Gadfly's Muse

Supreme Court to Hear Rights vs. Religion Case - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from a Christian student group that had been denied recognition by a public law school in California for excluding homosexuals and nonbelievers. The case pits anti-discrimination principles against religious freedom.

via www.nytimes.com

Freedom of Religion in a "progressive society"!

Every group has the "right" to determine the rules of membership for its own body. What this kind of situation demonstrates is that the danger of ideological totalitarianism is more of a threat from the so-called liberal side of the culture than it is from the so-called "fundamentalist" right-wingers.

It's not just Christians who should oppose this kind of stuff. Freedom of Religion is intimately related with Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of Assembly. They all stand or fall together. It is not all that long a step from assuming the power to discriminate against Christians based on their beliefs and rounding up all dissenters under the guise of "national security" or "eugenic purity."

Wildlife Management

Every once in a while Nature reminds us that we need to be a bit more humble.  It really isn't up to us to fix everything.  Perhaps we ought to be open to the idea that some of our "solutions" are only the foundation for some other, different problem.

The beaver dam in the foreground was about as impressive as I have ever seen.  The water drop was at least three feet.  Also, if you look closely you can see two beaver condominiums which were hundreds of yards behind the dam.  This whole flat land had been converted into a wonderful little wildlife habitat by some of nature's best engineers.  So, maybe we ought to learn that wildlife management might be best attained by letting the wild life manage.

I recall the oath that stretches all the way back to Hippocrates (I think)... Physician, do no harm.  Maybe if we adopted that for our own individual and corporate lives in the beautiful land God has given us, then we might see some improvements for both us and the creatures.   It really shouldn't be that hard.

Contentment Is Knowing Our Limits....

Psalm 131:1-3 LORD, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me.  2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.  3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever. 

A quiet soul is a gift of God. 

The glow of sunset added shimmering sparkles to the wind-whipped waters of Lake Ontario but it did nothing to soften the chill factor.  Occasional showers were more soft mist than torrents.  The clouds were low and dark. 

Some might have considered it gloomy... and maybe it was... but gloom can have its own charm.

There was a great tension in the moment.  The golden hue'd sunset seemed at odds with the foreboding clouds and showers and that had its effect on the emotions.  The human soul cries out for such tensions to be relieved.  Like the open musical cadence which tugs at our ears until harmonically resolved, so the inconsistent glory of the sunset called for balance from the surrounding sky.... but none was forthcoming.

I don't think it too much of a stretch to trace this same yearning for resolution to other, more transcendent topics also.  I don't think humans can truly be "at home" in this fallen world because of this trait.  We want resolution to the tensions of our lives.  We want to know that the discordant notes of evil resolve into the harmonies of justice.  We wonder how beauty can coexist with so much sordidness, and seemingly only be understood and valued in the contrast.  We wonder about the infinite but we fear what it implies about our own insignificance.

At no point, in this life do these tensions truly ease.  From our youngest inquiry to our oldest musing, the questions really don't change... they just present themselves in greater complexity. 

In the face of such unanswerable questions, how can the soul find rest?  Is it possible to ever be at peace when we are immersed in paradox? Well, .... yes.

The psalmist has discovered the great secret of life... he has discovered that hidden island of peace in the midst of life's ocean of peril.  He has contented himself with what he CAN know and has learned not to occupy himself with questions too profound for his understanding.  "My ways are not your ways" the Lord GOD said.  It is enough to know that all seeming paradoxes find their yea and amen in Him.  It is comforting to know that evil has an answer, that beauty is eternal and that the colors of the sunset are the promise of tomorrow in the face of today's darkness.  When Jesus said that we must have the faith of a child, he was pointing at this simple assurance... that God is God, that we are not, and that there are things that we must accept without fully comprehending.  The finite never attains the infinite. 

To be at peace requires only that we cease striving and know... that... He is God.

Little Boys and Trains

One of the great benefits of being a grandparent is that one can do the things one always wanted to do as a kid and excuse it as "showing the kids a good time."  Sometimes the kids even enjoy it too.

