This is another of my hesitant recommendations - anyone hooked on
Unqualified
Reservations at my instigation knows what I'm talking about.
So - proceed with caution, minors without adult supervision are
forbidden and management is not responsible for any sensations of
discomfort you may experience - but the Misandry
Bubble was a blast to read. Some people, you read and think, this
might be right or wrong but it isn't on the same playing field as
everyone else!
One graf among many that struck me as exactly right (emphasis mine):
Lastly, the religious 'social conservatives' who continue
their empty sermonizing about the 'sanctity of marriage' while doing
absolutely nothing about the divorce-incentivizing turn that the laws
have taken, have been exposed for their pseudo-moral posturing and
willful blindness. What they claim to be of utmost importance to them
has been destroyed right under their noses, and they still are too
dimwitted to comprehend why. No other interest group in America has
been such a total failure at their own stated mission. To be duped
into believing that a side-issue like 'gay marriage' is a mortal
threat to traditional marriage, yet miss the legal changes that
correlate to a rise in divorce rates (divorce being what destroys
marriage, rather than a tiny number of gays), is about as egregious an
oversight as an astronomer failing to be aware of the existence of the
Moon.
If you haven't been inspired by my previous post to give easy artisan bread a try go watch the video here - it really is that easy! I've already got several converts! Oh and a hat-tip to the meta-mom for the video!
Recently a commenter on my David Wells and Ecclesiology post asked a great question. I haven't been much help so far and so I turn to you, the reader for help.
In one of your articles or blogs, you mentioned the 4 Spiritual Laws tract as reflecting the inadequate framing of the gospel message by evangelicals.
Recently, my wife and I have become involved in the "Kids Against Hunger" food relief campaign. The suggestion was made to include gospel tracts with the food portions. I was unhappy with the decision to go with "Chick" tracts.
I am contemplating creating a tract that presents the "Christus Victor" idea in a way that would be brief, clear, and universally relevant. Can you help by giving me your ideas of what the basic elements of such a tract should be? Any storyline ideas in which to embed this message? Thanks if you can.
It's a good question and my first response was that somebody with a developed visual sense and familiarity with Christus Victor theology should answer it. I referred bruce to Derek Flood over at sharktacos.com - he's got a great essay on Christus Victor that's been something I return to every so often...
I'm still looking for suggestions though - so I'd like to encourage you to leave your comments. What would a tract look like that communicated the Gospel in some more holistic form than the "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go" style approach?
My own two cents - the good news of the Gospel is not limited to eventual eternal salvation. The recognition that God looked on our condition and came to take part in it and so provide a way to enter into his life now is good news!
I think at all times in history it is possible to look at the world and recognize that it is wrong. Sin is not just personally transgressing God's will in failing to keep moral commands - it is the pervasive condition of life on this planet. Do you see injustice? Do you see war and death, starvation and oppression? And yes - even on a personal level - everyone who is honest recognizes the struggle against whatever moral creed, no matter how basic, that we espouse. We do what we do not want to do and can't see any way of escape! There ain't no rest for the wicked!
The gospel is that this reality is not all there is, that we are not condemned to be slaves to sin but God in Jesus Christ has set us free and is reconciling all things to himself. We can enter now into new life and new creation through the Grace of God, and Jesus is creating for himself a people who should embody that grace in their lives.
How can you tell all that simply and hopefully visually? Well - I'm not talented enough for simple or visual but let me suggest some themes. First clearly the New Testament narrative of Jesus needs to be central. Perhaps start with the hopelessness of life - is this all there is? Does it make sense? The reality of God as loving Father who sent his son to enter into the human condition. That Jesus faithfully followed God in all things in his life - being fully human and yet proclaiming victory over everything that is against us by forgiving sins, healing diseases, eating and drinking with us sinners and for all that he was executed.
