Take down that post?

As if it had been too long since the last evangelical church sex abuse scandal, Leadership Journal (an imprint of Christianity Today) posted a long online article this month titled “My Easy Trip from Youth Minister to Felon”. Tagged as an article on topics including “adultery”, “failure”, “sex”, and “temptation”, it’s a long-ish first-person account of a youth pastor describing his progression into what sounds like an extramarital affair. Then on the last page you find out the “other woman” in question was a teenager in his church. Suddenly a cautionary tale about temptation turns out to be a story about a pastor grooming and abusing an underaged girl in his congregation. Disgusting.

My intent here isn’t to provide a full summary or address the article - RawStory.com reported on it and many Christian bloggers have chimed in. The Twitter hashtag #TakeDownThatPost quickly sprang up, and I found myself sympathetic.

But then my friend Randy chimed in with a slightly different approach. And that led me to a different, more interesting question. Rather than calling for the editors of the publication to reconsider and take down the post, might it be more appropriate to simply raise awareness that the publication has chosen to post such content, and then let people form their own opinions of the publication and its editors?

Now that’s a conundrum.

What’s the right approach?

Because on one hand Randy’s proposed approach seems pretty attractive. It allows me to just state the facts. If anything, the factual headline (RawStory.com: “Ex-Youth Pastor describes felony sex crimes as extramarital friendship in Christian Journal”) draws far more attention than a “#TakeDownThatPost” hashtag. And let’s face it, if some organization with which I didn’t expect to align did something like this I wouldn’t be campaigning for them to self-censor - I’d just point out where I thought they went wrong and leave it at that.

But this is Christianity Today we’re talking about. I typically respect them quite a bit. Only two weeks ago I recommended their editor Mark Galli’s recent piece on sanctification. Their executive editor Andy Crouch wrote one of my favorite books from last year. I’d like to think there’s some restorative action I could encourage rather than just throwing them under the bus. And to simply draw attention to their unwise action and let others draw conclusions seems an awful lot like I’m trying to drag Christians’ names through the mud, which also doesn’t seem like a good idea.

If you can’t say something nice…

I suppose there’s another option: just don’t say anything. It’s not like the world is looking to me for comment on every issue, right? I was starting to feel that way and then I saw the story going around Facebook and local friends personally looking into it. Now I feel some amount of compulsion to comment, if only to let them know that they’re not alone in being upset about CT posting this article.

So where does that leave me?

I’m not a CT subscriber, so I can’t vote with my feet by cancelling a subscription. I sent an email to the editor of Leadership Journal this morning expressing my concern. I don’t feel like there’s a lot of value in actively joining the Twitter crowd and propagating the hashtag. So what else do I do? (Do I need to do anything?) Pray for the situation, sure - for the victim, the jailed man, the countless other victims out there. But other than that I’m not sure there’s much to do, or much more to say that others aren’t saying more eloquently than I would.

If the abuse scandals of the Catholic church, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Bill Gothard, Vision Forum, and others haven’t yet made it clear enough to us in the evangelical church: covering up, weasling around the topic, addressing it as only sin/repentance and not as a crime, characterizing pastor/youth sex as ‘relationships’ rather than predation - this has got to stop. Let’s not bring even more disrepute to the church than the abusers already have. Let’s again call our elders to be above reproach, and hold them to it.

While we may all personally want to shy away from casting the first stone, God is not mocked. As a church body it’s well past time that we find the pile of millstones and remind ourselves how Jesus advised they might be used.

Some thoughts on the recent EFCA doctrinal survey

I was fascinated to last week stumble upon the results of a 2013 doctrinal survey of more than 1000 credentialed Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) pastors. I’ve been a member of an EFCA church for just more than 5 years, and while I have a reasonable feel for where my own congregation stands on many doctrinal issues, it’s very interesting to get a feel for where the denomination is as a greater whole.

Some thoughts on various survey topics:

Creation / Evolution

Q8: “Which of these best characterizes your view on the creation account in Genesis 1?”

I was a little bit surprised that almost 60% of respondents held the “six literal days” view. (I would’ve expected that view to be predominant, but maybe not quite so high.) Another 20% opted for some older-earth view, with the remaining 20% responding ‘unsettled’ or ‘other’.

The results of Q9, then, come as no surprise: “How important is your view of the age of the earth to your theological framework?” 65% answered either very or somewhat important. My guess is that the overlap between the “six literal days” folks and the very or somewhat important folks is very great, and that they also largely overlap with the 57% who either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the Q10 proposition that “some forms of theistic evolution are compatible with biblical teaching”.

Science

I was very disappointed with the wording of Q13; its wording seems to bias the respondent toward a specific answer. “The Bible is not authoritative in matters in which it touches on history or science.” More than 90% of responses disagreed with this statement.

