Where Did This Come From?

Two churches on a small Grecian island have the tradition of firing rockets at each other on Easter morning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8007506.stm

The video there is short, with quiet audio and is amazing!

HT:Steadfast

Evangelicalism Will Die: Others Receive Inheritance

As referenced last week, a certain essay has hit a nerve among our Evangelical friends.

What is Evangelicalism, you ask? You ask because it's a good question. It's like obscenity: I know it when I see it. Seriously, it is hard to define, but the easiest way to recognize it is by going in your nearest "Christian Bookstore." Make sure it's not Catholic or Orthodox, and take a look around. Browse the gizmos and framed prints, t-shirts and music. Look at the titles of books. Find the most prominently displayed books and read their back covers. Look at the people who are shopping there. Eavesdrop on their conversations.

That is Evangelicalism.

And a lot of different people with different prejudices and backgrounds are worried that it is going away.

Where are the people who used to be Evangelical going to go? The author of that most-talked-about essay, Michael Spencer, writes, "Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions."

Why not Lutherans? We've been whining this for years. Why not the Lutherans?

I'll be blunt. It's because the LCMS has been trying for a decade or three to become just like our shallow evangelical friends. The Evangelicals have vast amounts of people and influence and the LCMS is missing it. We've sold our birthright for a pot of porridge and now that's grown cold and solidified. Goldilocks is off to something else.

To keep things simple, what your mother told you is true. "Be yourself. Don't give into what other people want you to be. Don't change who you are to be accepted. Do what is right and don't apologize for it." Our mothers were always right.

Can it be fixed? I'm not so sure. There are plenty of brave souls that are trying. The problem we have now is different parties trying to remake our denomination into their vision, each attempting to convince the people that theirs is the true Lutheranism, or at least the true way to be faithful to God and survive.

When you have competing claims of legitimacy, one will be silenced eventually.

Have mercy on us, dearest Jesus.

Doom!!

UPDATE--Link to Alan Keyes video fixed.

At the beginning of the week I wrote something about sensing an increasing amount of doom-saying. It's official.

Christianity is on the wane in America (read here)

Evangelicalism is on the wane. (read here)

Catholicism is being persecuted. (the last post)

People are worried about civil unrest. Alan Keyes actually uses the phrase "civil war." (watch this)

Let's be honest: of course we all would much prefer peaceful days and status quo. And frankly, all this doomsday talk bugs me.

...and in a moment of writer's block, my friends at Creative Minority Report (you are friends, aren't you?), just posted another doom and gloom post....

And in my comment there, I was not joking about speaking German. I'm resisting with all my effort to refrain right now. But I don't think this has much to do with this topic.

It's okay to think in terms of End Times (or, Eschatology, if you want to sound snobby). Christ talked that way. St. Paul talked that way. It is Christian. We confess that the Last Days will come in both Creeds confessed in worship. In fact, we believe we are already here--there are just more of them than it sounded like.

I don't want to be that dramatic, but I truly think that there will be a "Come to Jesus" moment in America when the last things we will worry about is the 3G network coming to Enid. Crass materialism is going to destroy us.

But in all these things there is the important thing to remember: it is our duty to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to pray and fight temptation. This is our calling, whether we have one month to live or the world ends this afternoon or next century. We are in a fight, a war, against the spiritual powers in heavenly places, and it is a war fought and won in thoughts, words, and deeds, in the little moments and choices of life.

And remember, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

Welcome, our Conquering Liberal Overlords!

The Connecticut Legislature is debating a bill that would madate Roman Catholic Churches be administered by an elected lay board, upon which the pastor and his bishop would have no vote. Obviously, many Catholics are up-in-arms, as it would redefine Catholicism. An editorial in The Advocate notes,

"Free exercise" of religion includes the way a Church chooses to organize. Strip the bishops and priests of their role in financial matters and their message becomes subject to the approval of those holding the purse.

Historically, "under trustee control, not only was pastoral authority practically eliminated, but the Church's message was utterly dependent upon the congregation's cultural and political condition."

