Christianity That Makes Me Cringe: Women in Ministry

(This is a continuation of a series called Christianity That Makes Me Cringe. It's about topics in Christianity that make me uncomfortable or that I just can't figure out. Let me know your thoughts.)

My first Sunday school teacher was my mother. She taught the youngest children at our church. She still teaches Sunday school to young children, and she's good at it. I know a lot about the Bible, God, and Jesus because of her. Any kid who happens to sit with her in a room and gets to make crafts and listen to her talk about Jesus should thank their lucky stars.

But there are many churches where my mother wouldn't be able to get up and speak in front of adults. Despite the fact that she has studied the Bible her whole life, these churches would have live animals on the altar before they had my mother speak.

Why? Because of a couple of verses in the Bible that say women shouldn't speak in the church.

No Christian can say that they take every single verse of the Bible literally. We all pick and choose what we want to follow. I don't know of any Christians who avoid shrimp or don't shave their sideburns, yet this is exactly what the Bible says to do.

"That's in the Old Testament," some will say. "We live under a New Covenant."

Okay. Jesus said to pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. I don't see a lot of one-eyed Christians walking around.

Maybe what these churches are suffering from is the right mix of misinterpreting the Bible and chauvinism. Reading those few verses in context would help. There's a great article about this subject here.

It irritates me that some churches would freeze out half(or at times more than half) of their congregation and only let them speak to children. They're subtly saying that women can only teach using flannel Bible characters. They mask this under other Bible verses about men being in authority, but good leaders aren't afraid of people speaking their mind and contributing to a family.

I'd care about this more if it weren't for one thing: the churches that don't allow women to speak to the congregation are shooting themselves in the foot. They are missing out on creative, Godly minds that are able to help men understand God in ways we aren't naturally able to.

So go ahead, anti-woman churches. Keep the muzzle on your women. It won't be long until they go somewhere that is willing to hear the message that God has laid on their heart, and when they do, we'll be listening.

Help For The Road I'm On...Not The Road Where I Need To Be

“We don’t always want to hear or read the truth. We simply want the bible to help make us better people within our culture.”

We look to the bible for answers. We look for:
"What’s the rule for this?"
"Am I allowed to do that?"
"Is this forbidden?"

We like the features Cut and Paste. Unfortunately, we try to use those same features with our Bibles. We’ll Cut and Paste our way through the Bible as if it were just a reference book there for us when we need to pull it out for something that’s come up. We cut out all the content that make us squirm, and we’ll paste the particular verses (or parts of a verse) that are beneficial to our situation.

After all, we don’t want to “consider it all joy when you encounter various trials,” but we don’t mind reading “let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” We prefer the easy road, the one where little is required of us. We don’t mind the blessings, but don’t want to deal with the hardships. When we are forced to deal with something difficult, say our sin, we become uncomfortable and try to cut it out of our minds and move on to something that makes us feel better. We would rather not look for the ingredients to changing our life for the better, but rather a quick, temporary fix that requires minimal effort and alleviates the problem (for now).

We’re so risk averse that given the choice between (1) no blessings, no hardships, and the same life, and (2) having blessings, hardships, and a chance at a better life, we’ll choose the first because we’ll avoid the hardships.

We don’t like change. It requires effort and, well, changing. We’d rather have an answer that helps us be on our way instead of an answer that sends us down a new, unknown path.

When faced with that decision we can choose to take the path of least resistance or we can choose to persevere through it.

What things help you persevere through the hardships in life?

Christianity That Makes Me Cringe: Books About Heaven

(This is the first in a series that I'm calling Christianity That Makes Me Cringe. It's about topics in Christianity that make me uncomfortable. Whether it's capital punishment, abortion, or anything else, the issues are never neat and tidy in my head, no matter what I try. I can never break them down into black and white. These topics live in the grey. So with that in mind, I'm starting with one that's slightly less controversial. Books about heaven. I hope this will start some discussion, so if you've got some thoughts, leave them in the comment section. We'd love to answer back.)

