Our Loving God (Part 04) – He Who is Patient and Kind

True love.  It’s what we all long for deep in the recesses of our being.  It is why we are stirred by stories of great sacrifice by persons for one another and inspirational forgiveness by those who are wronged.  We desire, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, to be loved with a love that knows no limits.  Only an infinite being can truly love with no limits.  As great as human love can be, it is nonetheless limited and those we wish to love us are not perfect.  That’s not to say that human love is not wonderful.  It is and make no mistake about it – we need human love.  Many of us can recall people in our lives, whether they be parents, siblings, friends, aunts, uncles, coworkers, fellow churchgoers, or even total strangers, who have poured the sweet nectar of love from their hearts into our own and, in doing so, have invigorated our lives, given us strength, and helped us become more loving people ourselves. 

However, we also can recall those people whose personal misery and destructive bitterness wrought havoc in our hearts.  They may have abused us verbally, physically, sexually, emotionally or spiritually.  People like this make you feel shameful about who you are and deaden you on the inside.  It is especially tragic for us when these bitter people are those whom we have given a great trust such as parents, teachers, or ministers.  And, sometimes, it is well-meaning people’s twisted understanding of what love really is that poisons our minds and makes us question whether love is all it’s cracked up to be, or whether we can really trust someone who claims to love us.

So what exactly IS love?  And what does it mean to say that God’s essence IS love?  And how does God love us in a way such that selfishness does not taint our experience of it and in a way such that He heals us from hurts those people we just referred to have inflicted on us?  It is the experience of God Himself – True Love – which is the beginning of all healing and the inner transformation that accompanies it which makes us into the loving images of Himself He intended us to be.  Let’s take a look at what the Apostle Paul said true love looks like and then we will gain insight as to the answers to these questions.

We saw in the last article on this topic that in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Paul gives us a list of qualities or characteristics that are true of love.  It really is a listing of how love acts, so, first, let’s define what love IS.  Love is a qualitative experience of interpersonal relationships in which one person seeks to bring about the ultimate happiness of the other.  This may be a bit different than what you’ve heard before, but the essence of what love IS comprises not of some “thing”, but of the actual dynamic that takes place between the persons of the Trinity.  The Being we call God is a relationship – a relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – a divine community in which each member of the Trinity meets the other’s needs and seeks to bring them the utmost of happiness (for those of you fundies who get nervous with the word happiness, think of its functional equivalent – blessedness).  True, pure, selfless love could be defined then as the qualitative experience of the interpersonal relationships between the three members of the Trinity in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit seek to bring about the ultimate happiness of each other. The way each member of the Trinity treats each other is what we call “love” and that is what Paul is describing in 1 Corinthians 13. 

Okay, that’s the philosophical, technical part, but it’s important for you to know what love IS so that you know what we mean when we say that God IS love.  To put it another way, to state what love IS in its true, purest form is the same as stating what God IS.  Now that we’ve defined love, the apostle begins to describe what love does – in our terminology, he is describing that interpersonal dynamic that one person expresses to another and that finds its purest expression within the Trinity.  Paul begins by saying that love is patient.  You will hear preachers talk about “biblical patience” as being the ability to endure trials, but that is not what the Greek word here means.  Love is patient, patient with people.  Patience is not giving up on someone regardless of how many times they fail and how long it takes them to “get it” and it is displayed in the story of the Prodigal Son by the father who watched and waited until his lost son finally came home.  William Barclay, world-renowned Greek scholar and Bible commentator of the 20^th century, described another aspect of patience in personal relationship when he wrote, “[It] is the word which is used of the man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself and who yet will not do it.  It describes the man who is slow to anger” (Barclay, 1956). 

The sad fact is that fundamentalist Christianity has painted a picture in the American mindset of a vengeful God who is always ticked off and ready punish, judge, condemn, and destroy all those who oppose him.  According to Paul, nothing could be further from the truth.  God is not trying to restrain Himself from launching destruction on America or any other country for sins committed, because God – True Love – is patient!  Contrary to fallible human love which often disappoints us or, worse, hurts us, God does not “run out of patience.”  God is an infinite being and thus cannot ever stop being patient.  He will never come to a place where He says to you, “That’s it!  I’ve had it!  I’m done with you!  I give up on you!”  Instead, He is calmly waiting for us to realize that the love available to us is free, is unconditional, and is what will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.  And He is willing to wait forever.  Think about that for second.  He will wait forever if that’s how long it takes for you to discover and experience His love for you!  What could be more beautiful?