The writer grants that many protestant churches have chosen such an arrangement. Nevertheless, the First Amendment grants churches the right to choose.

There are a multitude of directions this can go. I may pursue some of them in the days to come. Here is one:

Patrick Archbold at Creative Minority Report writes,

Some have written, what is the big deal? It is not likely to pass. It is a big deal, passage or not. This is how fictional rights are created and real rights eliminated. First is always the trial balloon. It is destined for failure, but passage is not the intent. The intent is to bring it into the conversation. The intent is to start a trend in other states with lawmakers proposing similar statutes, all under the guise of protecting regular folks. Then, after you have heard about it several times, it doesn't seem like a big deal anymore. Then maybe, just maybe, it passes somewhere. Then the gates will be opened and religious liberty in this country is over.

It reminds me of the proverb that error first demands toleration, then equality, lastly superiority. The slippery slope. How to boil a frog.

We see the same in every arena: politics, church, home. The trial balloon, the testing of boundaries, followed by further discussion and deliberations, and finally new laws or rights to protect us. The ELCA has been at this approach regarding homosexual unions for a decade or more. It looks like they will finally get their prize in allowing ministers to shack up with whatever they wish, as long as it's not serial or unseemly.

Beware the exploratory committee. Make sure you know what and where they are exploring. And remember, they will be back.

Bullet Points Are All I Have Right Now

I haven't really decided to abstain from blogging during Lent; it only appears that way due to overall busyness, distraction, writer's block and the other usual suspects.

Some tidbits:

The LCMS has dropped opposition in the "Issues Etc." trademark issue. It was the right thing to do, since they had allowed the trademark to expire.

The Oklahoma District of the LCMS will most likely have an entirely new Board of Directors and District staff after our Convention in April. Most of this is due to retirements and incumbents declining nominations.

The Twilight Saga has gotten better over time--I'm reading the final book now and it is a page-turner, though a little too predictable at times. I can see the author's conservative morality poking through on occasion (she's Mormon), but in no way could this be construed as a "Christian-esque" vampire novel.

Lost seems to get better every season, with every episode. That, and Scrubs are the only two shows I watch, though everybody seems to be recommending Battlestar Galactica these days. I may have to rent the first season and see what I'm missing.

The fast is difficult. I've slipped more than I care to admit. Slipping is not defeat, however. When you slip up in your fast it is the best reminder possible of our need for repentance and God's strength. Without Him we can do nothing, not even control ourselves just a little.

Thank you for sticking with me here. I'll try to post more regularly.

Stray Thoughts

• I used to watch the Oscars. For some reason I thought I cared.... I don't anymore
• It's funny how people respond to a sermon that references both Foreigner and Boston songs ("I Want to Know What Love Is" and "More than a Feeling"). Even funnier: I didn't write those two references in the manuscript, and they came out ad lib.

• As a member reminded me yesterday, theology goes astray when it all hangs on one word. Sic et non. Tao, if you will. Tradition even?

• I've been having dreams in German lately. I haven't spoken it regularly since 1998. The German in my dreams is lousy.

• Good writing is clear writing. Write what you want it to mean. Humans naturally bob and weave. It goes back to the Garden. Be direct.

• I have to check the weather for the next non-windy day before Wednesday. It's hard to burn ashes in 30 mph sustained winds. Welcome to Oklahoma.

• My wife chuckled when I said in Bible study, "If you want to have a good Lent..." It does sound funny.

The Widow's Mite Reveals My True Poverty

Here is another wonderful post from Creative Minority Report, this one by Patrick Archbold.

The post concerns his reaction to a "reality" show called Secret Millionaires. On the show, wealthy people go slumming for a week or so and then are supposed to give a large donation to someone they met. The gem of the show is not the hubris and condescension of the wealthy, but the generosity and mercy of the poor.

Here's an excerpt:

This week we met woman who got hooked on drugs when her child died and spent fifteen years in and out of prison. She finally got her life back on track and henceforth devoted it to sheltering and helping other women, newly released from prison,adjust to life on the outside. She found women dropped at the bust stop straight from prison with nothing but $200. She takes them in and helps them back on their feet. She had nothing, but now gives everything she has, her widow's mite.