Trains were made for little boys.  Ranking right up there alongside watching a campfire, the mesmerizing effect of watching a train pass is genetically ingrained in the masculine DNA.  Most of the grand old steam engines were gone when I was a kid.  The really big ones worked all through World War II but were fazed out starting shortly after that war ended.  By the time I was five or six, just the age for fascination, diesels reigned supreme.  Many times, late at night, though it was about 3 miles away,  I could hear the midnight run pulling on down to the station, running from Meridian through Hattiesburg to points well south.  It was all freight, coal, timber and Masonite products from the plant in Laurel, but that only made for a more full bodied melody.  The passenger run, the Crescent flying down to New Orleans from Washington, D. C. pulled through Hattiesburg at 4:30 pm and the sound was inaudible above the daytime noise.  Passenger trains sing high tenor anyway.  Freight trains, with a 100 cars in tow, are all bass with a nice, steady clackity-clack rhythm keeping every thing honest.

But, as is common with greying memories, I digress.  Being a grand-parent ("paw-paw" in steadfast consistency with my Southern roots), I considered it absolutely essential to a well rounded education that my three grand-girls, two grandsons and their respective fathers, be presented at court at the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road Museum in Baltimore.  I am not entirely sure if they loved it as much as I did... but that is entirely irrelevant.  It was necessary.... 

Anytime I am sandwiched between three big rigs on highway 83 heading North out of Knoxville, my nostalgia for the old days of railroad pre-eminence reaches full blast.  It is a shame that these kids will never really have the opportunity to sit on the river bank, next to a trestle, and simply dream along with the lumbering cars.  Their life is more attuned to the highway: frenetic, chaotic and pulse pounding.  A train is melancholy, wistful and dreamy.  It's the stuff of summer afternoons, warm and lazy, with "nothing to do" as the highest ambition and crowning glory of childhood.  That life seems as far away and alien as Jupiter now.

But at the museum, looking at those marvelous exhibits, touching the grand old beasts, picturing them in their glory, belching smoke and steam, it was almost like being on the old Leaf River again...  I commend the experience and the museum to all of those whose soul is not quite dead yet... for whom romance is forever linked to works of art posing as locomotives, who can hear a song in a whistle.

Schoenberg: An Acquired Taste?....... Naaaah!

Listen to Pierrot Lunaire here! (The occasion for this post)

Entering into the dark domains of musical criticism is a surefire means of arousing contempt no matter what position one takes nor the degree of actual expertise that one possesses in advancing it.  As to the latter, actual expertise, I offer no defense or apology.  In formal academic, specialized knowledge, I have little to none.  My only qualifications consist in a lifetime of varied musical exposure, appreciation and some degree of personal probing.  I am a bit beyond the "I know what I like..." attitude when it comes to art but no one would ever mistake me for an expert... on much of anything.

However I am convinced of one basic premise.  Music is communication beyond words though obviously words may be included.  Something basic goes on in the human animal when music is encountered.  The physical phenomenon of "resonance" seems metaphorically appropriate to describe it in my mind.  Something in our psyche "resonates" in conformity with or in response to sounds ordered in such a way as to be called music.  It is more than rhythm, motifs, melody, cadence, etc.  It is the aroused response, perhaps necessary and inevitable, evoked by those sounds that gains the appropriate emotional framework in the listener.  A hymn works to orient a person's emotional being to that which should correspond to the tone and intent of the lyrics.  One does not lull a baby to sleep with a Sousa march.... but one does sense the surge of patriotic feeling that perhaps inclines us to join the ranks and advance to the Cause.  Music does this far more efficiently than a ranting demagogue.

But from the days of Pythagoras to the present, the question "what is music?" has plagued and confounded virtually everyone who tries to nail the subject down.  Is there a difference between the sounds we call "music" and the sounds we encounter on a busy urban street?  Some would say "No" - I am of the opinion "Yes".

