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Monday, May 24, 2004 posted by R.C. 1:12 PM link |
The Deaf Tones Can you hear me now? We don’t receive near enough feedback around here to suit my tastes. In our most recent issue of Every Thought Captive, in fact, I had to write two top ten lists, because I had not one letter to print. I mean, we get occasional notes, “Keep up the good work” kinds of things that do indeed encourage, but don’t actually let us know what it is we are doing right. Those rare complaints that we receive, on the other hand, tend to be somewhat more specific, but still not specific enough. Whether complaining about something on the website, or something in Every Thought Captive, the complaint we hear more than any other is that while they find what we are teaching to be at worst provocative, and at best helpful, still they are troubled by our “tone.” What is missing is specific examples of that tone. Which may, of course, be the point. If we make you mad, but you can’t argue with what we have said, then you can find something vague and indistinguishable to grouse about. I received one such email recently. The correspondent was gracious and patient, and as is so often the case he conceded that from time to time we publish things that he finds helpful. His concern was that I had, in a previous squib, called these United States an evil empire. He went on to encourage me to light a candle rather than cursing the darkness, that for all our faults, which he concedes, it’s not too late for repentance. In my response I agreed with him in large part. In fact, I argued, that I was doing nothing less than calling for repentance. Wasn’t that the point? So far we are having a debate. He accused me of x, and I argued that I wasn’t guilty. His response, however, was that in my squib I “seemed” to be rejoicing over the evil in this empire, that I “seemed” to have given up, that I “seemed” to relish the news from Abu Ghraib. Strangely enough he went on to “apologize” that he wasn’t smart enough to “infer” the call to repentance in my piece. Friends, it “seems” to me that things are what they are, rather than what they “seem.” I can’t apologize for your subjective response to what I have said. I can’t un-imply what you injudiciously inferred. It seems that though we reject the relativism of our age, that we are yet relatively relativists, that truth, to us, is in the ear of the hearer. Please, send us your letters and emails. Correct our errors, and encourage whatever wisdom may escape our pens. But please don’t murmur against our tone. We’re not hearing it. [comments] A comment from reader T.R. I enjoy browsing the HSC site. In fact, I probably visit it every other day or so. I have several basement tapes, my wife and I are couple's camp graduates (!) and I point to you guys as an example of what Christian community can truly be. I'm troubled, therefore, because the "tone" thing resonates with me (pun intended). I can't point to any issue where I think you're "wrong" but I know that I feel tired after listening to or reading your material for any extended period (I experience the same feeling after listening to Rush Limbaugh..... sorry for the association...that's as far as it goes). Perhaps I long for encouragement as well as (more than?) correctness, and though I am spurred on by your teaching and even you rants, many times I just need to be reminded that Jesus came to save sinners like me. A comment from reader J.V. I'm not going to do this very well, but hopefully it will be better than keeping silent. The sentence "We're not hearing it" above is ambiguous, which is unusual for your writing. I'm not sure whether it means "We're not hearing the murmuring...we'll simply dump all negative feedback in the trash without reading it" or "We have listened to our own basement tapes and read our own material and we do not hear this 'tone' thing." I'm guessing the latter, so here's another data point. I have lent out basement tapes to five people. One person did not actually listen to the tapes. All of the others gave the tape back with comments about your tone. All of them. The basement tapes I have listened to have been a mixture of good teaching, enjoyable inside-joke telling, and "evangelical bashing." Those evangelicals...they're so dumb that at a recent meeting where someone prayed in Jesus' name there were complaints! (True story.) This is what turns me off. The evangelicals around here may be confused theologically, but they are going to Jordan and Iraq and telling people about Jesus. I respect them for that. One of the people I lent the tape to said, "they're a lot of things, but they certainly aren't humble, are they?" I respect RCJr's razor-sharp logic. However, logic is only one part of what it means to be human. I used to visit the HSC page every day when the forums were open, to see what other people had dared to ask. Now I visit about once a week. A comment from reader E.O. The tone issue seems to stem from an uncomfortability modern people have with absolutes and with the conflict that necessarily arises in the face of such absolutes. You and Laurence, et. al., have a belief system that you are totally confident in - you have found truth. You humbly admit that you had not always been in possession of this truth but now that you are, you rejoice. For you to have the truth, others must necessarily not and this inference makes them uncomfortable. But your "tone" does reflect your confidence but a man ought to be confident in his beliefs or he ought to get new ones. Also it is much easier to criticize the players on the field than it is to get out of the stands and take a few swings yourself. So keep up the good tone. |
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Monday, May 17, 2004 posted by R.C. 11:32 AM link |
“It’s Just War” Shock and awe. There are no better words to describe my own reaction to the reactions of too many of my neo-con friends to reports from Abu Ghraib. First we are told that this is just an isolated incident, that we ought not judge all soldiers by the sins of a few. Besides, comes point two, it’s not near so bad as what those nasty Muslims did to Nick Berg. Which ought not to surprise us—point three—because these are the same people that created 9/11. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked and awed, because these are the same kinds of responses we got over the 10,000 regrettable collateral civilian casualties. Truth be told, I saw it coming long before even those casualties. Those who beat the drums of war, and those who marched to that beat set this course from the moment they determined to invade Iraq. When honest questions were raised in the ramp up to war about the traditional rationale inherent in just war theory we were given three arguments: First, we were told that Saddam violated the UN sanctions. And of course, the UN must be obeyed at every turn, except when they say we shouldn’t go to war. Second, we were given old, and discredited intelligence about some power lunch meeting between an Al Qaeda muckety-muck and one of Saddam’s close personal friends. Next, we were told, this even by professing Christians, that just war theory was passé, that in an age of nuclear weapons, passenger plane missiles, and American hating Muslims, we couldn’t actually wait around for someone to actually attack us before we go to war. It just wasn’t practical. A worldview that holds that the collective wisdom of the church has passed its freshness date and should be discarded, is a worldview that will find entertaining games to play with alligator clips, electricity and sensitive body parts. Then it will go on to downplay the evil, by pointing to those evil and ungrateful soldiers who fought against our invading armies. We have been told to remember that those guys in the pyramid aren’t sweet little cheerleaders, but mean old soldiers that shot at our liberation force. What, after all, did they have to fear? Gullible, flag-waving Christians must face what they have become—cheerleaders for an evil empire. In Iraq, some militant clerics require their female disciples to veil their faces. In America, the military sends their female disciples to videotape their shame. In Iraq, to one degree or another, they worship the bloodthirsty god, Allah. In America, to one degree or another, they worship the bloodthirsty god of personal peace and affluence. In Iraq, they are pushing for the imposition of that stern law code known as sharia. In America, we are lawless. In Iraq, one man gassed thousands of his own subjects. In America, millions of mommies poison millions of their own children. Too many Christians are prisoners of history. They think, because their priests so catechized them, that they still live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But that flag is not still there. May we learn to stop saluting it. [comments] Comment from reader A.S. That had to be a tough column to post (not to write of course, what you speak is truth). This is not a popular position. The silence of this church on this issue is DEAFENING! Savage, Hannity, and Limbaugh are in lockstep saying that the Abu Gharib atrocities are nothing, that “aggressive” interrogation techniques are justified, and that the real animals are the Arabs. The church, for the most part either echoes those sentiments or says nothing. I guess our own holocaust of 40+ million slaughtered infants has blinded the eye and stopped up the ears. I served 13 years in the service and yet I agree that it is (and has been for quite a while) time to stop saluting flag, reciting the pledge, and singing the anthem. We owe our country obedience and prayer, but not affection or loyalty. I have instructed my children, who attend a parochial Christian school, to stop saying the pledge with the other students. I have explained to them why, and Praise God they seem to understand (at their level). I get a touch sad about our country. I weep, however, for the church. |
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Thursday, May 06, 2004 posted by R.C. 5:30 PM link |
Too Many Channels Is it possible that one source of the rancorous rhetoric on the web isn’t simply that people feel free to bluster and shout because no one knows who is shouting, but also that no one knows who is being shouted at? Suppose, for instance, I were here in my office, reading up on the latest dispensational, New Covenant or Robbinsian version of justification by faith alone. Like so many angry Anabaptists, they all shout, “Down with the law!!!” And suppose I then take keyboard in hand and begin to write about the necessity of works in the lives of believers. I insist loudly that real faith will always yield changed lives, that “I believe”, if it is to be believed, must include a growing obedience to the law of God. Then in turn someone comes along web surfing, and sees what I had to say. They think that instead of responding to a bunch of antinomians, I am writing in defense of a bunch of Galatian heretics. And so I get pilloried, strung up for betraying the Reformation and the Westminster divines. On our own website, for instance, we recently posted an article about that great growth market of the twenty-first century, Christian day-care centers. We put the article up there to show once again, how foolish Christians can be. And our point was proven when someone fussed at us on their website because they thought we were in favor of this nonsense. This happens at the same time that others want to paint us as knuckle-dragging brutes, all because we believe children are a blessing, and that mothers are called to be keepers at home. Worse still, when we seek to recognize this difficulty, and we seek to hedge what we say, “On the one hand works are necessary…” “On the other hand our works are not efficacious” we are in turn accused of broadcasting in stereo, of talking out of both sides of our mouths. Here’s a thought to consider. Might we benefit if we narrowed our choices? How might all this improve if, for instance, we committed only to seek the wisdom of those teachers that our sessions might approve? Wouldn’t an electoral system prove a lot safer than this direct election stuff? Think about it. Maybe if we all stopped looking for wisdom in all the wrong places, there might be fewer places offering all the wrong wisdom. And maybe then we would stop talking past each other. [comments] |
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Monday, May 03, 2004 posted by R.C. 11:00 AM link |
Faded Glory? It was last November that my dear wife went on a brief trip with Darby, my oldest daughter, to a nearby Bed and Breakfast. The occasion was her tenth birthday. It set a precedent. As they were away I began to think through what I might do with my son Campbell when he turns ten. I came up with an idea, but, or should I say, and providence intervened, moving the event to only a few weeks away. I determined that I would take my son back to the old country, Ligonier, Pennsylvania. When some friends there invited me to speak on issues of the family, I decided to make it a busman’s holiday, and to bring my son along. I have been excited about the trip, perhaps more than my son. I have been plotting our course, daydreaming all along. I have even been telling my friends that I was taking my son on a “Faded Glory” tour. I would show him where I hit my first home run (a grand slam, no less, though I must confess that on the mound was Lori Di’orio—a plucky little girl, but a little girl nonetheless). I would take him to where I completed my first (and only) pass. I would show him the Junior High gym where I hit my one and only bucket, a free throw. It’s not much to celebrate, I know. But that, it turns out, is a good thing. As I have been thinking through the trip, it dawned on me that “The Faded Glory Tour” wasn’t really an accurate title. Perhaps it would better be called, “The Veiled Glory Tour.” Scoring baskets, hitting home runs are perfectly delightful things, gifts from God that are not to be despised. But what kind of fool am I that I would even imply that those were the good gifts, and the gifts I have now are cracked and soiled? The truth is that those feats were merely means, means to my own sanctification, which in turn is likewise a mean, in the great and everlasting work of sanctifying the blessings God has given me. My son, and my daughters, and my dear wife, they are my glory. And they, as they draw nearer to their great end, shine more and not less, for they more and more reflect the glory of Him who is the express image of the Father, His glory. [comments] |