Unmistakable in the lives of these secret saints, albeit not emphasized on the show, is the role of faith. Their faith manifests in their lives as love and charity at levels I thought existed only in books about the lives of saints from bygone eras. People like this don't exist anymore, right? I, like the millionaires I find slightly icky, just write checks and congratulate myself even while knowing the checks could and should be bigger.

While I am far from a millionaire, I realize more now that there is more to charity than writing a check. I have a lot more to give than just money. I could and should be giving more of myself. If I did, perhaps then I would be more than just a poorer version of those very public millionaires, and I could be more like these secret saints and more like Christ.

The Shack, "Dude Jesus" and Other Signs of the End

I stumbled upon a review of The Shack and thought these words were most important:

But more alarmingly, the Trinity as pictured in The Shack is utterly devoid of any awe-inspiring numinus Moses may have been full of fear and trembling at the manifestation of the God of Sinai (Heb. 12:21), Isaiah may have declared himself undone at the sight of the Lord of Hosts in the Temple (Is. 6:5), Ezekiel may have fallen on the face before the Lord at the River Chebar (Ezek. 1:28) and even St. John fell at the feet of the glorified Christ as if he were dead (Rev. 1:17). But the sight of the Trinity in this volume excites no such reaction at all. All is warm and casual, comforting and cozy—a God who giggles, and calls you ‘honey’, a God who drops and breaks crockery, a God who never condemns or is disappointed in any of us. In short, the God who is your buddy, so characteristic of modern Evangelicalism and celebrated in their feel-good choruses. It is not the God invoked in our baptismal service, “whose glance dries up the deep, whose interdict makes the mountains melt away”, the God who “touches the mountains and they smoke, who clothes Himself with light as with a garment”. All of the other errors and mis-steps of the volume pale in comparison with this basic mis-presentation of the divine. The awesome God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has become the comfortable demi-god of the emergent church. The face of the King has been distorted to resemble the face of a fox.

In a sermon recently I wrote that "Christians seem to have gone from wanting to be Christ-like to wanting Christ to be us-like." I remember when O God!, the George Burns movie, was controversial in the casual way God was depicted. Christians thought it was scandalous...and somewhat amusing, but many never said that out loud.

One of the favorite movies at my house is Evan Almighty. The kids think Steve Carell is hilarious. I think he's this generation's Peter Sellers. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Evan is finally telling his wife about why he's building an ark. She thinks he's gone crazy and all he can do is agree...but affirm that what he is doing is from God. It's pretty powerful, really.

But when this movie was released, and Bruce Almighty before it, despite a very racist, quiet murmur that "God is a black man!" there was no real controversy in the bigger picture, that God was present like us--us-like, only pretty suave, in an E-Z Reader kind of way.

And this, I believe, is a larger problem than the bad theology that is present in Evan, Bruce, and The Shack. This is simply not the way God is. It is the very opposite of the way God is.

If you have no numinous God, no holy God, then the Incarnation is essentially meaningless. If there is no holy God, then our sinfulness is reduced to buffoonery, and there is no need of forgiveness. If one can look at God and not die, then death is....meaningless? I don't even know.

A popular response could be that in Christ God has become like us, that He is now approachable, and should be. Perhaps. But that assumes were are talking about the Son of God in His incarnation. It also forgets that He is still the Eternal and Almighty One. It's really a bit of Nestorianism again, separating the Son from the "dude Jesus." It's "The Buddy Christ" of Kevin Smith's Dogma.

Christ like-us makes US the gods that He must conform to. And put like that we see the Father of Lies' fingerprints all over it.

Death and Capitalism

From Second Terrace:

...the Christian Right complains about abortion, the destruction of embryos, hyper-socialism, termination of the aged and disabled, and the chic redefinition of aberrant sexual proclivity as conferring "minority" status – these are all issues about which I wholeheartedly agree with my right-wing heterodox friends.

