Neither Protestant Nor Catholic

In this fascinating article in Christianity Today, Milton Acosta (a Latino theologian) argues that the church in Latin America is neither Protestant nor Catholic. In doing so, he offers a tempering perspective to the upbeat predictions of Philip Jenkins in The Next Christendom.

Acosta notes that, although the church there appears to be Pentecostal in many respects, it does not share the historical lineage of or even many of the core doctrines of Pentecostalism. Instead, the most prolific sector of Latin Christianity combines the hierarchical and authoritarian structure of Catholicism (with self-proclaimed apostles and prophets), indigenous shamanism (with "blowing" and "whistling" at evil spirits [a la Benny Hinn]) and traditional Pentecostalism (with speaking in tongues and prophecy).

In spite of all this religious activity, the clear gospel is not being preached, resulting in a complete lack of knowledge of the basic doctrines of the Reformation, such as sola gratia, sola scriptura or sola fide [grace alone, scripture alone, faith alone].

As you may imagine, the reason for this phenomenon may be traced to the prevalence of Enlace, the Spanish version of TBN, which ...

"has become 'a true magisterium' beyond denominational beliefs and practices. It is available in most Latin American countries. Most evangelicals turn it on several times a week. No matter what topic Enlace is dealing with, the message boils down to making "pacts" with God, wherein a person must demonstrate the seriousness of his prayer request by sending money along with it. Pastors with little or no training imitate Enlace preachers, and the effect intensifies.

"Many Enlace-style churches have reduced the message of the gospel to economic prosperity. Based on belief in evil spirits' hidden conspiracies that can only be averted by economic pacts—a contemporary version of indulgences—some of these churches end up in clear continuity with the surrounding culture of amulets, or magical ways of quickly obtaining wealth and happiness. The celebrities who represent this kind of overnight wealth are Mafia members and druglords. The final product, says Piedra, is religious consumerism."

>>For an example of the type of "Christian" shamanism TBN is exporting to Lati American and beyond, check this out.<<

Abortion, Contraceptives, Hardness of Heart

Explaining why Moses permitted divorce, Jesus said it was "because of the hardness of your hearts" (Mark 10:5). Some scholars argue that Moses allowed divorce to protect women (Deuteronomy 24). In other words, if a man kicked his wife out without divorcing her, she would not be able to remarry—leaving her destitute. Simply put, although divorce is condemned as sin in scripture, the Mosaic law provides specific instructions as to how it should be carried out.

I have mixed feelings about abortion reduction strategies—in the same way I would have had mixed feelings about slavery reduction legislation in the 1860s, partial women's suffrage in the 1910s, lynching reduction plans in the 1940s. It feels like halfhearted justice to me.

In spite of the author's obvious bias, this Slate article on a new abortion reduction bill is informative. However, there is a stumbling block in this bill that has tripped up many conservatives: contraception. The bill explicitly requires grantees to "encourage teens to delay sexual activity." But because it also requires grantees to provide "information about the risks and benefits of all contraceptives", it is anathema to conservatives. I think the concern is that teens will have more sex if they have access to contraceptives, and distributing contraceptives is an implied approval of premarital sex.

My question is this: If Moses were alive today in our postmodern secular culture ...

• ... would he approve of the distribution of contraceptives if it were proven that it resulted in fewer abortions ...


• ... would he support laws that limit access to abortion without outlawing it altogether ...


• ... would he approve of some type of non-marital legal status for homosexual couples ...


• ... would he approve of laws to govern the distribution of substances that may be abused and destroy lives and families ...

... because of the hardness of our hearts?

I don't know where I stand on these questions, and there is not much of a parallel between the theocracy of ancient Israel and the democracy of modern America. But it's worth considering how the law of God is intended to address the inevitability of human sin.

Stop Preaching Hot-Button Issues

Recently, I noticed a church Website was marketing a new preaching series on hot-button issues. Visitors could vote on topics such as drugs, divorce, eating disorders, cussing, etc. Ostensibly, the high-rated items would then be tackled by the pastor in future sermons. Of course, this model is not new. In fact, it follows the same narrative of fundamentalists of the past--although it's wrapped in much hipper packaging for today's po-mo audience suspicious of religious "do"s and "don't"s. Here's the drill:

Step 1: Observe cultural trend that is being "ignored" by the church.
Step 2: Formulate position on said cultural trend.
Step 3: Assemble unassailable barrage of proof texts and personal testimonies to tackle cultural trend.
Step 4: Market series through those church signs with the individual block letters (if you're old-timey) or the Wide World Interwebs (if you're cool).
Step 4: Preach, using above materials to sway the opinion of the listeners.