You see, He is not hovering over you, waiting to strike you for something that you’ve done that is wrong, but is waiting in love until you realize that you won’t find life apart from Him and that through repentance you can return again to fellowship with Him.  When you feel like God has had it with you because you keep messing up with the same thing over and over again or because you ran away from Him years ago and now feel as if you could never be loved again, remember:  God is patient!  He is waiting for you to return to the safety of His loving arms and hear Him whisper into your ear, “I will never give up on you and you will never be so far from me that my love cannot overcome the distance between my heart and yours.  I will wait as long as it takes for my love to penetrate your illusions and your brokenness until it brings wholeness to your heart.  I love you, my child, always and forever!”

If you are a fundamentalist or come from that background, you may find these descriptions shocking.  You see, the god of fundamentalism is a myth that was invented by people who themselves had obviously not known true love.  They were people who did not encounter True Love in all His fullness, because had they done so, they would have realized that the mean, bitter god that they so often describe is nothing but a product and projection of their own unloved hearts.  As Anne Lamott quotes a priest friend of hers, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when He hates all the same people you do” (Lamott, 1995).  No where can this be seen any more clearly than in the extremist wings of the radical religious right.  They (i.e. Pat Roberston) believe in a god who is ready to send earthquakes to condemn an entire island of people for something a few of their ancestors did centuries ago.  This so-called god is not worthy of worship and is simply a symptom of these people’s demented, loveless understanding of the divine.  So, if you hail from that background or, like me, were traumatized by it, then you will find it shocking, healing, and liberating that the God Who is love is none of the aforementioned.

Then Paul writes that love is kind.  This word really could be translated “sweetness” (Barclay,  1956).  Have you ever met a person who was very, shall we say, moral?  They do all the “right things” and seem to be above reproach, but they’re not really the nicest people.  They would never be described by someone as “sweet.”  Then there are those people who may not seem to have it all together, but there is a genuine warmth and sweetness to the way they relate to you.  The former is the result of legalism, the latter the result of intimacy with True Love Himself.  You see, a person is not loving if they don’t have this warmth of personality that they communicate in their relating to you.  Kind people are sweet and gentle in the way they handle someone, especially when they are disciplining and/or correcting them.  Sarcastic and critical spirits have not been nurtured by love.  They are caustic, and are this way because they have not encountered the warm, sweet, kind spirit of love in a life-changing way. 

God is sweet.  A sweet spirit that is warm and welcoming instead of harsh, punishing and condeming.  Sadly, and often because of their experience with a false Christianity during their upbringing, many people see God as that moralistic person who never smiles and is not very nice instead of the very essence of sweetness itself.  Remember this:  when God is speaking to your heart, it will not be with that harsh, critical voice that so many of us have been taught He uses.  You know, the voice He supposedly used with Charlton Heston on Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments movie!  Think of someone you know who is gentle and soft-spoken.  They are light-hearted and docile in the way they relate to you.  This is the way God is with us.  He is not vindictive or mean.  When you hear messages in your heart and mind that are the opposite of this, know that they are not from God, but from internalized critical voices from your encounters with people who, sadly, were just taking out on you the frustration they felt in the emptiness of their own unloved hearts.  God’s messages to you, regardless of their content, will fill you with the awareness of the sweetness of spirit that is God Himself.

We’ll stop there for now.  Meditate on the fact that the God who IS love is forever patient with you and infinitely sweet!  Praise God that the One we long for to be loving and kind to us is, indeed, the very Being we need Him to be!

References

Barclay, W. (1956).  The daily study bible series: The letters to the Corinthians.  Philadelphia: Westminster Press.

Lamott, A. (1995).  Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life. New York:  Anchor Books.

Translating Christianese: Updating Our Language for the 21st Century

I went to a class at church recently where we were discussing some issues of doctrine and our denomination’s positions on them and Pastor Nancy made reference to something that has been percolating in my head for quite some time now. In discussing the idea of sin, she commented that she hardly ever uses the term, because it has become so loaded. I nearly jumped out of my seat and said “Amen!” She explained that she liked to use the word brokenness, because she thought it more accurately described the concept of sin. We are a broken people and in our brokenness we hurt ourselves and others. I like this approach and probably will begin to use it as well, although I have in the past year or so been using the word “selfishness” instead of sin.

The two words can really work together. I guess I would state the concept like this: “In our brokenness we often act selfishly and hurt other people as we attempt to meet our needs without consideration of the needs of others.” You know something? I’ve found an interesting response from people since I’ve changed the language I’ve used to describe this idea of sin. When I used to talk about how we are all sinners, many people would object and say that they weren’t really “that bad.” Sure, they would admit they weren’t perfect and “messed up” once in awhile, but not so bad that they should be called “sinners.” The problem is that the culture understands “sinner” to be people who are “really, really bad” like drug dealers, prostitutes, and murderers. However, something funny happened when I changed to using selfishness and would talk about how we all have that part of us that acts selfishly at times and has hurt other people. The change: I’ve never, not even one single time, had somebody disagree!

