Archive for November, 2006

Christian Movies Are Overrated

{ November 30, 2006 @ 12:09 am } · { books, church }
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Challies has reviewed the book that’s based on the upcoming movie, The Nativity Story:

The book novelization of the film was handled by Angela Hunt, author of over one hundred books, most of which are historical or contemporary novels targeted at women. How well this book represents the film I will not be able to say until I have seen it. If it is a true adaptation I believe I will enjoy the film a great deal. I began reading this book with great skepticism but found myself enjoying it all the way until I had turned the final page. It will not win any Pulitzer Prizes, but is still well-written and enjoyable, even though it feels that perhaps it was rushed just a little bit. Hunt clearly dedicated a good deal of time to understanding Jesus’ cultural context and these details add a fascinating dimension to a story we all know so well.

Looks like a good book and a good movie. We’ll probably see it on DVD.

However, I hesitate to recommend these ‘christian’ movies because so many people choose to ‘feel their faith’ with these feel good movies rather than living it… Doesn’t mean I don’t think the movie won’t be good, but let’s face it, 1-you’re not going to win crowns for watching this movie and checking it off your goodie-goodie list and 2-there will be very, very few people who come to faith via this christian-focused movie.

Again, NOTHING wrong with watching movies like this, however, let’s not try to buy out the theater this time.

I swear if I have one more christian tell me that Facing the Giants was a moving experience for them, I think I’ll croak. Football is a religion for some, and I know the temptation is there to build your worship plans right into the sport, but c’mon!

Loving the Church

{ November 28, 2006 @ 3:54 am } · { church }
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Do you ever find yourself so busy lamenting the ills of the bride of Christ that you get angry with her? True that she’s often a whore who dresses to impress whosoever may be interested in her, but Jesus compared his love for the Church with the love of a man for his wife. He is the church’s bridegroom after all, and no doubt she’s dirty, but he loves her evermore.

I know that as a Pastor’s wife I hear the butt-end of church business sometimes, and I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell you that I do feel resentment from time to time. However, as I read again of Christ’s love for the church I’m reminded of how I’m supposed to love the church. While it’s easy to throw my hands up and declare I’m more effective without this ‘business’ end of God’s work, I know that part of my calling is to uplift His church and serve Him through my service within her body.

I feel like I’m in a prison sometimes, honestly, as I have to walk out of a room where people are talking about me and my husband and walk into a room where I must teach a lesson of forgiveness or of pride or of gossip. But I DO know that it’s not really a prison if I can walk out of it tomorrow… and I can. A prisoner is not where they are voluntarily, but against their will, and with God, thankfully, we have free will to serve Him or to deny Him.

I choose to be where I am, serving and teaching with love (true love) for those I know will soon see the error of their ways and repent. I know these ladies and I really do believe their hearts will soon be turned and their harmful-to-the-body-words will cease.

I can’t let these ladies, church politics or anything stop me from choosing to serve within the Lord’s church. I love Him enough to love His bride.

From Derek Webb:

Lyrics to Love His Church

i have come with one purpose
to capture for myself a bride
by my life she is lovely
by my death she’s justified

i have always been her husband
though many lovers she has known
so with water i will wash her
and by my word alone

so when you hear the sound of the water
you will know you’re not alone

(chorus)
cause i haven’t come for only you
but for my people to pursue
you cannot care for me with no regard for her
if you love me you will love the church

i have long pursued her
as a harlot and a whore
but she will feast upon me
she will drink and thirst no more

so when you taste my flesh and my blood
you will know you’re not alone
(chorus)

there is none that can replace her
though there are many who will try
and though some may be her bridesmaids
they can never be my bride
(chorus)

Is Sodomy Misnamed?

{ November 18, 2006 @ 6:42 am } · { Repent, church, homosexual }
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I submit to you that possibly sodomy should not be used to describe all but ‘normal’ sex. In fact, are we sure that sodomy should mean sex at all? If sodomy is in fact named after Sodom, I ask you to look at Ezekial 16.49.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Could it be that sodomy should refer to arrogant hearts that refuse to help the poor? Is homosexuality the ’sin of Sodom’? Sure, we know they practiced it, and God calls it out as a sin they were guilty of, but do we elevate it’s importance by saying it is THE reason Sodom was destroyed.

Before you shoot back from the hip, I implore you to re-read the section where Sodom’s demise is discussed in the bible (Genesis 12-19) with these thoughts in mind. Notate in your bible when homosexual sex is discussed and when other sin is pointed out.

I think your faith is important enough that it DESERVES your reflection. Don’t be afraid to ask questions…

*Side note, I still have difficulty forgiving Lott for his quick offering of his virgin daughters to be gang-raped by an angry mob to save the two angels. It really bugs me.

