How “FLAT” Is Your World?

My family recently started watching Dr. Who on Netflix.  In one of the early episodes, the Doctor and friend go to the distant future and run into the “last human” in the universe.

This person is stretched thin, is in need of constant applications of moisturizer and is completely self-absorbed.  It’s science fiction and a bit funny … but other than the moisturizer, it’s also fairly accurate.

I was recently pointed to Mark Sayers’ book The Road Trip that came out last year. This book interacts with Jack Kerouac’s book On the Road.

This is how Sayers describes our “superflat culture”:

“In a superflat culture where nothing matters, we escape into obsessions and hobbies, interests that bear little ultimate consequence. In a commodified culture, we move and shift around meaning, giving weight to things that do not deserve mountains of time and attention.”

In other words, we put way to much importance, significance, value, glory to things that do not deserve mountains of our time and attention.

“The twenty-first century will be a century marked by conspicuous consumption but also a flagrant misuse of time. With religion off the agenda, our culture finds new avenues of devotion and distraction. Instead of moving us toward relationship and people, the immanent, superflat culture pushes us toward things. …Millions of hours in the twenty-first century will be spent working through DVD TV series, scanning social network sites, gorging on celebrity gossip, downloading music, flipping through home magazines, and playing computer games.

Things will take precedence over people. Meaningless activities will overtake our lives. There is nothing wrong with interests and hobbies in their right place, but the twenty-first-century culture will gorge on such activities. The real issues of human existence that have sat front and center of human consciousness have in the superflat, immanent world been shoved aside. They are too heavy to be carried on the road. Instead we buzz across the surface of life, never venturing below the surface.”

How flat is your world?  Are you spending your free time plowing through TV series on DVD, Netflix or Hulu?  Is social media your only “real” connection to people?  Have you killed virtual-hordes of zombies, Nazis, dragons, orcs or egg stealing pigs while turning a blind eye to bad habits, friends who are far from Christ and loved ones who need to be served?  Can you have a deep conversation about your soul and/or our culture without spiraling into pop culture jargon and crude jokes?

If you’re feeling like your world is a little flat, the best solution is to UNPLUG.

• Turn off the TV.
• Log out of Facebook and Pinterest.
• Turn off your phone (no, really!)
• Spend a weekend without media.

Instead …

• Talk
• Pray
• Read
• Listen
• Be alone with your thoughts, and maybe write them down

This weekend, lets bring some depth into our worlds!

 

So let me know how you’re seeking to not be conformed to our “superflat” culture!

Christ and Culture -a View from the “Inside”

Angus Jones. Turner Jones, the “half” of CBS’s Two and a Half Men, may be the only real “man” in the show.  A recent convert to Christianity, he was recently interviewed and sent shock-waves through Hollywood by denouncing his own show, the third highest-ranked TV comedy, as “filth” and urging viewers to stop watching.

As you listen to the testimony of this new believer, it might be helpful to know that he’s a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is why he’ll mention things like cult accusations and Sabbath honoring.

To read more about Agnus’ Testimony check out and interview he conducted with Christianity Today.

What do you think?

Dark Night for the Dark Knight

The news today is dominated by the story of 12 people killed and 59 injured in a Colorado movie massacre.

On the opening night of one of the more anticipated movies this summer, for unknown reasons, a man threw tear-gas grenades into the audience of an Aurora, CO theater killing twelve and brutally wounding fifty-nine people.

As a husband, father, pastor and movie-fan, I can picture myself or dozens of other people I care about in that crowd.  It’s difficult to care and not ask deeper questions about where God was, why this happened, why is the world so violent?

People in that town must feel very confused.  Years ago they faced the Columbine Tragedy, and recently weathered the fears and loss associated with the wildfires in their state.

Followers of Jesus have always had to deal with this question.  Jesus faced pain and unfair treatment.  His 12 disciples all faced injustice and most death at the hands of violent men.  One man who knew pain well (while fighting in WWI, watching a young wife die of cancer, and living through WWII) was C.S. Lewis.  Written at the outbreak of the Second World War, C. S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain states the dilemma:

“If God were good, he would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty he would be able to do as he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.” 

