a couple links bumped into each other this week that need comment. first, this friday bill maher's satire film, religulous, hits theaters, and it is sure to be a "borat" type success. i've commented on the bill maher and the film before, but we should be ready for the onslaught of derision. and, from the clips i've seen as previews, he picked the most ridiculous examples of wacky-religion to showcase.

second, robert parham of ethicsdaily.com wrote an editorial on the new atheists (go here), tying the rise of atheism with the crack-up of fundamentalism. one statement was especially to the point:

"Fundamentalists are seen as the God-believers who soil the public square. They are symbols of intolerance and violence. They are intolerant of those inside and outside their faith traditions, those who prioritize a competing set of values. They reject those who see gradations of gray in what should be a world of absolutes—black and white, light and darkness. Diversity and ambiguity are not virtues for fundamentalists."

i weary of trying to explain to questioners why, "we're not like that." but all such explanations are really to no avail. and i guess, by now most of us are used to being painted by the same broad brush.

the genuine response must be to act. that is, to offer threadbare theology in the face to such withering criticism will do nothing but further our demise. said another way, to argue is to lose. our only defense is to participate in the continuing incarnation of that first century carpenter, who loved those who despised him.

this, of course, has nothing to do with a romantic view of the world -- us against them, where we condescend to toss a little help over the wall. no, we are all of us hip-deep in the blood of others, no romance there. and while we argue among ourselves over who has the greatest influence, the most bodies on sunday, the most political clout, or the most cutting-edge ministry, the culture disintegrates before our eyes. children still eat lead paint; they are still bitten by rats and abused by relatives and religionists.

the time for talk is over, and unless and until the church -- and i mean all flavors and versions -- acts credibly toward the watching world, we should just shut-up and take our lumps. we've gottem coming...

Tags: atheism

made at wordle


in today's rapid and radical movement of culture away from all things institutional, which includes christendom as it is expressed in the institutional church, the call is clear for us to find a new missional movement within the community of the faithful -- a new way to follow the christ. (and by "us" i mean those not on the cutting edge, but rather those locked in the remnants of christendom, sometimes called the marginalized)

the rub here is that we are either paralyzed with fear because christendom was our plausibility structure and now we are left adrift cognitively (and sociologically), or we understand the it's a new day but we grieve so deeply for christendom (read nostalgia) that we are paralyzed by confusion over the next step.

there are no easy answers here, believe me. perhaps the best we can do is to move beyond fear toward some sort of faith. (da? ya think?)

now what would this faith look like?

= it would look beyond the past

= it would be willing to put everything on the table, including both doctrine & practice

= it would be willing to act courageously, even at the risk of going out of business (this is happening anyway, so what is there to loose?)

= it would mean we would have to become part of the community that we desire to reach and not a shrinking island of benign neglect

Tags: missional

i want to continue our discussion of the great evangelical crack-up by thinking through one of the comments i received about part one.

big spoon wrote:
"...our best witness is to tell our story, what Jesus and God have (has?) done for us, in a personal and meaningful way. And it matters how we live, because it brings us the most blessings and shows people that there is something different going on in our lives. I just don't think you can start at a better place than that."

i agree with this idea. the possibility of us individually telling our story is perhaps the only way for the gospel to be incarnate or embodied, or earthed in any meaningful way today in the west. however, will we? or will we just talk about it? and if we merely give lip service to the gospel, is it because we do not trust the gospel? or is it because we instinctively feel the intense pressure of hypermodernity and post-christianity?

said another way, are we afraid?

notice, i did not say ashamed. i said afraid. afraid that the gospel will only work in this place that explains the miraculous and the origins of the universe. [this actually goes with yesterday's post] this is the pressure crushing us, and it is powerful.

part of what we feel, i think, is the loss of the plausibility structure that christendom gave us. [for more on this from me go here] as i've said in a earlier post, christendom's death in the west is driving the contraction or marginalization of christianity toward reformation (or extinction?).

this, then actually fits closely with how you end your post:

big spoon wrote:
"Finally, if the era of denominational Christianity is coming to an end, that is a concept I could wrap my arms around and celebrate. If we could all drop our labels and separate traditions and simply focus on the basic truths of what it means to be a Christian, what a step in the right direction that would be."

i agree that denominational christianity has run it's course and that the institutions and structures (the institutional church) is dead. what will arise in the west to replace it remains to be seen, but, even though i'm "not a prophet or the son of a prophet," i predict that your grandchildren will grow up in church that is very, very different from yours and mine.

Tags: christendom

so, yesterday we talked about a newspaper commentary that pointed to the crack-up of the evangelical consensus. also yesterday, the iconoclast, bill maher, appeared on larry king's show to promote his new mocumentary: Religulous

in this segment, maher, an ethicst (read: a moral atheist), has some tough things to say about religionists in general and evangelicals in particular. however, lest we write him off because he differs from us, may i encourage you to see beyond the caustic humor and hear what is actually being said. if you're like me, each sunday morning you drive by 1000's of people who get along very well without benefit of church or christianity. perhaps he is speaking for them?

Tags: christendom

i read an interesting post in tallskinnywiki yesterday. he quoted a newspaper article entitled,

Religion: American Evangelicals, once considered monolithic, are fragmenting

This read reminded me of what i have said here a # of times:

1. we are experiencing the death of christendom
2. evangelicalism is cracking apart before our eyes
3. young evangelicals do not believe like their parents on issues like race, and poverty, and abortion, and climate change, and homosexuality...

the article sites the pew forum's study on the religious landscape (i've posted on this before when i was blogging at vox). this massive study shows, among other things, that nearly 1/2 of all evangelicals believe that people of other religions go to heaven.

probably even more troubling to evangelicals, is when the article raises the fact that they:

"almost never convert a native-born American who wasn't raised in a church. That most evangelical growth comes from stealing sheep from other denominations. And they've stolen about all they can.."

the author, Christine Wicker (who wrote a book on the subject) goes on to write what may be the most poignant and powerful words in the article:

"Conversion tactics also focus on telling people the Good News as though no one else knows it. But most everyone has heard it. Again and again. The trouble is that they aren't convinced. They aren't scared of hell. They aren't hoping for heaven. And Christians haven't been good at giving anyone better reasons than that for following Jesus."

more to come...

Tags: christendom