I should start out by saying that I'm a cynic. Always have been, and probably always will be. I blame it on the fact that I'm a voracious reader. I end up reading about the cover-ups and conspiracies that have permeated history. So I naturally assume that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

And people going to heaven and coming back sounds too good to be true.

I want to say that I believe that God can do whatever he wants to do. But I think there is a difference between what God can do and what he does.

There is a part of me that wants to believe these stories. Why wouldn't I want these stories to be true? They describe beautiful things, and reunions with relatives that have long been gone from this world. Who doesn't have someone that has passed away that they would love to see again? These books appeal to the heart, touching our deepest desires for the comfort of our loved ones and a sense of security for ourselves after death.

I'll admit that I haven't read all of them. There are too many. The oldest I found, My Dream of Heaven, was written in 1894. I'm sure there are more written before that. But the few that I have read (which includes Heaven is For Real, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, 90 Minutes in Heaven, and of course, My Dream of Heaven) seem hokey. The best of them tell of miraculous circumstances, usually medical, with just the backdrop of a visit to heaven. The worst of them are blatant rehashings of someone else's blatant rehashings.

Here are the two biggest problems I have with these books:

1.) In every one of these books, the person who went to heaven has contact with relatives who have already passed away. This makes me uncomfortable, because the Bible strictly forbids necromancy, which is contact with the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10). I don't know if this doesn't apply if you're in heaven, but it seems worth bringing up. If God considers contacting the dead to be wrong, why would he create the circumstances for someone to contact the dead? This alone is reason to give me pause, though it doesn't completely rule out these experiences.

2.) The visions of heaven that these people have differ vastly from the description of heaven in the Bible. This sounds amazing, but it's true. Most people have no idea how much of their view of the spiritual realm and heaven is influenced by the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. The idea of heaven being in the sky, the clouds, harps, and angels, are all pop culture and Plato.

What's more, even the things from the Bible that we associate with heaven (streets of gold, pearly gates, reuniting with dead loved ones) aren't what the Bible describes as heaven. If you read the book of Revelation carefully, you'll see that all those icons of heaven are actually describing the city of God on the New Earth. Heaven is only described as the throne room of God, which is what it is constantly referred to as throughout the Old Testament.

This makes me lean more towards the possibility that these people are either lying about their experience, or it was only a dream, influenced by their cultural understanding of heaven.

But even with all these doubts, there is no way for me to know for sure what they experienced. I probably won't ever believe it, but there is no way that I can truly disprove it, either. The best I can do is not be overwhelmed by my cynicism, but at the same time caution myself and others not to live a saccharin sweet Christian life. We may want these stories to be true, but that doesn't mean they are.

While it's nice to think that God would give these people glimpses of heaven so that they could come back to Earth and inspire us, there is at least one story in the Bible that seems to suggest that God would never do that. Most people are familiar with the story of the rich man and Lazarus. When the rich man died and found himself in eternal torment, he asked Abraham to send Lazarus, who was in heaven, back to Earth to warn his brothers, so they wouldn't end up with his fiery fate. Abraham responds that the rich man's brothers have Moses and the Prophets (i.e., the Bible), and that should be enough. The rich man says that if someone were to come back from the dead and confront them, they would believe.

Abraham finishes the conversation with this:

"If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." (Luke 16: 19-31, ESV)

These stories of heaven aren't going to convince anyone to come to God, and from this passage it doesn't seem like something he would try and do.

What are your thoughts?

Sunday Scripted

Go, Go, Go

That’s the mindset we have and the schedule we keep to. We are constantly filling our time with things to do, moving from one thing to the next, and if possible try to multitask along the way (made possible by smart phones).

So when it comes to church why should it be any different?

Our service is scripted down to a ‘t’ to where every minute of the service is planned before hand. The songs have been rehearsed, we know where the prayers are inserted, and the pastor knows just how long he has to give his message each week.