Is this true?  Do we have to pick between God’s goodness and His power?  Lewis (spoiler alert) came to realize that it is possible for God to be both good and powerful … but it took a long season of prayer, Bible study and personal reflection for him to get three.

As you work through your questions, let me encourage you with a few ideas:

First – Realize that you have a God big enough to handle your Questions and Frustrations

The Book of Psalms is full of questions, doubts and screams for God to wake up and do something.  Though they always end in praise, the inspired writers of the Bible were not afraid to point out their problems and doubts.  (for example, see Psalm 3)

Secondly, Remember that this is a Problem for Atheism & Agnosticism too

If someone rejects God, then it makes no sense to feel like this sort of event “shouldn’t happen.”  That gnawing feeling we get in the pit of our stomach at the sight of evil like this points out that we were created for more … for a holy and peace-filled world.  While theists (believers that God exists) might have to defend God’s goodness and power in the face of seemingly random evil, non-theists have to defend their sense of indignation in the face of their reaction to last night’s events.

As Tim Keller wrote in his book Reason for God:

Eastern religions say that suffering is an illusion; other western religions say that God is up there and he has his reasons but only Christianity has a God who has himself come into the world of suffering. If God himself has suffered then he must have reasons for allowing it to continue that aren’t a matter of remoteness and distance. If God has himself experienced suffering then he can be with you in the suffering. You just have to say that Christianity has better resources for believing that God is involved and cares about our suffering than any other worldview. In the secular worldview who cares about suffering? The strong eat the weak and it doesn’t matter. If you are morally outraged by it, so what? If you go to every other religion the view of suffering is less poignant and immediate than the idea that God would come and get involved in this worlds suffering. You should always talk about evil and suffering in terms of the Cross.

Thirdly, The Bible teaches that God Allows Evil Because it Either Brings about a Greater Good or Avoids Some Greater Evil

We can never prove that gratuitous, needless Evil exists.  Though it might “feel” like last nights events are needless, we don’t see enough of the story to know for sure.

My daughter and I are currently listening to an audio book called The Sword (free for download this month from ChristianAudio.com)  In the story a poor farmer’s mare is about to foal.  She prays for the safe delivery of the colt, hoping to make a gift of him to her daughter.  She is sure that the God who created the universe would care enough about her small family and this small horse to help the birth happen without event.  It doesn’t go well.  The colt is breach, so they call a neighbor to help with the delivery.  After a long, frustrating night the colt is lost.  That night also the neighbor’s house is attacked and burned down.  In this simple story God says “No” to the prayer for the safety of the colt so that two human lives can be spared.

I don’t claim to know what possible good can come from any tragedy, especially not last night’s events.  I do know that my insight is way too limited to claim that this is meaningless.

With Faith, we can hope that even the worst tragedies will lead to a greater good and to the Glory of God

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28 

Fourth, God Created a World That Now Contains Evil and Had a Good Reason for Doing So.

Honestly, this is the best answer, and is a  clear call to faith.  Even one of our nation’s best minds, Alvin Plantinga of Notre Dame, a man who clearly and logically defends God’s goodness against logical attacks on this topic … he ultimately has to pause after he’s won the fight and admit that this will take faith.

God is God, and I’m not.  God’s ways are higher than my ways.  God has never let His people down … even though many of them have suffered and died.  God created, loves and will redeem a world that currently contains evil and has a good reason for doing so.

This statement admits that God’s insight and understanding far surpasses our own.

This statement allows room for us to squirm and protest when we deal with pain.

…but this statement always returns to the place of Faith: God has Good Reason for this, even though I don’t get it!

The Best Reason For Belief In the Face of Pain and Suffering Is That We Serve A Suffering Savior

1 Peter 1:3-9 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Eternal life is not compensation for pain and suffering in this life.