But they are not-so-strangely silent, in their insouciance, about encroaching totalitarianism, consumerism, war-as-aggrandizement, environmental rapine, and hyper-capitalism: these concerns are just as Biblical, and should be just as salient -- even in such a restricted view thatsola scripturaallows.

You would be hard pressed to find a fundamentalist Christian who will say a critical word about capitalism, given their multi-generational catechism that defines the Beast as a red communist for sure. If you turn the radio dial enough, late at night (or the url-bar), you can still hear the static of cheap polyester declaiming Gog and Magog at the Kremlin.

Pr. Beecroft on Technology

I had started a post this week on technology, agrarianism and what it means to be a person, a human. It sounded a little to paranoid and luddite, especially for me, considering I spent a few hours last evening trying out a live CD installation of Ubuntu.

So I checked Bloglines tonight and see that Pr. Beecroft has said some of what I wanted to say (thank you!). Read his post below, and consider it foundation for a post perhaps next week. I'm not sure I would agree with his conclusion, however. I'm not sure we can be liberated to enjoy the deathworks of technolatry. I think in many respects our liberation is expressed in denying it, it giving it no quarter. What do you think?

We live in a culture dominated by technology. Now I am no Luddite, but I am suspicious about how our highly technological environment has influenced our understanding of reality. We are surrounded by machines that do our bidding and provide us with a seemingly infinite amount of information. We have so much information that it must be stored in Gigabytes and Terrabytes. We have email, Blackberry phones, I-phones and I-pods, wireless hotspots, Facebook, laptops, Google, IM, LCD HDTV, etc. Communication is instant and has no boundaries. Our travel potential is limited only by our finances. Today, people can even vacation in space. Doctor visits are dominated by medical technology. Our children are entertained for hours by television, movies, X-Boxes, Wiis, and Playstations. We live in a world of unforeseen technology. Our world would have been considered impossible by our grandparents or great grandparents.

Yet what have all of these technological advances done for the human person? We may live a few years longer, on statistical average, but statistical average means nothing when you are terminally ill in your twenties. Are our lives more fulfilling and meaningful? Our entertainment devices may be able to distract us or draw us into strange alternative realities for a time, but we still struggle with contentment, relationships, depression and living life on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon. We may have creature comforts, but we are not altogether comfortable. Do we have a better understanding of reality with the glut of information available through technology? I doubt it. We cannot even begin to process the information in a coherent manner. We are still befuddled by the vast universe and the immense complexity of the human being. Technology has certainly not ended war and violence. It has only made killing more efficient and sterile. Technology has not ended death. No matter how much genetic manipulation we attempt, death will eventually have its way. Technology may prolong life and offer healing, but not forever.

Neal Postman, in his book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology argues that the culture now lives in submission to technology and its promises, making human existence confused and incoherent. He says that technopoly “consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.” We consume new gadgets made known through a technology-driven media. We are filled with hope at technological breakthroughs. We receive authority to act or believe from polls, technology-driven theories, and so-called scientific studies. Technology forms and informs the culture in which we live.

Bob Dylan, in his 1983 song License to Kill, critiques the effects of technology on man’s relationship to the world. He sings, “Now, he’s hell-bent for destruction, he’s afraid and confused, and his brain has been mismanaged with great skill. All he believes are his eyes, and his eyes, they just tell him lies.” Dylan is concerned that the human story had been so redefined by the promises of technology that existence had become meaningless and destructive. The modern person had become defined by the material, scientific, and technological. The mind of the modern person had been strictly educated in the classroom of human-centered theory, consumption and technology. Still, the modern person was afraid and confused, displaced and detached from reality. He only believed what he could see, yet he could not see what was true. His vision was distorted. In the late seventies, Dylan had become a Christian, which I suspect informed his view of the world and life, at least for the time.

