Q & A

MESSAGE: Faith's Questions (podcast)
SCRIPTURE: Luke 7.18-23

This passage from Luke teaches us by way of John the Baptist that it is okay to have questions about our faith, and that questions, rather than being a display of doubt, is actually a display of faith. Think about it: if you actually have a good, reasonable, honest question about faith, God, the Bible, Jesus, or whatever, and you have a sincere and honest desire to find a good satisfying question, and you are willing to believe the answers you find - that's going to take a lot of work. You'll have to study, you'll have to spend a lot of time in prayer, you might spend some time fasting - you'll ultimately have to spend a lot of time seeking God. And what could be more of a confirmation of faith than a desire to seek truth through God? All that to say that questions about faith are good, and we should be ready to ask them, and willing to seek the answers to them.

But what happens when people have questions about faith, but they don't have anyone to help them seek the answers? I discovered at least one answer to this question when I did a project for one of my seminary classes this past summer. I had to interview some peeps who had grown up in the church and ask them what they thought about the mission of the church now that they were adults. I interviewed three people and got a wide variety of responses. I asked questions like: Do you think the church has progressed or emerged in ways that satisfy the spiritual and social needs of people in your age demographic? and What do you think the mission of the church should be? That is to say, what do you think is the purpose of the church’s existence? and What problems or disagreements do you have with the church at this point in your life?

One guy that I interviewed did NOT have a good experience in the church as a kid, and has grown up to hate the church, hate the faith, and really, hate Jesus (this really is an accurate explanation of the way he feels - I'm not going overboard here. How do I know he feels this way? He's told me - he's not shy about sharing how he feels!). And at least to some extent, his attitude toward the church today is partially based upon the fact that nobody wanted or was willing to answer his questions about faith when he was a teenager. I asked him this question: If you could give the church one piece of advice, what would it be? His answer is as follows:

“I feel the church didn’t stick with the younger people who they indoctrinated as children, who then grew up and started thinking for themselves. Rather than assist in the thought-process and exploration, they are too quick to tell you to “just believe what you were taught and don’t ask questions.”

Wow! Did you hear that? Read that again, because I think it's a very telling statement. Now let's get one thing clear: this guy is still responsible for his own salvation. That is to say that the excuse of "the church didn't help me when I had questions" isn't going to garner any mercy from God. Each man and woman is responsible to make a decision about Jesus, regardless of what someone or some church did or did not do to/for them. But still, I think it's a shame that when an individual comes to a religious establishment with honest questions about faith and God, the church tells them to be quiet and just believe because we said so. You will NOT find this kind of attitude towards questions about faith in scripture at all. That's obvious just from the passage we looked at at SHOUT last week - faithful, God-fearing Christians can have questions...and they can receive real, honest answers.

I was talking to a lady at church recently about our Christian Education ministries (Sunday School, Bible studies, Children's Church, etc.), and we were talking about what a person should be able to do as a Christian as a result of being a part of our Christian Education ministries. This lady has a young son, and she replied that when her son has grown into a mature follower of Christ, she wants him to be able to think - to be able to look at God, have a question, seek out an answer, realize truth when they find it, and believe it. Could there be a more valuable skill? To ask questions and to work to find true answers, and when found, exercise faith and believe? All Christians should be able to do this. In fact, I really believe that this is the foundation of faith - to be able to ask, receive, and believe.

Questions about faith and God aren't necessarily bad, but they do represent at least a bit of a danger. Most of the time people ask questions because they're trying to justify themselves in some way. What does that mean? It means that there's some part of the Christian life that doesn't really fit with what they want to do. For example, Christianity calls for repentance - turning from sin. Some people are ok with that - at least in most areas - but there are usually some areas where God and faith aren't allowed. There are some things that people don't want to give up, some areas of their lives that they don't want to surrender to Jesus. Thus they ask questions that plead their case - questions that justify their specific behavior or lack of belief, usually appealing to some cultural norm, or saying something like, "That was the way they did it back in Bible times. We don't have to do things like that today."