Eternal life is restoration of this life.

Let me close this long post with the prayer that Max Lucado wrote for a national prayer vigil held three days after September 11, 2001:

“Dear Lord, We’re still hoping we’ll wake up. We’re still hoping we’ll open a sleepy eye and think, ‘What a horrible dream.’

“But we won’t, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was no dream; and, dear Father, we are sad.

“There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church has lost its priest, a classroom is minus a teacher. Cora ran a food pantry. Paige was a counselor; and Dana, dearest Father, Dana was only 3 years old. (Who held her in those final moments?)

“We are sad, Father. For as the innocent are buried; our innocence is buried, as well. We thought we were safe. Perhaps we should have known better, but we didn’t.

“So we come to You. We don’t ask You for help; we beg You for it. We don’t request it; we implore it. We know what You can do. We’ve read the accounts. We’ve pondered the stories; and now we plead, ‘Do it again, Lord. Do it again.’

“Remember Joseph? You rescued him from the pit. You can do the same for us. Do it again, Lord.

Remember the Hebrews in Egypt? You protected their children from the angel of death. We have children, too, Lord. Do it again.

“And Sarah? Remember her prayers? You heard them. Joshua? Remember his fears? You inspired him. The women at the tomb? You resurrected their hope. The doubts of Thomas? You took them away. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

“You changed Daniel from a captive into a king’s counselor. You took Peter the fisherman and made him Peter an apostle. Because of you, David went from leading sheep to leading armies. Do it again, Lord, for we need counselors today, Lord. We need apostles. We need leaders. Do it again, dear Lord.

“Most of all, do again what you did at Calvary. What we saw here on that Tuesday, You saw there on that Friday. Innocence slaughtered. Goodness murdered. Mothers weeping. Evil dancing. Just as the ash fell on our children, the darkness fell on your Son. Just as our towers were shattered, the very Tower of Eternity was pierced. By dusk, heaven’s sweetest song was silent, buried behind a rock.

“But You did not waver, O Lord. You did not waver. After three days in a dark hole, You rolled the rock and rumbled the earth and turned the darkest Friday into the brightest Sunday. Do it again, Lord. Grant us a September Easter.

“We thank You, dear Father, for these hours of unity. Disaster has done what discussion could not. Doctrinal fences have fallen. Republicans are standing with Democrats. Skin colors have been covered by the ash of burning buildings. We thank You for these hours of unity.

“We thank You for these hours of prayer. The enemy sought to bring us to our knees and succeeded. He had no idea, however, that we would kneel before You; and he has no idea what You can do.

“Let Your mercy be upon our president, vice president, and their families. Grant to those who lead us wisdom beyond their years and experience. Have mercy upon the souls who have departed and the wounded who remain. Give us grace that we might forgive and faith that we might believe.

“And look kindly upon your church. For 2,000 years You’ve used it to heal a hurting world. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

“Through Christ, Amen.”

For more help check out:

• Stand to Reason A Good Reason for Evil
• Monergism.com on the Problem of Evil
• Justin Holcomb on “Where is God in Colorado?”

“…my body should be for my husband and him alone” – Kylie Bisutti

When I was in high school or junior high Victoria’s Secret catalogs began to show up at our house.  To me, these were a gold mine of images.  It wasn’t “really porn” (to me at the time), so it was easy to justify a few lingering looks.

As I’ve grown, my convictions about this have become stronger … not (I hope) because I’m becoming more legalistic, but because I’m learning to care more for the girls on the page.  In my high school mind, these were objects to desire.  Unfortunately that’s how too many men (myself included at times) look at women.  They aren’t children of God created in His image to be washed, nurtured and cherished.  They are objects to acquire, to be conquered, to be won.

