It is my opinion that most of the signs of spiritual vitality or ‘upper’ level of spirituality that evangelicals strive for has a decidedly extrovert nature or bias to them. Exuberant public worship? Most extroverts can do that without thinking about it (They love it!). Bold, skillful people-person interactions with goals of witnessing and winning souls to Jesus? Natural territory for an extrovert! Public emotions and proclaiming and expressing in large public gatherings? Natural for an extrovert! Happy, cheerful ‘full of faith’ joy-exuding positivity? Something most extroverts lean towards without thinking! So, in evangelical land, this formula can become assumed. Extrovertedness = more spiritual / better Christian!
It’s my belief that this is so pervasive for decades, if not longer, and has been so amped up with megachurchianity and CCM worship and the evangelical celebrity culture and the charismatic movements, that there is a systemic prejudice against non-extroverted Christians and concurrently, an extrovert ‘privilege’ that is just in the air that everybody breathes, whether they realize it or not.
This has been on my mind for a number of years… and a few months ago, I was given opportunity to bring a Sunday morning talk to my church. Here is my slightly indirect attempt at addressing this topic. Here is the full, unabridged text I wrote as my guide for that morning. I’ve also included a bunch of cuts that I didn’t talk about…. These are after the benediction text. Enjoy.
Continue reading
I’m a non-violent/pacifist Anabaptist/Menno, yet I can find more contradictory Biblical interpretation angles to counter my own position, than the flimsy or non-existent support many american christians try to conjure up in support of some of their supposed ‘Biblical’ beliefs. I find it fascinating that the people most invested in a so-called literal, plain reading of the Bible go to great lengths in twisting, inferring and or ignoring Scripture in order to get to ideas that just aren’t there…but they’ll insist it’s ‘Biblical’ Like these…
Continue readingI submit for your consideration, this podcast discussing David French’s article, in which he lays out this case… Christian Political Ethics Are Upside Down
These two resources really resonated with me.. They speak to something that has been KEY to my disillusion with the culture/mindset of white rural/suburban american evangelicalism that I came from and continue to inhabit.
On many issues, I do not reject Protestant evangelical points of creed (Virgin birth, Trinity, Jesus’ victory in cross & resurrection, inspired Bible, moral teaching…) but since about the early 2000’s I do question and/or renounce the “means” or the thinking patterns, the posture, the stance, and the attitudes of white rural/suburban christian culture, especially in their engagement with the world outside their bubble. Generally speaking these means are trending nastier, more fear-driven and hypocritical by the day.
Continue reading
Have you heard this ‘proverb’ before? “It’s not the form of worship (service) that matters, it’s what you bring to the service/’worship’ time”? I have, and even though it ‘sounds’ good…I wonder… It’s an easy thing to say when you’re the one privileged to go to your preferred style of worship service, but the person you’re saying this to, doesn’t enjoy the same privilege!
Continue reading
Years ago, I heard a preacher reading scripture that clearly said that right ethical behavior (faithful choices) saves us from sin, leads to life everlasting, etc… But he had to continue and ‘correct’ the implication of that passage lest we ‘by-faith-alone’ Protestants got the notion that our actions/doing, had anything to do with our long term justification/sanctification.
I’ve seen this repeated over the years; a NT passage clearly says that actions/doing (faithful choices/action) do in fact play a role in our ongoing salvation as well as our ultimate salvation. But whenever we encounter these passages, some of us have to cite some other proof text somewhere, sometimes wildly out of context, in order to correct the trajectory of things and keep us on the ‘faith alone’ track. And given modern understandings of faith, this generally means “mental assent, confident feelings, positive thinking, the inner state of ourselves…etc” (And/or other invisible things happening in your heart/soul/mind somewhere…) Basically the tactic boils down to continually reinforcing a prejudice that downplays ethical behavior and diverts attention back to our assumptions of an abstract, disembodied, mental/emotional-activity notion of ‘faith’.
Continue reading
The title comes from a tweet by David French, regarding CRT (Critical Race Theory), racial injustice, etc, and in response to the guilty conviction of the policeman who killed George Floyd. I share Mr French’s assessment of white evangelicals. Personally I do have some reservations about the extreme left of the racial justice march, But I have More concern for the majority of white evangelicals who, through various subtle and not so subtle ways, swing way the other way… and shut their hearts and ears to the history and experiences of their African American brothers and sisters. And so the following thoughts have been burning in my heart for a long time…
Continue reading
WELL… maybe it’s because we modernist christians now perceive that the holy spirit primarily speaks/reveals via our individual emotions/feelings/subjective thoughts; ie stuff flitting around in our heads, dreams, gut instincts, emotions… our subjectivity. Or that God speaks primarily through the individual’s inner life. (how American is that!) If that’s the case, no wonder we’re mired in the things that could be broadly characterized under disunity. When it’s “everyone hearing/doing what is right in their own ‘individualized, subjective senses'”…. No wonder you get these: fragmentation, instability, chaos, shallowness, transience and other church life ills.