As Christians who exist in this strange technological world, this technopoly, we are constantly challenged to understand our lives according to the larger drama of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. Reality is not defined by technology in its various forms, but the one Triune God who creates and sustains all things. Reality is known in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, revealed in the Holy Scripture and the Ecumenical Creeds. The language of reality is not the language of technology, but the language of the Holy Christian Church: Father, creation, fall, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, repentance, faith, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, liturgy, Church, etc. Our minds are to be formed by God’s Word, His language, so that we understand reality in all of its impenetrable mystery. Minds managed in this way will see things as they truly exist. Eyes of faith will begin to apprehend, but never exhaust, the heavenly mysteries of the sacramental presence of Christ in our midst through His gifts along with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. In Jesus Christ, our lives have true meaning and significance, liberated to enjoy the 46-inch flat screen, games, or I-pods and no longer enslaved to technology and its empty, insufficient promises and theories.

More on Television

So, I either watch much more television than I realize, hit a real nerve with those who refuse to admit addiction, or am really missing out on television freedom.

I'm not sure a DVR is in our future, though. It's not the $5 a month fee, but the fact we don't have digital cable and don't have a big desire to add it again...though I do miss the "menu" features....

Thanks for the comments on the post below!

On Television Addiction

According to Reuters, "Some 79 percent of 1,000 DVR owners reported that the technology has improved their relationship, according to the NDS DVR Report....The results show how fast the DVR has become an indispensable part of many people's lives in the US," said Steve Tranter, vice president, broadband and interactive delivery, NDS Americas. "It's one of those technologies that, once you use it, it makes you wonder how you coped before."

I just don't get it, but I imagine the last sentence explains it. I suppose one would have to watch a lot of television too.

Not Beyond Redemption

Basic Instinct. Showgirls. Writer Joe Eszterhas made a fortune on these scripts and others like them. He used to cut a large swath in Hollywood. A lurid, indulgent and dissipated swath.

But he has been completed another kind of manuscript recently--a book published by St. Martin's Press: Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith.

Get Religion posted a story published in the Toronto Blade about Eszterhas' conversion to Christianity. It's a remarkable story, filled with God's working in his life to overcome his addiction to alcohol and tobacco, healing throat cancer and, even more miraculously, healing the heart of a man. Eszterhas also praises the miracle of Holy Communion saying,

The Eucharist and the presence of the body and blood of Christ is, in my mind, an overwhelming experience for me. I find that Communion for me is empowering. It’s almost a feeling of a kind of high.Eszterhas understands the heart of repentance as well.

He went from doubting if he could make it through life without tobacco and alcohol, to knowing that he could “defeat myself and win.”

What a wonderful way to describe repentance! It reminded me of what I had read in my daily devotion:

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? (Luke 9:23-25 NKJV)

Read the entire piece here.

Fiction Reading This Month

My wife and I have been reading some Dean Koontz novels lately. I had never read his stuff before. I remember some mediocre made-for-tv movies entitled, "Dean Koontz' So-and-So" and was unimpressed. I believed him to be a less ambitious Steven King.

But then I read a profile of him in National Review. Turns out the Steven King connection wasn't just me, but that the press and critics tended to lump the two ueber-successful authors together. The profile piece suggested they were not that much alike. And Koontz converted to Catholicism and has a distinctly conservative voice in his novels.

I now know what NR was talking about. Of the novels I've read so far, none would be included in your Average Christian Bookstore. None would be reviewed as literature, either, though his writing demands more attention and vocabulary than your average mass market paperback. But his narrative voice gently condemns liberal idols and his characters exhibit virtue. There are other slight nods to Catholicism and religion scattered around, too.

Oh, and Koontz has a knack of packing in more conflict and tension in the first 100 pages than many bestsellers have in the climax. It makes a tense read.

Perfect Love and Fear

Pastor Brown writes,

Scripture says that perfect love casts out fear. As such - a Christian ought never act out of fear. Our actions are not to be based on fear of what is to come, worry, what have you.

Every decision, every action you take - fear is to not be a factor. Why? Because if you are acting out of fear, you won't be seeking to show love. Simple as that.