This thought struck home recently when a Victoria’s Secret model, Kylie Bisutti, quit so that she could honor God and her husband with her body.  She told Fox & Friends …

Bisutti wasn’t raised a Christian, but when she was 15 years old she was invited to church and was later baptized. She said being a Victoria’s Secret model “wasn’t honoring my marriage. I truly, truly believe that my body should be for my husband and him alone, and here it was for all these other men. I was in men’s magazines, and it just didn’t feel right for me.”

She also realized that her career was doing more than just dishonoring God, herself and her husband.  It was having an effect on younger women.

She recalled a heartbreaking conversation with her 8-year-old cousin who saw her as a role model. Bisutti’s cousin wanted to be just like her but, “She told me she felt like she had to throw up her food to be beautiful, and it broke my heart. I don’t want to be that kind of person that makes little girls feel that way.”

After Bisutti made the decision to quit, she thought her career was over. That wasn’t the case, as modeling gigs came in that didn’t require her to sacrifice her values. “I’m so much happier, and I feel like it’s just my inner beauty coming out more, in full clothing.”

So men … next time you’re tempted to look at a woman (any woman) as an object, remember – her body doesn’t belong to you.  It belongs to God and her husband.  If you’re dating, you’re still not her husband, so respect her future husband.

Women … next time you’re wondering if you need to trade a little skin, affection or flirtation to secure your position in a relationship, remember, you are far more valuable than that.  You are more than a body.  You are created in the image of God.  You are Jesus’ sister and He wants to protect you from that.

Let’s be holy as He is holy!

(UPDATE – thanks to a good friend who pointed out that the video posted was not helpful.  Ironic that the news story about her repenting of lingerie modeling had clips of her lingerie modeling.)

Perry Noble on 7 Things to Know About Sexual Sin in the Church

The following is from Pastor Perry Noble and is an article taken from two sermons he recently preached at New Spring Church.  (The sermons are available on iTunes and on the NewSpring Church Website if you want to see/hear them in their entirety.)

The following are a few highlights from his article and sermons:

1. Who or what you pursue will ultimately determine what you do and who you become.  It is a spiritual impossibility to pursue Jesus AND sexual sin at the same time.  (Psalm 25:15)

2. As a friend of mine has often said, “God is not after our begrudging submission but rather our joy!”  And long-term joy, peace, and fulfillment are never the result of pursuing sexual sin.  (Please read Proverbs 5, Proverbs 6, and Proverbs 7 for further confirmation in regards to this point.)

3. Sexual sin is not something that can be “prayed away,” nor can we simply read Bible verses about grace after committing it in order to feel better.  NOR can we simply promise God over and over that we won’t do it again (how’s that working for you?)  We CAN be set free from it…but it will not be pretty.  It must be confessed (James 5:16) and repented of (Revelation 2:21-23!)  (I did not overcome my nearly 20-year battle with pornography until I confessed it and asked for help!)

YES, it may “cost you” when it comes to your reputation…but remember, the costs of concealment are far greater than the costs of confession…and repentance is WAY more important than our reputation.

4. Sexual sin costs us our spiritual esteem…people who are involved in sexual sin feel disconnected from God, guilty, and spiritually dead.

5. For those who want to STOP sinning sexually…a decision MUST be made to renew your mind (Romans 12:1-12), to FIGHT the battles in your mind (II Corinthians 10:5), and to ask GODLY men and women to come alongside you and both encourage and spur you when necessary (Hebrews 10:24-25).

(PS…this means you have to stop saying, “I messed up sexually.”  OR “I made a mistake!”  Call it what it is…sin.  AND stop meeting with people who are doing the same things that you are doing and so when you get together to “hold one another accountable,” you are actually hoping that the other person “messed up” so that you don’t feel bad about doing so!)

6. Understand that IN CHRIST, you CAN have victory over sexual sin!  (See Romans 8:37, I Corinthians 15:57, Philippians 4:13!)  IN CHRIST, you are NOT a victim but rather a receiver of VICTORY!  If Jesus overcame DEATH, then Christ in you can help you breakthrough the stronghold of sexual sin!  (Luke 1:37!)

