For What It's Worth : Reflecting on Lost Love

For What It's Worth : Reflecting on Lost Love:   Reflection on Our First Love   “ You have forsaken the love you had at first.”                                                            ...

Reflections on War and Peace

 A headline in a USA Today article caught my attention this past week. It read: “Hiroshima Bombing Turns 75.” 

Two bombs totaling 240,000 fatalities, 110,000 of which were killed instantly, and another 130,000 deaths due to radiation exposure illnesses over the next few years. Let that sink in for a moment. Even after the war ended humans suffered then died from radiation-related illnesses. It’s really difficult for me to get my brain wrapped around such death and destruction. 

Thank God these were the last two nuclear bombs used in wartime.

One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes features Elaine (Julia Dreyfus) making the claim that Tolstoy’s classic novel, War and Peace was originally entitled War, What’s It Good For? In fact, Elaine claims that Tolstoy’s girlfriend suggested the original title.

Well, as silly as this episode was there is truth in the question, War, What’s it Good for? Especially when we consider the death statistics attributed to the dropping of the only two atomic bombs in history. Then when you consider the total death toll of World War II (est. 70-85 million humans), not to mention all other wars in history, one gets the sense that war is not the best way for humans to behave.

War is a human problem. It’s caused by human agency alone. I believe it is a sad mistake to attribute the practice of war to God, or to God’s will. Doing so creates an unsolvable theological dilemma for those who remain faithful to the Prince of Peace. The dilemma is this: “Whose side is God on in any war?” Worse yet, when we believe that “God is on our side” the violence of war often intensifies as a result. 

Consider the American Civil War. Was God on the side of the Confederacy or the Union? Who did God want to win that bloody war, which claimed over 618,222 lives? 

When we co-op God, or his will, into our wars, believing that we are acting on his behalf, it then becomes easier to justify how far we will go to win (because we are winning on God’s behalf). I have come to believe that this is wrong-headed thinking and surely does not represent the best Christian witness as followers of the Prince of Peace.

Remember, it was Jesus himself who said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). So, what should the Christian attitude be toward war? 

I think we should approach the reality of war with deep humility and a sense of confession and repentance. War should cause us tremendous grief and sorrow over the lives it claims, as well as the long-term effects of war once it is over (for the time being). We should never glorify war, let alone claim that God has chosen sides in our favor.  

I leave you with the stunning words of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah who sheds light on God’s attitude towards war:

He shall judge between the nations,

   and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

    and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

    neither shall they learn war anymore (2:4).

A Sickness Unto Death

Americans will file into their places of worship this morning to worship the god of their chosen tradition. American Christians will worship their God and pay homage to the Prince of Peace (a.k.a. Jesus Christ).

They will sing hymns, offer prayers, and listen to sermons, all the while hoping that things will change for the better or that the next mass shooting will not occur in their town or village or city or community.

But it just may, and this is the reality in which we all live.

Our country is becoming more and more dangerous in which to live and work. Fathers go to work each day not really knowing if it’s the day they will be shot and killed. 

Mothers will take their little children to schools or to the bus stop not knowing if this is the day another Sandy Hook will occur.

Americans will go to malls or shopping centers or even Walmart not knowing if this will be their last shopping trip. 

All the while unstable and angry shooters are plotting and planning their next attack. It’s frightening. It’s alarming to be sure.

America is undergoing a spiritual crisis not seen in many years. 

It is indeed a "sickness unto death."

America is devolving into a moral and spiritual sickness devoid of any serious Gospel influence. The values so clearly taught by Jesus are either ignored or reinterpreted to fit into a particular political platform or an ideological point of view.

My prayer this morning is that as Americans file into their places of worship they will encounter the God of grace and the Lord of peace, joy, and love. They will encounter the life-changing values of the Gospel contained, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount and make them their standard-bearing platform upon which to live their lives.

Maybe, in the words of author Gregory Boyd, it's time to "crucify the Warrior God" image of popular imagination.

Otherwise, I am afraid, we are all doomed!

Choose to be Kind!

Okay, I get it!