And this has led me to conclude that I think some of the problem with the Christian message not resonating with people who live in a 21st century world is that we are speaking the language of centuries past and are failing to translate ideas in scripture into language suitable for postmodern society. For example, the most popular version of the Bible continues to be the NIV (New International Version). However, the language used in that translation is from the 1960s and 70s. Other, newer versions are more readable and are less literal so that they allow what is called “dynamic equivalency” which is where the main idea of the passage is reworded and stated in a way such that our contemporary society would grasp the ideas presented (the NIV uses this approach too, but, again, it’s out of date).

But, lo and behold, the fundamentalist conservatives come along and protest this approach. The problem is that it doesn’t fit within their theological understanding of the Bible and inspiration. They claim that God inspired the human authors of scripture to write what they wrote such that the exact words those authors chose are the very words God wanted them to write. The problem (one that they freely acknowledge) is that we don’t have the original manuscripts! The response to this problem goes one of two ways. Either they take some extreme, uninformed position such as believing that the King James Version is an inerrant, inspired translation of the Bible, or they admit the problem, but appeal to the accuracy of the copies we have. I believe that this whole problem can be avoided when we stop legalistically holding to the “letter” and instead seek out the “spirit” of what has been written. Words are important, but most often people don’t remember words or even sentences. They do remember ideas and concepts! This is why Jesus told stories that made sense in the context of the culture of His day in order to communicate His message. It is the point that God was trying to make that matters, not being OCD about the exact way it is expressed. I maintain that we need to be like Jesus by updating the language for certain ideas and concepts in the Bible so that we are using language that is the “dynamic equivalent” in our culture to convey the gospel message to a new generation of people.

While this certainly could extend to Bible translations, and should, we don’t even need to come up with a whole new translation to do it. We can start by focusing on the way in which we communicate the gospel message in our every day conversations. I already gave the example with “sin”, but what about “God’s glory.” People say all the time that “we’re doing this for God’s glory.” Yet, how many that say that, actually know what it means, nonetheless how to translate it into today’s language? What exactly is the glory of God? The glory of God is the greatness of who He is. Honestly, though, when Christians talk about God works all things out in our lives to show off the greatness of who He is, it makes God sound like some sort of an ego maniac. And this is exactly how many theologians understand it. “God is great simply because He is. He doesn’t have to show it, He just IS and you better believe it!” they expound. Many theology “experts” believe that God is only interested in you worshipping Him for His greatness, even if He never shows it or expresses it in your life. I’m sorry, but I have to have a heretic hissy fit for a minute and just say that the idea that our God is a God who wants me to worship Him for being a great God even if He doesn’t actually do anything great for me is patently absurd! If He’s great, He’ll do great things!

How about this instead? “The glory of God is the radiant essence and expressive beauty of His loving heart.” Since the greatness of who God is in His essence is His glory, and God is, in His very essence, love (1 John 4:17), then the glory of God is simply the manifestation of his loving heart. So, living a live to glorify God should simply be expressed as: “I’m living my life in such a way that people might see and experience the beauty of God’s loving heart toward them.” Wow! What a difference! It doesn’t make God out to be some obsessive narcissist hell-bent on getting to people to see how great He is without doing anything to earn it, but instead a loving being who seeks to bring the beauty of His love into the hearts and lives of every person. Do you see how the former is sort of detached and archaic sounding, like something that you would hear in an old movie about some ancient English king who put portraits of himself up all over the place so that people could be reminded of how great he really was, even as he lived detached and disinterested in doing anything great in the lives of his countrymen? The latter is so much more descriptive and uses colorful words to paint a picture in someone’s mind of something that is truly desirable – even irresistible at some level!

Here’s another one that throws people for a loop. The word “holy.” Nobody on earth uses this word anymore, but we do use an equivalent word that means the same thing: whole. They come from the same root and the idea of wholeness is what the word is seeking to convey. But it may be even more accurate to say that God is “healthy.” I can hear the fundamentalists sighing sharply, followed by pursed lips with a lot of head shaking. But watch this. Do you know what health is? It is soundness of body and mind that entails freedom from sickness or ailment. Guess what the root of this word “healthy” is? It is “hal” (old English) which is the word “whole” and the same word from which we get the word “holy! Holy and Healthy come from the same word “hal” which means whole! Holiness is the Bible’s way of saying healthy! This is nothing short of stunning to this author. This concept of wholeness as the main understanding of holy has been lost on the western church for centuries. You know where the problem started? When the people who translated the Bible into English stopped updating the word and using the modern equivalent. Holy or holiness is nothing but an English word that keeps being used despite the fact that it fell out of common use centuries ago. The appropriate translation of the Greek word hagios is “whole” or “wholeness” or “healthy.” You want to know the funny thing? This is exactly how the Eastern Greek Church has understood the word since the beginning of Christianity! That is why in the Eastern Orthodox Church they present the concept of sin as – well, now look at this – brokenness or disease that needs to be healed! I am not making this stuff up! I’m on a roll so I’m going to keep going. Ready for this next one? The word “to heal” in Greek is the verb soteria. Guess how we translated that word? SAVED!!! I am literally bouncing up and down in my seat right now as I write this, because I think my persistent, obsessively ruminating ADHD mind has happened upon something truly earth-shattering – poor translating and the failure to update old English words has actually hidden the meaning of these concepts from us.

