Responding to a friend

A friend of mine was asking some questions and speaking of his desire to do what God says and speaking of his seeming lack of actual desire to do it, and I posted a response that seemed more directed at my own life than his…so I am going to share it here because maybe there is someone else who needs to hear it too…

Working in a hospital environment like I do tends to make me sort of calloused to the needs of others. Every single day, I go to my dead-end job of parking people’s cars, and every day I see people who’s loved ones are dying or who’s children are suffering from various cancers or men who can no longer speak and have one of those little electronic voice boxes that makes them sound like that robot at the beginning of the Beastie Boys song “Intergalactic,” and, more often than not, I don’t give a damn. I want to care, but more often than not, I just don’t.

Or at least that is what I used to think.

The Good Marriage: Gender Roles

The particularity of each life is obscured by reductionizing abstractions.  Life leaks out of us as we find ourselves treated as objects, roles, images, economic potential, commodities, consumers. - Eugene Peterson

One of the most divisive issues within the Christian church here in America is the issue of gender.  On the one hand, you have the group called the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which states that its aim is “to set forth the teachings of the Bible about the complementary differences between men and women, created equally in the image of God, because these teachings are essential for obedience to Scripture and for the health of the family and the church.”  Among these ideas is that men are to be the dominant partner in marriage and women are to be submissive to their husbands.

On the other hand, you have the group Christians for Biblical Equality, which which believes “that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of men and women.”  This group would say that husbands and wives are to work together in marriage equally, and not in a hierarchical structure.

Whatever your personal view of all of this is, I want us to look at what the Bible says.  Set aside what you believe the Bible says and walk with me through the Scriptures as we discuss what they say about gender roles in a marriage relationship.

The Good Marriage: Foundations in History

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Hebrews 13:4 TNIV)

Discussing marriage in our current cultural context is a touchy thing.  With homosexuals fighting for their right to have legally binding “marriages” to the broader Evangelical community fighting for “traditional marriages,” one is left with the notion that this beautiful thing is nearly undefinable.  To say marriage is between a man and a woman only seems intolerant and yet, simultaneously, “same-sex marriage” is an oxymoron of sorts with “marriage” implying that two different things are coming together.  Merriam-Webster would have us think differently, but it is hard to change the implications of a term when it has been used in a particular manner for as long as the term “marriage” has.

The Myth of a Christian Nation

I hinted around the idea, in my last post, that there is a problem with the mentality that says that America is a “Christian” nation. Today, I want to discuss that idea in further detail.

Because of the First Amendment, the statement that America is a “Christian” nation is blatantly false. A case might be able to be made that it was founded on Christian principles, but even that is a stretch. America was founded as a Representative Republic and a land where the settlers could be free from the tyranny of their previous leaders. It had nothing, really, to do with being a Christian versus being a pagan. England was a Christian nation in that the church and the state were enmeshed with each other. America was to be something vastly different.

The Ingenius Wall

The men who established our Constitution were not opportunists looking out only for themselves. They also had what was in the best interests of the new United States at heart. This is why, in 1791, the Constitution was Ammended to say that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

“Founding Fathers” Follow-up

I had intended today to write a post continuing my train of thought, but I got a response from a reader that, I think, deserves some attention.

The Genius of the Founding Fathers

Recent times have seen a growing number of people writing books and articles that really attack the United States’ Founding Fathers and some of the early presidents. Everything from Abraham Lincoln’s secret homosexual tendencies to Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of slaves have been brought forward in an attempt to belittle their influence on present day America. Some of this information is true, other stuff is false, but it all has one purpose: remove the hero status of the men in the early history of America. But as I reflect back on what I have learned from studying American history, I actually think that these men were geniuses in their own right.

God Isn’t There

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2 ESV)

The Christian culture that most of us have embraced here in America is everything but Christian in any real sense of the word. It looks and sounds nothing like what Jesus taught and looks nothing like the example that Jesus set down for us when He was with us physically.

Hurts So Good

I was reading an article on RelevantMagazine.com, and I got to thinking about love and marriage.

Statistically, the divorce rate overall is something like 52%. But it is higher among Christians than anyone else. That being the case, it makes me wonder if something that we have been teaching for a really long time is even remotely true.

To serve and protect….

Tonight, we were taking my mother-in-law home from her place of work. She had to go there to feed a tenant’s cats and my wife and I took her there. Anyway, we were taking her home and, as we were driving, we came across a large group of high school and early college age people hanging out outside a local coffeehouse. A small group was headed down the street and another group was hanging out at the door of the business.

In front of us was a slow-moving vehicle. As we came closer, we noticed that it was a police officer. He slowed down even more when he saw the students and very obviously watched all of them. When we got past the concert venue, he sped up slightly.

At this time, to our right (we were in the left lane) a slow-moving, swerving car was driving. He came into our lane and almost hit us. I slowed down thinking it was someone trying to get over…he never came over and continued to ride the brakes and swerve.

The officer ignored the obvious drunkard, turned where we turned, and turned back the other way around the block, very obviously going back to where the students were hanging out.

My point: Why are high school students hanging out at a coffeehouse more worthy of police attention than a drunk driver almost getting into an accident? To serve and protect? Riiiight….