Flourishing

I’m really excited about the three interdisciplinary tracks that are part of FC08. Of the three, I am especially intrigued by God’s Green Kingdom, chaired by Dr. Rusty Pritchard. The Christian community is becoming increasingly aware of our responsibility for creation care. Groups like Evangelicals for Social Action and the Evangelical Environmental Network have led the way in this.

For a long time talk of conservation, hybrids, and simple living was the domain of hippies and liberals. Now the evangelical church is maturing in our theology of creation.

Counselors often tell us that we change only when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change. With the price of oil going through the roof and Americans seriously addicted to automobiles, especially big automobiles, the pain of staying the same is intensifying.

And it seems that our way of living is in the process of changing at a fundamental levels. I’m not talking simply turning off the A/C in your F-350 and rolling down the windows. I’m talking profound changes in the way he travel, where we work and where we live.

Rod Dreher of Crunchy Con has an interesting post pointing this out. Read it here. He links to several articles indicating that America is on the verge of a serious economic earthquake. Especially interesting is a web-tool that allows the user to calculate the real cost of living in the suburbs by factoring in the cost of travel (i.e., premium gas for your Suburban). Makes me glad that I live in a little cottage three miles from downtown.

CNN reports on Shane Claiborne’s Jesus for President tour. The tour touts a new book by Claiborne and Chris Haw of the same title.

The story outlines the shifting nature of younger evangelicals’ political identity. In light of my earlier post, its an encouraging trend. Younger evangelicals, it seems, are injecting our faith into the way we vote and voting by principle and not simply by party affiliation. Hopeful sign.

There’s an interesting conversation happening at Jesus Creed on this very topic.

Last week I posted a short piece on the quarrel between Barack Obama and James Dobson. Dobson took offense to some comments that Obama made about Christians needing to appeal to things other than the Bible and our tradition when making moral arguments in the public square.

After the story made cnn.com, there was a flurry of comment from the Christian left, most notably Sojourners founder Jim Wallis. I’ve been familiar with Wallis for about three years now ever since I read his book God’s Politics. I didn’t really enjoy the book. In fact, to this day I’m not entirely convinced that it doesn’t attempt to persuade the world that God is a democrat on almost every issue. I say that tongue in check, mostly. I applaud Wallis for challenging Christians (especially evangelicals) to really examine issues and to do so from a thoroughly Christian perspective not simply a political philosophy baptized with God-talk. I don’t always agree with Wallis, but I respect him.

The ping pong match between red and blue Christians got me asking: where are the purple Christians? Francis Schaeffer once wrote that Christians may be co-belligerents with both parties over different issues, but never ultimately loyal to anyone other than Christ.

Are we anywhere close to that ideal? I don’t know for sure, but it doesn’t seem like it. It seems to me that Christians on the left and on the right are equally guilty of being uncharitable and attributing to the other the worst possible of motives for every legislative or policy decision. We’re polarized more than we care to admit, check out this dialogue as an example.

It seems to me that there needs to be a new day of dialogue and cooperation between Christians of various political persuasions. Perhaps Following Christ can be a place where some of those conversations begin. After all, we’ll be in Chicago together less than two months after a presidential election and day before the inauguration of a new president.

Jim Wallis likes to say that the monologue of the religious right is over. I hope so. In fact, I hope that all monologues within the Christian community are over and that we can move into tomorrow with frank, honest, and charitable conversation.

I opened my browser yesterday morning and pulled up cnn.com. It’s sort of part of my morning routine. Get a cup of coffee. Open the MacBook. Scan my RSS feeds. Check the news. You get the picture.

Yesterday’s headline was the very public quarrel between conservative Christian leader James Dobson of Focus on the Family and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

The issue? Biblical interpretation. Specifically, Dobson took Obama to task for a 2006 speech delivered at Call to Renewal, a gathering of progressive/liberal Christians. Read the text of the speech here.

The original CNN piece is here.

