Will Samson

OHF/Kiva Matching Grants

The holidays and the end of the year are two great reasons to put money into Kiva, the microloan site that works in developing nations to spur economic growth and empower people to live themselves out of poverty.  And One Horizon Foundation (the foundation connected with our community) and Communality (our community) are working together to double that gift.

Right now if you place funds in Kiva, One Horizon Foundation will double those funds, up to $100. Click here for all the details. Please consider using this as a way to provide funds as Christmas presents.

Jesus, Religion and Sustainability

I am in the middle of reading Tony Jones's upcoming release, The New Christians. I will post a full review when I am done. This is a fabulous book. It is essentially an ethnography of God's emergent work in the world, focused mostly on what God is doing through people like Tony, Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren and the relationships that spring from Emergent Village. Jones covers theology, politics and orthodoxy, but the thrust of this book is the story of what God is up to in the lives of one part of the Church.

As I was reading, the following quote caught my attention:

"I'm not sure it's even possible to be an orthodox Christian if you're not living a life of reconciliation."

This statement was uttered in the context of a conversation with a critic of Emergent Village  and the emergent church. But the point has much broader implications.

A lot of my thinking these days relates to the role that religion plays in sustainability. I am interested in asking how we might reconceptualize religion in the public sphere, i.e., as a communal conversation that we are all allowed to take part in and that works to shape our society. Further, I am interested in how that conversation, or lack thereof, plays a role in determining the world our children will inherit. It is my thesis that the lack of a common and governing set of values for how we might share the goodness of the Earth is destroying us.

But here's a problem with my plan: social science in general, and sociology in particular, has a religion problem. Most of the great work in sociology and social theory have either sought to eliminate religion (Marx) or reduce it a set of observable facts (Durkheim). Even Jürgen Habermas, who may have the most robust theory of discourse ethics, bases his processes on rationality, having eliminated the metaphysical early in the development of his theory of communicative action.

And that plan of social science has its own concerns: religion has not gone away, nor has it gotten more rational. If Philip Jenkins is to be believed, religion is on the rise around the globe. This is a fact underlying Habermas's recent work on public sphere religion, including his speeches with Cardinal Ratzinger contained in The Dialectics of Secularization (a quick-read book I heartily recommend). And in the path from Hegel to Husserl to Schutz to Goffman to Habermas, it seems that we have lost the language to talk about religious phenomenon. It is simply not observable. And  rationality is concerned with the observable.

How then might we get to an understanding of religion that would allow us to imagine a future that is both maintainable and more just? Getting everyone to agree to a single religion has been the source of much violence in our world, and has caused Christians to engage in all manner of actions not at all like the one they are following. Ecumenism is a bust, mostly in that it brings religion down to the lowest common denominator and does not allow individuals to rely on the richness of their religious tradition.

I am going to suggest that we can get to a model of religion for all by focusing on the religion of one, or at least of what is at the core of that one religion. In the model of Christ, we have the core element that is required for ethical living: self-sacrifice. And self-sacrifice is our only hope for a sustainable future, whatever one believes about who God is and how God is involved in the world.

This can only happen when the followers of Jesus see imitation of Jesus as the highest standard of orthodoxy. The irony is that many of the projects of social theory have been efforts to remove religion precisely because of Christians behaving badly. Further, while we no longer kill those who believe differently, too many followers of Jesus spend too much time determining who is in and who is out, and far less time, if at all, determining how they might love the world as Christ did - with everything they have.

Imagine what would happen if Christians led the way in ethics like we so often seek to lead in apologetics. A world in need waits for Christians to act like Christ, and the future of our world, quite literally, depends on it.

John MacArthur on The Emergent Church

Go read this article and then come back and let's discuss.

<pause>

By way of full admission, I had John MacArthur as a lecturer when I was a student at Word of Life. I found him offensive even then, though I may have been more likely at the time to see the world in similar categories as his. His version of Christianity was just so ... unlike Christ.

In the interview, MacArthur states:

"He’s (Doug Pagitt) not a pastor; he’s not a Christian; that’s not a church."

I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to have words like that leveled against me. Or what it would be like to be in fellowship at Solomon's Porch, and to wonder why this angry man that you've never heard of is questioning whether you're really a Church, and whether your attempts to live as a disciple of Jesus are "true."

Jesus reserved his harshest words for those who tried to decide who was in and who was out. And, in my less cautious days I might have done the same (even though I am clearly not Jesus). But that would not heal the rift in the Body of Christ constantly being torn at by MacArthur and his ilk.

By the most generous estimates, American Evangelicals represent less than 4% of the global Church, and MacArthur, et. al. represents a smaller percentage of the Church than Evangelicalism. But though they are small in number, they have a vociferous voice and a bully pulpit. And they use that platform to divide, rather than to call people to be converted together by the way of Christ.