So, let’s put this in perspective. I’m now going to write two paragraphs (below). In the first, I am going to use the traditional words to express the Christian message. I am then going to use our modern 21st century equivalents to express the exact same message and then I’m going to leave you with some thoughts to make you think more deeply about this and then maybe in the days ahead I’ll offer more suggestions for other words and try to do this type of post again. So here we go:

God is a Holy God who desires that we be holy like Him. However, we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. So God glorifies Himself by saving us from our sin and making us holy again.

I know that’s simplistic, but let’s keep it simple for now and then we’ll build on it in later posts on this subject. Doesn’t that short paragraph just inspire awe and wonder in you? Yeah right. Actually, I was thinking something more along the lines of old, emotionless, or boring, like a bunch of disgruntled senior citizens sitting in pews that are ten thousand years old singing songs that that were written sometime just prior to the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Now, here’s the way we would say it in a postmodern world where the words of our culture are used to express the exact same message.

God is whole and desires that we be healthy like Him. However, we are all broken and have failed to demonstrate the beauty of God’s love in our relationships with others because, at times, we give in to those dark, selfish parts of us. So God shows forth the radiant essence and the expressive beauty of His love into our lives in order to heal us of the disease of selfishness and make us whole again.

Some people will probably accuse me of going wacko new age on them, but the reality is that this would be an accurate way in our culture of expressing the exact same message used in the traditional language. Isn’t it so much more vibrant and illustrative of the heart of the Bible’s message? Think about it. You can use this language about brokenness and healing and love when talking with people in everyday life. They’ll be drawn to it and it will speak to their hearts. And then you can throw them for a whirl by telling them that this message is the message of the Bible. Scripture says that when the crowds heard Jesus speak that they delighted in His words (Mark 12:37). The only threat in the gospel is the threat to our selfishness, while at the same time it speaks to the genuine longings of the human heart. People will listen and respond if we use the right words in faithfully proclaiming the message in a way that makes sense to a 21st century, postmodern person.

Our Loving God (Part 03) – Comfort for the Fearful Heart

What would you do if I told you that being afraid of God was a sign of immaturity? Many people believe that we should be running around with “the fear of God” in our hearts to keep us from sin and that being afraid of God helps us grow in holiness. The liberating truth is that God, being a God of pure love (see part 01) is not seeking us out to instill fear in us (see part 02), but to drive it out completely!

The Apostle John, the one who was known as the Apostle of Love, says in his short letter 1 John that Fear and Love are unable to coexist peaceably in the heart of a person. He writes, “Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears. We love because God first loved us” (4:18-19 NCV). Did you see that first sentence of this passage? There is no fear where God’s love is. They cannot co-exist! John even notes that it is the threat of punishment that makes a person afraid. A person who is living in fear of God punishing them has not been “made perfect” (matured) in his understanding of God’s love and the fact that there is now no type of condemnation for the Christian (Romans 8:1). This teaching is further enhanced when Paul writes to Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of love! (2 Tim 1:7). It is not fear, but love that has been poured into our hearts through the indwelling Spirit (Rom 5:5).

Let me ask you: When you think of God and approach Him, do you do so with a heart full of His steadfast love for you, or with the dread that comes from fear of Him punishing you for those things in which you fell short? If you answered the latter, then you will never experience true intimacy with God until you begin to refine the image of Him in your mind. The passage from first John says that we become loving people by living in communion with Him. Our experience with a loving God transforms us into loving people (1 John 4:16-17).

The truth is that if all God had to get people to come to Him was fear, He would be a pretty pathetic deity. You see, we know that fear works to bring about behavioral compliance. However, those who have to revert to intimidating tactics in order to bring someone’s behavior into line may succeed at just that very task, but will never bring true transformation of heart and mind that can only happen by being loved (1 John 4:19). The Bible says that God uses love every time because love cannot fail (1 Corinthians 13:8)! Take some time and think about your views on God and your beliefs regarding the way He relates to you. In the parts of your image of God that you find Him cold, distant, mean, annoyed, condemning – views of Him that cause you to fear - find a Scripture verse that contradicts it.