I’m going to go out on a limb (not really) and say that if you’re the sort of person who’s interested in Following Christ 2008, you’re probably also interested in being a redeeming influence in culture. Right? You’re probably also someone who spends most of your life in a that highly pluralistic environment known as the university.

So the issue raised in this little (and very public) tiff is actually quite germane to your life.

I don’t want to get into the specifics of the quarrel, you can read the CNN piece for that. I do want to consider one of Obama’s assertions. It just so happens that it is one that Dobson took issue with, but never mind.

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

- Barack Obama, Keynote Address, Call to Renewal.

I believe that Obama is right.

Christians have for centuries believed that there exist not only the (specific) revelation of Scripture, but general revelation in nature and reason. This general revelation could also be called Natural Law. As a result, it is possible to converse with those outside of the Christian faith on the basis of first things, moral principles that are knowable outside of Scripture. This means that we can discuss policies from a Christian perspective without using explicitly Christian language.

It doesn’t mean (and I don’t think Obama suggests) that Christians/the Church should abandon reflection on Scripture as a basis for views on all sorts of issues. After all, it is not only our “religious selves” that are Christ’s, we are Christ’s in our entirety (whole persons).

Religion seems like its going to be an issue in this election, but not as it was in 2000 and 2004. We’ve already seen a battle over the “reverends,” both with Obama (Wright and Pfleger) and McCain (Hagee and Parsley). Who knows what else we see before November.

For other interesting discussion see Erin Manning’s response to Jim Wallis’s response to Jim Dobson at Crunchy Con.

A couple of hours ago I was writing a tweet about almost being hit by a Toyota Langcruiser (the irony) while riding my bike through a parking lot when I noticed one by FC08. Check it out here. It’s a friday afternoon and I’ve got a couple of things to tie up before calling it a day, so it seemed like a perfect time to follow that URL down an electronic rabbit trail.

It led me to Cooling Creation, a site dedicated to offering concrete actions we can all do to lower our impact on the environment. Just click on the appropriate box and you’ll be guided through a series of options you can take to reducing your carbon footprint: drive fewer miles; ride a bike more; buy an energy efficient fridge; kill your SUV. The site then emails them to you so that you don’t conveniently forget later on when you need a cup of coffee from Starbucks and the 95 degree temperature makes $4/gal gas seem reasonable, if it means you can stay in air-conditioning a little longer.

It also gives you the option of making a tax-deductible contribution of $99 to essentially offset the cost of your carbon usage. I’m not really sure what this actually means so before I even think about whipping out the old Visa checkcard, I’m going to do some research.

I’m willing to drive less, ride my bike more, and even to get a smaller car (if I can afford it), but despite my concern for the environment I’m not quite at the place where I can give some random website $99 to atone for my carbon usage, even the carbon usage coming from my use of a print Bible. I’m serious.

As promised, here’s a link to the Colbert Report which, among other things, featured Bishop Tom Wright talking about his book Surprised by Hope.

I have to admit, I find Stephen Colbert funny about a third of the time and tiresome for the rest especially when he’s dealing with serious stuff (like Biblical theology in the case of Wright and science in the case of Francis Collins). Satire has its limits.

Readers of this blog know that Tom Wright and I go way back. Well, actually, that’s not true at all. But that’s beside the point.

Mike Morrell at Zoecarnate let me know that Bp Wright will be on the Colbert Report tomorrow night (June 19). I believe he’s talking about the issue of resurrection.

Stay tuned for footage and insightful commentary ;-)

Brian Moss is going to be leading worship at FC08. That’s something that really excites me!!

I first heard Brian lead worship at the Open for Business track of Urbana 06. A little over a year later, Brian led worship at the National Staff Conference for InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries (that’s who I work for).

Leading worship is more art than it is science. It requires, at least in my opinion, a humble reliance upon the Holy Spirit. And more than that, it requires the musician to be willing to metaphorically step aside and allow those present to look beyond into the face of God. Brian is able to do this.

