Time to wait

So, I've shared three ways of fixing the world: Utopia, Clean Slate, and Godly nation. All three make sense to me and seem like they should work, but as the Old Testament shows us they have been done before and were not effective. Our problems are too big for our own ideas. So it's time to wait for help. Let's begin waiting with Sarah McLachlan.

Heaven bend to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight
Truth be told I tried my best
But somewhere long the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
But the cost was so much more than I could bear

Though I've tried I've fallen
I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don't you come round here and
Tell me I told you so

We all begin with good intent
When love is raw and young
We believe that we can change ourselves
The past can be undone
But we carry on our back the burdens time always reveals
In the lonely light of morning
In the wound that would not heal
It's the bitter taste of losing everything
I've held so dear

Though I've tried I've fallen
I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don't you come round here and
Tell me I told you so

Heaven bend to take my hand
I've nowhere left to turn
I'm lost to those I thought were friends
To everyone I know
Oh they turn their heads embarrassed
Pretend that they don't see
That it's one missed step one slip before you know it
And there doesn't seem a way to be redeemed.

Though I've tried I've fallen
I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don't you come round here and
Tell me I told you so

Dr. Change Gov or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Obama

“Welfare is evil, though the people who are on it don’t realize it.” This was the comment I heard from across the table during a marathon world-problem-solving session with a group of friends. The conversation had wandered from the spiritual matters where it had begun and was now firmly entrenched in the finer points of conservative politics. Normally I would have joined enthusiastically, but this particular night I just listened. I had been having doubts. Red flags were going up. Some things were bothering me.

Thing 1: This group of people, a group we gathered often with, almost never seemed to notice when the conversation shifted from religion to conservative politics. To them the two were synonymous. At this point in my life I was preparing to move overseas, which was really affecting my thinking about political matters. Was it really possible that God’s favored, chosen political party was the one that was voted for by less than 1% of the world’s population? What about the Christians in other countries? If there weren’t Republican candidates there, could they even vote in good conscience? (These are not the questions I asked myself. Just bear with me for awhile while I carry this worldview to its logical conclusion.) Of course, the fact that a Christian in the US could, in good conscience, vote for a Democratic candidate was outside the realm of possibility.

Thing 2: Why was the tone of these conversations so frantic? We would get all worked up as if our opinions were being attacked, though we were the only ones there, just hashing and rehashing our nearly identical positions. Other people, the ones who disagreed with us (the ones who weren’t actually present to take part in these conversations), were deeply threatening to us. It was us against them and no point of disparity was too small to merit endless debate.

As I sat back and watched the straw men fall I saw for the first time a connection between Thing 1 and Thing 2. I began to see them as a progression. Of course Thing 2 was happening because of Thing 1. When a person’s faith is so closely intertwined with their politics, to attack one is to attack the other. No wiggle space is left for a simple difference of opinion; everything is a matter of eternal life or death.

So, how did we get here? The rationale, as I recall it being articulated several times, was that the platform of the Republican Party lined up with Christian principles more than the platform of the Democratic Party. The issues of abortion, homosexual marriage, and the oft-quoted "If a man will not work, he shall not eat," placed God firmly on the Republican side. We embraced the party and its platform. Even the parts that are not necessarily mentioned in the Bible (small government, personal freedoms, individual responsibility, right to bear arms, etc.) came to be considered on the same level with those that are.

Of course we as responsible citizens of a democratic republic are going to participate in our political system. And, of course, we are going to support candidates who agree most with our point of view. But I wonder sometimes if the evangelical church’s strong support of the Republican Party can be traced to something deeper.

It makes sense that the best way to deal with a fallen world is to create a group of people, a nation, a culture centered around God. A greenhouse, so to speak, with all the right conditions to cultivate people who follow God. Walking with God in the cool of the day was a little vague. Something more clearly defined might work better. A strong religious heritage, laws in accordance with Biblical principles, leaders who follow God and make decisions in harmony with their personal relationship with Him. All of these should, in theory, save us from some of the pitfalls of our current fallen status.

Now, what I am about to say was never stated in so many words, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

I grew up thinking that I was born in this (greenhouse) nation. My Christian school strongly emphasized the United States’ Christian heritage. America was a nation founded on Biblical principles and therefore blessed by God (and better than everyone else, which was implied but not actually said). Every winter we had a school program to celebrate God’s incarnation, and every spring we had another program to celebrate the country that finally got it right and arranged their nation God’s way.

