Sunday, January 31, 2010

Matt Chandler in the AP

Great AP article about Matt Chandler and his struggle with brain cancer.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Gospel and the Economy

I had a conversation a while back with a Christian brother who has a management position for a manufacturing company. At one point our conversation turned to the state of the economy. I asked him if there were any improvements in the manufacturing sector in recent months. He said there wasn’t. I asked him if he was optimistic about the future. He again said no, and then began to tell me why. I was a bit excited. As a pastor, I feel somewhat separated from the daily grind of the business world. Now I was talking to an insider, and I thought I was about to receive a piece of pertinent information. Information that I hoped was filled with both direct knowledge and Christian principles. My friend’s rationale, however, quickly digressed into a capitalistic speech that sounded more like Rush Limbaugh than Christian. The problem, he said, was that America was again engaging in a massive social experiment. FDR did the same thing in the 30s in attempt to bring the US out of the depression, and we’ve paid for it ever since. If FDR would only have left things alone, my friend said, if he would only have let the markets work everything out, we would have been fine. And now Obama was making the same mistake and thus crippling our country for years to come.

I didn’t respond to my friend. I didn’t think it would do any good, but I was thinking, “Do these hyper-capitalists even know their history? The market was naturally going to pull us out of the depression? What market? There was no market. 40% unemployment was just going to go dissolve away in time? Have these guys ever read Steinbeck? Have they ever tried to raise a family in a cardboard box with no work?” But I’m not here to rant about the historical inaccuracies of hyper-capitalists, for that isn’t my main concern. What bothers me most about this view of the economy is how non-Christian it was. How little of a role the gospel plays in it. And yet how prevalent this view is among evangelical Christians.

Capitalism and Human Depravity.
The market will sort things out if we will just leave it alone. Get government out. Less regulation the better. So the hyper-capitalist say (for the record, I’m not against capitalism). They speak as if the markets are weather patterns operating according to the laws of the natural universe. Spring always follows winter. But the markets aren’t run by natural laws. They are run by people, and people are selfish, foolish, and sinful. The market isn’t an “it.” It is a “them.” It is people. Many right-wing Christians point out that the government is run by selfish human beings who morally are no better than the people they rule. Government can’t be the answer, they say. I agree. But I also would like to remind us all that human depravity runs the market place. Should we have more confidence in it? Isn’t pretty much every economist in agreement that the cause of the recession was not government regulation but capitalism gone awry? And the fact that it goes awry shouldn’t catch us off guard.

Capitalism with a capital “C”: Capitalism will save the day, if we just put our faith in it. Those aren’t the exact words of the hyper-capitalist, but it comes pretty close to that. Such a view to me is flirting, or perhaps more than flirting, with idolatry. It is sub-Christian. Jesus, not capitalism, holds the answers to our economic needs. For human sin and not socialism, communism, or any other “ism” is the true enemy of prosperity and life. Governments and markets always fail because humans fail. Our only hope for not failing is to be radically changed by his grace.

I have yet to cement my political views on many things, but it seems to me that this is not the path to a gospel-centered view of governance. I'm interested in what others think.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Churches In Haiti

A new mission effort is being erected in attempt to help the churches in Haiti. If there is going to be longstanding spiritual help to these poor people, it seems clear that the Haitian church must be aided. Not only are they recovering from their own losses, but they need our support in bringing the hope of Christ to Haiti in this tragic hour.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Bonhoeffer's Life Together


I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together, and several quotes have been ministering to me.

On Christian identity:
[The Christian] knows that God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him not guilty and righteous, even when he does not feel that he is righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives of himself by his own claims and his own justification, but by God's claims and God's justification. He lives wholly by God's Word pronounced upon him, whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent.

On Christian Community:
Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hinderance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

The man who fashions a visionary ideal of a community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.

Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body . . . in Jesus Christ, we enter into [community] not as demanders but as thankful recipients. . . . We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. . . . Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love God in Jesus Christ?

Future of the Blog

Some of you have probably noticed the drop-off in blogging Bible. So I just wanted to update you on a decision that I have had to make. As much as I would like to continue blogging through Romans, logistically it just isn't working. I have been trying to fit the blog somewhere into my life, and right now I just don't have a space for it. So the future of the blog, as least as of right now, will be more thoughts that arise out of my everyday life (thoughts from books, sermons, news, etc.). I still hope you find it profitable.

David Brooks on Haiti

David Brooks as usual provides some clear and thought provoking observations on the poverty of Haiti.
On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died.

This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths.

Read the whole thing to discover what those truths are. In my mind, they all lead to the gospel. One of my growing prayers is that this tragedy leads many in the Church to devote their lives to shining the light of Jesus into this very dark land.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

More Haiti

Justin Taylor recommends Children's Hunger Fund.

I have found Samaritan's Purse to be a wise choice as well.

Haiti Help

If you wondering what a Christian response to the recent tragedy should be, perhaps some of these pictures can give you some inspiration.

Here are some charitable organizations at work in Haiti.