On Homosexuality

{ November 17, 2006 @ 4:22 am } · { Repent, church, homosexual }
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I promised to write this last week, but because the subject is so important, I didn’t want to merely throw it up here for dissection. My views on homosexuality have taken years to cultivate, and a 30 minute blogging session wouldn’t do them justice.

Is Homosexuality A Sin? The Bible says this:

Lev 18:22
“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” – NIV

1 Cor 6:9
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders” – NIV

Rom 1:26-27
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” – NIV

I won’t debate you on whether or not homosexuality is a sin. However, I submit to you that the church’s hatred of homosexuals is as great a sin, as that oh-so-detested-by-Christians-sin. Heck, it’s actually more harmful if we can agree that the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

In our haste to brand the homosexual as so deviant as to top all other sins (when no sin is supposed to be greater than another), we show our own black hearts and communicate to the world that we truly do not love others.

gay marriageWhat does this bumper sticker communicate to churchgoers? Now, to the unchurched?

Would a gay person feel welcomed by you if he saw your sticker at the grocery store? Is this going to make him feel like you care about him? Will he ask you about Jesus?

We don’t have to worry about being hated for our faith, we’re making sure we are hated for our lack of love. Here are my questions to you:

What is the last thing you said about homosexuality?
Did you say it as if you were talking about a friend or :gasp: an enemy?
If a homosexual knew what you said about him would it make him feel comfortable enough to share with you any pain he are experiencing?
Has your church created an environment of love that outsiders know would welcome homosexuals?

Next up: Why I could never vote for the marriage amendment.

Jesus Dolls Banned

{ November 17, 2006 @ 3:30 am } · { church, sin }
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*Note, my homosexual post is coming but it’s not done yet. I feel like I owe it to you to make sure what I am writing is well prayed.

Toys for Tots had decided that Jesus dolls are not appropriate gifts for submission:

We can’t take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim family.

However, it looks like Christians came out of the woodwork to lam-blast a decision that was probably the right one:

Breaking News

The Talking Jesus doll issue has been resolved. Toys for Tots has found appropriate places for these items. We have notified the donor of our willingness to handle this transaction.

Guys, can we pick our battles please? We just look like morons when we fight for our right to gift a Jesus doll. Get a grip…

This is exactly why most of us deserve the whole, ’shoving Christ down my throat’ gripes. We’ve earned them.

Dissecting the Haggard Scandal

{ November 5, 2006 @ 8:31 pm } · { church, community, sin }
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Ted Haggard is in some deep water. After allegations from a masseuse of drug purchases and extramarital sex, Haggard was fired from his church on Friday. As of this writing, his wife is standing beside him.

Ted Haggard's Pretty WifeOf course, that makes this crack from Mark Driscoll cut all the worse:

It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness.

We, as christian bloggers, have a responsibility to remember that more than the ‘flock’ are reading your blog. How do you think the secular world saw this statement? Yeah, he clarified after that statement that only Haggard was responsible for his sin, but why include this if you don’t think it’s a factor?

Here’s some comments from unbelievers on this statement:

1. Those fundies never fail to amaze me with something new everyday…to fill me with disgust at their close-minded, stupid, bigoted, hateful views. The US should declare war on our own hatemongering fundie terrorists before they can wreak more damage on this country.

2. Only a fundamentalist Christian could come up with such a convoluted excuse as “My fat ugly wife didn’t like sex and wouldn’t **** ** **** or ** **** so I became a gay drug addict”.

3. these right wing religious wackos are priceless. The only people more sickening than their leaders are the morons who go worship them every Sunday, instead of God! I’m sure Pastor Haggard wil be entering rehab any day now. Will it be drugs, liquor or sexual addiction.

4. Beyond that, as a woman, I wouldn’t go NEAR Mark Driscoll. Doesn’t he know that when he blames the wife for the husband’s sins that that will give some nut in the congregation an excuse to bash her around or verbally abuse her if she doesn’t shape up and keep him from prostitutes? This isn’t only dumb talk, it can be dangerous..religious furvor can be a very dangerous thing.

5. dumb dumb sheep afraid to think for themselves – take a 1200 yr old book literally.

6. Ted Haggard’s disgrace is that he turned away from the teachings of Christ. We all know that Jesus’ primary concerns were gay marriage and abortion. The meek shall inherit the earth? Afterthought. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven? Misquote. Blessed are the peacemakers? Not when there’s Middle Eastern oil at stake. When Haggard’s former evangelical friends castigate him for his sins, they will dountless omit the only one of which he was guilty. Hypocracy.