Also, questions can be dangerous because people tend to not believe the answers they're given, and they ask more questions. A lot of times if someone gets a biblical, honest answer from scripture, they don't want to believe it because it doesn't fit their lifestyle (see above), so they ask more questions until they find an answer that they like and that DOES fit their lifestyle. There is no faith in this. This is doubt. This is receiving a clear answer to a question from God, and denying it's truth. This is sin.

I mentioned at SHOUT this past week that sometimes it's discouraging to be behind a pulpit and hearing a chorus of "Amen's" from the congregation (don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it when people "Amen" me from the congregation - it's just that some times I feel that people switch their brain to "Amen" mode when they walk into church. People need to realize that things aren't true because the pastor says them - they are true because they are true). That is to say that I don't want you to particularly "Amen" what I'm saying simply because I'm saying it from behind a pulpit with assumed authority just because of my position. By all means, feel free to "Amen" all you like, but only after you've asked, received, and believed.

I'm A PC

Have you seen this?



I saw this for the first time during the Vikings game today. I assume that these commercials are a response to the popular and funny commercials that Apple has been doing for some time now ("Hi, I'm a Mac," "and I'm a PC" and so on and so forth). Talk about a reaction! This advertisement for Microsoft is clearly a strong reaction to the Apple commercials, trying to justify themselves and show how cool, hip, and relevant they are to the world of computing. I almost felt like the ad was channeling Stuart Smalley: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me." I thought the most ridiculous line of the ad was, "I'm a PC, and I'm a human being; not a human doing; not a human thinking, a human being." What the heck does that even mean, and what in the world does it have to do with computers? It's almost like they were trying to make me feel sorry for them - that they've been so unfairly judged and characterized as weirdo, unhip, computer nerds. Let me assure you PC users: no one cares! You don't need to justify your computer preference! It's really not that big of a deal.

If you know me at all, I'm an Apple user, so I am completely biased. But I really don't get into the nerdy "Macs are better than PC's" arguments with other people. Truth be told, I really don't care - use whatever computer you want. I happen to like Apples. Who cares? Apparently it matters, and for some reason I need to know that people who use PC's are cool too. How stupid.

Disappointed

A few years back, I heard about a group called the Rational Response Squad. These folks spend their time combating Christianity and figuring out ways they can fight against "theism." They see religion as being detrimental to society (specifically the Christian religion), and the group's leader, Brian Sapient, has implied that he is fighting against the forces of God for the betterment of humanity. The group enjoyed a brief stint in the national media by encouraging their followers to video tape themselves "blaspheming" the Holy Spirit and post it on the web. They also gained some exposure when Nightline held a debate regarding the existence of God between them and the people from The Way of the Master.

When I first discovered this group, they were pushing a newly released documentary called The God Who Wasn't There. The title of the film is a play on Francis Schaeffer's long-appreciated work, The God Who Is There. When I first learned of the film, I of course had a desire to see it, because the website promised me that I wanted to see what arguments these atheists had for the non-existence of God. But alas, my local Blockbuster did not carry the movie, and I was definitely not going to cough up the $20.00 and purchase the movie. But then, through the miracle of Blockbuster online, I was finally able to see the movie.

My original thought was that I would take a few notes while I watched the movie, and I would then post some of my thoughts and rebuttals in this blog. Well, I did not take notes, and I am not going to post any thoughts I had on the content of the movie, nor am I going to rebut any arguments with my own. Let me refer you back to the title of this post: "Disappointed." That's exactly what I was after watching this movie. After being promised that I would be astounded, have my faith challenged, and have my belief in God "fixed," I was utterly let down that none of these things even came close to happening. I wanted something to write about, an idea to challenge me to work, read, and study so I could give a response! But alas, it was nothing more than the usual atheist dribble. And even worse, it was extremely poorly put together atheist dribble. Let me share with you a few reasons why I was extremely disappointed by this movie:

1. The movie was less than an hour long. You don't even have enough atheistic arguments to fill an hour?!

2. The maker of this movie had/presumably has no credible knowledge of Christian history, or even secular history for that matter. His ridiculous, unhistorical, undocumented claims about Christian history and tradition were actually embarrassing. I actually felt bad for the guy. (NOTE: if you want some more info about just how bad this was, take a look at this guy's review of the lack of/misinterpretation of historical evidence cited in the move. NOTE AGAIN: the guy who wrote these reviews is NOT a Christian - he just knows bad scholarship and reasoning when he sees it).

3. Atheists seem to have no knowledge of traditional Christian theology or biblical interpretation. If you're going to make claims about scripture, at least do the work to know how and why scripture is interpreted the way it is. If I need to explain to you that the gospel of John is NOT based on Mark, and why the Bible does not endorse the stoning of homosexuals, you need to do some homework.

4. If you're going to cite/interview Christians in your movie, don't cite/interview the fringe, radical, religious activists that only represent 1% of 1% of all people who actually call themselves Christians. It should be obvious that Fred Phelps does not speak for Christianity. This gets back to the "knowing traditional and historical interpretations of scripture" issue. Come on.

But I think what really disappointed me most is that absolutely nothing new was presented by this movie. It contained no arguments or "evidence" that I have not heard a million times before. It was the same old tired line, and I'm sick of the same thing over and over again. If you want to be challenging to Christians, at least come up with some stuff that hasn't been done before, answered, explained, and reasoned out. Come on guys, get creative!

The website that promotes the movie has quotes from the LA and New York Times that say, "Provocative - to put it mildly," and "Explores the many mysteries of the Christian faith as never before," respectively. I'm afraid there was absolutely nothing "provocative," and nothing that explored the many mysteries of the Christian faith as never before to be found in the movie. Like I said earlier, everything about the movie has indeed been done before - and done much better.

All of this leads me to this closing statement: atheists, if you can't come up with something better than this, don't even bother. I am absolutely ready, willing, and able to have an intelligent dialogue about Christianity, history, tradition, etc., but let's do it intelligently, with a genuine pursuit of the truth. This movie was anything but.

Fly Swatter Love

Several months ago, Fergie (my kid's nickname - we started to call him "Turd Fergeson" shortly after he was born - don't ask) found our fly swatter and wanted to play with it. Considering that it was full of fly guts, we immediately took it away from him and he became very angry. So we sanitized the swatter and let him play with it. It has since become his favorite toy. He loves fly swatters.

Last week I was grocery stopping, and noticed that Cub had a sale on 2-pack fly swatters. I bought a pack for Fergie, and gave him the orange and purple gems the next morning. He loved them. Last night, in getting him ready for bed, he absolutely refused to relinquish the fly swatter from his grasp. So my wife got him ready for bed and fed him, fly swatter in hand. When it was time to go to bed, he again refused to put the swatter down, so he went to bed with it. Later, when my wife checked in on him, we found him like this and decided to take the picture that you see here.

Should I be worried, as a parent, that my kid's best friend is a fly swatter?

Only A Creative God Could Do This

Betsy took Jamie for a walk earlier this evening. She called me mid way through the walk, and told me she was on her way back and that I should meet her in the back yard with the camera. I did. What I saw was disgusting, cool, interesting, and scary all at the same time. Judge for yourself (to get the full affect, click on the pictures and view them full-size).











Neither my wife or I had ever seen anything like this caterpillar outside of a nature show on TV. It was longer and thicker than my thumb! Look at his creepy, suction cup legs. We didn't touch it at all, figuring that those little barbs on his multi-colored spikes might be poisonous or something - plus we're total wimps. I don't know what kind of creature will emerge from this thing's cocoon one day, but I can't imagine it could be good. I kept expecting the Men in Black to step out and "flashy thing" us.

As my wife pointed out, it just goes to show you how creative God is.