5,000 barrels per day dramatically understates the real amount.

MisIMFormation? - Paul Krugman on the IMF Report

2010-05-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

MisIMFormation? - Paul Krugman

The latest from the IMF, which is a survey of the fiscal health of various nations, is a heavy read but Krugman's deciphering is so good I really recommend reading at least Krugman's analysis.

In short, the debt crisis of the worlds advanced nations is not the result of over spending but real structural changes in these economies that has significantly reduced revenues. This is such a no-brainer if you look at the recent history of the United States. The Clinton surplus was the result of actual increased wealth of the entire nation. The Bush deficits and the inherited deficits of the Obama administration are the result of a radical loss of wealth in the economy.

In other words what changes is government revenues as a result of economic changes while spending stays the same. The response is then to find a level spending level and ride out the storm.

I think this is a real clarion call to cease these crazy calls for reduced spending.

Obama: iPad, Xbox Comment

2010-05-10T05:33:00.000-07:00

I must say that I agree. I am a firm believer that strenuous thought and intellectual honesty and rigor is a key to happiness. In light of this truth, I must say I agree with Obama on this one. Big Time!!

Obama: iPad, Xbox Turn Information Into A 'Distraction': "'And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.'"

Oil Spill - BP scrambles after Gulf oil spill fix setback

2010-05-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

BP scrambles after Gulf oil spill fix setback
When I heard this news of the failure of the oil spill fix, my eyes actually started to well up with tears. This is such a drag. It seemed for a bit like we could stop the spill and contain it before the oil began to come ashore, but both hopes were dashed this morning.

I have been advising my children to watch this news event early on as I think it could be a historically memorable event. Unfortunately, the story is getting worse.

I used to work for Alcoa and we had a postulate that "all accidents are avoidable". The oil spill in the Gulf is not an act of God. The oil spill is an accident. The risk simply was not taken seriously. We need to pray and hope for another solution before the gulf area and its economy is decimated by environmental malpractice on the part of the oil companies and their suppliers.

It is the governments job to protect the markets for small business against the abuses of the environment by people who could harm the livelihood of others by their carelessness. BUT again the government for the last 20 years has failed to regulate business. Like the financial deregulation nightmare which is headed for round two, all we the common people can do is sit and watch and pray for a solution that does not harm the livelihood of too many people.

The bible says that the government exists to push back against evil BUT we have failed to regulate the powerful so that these types of evil do not happen. This may not be evil by a common western definition but such accidents are defined as evil biblically per Ecclesiastes. These accidents are always avoidable and it is our job as a people to support government that regulates just this type of thing from happening.

Great Article - Who Can Mock the True Catholic Church?

2010-05-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Who Can Mock the True Catholic Church? - NYTimes.com

This is a great article. Very worth reading.