7. Church is a business, plain and simple. The more members, the more money. The more attractive, (Christ-like, perfect, ideal), a church and its members appear to outsiders, the more members it will attain and retain. Mrs. Haggard and and the other long-suffering wives of closeted gay pastors (and that has to be half, the other half being pedophiles

8. It seems as if the pastor is suffering from the Adam syndrome, “That woman you gave me.” Since he likes to quote Scriptures, here is one especially for him: Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thou fountains be blessed: and rejoice with the WIFE of thy youth. LET HER BE AS THE LOVING HIN AND PLEASANT ROE; LET HER BREAST SATISY THEE AT ALL TIMES; AND BE THOU RAVISHED ALWAYS WITH HER LOVE,” Proverbs 6: 15, 18, 19. When God sent Samuel to annnoint a King from Jessie’s house, God reminded Samuel to not look at the outward appearance, but to look at the heart. Also, the pastor’s wife is the mother of five children, and she takes care of the children and him and the congregation, so when does she have time to be lazy, and he should look at her heart, especially since she now has to look at him because of the mess he has created for her and her children and her family. The pastor who feels that its the wife’s fault should stay in the word, and he will have less time to condemn someone else’s wife.

9. Thank you, Mr. Goldstein, for bringing all this to light. Even though it’s easily the most nauseating, disgusting thing I’ve seen in a veritable smorgasbord of nauseating, disgusting things emanating from the Red party in the last few years. WHAT is WRONG with these people??

10. All forms of religion, not just Christianity, should be discouraged. We need logic and reason, not fantasy beliefs in gods and miracles. One needs only to study the past to see how religous quackery has contributed to man’s still primative state.
Learn to think.

11. Join the crowd of the human race and get off your high horse of moral superiority because another religious leader is a hypocrite. Spare me the crap that every church and every religious leader is about money. Let me see how many churches are in America and how many pastors are there? Every one of these are hypocritical? How this different than a prejudicial comment about all Jews or all blacks? We learn one thing. God is not religion and Jesus is not Christianity. Humans screw it up. Big news.

12. Isn’t it good to know that pastors have such a spiritual outlook on marriage?

13. Blame the victim, because a good Christian never could do anything wrong on his own.

14. What a bunch of misogynistic, “blame the victim” hypocrites. On a lark, I went to “Pastor” Driscoll’s blogsite – truly another world. First of all, you cannot get an account to comment unless you’d attended some Mars Hill Church seminar. Second, the weirdness just continued – “thanks for your insight” comments without a trace of irony. Your right, David; these people are like rock stars – drunk on power, “entitled” to having fawning, brainless followers, (all Dead Heads excepted), and constantly needing the adulation of their church members to feed their pitifully fractured egos. May they all be crushed under the weight of their dysfunction.

15. OF COURSE his wife is to blame!! “Christian” men have been blaming women for their faults and especially sexual misdeeds for centuries. All you have to do is read the Bible where there are countless examples of “evil” women who caused the downfall of, well, the human race (oh, I mean “mankind.”) Eve anyone??

16. Today I had the pleasure of throwing my bible in the dump. No longer will I be associated with anything with a hint of religion. Religion is the root of all evil.

17. Let me understand the good clerics point. If I let myself go my husband will become a gay drug addict. Gosh I had no idea I had that sort of power. The theory that I can turn my husband’s sexual orientation to the hetro or gay position based on what my scale says is amazing. I wonder what I do to make him like Fat Tire beer rather than Redhook. What he seems to be saying is that the husband is a creature without a mind of his own. Thank God I am not married to a christian pastor. I like my husband, I don’t want a creature I can manipulate with a fork.

18. Evangelical Christians and fundamentalist Moslems sound so much alike; notice how they demonize women. It’s a woman’s fault if they stray.

Those were the cleanest responses I could pull. If you think you can handle it, you should consider reading the rest of the comments. It’s important to see how unbelievers think, especially if you are so far removed from the world that you don’t remember…

Driscoll’s comments were out of line. I mean, they made me mad, and I’ve been a believer for 10 years. What was he implying even bringing up at all a wife’s appearance in this? So, if I get fat then my husband might cheat on me? Fat people have no hope, huh? Is this really the image we want to project as christians? “Yeah, I love you and all, but you’re fat so I’m outta here.”

We are the same people who want to define marriage, but they don’t want to include unconditional (or as close as we can get to it) love it in? Tomorrow I’m going to shock alot of you with my views on homosexuality. I’ll go ahead and say I agree with the Bible, so you can breathe a little now, but I hope you have time to come back and see what I have to say tomorrow.