Believe me--I am as guilty of this as the next guy. When I was a youth pastor, I tried it. See two kids holding hands? It's time to teach on dating. Smell smoke? Let's polish up the ol' tobaccy sermon. Hear kids buzzing about a questionable movie? Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 101:3.

The problem with this method is its inherent arrogance. Preaching becomes about behavior modification, not exposing listeners' hearts to the scalpel of the text, allowing the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Besides, the alternative is far too boring: preach the scriptures and tackle issues when they come up in scripture. In context.

I once heard Walter Kaiser say that preaching should follow not only the content of scripture, but its contours. If I preach through books, chapters and verses, I will cover what the Holy Spirit wants me to cover, not what my agenda is, based on the perceived needs of my hearers or the culture at large.

Methland

Methland is, if anything, a masterful piece of journalism. But it's more than that, as author Nick Reding traces the connections between the rise of methamphetamine traffic and economic duress in rural America. His no-holds-barred depiction of the human destruction caused by meth addiction both turns the stomach and breaks the heart. This account about a recovering addict reveals the unmistakable spiritual dimension of meth addiction:

The bad news, said Major, was that he lacked anything in which to believe. He was working hard--at staying clean, at raising Buck, at making money. But without meth, Major found it impossible to feel, as he put it, "happy." ... Even when Major did the right thing, he couldn't quite believe in its rightness, for that thing didn't satisfy him--meth did. ... To get back to normal--that is, to begin once again to derive meaning from the humdrum facts of life--might take years. ... Major's self-admonishment that he ought to be grateful is no substitute for the neurotransmitters--and the feeling of well-being they create--that he can no longer produce. In the meantime, the gravitational pull of meth, with its pyrotechnic promise of biochemical ecstasy, could be overwhelming.

Let the Unchurched Stay That Way

It's not new, but the use of the word "unchurched" is one I find disconcerting. It is frequently used by church planters to denote the heathen, their "market" and "target audience"--in contrast to church hoppers, who are merely disgruntled with their current congregation and shopping for a new one.

Like Burger King's "Whopper virgins", these unchurched are the fresh-faced masses who have never had the privilege of hearing a truly relevant "talk" on improving their lives from a gel-haired hipster, while sipping a hot cup of Starbucks. Okay, sorry. I'm going to cut the gratuitous cynicism for a minute.

Our family has some unchurched friends, and to be honest, the last thing I want is for them to become churched. I would love it if they became followers of Christ, but I'm not sure I want them becoming churched before they become regenerated. These days, attending church can be a sure-fire way to become inoculated to the gospel. It's a great way to convince yourself that you're okay with God and he's cool with you, that He may even be pleased with your Sunday morning ritual.

Am I nitpicking, splitting hairs? Perhaps those who use the word unchurched have merely chosen a softer word than "unsaved". The problem is that becoming "churched" is not the solution, in spite of arguments to the contrary.

The formula goes like this: If we could just get them into the doors of the church, they would see that we're not that weird, that we don't use hymnbooks, we don't have pews, we don't have a portrait of George W. Bush in the foyer. We don't even have a foyer. When they see the programs we have for their children and meet other people just like them, they'll decide to stick around. Then we may drop the gospel bomb. But by then it will be too late. Their relational connection to the church will be so strong that they will not be likely to leave without extreme discomfort.

Then, my friends, they will be churched.

A "Hero's" Farewell

Yesterday, Michael Jackson was given a hero's farewell, aside from the fact that he never did anything heroic--unless you count making people feel good when they listen to his music.

