unshackled

The Evangelical Universalist is a fascinating read and maybe I’m just pessimistic, but I’m wondering how well “evangelical” and “universalist” can really fit together. Some excerpts:

Origen’s pastoraly wise universalism

Sometimes, like the OT prophets or like Jesus himself, we need to warn of the coming warth without making mention of restoration after destruction.

Should we form universalist congregations?

[Universalism] is important but it is not fundamental to healthy and obedient Christian living.

Is it just me or is this view of universalism missing the point? Why should we resort to fundamentalist scare tactics when evangelizing but use universalism in the back closet to pat ourselves on the back for acknowledging an idea about the way God looks at us and the world?

God’s restoration is good news, not bad.

I mean this guy is more annoying than Brian McLaren. He has an ego-mania that has annoyed me ever since I read his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. more than two years ago. Uh yeah. Who isn’t annoyed by Mark Driscoll?

Anyway, awhile ago one of my Republican friends was reading Shane Claibourne’s Jesus For President (or “utopian crap” as he called it), he spied the infamous Mark Driscoll quote that Shane inserted in a page without comment.

There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.

My friend loved it. But I was mean enough to finally break it to him that Shane most likely disagreed with the quote and was using it as an illustration of an extremist view. That didn’t go down well.

I had totally forgotten about this until Halden recently tackled the statement straight up. I’m not going to join the noise surrounding Driscoll, because it’s not worth my time, but check it out if you’re interested.

If you ask me though, Driscoll’s most disturbing statement to date was from a sermon a few years ago.

You have been told that God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we’re all good people. That is a lie… God looks down and says ‘I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,’ and we say that is deserved, right and just, and then God says ‘Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.’ This is a miracle.

Maybe Driscoll is revolutionary in the fact that he actually does soteriology that many people hold but refuse to explore. A theology that says Jesus wasn’t God. Jesus was the trickster who got slaughtered because of an agreement God had made with Himself. But by Jesus bleeding, God was able to fool Himself into thinking we were actually innocent and Jesus was the bad guy who had done all the bad stuff.

And that makes a damn lot of sense.

Update: Even Graham has come out of the woodwork to comment.

Sex education in a Christian school is one of the funniest dilemmas ever.

“You should never, ever have sex before you’re married. But if you ever have premarital sex, by all means wear a condom.”

C’mon. I can’t be the only one that thinks that’s funny.

Jim Wallis recently issued a call for the signing of a petition that would commemorate the upcoming five year anniversary of the Iraq invasion.

We all share in responsibility for a war that has been waged in our names and with our tax dollars. The fact that fewer U.S. soldiers have died in recent months doesn’t change the fact that this war should never have been waged. Our country should end this war, not try to “win” it, and we must help the Iraqi people build a safer and more peaceful country.

And so, in this season of Lent, I believe the time has come for us to repent for the Iraq war. But repentance means more than just being sorry. It means admitting that the course we have been on is wrong and committing to begin walking in a new direction - starting with an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Jeff, however, remains skeptical.

I wasn’t going to buy Jesus for President right away even though Shane’s first book changed my life. But when I was at Berean the other day the book totally jumped out at me.

People, this book is beautiful!

There is no other way to describe it. I am blown away by the design. And the content is deeper than the entry-level tongue in cheek Irresistible Revolution.

Full book review soon.

I’m currently helping to teach a week of Bible school to Lancaster City kids at a large rural facility. Pray! The week is starting off pretty hellishly.

Me and another teacher only have around 6-8 kids under our care, but they’re a handful and this sneaky voice keeps telling me they’re coming back to haunt me for how bad I was as a kid. Seriously, they so remind me of myself. The implications are totally scary.

Spiritual warfare on this level is never easy. God is working and all praise goes to Him. His power will be shown in this reality or another. Let me live as though I believe that.

I was greatly saddened to learn of the destruction of the Simple Way Community Center. Our prayers are with you, friends, as you rebuild.

This morning, a 7-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in our Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. The Simple Way Community Center at 3200 Potter Street was destroyed as well as at least eight of our neighbors’ homes. Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes, and 400 families are currently without power. Despite this developing tragedy, we are incredibly thankful to share that all of our community members and every one of our neighbors is safely out of harm’s way.

This fire will forever change the fabric of our community. Eight families are currently homeless, and in many cases have lost their vehicles as well as their homes. One of our neighbors, the Mahaias Family, lost their three cars as well as the equipment one family member uses for her massage therapy business. Teenager Brian Mahaias is devastated not because he has lost his belongings, but because he fears that this fire will force him to move away from this neighborhood that is his family as well as his home.

The Simple Way has lost a community center that was home to our Yes! And… afterschool program, community arts center, and Cottage Printworks t-shirt micro-business as well as to two of our community members. Community members Shane Claiborne and Jesce Walz have lost all of their belongings, Yes! And…’s after school studio and library were ruined, and community member Justin Donner’s Cottage Printworks equipment and t-shirts were destroyed.

We are thankful that we are able to help each other during this time of need, and we will continue to keep your informed about today’s events.

We have established funds to support the families who have lost their homes, the Yes! And… afterschool program, and the Simple Way community.

A fund to support the families has been established through a partner organization, EAPE. Tax-deductible donations can be made at https://www.tonycampolo.org/online_donation.php. Please make sure to put “Kensington Families Fund” in the memo section.

Donations to the Rebuilding Fund can be made via PayPal to contribute@awip.us.

Update: The Simple way website has much more info on the fire damage as well as a link to bloggers who are discussing the fire.

