Internet Monk October 27, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri , trackback
There are some great posts for outsiders to read right now over at Michael Spencer’s Internet Monk.
Reporting on an important mega church’s recent mea culpa, Michael gives voice to something I’ve observed on this blog before about evangelicals:
One of the things I like about being an evangelical is that we can just stop, no matter how big and successful we are, and say, “We’re wrong,” and it doesn’t threaten a thing in our faith.
On that same note, in a post a couple days earlier, he lists “Thirteen Critical Problems Facing Evangelical Christianity.” The post and the long comment thread are a really interesting read.
I really want to see the left get to a place of confidence where it can have that same discussion. Maybe I’ll start it with my own list of Thirteen Critical Problems Facing the Left…but not today.
Internet Monk also has a really interesting post about the changing styles of worship at church:
When I was a teenager, the Charismatic movement was just getting some traction. Raising hands, emotional expression in worship, Pentecostal expressions….these were all new in many churches that were used to nothing more than the “frozen chosen” type of rationalistic worship.
…
Fast forward thirty years.It’s a typical “praise and worship” service for high school and college kids. The band is on stage. Drums. Guitars. Keyboards. Vocalists. Projection. Lights. The whole event.
As the band warms up, a student puts his hands in the air and begins to sway. Before long, a group of students are all swaying their bodies and their hands. Later on, in the “Praise and Worship” service itself, many students are moving. Some are practically dancing. Others are bouncing up and down. The worship expressions are far more varied and free than the occasional Charismatic expression back in my high school days. There is lots of clapping, and some students are engaging in hand motions to the lyrics. Others are moving their heads and shoulders in a kind of “break dancing” motion.
If someone from the seventies were to drop in via time machine, I think they would be amazed at this scene, especially if they saw it in a church setting. Charismatic experience seems to have taken over.
Uhhhh…. just a moment. Not so fast.
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Zack,
You said “I really want to see the left get to a place of confidence where it can have that same discussion.” As far as I can tell, its already at that place. Maybe not everyone or every organization, but I see a lot of honest and thoughtful debate and self-examination in the progressive blogosphere.
Mitch - don’t those conversations usually take the form of one part of the left criticizing another (usually with a good dose of bitterness).
e.g. I’ve seen a lot of (justified) self-congratulation by the netroots. But can you point me to much discussion about where and how the netroots are missing opportunities, repeating old mistakes, etc…?
Zack,
I have a suggestion for one of the 13 critical problems facing the left, especially peace activists (me being one of them).
How does a nation deal with the immanent threat of domination without ourselves becoming dominating? Hitler is our archetypal figure for this threat and is often used as the fatal argument against nonviolence.
I know that nonviolence works to answer this question, but the most prominent historical examples involve certain communities acting from within a society to change it.
I would be interested to hear the nonviolent left work through how our nation, so prone to feeling threatened with apocalypse, could envision nonviolent security.
Zack,
I agree with you to some extent. But as a participant in the Open Left online community founded by “insider” Mike Lux and “outsiders” Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers, my sense is that there’s a trend–at least on that site–toward more honest self-examination amidst the self-congratulations and harsh criticism of DC leadership.
Perhaps I overstated my point. I was focusing more on positive trends I’m seeing (and appreciating), most notably at OL (and the particular OL threads and comments I’m inclined to read and retain), which I think are at least generally reflective of broader trends.
And I will agree with the point you’ve made that the “I’m doing this for God” perspective of many evangelicals tends to be conducive to honest and humble self-examination in ways that may come less readily from the perspectives and attitudes of most secular political activists, whether they be progressive or conservative. To me, that’s a welcome influence, especially if it’s transferable in some healthy form to the secular community.
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