7. For those who belong to Christ and are trying their best to pursue Him on a daily basis but are still haunted by a sexual past…remember that is who you WERE, it is not WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST!  (II Corinthians 5:17!)  Do not allow what used to defeat you to define you!  You are no longer defined by what you did but rather by what CHRIST did for you on the cross!

(Read the full article here.)

Love Notices Wet Hair (The Difference Between Obligation and Love)

I’m still a little emotionally sideways about the happenings at Penn State.  Maybe it’s because this story is on every channel I turn on – regular news, radio stations, ESPN … this story seems to be everywhere.  I’m frustrated that an organization I grew up respecting let this happen.  I’m also frustrated when I wonder how rigorous I’ve been in my life to make sure that this doesn’t happen where I can prevent it.  Maybe that’s false guilt … but I find myself convicted none-the-less.

Justin Taylor recently posted a helpful talk given by Tim Henderson, the director of Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) at Penn State.  Tim writes:

Jesus said the most fundamental responsibility we have is to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In light of this he was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” which is another way to ask, “Whom am I obligated to love?”

At Penn State, we have been asking questions about obligation all week. Who is legally obligated to report sexual abuse of a child, and to whom must they report it? Who is morally obligated to report sexual abuse of a child, and to whom must they report it? Is there a difference between moral obligation and legal obligation?

Jesus responded to the heart of that question in his famous story about the Good Samaritan. Surprisingly though, he didn’t actually answer that question. He answered a more important one.

First, though, consider two of the victims described in the grand jury’s findings in the case against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. According to the report a graduate assistant saw a 10-year-old boy (victim two) pressed against a shower wall being raped. The assistant then left, eventually called his boss, and reported what he had seen, just as he was legally obligated to do.

In contrast, when victim six returned home from a visit with Sandusky, his mom noticed he had wet hair. On the basis of that small detail alone she was concerned and learned that they had showered together. Immediately this mom called the police, cooperated in a wiretap, confronted Sandusky to his face, interrogated him about the details of showering with her son, grilled him about the effect he had on her son, and rebuked him, telling him never to shower with another boy again.

What’s the difference between these cases?

Love.

The difference is the mom loved her son. She loved her little boy and was moved to outrage by the simple fact of his wet hair. She moved aggressively. She wasn’t fulfilling a legal obligation, and she wasn’t fulfilling a moral obligation. Obligation wasn’t the issue.

Love is the issue. The shame engulfing Penn State is about a deficiency of love. The chief responsibility of our life is loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as much as and in the same manner that we love ourselves. “Who is my neighbor?” is the wrong question. According to Jesus, the right question is, “Am I a neighbor?” It’s not, “Who must I love?” It’s, “Am I one who loves?”

Read the full text or hear this talk delivered earlier this week at the large group meeting for Cru at Penn State.

Sometimes, You Don’t Stick With Your Boys

Sometimes, you don’t stick with your boys.

I know that flies in the face of most “macho” wisdom, but I stand by that.  There is common thinking that real men stick together.  Whether you think of yourselves as “brothers,” a “team,”  “Band of Brothers,” or by any other title, there is a time to break away.

When your “brother” is doing something stupid, warn them.

When your “brother” is doing something illegal, report them.  Really.

As I write this, the news is talking about Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQueary.  McQueary saw a dirty old man sexually molesting a young boy … and kept walking.  He didn’t stop it.  He didn’t call the police.  He didn’t defend that young boy.  He went to his coach.

Alan Jacobs thinks the problem stems from viewing a football team as a military unit (the same sort of thinking I’ve seen with some of the young men I’ve worked with):

For me, the question that looms largest about the Penn State sexual-abuse scandal is this: How could someone see a man raping a child and fail to intervene? Fail even to call 911? I can contemplate many difficult, challenging, frightening situations that cause me to ask myself what I really would do if faced with them — and cause me to have no clear answer. This isn’t one of them. How could Mike McQueary not have done more?