Think on the times you have made decisions because of fear and or terror. Do they show love? Are they done well? Nope. Be calm, be focused on Christ - and act in peace and hope and love. Christ is in charge, He is in control - decide what is given to you with peace and calm. Never act out of fear of what might come, but with love and hope and the desire to use the gifts God has given you for the sake of your neighbor.

This is the Christian life.

Wonderful advice. Most of us do make decisions from fear--the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of reprisals, fear of bankruptcy and so on.

The Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life explores living a life based on fear and how debilitating it is. The premise is that Brooks' character dies and the afterlife begins with a trial of sorts, where scenes from his past are projected in a theater. The Prosecutor chooses moments of life where the character is living based on fear to illustrate the subject is not suitable for "Heaven" or whatever. Brooks also receives a Defense Attorney of sorts, who chooses moments from his life that show courage and love. Despite the movie fouling everything up, especially equating fear with self-denial and moral choices, there are some wonderful scenes that illustrate how debilitating and evil acting from fear is. In one scene, Brooks' character is shown to be in Elementary school and refuses to help another kid being bullied--refuses in a most despicable manner. Everyone in the theater watching this unfold squirms, especially the adult Brooks. It's rare to see such a depiction of shame on the screen.

Thank you Pr. Brown for a good reminder that perfect love casts out fear.

Incense Alleviates Depression

Another interesting post from "-C" who pulled it off the wire.

Incense is psychoactive: Scientists identify the biology behind the ceremony
New study in the FASEB Journal shows how and why molecules released from burning incense in religious ceremonies alleviate anxiety and depression

Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

“In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity,” said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study’s co-authors. “We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning.”

To determine incense’s psychoactive effects, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs. Specifically, incensole acetate activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.

“Perhaps Marx wasn’t too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony.” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “Studies of how those psychoactive drugs work have helped us understand modern neurobiology. The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion—burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!”

Vacationaries

Not too long ago I spouted off about "Spring Break Mission Trips" in my Bible Study class. A few were a little taken aback: how could I disparage going to Mexico and doing good things? especially teenagers doing good things? I backed off somewhat. I'm sure there are many who do these trips who grow personally and spiritually from their sacrifice.

Now check out this from the Washington Post:

Not long ago, the families of Fairfax Presbyterian Church spent thousands of dollars to fly their teens to Mexico for eight days of doing good. They helped build homes and refurbish churches as part of an army of more than 1 million mostly Christians who annually go on short-term international mission trips to work and evangelize in poverty-stricken lands.

Yet even as those trips have increased in popularity, they have come under increased scrutiny. A growing body of research questions the value of the trips abroad, which are supposed to bring hope and Christianity to the needy of the world, while offering American participants an opportunity to work in disadvantaged communities, develop relationships and charge up their faith.

Critics scornfully call such trips “religious tourism” undertaken by “vacationaries.” Some blunders include a wall built on the children’s soccer field at an orphanage in Brazil that had to be torn down after the visitors left. In Mexico, a church was painted six times during one summer by six different groups. In Ecuador, a church was built but never used because the community said it was not needed. (read the rest here

HT: Mark Sticherz at GetReligion (who notes that the article fails to mention the other purpose of Mission Trips--evangelization.)

This comes from one of my favorite blogs--Creative Minority Report. It's a beautiful essay on apathy (the sin, you know), fatherhood and faith.

I'm A Wii Catholic

You know how you buy Christmas gifts for people and then you just never get around to seeing them. I've had two candy-cane gift wrapped boxes in the corner of the television room for months. I've actually dusted them. So on Thursday my wife begged me to go see this friend of ours who I speak to on the phone and exchange emails with often but never see.

So I went over to drop off gifts for him and his wife. We all laughed about the gifts and had a good time. While I was there my friend showed me his children's video game system. A Wii. Now, mind you his twins are four years old so something tells me the Wii is more for him than for the children but...we played an inning of baseball (OK, a few innings.) I didn't do so well as "my friend" wasn't very forthcoming with the "how to play" instructions. He reveled in the fact that my poor Mets were destroyed.