Here’s a practical way to do this. Go to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (as we will be doing in the next few devotionals in this series) and look at Paul’s description of how true love manifests itself. If you still feel like God is mad at you over something that you’ve done, take note of the part that says that love keeps no record of wrongs. If you feel like God is going to fly off the handle at you when you make a mistake, look how Paul writes that love is patient. He doesn’t bring thoughts into your mind and heart that are unkind and disrespectful toward you, because love is kind.You see, if God is love, then He has to be all these things!  Meditate on these descriptions of love and see how much of your view of God lines up with the description of love found in that passage. The more you see parts of your mind where your thinking is out of line with the loving essence of God Himself, the more you will be able to change those beliefs and images in your mind and, as you gain a fuller, healthier view of God, the fear will begin to melt away and you won’t just “know” that God loves you and that you “shouldn’t” fear, but you will feel God loving you and, at the same time, driving the fear straight out of your heart!

Our Loving God (Part 02) – God’s Pursuing Heart

Have you ever seen a parent who is frantically searching for a child after they realize he or she is not there?  Perhaps you’ve been that parent?  I scared the life out of my mom when I was a little kid.  We were in a large department store and my grandpa was supposed to be watching me.  Well, I thought it would be really cool to hide in the middle of one of those circle racks so that grandpa couldn’t find me.  Well, it worked!  And it nearly succeeded in giving my mother a heart attack in her mid twenties!  There’s nothing I’m told that can compare to the terror of those few moments.  There’s nothing that could possibly be more important than finding that precious child safe and sound.  There is no obstacle too large that it cannot be overcome in the pursuit of that child.  And this is how we human beings react if we have lost someone as precious to us as a child.  Can you imagine how God feels about those of us who “get lost” in our selfishness and destructive ways?  He “panics” with holy fervor until he brings the very last lost one back to safety.

If you’ve ever read the parables of the lost sheep, coin and son, then you will no doubt remember the pictures of God that are painted there.  Now, I want us to mediate for a moment on these images and then ask ourselves this question:  Is this the picture I have of God’s heart toward me?  In this series of teachings on the love of God we are taking a devotional look at the images of God’s heart toward us as we find them in the Bible.

Most people believe that God is standing up in heaven with his arms crossed and tapping his foot, waiting for you to crawl back to Him and beg for forgiveness.  Yet this is not the picture that Jesus painted of God.  He talks about a shepherd who lost one of his 100 sheep during the day.  So what would a responsible shepherd do?  Jesus gives the answer that “he goes after the lost sheep until he finds it” (Luke 15:4).  Did you see that?  The shepherd goes after the lost sheep.  There is no picture of a sheep that comes groveling before its owner now is there?  The same story applies to the woman who looked for the lost coin.  She swept the house until she found that one precious coin.   The result was the same in both cases:  what was lost was sought after by its owner!  God is shown to be the one that pursues us!  We are the lost sheep and the lost coin and God is pursuing our hearts so that He can rejoice over bringing a heart that is lost back to life.

So, how do we know that God is not looking for us in anger, mumbling under His breath that He had to be inconvenienced by the search?  Well, the parable of the lost son fills out the picture for us.  Here we see God represented as the father and we (humanity) as a rebellious son who demanded his inheritance he had with his father and went and wasted it on unfulfilling pleasures.  The interesting thing to note, is that this story would have been very familiar to the listeners.  This is because in a story that was popular at the time of Christ, a father welcomes back his son who wasted his inheritance and throws a party for him – only to poison his food and watch him die in front of everybody.  The point being, of course, that betraying one’s father is unforgivable and that any wise father would be sure to get even.

With this background we can now see how scandalous the story was for those who heard it because in Jesus’ version of the story, the father sees his son returning while he was still coming over the horizon and runs to meet him!  He’s been watching out for him, never giving up hope that He will return!  In the oriental culture in which the Bible was written, it was considered improper for an elderly man to run, the reason being that in order to do so he would have to lift up his tunic and expose his legs which was a bigtime no-goer in this culture.  Then, he doesn’t even wait to hear the son’s rehearsed “I’m sorry” speech, but throws himself on him and begins kissing him and hugging him.  Now this culture was comfortable with the kiss on the cheeks as a greeting, but Jesus makes clear that the father in the story is literally kissing him all over his face and neck!  He is, in the culture of that day, out of control!  And all because he so desperately longed to hold his precious son in His arms and whisper, “It’s okay, daddy is here, he loves you and NOTHING could ever change that!   The father then  restores him to his previous stature in his household and throws a gigantic party to celebrate! 

Is this your picture of God?  Do you see him running like a fool toward you, tears of joy flowing down his face, kicking up dust as he approaches?  Do you see Him greeting you with hugs and seemingly endless kisses, so happy to have you in his arms?  I believe that hell, fire, and brimstone teaching have taught us to think God is constantly ticked off at us little peons down here on earth.  The loving heart of God has been distorted and perverted into a “turn or burn” theology.  We are making demands on people to repent “or else” instead of proclaiming God’s unconditional, passionate love for all His children (all that He created) – a love that just simply needs to be accepted in our hearts.  We need to tell people truly good news – that God is searching for all who are lost that He might restore them to relationship with Himself.  And one day, when all have been found, there’s gonna be a big ‘ole party where we celebrate the fact that God loved us back to life!!!  Meditate on these passages in Luke 15 and 16 and ask the Holy Spirit to change the images of God in your mind that haunt you into new ones that heal you.