Over the weekend, I read a story in the Orlando Sentinel about a real hero, a dad who was vacationing with his family several weeks ago and sacrificed his own life for his son. The man and his kids were playing on a natural rock water slide in North Carolina when the 12-year-old boy got his foot trapped in some rocks. The father leaped in, stood between his son and the raging current, attempting to dislodge his foot. He did this for 40 minutes until rescuers arrived and managed to pull his son to safety. Before rescuers were able to save the dad, he succumbed and was overwhelmed by the current--estimated to be 400 pounds of pressure bearing down on him while he was shielding his son.

Juxtapose the image of this father with the image of Michael Jackson dangling his infant son over a balcony for the paparazzi several years ago. Juxtapose this image with that of Jackson's own father, mocking him for his "big nose" and beating him brutally when he wouldn't sing up to his expectations. Yeah, this guy was no hero. He was a deeply damaged man, abused by his deranged father, who exploited his talent and robbed him and his brothers of their childhood. As this article seems to suggest, he was a spiritual seeker, but he apparently never found what he was looking for.

Most good dads would gladly throw themselves in front of a train for their kids, but it seems there are few problems in the world that can't somehow be traced to bad fathers.

Justice & Jesus Junk

The late Keith Green called it "Jesus Junk"--the WWJD pencil holders, Bible covers, figurines and platitudes on plaques, the artifacts of an insular subculture that are often found in Christian bookstores. I've often heard these trinkets poked fun at for their tackiness and irrelevance in the wider Western culture, but the problem goes way beyond aesthetics to basic justice and morality, as I discovered again today.

I was chatting with some friends working among a people group in Mexico with nearly 100,000 members--only 2 percent of whom are literate. This couple is creating literacy resources and teaching members of this tribe how to read so that they can understand the Bible--as well as get jobs and better provide for their families. This couple has contacted publishers in the US, asking permission to translate or adapt existing English resources, such as graphic Bibles, Christian books, animated videos, etc., to help teach the people to read in their own language. At every turn, they have been told "no." Copyrights. Royalties. Intellectual property.

As a subset of the Christian "product" industry, the English-language Christian book industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry that makes many people wealthy. Christian bookstores and the religion section at Barnes & Noble are loaded with books--from self-help to Christian romance to niche Bibles like the Chicken Soup for the Soul Bible.

Yet there are still languages with no Bible. There are people who don't know how to read for lack of resources in their own language. There are pastors in developing nations who lead their entire congregations with a tattered New Testament that is not even in their own language. If the American church thinks for a minute that it will not be judged for this appalling narcissism and hoarding of God's resources, it has another thing coming.

The Ronald Reagan Diaries

Today I finished The Reagan Diaries, a compilation of Ronald Reagan's diaries from his eight years in office, edited by Douglas Brinkley. Reagan is the first political figure I remember, and I remember him well, even though I was very young when he began his first term. Here are a few unexpected things I discovered in his diaries:

Reagan hated war: Although he is often portrayed as a warmonger as a result of his hard statements against communism, his diary reveals a true fear of the potential of war with the USSR and a genuine desire to do everything in his power to avoid it. However, for better or worse, he believed the best defense against Russian aggression (whether real or imagined) was a solid nuclear arsenal, in spite of what he seemed to understand was the obvious consequence if a war ever started: MAD.

Reagan was a persuader: He genuinely believed--whether dealing with Sam Donaldson, Jesse Jackson, Mikhail Gorbachev, House Speaker Tip O'Neill or his own self-described liberal children Ron and Patti--that all he needed to do was get in a room with them and he could make them understand his position. It apparently hurt him when he was accused of being a racist, warmonger or anti-environmentalist, and he would often make personal calls and set up meetings with opponents to hash out differences in a constructive manner.

He had compassion. He frequently describes his deep emotion at meeting with sick children, wounded soldiers or people who had lost family members in disasters or war. Often his efforts in promoting freedom overseas were inextricably intertwined with his frustration at the way individual people were being treated under dictatorships or in other oppressive societies. He also seemed to care for people's souls. In one interesting account, he expressed deep concern for Nancy's unbelieving father who was on his deathbed and noted that he was looking for an opportunity to ask him about his eternal condition.

He loved freedom. Like a thread throughout the entire book, Reagan's core obsession was extending freedom around the world. It was something he believed in--sometimes with a childlike naivete: Not only did he believe in it, but he assumed that it was a shared value of humanity. It informed every interaction he had with communist leaders and it animated his foreign and domestic policy.