jump to navigation

Porneo, pleonexia and eutrapelia February 8, 2009

Posted by Zack in Michigan | 10 comments

When I started exploring churches, I was surprised more than anything else by the 15-minute-long sermon tangents about translation problems and nuances of single Greek or Hebrew words in the Bible. I’d look around and marvel that the 500 or 5,000 people in the church had actually gotten up early on a Sunday for this: a class in ancient literature and history. Many would be taking notes, and sometimes all had their personal Bibles, well worn with study.

Mars Hill Church pastor Rob Bell last week gave a sermon consisting almost entirely of such tangents. I’ve posted a few of them below to give people outside Jesusland an taste of what I’m talking about.

Rob was speaking on a passage from Paul’s letter to the people of Ephesus. Read the passage and then listen to the clips I include below where Rob peels back the current meanings of the English words chosen by modern translators.

Ephesians, Chapter 5:1-8

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Now listen to Rob:


Sexual immorality ~ Porneo


Coarse joking ~ Pleonexia Eutapelia


Static vs. Creative “inheritance”


Wrath ~ Orge

My question to any Christian scholars who might be reading this: Is Rob stretching? Can this much really be known precisely about how Jews in the first century were using these Greek words?

The only thing wrong with Wikipedia February 1, 2009

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 4 comments

is that there are hyperactive wikipedians who delete articles because their subjects aren’t ‘notable’ enough.

I was just looking for info on the New Earth Coffee house, which closed before we moved to Kansas City. Every now and then I hear about it. But there’s no info anywhere on its story. There was a wikipedia article once, but wikipedian ‘HappyMe22‘ deleted it. And he’s a Christian — a Presbyterian even! Now, what is a nice Presbyterian doing going around deleting other people’s articles?

UPDATE: Found this one article…

Saw Gran Torino this morning January 26, 2009

Posted by Zack in Michigan | write a comment

We went to see Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino this morning at the $4 special matinee.

What an amazingly well-done movie. It was great. But it needs to be said that one bad thing about the movie is it sets up the Eastwood character as this white savior in a low income neighborhood that’s mainly black and Hmong. The not-so-subtle message is that European American culture is superior (he saves, plans, works hard, keeps up his house, etc… while everyone else is just kind of lost to chaos and laziness). A great connection could have been made between the ultimate gang violence of America’s Asian wars and the neighborhood gang violence (the central story of the film) of some of the children of American’s most unfortunate victims and proxy fighters in the Vietnam war.

Nevertheless, it was incredibly satisfying to watch scenes of a Hmong girl schooling Eastwood when he asks, “Why didn’t you people stay over there?” And she says, “We fought on your side, and when you lost, we were f**ked and everyone was going to kill us. So we had to come here.”

I’m eagerly awaiting:

  1. any reviews/reactions from anyone in the Hmong community;
  2. a review by Thom Stark on the violence/non-violence message.

Secret worlds January 24, 2009

Posted by Zack in Uncategorized | 2 comments

OK — here’s something. But then look below to see how Neil Gaiman said the same thing (at least of the first half), but in three sentences and way better! I just saw the Gaiman quote yesterday before I was about to post this.

The most important thing to remember is the infinity of the person sitting next to you on the bus, or the person bagging your groceries, or your mother.

It’s a good way to remind yourself of the truth of the principal of equal worth of all people. If you’re anything like me, you need a reminder too every now and then.

Every human brain is a universe of trillions of neurons. Even each one of those neurons is a whole world in itself, with millions of mysterious systems that still have scientists shrugging their shoulders.

These days any desktop computer with the right software can simulate a whole galaxy of stars. Astronomers plug in the positions of all the stars and the computer says exactly where they’ll be in a thousand years or a million. A galaxy is simple. The brain of the kid who sewed the tag into my t-shirt, on the other hand, is bigger and more complex than a whole universe of galaxies.

What does that mean? It means that, just like me, he has dreams in full color that he will only vaguely remember when he wakes up—dreams that would be Oscar-winning films if only they could somehow be extracted. It means that his internal musings on the meaning of life—which in his case were particularly fruitful from ages nine to eleven when the sweatshop had him mostly working on the quieter machines facing the windows—are rich enough to fuel an entire religion. If you’re not buying it, then put the book down for a minute and think back hard to some of the stuff you used to think about when you were nine. Remember it? Remember how big it was? It’s possible you’ve forgotten, because don’t we all know that nine year olds are not deep philosophers or dreamers of beautiful stories?