The answer, I think, lies in the tradition — as old as football itself — of pretending that football is a branch of the military. Players often talk about other players they’d go to war with. That linebacker is a warrior. The guys in this locker room, they know I’ve got their back. Football coaches, more perhaps than coaches in any other sport, play up the idea that the team is comprised of a besieged band of brothers who can trust only one another. (Even at the school where I teach — a Division III school with no athletic scholarships, thank God — the football players sit together at dinner and chant and shout.) Moreover, the coaches themselves are the primary beneficiaries of this governing military metaphor: they are your commanding officers, and to them you are uniquely and solely accountable. I bet it never occurred to Mike McQueary to call the police. I bet the first, last, and only thought he had was: I have to tell Coach.

I’ve run into that … and every time that sort of “brotherhood” is used to cover sin and glamorize rebellion.  You can feel tough and stand with your brothers … or you can be tough and do the right thing.  The two are often mutually exclusive.

I know what the guys who fall into this trap are thinking.  You’re wondering what sort of friend you’d be if you turned a brother in.  I’d like to ask you what sort of friend you’d been for the past months and years?  Have you been speaking the truth to your friends in little ways?  Have you guarded your heart and integrity, or have you been bending in a hundred little ways?  Chances are, the big issue you now have to confront could have been prevented if you had “man-ed up” and spoken some truth months ago.  You let it slide.  You went along with the little things.  Now you’re paying the price for your tolerance of sin and foolishness.  If you had stopped your friend from drinking underage, you wouldn’t be in a position to wonder if you should cover up the accident they had while driving drunk.  If you had spoken to your friend about pre-marital sex when he/she first bragged about it, you wouldn’t have to wonder what to do about the unexpected pregnancy.   If you’d have been a real friend before today, then tomorrow’s decision wouldn’t be so earth shaking.

Back to Coach McQueary.  He probably didn’t know before hand that Jerry Sandusky would behave like this.  In that moment, his actions reveal the true treasure of his heart.  In the economics of his soul, the welfare of his team overshadowed his desire to protect that boy.  As Jesus says, you can only serve one master, you will love one and hate the other.  McQueary chose to serve Penn State.  Understanding that makes it perfectly clear how he could (hatefully) walk past that situation, leaving a young boy in a terrible situation.

Our actions always reveal our hearts.  That’s true for McQueary, it’s true for Sandusky, and it’s true for me.

Finally, there is sci-fi writer John Scalzi who provides the most apt metaphor for this heartbreaking scandal:

Here’s what I think about that, right now. I’m a science fiction writer, and one of the great stories of science fiction is “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” which was written by Ursula K. LeGuin. The story posits a fantastic utopian city, where everything is beautiful, with one catch: In order for all this comfort and beauty to exist, one child must be kept in filth and misery. Every citizen of Omelas, when they come of age, is told about that one blameless child being put through hell. And they have a choice: Accept that is the price for their perfect lives in Omelas, or walk away from that paradise, into uncertainty and possibly chaos.

At Pennsylvania State University, a grown man found a blameless child being put through hell. Other grown men learned of it. Each of them had to make their choice, and decide, fundamentally, whether the continuation of their utopia — or at very least the illusion of their utopia — was worth the pain and suffering of that one child. Through their actions, and their inactions, we know the choice they made.

Inspired by a post from Joe Carter found here.

On Dawkins, Debates and “Collections of Atoms”

I’m excited that we are going to be starting “Christianity Explored” this winter as Refuge Church.

“The Good Book Company” (the company behind CE) also has a helpful blog with some basic evangelism advice.  Recently they had a series of articles about Richard Dawkins and his refusal to debate Christian heavy-hitter William Lane Craig.

The evangelist for atheism, Richard Dawkins, has explained here why he won’t engage in debate with the Christian apologist William Lane Craig.

In a nutshell, Dawkins accused Craig of defending what he calls “genocide” in the Old Testament, when God told Israel to kill the inhabitants of Canaan. Dawkins’ line was: I’m a busy man, I’m a good man, and I’m not going to waste time giving credence to a guy who says that it’s OK for thousands of people, including children, to be killed, or who believes in a God who says that’s OK.

