By Sean McDonough, PhD
Associate Professor of New Testament
Fads can grow at any time in our lives, but junior high seems to provide them with particularly rich soil. In the very groovy Seventies of my youth, kids collected Wacky Packs (spoof stickers of popular products, like Crust Toothpaste), sprayed Binaca Blast into their mouths, obsessively compared pen cartridge sizes (Cross and Parker were the prestige brands), and attempted to rip the Levi's tags off one another's jeans. This last was predicated on a rumor that You and You Levi's at the Hanover Mall would give a free pair of jeans to anyone producing 25 Levi's tags. I don't know that I ever saw a new pair of pants garnered in this way, but I did see plenty of pockets with their tags flying at half-mast from an abortive strike.
As a father of two junior high students, I am happy to report that such fads appear to be alive and well. One of the latest is “blazing” pencils. This is at one level nothing more than a new label for the old skill of twirling pencils around on the back of one's thumb. But it has also given rise to the peculiar phenomenon of actual “blazing pencils”, with the accent now on the first syllable. These are specialized, unsharpened instruments with erasers on both ends, created by taking an ordinary pencil, leaving it unsharpened, and sticking an extra eraser on the business end. I presume this configuration gives them better balance, and thus better blaze, with the ancillary benefit of removing the possibility of poking should the blazing go awry.
Regular readers of this column, like regular auditors of parental lectures, will no doubt have the creeping feeling that there must be a lesson in here waiting to be dragged out. And indeed there is. As I thought about the fad of blazing pencils, it struck me what a vivid image these pencils are of a distorted but all too common view of God's grace. We sin, and God in his mercy forgives us. We sin again, and God in his mercy forgives us. We sin yet again, and God in his mercy forgives us. Rinse, lather, repeat, until the day you die. He keeps erasing our bad deeds, and he even has an extra eraser at the ready if we are particularly bad.
Now there is some truth to this, of course. We do sin repeatedly, and we do stand continually in need of his redeeming mercy. We are all of us still in the process of sloughing off our old man or our old woman, and so we need to regularly bathe in God's forgiveness. But in the New Testament, God's grace is far more than a mere eraser that wipes away our bad deeds. It is a transforming grace that inscribes his character within us. Among many verses, we might cite Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do, in order that we might walk in them.”
It's easy to see why we prefer the “soft” work of God in forgiving us to the hard work of God in changing us. (Soft for us, at least; it cost God his Son.) I suppose that if I were a piece of paper, I might rather like the feeling of someone rubbing a piece of vinyl or synthetic rubber compound mixed with pumice on me.1 It would be preferable, in any case, to having someone scratch into me with a combination of graphite and clay.2
In the same way, it would be nice to imagine that I can just keep all my old dirty habits intact and have God clean up after me. But pencils are primarily intended to produce something new, not simply to get rid of something old. And God's work in redemption is equally intended to produce something new: people transformed into his likeness who can carry on his work in the world. Getting rid of the old is just the first step in the process.
So you can blaze your pencils, blast your Binaca, and stick Wacky Packs on your locker to your heart's content (I can't recommend going after Levi's tags, since now it will only result in a sexual harassment suit, not a new pair of jeans; sic transit gloria Seventies). But don't give into the fad of blunted grace. Let God's love keep its sharp edge, so that he can continue to write his character into your life day by day.
________________________________________
1A shout out to pencils.com for the info on what erasers are really made of nowadays!
2Ibid!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Let Justice Roll Down
By Roy Ciampa, PhD
Associate Professor of New Testament
In case you haven't heard, the United States of America just inaugurated its first African-American president. In fact, Barack Hussein Obama II is our first minority president of any type (back in 1960 JFK was considered a diversity candidate since he was not a Protestant Christian). This is indeed a remarkable development in American history and culture, and the fact that it has come about says we have come a long way as a country.