We know service is going to last an hour and a half (amount of time may vary among churches but each one probably sticks to the same time frame each week) and if the service starts to go long everyone notices. We begin looking down at our watches wondering how much longer it’s going to be before we get out. We become anxious, and not because we have to get to lunch with the grandparents, but rather we have to get to our baseball games, dance rehearsals, or to the television to watch Jimmie, Howie, Michael, and Terry give a pre-game analysis of the upcoming game.

Church becomes just another thing on our schedule for Sunday. We may become uplifted, motivated, and recharged for a bit, but we quickly move on as we get to the next thing on our to-do list for the day. We lose focus of what church is and its significance. If the preacher started preaching until midnight (Acts 20:7), how many of us would actually stay all the way through? …Willingly?

And when we script out the service, how much room is there for us to continue worshipping in a particular moment; be it a song or prayer? We may feel being led during a song or prayer, but due to time constraints we suppress that feeling and move on to the next thing scheduled. And while some structure is good, we want to be able to move freely in and out of things as we’re led, not timed.

Sundays seem to have become scripted. In our busy lives with our busy schedules services can’t start early, won’t finish late, and are programmed in between.

How much of the service are we to script versus going with where we’re led, regardless of time?

How scripted are your Sundays and Services?

Book Review: The Bells by Richard Harvell

The Bells is the story of Moses Froben, born in a remote Swiss village to a deaf-mute. By circumstance and tragedy, Moses ends up in an abbey and is raised by monks. It isn't long until his magnificent singing voice is recognized, and he is given a prized spot in the church choir. He is soon befriended by a young girl, Amalia, whose mother is dying.

Though his life is not ideal, Moses cherishes his friendship with Amalia, and the seeds of romance are established. But tragedy strikes again when, in an effort to preserve his angelic voice, the choirmaster has Moses castrated. The rest of the novel follows Moses as he attempts to reconcile his shame and ability, and his eventual rise to one of the most celebrated opera singers in Europe.

Harvell does an excellent job of telling this story. His characters are well-developed, and he never rushes through the plot. There were times when I could not put this book down, though it was never really suspenful. I just could not bring myself to leave the characters alone. The book has a slow pace, which could turn off some readers, but if you allow yourself to get lost in the writing, it won't be a problem. Harvell has a good sense of the rhythm needed to move along the story, and it works out well.

Thoughts on the Death of Osama Bin Laden

Everyone knows the news. Osama Bin Laden, the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., and countless other acts of terrorism, was killed by U.S. Special Forces earlier this week. I remember so many years ago when we started this task, and now it has come to an end.

There was a time when we thought this would be easy. Then it seemed as if it would never happen.

I remember seeing the footage of Arab Muslims dancing in the streets after 9/11. I remember how it hurt me, and how it angered me. Then I saw the footage of people gathering at Ground Zero, and outside the Whitehouse.

We were doing the same.

Rejoicing at death.

On one hand, I feel relief. I know that Bin Laden's death does not mean an end to terrorism. There will be plenty of other people who have hate hidden in their hearts, who wish to do other people harm. But it will be hard to replace the funds and charisma that Bin Laden possessed.

On the other hand, I'm grieving, because this is just one more example that proves to me that America is not a Christian nation. We haven't turned the other cheek, like Jesus said. We rejoiced in the death of an evil man, and while that seems justified, God "takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

At times the kingdom of God seems so near, and at others it feels so far away.

How am I supposed to feel? There was a time when I would have swelled with patriotic pride, laughed at the bullet holes in Bin Laden's head, then made jokes.

But Jesus makes this impossible.

So though it goes against everything inside of me, I have to pray for peace for anyone who loved this man. I have to pray that no one takes his place. I have to pray for those who he has hurt, who now have so much anger because of what he took away from them. I have to pray that God has mercy on his soul, because I hope He has mercy on mine.