It’s a cruel thing that words are the only medium that most of us have to share the universes of our minds with other people. A feeling is worth a thousand billion words. There’s simply no way to really convey what goes on in our minds, even with the people we spend our lives with. Though there is no way out of this isolation, many religions have a beautiful way of dealing with it. They have an abbreviation for the infinity of the mind: God.

That’s why I fell in love with the Christians, once I got to know them. Because even those ridiculous ones, the ones with the giant planks coming out of their eyes who are always trying to pick specs out of yours — even they will admit to the infinity of your soul while they are damning it to hell.

In one version of heaven that I have heard preached in the churches I’ve been visiting, everyone who has ever lived will be resurrected into healthy, strong bodies with newly sharpened minds. Our job will be to worship God and enjoy each other. It will go on forever and we will all get to know each other infinitely.

I like that version of heaven. That kid from the sweat shop and I will talk for several lifetimes until we have pulled up every forgotten dream. And we’ll do that with everyone who’s ever lived. You and I will hang out for hundreds of years, joking around, composing poems, making movies and laying around in the grass looking at star filled skies (if there are grass and stars — I hope there will be).

Christians believe that God has a plan for humanity on Earth. We’re building toward Heaven, but it’s more than that. I’m still trying to understand. But the Bible doesn’t say anything about what God’s plan will be once everyone is resurrected and the New Heaven and New Earth are in full swing. Surely he’s got something up his sleeve, and another Bible will have to be written then.

And the image I had when I was writing that thing was of universe-sized minds connected only by thin lines of words. This picture is by a guy with a geek comic called xkcd.

What next? January 23, 2009

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 12 comments

Sorry for the long hiatus! I got busy. Also, it felt like I was in an infinite loop here. My purpose with this blog was to show my “secular”, atheist, agnostic, liberal christian friends back in DC, NY, SF, etc. something about this alternate universe of the changing evangelical church—and how, within it, along with a lot of bad old baggage, there’s something really, really good and new happening. Well, I convinced them. And so now what do I do? Maybe I should call it quits here? My work is done.

On the other hand, a whole bunch of Christians are reading the blog. Why are you guys reading? I have really enjoyed the conversation and connection. I’d love to kind of restart it in the mode of the millions of cool Christian blogs out there.

I’ve felt a lot of essays percolating up, and maybe I should be posting here, working them out here. Essays about:

What do you think?

Homer’s Coffee House, Overland Park, KS November 22, 2008

Posted by Zack in Kansas | 6 comments

HomersDispatch from the alternate universe. After trying out the new Indian Restaurant that’s getting raves, we stopped by a Christian Coffee house we’d heard about, Homer’s Coffee House. I’ve been getting some good writing done here.

At first glance, it looks like any other coffee house. But look a little closer and you’ll notice that the 12 year old kid on the couch is memorizing Bible verses. A couple of men sitting alone are studying Bibles. I’m guessing the big group of women with note pads out are some kind of church small group.

Anyways, it’s a great coffee house. Comfy, clean, good coffee and not playing any bad music.

More Layoffs at Focus on the Family November 18, 2008

Posted by Zack in Colorado | 11 comments

For several years, James Dobson’s anger-driven on-air politics has been driving away the mainstream love-focused Focus on the Family audience. Apparently it’s starting to show on their bottom line. This article doesn’t say anything about donations from members falling, but I’m guessing they’ve got to be going down.

Focus on the Family announced this afternoon that 202 jobs will be cut companywide — an estimated 20 percent of its workforce. Initial reports bring the total number of remaining employees to around 950.

Focus on the Family is poised to announce major layoffs to its Colorado Springs-based ministry and media empire today. The cutbacks come just weeks after the group pumped more than half a million dollars into the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in California.

Critics are holding up the layoffs, which come just two months after the organization’s last round of dismissals, as a sad commentary on the true priorities of the ministry.

I’ve met a lot of people who have relied on Focus on the Family’s parenting and marriage shows and materials who have become increasingly alienated by FOTF’s angry political agenda. Most non-religious liberals would be very surprised by some of the mainstay content the group provides. The parenting materials, for example, focus on the importance of showing children “unconditional love” and teach parents not to punish children for childish mistakes. Much of the marriage advice given to husbands—often by women—sounds downright feminist, believe it or not, for example reminding men that the Bible also teaches husbands to submit to their wives.