Doubtless Jerry Falwell’s passing is old news by now as the blogosphere has been buzzing about it for well over a day now. Enough bashing of the dead has been going on all over so I won’t add to an already disrespectful and angry mob. However, I can’t say I have any respect for Reverend Falwell; mostly because of his bigoted representation of a religious stance that held more in common with historical Jewish Pharisees than anything attributed with a peacefully subversive Christ.

Chris Floyd over at Empire Burlesque has a…well…disturbing prayer penned to God.

Lord, we gather here tonight to remember your departed servant, Brother Falwell, as he wings his way toward the great beyond, praise God. Lord, we know that there are many out there tonight — lost souls, Lord, be with them, Jesus — who will profane this solemn occasion with scorn and mockery. Dear God, we know that Brother Falwell’s many victories in Your precious Name stirred up the Devil in a multitude of hearts, and that his enemies — and Yours, Lord Jesus — are rejoicing tonight at his passing…

Definitely not sparing any pleasantries in the biting sarcasm. It gets somewhat better. The logic is horrendous–we learned it from Rev. Falwell. He’d be proud of us we’re sure.

…therefore, Lord, we know that this very night, as the formaldehyde streams through the corpulent remains of Your departed servant, that Brother Falwell was struck down by Your mighty Hand, in an act of wisdom far beyond the ken of sinful man to comprehend. Every day, precious Lord, Brother Falwell preached Your wrath…

God I’m sure seminary students at the famous Liberty U will be studying this senseless act of a sovereign God for a long time.

Every day, precious Lord, he preached Your love of war. Every day, precious Lord, he called Your blessings down upon the dealmakers and bagmen, praise God, upon the profiteers of suffering, praise Jesus, upon the divinely appointed leaders who practiced their deceptions and loosed their destructions only in Thy name, Lord, only according to Thy will, Lord, only in the greater service of Thy divine plan, O Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. No sparrow falls but that You order it; no missile strikes but at Thy dread command. And no great mass of swollen flesh falls from the disgorgement of its own physical corruption but that You, precious Lord, have done the deed. This is what Brother Falwell himself has taught us in his long years toiling in Thy bounteous vineyard: that he died because You withdrew Your protection and smote him in Your anger for his iniquities…

The same sovereign God obviously needed some way to even out the celestial afterlife the day this giant died, so he called home Yolanda King later in the day. King, daughter of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was only 51 but was well-known for continuing in the tradition of activism and nonviolence forged by visionaries like her own father.

“She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society,” the King family said…

All I can say is St. Peter sure must have had an interesting day at the pearly gates yesterday!

My heart goes out to the families of the deceased. May a merciful God watch over you and give you peace.

There was a time, not too long ago, when I took great offense to someone using my name and “Christian” in the same sentence. It was a rebelling against the name-defining-the-institution churches full of hypocrites who obviously had never considered that “Christian” might mean more than social status or a “feel good religion” [wow, how's that for a long sentence]. Ironically, in hindsight, the time I was most critical of the church coincided closely with a spiritually and emotionally low trench.

I used to think the true church would be persecuted. Now I’m less sure there is only one true church. I used to think the institution could never provide the spiritual manna like a fresh, reactionary movement could.

Used to be, if someone asked me what denomination I was, I’d smugly reply, “None”. Somewhere along the way, something changed. There’s this longing, this love sized hole in every person’s heart. I could go through my whole life hating and distancing myself from the establishment, or I could be a lone prophet in the establishment. There is a difference.

Jesus said, “People will know that you are mine if you love each other”. Now if someone asks me whether I am a Christian, I emphatically say, “Yes!”. And, echoing Shane Claibourne (The Irresistible Revolution, Zondervan 2006), if someone asks me whether I am Catholic or Protestant, I fight the urge to say “neither” and instead reply with “Yes!”. That’s the difference Jesus makes. The body is bleeding, dying—we can’t jump ship now. Let’s patch the holes, break down the differences. Kneel at the altar as brothers. And be whole. A whole body of Christ.

Here’s how this uncomfortable conversation went.

“You ever hear of Jesus?”

“Uh…yeah…great philosopher [I'm mumbling now]…”

“So you’ve never accepted Jesus as your personal savior?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking of…”

“So what exactly do you believe?”

“Geez, you just had to know, to didn’t you? Um…is that even the right question?”

“Well do you believe that life begins at conception?”

Oh crap. Not that question.

“Please…I am working towards better supporting single mothers and hopefully one day adopting. But will I show up at a pro-life rally? Not a chance.”

“Oh. So you’re a liberal. Do you believe in border security?”

“Um I do think the Jesus I follow was nice to all people, yeah, not just approved citizens of the empire…”

“Aha! So you are a Christian…”

“Uh…”

“Well c’mon. So what do you believe? I mean, of course you believe in God and Jesus and heaven and hell…”

[Okay so at this point I'm officially sorry I didn't just choose to eat at a table by myself.]

[Let's try to change the subject...] “Nice heelies by the way…”

“Sure…but hey I want to talk to you about something a lot more important than shoes today, it’s about God and how he sent his son to save the world…

Let me just give you this tract. It explains how to get saved on the back. It’s easy, it just takes 5 minutes…first you have to be truly sorry, then you pray this prayer…”

[5 minutes later] “Okay so I’m still on my way to hell. Nice chatting with you…thanks for the thought-provoking tract…”

“Sure man, thanks for listening. I’ll be praying for you to make the right decision…”

[I make my exit.]

Um I only wish there was a right decision in this situation…god I hate pushy Southern Baptists!