To me, as I previously stated, music is communication... it is emotional language conveyed in sound as painting is emotional language conveyed in the visible.  If so, there has to be some controls on the sound such that actual communication is achieved.  And here is where the arrows start flying.  To me, communication cannot happen if a mutual structure for intelligibility is not granted.  I and the speaker have to understand English before communication between us occurs in that language.  There is a fundamental parallel in music.

But music does not directly impinge on the intellect as spoken languages do.  Spoken languages employ symbols, called words, which correspond to intellectually granted concepts (Wittgenstein beware).  Music appeals to the emotional responses and seeks resonance with them.  Hence, one might say, that any sound which achieves such resonance may therefore be properly called "music."  I would reply "Sometimes, perhaps, but not necessarily."  It is here that another observation is warranted.

Immanuel Kant saw, and I agree, that a basic distinguishing element in the human condition, that which separates us from animals, is that we must see patterns, we must discover order, in the impinging sensations that come at us from the world.  Humans see things in terms of "cause/effect", "physical laws", "moral imperatives."  He observed that life consists of being impacted daily by all kinds of sensations and that automatically humans sort those sensations, categorize them, and discover some kind of order in them.  In short, human kind cannot tolerate chaos even as nature abhors a vacuum.

Here is where I think we begin to see the outlines of how "music" may be used to describe a particular set of impinging sounds.  "Music" requires that the sounds be "ordered" in some intelligible manner such that it will correspond to (hence "resonate" with) the essential human characteristic of requiring order so that we may "understand."  In the chaos of a street, the human mind will automatically reject the majority of sounds such that we "hear" the cry of our child.  We filter out "noise" and seek "meaning". If we are awaiting a trolley we "hear" the distinctive bell as it approaches... otherwise it is rejected. 

We hear "music" when some kind of "order" (which may or may not be to our "taste") is present.  By definition "chaos" is not "order" and hence it cannot function as "music."

Arnold Schoenberg: were his pivotal contributions to the 20th century world of art music?  For that which he is most famous... I would say "no" in the same manner that I would not say that ingesting sand in a sandstorm is the same as tasting a fine single malt scotch.  Just because it impinges the palette does not mean that it is good whiskey, or even whiskey at all.  Schoenberg's atonality is chaos.  Chaos is not music.  It is not an acquired taste... it is, after all, a failure to communicate.

My Review of Rosedale Expandable Arbor

SimplyArbors.com

The Rosedale Expandable Arbor is a well-proportioned and handsomely detailed pergola-style arbor. This arbor is constructed with beautiful Western Red Cedar, which is naturally resistant to moisture and insects. Leave the cedar wood as-is for a natural weathered gray look over time, or treat wit...

Rosedale Expandable Arbor

Nice product, damaged in shipment

Gadfly Severna Park, MD 6/9/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Attractive Design

Best Uses: Decoration

Describe Yourself: Handyman

The package arrived with a bit of wear (some tears, etc.) Upon opening it looked like someone had stood on it because some of the cross slats were broken. I called the number that was on the box and it connected to the manufacturer, not Simply Arbors. The manufacturer said that they would send a replacement side but I have not rec'd it yet.

()

Chastened By Grace

[Hanging Orchids, Longwood Gardens, Pa.

2009 JAVanDevender]

 Deuteronomy 8:2-6   2 "And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.  4 "Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.  5 "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.  6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

The LORD you God allowed you to hunger, and (then) fed you with manna which you did not know....  What an incredible shift in perspective this must have required of those who went through the desert with Moses.  The Lord who loves us, who brought us out of Egypt, who delivered us from all manner of threats, who showed Himself to us at Sinai, who led us by day with a pillar of smoke, and comforted us with His presence at night by a pillar of fire...  This God ALLOWED us to hunger... so that... so that ... He could feed us in a way we have never imagined or known...  Truly this God’s ways are higher than ours, far above our thinking and imagining...  Truly we need to KNOW in our HEART that as a man chastens his son, whom he loves, so the LORD our God chastens us.