Surely the phrase “not authoritative” set off immediate red flags for most survey-takers. If the EFCA leadership was trying to ascertain the view of their pastors in regard to issues of science and history as addressed, say, in Peter Enns’ recent Inspiration and Incarnation, they could’ve worded the question more neutrally.

Eternal Subordination of the Son

This topic, on its own, is perhaps more esoteric than most on the survey; we don’t typically argue it as an individual doctrine. Where we do see its impact, though, is in the subordination / complementarian view of men’s and women’s roles in the church. Nearly 70% of all respondents agreed with the Q11 statement that “The Son is eternally subordinate to the Father in the eternal relations in the Trinity.”

I did a little additional reading for my own benefit and quickly ran across a summary of a debate on this topic held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (which is associated with the EFCA) back in 2008. Interestingly enough, a professor of systematic theology at Trinity was arguing against the eternal subordination position in that debate. Former Trinity professors Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware argued the affirmative side. My guess is that the immense popularity of Grudem’s Systematic Theology has helped bring about this majority on the side of eternal subordination.

Aligning with this was the 85% affirming the complementarian position on the topic of women in ministry (Q21).

The Bible

The answer to Q20 interests me a bit, if only because it runs very contrary to a lot of the Reformed blog chatter from the past several months. “Should we expect to hear the Spirit speak to us apart from illuminating our understanding and application of the Scripture?” 60% said yes.

Eschatology

This one is curious to me. Q35 asked “What would best desrcibe your eschatological position?”, and the four options were three varieties of premillennial and then “other”. 84% of respondents went with some sort of pre-mil position, and 75% of respondents said that premillennialism is somewhat or very important in their theological framework (Q36). However, when asked whether “premillennialism” should be retained in a future revision to the EFCA statement of faith, the response was nearly 50/50, with a slim majority (45%) actually saying it should not be retained.

Topics that didn’t surprise me so much:

  • Penal Substitutionary Atonement (95% agree it is an “essential understanding”)
  • Eternal security of the believer (94% agree)
  • “Open but cautious” approach to the miraculous gifts (71%)
  • Church membership is important (95%)
  • Church leadership via corporate congregational discernment, led largely by a team of pastor/elders. (88%)
  • Compassion and justice are not the gospel but a necessary outworking of it (70%)
  • “Eternal conscious punishment” - very important (80%)
  • Divorce/remarriage acceptable in cases of infidelity or desertion (93% affirm this or a more open position)

The Significance of Silence

Question 45 asked whether or not the EFCA commitment to live and minister within the “significance of silence” framework is a strength. 94% of respondents agreed that it was. I have some more thoughts about this “significance of silence” that I’ll save for a future post.

Conclusion

On the whole, I was very encouraged to see the broad responses from my denomination, and I think they line up pretty well with the positions of our local congregation. I’m encouraged by what I see here, and look forward, as the Lord wills, to many more years of being a part of this church.

I never think I'm volunteering for too much stuff...

…and then it all piles up at once and gets really busy.

Help friends move?

Absolutely, I’d love to.

Substitute worship lead while the worship pastor’s gone?

Wouldn’t miss it.

Lead the Tuesday morning Bible study while the senior pastor’s on sabbatical this summer?

You bet! Let’s keep the group going!

Lead kids’ music for our church backyard bible club for 4 nights?

Well, sure.

And then from Saturday morning through Tuesday morning, all of them converge within 72 hours.

I’m not complaining, but I am taking Monday and Tuesday as vacation days at work. I plan to collapse in a state of blessed exhaustion.

NT Wright on the intersection of the Bible, ethics, and doctrine

In a recent interview by Jonathan Merritt on Religion News Service, Anglican bishop NT Wright had this to say about the Bible and how we work out ethics and doctrine (emphasis mine):

…it’s important that we do not reduce the Bible to a collection of true doctrines and right ethics. There are plenty of true doctrines and right ethics there, of course, but they come within the larger thing, which is the story of how the Creator is rescuing and restoring the whole creation, with his rescue and restoration of humans at the heart of it. In other words, it isn’t about “do we allow this or that?” To ask the question that way is already to admit defeat, to think in terms of behavior as a set of quasi-arbitrary, and hence negotiable, rules. We must ask, with Paul, “This new creation God has launched in Jesus—what does it look like, and how can we live well as genuine humans, as both a sign and a means of that renewal?” We need to remind ourselves that the entire biblical sexual ethic is deeply counter-intuitive. All human beings some of the time, and some human beings most of the time, have deep heartfelt longings for kinds of sexual intimacy or gratification (multiple partners, pornography, whatever) which do not reflect the creator’s best intentions for his human creatures, intentions through which new wisdom and flourishing will come to birth. Sexual restraint is mandatory for all, difficult for most, extremely challenging for some. God is gracious and merciful but this never means “so his creational standards don’t really matter after all.”