History Repeats Itself: Some Christians Never Learn

The following is an article that is posted at www.newreformation.org whose founder is definitely off the deep end liberal in my opinion, but I find this article so utterly brimming with the mind blowing  truth about how wrong conservative Christians have historically been on social issues in this country that I reposted it here.  This should give us all pause to think the next time we think we know what the Bible “clearly says.”

Moral Legalism – by Steve Faulkenberg
www.newreformation.org/heresy2.htm

The fundamentalist evangelical church is the natural heir of pharisaism. They have a well deserved reputation for being judgemental and moralistic. The conservative protestant evangelicals have always taken what they call a strong stand on issues of right and wrong. They have always stood firmly for Biblical standards as set forth in the Old Testament and the New. They have always defended these standards in the face of social and cultural disintegration. The following are some examples:

• In the founding charter of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant denomination in the United States, just prior to the civil war, the founding fathers took a firm stand in defense of slavery which they believed to be ordained by God and justified through the references to slavery in the scripture (Eph 6: 5-9, Col 3:22-4:1).
• Many conservative evangelicals took a strong stand against women’s suffrage around the turn of the century. They argued that the Bible clearly specifies that women should have no place in the governance of men and that to give women the right to vote would be a clear violation of the laws of God (1 Tim 2:11 – 3:13; 1 Cor 14:33-35).
• In the early decades of this century, conservative evangelicals took a strong stand favoring prohibition. This issue was so important to them that they violated their own doctrine of separation of church and state to lend their full weight to the ratification of the 18th amendment. This too was done based on clear scriptural authority (Rom 14:21, 1 Cor 6:9-10, Eph 5:18), while ignoring scripture to the contrary (1 Tim 5:23, John 2:1-11). In standing for prohibition, the church participated unwittingly in laying the foundations of organized crime in the United States. The structures and alliances which developed during prohibition for distribution of moonshine are now used to distribute drugs. As a result, prohibition may well have been the most socially destructive event in our nations history. (For more on this topic see Sermon Number Nine).
• Conservative evangelicals took a strong stand against allowing divorced individuals full participation in church life. This too was based on strong scriptural authority (Mark 10:1-12, Mat 19:1-12, Luke 16:18). For many years divorced individuals were not asked to teach Sunday School or hold office in the churches.
• Conservative evangelicals took a strong stand against racial integration. Churches which accepted African-Americans as members were removed from fellowship in the local associations and censured in various ways.

In fact, conservative evangelicals have been on the wrong side of every major social issue in the past 150 years. Is it any wonder that the church has lost its place in society as a moral authority. Is it any wonder that evangelical fundamentalists have become a laughing stock. (emphasis added)

The message of Christ is not about right and wrong. In the Bible it was the Pharisees that had right and wrong all figured out. The message of Christ is about loving people, good or bad, right or wrong. We should be following the example of Christ who condemned the Pharisees (who were the great authorities on what was right and what was wrong), but did not condemn the woman taken in adultery, or the Samaritan woman, or Zacchaeus, or a multitude of other sinners He encountered.

Why I am no Longer an Evangelical Christian

To cut straight to the point: because evangelicals are no longer the bearers of good news.  Yes, it’s the hard truth to hear, but it is the truth nonetheless.  I do not mean to insinuate that all evangelicals are bad people or do not love God, I am simply stating that the modern message that they bear is most certainly not “peace on earth, good will toward men.”  Instead it has become a cacophony of doom and gloom apocalypticism, political and social intolerance, and a gospel that falls short of being the good news they claim.

When evangelicals began to break from traditional fundamentalism, it was seen as progress out of the dark abyss of a hyper-literalistic theological bomb shelter mentality.  They called themselves evangelicals (from the Greek euangelion, meaning “Good News”), because their message was often tempered from the harshness of fundamentalism.  And it was good news also in the sense that they were not out to fight the world, but to dialogue with and seek to integrate their faith with established findings of science and other fields of learning.  This was a welcome change in the tone of the religion vs. science debate.  This movement however became hijacked in the late 1970s by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and his so-called Moral Majority.  Pat Robertson then began using the broadcasting power of his CBN network to jump into what ultimately became a well-organized theocratic coup attempt.  Falwell and Robertson were going to use the massive increase in evangelical Christians to mobilize a political movement to “take back America for Christ.”