I am actually writing this on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and, although I know everyone else is doing the same, I am happy to join in with others who take this moment to reflect on the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and where we have come in the past forty years as a nation and on the work that remains to be done. In his famous “I have a dream” speech (based on both the Declaration of Independence and Isaiah 40), King spoke, among other things, of his dream that his four little children would “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He spoke of a faith that we would “be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
He ended the speech in a crescendo: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”
It was almost three years later, on March 15, 1965, that Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech to the full Congress about the need to provide African-Americans with the right to vote. Borrowing a line from those struggling for civil rights, Johnson argued, “Their cause must be our cause too. Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”
Three years after that, on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the speech in which he said “I've Been to the Mountaintop.” In that speech he argued that “when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” In that same speech he drew attention to the important role that preachers were playing in the cause of justice:
And you know what's beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say [citing Amos 5:24], "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus [paraphrasing Luke 4:18], "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."
In a History Channel presentation on Martin Luther King, Jr. that I highly recommend, Bono asserts “inequality and injustice are more pervasive than they have ever been.” As if on cue, I received a reminder of some of the horrible injustice in this world in a Facebook invitation I just received to a “Human Trafficking Seminar” being put on by our near neighbor, Zion Bible College, on Saturday, January 24, 2009. The description points out that “Hundreds of millions of souls are victims to slave and sex trade called ‘human trafficking'. The FBI has estimated over 40,000 victims of human trafficking pass through JFK airport each year. This Seminar is designed to equip the local church to identify and intervene with the global problem of human trafficking in their local community.” (For some information on one of my local heroes, see this piece on Rev. Gloria White-Hammond and her fight against modern slavery.)
In fact, the poverty, hunger and injustice found in this country and arounhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd the world stand as provocative taunts, impugning our commitment to justice and implying that our hunger and thirst for justice are barely felt and easily satisfied. They stand as an affront to every human being, and especially to every person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, who called us to demonstrate our love for him in the way we treat the weak and powerless among us.
On the occasion of the inauguration of a new president it is good to remember that despite the great power in the hands of our nation's president, even greater power is unleashed when followers of Jesus Christ, led by courageous preachers prepared to suffer for speaking up and fighting against injustice, join together to work and fight on behalf of the weak and the powerless, in the name and the power of the crucified and risen Lord.
Associate Professor of New Testament
In case you haven't heard, the United States of America just inaugurated its first African-American president. In fact, Barack Hussein Obama II is our first minority president of any type (back in 1960 JFK was considered a diversity candidate since he was not a Protestant Christian). This is indeed a remarkable development in American history and culture, and the fact that it has come about says we have come a long way as a country.
I am actually writing this on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and, although I know everyone else is doing the same, I am happy to join in with others who take this moment to reflect on the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and where we have come in the past forty years as a nation and on the work that remains to be done. In his famous “I have a dream” speech (based on both the Declaration of Independence and Isaiah 40), King spoke, among other things, of his dream that his four little children would “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He spoke of a faith that we would “be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
He ended the speech in a crescendo: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”
It was almost three years later, on March 15, 1965, that Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech to the full Congress about the need to provide African-Americans with the right to vote. Borrowing a line from those struggling for civil rights, Johnson argued, “Their cause must be our cause too. Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”
Three years after that, on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the speech in which he said “I've Been to the Mountaintop.” In that speech he argued that “when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” In that same speech he drew attention to the important role that preachers were playing in the cause of justice:
And you know what's beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say [citing Amos 5:24], "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus [paraphrasing Luke 4:18], "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."
In a History Channel presentation on Martin Luther King, Jr. that I highly recommend, Bono asserts “inequality and injustice are more pervasive than they have ever been.” As if on cue, I received a reminder of some of the horrible injustice in this world in a Facebook invitation I just received to a “Human Trafficking Seminar” being put on by our near neighbor, Zion Bible College, on Saturday, January 24, 2009. The description points out that “Hundreds of millions of souls are victims to slave and sex trade called ‘human trafficking'. The FBI has estimated over 40,000 victims of human trafficking pass through JFK airport each year. This Seminar is designed to equip the local church to identify and intervene with the global problem of human trafficking in their local community.” (For some information on one of my local heroes, see this piece on Rev. Gloria White-Hammond and her fight against modern slavery.)