A couple of commentators, who don’t appear to be Christians themselves, have helpfully critiqued Dawkins’ position: have a look here and here.

But how does the everyday Christian deal with all this?

In three ways … (here’s #1)

What we might say to Dawkins himself: You say that humans are just random collections of atoms. Everything is down to random chance. Yet you refuse to engage with a collection of atoms (William Lane Craig) which says that the random reordering of lots of collections of atoms (the Canaanites) by another bunch of collections of atoms (the Israelites) thousands of years ago was not “morally wrong”.

And anyway, if we’re all just atoms constantly randomly rearranging themselves, then there is no “wrong”. Your outrage is founded on a moral judgement that your views cannot support.

The only justification for being uneasy about what happened is if those humans were more than mere collections of atoms. But if they’re more than that, then where does that value come from? It can’t be bestowed by another human (we’re mere atoms!) It can only be by a “God”. Who you don’t believe in.

Also check out:

What We Might Say To A Friend Who Has Read The Dawkin’s Article

and

What We Should Think About Dawkins

When our “Harvest” Festival Meets Halloween

I grew up celebrating Halloween without thinking twice about it.  Now I have a bit of a cringe factor towards the holiday.  Our church has had “harvest parties” and costume events … but that always feels a bit strange.  Like kids who skip school who go into their fort and start playing school … harvest parties are often lame parodies of the culture’s broader celebration, but lacking the enthusiasm.

So what should we do?  I love Dave Mathis’ article on turning Halloween into an opportunity for the harvest…

Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission by David Mathis

What if a crisp October wind blew through “the way we’ve always done things” at Halloween? What if the Spirit stirred in us a new perspective on October 31? What if dads led their households in a fresh approach to Halloween as Christians on mission?

What if spreading a passion for God’s supremacy in all things included Halloween—that amalgamation of wickedness now the second-largest commercial holiday in the West?

Loving Others and Extending Grace

What if we didn’t think of ourselves as “in the world, but not of it,” but rather, as Jesus says in John 17, “not of the world, but sent into it”?

And what if that led us to move beyond our squabbles about whether or not we’re free to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, and the main issue became whether our enjoyment of Jesus and his victory over Satan and the powers of darkness might incline us to think less about our private enjoyments and more about how we might love others? What if we took Halloween captive—along with “every thought” (2 Corinthians 10:5)—as an opportunity for gospel advance and bringing true joy to the unbelieving?

And what if those of us taking this fresh approach to Halloween recognized that Christians hold a variety of views about Halloween, and we gave grace to those who see the day differently than we do?

Without Naiveté or Retreat

What if we didn’t merely go with the societal flow and unwittingly float with the cultural tide into and out of yet another Halloween? What if we didn’t observe the day with the same naïveté as our unbelieving neighbors and coworkers?

And what if we didn’t overreact to such nonchalance by simply withdrawing? What if Halloween wasn’t a night when Christians retreated in disapproval, but an occasion for storming the gates of hell?

The Gospel Trick

What if we ran Halloween through the grid of the gospel and pondered whether there might be a third path beyond naïveté and retreat? What if we took the perspective that all of life, Halloween included, is an opportunity for gospel advance? What if we saw Halloween not as a retreat but as a kind of gospel trick—an occasion to extend Christ’s cause on precisely the night when Satan may feel his strongest?

What if we took to the offensive on Halloween? Isn’t this how our God loves to show himself mighty? Just when the devil has a good head of steam, God, like a skilled ninja, uses the adversary’s body weight against him. It’s Satan’s own inertia that drives the stake into his heart. Just like the cross. It’s a kind of divine “trick”: Precisely when the demonic community thinks for sure they have Jesus cornered, he delivers the deathblow. Wasn’t it a Halloween-like gathering of darkness and demonic festival at Golgotha, the place of the Skull, when the God-man “disarmed the powers and authorities [and] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them” at the cross (Colossians 2:15)?