As I became older I began to see that every few years this nation faces a new perceived threat to its perceived status as “God’s greenhouse.” Not everyone is on board with becoming God-followers, and the dissenters rise up every once in awhile to enact new laws that will allow the very pitfalls our greenhouse was supposed to help us avoid. We God followers, in trying to protect our greenhouse, rise up to fight against these dissenters and protect our “most favored nation” status. We (evangelical Christians) have identified the Republican Party as our ally in this battle, so we vote faithfully for them, hoping our greenhouse will be preserved.

The evening of the “welfare is evil” conversation I realized for the first time how flawed this point of view is. I began to see us as a group of people looking to be redeemed by our perfect laws. If our nation acted Christian enough, we would become an oasis of Godliness in our world. We would be able to maintain this Godliness and pass it down from generation to generation. Because the attacks on this idea have been in the political realm, we have responded in kind and struggled to maintain a system of laws that reflects our values.

So, you may ask, what is the problem with having good laws that reflect Christian values? Nothing, unless we place too much importance on them. Laws are not able to redeem us or maintain us, as the Israelites discovered. They had their laws straight from the mouth of God, and yet after Genesis the rest of the Old Testament chronicles their repeating pattern of obedience, disobedience, punishment, and restoration. Laws were not able to save the original chosen people, and they cannot save us either. I witnessed this first hand in the Philippines, where abortion is illegal but a study done in 2005 says that 70% of unwanted pregnancies end in abortion. Divorce is also illegal, but it is very common for couples to separate and live separate lives with their new partners.

Mostly what I was beginning to learn was that it is complicated. While we will all continue to vote and support candidates we agree with, we cannot solve our country’s problems by shutting off our brains and allowing ourselves to be so easily manipulated by any politician who drops a little religious talk at the right times and places. We have been separated from God, and we can find a way to mess up no matter what the system of government or current controlling power. Turns out the major failing of any form of government is the same reason we need to be governed in the first place.

I shall return

Last year around this time I began a four-part Christmas blog series. One and two were published, three and four fell victim to a little moving halfway around the world, learning a new language, remodeling an apartment, moving into said apartment, furnishing said apartment, living without American convenience, etc. I haven't been able to write it down until now but I've been thinking about it all year, and it's time to finish. Next post will be the third installment. I am planning to post #4 by Christmas this year. Then I can get this out of my system and hopefully begin blogging about other stuff.

What a difference a month makes

The other day as I was preparing for my 30 minute walk to language school I realized the outside temperature had risen all the way to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The following thoughts raced through my mind:

"Wow, 15! What will that be like? I won't need an extra shirt on, and I'm just going to wear one layer of pants today. I wonder if I'll need my hat?"

Fortunately I came to my senses before leaving our apartment and brought my stocking cap. A month ago I was wearing two layers of clothing even when I was inside. Now I am wanting to dig my t-shirts out of a storage box to wear inside because I'm hot all the time. Weird.

At some point I will be blogging more but while I'm adjusting to the new environment I've cut my extra activities down to a bare minimum. We're going to be remodeling our apartment over the next few weeks so I need to go figure out what I want the bathroom to look like. On Wednesday I get to wander around the Home Depot street where all the building/remodeling supply shops are and pick out tile/floors/sink/etc for the bathroom. Since I have never had any thoughts whatsoever about what a bathroom should look like I should probably do a little research before this trip. Also since, even if I did have a clue about what I wanted, I have no idea what is available here. Fun decision-making times.

Geography Lessons

I have two more blogs to post in my pre-Christmas series, but have gotten distracted by boxes named gray zipper, blue zipper, black zipper, box 1 and box 2. They look very similar if not the same, but FedEx recommends they not be made out of ticky tacky. Anyway, I hope to return to the four-part Christmas blog series at some point. You're supposed to be keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in your hearts year-round anyway, so just work with me.

One requirement of shipping internationally with FedEx is that a Commercial Invoice must be completed for each box listing each item in the box, the country of manufacture, quantity, unit price, and total price. Imagine condensing your life down to 5-7 boxes, 62 linear inches each, and then inventorying each one in this way. What would you find?

The most interesting thing to me is the various locations our clothing came from. My wardrobe is vastly more well-traveled than I am. So far women's tank tops have provided the most exotic locales, including Macau and Lesotho. A few items are made in the USA but most are not. This begs the following question: What exactly do we do all day? This must be why the economy is tanking.