Brian’s also a pretty thoughtful guy. I like that, especially in a worship leader. Brian has a blog. Recently he wrote a thoughtful piece about how we approach art and how that affects the way we approach worship.

Has there ever been a generation with so little time actually to take time and enjoy the world?

–Bauckham and Hart, Hope Against Hope.

Brian uses the quote above to help us think about how we worship. He writes,

“The questions they [Bauckham and Hart] ask reveal the close connection that exists between all of our lives and the making and receiving of art. If anyone is to appreciate or even begin to understand art they must slow down. Try as you might, you cannot read Gerard Manley Hopkins quickly.”

So, how do you worship? It’s a provocative question. One that becomes increasingly so the more we let it settle within us.

Are we rushed as we worship? Is the sense of chronological time ever with us? In our world, it takes a lot of effort to remove ourselves from our society’s default way of life: busyness. It can be nearly impossible to step outside of these patterns to a sense of timelessness in worship, especially when our churches tend to mirror society in the way we design worship services.

Brian’s post challenged me to something more. I hope it challenges you too.

One of the amazing things about Following Christ conferences (and there are, let’s face it, a ton of amazing things) is that it is animated by worship. At its most essential level, FC08 is worship. Of course, its more than that, but its not less. Everything we do, regardless of its intellectual complexity or profundity, is an expression of worship through the offering of our selves, our callings, and our gifts to God.

That’s pretty darn exciting.

Ok. Its time for an admission on my part. You probably know that NT Wright is going to be one of the major speakers at Following Christ 08. He’s done it before so don’t worry, he knows what he’s doing…here’s the evidence (the book that came out of his previous appearance).

And you probably know that Wright is sort of a looming presence in the world of New Testament studies. He swings some major lumber (as in every book he publishes is a hit with market, not always the same one however).

Well, back in 2001, I was roaming around the site of ancient Corinth (as in, Greece) with some colleagues studying in the UK. Imagine the scene. I leave the archeological site and walk to a nearby cafe for some lunch. I’m eating like a grad student: bread, cheese, apples, water.

I saunter into the cafe and there stands this bearded English guy wearing a Panama Jack hat (exhibit A). Disclosure: the photo is not actually of NT Wright, but you get the point.

Yup. Its NT. I was in Corinth with NT Wright and missed the chance to hang out with him and his film crew, all because I didn’t actually know what he looked like. Ugh. A friend knew who he was but by the time I found out, it would have been totally awkward to go over and start up a conversation. And I’m not really sure what I would have said. “Do you come here much?” “Its kind of run down, don’t you think?”

If you’re coming to FC08 you’ll have the chance to learn from Tom Wright and some other very cool and intellectually-stimulating folks.

Here’s an interview with Wright by Becky Garrison of the Wittenburg Door. Becky covers some major theological ground with old NT. I think he might have had a headache at the end.

Here’s a highlight, Wright on the purpose of the Bible:

The Bible is here to equip God’s people to carry forward His purposes of new covenant and new creation. It is there to enable people to work for justice, to sustain their spirituality as they do so, to create and enhance relationships at every level, and to produce that new creation which will have something of the beauty of God himself. The Bible isn’t like an accurate description of how a car is made. It’s more like the mechanic who helps you fix it, the garage attendant who refuels it, and the guide who tells you how to get where you’re going. And where you’re going is to make God’s new creation happen in his world, not simply to find your own way unscathed through the old creation.

I dig it.

Will Francis Collins be the only Christian in hell? Stephen Colbert thinks so, sort of. Here’s a clip (two actually) from the Colbert Report:

Collins will be a featured speaker at Following Christ 08. He is currently the head of the Human Genome project, a position he will step down from in August. He is best known among evangelical Christians for his recent book, The Language of God, which seeks to bridge the perceived gap between science and Christian faith.

As you can tell from these clips, Collins has is good humored and pretty wise. A combination that we think will help him be a huge contributor to the conference.