Marching on Hell

What if we were reminded that Jesus, our invincible hero, will soon crush Satan under our feet (Romans 16:20)? What if we really believed deep down that our Jesus has promised with absolute certainty, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). What if we realized that the gates-of-hell thing isn’t a picture of a defensive church straining to hold back the progressing Satanic legions, but rather an offensive church, on the move, advancing against the cowering, cornered kingdom of darkness? What if the church is the side building the siegeworks? What if the church is marching forward, and Jesus is leading his church on an aggressive campaign against the stationary and soon-to-collapse gates of hell? What if we didn’t let Halloween convince us for a minute that it’s otherwise?

What if Ephesians 6:12 reminded us that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic power over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”? What if we remembered that it’s not our increasingly post-Christian society’s Halloween revelers who are our enemies, but that our real adversary is the one who has blinded them, and that we spite Satan as we rescue unbelievers with the word of the cross?

Resisting the Devil

What posture would Jesus have us take when we are told that our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8)? Naïveté? Retreat? Rather: “Resist him, firm in your faith” (verse 9). What if we had the gospel gall to trust Jesus for this promise: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)? And what if resistance meant not only holding our ground, but taking his?

What if we hallowed Jesus at Halloween by pursuing gospel advance and going lovingly on the attack? What if, like Martin Luther, we didn’t cower in fear, but saw October 31 as a chance to serve notice to the threshold of evil? What if we didn’t turn out our lights as if hiding, but went pumpkin-smashing on the very doorstep of the King of Darkness himself?

Orienting on Others

What if we saw October 31 not merely as an occasion for asking self-oriented questions about our participation (whether we should or shouldn’t dress the kids up or carve pumpkins), but for pursuing others-oriented acts of love? What if we capitalized on the opportunity to take a step forward in an ongoing process of witnessing to our neighbors, co-workers, and extended families about who Jesus is and what he accomplished at Calvary for the wicked like us?

What if we resolved not to join the darkness by keeping our porch lights off? What if we didn’t deadbolt our doors, but handed out the best treats in the neighborhood as a faint echo of the kind of grace our Father extends to us sinners?

Giving the Good Candy

What if thinking evangelistically about Halloween didn’t mean just dropping tracts into children’s bags, but the good candy—and seeing the evening as an opportunity to cultivate relationships with the unbelieving as part of an ongoing process in which we plainly identify with Jesus, get to know them well, and personally speak the good news of our Savior into their lives?

And what if we made sure to keep reminding ourselves that our supreme treasure isn’t our subjective zeal for the mission, but our Jesus and his objective accomplishment for us?

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
– Jesus in Matthew 9:37–38

On Being a “Man-Child”

In a recent CNN article, William J. Bennet describes the pathetic situation of men in the United States.

Addressing the church, Darrin Patrick writes:

We live in a world full of males who have prolonged their adolescence. They are neither boys nor men. They live, suspended as it were, between childhood and adulthood, between growing up and being grown-ups. Let’s call this kind of male Ban, a hybrid of both boy and man.

Ban is juvenile because there has been an entire niche created for him to live in the lusts of youth. The accompanying culture not only tolerates this behavior but encourages it and endorses it. (Consider magazines like Maxim or movies like Wedding Crashers.) This kind of male is everywhere, including the church and even, frighteningly, vocational ministry. . . .

In a culture where the influence of godly men is desperately needed, this void results in a legitimate cultural crisis. We are not going to solve it by ignoring Ban and hoping that he eventually grows up. We are not going to solve the problem simply telling women that they should take up the slack.

We might solve the problem by modeling biblical manhood and calling adult boys to forsake their youthful lusts and become the men that God is calling them to be in the context of the local church. This call should come from godly men and women sitting in the pews and, specifically, from the pulpit of God’s church. The models should be men of God.

Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 9-12, paragraphing mine.

(HT Desiring God)