I get it that you believe that homosexuality is a sin. I get it that you base your belief on your interpretation of a few passages of Scripture known as the “clobber texts” (there are six of them in both the Old and New Testaments).

Especially the text in Romans 1:26-27 that seems to give you the greatest sense of certainty in your stand against LGBT people. Believe it or not, I understand how you can read this text, out of context, as an indictment of all homosexual people. 

I get it that you are a product of a brand of Christianity that vilifies homosexuals and brands them as “unrepentant sinners."

I don’t agree with you, but I get it.

But what I don’t get is why you stopped reading Paul’s words concluding Romans 1 and why you didn’t at least read all the way through 2:1. His words shout out to us:

“Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”

A pastor in Saint Augustine, Florida recently refused to leave his restaurant server a tip the guy was gay just might be a good candidate for reading Romans 2:1. Okay, the pastor can read and interpret the Bible as he sees fit but this does not give him the liberty to treat someone unkindly or disrespectfully just because of the person’s sexual orientation. 

Look, your view on homosexuality is yours to own. I may not agree with it but can we agree to be kind to LGBT folks, simply because it is the fitting thing to do. 

The most effective witness we Christians have at our disposal is the way we treat others who are unlike us (even our enemies). Otherwise, our verbal testimony to what we believe becomes nothing more than “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Hollow words that impress no one.

Treat all people kindly and you will discover a change in the texture of your heart. You may even come to love homosexuals regardless of how you read the Bible. 

Be kind!

Lamenting the Victims of War!

Just the other day a man said to me as he was leaving my home: “Have a happy Memorial Day!”

I responded by asking him: “How can I be happy over the loss of so much life to wars?” My question startled him. It made him think. Memorial Day is not the time for the celebration of death caused by war. It is not a time for celebrating the virtues of nationalism!

Memorial Day is not a time for celebrating the horrific results of war; but rather, it is the time for lamenting our continued addiction to violence and war in the hopes that we can (on our own) create lasting peace. 

Memorial Day is for mourning. It is for grieving. It is for lamenting the loss of all human life caused by war. It is a time for soul-searching and repentance—repentance from our own love of violence and war. It is a time for us to challenge the belief that war is the only and most noble way to resolve human conflicts. It is time for us to consider the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,
    and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war any more."

Things I Wish Christians Would Stop Saying: "The Man Upstairs!"

Christians sometimes say things about God that really makes little sense, given what we know about our world and the universe today. How many times have you heard a Christian refer to God as:

“The Man upstairs!”

Really, God is a man? Okay, I get the anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to God. 

The Bible does it all the time, but these anthropomorphisms are metaphors that people used to help explain who God is or how they understand him.

For example, in the Bible God is pictured as a “rock” or as a “Shepherd” or as “Mighty Warrior” or as a “Father.” All metaphors not to be understood literally of course.

But this isn’t what irks me about the statement describing God as the “Man upstairs!” It’s the “upstairs” part that needs some qualifying. At least when I hear folks say this I no longer correct them by saying: “You shouldn’t refer to God as a man!” 

Instead, I say: “Where is upstairs?” 

Do Christians (non-Christians say it too) who say such things really believe God is up there, somewhere above our heads? How can anyone conceive of such an idea given what we know today about how the world and the universe are designed?

And if God is believed to be “up there” is this where heaven is? Of course, the opposite would be true of hell as being located  "down there” somewhere below us.

Okay, this is why I prefer the updated software version of how we talk about God, for example, Paul Tillich’s description of God as the “Ground of all being.” This metaphor makes so much more sense to those of us living on a round planet (where is upstairs located on such a planet?) in a cosmos so vast that the human mind can hardly comprehend it. 

Perhaps the Christian mystics had a better comprehension of where God exists: Deep within us at our deepest core. 

Sort of in compliance with the Apostle Paul’s version of God: 

“For ‘In him, we live and move and have our being’ (Acts  17:28).”

For What It's Worth : Things I Wish Christians Would Stop Saying: "It wa...

For What It's Worth : Things I Wish Christians Would Stop Saying: "It wa...: Christians sometimes say things that are quite frankly based on bad theology.  For example, I have often heard Christians respond t...