Can anything truly be added to that?  Certainly not by me.  The instruction is so clear, the application so immediate, the principle so well established... that all any of us can do is bear witness to its truth.

God’s love for us is so great that He will “allow” us to hunger just so that He can then turn around and nourish us with a new demonstration of His provision, a new perspective on His glory, a new insight into His wisdom, a new sunrise in our darkness.    Truly this is chastening by grace.  Yet when we are the ones who are hungry.... oh boy does that make it different in our minds.  Immediately we begin casting around for someone, something, to blame.  Why are YOU doing this to ME? is the question that immediately springs up in our minds even if we are ashamed to voice it with our lips.  All our vaunted wisdom and spiritual maturity crumbles around us when WE are the ones being chastened.  We don’t see it as grace... to us it is anger, spitefulness, injustice.   But then, when the manna falls and we again begin to see God’s providence at work, then and perhaps only then, do we begin to change.  Maybe only a little, maybe a whole bunch... but ... it happens. 

And we learn: our lives are not tied up in “bread alone.”  We don’t exist as objects of pampering.  Providing for every comfort in our lives would leave us stale, stagnant, decrepit and lame.  But God’s ways... now there is wisdom... are the ways of life and growth and wonder.  What a mighty God we serve.  In the words of that South which no longer exists... “who’d ‘ve ever thunk it?” 

Have you thanked God today for the chastening of His grace?   Maybe we ought to do it now.

The Problem of Right & Wrong

Psalm 49:16-20  16 Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased;  17 For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him.  18 Though while he lives he blesses himself (For men will praise you when you do well for yourself),  19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see light.  20 A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish.

A man, though he be held in great honor among his peers, his contemporaries... though he be lauded in the press and awarded prizes for his “contributions”... though all manner of earthly significance is accorded him... if he does not understand... is no different than a beast!

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently on this whole business of “doing rightly.”  The Scriptures seem to think it’s pretty important (Rev. 22:14 comes to mind).  In fact, apart from “doing rightly” there doesn’t seem to be much hope that we can even trust that we have faith (James 1:22-27, especially v. 26).  But, as this Psalm tells us, woe be to the man who “does rightly”, even to the point of gaining glory from men for his great deeds, but “does not understand.”  That man (this is scary thought) is no different than an ox or a dog or ... hang on... even a cat.  So, “doing right things” apart from “understanding rightly” is ultimately an exercise in futility.

So.... how might it fit together and “who cares?”  I care and all the rest of us do also at some point although we might go for days, weeks, months or years without thinking about it.  The Bible is not a rule book when you get right down to it.  God knows .. boy does He ever... that if He gives us a bunch of hard and fast, specific, black and white, rules and tells us “Do this and you will live” that two things will happen: First we will completely lose sight of God in doing them ( we won’t UNDERSTAND) and secondly - we won’t do them and therefore will fall into despair because we have blown it... again.... and again.

So God gives us commandments and statutes and instructions and advice and an overwhelming amount of teaching to go along with them.  He sends prophets and teachers and His Son to explain things.  He reaches out to us over time and space and calls us to Himself in the midst of our lives - and in all of that He says over and over again... Do good... but the only good you can do is that which flows from understanding.  Sometimes - show mercy.  Other times... demand justice.  There is a time to kill... there is a time to heal.  Understanding!... that’s the “problem” of right and wrong.  It’s seeing Christ in every question and responding to Christ in every instance and evoking Christ in every conversation and dying to Christ in every moment.  Only then does the whole “problem” even begin to make sense.  We want “black and white”... God gives us a Person.  It’s a puzzlement but it is “a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Jesus lvs u & hs a grate pln 4 ur lfe

I wonder how the modern phenomenon of “text messaging” is affecting us, especially our kids? 

Functional literacy in adults in the USA, according to a 2004 National Endowment for the Arts study, declined by more than 10% during the twenty years between 1982 & 2002.  An interesting corollary to this statistic is that associated with this decline is a general contempt for the correct spelling or grammar usage.  Those who have their ill use of language brought to their attention generally disparage the correction, usually pointing out that “you know what I meant”.