I think it's appropriate to depict Satan as the oppressor, the villain of the piece. And from his perspective the cross is his moment of triumph when God in Jesus is beaten by the ultimate weapon of death. And yet because of his faithfulness Jesus' triumphs over death and is resurrected. Real victory is coming, in the meantime the people of God are called to live like Jesus through the Grace of God.
One movie that keeps popping up as I write this is the reality-behind-the-reality of the first Matrix movie - the feeling that this can't be all that there is.
Without the visual element (which I've been assuming - Chick tracts are basically comic books if you've never seen them) - I almost wonder about a tract that did nothing more than present Jesus. That he was God incarnate, lived a life of faithfulness that displayed the liberating power of God, died for us and invites us to follow him! No four step plan of salvation that necessarily is a distillation of theology but rather just the narrative. Here is the man whom I believe to be God - read the Gospels to find out more!
Well - my readers (both of them) doubtless have suggestions. What's the best tract you've seen? Or how would you convey the Gospel in two or three sentences?
I just had a couple knock on my door. They're with an independent group (I thought they said "CAL Votes") doing voter registration. I hastened to tell them my wife and I are both already registered voters but they already knew that. They had just noticed that their records indicated we were the only two on our block who had ever voted at our local precinct place. They just wanted to stop and thank us for voting! I said thank you and they moved on...
Our recent cross country road trip gave me the opportunity to listen
to the radio a lot more than I typically would. One of the interesting
things I heard was an interview with Dr. David Wells on the Lutheran
oriented Issues, Etc radio
show. I embedded the interview in a flash player above or visit
www.issuesetc.org and download the mp3 for the session with Dr. Wells
on May 27th 2009.
Dr. Wells recently wrote The
Courage to be Protestant and the interview with him covered
material from the book and was tellingly titled The Decline of
American Evangelicalism. This is definitely not a case of agreeing
with everything he said. He may be a little unfair to the emergents
and (not being Lutheran) I'm not so sure that a re-emphasis of the
historic creeds will restore depth and substance to the Church. It was
amazing to hear someone from a substantially different perspective
articulate the same indictment of the shallowness of American
Evangelicalism.
I believe that the Gospel as typically presented by Evangelicalism
does
not adequately express the truth of the Bible. Coming from an
Anabaptist perspective much of evangelical theology and typical
evangelical language sounds... sounds not wrong, but lacking
somehow. The whole story isn't there. And from an anabaptist
perspective it doesn't take a Barna survey to be scandalized by the
state of American Christendom.
As a Lutheran Dr. Wells has a different take both on the problems
and potential solutions than I might. His analysis of what has
happened - that Evangelicalism is defining itself out of existence is
spot on. I appreciated the nod to history as well: what happens when
the Church actively attempts to preach only the "core" of the Gospel,
to present the "most important parts" of the Bible? Just call that
core the "kerygma" instead of "the Gospel" and you give the game away
- Liberal Protestantism in the west has already trod this path and
lost Christianity altogether.
In my Church circles the discussion of the death of evangelicalism
draws mostly puzzled looks. Evangelicalism is still the attractive and
successful metropolis when compared to the Brethren ghetto of our past
(in many people's minds). The emphases of Anabaptist and
Brethren/Pietist thought and practice are exactly the remedies for
much of what ails contemporary evangelicalism. And yet experience in
Churches with a historical background in those streams seems to have
inoculated modern day descendants against anabaptist ideas.
Why is no one interested in being Brethren for today? To
reconsider what we know about the New Testament Church, to reflect on
the successes and errors of our own history and other restorationists
and to attempt to build new models today that embody for our time and
place the Biblical picture of Community, Cross, and New Creation. I'm
disheartened that the only alternatives appear to be a pursuit of
contemporary models that lead to the death of New Testament
Christianity or an adherance to denominational history and practice
that is so scrupulous it manages to miss the heart of the tradition it
espouses.
So I'm discouraged and looking for inspiration. Got any good ideas?
Drop em in the comments below...
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