In fact, the poverty, hunger and injustice found in this country and arounhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd the world stand as provocative taunts, impugning our commitment to justice and implying that our hunger and thirst for justice are barely felt and easily satisfied. They stand as an affront to every human being, and especially to every person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, who called us to demonstrate our love for him in the way we treat the weak and powerless among us.
On the occasion of the inauguration of a new president it is good to remember that despite the great power in the hands of our nation's president, even greater power is unleashed when followers of Jesus Christ, led by courageous preachers prepared to suffer for speaking up and fighting against injustice, join together to work and fight on behalf of the weak and the powerless, in the name and the power of the crucified and risen Lord.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Human Worth
By Maria Boccia, PhD
Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Psychology and
Director of Graduate Programs in Counseling at the Charlotte campus
Recently, there was a very short (one 2-inch wide column) article in the newspaper reporting that the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had asked Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Company to stop using cows' milk to make ice cream. They suggested using human milk instead, as this would be more humane for the cows. The Great Ape Project is an organization whose goal is to achieve formal recognition of human rights for the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans). They have made significant progress toward this goal in some European countries. Another animal rights group has been responsible for bombing laboratories and homes of scientists to protest the use of animals in research and to try (sometimes successfully) to scare the researchers out of their careers (I once heard the definition of a terrorist as someone who is willing to sacrifice your life for their cause). Many people who find themselves sympathetic to the cause (if not the methods) of animal rights advocates also support women's right to choose. How did we get to a place where the same person can so value animal life and simultaneously so devalue human life?
I think that one factor that has contributed to this is the rise of belief in evolution as the cause of life, and of human life in particular. If one believes that chance + time created all life, and that human beings are merely the product of random mutations, evolving from a common ape ancestor, and are very similar genetically, behaviorally, socially, emotionally and cognitively to our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees, then human beings are not unique. In fact, if this is the case, then it is very difficult to conclude that human life has any ultimate significance. What makes us different from chimpanzees is less than 2% of our genes. The natural result of this seems to be that we either elevate animals to the level of human value (as in PETA) or devalue human life as nothing more than a bit of primate tissue (as in abortion).
If, on the other hand, we believe that human beings are uniquely created in the image of God by God and have been given dominion over the earth under God's sovereignty, then a very different picture emerges. No animal's life will ever be as valuable as a human life. Human beings are created in the image of God, and no other creature in all of creation is made in his image. On the other hand, all of creation reflects the glory and majesty of God, all of creation shows forth his invisible attributes. Therefore, every creature, every animal has value as being made by God and reflecting something of his character.
In Genesis we read that God gave dominion to the human beings he created. We have been given the animals of this world to both use to our benefit and care for as God's vice regents. Therefore, we may eat animals, use them for research, etc. They will never have the moral standing of a human being; the phrase “animal rights” is a non-sequitur. On the other hand, we are responsible for the care and cultivation of creation. God has given us charge of it, and one day we will stand before the great white throne and account for our stewardship. So, whatever we do with animals, we bear a responsibility from and to God to care for them humanely, minimize suffering and ensure that their lives are valued.
From the vantage point of Creation, we are made uniquely in the image of God, stewards of his creation. No animal will ever have the same moral value or status that we have. From the vantage point of Evolution, there is nothing special about human beings. We are just one variation on the primate theme, evolved through chance + time through blind random processes. From this perspective, both animal rights and women's right to choose make perfect sense. Human worth is very much connected to our understanding of human origins. It really does matter in very practical, urgent ways what we believe about this.
Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Psychology and
Director of Graduate Programs in Counseling at the Charlotte campus
Recently, there was a very short (one 2-inch wide column) article in the newspaper reporting that the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had asked Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Company to stop using cows' milk to make ice cream. They suggested using human milk instead, as this would be more humane for the cows. The Great Ape Project is an organization whose goal is to achieve formal recognition of human rights for the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans). They have made significant progress toward this goal in some European countries. Another animal rights group has been responsible for bombing laboratories and homes of scientists to protest the use of animals in research and to try (sometimes successfully) to scare the researchers out of their careers (I once heard the definition of a terrorist as someone who is willing to sacrifice your life for their cause). Many people who find themselves sympathetic to the cause (if not the methods) of animal rights advocates also support women's right to choose. How did we get to a place where the same person can so value animal life and simultaneously so devalue human life?
I think that one factor that has contributed to this is the rise of belief in evolution as the cause of life, and of human life in particular. If one believes that chance + time created all life, and that human beings are merely the product of random mutations, evolving from a common ape ancestor, and are very similar genetically, behaviorally, socially, emotionally and cognitively to our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees, then human beings are not unique. In fact, if this is the case, then it is very difficult to conclude that human life has any ultimate significance. What makes us different from chimpanzees is less than 2% of our genes. The natural result of this seems to be that we either elevate animals to the level of human value (as in PETA) or devalue human life as nothing more than a bit of primate tissue (as in abortion).
If, on the other hand, we believe that human beings are uniquely created in the image of God by God and have been given dominion over the earth under God's sovereignty, then a very different picture emerges. No animal's life will ever be as valuable as a human life. Human beings are created in the image of God, and no other creature in all of creation is made in his image. On the other hand, all of creation reflects the glory and majesty of God, all of creation shows forth his invisible attributes. Therefore, every creature, every animal has value as being made by God and reflecting something of his character.
In Genesis we read that God gave dominion to the human beings he created. We have been given the animals of this world to both use to our benefit and care for as God's vice regents. Therefore, we may eat animals, use them for research, etc. They will never have the moral standing of a human being; the phrase “animal rights” is a non-sequitur. On the other hand, we are responsible for the care and cultivation of creation. God has given us charge of it, and one day we will stand before the great white throne and account for our stewardship. So, whatever we do with animals, we bear a responsibility from and to God to care for them humanely, minimize suffering and ensure that their lives are valued.
From the vantage point of Creation, we are made uniquely in the image of God, stewards of his creation. No animal will ever have the same moral value or status that we have. From the vantage point of Evolution, there is nothing special about human beings. We are just one variation on the primate theme, evolved through chance + time through blind random processes. From this perspective, both animal rights and women's right to choose make perfect sense. Human worth is very much connected to our understanding of human origins. It really does matter in very practical, urgent ways what we believe about this.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Act Your Own Wage
By Jeffrey Arthurs
Professor of Preaching & Communication and Dean of the Chapel
First time I learned about debt was when my brother borrowed money from my parents to buy a Kawasaki 90. He had to have it! He wasn't even 16 years old, so he wasn't allowed to ride on the streets, but he had to have it. It was a consuming fire, so my parents struck a deal: he would use the motorcycle for a paper route and pay them back from the money he earned. I sat back and watched. The yackity motorcycle cost about 100k, if I remember right, and he was indentured for the next 42 years. Before long, the shine of the motorcycle wore off, but he was still tossing papers and paying; repairs had to be made, but he was still tossing papers and paying; he set his eye on the next model—something bigger, faster, shinier—but he was still tossing papers and paying. I came to realize that the borrower is a slave to the lender. All his money was tied up. It belonged to someone else. He wasn't free to quit the paper route. He's now 53 and a medical doctor, but he's still paying on that bike. Not really, but it felt like that at the time.
Do you recognize the phrase I used above—“The borrower is servant [slave] to the lender”? It is from Proverbs 22:7. I've been studying the subject of debt recently, and I have discovered that the Bible says more about the topic than I would have guessed. The consistent teaching is summarized in Proverbs 22:7, but also consider the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy:
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth . . . . You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Deut. 28:1, 12-14).