Such good perspective. I didn’t realize until reading this interview that Wright has a new book out: Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues. Another one to add to my reading pile!

Gentleness and Respect for all - addressing 'the transgender issue'

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. -- 1 Pet 3:15-17, NIV

I promised myself and my readers not too long ago that my theo-rage-blogging days are over. Which means I’ve wrestled with myself now about whether or not to write this post. I’ve come down on the side, though, of writing it, because I think there’s something here to say that isn’t tied to any group or denomination or particular theological persuasion. So here goes.

This is the cover of the latest issue of Time magazine. It features Laverne Cox, a transgender actress best known for starring in the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black”.

“The Transgender Tipping Point”, it declares. “America’s next civil rights frontier.”

I’m not a subscriber to Time, and haven’t been past a newsstand lately, so my first awareness of this cover came from a (re)tweet by Russell Moore (@drmoore) that looked like this:

https://twitter.com/drmoore/status/472105205211750400

Dr. Moore is President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and a not-infrequent commentator on social and political topics. I don’t mean to call him out personally here; his attitude and commentary are likely no different than what I’d hear from many other corners of the evangelical church.

But I’m bothered by the approach. “Are you prepared for what’s next?” implies a significant level of us-against-them, fight-the-culture-war-to-win-it mentality that disrespects transgender people and doesn’t seem to recognize that they are cherished divine image-bearers just as much as we are.

I thought I was reading a little too much into it - afraid of my own biases, as it were - but then I read the stream of replies to Moore’s tweet. Those replies are even more disturbing. Referring to the actress as “it”, as a “fake ‘woman’”. Expressions of disgust ("…permanently lost my appetite.", “want to go into a bubble”). When one person refers to the actress as “her”, another one replies to ‘correct’ the first with “*his”.

To his credit, Dr. Moore’s follow-up tweet linked to a more nuanced position on ’the transgender issue’, as he puts it, which includes the declaration that “As conservative Christians, we do not see transgendered persons as “freaks” to be despised or ridiculed.” Later on he says that “…this also means that we will love and be patient with those who feel alienated from their created identities.”

One hopes that, on reflection, Dr. Moore and the folks who replied to him might recognize that those tweets have every likelihood of being interpreted as alienating and despising rather than loving and patient.

As Christians, we must do better.

In the verse I quoted at the top of this post, the Apostle Peter says that our testimonies of faith must be given with “gentleness and respect”, so that any accusations of bad behavior will be undeserved and slanderous.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have a fully-formed theological position when it comes to transgender issues. This is a topic that will no doubt soon get fuller treatment in the theological world much as homosexuality has over the past decade.

But I do know this: as Christians we should cultivate an approach and reaction to all people that starts with love, care, and concern, not one of disgust and alienation. If we can’t even respect a person enough to address them by their preferred gender, how can we ever hope that they’ll listen to us long enough that we can tell them about God’s love for them?

“But we’re going to lose the culture war!”

Yeah, we are. We probably already have. We’re not called to win it. We’re called to be faithful. The Apostle Peter wasn’t ‘winning the culture war’ in his day, either. Which might be why he followed up the call to gentleness and respect with these words: “For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

May that be the legacy of Christians in this place and time.

Real Transformation happens when?

In light of the whole Tullian Tchividjian / Gospel Coalition dust-up in recent days, Mark Galli has an interesting piece at Christianity Today online titled “Real Transformation Happens When?”. Galli’s thesis will make you do a double-take:

I want to raise one sanctification issue that I don’t see discussed much. I do not doubt the biblical call to holy living (1 Pet. 1:15 being the quintessential text). But after living the Christian life for nearly a half century, I doubt the ability of Christians to make much progress in holiness.

What the what?

But don’t stop there, keep reading.

I look at my own life and marvel at the lack of real transformation after 50 years of effort. To be sure, outwardly I’m more patient, kind, gracious, and so forth. But even after half a century of transformation, my thoughts and motives are a cauldron of evil. Just one small example: When a friend fails to show up on time, I’m outwardly patient and kind, but inwardly I battle judgment and condemnation. Earlier in life, I would have lashed out at him for being tardy, as lack of respect for me among other things. Now I have some self-control as I smile and say, “Not a problem.”

Galli goes on to recognize that while he has undoubtedly improved in some areas, his motivations remain as torn as ever. He also sees patient, kind non-Christians and wonders whether his behavioral improvement is simply the result of maturity and not the Holy Spirit in his life.

Galli’s conclusion:

This is not to say that we are not “being transformed … from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18, NRSV) even now. But it seems to me the greatest transformation is not necessarily in outward virtue, but in increasing levels of self-awareness — awareness of the depth of our sin — and consequently increasing repentance and humility. Not a humility that points to some virtue in our lives and says, “It wasn’t me, it was the Lord working through me,” but the deeper humility that sees the desperately wicked heart and desperately prays daily, “Lord, have mercy.”