The result of this religious-political amalgamation has resulted in nothing but disaster for the Christian name.  Whereas evangelical Christians were once thought to be family-friendly folks who had a positive message of new life in Jesus Christ, they have come to be seen as judgmental, homophobic, intolerant right wing political activists who are hell bent on driving their particular religious vision of America down everyone else’s throat.  They have become the right wing fundamentalists they separated from to begin with.  They have attempted to and have succeeded at monopolizing the term Christian by defining in the public eye a true Christian as only those who agree with “conservative” Bible interpretation, even though evangelicals and fundamentalists are the vast minority within Christendom! Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism are distinctly American interpretations of the faith and have only been around for a couple hundred years at most!  And in the last 20-30 of those years they’ve successfully gone from being seen as anointed to – well – annoying.

We’ve touched on the political issues already.  When the name evangelical Christian was put forth in a poll question, the most frequent association that people made was “conservative Republican.”  The lowest response was to something to the effect of “carriers of the message of Jesus.”  It is the same on social issues.  Those in the public eye simply cannot comprehend the logic of these people.  They make the decision to spend tens of millions of dollars of the faithful’s money on fighting to pass Proposition 8 in California to keep several thousand gay couples from marrying, but vociferously opposed then presidential candidate Barak Obama’s plan to spend millions of dollars to fight poverty in America!  This is all the more astounding to the public when the Christian scriptures speak obscurely of same-sex behavior in only six highly ambiguous passages, while speaking to caring for the poor in over 3,000!

And now, after eight years of complaining that all that liberals did since 2000 was bash George W. Bush and accuse him of all manner of evil (which they did), they turn right around and do the exact same thing to Barack Obama.  The poor guy was not even inaugurated before some people were accusing him of being the antichrist or being the 21^st Century form of a Muslim Manchurian Candidate.  And now come the same cries that went up with the election of Bill Clinton as to the nearness of the end of the world and the destruction of the American Republic.  This would be laughable, if it were not so sad.

Finally, the messages coming out of traditional evangelical churches is more of a threat than a proclamation:  “Love Jesus or you’ll get yours!” or some modified form of the old fundamentalist turn-or-burn mentality.  I mean, come on folks, propagating the idea that our loving God would wipe out New Orleans with a Hurricane because of gay people?  That the President of the United States is an undercover Muslim that is out to secretly destroy America?  That if people fail to accept your interpretation of the Bible that God is going to burn them alive mercilessly for ages on end?  You call that GOOD NEWS!?!?  Listen to yourselves, my friends!  And then, to sanctimoniously turn around and claim the media is painting you as fanatics and that you’re being persecuted for righteousness’ sake!  NO!!  You’re not being persecuted because of your righteousness, you’re being persecuted because you’re behaving like a bunch of nutcases!  Crazy people say these types of things.

 Something has gone seriously wrong with the evangelical community in this country and they have lost the mantle of being bearers of good news.  While it’s true that this does not describe all evangelicals (and should not be taken as my saying that), and while it’s true that many (probably most) of them have good intentions and hearts, it does not erase the fact that things have gotten way off track for them as a community both theologically and civically.

God does not crush cities with hurricanes, but sends in relief workers to save those who are afflicted.  God does not send people to an eternal place of fiery torture, he showers them with His grace to reconcile all people to Himself.  God is a God of love and mercy, and these virtues, sadly, do not characterize as a whole the evangelical community in this country.  I grew up in this culture and it pains me to watch what it has become.  This is why I am no longer an evangelical Christian, but a Christian Independent.

(NOTE:  I also have experienced large changes in my theology that also disqualify me from being classified as an evangelical, so there are additional reasons that I did not have the time to go into in this article.)

Our Loving God (Part 01) – The God Who is Love

Someone said somewhere, sometime that you will become like the God you worship.  Whoever said that understood much about the nature of religion.  All around the world, no matter what the faith, you will see people doing a variety of things in the name of their god.  The further into one’s religion that he delves, the more he begins to conform to the image of his god.  This holds true even for those who are Christians.  As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches that believers walking in fellowship with God can be spotted by one major quality:  love.  And why is that?  Because the God we worship is, in his very nature, pure, unadulterated love!

 

I struggled many years with a concept of God who was angry and judgmental, one that sought to destroy his enemies and, through fear, scare people into conformity to his commandments.  And true to form, I became just like that god.  I was angry with people who didn’t do what I thought God would want them to, judged them, sought to use political power to silence and defeat “God’s enemies” all the while teaching a hell, fire, and brimstone bad news gospel that people didn’t really have any interest in.  I look back now and scratch my head at how ignorant I was.  They weren’t rejecting God because they were evil.  They were rejecting “god” because “he” was evil and so was I! 