What seems to be lost on our modern culture is the way language shapes and informs our thinking processes.  The degree to which language enables thought as well as reflects it, is only dimly understood but the synergistic effect is well established.  What should be a concern to us is that poor language skills not only reflect poor thinking capacities but actually hinder or perpetuate them.  The specific thing that concerns me in this meditation is “What does it say about our ability to deal with the language of the Scriptures if the focus of our ordinary communication is through the language of text messaging?”  Quite frankly, it scares me.

We Have Seen That The Lord Is With You!

[photo, DJohanson, 2009]
Genesis 26:28-29   28 But they said, "We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,  29 'that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.' "

Abimilech is an interesting character.  A minor Palestinian potentate of no great world significance, he ruled where he could, bowed and scraped where he must and generally dealt with life as it came.  Pragmatic to the core he was not one of those reflective types who spent a great deal of time thinking and pondering the abstract questions of life, at least in my estimation.  As with Isaac’s father Abraham before him, Abimilech was interested in protecting his own rear end and furthering his own interests.  Abraham and now Isaac were powerful clan chieftains and they could muster quite an effective little army if they needed.  Certainly Chedolaomer, King of Elam, had discovered that earlier (Gen. 14) and Abimilech was not one to let such a lesson in history pass unnoticed.

So I don’t think there was a great deal of mystical, theological and spiritual insight that prompted this particular confession by Abimilech to Isaac.  The evidence that the “LORD is with you” and the Isaac was “blessed of the LORD” did not arise from an in depth course in discipleship.  It came about because Abimilech could not deny what was plain to his eyes and which his inherent prudence demanded he understand.  This man Isaac, like his father Abraham before him, has something going for him and it was in his best interest that he not be provoked to action or alliance against him.

Never the less, there is an abstract propositional truth that lies behind the confession.  God’s people should and ought to, be the sphere in which the power of God as well as the Word of God is evident to the eyes of even the unbelieving world.  In weakness they should show forth strength that speaks to a Supernatural source.  In persecution they should show forth and unexpected courage and resolve, like Stephen, that bears witness and wins converts and transforms the world, bearing witness that they are the “blessed of the LORD.”  In prosperity they should be always pointing beyond themselves to the source of their provision and then using the fruits of prosperity in a manner which again, testifies to the goodness of their God.

These things and others like them, should set Christians apart.  They are, by that Divine connection, a thorn in the side of those outside the Kingdom.  There will be those who seek to abuse them and those like Abimilech who seek to use them, but they will not go unnoticed.  The power of God will not remain unknown even if it remains invisible. 

The question is, are we opening our lives to the LORD as did Abraham and Isaac.  Are we walking in a strange world, among the people who live there, and bearing witness that our God is sustaining us, upholding us, and strengthening us until the day that ALL that we see will be OURS?  Are we depending on God so that the eyes of the world will discover that God is faithful to those who depend on Him? 

Such was Abraham and Isaac’s calling and Abimilech was not unaffected by the way they fulfilled it.  Perhaps, all that is wanting in this land of ours, is that the people of God should start living as if their very lives depended on the God they served.  Who knows who might be watching?

Raw Exuberance: The Early Louis Armstrong

{Public Domain, Louis Armstrong]
At the height of his powers, Satchmo never rose to the heights of purely technical competence of, say, Wynton Marsalis, yet when it comes to the legends of Jazz, it is Louis who will remembered as "the greatest!" 

In random rotation this morning, Armstrong's "Indiana" surfaced on my IPOD being routed through the BOSE speakers in my car.  I couldn't help it... the volume had to come up.  As the sheer joy of the music shakes away the morning blah's, that weary ennui that ordinarily requires a caffeine high to finally sever its bonds, it was impossible to keep back a smile and a tear.