I am disappointed to see that I only have one item of clothing from Cambodia, as I have heard they have strict laws against sweat shops there. I tried once to look for information about where to buy clothes manufactured in a way that provided good working conditions for the people who made them. What I found was (at that time) there wasn't a good way to pay attention to only one social issue. I couldn't just care about people without caring about animals and environmental issues, too. Those things are ok, but I think I'll only try to save the world one issue at a time.

Merry Christmas everyone! "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Do-over

Note: Read previous post “The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fall” before this one if you haven’t already.

Ok, so it could be argued that Adam and Eve did not know what they were doing and could not have guessed what effect their actions would have on their family, let alone the rest of the world. In their perfect environment they were likely not acquainted with anything even closely resembling deceit. How could they have been expected to recognize it and see it for what it was?

So what if we take another man, made in the image of God, well aware of what can happen if he rebels, and let him try again? Even better, let’s pick someone who lived in the awful conditions that came after the Fall (“every inclination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil all the time”) but still managed to be righteous in the eyes of God. Someone like this would be aware of the evils of the world and would also be experienced in avoiding them. Sounds like a plan. God thought so, too.

“When Lamech had lived 182 years he had a son. He named him Noah and said, ‘He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.’”

This, like all do-overs, could not exactly duplicate all the conditions before the Fall, but it was best shot we had. We could remember what was at stake, right? Having experienced firsthand and perhaps participated in deceit we would be able to identify and avoid it. After seeing the disastrous results of the previous mistake, we would know what we were in for if we didn’t maintain relationship with God. Fool me once, shame on the snake. Fool me twice…doh!

The slate is wiped clean in Genesis chapter 7, waters recede in chapter 8, covenant is established between God and man in chapter 9, and we are good to go all the way through chapter 11. At this time men were apparently united with one another. We might think of that as peace. But apparently after the Fall, peace among men was not the Utopia we picture when we talk of world peace, but rather all men agreeing to rebel against God. Not such a great plan. Back to the drawing board.

The Grass Is Always Greener On the Other Side of the Fall

John Lennon said,

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

"Imagine" has been played at opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, at Times Square as part of the New Year’s Eve festivities, and is the official song of the human rights organization Amnesty International. According to these and other tidbits of information on Wikipedia, the world in general closely associates “Imagine” with the idea of world peace. In the minds of many, conditions like this would solve the world’s problems. This song is just one example of humans placing the blame for everything bad in our world on religion or on God. “If God is so great, why does he allow bad things to happen to innocent people? If He is so loving, why does he allow such evil in the world?”

The majority of my life has been spent around conservative Christians, many of whom do not have positive things to say about this song. I suppose they don’t agree with the “no heaven,” “no hell” and “no religion” parts. They might be right to have these negative feelings towards “Imagine.” Lennon himself said that it was "an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted." Christians are none too friendly to any of these “antis,” especially if they’re snuck by with sugar-coating.

When I hear “Imagine” I try to be offended like a good Christian should, but I just can’t muster it. I think Lennon was correct in writing “You may say that I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one.” He is not even the first one to come up with most of these ideas. God beat him to the punch. The reason Lennon’s words do not offend me is that they remind me of the Garden of Eden, even the parts about no heaven, hell, or religion. These things, or at least our awareness of them, only became necessary after the Fall. Now reread the lyrics. What do you think?

I am not going to attempt to describe the perfection of Eden or delve deeply into what was lost there. If you are interested in reading more on those topics I highly recommend you check out Donald Miller’s Searching For God Knows What, especially the chapters “Why Nudity Is the Point” and “Children of Chernobyl.” Suffice it to say that in Eden we (or at least our representatives, Adam and Eve) encountered a peaceful world, a perfect relationship with God, a place where all our needs were met (AKA no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man). We chose to reject it and have wanted it back ever since. And “Imagine,” in seeking to offer a resolution to everything that is wrong with this world, describes everything good we had and discarded in the first place. Given the choice, we preferred knowledge of good and evil over world peace.

As we head toward Christmas I have been thinking a lot about this and other ideas people have about how to fix the world. Several months ago it occurred to me that many of these ideas can be found in the Old Testament. As we move through Advent I hope to keep sharing my thoughts about some of the other been-there-done-that ways to a brighter future.