Dec 17
To Michael J. Svigel and his blogpost on 3 different approaches Christians can take to experiencing the next Star Wars movie. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition website
There is yet another way to look at the different approaches to the movie Star Wars. Either we can be slightly distracted and entertained by the movie while also learning how different kinds of people interact with each other, or we can know more about the Star Wars universe than we do our own immediate world.
There are two reasons why people pick the latter approach to their knowing Star Wars. The first reason is to exercise the privilege of not being in the kind of need that would demand our attention elsewhere. The second reason would be to grab as much as we can from the pleasure of escapism because we have succumbed to fatalism. Regardless of the reason, to know more about the Star Wars universe than our own world does not help us to be good stewards of what God has given us as citiizens in a democratic society.
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To Denny Burk and his blogpost on whether liberals are ready for the transgender revolution. This appeared in Denny Burk’s blog.
Why worry about a transgender revolution? Do we expect multitudes of people change?
And it seems that taking someone who wants to be 'transaged' backwards, which is the same as regressing into immaturity, and trying to equate that with those who want to change genders seems to miss the mark. For as long as we are strongly complementarian in our sexual roles and expectations, people who neither relate to their assigned gender roles or fit in are the only ones who would consider a change in gender. In other words, the more we press a stric complementarianism, the more people with means will resist--though we should mention that there are other less traumatic ways of resisting.
Yes, there is a certain degree of complementarianism that exists according to God's Word. But perhaps we've taken it too far.
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Dec 18
To Derek Rishmawy and his blogpost on the wrong ways, according to him, there are to talk about sin. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition.
Perhaps another way to fool ourselves is to think that we can talk comprehensively about sin. For we see one of two faults in the above ways of talking about sin. One fault is that the talk about sin is correct but is incomplete and/or has errors. The other way is that the talk about sin totally wrong. Regarding the above ways, I would classify the sectarian way as the only way listed above which has no merit. For all it accomplishes is the externalization of evil and thus it puts us and our the groups we belong to into the role of the Pharisee from the parable of the two men praying.
The other ways listed above of talking about sin has merit and can be placed in conjunction with the other ways of talking about sin. The youth group way has the merit of talking about sin in relation to how we compare with others. The Millennial way has the advantage of recognizing the effects of previous sins and how they affect our lives today. The Mainline way recognizes the corporate sins committed by the groups to which we belong. This way of recognizing sin is overlooked most often by my fellow religiously conservative Christians. The evangelical way forgets how we sin against others either as individuals or in groups, but it is valuable in terms of how we sin against God.
Thus, we should consider whether the 4 of 5 ways of looking at sin as described above are more incomplete than in error, though error is bound to happen when one's views of sin are incomplete.
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Dec 22
To Collin Hansen and his blogpost on the top 10 theological stories of the year. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition website.
Of course, what is missing from this list of stories include Obama's terrorist use of drones to assassinate people, his fast-tracking of the TPP, NATO's involvement in the Ukraine, the terrorist shooting attack on a Planned Parenthood facility, the increasing wealth disparity in our nation, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
There is a common theme around the stories cited is the absence of challenging conservative ideology, the current political and economic structures along with the refusal to challenge those with wealth and power. Unfortunately, none of these absences provide a surprise to nonChristians outside of conservative political ideological circles. Thus, these absences serve as another reminder that Conservative Christianity is, however unintentionally, acting as a source of indoctrination to maintain the status quo for the benefit of those with wealth and power.
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To Jordan Ballor and his blogpost on the Church’s social responsibilities in opposing injustice. This appeared in the Acton blog.
I've seen others struggle with the distinction between the organic and institutional Church. Tim Keller, for example, states that where individual Christians are working to correct injustices, there the Church is because is where believers are. But such allows the leadership of the Church to remain silent in the presence of society's corporate sins so as to not personally offend those with wealth and power. So as the Church claims to be in place of struggle for social justice through the actions of individuals while not speaking out directly to injustices, the Church is attempting to have its cake and eat it too.