Nostalgia can be a near fatal disease in men of advancing age and I am certainly not exempt from its infection, but it is hard not to slip into a bitter sweet longing for a time when a young man of dubious roots could rise out of the raging cauldron of Old New Orleans and become a legend in his own time.

I don't think Armstrong's appeal and popularity are hard to explain.  It certainly isn't rooted in his exemplary personal life.  He was a black jazz musician in an age of Jim Crow.  He had money and a musical place in the Depression.  He lived in a constant tension of competing desires and was, as was necessary, a man of passions.  His world was entirely different than that of Glenn Miller and he lived entirely differently.  That is not where his greatness lies.

What sums up Armstrong, in my mind, is the title of this piece:  raw exuberance.  The message of his music is a commentary on his own world view:  life is to be lived, gulped in great quantities, and without too many backward glances at "what might have been."  Perhaps Satchmo was truly most alive on the stage for it was there that he read his audience like a well worn novel.  He played the talents of his musicians on stage with him the same way he wheezed his vocals or strained his trumpet.  He freely gave them their head and the lead, adding his own trumpet as a commentary and conclusion. In execution, lyrics were something that went along with the melodies and were never allowed to get in the way.  Mixing up verses or simply resorting to vocalizing the jazz riffs kept attention where he wanted it, on the energy of the music itself and the life of living that it proclaimed.  Louis was Jazz...

With all its failures and hypocrisy, still it is hard not to be nostalgic for a time when men clung to joy in the face of a world that proclaimed the ultimacy of sorrow and despair.  Armstrong never let go of joy and firmly believed that though hidden, yet it would not remain so forever.  Only pure simplicity can hold that for long, and in Armstrong's raw exuberance, pure simplicty is always dominant.  There is something to be said for that... and though falling far short of Christian fullness, as a worldly philosophy it has more to commend it than many others. 

As I listen my heart responds... "Thanks Louis.  May you rest in peace."

Let Your Mind Dwell On These Things- Christians and Art

[Christmas Wreath, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Philippians 4:8  whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.

One of the more unhealthy aspects of our modern culture is an warped view of "realism."  I suppose a lot of it stems from the residue overflowing out of the academic sphere, where the conscious attempt to "de-mythologize" cultural issues is so smugly present.  Those infected with this predisposition take it upon themselves to make certain that nothing and no individual is ever presented as fundamentally 'noble'. 

Thus "realism" is understood as emphasizing that individuals, life, history, etc. are all essentially comprised of an essential sordidness.  Great heroes, especially Dead European/White Males are always presented as "flawed" men, people of their time, who may have stumbled into greatness but at root do not possess any special qualities which might raise them above the herd.  From this last statement, you can readily see that, from my perspective, the great attempt at "leveling" is always an attempt at reductionism, lowering the bar of striving.  If everyone is sordid then there is no reason to emulate anyone else and certainly no reason to try to achieve heroic status ourselves. 

The first thing that is lost in this perspective is "hope" because "hope does not disappoint" (Rom. 5:5) and this rooted and foundational cynicism is essentially "hopeless" and therefore "disappointed."  The proof of this last statement is self-evident.

However it is our Christian duty to not fall into this trap.  And no where is it more important for us to avoid this than in the arts.  Yes, I know that the presence of evil in this world requires Christian art as true art, to reflect the reality of misery.  But reflecting misery and portraying it as sordid and hopeless are not identical propositions.  Misery does not dominate this life unless we are hopeless.  In the presence of even the greatest difficulty, Paul enjoins us to let our mind dwell on noble things.  Contemplating great art is an exercise in renewing hope for it is the communication of beauty, even in the presence of pain.  The best artists never lost hope though they lived in terrible times.  It is a feature of modern cynicism that such a basic idea is now viewed as sentimental rather than "real."

 Let your mind dwell on this - there is beauty and it is possible for human beings to be noble.  Jesus was a man, a true man, as well as God.  It was not His divinity that made Him noble - it was He that made His humanity noble - and through Him, though sinner we may be, nobility of heart and mind are attainable in this life and guaranteed in the next.

