Cwillz Spills

About a month ago (I’m a little behind on my Reader) Greg Boyd posted his review of The America Patriot’s Bible.  It’s  version of the Bible that puts American nationalism next to the scripture.  As far as I can tell, the commentary misrepresents the historical truth of history and of the Biblical narrative.

Part of Boyd’s take, fully available here:

* Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16 which tells us “God so loved the world he gave his only Son…” This inspires the commentators of the Patriot’s Bible to quote Colin Powell on how “the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders.”

Really? Really?? With all due respect to the bravery of American soldiers, are you really suggesting that in sending soldiers to war, the United States is acting like God did when he sent his Son? Would you be willing to grant this parallel for every nation that has sacrificed young men and women in war, or is it just the United States that is God-like in doing this? Don’t Russians and Iranians love their children too? And aren’t we tip toeing dangerously close to blasphemy when we compare our nations military with the sacrificial love of God? Just wondering.

* Jesus statement that “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36) inspires a page long commentary on the Bill of Rights, with an ominous emphasis on how the “wall of separation” between church and state today is threatening freedom of religion.

Really? Doesn’t the wall separating church and state protect the freedom of religion? But more importantly, are we to actually believe the freedom Jesus was talking about had anything whatsoever to do with political rights? Why didn’t he say so, since his audience happened to have zero political rights. He could have inspired a violent political revolution, similar to the American Revolution, if he’d connected his freedom with political freedom.

Wait a minute: this is exactly what many in his audience wanted and expected Jesus to do. How did Jesus respond? He rebuked them, telling them instead to love and do good their enemies. It’s kind of what got him crucified. His “freedom,” like his Kingdom, apparently is “not of this world.” Nevertheless, the Patriot’s Bible succeeds in accomplishing what Jesus’ audience could not. Jesus becomes the champion of political freedom after all! Patriot’s Bible — 1. Jesus — 0.

Thank you, Greg for posting this.  I hope that all of us will see that our first and only real allegieance must be to Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I recently accepted a position at Christian Outdoor Leadership Training (COLT) and have moved to Takrio, Montana just outside of Missoula.

Mom and I next to my VW Vanagon Syncro

Before leaving my friends, family, students, and church in Columbus, I purchased a VW Vanagon Syncro.  My mom accompanied me on the trip across country.  We were in the middle of the third full day of driving when my mom made the first special request to stop for anything the entire trip.  We got off the interstate in rural eastern Montana and found a restaurant/bar where she could use the restroom.  From the looks of things I thought there may have been 500 people in the town.

We pulled out of the parking lot to get back on the intestate and the engine cut out.  We happened to be at the top of a long hill, and there was hope for a gas station at the bottom so we coasted down hill and barely pulled into the local gas station.  I did some tinkering and concluded that the problem was my fuel pump.

My Syncro with its family members in Worden, MT

A local offered to give me a ride to the mechanic in the town.  When we arrived I was told that the mechanic would not be available until late that afternoon.  Drat.  Plan B was the mechanic at the gas station in the neighboring town (which was about a half mile away across the highway).  After about 20 minutes of phone calls and talking, one of the townspeople remembered that there was a guy in town that only worked on Volkswagens.  Really??

Randy of Randy's Bugworks

So we called him and got directions.  He ended up having the exact part I needed.  What were the odds? As we pulled up, we could see the sea of VWs this guy had.  I thought I was in VW heaven.  This is the man who lives the dream, Randy of Randy’s Bugworks:

I am getting settled out here but am really missing everyone back home. Especially my students.  I love you guys. Please keep praying for me as I start something new. I’ll be sure to keep in touch as this adventure called life continues to unfold.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Krista Tippet and Zondervan recently teamed up to host a discussion with Charles Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Clairborne about Evangelicals and politics.  There is great input from all three, exploring the tensions that I like to  flesh out with my friends like Neil, Adam, Jennifer, Scott, Ben, Dauthan, Bryant, my small group, and others.  Here is a small taste:

The full versions are available(web stream or MP3 download) on the Speaking of Faith site and on iTunes for free.

A few of my thoughts:

1) I want to be like all 3 of these men when I grow up.  Each has been very faithful with what God has given them.

2) I felt a little bad for Chuck Colson because I think he didn’t get a chance to speak as much.  Maybe that isn’t true, but I really wanted him to say more.

3) Notice there are honest and somewhat should-be abrupt disagreements between these men (the most obvious being Shane’s blatant anti-military stance), but it is clear  that these guys are on the same team.  Hopefully the core group of people that follow each of them agree on that.