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you . . . . The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. (Deut. 28:15, 43-44).
Those of you who are in debt are saying Amen, aren't you? The Lord has helped me and my wife to avoid debt (except for our mortgage) and I want you to experience the same freedom and peace we know. Get out of debt! How?
1. Stop using credit cards (or pay them off every month). Statistics show that people spend twice as much as when they using cash (Boston Globe, Dec. 22, 2008, A21). As one author explains: “Recent studies suggest that each buying decision plays out in the brain as a fight between a pleasure center seeking the bliss of acquisition and an aversion center seeking to avoid the pain of paying. . . . Paying with credit cards appears to blunt the insula's [the center of pain and disgust in the brain] reaction to the pain of paying, while paying in cash leaves the pain intact.”
2. Bite the bullet. Downsize. You may have to sell your car, or gun collection, or vacation time share. Do it. I want you to be free.
3. Limit your exposure to newer, faster, shinier, bigger, prettier, glitzier stuff. Don't feed the fires of discontent. Limit exposure by not window shopping, drooling over catalogues, or scanning the net. Learn to be content (Phil 4:11).
4. Memorize Romans 13:8, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
Questions for the blogosphere:
• It is OK to go into debt for school? For seminary?
• Should we tithe if we are in debt, or should all our resources go toward the debt?
• What tips can you share for getting out of debt?
Professor of Preaching & Communication and Dean of the Chapel
First time I learned about debt was when my brother borrowed money from my parents to buy a Kawasaki 90. He had to have it! He wasn't even 16 years old, so he wasn't allowed to ride on the streets, but he had to have it. It was a consuming fire, so my parents struck a deal: he would use the motorcycle for a paper route and pay them back from the money he earned. I sat back and watched. The yackity motorcycle cost about 100k, if I remember right, and he was indentured for the next 42 years. Before long, the shine of the motorcycle wore off, but he was still tossing papers and paying; repairs had to be made, but he was still tossing papers and paying; he set his eye on the next model—something bigger, faster, shinier—but he was still tossing papers and paying. I came to realize that the borrower is a slave to the lender. All his money was tied up. It belonged to someone else. He wasn't free to quit the paper route. He's now 53 and a medical doctor, but he's still paying on that bike. Not really, but it felt like that at the time.
Do you recognize the phrase I used above—“The borrower is servant [slave] to the lender”? It is from Proverbs 22:7. I've been studying the subject of debt recently, and I have discovered that the Bible says more about the topic than I would have guessed. The consistent teaching is summarized in Proverbs 22:7, but also consider the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy:
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth . . . . You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Deut. 28:1, 12-14).
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you . . . . The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. (Deut. 28:15, 43-44).
Those of you who are in debt are saying Amen, aren't you? The Lord has helped me and my wife to avoid debt (except for our mortgage) and I want you to experience the same freedom and peace we know. Get out of debt! How?
1. Stop using credit cards (or pay them off every month). Statistics show that people spend twice as much as when they using cash (Boston Globe, Dec. 22, 2008, A21). As one author explains: “Recent studies suggest that each buying decision plays out in the brain as a fight between a pleasure center seeking the bliss of acquisition and an aversion center seeking to avoid the pain of paying. . . . Paying with credit cards appears to blunt the insula's [the center of pain and disgust in the brain] reaction to the pain of paying, while paying in cash leaves the pain intact.”
2. Bite the bullet. Downsize. You may have to sell your car, or gun collection, or vacation time share. Do it. I want you to be free.
3. Limit your exposure to newer, faster, shinier, bigger, prettier, glitzier stuff. Don't feed the fires of discontent. Limit exposure by not window shopping, drooling over catalogues, or scanning the net. Learn to be content (Phil 4:11).
4. Memorize Romans 13:8, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
Questions for the blogosphere:
• It is OK to go into debt for school? For seminary?
• Should we tithe if we are in debt, or should all our resources go toward the debt?
• What tips can you share for getting out of debt?
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