Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

News is spreading this morning that the Ringling Bros. Circus is ending its 146 year run. The leading cause of the end of the show is it has become an unrealistic business model. Ticket sales have declined. The cost to move the show with its many animals and performers is too high to continue. For almost 150 years, this show has brought joy and wonder to the hearts and minds of children and adults. And now the curtain if falling on the greatest show on earth. I was reading this article from the New York Times. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but notice that the tone of what was happening to Ringling Bros. is a similar tone that could be applied to the American church. ...cited declining ticket sales,... American churches across the theological spectrum are seeing declining offerings. There are endless reasons for this. And there are a number of strategies to counteract the decline. But there is no denying that churches are working with less revenue. It is just a reality t...

I have spent some time pondering how to win a war against terrorists. I think there are three possible strategies, that conveniently fall into line with a good way, a bad way, and an ugly way. One brief note of clarification. This is a war on terrorists, not terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic used by groups fighting from an ideology. You cannot fight terrorism. It has been used from the beginning of warfare and will be used until war has been ended. This is a fight against people, human beings. They are not monsters. They are not inhuman. They do deeds that are considered monstrous and inhumane, but they themselves are flesh and blood. One brief disclaimer. The bad and ugly strategies will be grounded in historical use. I am not claiming them to be "the best" way. I am just stating how similar tactics have been used in the past. The Ugly I will start with the ugliest tactic: the U.S. war against the Plains tribes. When westward expansion brought American and immigrant se...

This weekend, the world turned its attention to Paris after multiple terrorist attacks killed about 130 people in separate venues. ISIS has been identified as the group responsible. This makes the third attack in 2 weeks that ISIS claims responsibility for perpetrating. It began with the downing of a Russian passenger plane. Then, in practically back to back events, locations in Beirut and Paris were attacked. My sadness is not as much with the loss of lives in Paris. I am saddened by that. What saddens me more than anything is that Beirut has disappeared from public consciousness. It gets a passing mention, as if we were well passed the pain and power of that attack. The Beirut attack, a double bombing by ISIS, was just one day before the Paris attacks. 43 people were killed in that attack. But the world did not leap to the defense of Palestine or the people of Beirut. There were no showers of support for the people of that nation. I am saddened that those who were attacked in Bei...

I am interrupting my string of game notes from Dungeons and Dragons to write something that seems to be relevant to a broader cultural issue. This week there is has been a couple of public incidents where apologies were issued. Joy Behar on The View, made comments about Miss America contestant, and nurse, Kelley Johnson. The next couple of days were filled with the retractions, re-framing, and re-positioning necessary to smooth the waters. Stephen Amell (currently one of my favorite actors on television), made a comment that was leaped upon by his social media followers. His response was to vacate his very active social media presence for a time. Ahmed Mohammed, a 14 year old high school student, made a clock from scratch and took it to school. The school misunderstood it's nature and declared a bomb threat. He was removed from class, detained in a room, interrogated without representation or parental presence, and branded as a terrorist. This got nation-wide media attention...

After last weeks posts, there have been a few comments and conversations of substance outside of the blog. I want to share some of my responses in those conversations. I haven't asked the others I have spoken to in these conversations to share their comments. I will only give the framing question and my response. I was asked by one dear friend: What is the United Methodist churches stance on same-sex marriage? My response: We are in a state of quiet disagreement. There are plenty of voices on both sides of the issue stating clearly their opinion. The quiet part of the disagreement is two-fold.   First, we have put a moratorium on clergy trials for clergy who perform same-sex weddings. There are clergy who feel it is their Christian duty to perform weddings in states where it is legal. There are clergy who believe that, since our Book of Discipline has clear rules against it, no one within the UMC is legally/ecclesiastically eligible to do those. (That brings up an interestin...

Part One: Religious Freedom In the Midst of the Culture Wars Part Two: Culture Wars...and Politicians and the Media Part Three: Onward Christian Soldiers... Before I begin this post, let me lay out my biases first. I am an Evangelical (putting much authority on what Scripture says). I am a traditional Wesleyan Methodist (I gain my theological perspective from the theology of John Wesley and the Methodist movement of the 18th century). I believe in the Church's creedal statements from the middle of the first millennium.  That means I look at the world through a biblical, orthodox, Wesleyan lens. I also have some confessions to make. I struggle with the issue of same-sex marriage. I don't like weddings, period. I don't feel that gays deserve any more special treatment (positive or negative) than any other citizen of the United States. I do not judge another person's sins as greater than mine and I try not to let those sins diminish that person as a human being. Some...

Part one of the series: Religious freedom in the midst of the Culture Wars Part two of the series: Culture Wars....and the politicians and media. I have been a Christian since I was 7 or 8. I remember my first experience of accepting the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I remember sitting in church and Sunday School listening to the lessons of what the Bible says and is about. I remember reading the Bible, finding its messages for myself. And in all of that, I came to believe the Bible to be an authority in my life. Its words I have allowed to speak into my life. I make the best attempt possible to transform those words into a lifestyle. I don't make the best example of what the scriptures say at all times of my life. I am called to account for bad choices and I hold myself to account for bad choices.    And to those Christians who have chosen to represent the Church in a stance against gays, I want to hold you to account for your choices.   Let me begin with a point...

 Here is part one of this series: Religious Freedom In the Midst of the Culture Wars The first people I would call to account for their behavior in this kerfuffle would be the politicians and the media. The current concept of culture war is being churned (as is the way with actual war) by the politicians jockeying for power and position. The media feeds the beast. Politicians have a way of being most sincere about the lines they are drawing. They make it appear that there is something to fear. They can find all of the concerns that constituents possess and them amplify them to terrors that must be stopped. In Pat Buchanan's day, it was the Religious Right or Christian Coalition or Moral Majority. The politicians of those confederations identified all of the anxieties where the moral fabric of the nation was coming to pieces. They proclaimed loud and proud how the enemies of traditional family values or moral propriety were leading this nation away from its once proud heritage....

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of point-counterpoint over the subject of RFRA's. If you don't follow the news media in any way, a RFRA is a bill passed by a governmental body (federal or state) that has as its subject religious freedoms. That sounds fairly governmental, right? The problem is that the current crop of RFRA's are being described in the media (print, television, talk radio, and internet) as the latest front in the culture wars. The language is intentionally battle related. Siege, offensive/defensive, campaign. You get the picture? What is a culture war? That is an interesting subject. It has roots in the 19th century. It was grounded in the effort of Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck of Germany to distance the influence of the Roman Catholic Church over the Prussian portion of the German Empire. The kulturkampf, or culture struggle, represented laws that were enacted that were biased against German Catholics. In the 20th century, the shift...

Recently, Houston has been a news magnet in the Christian world. I'm linking to the snopes.com entry only because it includes the sources and dates if you want to inform yourself. In a thumbnail sketch, here is the issue: The mayor of Houston signed an ordinance into law that was controversial.  Opponents of the ordinance began a petition drive to repeal the law. The petition was declared invalid by the city. The opponents filed a lawsuit against the city. The city attorneys responded and part of their action was to subpoena the sermons of 5 area pastors dealing with certain topics. The news world erupted in a frenzy of tree- and atom-killing as they printed/published/posted/aired reports about this issue and the blogosphere launched its own rhetoric, saber-rattling campaign. Got it? Okay. Here is my question: why would a pastor be offended/angry/persecuted if someone wanted copies of their sermon? I would be delighted if someone asked for a copy of all of my sermons o...