4) Greg’s story about mixing nationalism and faith really hits home with me.  It bothers me deeply that many Christians I know’s view of Christ is inseperably entangled in Americana.  See this post.

5) Where are the women? Momma T!

6)Where are the minorities? Discussion about Dr.King does happen quite a bit in the session, which is a starting point for the necessary inclusion of minority voices.

7) Colson is a tough old man and I love his fatherly tone when he suggests that others need to have the courage “take a political stance” and go from there.

There seems to be a big tension between Augustinian thought and Jesus thought, or at least the expressions from those who emphasize one over the other.

Which one of these men would you vote for if all three were running for president?

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

My dad and and I have very similar personalities.  We have pretty similar views about faith and I am contiually finding myself shaped by his wisdom and admire the way he does life.  There are, however, friendly points of dissention between us.  We see politics quite differently, although for the most part we come to different conclusions with similar motivations.

This past election, our votes canceled each other’s out.  He might not see why I don’t think fiscal de-regulation is a great idea and why the appalling stance of many the Democratic party are enough to make me vote towards the right.  I might not see why he doesn’t see that the free market has never really been free and consistently is controlled by people who take advantage of well-intentioned people and that the policies of the far right have most likely been an indirect cause of abortion and poverty, unproductive violence, and diminished quality of life for many.  Either way, we both have our points, and respectfully allow each other to continue find truth somewhere between, under, or beyond the arguments.  I even listen to Rush with him sometimes.  At the end of the day, our thoughts about government matter little because it is the Church’s task to declare and live out righteous and just living.  With us?

Sunday at lunch dad told me that he thought I really should read Ted Nugent’s “Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto.“  I had picked it up for a few minutes in a book store a few months ago and made a snap decision after about 5 pages or so that I thought it would have little productive to say.  Anyway, I like be challenged and enjoy challenging others, and really do appreciate my father’s wisdom, especially because he has had 21+ years of law enforcement experience, a lifetime of pursuing faith, and a sucessful business career that I have not. So, I proposed that we trade books.  I am reading “Ted, White, and Blue” and he is reading / listening to Rob Bell and Don Golden’s “Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.”

I have found very good thoughts and points in both, and disagree sharply with some of both books.  Manifestos are statements of beliefs, so you can expect people to differ.  However, I want to highlight a great paragraph from “Ted, White, and Blue.”

God gave man a soul; a powerful, instinctual moral and intellectual True North compass that completely differenciates us from all other living creatures. Animals stomp, kill, and and eat each other, even thier own, in primal instinct to survive. Man has the power of reason, calculation, dreaming, and a thought process the choose to do good, not just for himself, but for the predictable benefit of family, fellow man, and the good earth. Respecting the the gift of life and the power of responsible choice, man can pursue happiness while being a positive force for all things When man seeks to benefit from wrong choices, at the expense of others and the environment, he has lost his soul. His misdeeds will eventually catch up with him.  (page 39 Chapter titled “If I Were Presdient”).

The political right and left should take a this paragraph and do an examination of conscience.  Ted won some respect points from me.

Anyway, please pray for the Spirit to be our teacher and guide as dad and I wade through these thoughful and incredibly nuanced books.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I have a couple of reasons that I should know more about the Middle East. My dad might be going to Kuwait for business soon, multiple friends have fought there (Iraq, Iran, Kuwait), I study the Bible and other religious texts, lots of our money goes there, it’s in the news, etc.

I decided to get an education on geography the best way possible – take an online quiz! 

I got a 53/75 the first time, and was able to get all but one country after the 3rd time.  It seems that Turkmenistan is a slippery little guy. I don’t mean to make fun of Turkmenistan-is, I am just pointing out how uneducated I am.

Anyway. I feel less than educated enough to vote for my next Commander In Chief in a few weeks and it worries me that most of my fellow Americans will probably do about as well as I did on this quiz.

Reply with your score.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

This election has turned depressing for me, and I think that many people feel the same way.  The hard part of it is is that in February, I wanted to see a McCain / Obama race.  This is my second election to vote in, and early this summer I felt as if I was going to get to vote for the better of two goods and not the lesser of two bads as I felt last election.  That was easier to see before they entered into a struggle for votes.