Perhaps our art ought to thus express itself.

[Jacob van Ruisdale_Windmill & Town]

The Fruits of Lawlessness Abounding

2 Thessalonians 2:7-8  7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.  8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

1 John 3:4   Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

There is a disturbing survey posted at BREITBART.COM (thanks Shane for the link).

There it is reported that the degree of lawlessness among American teens is truly "alarming."  They polled 30,000 young folks and discovered that lying, cheating and stealing is part of the lifestyle of about 30% of the teen age population.  Most disturbing is that those youngsters in religious private school demonstrate the same behavior patterns.  The only group that shows a better record are those in non-religious private schools, an interesting and perplexing data point.

We might begin to wring our hands at this and wonder how this circumstance has arisen.  We might point to the cynical nature of much modern music and cultural influences (video games that make lawless behavior the means of "winning").  I don't think we need go that far.  We only need look at the trees from which these young folks are the fruit.  When we do it is not quite so much a problem "out there" anymore.

A single, seemingly trivial example might suffice.  It is no longer unusual, when I am at a particular intersection I often cross, to have the first car in the oncoming lane to accelerate quickly and with tires squealing make an illegal left turn in front of me.  It is irritating to the max but my irritation is not the worst consequence.  What this behavior reveals, in the adult driving the other car, is a fundamental conviction that "it's OK if I can get away with it."  The driver most like is not at the intersection for the first time.  He/she could have gone another, slightly more circuitous route and avoided this intersection, but they chose not to.  This is conditioned behavior stemming from past experience.  It is lawlessness.

When Jesus speaks of those who have been faithful "in little" being given much in the way of responsibility in privilege, His words are directed at the little things in life.  The ordinary circumstance when someone is not looking, that opportunity for self-gratification or enhancement in some form is possible, but which is illegal, immoral or both, is in view.  Being faithful then requires an idea that virtue is its own reward, that integrity is more important than convenience, that breaking the least of the commandments and teaching others to do the same, by example or precept, is specifically condemned by Christ Himself.

Christians today need to awaken to the call for personal holiness in detail.  To be sanctified unto the Lord is to turn away from lawlessness in all its wickedness at every level.  How can we expect our teens to honor Christ with their lives as well as their lips when they see the wicked prospering at every turn and people, even their own role models, not taking notice nor speaking against it.

We have a problem.... a generation of vipers is not born from parents who are sheep.  We need to fix it... now.

Powerful But Dangerous - a Review of "The Shack"

"The Shack" has a great many good qualities and a few very dangerous ones. It is a simply written, highly imaginative, vividly portrayed sketch of a man's individual spiritual journey to wholeness in the face of very real, extraordinarily difficult circumstances. If for nothing else, this book is to be commended for taking what may be the rawest kind of life circumstances and dealing with their very real and lasting effects on our spiritual and emotional person. What it states, very powerfully, is that through Christ, men and women can find peace after great horror.

Furthermore, as a pastor and Seminary instructor, I can say that this author has a wonderful gift for presenting very difficult theological concepts in a carefully accessible manner. His presentation of the what it means to be in union with Christ, the manner in which God's love transforms an individual (regeneration) and that which theologians call "the covenant of redemption", the purpose and economy of the Triune God in accomplishing the Divine purpose in history, is quite impressive.

These things make this book very powerful and, with adequate precautions, very useful for lay instruction and illustration.

Then there is the dangerous side. First, and perhaps most important, is the significant imbalance of the portrait of God painted in it. Though never quite expressed, the book pretty much affirms universal salvation. Surprisingly, it is man who is in the judgment seat in this portrayal, God having already judged all men as guilty but also having forgiven them and reconciled them to Himself. The scriptural bounds on this position are not adequately expressed at all. In this book God is overly sentimental and simplified. There is no hint of God as He is presented in (say) the book of Judges. The God of the universe, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit are not very far removed from Seinfield and Friends in their mannerisms and interaction. Certainly some of this is acknowledged as God's condescension to man in appearing to him in such a way as to minister to him, but it is very over done.