There’s plenty worth reading and considering in Galli’s full post, which I highly recommend you go read.

There are a couple of things that seem like omissions - likely intentional on Galli’s part but that are worth mentioning: first, that he’s writing primarily from the perspective of one who has spent a long time in the faith. A more comprehensive look at the topic would surely recognize that the Holy Spirit can and does make dramatic changes toward holiness in the lives of believers, especially in the case of new believers who have long lived for self before coming to Christ.

The second thought is that Galli may be a bit hard on himself in this article. And yet, as he notes in the post, the Apostle Paul himself, near the end of his life, described himself as “the worst of sinners”, writing in Romans 7 that

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing…

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a pastor one day on this topic where I quoted the first lines of Romans 6: “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”. I shook my head regretfully, knowing full well both Paul’s answer to his own rhetorical question, and the fact that I too often fail to measure up.

The pastor’s response was immediate, gracious, and breathtakingly honest: “well, I’ve generally found that to be my experience, yeah.”

I find myself once again incredibly thankful for God’s grace.

Bullet Points for a Thursday - French edition!

It’s Thursday at nearly 7 pm and I’m on the next-to-last day of a quick business trip to France. This is my first visit to France, so my bullet point format seems useful for sharing a few assorted observations after a few days here.

  • Jet lag is aggravated by shifted working hours. At home, I’m an early bird. Up before 5 am, at work before 7, home by 4, asleep by 10. Here work starts around 9, and dinner doesn’t start until at least 8. Last night’s dinner with customers started at 8:45 pm and ended just after midnight. Yummy food, but tough in the morning.
  • I think I could spend a full day exploring the Amsterdam airport before I really got bored. The place is huge. Unfortunately I only have 65-minute layovers there both directions.
  • For business hours being so late, all the shopping around here apparently closes at 5pm sharp. Makes it hard to shop for the family when I’m not here for a weekend. (Sorry in advance, family.)
  • If I were coming here very often, I would need to learn some French.
  • The food has been really good. I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
  • I’ll probably set 3 alarms tonight to make sure that I wake up in time to catch my 6 am flight.
  • I know I’m bigger than the average human, but it’s still a little unnerving when every toilet I sit down on gives off ominous creaking noises as if it were going to fall off the wall.
  • That last bullet probably gave you an unpleasant mental image. Sorry.
  • OK, if I were really sorry I would’ve deleted that bullet.

Tomorrow morning at 6am I leave Toulouse. TLS -> AMS -> ATL -> CID and Lord willing I’m home by 4 pm Central time. That’s a long day, but with a happy end.

That's not me! - an update...

Last month I wrote That’s not me!, in which I lamented an Atlanta-based person using my Gmail address in contact forms and various online profiles, which had the end result of me getting frequent extra emails from car dealers, football teams, and cruise lines.

Yesterday, though, I got a little extra information. After getting another email from an Atlanta-area car dealership, I clicked on the unsubscribe link. The unsubscribe page it took me to included not just the contact email address, but also a contact cell number for texts and a contact mailing address.

So now, in theory, I could text or snail mail this person and let them know that their emails are coming to me. Now to decide if I should do so, and how confusing it might be to try to explain the issue and how I got the person’s cell number in the first place. Hmmmm…..

An app idea especially for Cubs fans

As a Cubs fan I set up my Yahoo sports iPhone app at the beginning of the season to pop up an alert with the final score at the end of each game.

My trouble is that the Cubs are, well, the Cubs. They’re currently 11-20 and 9.5 games back in the NL Central. (And it’s only May 7!) Which means I see a lot more alerts that look like this:

And not nearly enough that look like this:

Which gets kind of depressing, because if the Cubs’ season continues as it’s going right now, I’m going to see a “Cubs Win!” alert only about 55 times this year, and a “Cubs Lose” alert more than 100 times.

So here’s an idea for some enterprising app designer: allow me to select the Cubs as my favorite team, and to get alerts for final scores, but add a flag that only alerts me when the Cubs win. That way every three or four days I get a nice surprise… and I don’t have to deal with the disappointment the rest of the week.

I’d buy an app like that.

OK, this is pretty cool

I know this has been all over the internet already, but I’m going to post it here anyway. It’s a video of a group called Árstíðir singing the 13th-century Icelandic hymn Heyr himna smiður in a German train station. The acoustics… amazing.

This reminds me of a college choir trip when we stopped at the Illinois Memorial at the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi. We sang a hymn in there that reverberated for what seemed like an eternity… such a cool experience.

Somehow, given the choice between lots of voices in big stone buildings made to reverberate and all the microphones and audio equipment we usually use on a Sunday… most of the time I think my preference is for the voices.