For years, FOTF was one long, continuous, cheery stream of socially conservative but therapeutically liberal self-help and affirmation. And then suddenly James Dobson started frothing at the mouth. More and more, he crowded out feel-good programs with hysterical anger about things like “the Homosexual Agenda!” I’m guessing a big chunk of the grassroots funding base is walking away.

Starving in America November 18, 2008

Posted by Zack in | 1 comment

One in eight Americans “struggling to feed themselves” this year…from the AP:

Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year’s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

The department’s annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than 50 percent above the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.

Overall, the 36.2 million adults and children who struggled with hunger during the year was up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. That was 12.2 percent of Americans who didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food.

Almost a third of those, 11.9 million adults and children, went hungry at some point. That figure has grown by more than 40 percent since 2000. The government says these people suffered a substantial disruption in their food supply at some point and classifies them as having “very low food security.” Until the government rewrote its definitions two years ago, this group was described as having “food insecurity with hunger.”

Read the whole story.

Study: Election created new ‘values voter’ November 17, 2008

Posted by Zack in DC | 1 comment

Congratulations to Faith in Public Life for sponsoring this great survey around the elections. This really helps to underline a shift that a lot of us have been seeing anecdotally.

This from the Christian Science Monitor:

Americans painted a new picture of the “values voter” in the recent election.

They rejected the “culture wars,” with its narrow agendas and liberal-conservative divisiveness, in favor of politics that build bridges on a range of contentious issues. The readiness to work together is revealed in a national poll on voters’ priorities and values taken on Nov. 5-7 in the immediate aftermath of the election.

Nearly three-quarters of voters (and of religious voters) said people of faith should promote the common good, not protect their own views. Even groups most active in the religious right said a broader faith agenda would best reflect their values.

Only 1 in 5 white Evangelicals and 1 in 8 Catholics said an agenda focused on abortion and same-sex marriage best expressed their values. A majority of both Evangelicals (55 percent) and Catholics (51 percent) opted for a broad agenda that also includes poverty, the environment, and the war in Iraq. The survey involved a nationally representative sample of 1,277 voters and had a margin of error of 3 percent.

“Our poll shows that Catholics and white Evangelicals reject the idea that focusing on one or two issues is the right way to engage in public life,” says Katie Paris, of Faith in Public Life, which sponsored the survey conducted by Public Religion Research in Washington.blockquote>

Read the whole article here.

Spiritual movement based on ancient Eastern texts sweeps Midwest! November 17, 2008

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 1 comment

Just judging from trips on planes in and out of Kansas City, my new home has got to be one of the most Bible-studying American cities. There’s always at least one wild looking hipster studying a heavily marked up bible. I’ll grant you, it’s an unscientific survey, but it’s been very consistent in my way-too-big sample size lately.

I’m writing this post on a plane. The guy across the isle and in front of me is reading Chronicles. The chapter is all marked up, lots of notes, highlighter marks, checks and underlines. He was just reading for a while, and now has his face in his hands. Now he’s looking at the ceiling. He’s thinking his brains out. The book is open again and he’s reading away again. Think of how many times he’s read this book in his life. But he’s going back, once again, to see something new. And obviously, he’s seeing it. He just jumped back to Kings 19. The first several paragraphs are highlighted in yellow, in addition to many notes and underlines.

I see this all the time. Walk into any hipster coffeeshop in Kansas City and you’ll see at least one kid doing this.

Step back and think about what is really going on here. This Kansas City guy—who fits many Midwestern red state stereotypes—is reading, and living by, 2,500 year-old Jewish texts. He believes these texts are guides for his own life. He believes God is speaking to humanity through these stories. The way to understand how amazing that is, is to imagine this probably conservative Kansas Citian reading Taoist or Buddhist texts, and really studying them, really trying to understand the roots and historical context of them. For some reason that sounds cool, right? But he’s just reading ancient Jewish texts instead of ancient Indian or Chinese texts. If I put it that way, doesn’t it sound a little cool as well? And keep in mind, he doesn’t just read this book. He’s probably read hundreds of books about the book—books that explain the cultural, political and economic context of the narrative of the book.