 

The problem was not with the true God in Jesus Christ, though.  He was, is, and always will be the essence of the purest (holy) love.  It was my distortion of Him and His ways that was the problem.  1 John 4:8 states unequivocally that God is love.  The word “love” is the predicate nominative which means that it describes the essence of the object it modifies.  John is telling us that God and love are synonymous.  Love is God and God is love.  Everything that God does is motivated out of His loving nature.  Some may object and say, “But God is just!”  To which I reply, “He sure is!”  His justice, which drives Him to make all things right in the end, is motivated by His love for creation and all people.  And it is here where we find a “filter” by which we can interpret when God is speaking and when it is only his misinformed representatives (who usually have good intentions).  When a person is speaking a message of love, then that person speaks by the Spirit of God.  When it is judgmental and harsh, then it is from the spirit of man.

 

Let me ask you this:  while you are thinking about the way God thinks of you, do sweet messages of value, esteem, worth, and delight in the person who is you come to mind?  Does it feel like God is happy to have you, pleased with you as the person you are, that He rejoices over you with singing?  Do you think that if God saw you coming He would run up to you and hug and kiss you?  Do you feel completely accepted and forgiven, wrapped in the safety and warmth of His arms like the beloved soul that you are?  If not, friend, it just may be that you are worshipping a god who has been distorted by religious people who were well-meaning, but have failed to enter into His presence in truth.  Remember, Christ has many people who claim to speak for Him, but few who are truly transformed by His love! 

 

My life has been changed forever by the realization that the God of Heaven truly loves me as I am and desires nothing but good toward me!  This God loves His enemies and died for them, came into the world to save them from life without Him and desires nothing more than the redemption of all people!  He doesn’t threaten them, but enchants them with his love, seeking to have them come of their own desire.  If you’re struggling with how God feels about you, then allow the God who is love to permeate your soul and transform you through the power of His love made manifest in your heart!

 

(Note – to help with this, the next several posts will be word pictures from the Bible that illustrate God’s love for us)

I Want to Hear from You!

With the election behind us, I want to hear from you on topics you’d like to discuss in addition to the ones listed here.  My stats show that about 100 people a day are viewing this site.  Please add your comments and ideas!  We would greatly enjoy having you as a part of our dialogue!

Pollsters Vindicated: Election 2008 Review

There were two models being used by presidential pollsters this year.  The traditional model said that past voting behavior is the greatest indicator of who will vote this year.  This is the model I trusted as that is one of the things in Psychology/Counseling that you learn – past behavior is the greatest predictor of future behavior.  The Expanded model was based on the assumption that millions of new voters would turn out and go overwhelmingly Democratic and so the numbers were adjusted to reflect this assumption.  In the end, the pollsters were right in their assumption and Obama appears to have won by about six points which is within the margin of error of most of the pre-election polls.  I believe Rasmussen got it dead on.  This is the second straight presidential election where the pollsters have been highly accurate.  I believe the era of untrustworthy polling is over.

Regarding the actual result, shifting demographics and new voters seemed to have made the difference in the race.  States like Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina (where Obama leads by 13,000 votes as of the time of this writing) have seen their demographic make-ups change considerably in the past four years.  This combined with the incredible amount of new voters coming out shifted these states to the Democrats.  Florida was close as well, but Obama pulled it out.  My electoral projections were much lower for Obama because I relied on the traditional model of polling and assumed that previous trends would hold.  Oh well, live and learn.

I believe that besides these two factors, the overall driving force in this election can be summed up in two words:  George Bush.  President Bush is the most unpopular president in recent American history and the level of anger toward him in the electorate is unprecedented.  The drive by these new voters to go out and vote 3 to 1 in favor of Obama was fueled by anger with the president and the policies enacted by his friends and fellow Republicans in the past 8 years (6 of which had full Republican control of Congress).  This conclusion I am reaching about Bush is evidenced by the fact that in most states it was McCain that was selected by the majority of voters on who agreed most with their values and their views on taxes and smaller government.  It is these same voters who then voted for Obama!  The desire for change was so strong that it became an “anyone but a Republican” year.

Pollsters will feel vindicated by the results of the election this year and rightly so.  Republicans will be scratching their heads, trying to figure out how they fell into their worst position in Congress since the Great Depression.  And Democrats will now carefully review their plans and try to avoid the same mistake former President Bill Clinton made in the early 90s – going to hard to the left.  It will be interesting to see how these things unfold – not to mention how quickly people will begin lining up to run in 2012.

Barack Obama elected the 44th American President

Congratulations to Barack Obama who made history tonight by becoming the first African American to be elected President of the United States.  It was less than 50 years ago that black and white children didn’t even go to school together.  In that short time, America has gone from hosing blacks down in the streets of Mississippi to electing one President of the United States.  No matter who you voted for, Americans should be proud of the progress our society has made in racial equality.  The Christian Independent wishes Barack Obama God’s blessings and hopes that he is able to foster unity in a country that is deeply fractured.