The primaries and pre-primary debates were fun to watch because of the ideas and sense of togetherness that competetion within the same parties could bring. It was great to watch people sharpen themseles and share the distinctive ways they saw issues.  These were days where talking about politics had a general sense of “Yes, but [the issue is different/can be best addressed this way/is not that simple]“.

The past few weeks have turned from “yes, but…” to “no, and [some insult to the other party or candidate/you kicked your dog as a kid]“.  This is getting old.  I wanted these candidates because they are thinkers and moderates who I think will acutally represent the American people.

Arguing ad hominem over commercials is damaging.  I wish both Barack and John would become a little more “elitist” and not stoop so low to cut each other.  In my opinion, they are going to need each other over the next 4 years.

Right now I live a little less than three hours away from my fiancee. We recently met up for a mid- week date in Shelbyville, KY at a little coffee shop called 6th and Main. We only had a few hours together and since the coffee shop is all we knew about this pleasant town, we spent a good portion of the evening strolling through the downtown area.

We are eagerly anticipating the time when we will have our own place, be married, and can be together. We were looking for a place to sit and talk with relative safety and privacy. Passing by a doorway of one of the buildings, she joked innocently that we could pretend to be homeless and just chill in the doorway.

Within the next ten steps we came across a small loading dock that indented into a building. It was the kind of place that would be a perfect shelter for someone who needed it. Perhaps it should not have surprised me to see a worn out mattress resting against the wall of the small area. Sobering.

Homelessness, like AIDs, is still not on the funny list. Yet. However, The Kingdom of God is changing all that. One day we will remember only vaguely what it meant to live with unrighteousness or injustice, and we will laugh freely in celebration of the completion of the work or redemption over both sin and death. Let us live towards that goal.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

My friend Caitlin told me about this 6-word memoir book / site. I guess Hemmingway was once asked to write an American story in six words and came up with “For Sale: Baby Shoes Never Worn”.

You can submit your own 6 word memoir, read others, and submit your own at http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

I submitted one:

“FS: College Degree take over payments.”

Yes, I know FS is shorthand for two words. Get over it.

I had to laugh a little late one night I Carol and I were on the interstate coming home from a wedding in Knoxville. We passed a car whose bumper sticker read, “Republican Healthcare Plan: Don’t Get Sick”. It made me chuckle a little, but the bumper sticker is a little unfair to those who truly believe that the private sector and innovation eventually will pay off in the long run. However, the bumber sticker revealed an existing belief that some in our society hold about the private sector — its a phrase that people hide behind so they don’t have to do anything about injustice (again not fair or entirely true).

Whether believe that healthcare should be left to unrestricted free market or if you are of the opinon that government should become increasingly involved (about 20% of healthcare costs are subsidized), the real cost of healthcare is this: we get sick. However, many if not most of the diseases that cost us the most are preventable.

Heart disease, diabetes, lung and mouth cancer, and high blood pressure are all very costly conditions that can be avoided by simply taking care of oneself. Its pretty simple really: eat healthy, don’t use tabacco, and get moderate exercise. Save yourself and everyone some green.

“Don’t get sick” is a wise plan reducing the costs of healthcare, and how those reduced costs are paid is another debate entirely. I’d rather pay the same or a little higher for my healthcare and allow for those 7 – 12% who don’t have insurance and couldn’t pay the bills if they did be taken care of too. I’m still hopefully for the private sector to get creative and make progress, but its hard not to be jaded.

I feel ripped off. By this Saturday at noon I will be a college graduate. It has taken four years for me to realize what that means. It means that I am more educated than 98% of the world. It means that I have enough debt to keep me and my future family in the the same system. It means that I am bound by privilege.

Here at Taylor I have been given a very good, Christ-centered education. My practicum for a degree in Christian Educational Ministries took me to Juarez, Mexico where I facilitated high school mission trips in basically a squatter colony. There I learned what it looked like to not have enough resources to feed your baby properly, and to watch across a fence as another bank building goes up, waving Old Glory. As those people shared Christ and many gifts with me, I felt like I learned much more about the reality of God during my first few weeks there then I did as I was writing research papers at length for my Bible or Christian Ed classes.

My frustration is not against Taylor, but that I feel trapped. It takes a lot of effort to break myself of consuming, wasting, entitlement, and just plain ignorance. Oversimplified but not nearly as expressive as it is within me it is this that I am frustrated at: It cost me over $100,000 to realize that I don’t want this kind of life– and I have to retain my privileged place in society just to pay (a good portion) of it back.

I hope that I can find someone who can show me what it truly means to become like Christ.