Archives for October, 2007

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

What's the Point

I was told of a blog entry by a Presbyterian Pastor on the subject of what amounts to consumerism in American Christianity. I was left feeling that this pastor felt it important to make his "brand" of Christianity more relevant and convenient to the consumer.

More importantly, what I was left with was a question of what the point of Christianity is? Modern Evangelicalism would tell us that a simple "decision for Christ" is all that matter, and after that you may do what you like with some degree of impunity (as modern Evangelicalism is pretty strongly Calvinist, with a good dose of predestination and OSAS). If that is all that is necessary, then, by all means, do what you must in order to achieve that decision.

Unfortunately, that view is, at best, a post-reformation view. In reality, I think it only dates back to the 19th century. It is not, at any rate, a Christian view. Providentially, Fr. Freeman has posted a blog entry on St. Athanasius, and his view of salvation. This view (which is the correct view - noting that nobody has ever questioned it, until perhaps more recent times), is that we need to be united and conformed to Christ in a real way. That takes time, and it takes sacrifice. Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, was hardly interested in either entertainment or convenience, which seem to be the drivers of the modern non-denom Christian movement. How can we make that a primary driver for worship and the structure of a church, and expect that the end result will be a person more conformed to Christ? Simple answer - we can't.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Alarmist Fire Reporting

For those who haven't been watching news lately, there have been massive fires throughout Southern California (still are) this past week. Fortunately, there has been some really solid local reporting from TV (we watched a lot of KNSD , the local NBC affiliate), Radio , and print/internet . Unfortunately, for one national media outlet - and I suspect others - the reporting has been horrendous.

On Monday of this week, I went over to the Fox News website, and was hit by a huge picture of a fire and some alarmist phrase, like San Diego burning to the ground or some such. I can't remember the phrase because I was so struck by it, the first thing I did was to call my Mom in North Carolina to assure her we were okay. I was afraid she'd see something like that and have heart failure. To be sure, the fires are bad - perhaps the worst in the history of the county (in total property losses, perhaps not, for which everyone is thankful), and very scary. However, the headlines throughout the week at Fox were done in the best tradition of yellow journalism. Intended to frighten, there was very little useful information. Perhaps if they had sent one of their journalists here to write some real stories, they could have had good site traffic without the need for the doom and gloom.

I think that my favorite headline of the week was "Firefighters all but give up..." I saw that and thought that the firefighters were going to just let the fire burn the county to the ground. The real story was that the thousands of firefighters were retreating where the fire was too intense, attempting to save structures, building fire breaks, etc. etc. Standard procedure for a firestorm. There are places where you have to let it go, because there is nothing you can do directly against the flames, but I wouldn't describe it as all but giving up.

Finally, to continue the misinformation, we have this headline: "Hunt for Firebug: Bounty offered for information leading to arrest of suspects responsible for setting historic Southern California wildfires." Well, the really historic fire is the Witch Creek fire in San Diego. Unfortunately, it appears to have been caused by a downed power line due to the high winds. When you click over to the story, you see the dateline of "San Diego", but the story is about a suspected arsonist in a 20,000 acre fire in Orange County. For sure a big fire, but not quite the scale of the 200,000 acre fire - which, again, is the "Historic" fire.

I've said for a long time that I'm not sure why any of us expect high standards from journalists. After all, the roots of journalism lie in the rags of the late 19th and early 20th century. If you want to know what fruit to expect, take a look at the roots. So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this coverage after all.

St. Demetrius the Myrrh-streaming

Fr. Freeman, who's blog is listed in by blogroll, has recently begun podcasting. His first podcast deals with a subject he has addressed extensively on his blog, the question of how many storeys exist in our universe. To summarize, he asserts that modern Christianity has developed a notion that we live in a 2 storey universe, where God exists up on the second floor, and we're down here on the first. The problem with this view is that it seems to limit, or even eliminate the presence of God from our immediate world. A lot of this is the fallout of the so-called enlightenment, which, while it may have improved our knowledge of the physcal world, has thoroughly darkened our knowledge of the spiritual world.

Okay, so what does this have to do with St. Demetrius? Well, one of the stories that Fr. Freeman relates has to do with the miraculous events that occur with relics of Saints. Demetrius is one of those saints, whose relics give off a very fragrant myrrh well known for its healing powers. We have been blessed to receive a small amount of that myrrh from the Abbess of the Monastery of the Life Giving Spring in Dunlap, CA. Orthodox Christianity, and by that I mean historic Christianity, understands that Christ saves not only our souls, but the whole world. In the Saints we see that taking place, as the material world is transformed by the penetration, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. In the "modern" world, many who call themselves Christian don't think this stuff happens. Over the years, I've heard of various people who have felt the need to explain why miracles don't happen anymore. Usually it has to do with the fact that the Apostles are no longer walking the earth. However, we need to understand that just because the Apostle's are no longer walking among us, does not mean that God is no longer among us. As the Orthodox pray every morning, "Heavenly King, O Comforter, who art everywhere present and fillest all things..." St. Demetrius is one such example. Our only hope of salvation is precisely that God is with us (hence one of the names for Jesus, Immanuel, or God with us), that He has transformed and will transform the very universe. Our hope is not that we someday will leave the first storey and move to the second, but rather that we will become transformed into the very image of He who is here on the first floor, but who is so often ignored.

For those interested in some Biblical examples of relics, here they are:

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
St. Elisha
St. Paul

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Pop Culture and Christianity

I guess its time to dust the cobwebs off of this blog. There's been a lot to blog about - especially regarding the Episcopal Church - which I will mostly leave alone (although there might be a thing or two to respond to). Of greater interest are a couple of related items, one, sent to me by a friend, and the other, talked about in his blog . The basic question that both of these articles raise is, what is the purpose of worship? Underlying that question is one that is even more significant - what is the purpose of Christianity. Please bear with me as I attempt to develop this thought.

Both of these articles attempt to engage a long standing debate within most denominations about what is appropriate within the context of worship. Even Orthodoxy hasn't been completely immune to such debates, although these are usually limited to discussions around the introduction organs and polyphonic choral music. In order to reach a conclusion about what is appropriate as worship, one must first answer the question of what is the purpose of worship.

One of the things that is relatively new on the scene is worship as a means of evangelism. This seems to go hand in hand with the concept of "making a decision for Jesus," which is a one time event. In this environment, its critical to make everything about the worship as appealing as possible, so that you can "make the sale." At times this leads to a watering down of beliefs, but that is surely not always the case.

However, the older view of worship, like other aspects of the faith - prayer, fasting, almsgiving, etc., is intended to further allow us to "acquire" the Holy Spirit - to allow us to become more conformed to Christ. In this context, we can understand that very secular modifications to worship will probably not allow this to happen. How can we become conformed to Christ if we are so busy conforming our worship to the world?

So, if the purpose of Christianity is really centered on a one time "decision," with little significance attached to what follows, then the style of worship should be allowed to morph and adapt to the present day fads and fashions. If the purpose of Christianity is the process of salvation, then a great deal of concern needs to be centered on the nature of worship and its ability to help us become conformed to Christ.