This is not simply a question about issues like what is truth, or how we might know that truth. It's not even about who gets into heaven. This is, at it's heart, a hermeneutical failure. Newbiggin suggested that we all serve as "hermeneutics of the gospel." How might someone not a follower of Jesus interpret MacArthur's comments?

I work in the secular academy and have to face the consequences of comments like MacArthur's all the time. I find that I spend the first months of any new relationship explaining why MacArthur, Dobson, Colson, etc. look so unlike Jesus, though they are his most quoted spokepeople. But perhaps in navigating our relationship to these men we can move toward resolving our hermeneutical problem.

This gives us the chance to say that we are so committed to unity in the Body of Christ that we are willing to hang with MacArthur, even when he thinks we are part of a different story. Rather than stooping to divisive rhetoric, we can help interpret the message of Christ by claiming MacArthur in our family, even if he is our crazy Uncle Phil.

I welcome your comments, although I will delete any that offer ad hominen attacks. I would also ask you to consider stopping over at Doug's blog and leaving a kind comment.

Uncle Floyd

Before there was cable, there was Uncle Floyd.

The Uncle Floyd Show was a quirky, very New Jersey kind of show I used to watch on a UHF channel out of Newark. UHF, for those of you that have only know cable, were the channels on the second set of dials on the TV (yes, dials).

Well, as with most things, Uncle Floyd clips are now available on You Tube. I found them today while procrastinating (something I seem to be much better at when the semester is ending). Anyway, I thought I would share some classic Uncle Floyd with you all:

Mitt Romney Speech

If you have not listen to Mitt Romney's speech yet, watch below. If I was not up to my eyeballs in end of the semester work, as well as working on my next book, I would comment. Feel free to leave your own comments below to this question: Did this speech make you more or less likely to vote for Romney, and why?

What's Your Connection to Coal

On the site I Love Mountains, you can enter your zip code and see you where your energy comes from. Try it for yourself.

Brokaw on The Emerging Church

Tom Brokaw covers what he calls the emerging church. Click here to view it.

The interesting aspect to Brokaw's coverage is that it focuses on 1) the political implications of the church that is emerging, and 2) the impact on the consumer-driven megachurch. This corresponds with research I am doing on media coverage of evangelical environmentalism.

So, here's the question: will the media pay attention to the emerging church if it is not perceived to be a threat to the political establishment? Leave comments below.

HT: Emergent Village

McLaren: Christianity as a Global Threat

One of the most important voices in the Church today is Brian McLaren, someone who is a prophet for our time. He has recently posted some good comments that stem from his recent book, Everything Must Change. Brian's comments are over at TPM Cafe, in this post: Christianity as a Global Threat.

I would encourage you to stop over and leave a comment. Brian will be posting each day in response to the previous day's comments.

The New Conspirators: 28 Feb - 1 Mar, 2008

The New Conspirators: What in the World is God Doing?

God is conspiring through a new generation to re-imagine and create new expressions of discipleship, community, church and mission and to make a difference in our rapidly changing world. At this festival of imagination, we will bring together leaders from the emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic streams to explore new models, discuss tough questions and create ways to be a difference and make difference in our churches, communities and God’s world. As far as we know, this is the first time that such a broad range of new conspirators have come together to communicate, connect and create with one another.

Join Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, Karen Ward from Fremont Abbey, Efrem Smith, co-author of The Hip Hop Church, Dwight Friesen from Mars Hill Graduate School, Julie Clawson, an emerging church planter, Mark Scandrette, author of Soul Graffiti, Christine Sine, author of Godspace, Tom Sine, author of The New Conspirators and others for this festival of imagination.

We are racing into an increasingly uncertain global future in which the middle class, our poorest neighbors and our planet will face daunting new challenges. In this festival of imagination, we will invite you to create innovative ways to engage these challenges in a way that reflects something of God’s new order.

We have three very clear goals for this festival of imagination:

1. to communicate creative models of what new conspirators are doing to address these challenges;

2. to connect leaders from all four streams in order to share lives, stories and concerns;

3. to create new ways to advance God’s new order in our world, in our lives and in our churches, in response to the growing challenges facing the poor and the planet.

This event is sponsored by Mustard Seed Associates. Our partners include: Emergent Village, Mars Hill Graduate School, Northwest Hot House and Trinity Lutheran Church. Course credit is available from George Fox Evangelical Seminary and Northwest University. 

The New Conspirators: What in the world is God doing?

Join us at Bethany Community Church in Seattle, WA,

on February 28, 29 and March 1, 2008 and find out.

For more information visit: thenewconspirators.wordpress.com

REGISTER online at: thenewconspirators.eventbrite.com 

Join new friends at this festival of imagination to communicate, create

and connect to what God is doing through this quiet conspiracy.