The whole thing felt a little awkward to me though. You're standing in the middle of a room throwing invisible balls and swinging invisible bats. Weird. You're doing all the motions but not really accomplishing anything.

On the way home, I had my rosary beads out as is my habit and I prayed while listening to the radio. When I returned home I took care of the children essentially by reading near where they played. That night, my wife and I sat silently on the couch watching a movie. There was a stack of bills and a pile of laundry nearby mocking me, depressing both my wife and me but neither of us had the energy to charge those hills.

Something just hit me on Friday though. I wondered if sometimes I was a Wii Catholic, a Wii parent, A Wii husband? I've been going through the motions but not really accomplishing anything. Faking it. I think at times I live a Wii life. I realized that reading near the children is not raising them. Watching t.v. next to my wife is not spending time with her. Praying while listening to talk radio is actually just listening to talk radio. I've been where I was supposed to be but not really accomplishing anything.

I need to remind myself to live more intentionally. Sometimes folding laundry, doing dishes or paying bills is the most loving act you can do for your spouse. Sometimes reading a story to a child is what they want most- even when Hannah Montana's on. Sometimes the rosary is the best thing you can do for everyone.

I know I sometimes enjoy my interior life too much. I am comfortable in the well worn grooves of my mind. I think sometimes I just have to disconnect a bit from my own thoughts to reconnect with others. And the funny thing is that I always discover that life outside of my head is a lot more...unpremeditated. Effusive. Enjoyable.

At Ikea Saturday, my three year old son whispered to his sisters that he wanted to ride the six foot tall paper mache pony statue. My six year old warned him security would kick him out. My five year old daughter looked around and said, "You know, I haven't seen security around in a while." I think most days I would've missed that.

Last night, my wife gave me the choice of DVD to put in. Now normally that means it's "Lord of the Rings" time at the Archbold house. Instead, I turned off the television and we talked. About work. Neighbors. Funny stories about the kids. Worries about the kids.

On Sunday, my children and I drove over to Valley Forge as the sun went down. My kids love the open fields, the excitement of woods, the unexpected interruption of deer, and walking through the old log cabins.

We rolled ourselves down a long grassy hill to see who could roll fastest. I tried to come in last but at some point once you get me rolling I pick up speed...that is until I collide with a six year old who can't roll straight. We all laid there at the bottom until we were able to stand again. We watched the clouds brightening as they passed briefly before the Sun and then fade into darkness, their edges purpling as they drifted over the forest.

It was a great day. A non-Wii day. I don't think rolling down hills accomplishes anything necessarily but at least I felt like I was back in the game. The real one.

Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

The survey (breathtaking in scope) was released last week. You can view all kinds of interesting stats and download the whole thing here.

I created a little spreadsheet to compare various denomination's results on questions that I was particularly interested in. There are some interesting trends. The questions I looked at in particular were:

Belief in God

Importance of Religion in One's Life

Frequency of Attendance at Religious Services

Frequency of Prayer

Frequency of receiving answers to prayers Literal Interpretation of Scripture Interpretation of Religious teachings View of One's religion as the One True Faith Views about Abortion Views about Homosexuality

The LCMS, ELCA, and Catholic response rates for the various views on each question are about the same--usually within a few percentage points of each other. The Southern Baptist responses are significantly different than the others--sometimes by 20 percentage points or more on certain responses to questions.

There were a few exceptions, for instance, on the question of how the literalness of the Bible, the LCMS responses were somewhere between the ELCA/Catholic and the SBC.

If you want to see for yourself, get the report, or download my spreadsheet here.

Blogging Block and Reader Exercise

I've got four or five posts I've been messing with for weeks now that I can't just seem to get in the right shape to publish. Most deal with "controversial" matters, so perhaps this is an indication to leave them alone for now.

So here's an exercise for all of us. Think about your weltanschauung (world-view). How tied up is it with the spirit of the age, with modernism, consumerism, choice. How much do you reject the past as outmoded and inferior? How much do you believe people and culture has changed in the last 60 years? In the 60 years before that?