Further there is the unscriptural and, in my opinion, quite wrong, portrayal of the Trinity. Though he strives to avoid this, the author skirts the edge of idolatry. There is a reason why God commanded that we are to make no graven images of His person. It is because all such images will not only fall short of accuracy but will in fact lead us astray. The portrayal of God the Father in the images in this book is a serious departure from this general rule and is quite prone to distortion. I do not believe that we are free to play with the metaphors God uses to describe Himself nor that we are free to downplay some of His attributes in preference to others. There is more than a little of this in this book.

Though the author strives for balance yet he falls short of presenting Jesus as pre-eminent in the life of man. Jesus is not central in his presentation though it is often stated that He is central in God's understanding. God the Father and the Holy Spirit are more so. Here again the metaphors work against the author. Both God the Father and the Holy Spirit are portrayed as warm, empathetic women who are naturally more easily empathetic. Jesus comes across as wonderful but a bit bumbling in his humanity and thus loved and loving but a bit less wonderful. This is a serious problem to me.

Next, evil in this book is entirely a result of man's choosing autonomy for himself and all misery in this world flows from that. Certainly, this is true in one sense but not in every sense. The person of Satan is entirely absent from this portrayal. So is any hint that God regards any one person, no matter what their spiritual state, any differently than others. Evil is presented as negation, the absence of good, rather than a positive force. There is truth in this but not the whole truth.

Lastly, this author falls seriously short in his understanding of the Church and the place of organized Christianity in the Kingdom of God. This regrettable tendency is rampant in our culture and is conducive to a very stilted Christianity, far short of that picture painted for us in Scriptures. God in this book comes perilously close to endorsing all religious feelings and sentiments, whether Christian or not, as pathways to Himself. I cannot comprehend how the author could allow this.

All in all, again, this book has much to commend it. The commendable things are self-evident in the reading and I have not commented on them as much because of that. The things which detract from the book are not so evident and hence, in my estimation, much more dangerous because of it. It must be read with caution.

The Path Less Traveled....

[photo - DJohanson, 2008]

This extraordinary photograph so captures the eye that that mind is immediately drawn into it.  The pathway is not smooth, it is narrow and apparently treacherous, but the promise of the horizon in the distance is that treasures await at the end.  It is as if there is a gentle voice that calls one onward.  "Keep coming, keep going, one step in front of the other.  Enjoy the beauty that is all around you but nothing compares to the beauty that lies ahead."

Jesus, of course, used this idea of a "narrow path" in his illustration of the two "ways" of this dispensation.  There is that path, often and numerously trod, that is wide and easy to walk.  It's delights are entirely ephemeral and deceitful.  The prospects of its horizon are murky at best because the promises of that road cannot ever be fulfilled.  Fleshly pleasures pass, all too quickly, and, in the dark moments in between, the nagging suspicion of their emptiness causes many a worried eye to scan the horizon ahead for assurance.  But none are forthcoming.

The other "way" of this eon, is the strenuous uphill path with many stones to turn your ankle and the solemn reality of a steep crossing incline that threatens both above and below.  Here, the way is not crowded for few there are that walk it, but in the words of the old song, they never "walk alone."  The comforts along this path are real but not to be mistaken with those fleshly ones of the other path.  There is an austere beauty, a sharp severity to life on this walk.  The cool air is bracing but induces the shivers.  The awesome vistas constantly inspire the mind but they also constantly remind us of our relative puniness.  

But always, there is the promise of the horizon.  The sharp line of the summit where the road turns downward and easy to walk.  Where the view is complete and we know even as we are fully known and the mountain of delight communicates its truth, gorgeous and eternal, to our every sense.

Such are the thoughts that come to mind as I ponder this image and I do not think the meditation is too far removed from Jesus' intent in forming His metaphor which seems so self-evident.

Keep walking... it is and always will be, worth it.