Emotionalism, the illogical/irrational, the reactionary, or the, “I Feel God telling me…” or the, “I sensed in MY spirit…” – All of these individualistic, subjective ways of receiving revelation/direction seem to fuel a lot of the in-fighting and disunity. I think a study of church history with this in mind, could be revealing. Is it possible that we often or sometimes replace the “Spirit” with our own human “senses” and inclinations, corresponding with our american culture’s emphasis on privatized, individualistic habits and thinking?
Maybe if we believe in the Holy Spirit that works through things outside of our subjectivity: things like Bible scholarship, church history/Tradition, seasoned saints, or healthy/transparent/accountable denominational structures. Then maybe there would be more unity? I’m not speaking of conformity, but diverse, yet not fragmented…
What if we paraphrased a famous Biblical passage this way:
“But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you [the group of people] all things, and bring to your [group/church] remembrance all that I said unto you.”
Is there anything in that passage or in other passages like it, that suggests all of the Holy Spirit’s work has to flow out of the interior, subjective recesses of individuals?
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment. For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same: for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause ye pay tribute also; for they are ministers of God’s service, attending continually upon this very thing. Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Romans 13:1-7
“Man, I really hate God-ordained government!”
This passage reminds me of a perspective on government administration I adopted some time ago. When I hear people moaning about “big gov’mt” and taxes and regulations, etc, this is what goes through my mind in response. Maybe I should express it out loud someday, although it might be perceived as an attack on their values and identity as gov-hating “conservative” american christians… so I’ve kept this to myself. (Until this posting of course…) So here goes…
I’m glad our big gov taxes and regulates us. I’m glad they keep us selfish american sinners in check. Attitudes like the following lines are often publicly expressed or offered as laugh-lines… ‘I don’t like people (gov) telling me what to do!..and all they (gov) ever do is annoy us hard working people!… and they (gov) can’t ever do anything right, especially handling MY money!…why if I could keep it, I’d use it so much better…’
This is the tone of 99% of the talk I hear from my co-religionists. We really, really hate the governments elected over us (ie setup by God over us!). It generally reeks of malice and bitterness. It’s the same attitude, by the way, that violent insurrectionists have in their hearts when they act out their thinking. Now, we good Menno christians would never do those things would we? But we do allow ourselves to have the same hate in our hearts towards our government (Btw one of the most democratically elected ones… I mean we do, more than most peoples around the world, get to pick our gov…)
So when I hear this attitude I wonder what we american christians would be like, if big gov didn’t keep us in check? What would we be trying to get away with, or how would we waste even more money on ourselves, than we already do?
I don’t know about you, but praise God for big government and just about everything it does! I’m glad they take money away from us greedy, self-centered, self-righteous american christians. In fact, I’d be in favor of them taking more away (by rescinding our ‘religious’ org tax exemptions). Maybe it would dampen our insatiable appetite for building ever bigger, self-pampering entertainment complexes we call “churches” or parachurch ‘ministries’ (exempting truly humanitarian endeavors of course) and incentivize us towards using our resources in more God-honoring ways!
A few days ago I listened to the latest podcast episode put out by Phil Vischer and Skye Jethani (formerly the Phil Vischer Podcast) The subject was a “breaking news” episode dicussing the recent editorial by Christianity Today’s Mark Galli, entitled “Trump Should Be Removed from Office”. During the podcast, Phil went on a lengthy monologue on the history of fundamentalism and neo-evangelicalism and the similarities and differences. He listed numerous characteristics of american fundamentalism such as:
I highly recommend listening to this whole episode: So many interesting points. Lot’s of material one can look up and read about to learn more or just confirm the historicity of it. Found it interesting when they mention fundamentalists being the first adopters and users of mass media means like TV and radio, which is why their good ol boy religion got spread throughout the country, including my upbringing! (Also quite ironic considering how anti-science, anti-modern, fundamentalists were in most other areas…)
Although this isn’t the first time I’ve heard or read about american protestant fundamentalism, I was reminded again of my own childhood and faith journey (explored in this post), which was very fundamentalist. It also reminded me again of why I’m glad to be free of that type of Christianity and why I don’t want to be known as or be part of any iterations of this kind of christian fundamentalism… The posture, the attitudes and the way fundamentalists deal with the world around them seems so out of step with how Jesus walked this earth and interacted with people, even people who didn’t like Him. Jesus, says, “be not afraid… love your neighbor… do good to them who… “, yet so many american fundamentalists, many in the trumpist camp or who claim to be evangelicals in surveys, walk in fear and anger, resentment and revenge, and it’s a big detriment to the Gospel of Jesus and has turned many people, especially the young away from Jesus and real Christianity. I hope & pray that they find true freedom in Jesus and that we can all together, follow Him, and lay down our fears, angers and idols. This country would be such a better place if we could do that!
The Persistent K.o.G. 