Christianity

Christian Kitsch

Posted on by stephen t berg / 4 Comments

Not sure to laugh, cry, or disgorge. Excuse me. But after reading a report of last week’s International Christian Retail Show, it’s hard not to tear up your membership card.

The article, by Stephanie Simon (LA Times reprinted in the Edmonton Journal–sorry, link isn’t available) described the suffocating array of Christian kitsch.

Let’s see…you got your fish-shaped breath mints, bible-verse golf balls, yer "Got Jesus" key chain, your skin-tight, scooped-neck teen T-shirts with the slogan "Wood and Nails-A powerful partnership", your "armor of God" pajamas, Christian pirate decals, your Bible-clutching doll collection, and on and on, really…on and on. Anything that moves or doesn’t gets Jesus slapped onto it and a price-sticker.

My favourite–after ’Follow the Son’ flip-flops that leave the message, "follow Jesus", in the sand, if you happen to be walking in sand–was Christian perfume…named, Virtuous Woman. It’s Christian you see, because when someone asks, "Hey what’s that new fragrance you’re wearing?", you have a perfect opening for an evangelizing moment.

And of course that’s the supposed redemptive factor with all the products. They are, say the retailers, evangelistic tools.

Now, no doubt, everything is marketed by reasonably decent good hearted people, wanting to do their bit for Jesus. (Their bit is apparently something like a 4.5 Billion dollar industry now.) But good hearted or not…you have to think that Jesus is somewhere wincing.

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Christianity/Peace/Politics/Religion/Violence

Booker T. and Empathy

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him. –Booker T. Washington

We live in time where everyday we have opportunity to become polarized by religious and political opinion and by the decisions of religious and political leaders. And if polarized, our souls are in danger of entertaining hatred toward those holding opposing views, or toward those we believe have made bad decisions. Perhaps it has always been thus. But it seems to me that global events and their local spin-offs are affecting the ether more these days.

While it pains me to say this–because I’m not as strong as Booker–what Condaleezza Rice, George Bush, Ehud Olmert and our own Stephen Harper need most, is a flood of mercy and love. Because first of all, whatever your view, left, right or transcendental, you have to agree that being in political office has got to be the hardest gig going. Secondly, if you disagree with a position, hurling words that inflame bring no lasting change. Hatred, vitriol, vehemence and force, change nothing. Only empathy changes things.

Booker T. had more reason than most of us to entertain hatred. Born into slavery, deprived of education, he endured the new wave of racism, a backlash because of Emancipation. But because of his empathy toward his oppressors he overcame these barriers to become a teacher, a principal and an advisor of presidents.

When you are empathetic with me, I hear you. If I hear you, you will change me.

The practice of empathy requires of us the simultaneous play of great love and great imagination. Things we humans are capable of because of an overarching Mercy. And that’s hope.

So while we are irresponsible if we don’t speak out on behalf of the war-torn, the poor, the disabled, the oppressed, only empathy keeps us from creating more victims. Empathy stops the chain-reaction of hate and violence while growing our own souls.

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Christianity/Peace/Religion/Violence

Smart Bombs – Water into Blood

Posted on by stephen t berg / 1 Comment

Riad Kassis, Executive Director and Chaplain at the J.L. Schneller School in West Bekaa, Lebanon had this to say,

"Sunday morning, I woke up to the news that an Israeli air strike hit a residential building used as a shelter in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, killing and wounding more than 65 people, including 30 infants and young children. According to tradition, Qana is the village where Jesus Christ performed his first miracle by turning water into wine (John 2).

Now I hear of fellow Christians who enjoy seeing the turning of water into blood in the name of end-time prophecy. Their call should rather be to turn water into wine of gladness, peace, and life. Are we looking for the presence of Christ in Lebanon and Israel or for the presence of U.S. smart bombs?"

This quote sums up in spades, the dualistic outlook that too many (Evangelical) Christians not only harbour but publish. Non-violence remains a gospel concept.

Another example from Riad Kassis’ article:

I recently received an e-mail from a friend who lives in Washington, D.C., informing me that a sign displayed in front of an independent evangelical church simply states: "Go Israel!" This news came as I learned that the father of one of the six-year-old students at our school had been killed in an air strike as he went to get bread for his family.

Read Prof. Kassis’ entire article, "A Prayer to Condoleezza Rice". It’s a perspective we need to hear. He ends with:

Ms. Rice, I heard recently that you are an ardent evangelical. I have always believed that evangelicals are peacemakers. They are those who hold fast to the gospel of peace and reconciliation. …Help me at least not to lose faith in calling myself an evangelical.

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Christianity/Religion/Spirituality

Baggage Masquerading as Wisdom

Posted on by stephen t berg / 2 Comments

They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made. (Psalm 7)

"Someone can be forty years old or more," which by the inflection of her tone meant critically ancient, "and still not be wise."

The young girl in Starbucks at the next table further explained to her young boyfriend, that yes, "It’s possible to learn from the experience of older people but that you have to be careful. It may not fit for you." Finishing her thought, she said, "In fact what might look like wisdom in an old person is just all that much more baggage."

(A tip: For picking up conversations of worth, whose vectors converge with what you happen to be reading…location, location, location.)

So I explored the convergence and thought…"All that baggage" is obviously the result of continually falling into holes we dig for ourselves. That is, baggage is accumulated as we apply the same solution to the same problems and expect different results. A silly human trait, well, mine at least, is that I can even be surprised at the same tired results.

Thing is, over time, if falling into our holes doesn’t wake us up to new perspectives, the resultant baggage composts. And the product of composted baggage is cynicism.

Perhaps cynicism is the most accurate definition of baggage-masquerading-as-wisdom. And perhaps Christian baggage-masquerading-as-wisdom is the deadliest form of cynicism. That’s because we can’t see it as cynicism.

It’s like this: "Since we’re going to be rescued anyway there’s no use polishing the brass handrails on a sinking ship." Well, our justifications for turning away from our world–from environment to neighbour–are probably more refined than this. But if in our Christianity we still unconsciously hold to a Greek dualism–spirit things good, matter dispensable–we can shield ourselves from new perspectives, from true wisdom, from learning, from life.

Having heaven, or "the next world" in our back pockets can keep us from real involvement in this world. This is exactly backwards to real Christianity. Our inheritance is Hebrew "earthiness". That’s the biblical notion that all created things are invested with divinity by virtue of their being created and so there is no disconnect between the spiritual and material.

Our plunging into this world, without being bought off by it, is both our salvation and the worlds own growth towards full creation.

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