 | You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
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Monday, May 28, 2007
In the Spirit of Not Being Theologically Ambiguous...
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Tragedy of Jerry Falwell
I've been mulling over Falwell's death for the past week now. I think he had and enormous amount of zeal, passion, courage, and vision. I also think that he used those gifts to create a monster. Overall, Falwell was a tragic figure, in that, he could have created a movement that truly was a moral majority, and instead created an image of Christianity that much of the country has come to fear and hate. Because of Falwell I grew up believing that being a Christian also met voting Republican (and no, I don't conversely believe that being a Christian now means voting Democrat). And even more dangerously, because of Falwell I grew up believing that being a Christian meant being pro-American. While I don't think Falwell hated gays, his rhetoric about their effects on the family, and his battle against their rights, didn't exactly foster a loving and accepting posture among Christians towards homosexuals. On abortion, Falwell did much for single, unwed mothers, and promoted adoption as an option. But I think leading Christians into the endless screaming match that is the Pro life - Pro choice debate, and trying to overturn Roe v Wade has been an exercise in futility, and has created resentment and division rather than common ground and solutions.
I have mostly been pondering one question. Was it Falwell's marrying of Christianity and politics that was the problem, or was it marrying bad theology with conservative political ideology? I've been reading Greg Boyd's website and he would say that there needs to be a firm boundary between the Kingdom of God and politics. While I know Boyd isn't oppose to Christians being involved in politics, I haven't read enough of his stuff to know exactly how he thinks Christianity should influence politics. On the other hand Jim Wallis has been accused of being the leader of the "Religious Left." While I'm a big fan of Wallis, and I know he doesn't seek to be the Antifalwell, sometimes I do get leery about his close ties with the Democratic party. All I know is that the Gospel is political, but I'm still working through how I think Christians should engage in the political sphere. What I do know is that Falwell has taught us what not to do. I'll end a couple quotes I've come across in some articles I've read on Falwell's passing.
From Jim Wallis: "Ralph Reed said that Jerry Falwell presided over the “marriage ceremony” between religious fundamentalists and the Republican Party. That’s still a concern about the Religious Right for many of us, and should be a warning for the relationship of any so-called religious left with the Democrats. But perhaps in the overly partisan mistakes that Jerry Falwell made - and actually pioneered - we can all be instructed in how to forge a faith that is principled but not ideological, political but not partisan, engaged but not used. "
This quote from Time, I think, nails it.
From Time: "His great American invention was not the marriage of religion and politics... It was that he married political friends with religious enemies in the pursuit of a common goal. Falwell, who died on May 15th, didn't care that Jimmy Carter was a Bible-believing Baptist if he still had the soul of a Democrat or that Ronald Reagan was a divorced cinemactor, as long as he was a kindred political spirit... Falwell founded the Moral Majority on the argument that fundamentalist Christians, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Catholics and Mormons had so much in common politically that they should overlook their theological differences."
I have mostly been pondering one question. Was it Falwell's marrying of Christianity and politics that was the problem, or was it marrying bad theology with conservative political ideology? I've been reading Greg Boyd's website and he would say that there needs to be a firm boundary between the Kingdom of God and politics. While I know Boyd isn't oppose to Christians being involved in politics, I haven't read enough of his stuff to know exactly how he thinks Christianity should influence politics. On the other hand Jim Wallis has been accused of being the leader of the "Religious Left." While I'm a big fan of Wallis, and I know he doesn't seek to be the Antifalwell, sometimes I do get leery about his close ties with the Democratic party. All I know is that the Gospel is political, but I'm still working through how I think Christians should engage in the political sphere. What I do know is that Falwell has taught us what not to do. I'll end a couple quotes I've come across in some articles I've read on Falwell's passing.
From Jim Wallis: "Ralph Reed said that Jerry Falwell presided over the “marriage ceremony” between religious fundamentalists and the Republican Party. That’s still a concern about the Religious Right for many of us, and should be a warning for the relationship of any so-called religious left with the Democrats. But perhaps in the overly partisan mistakes that Jerry Falwell made - and actually pioneered - we can all be instructed in how to forge a faith that is principled but not ideological, political but not partisan, engaged but not used. "
This quote from Time, I think, nails it.
From Time: "His great American invention was not the marriage of religion and politics... It was that he married political friends with religious enemies in the pursuit of a common goal. Falwell, who died on May 15th, didn't care that Jimmy Carter was a Bible-believing Baptist if he still had the soul of a Democrat or that Ronald Reagan was a divorced cinemactor, as long as he was a kindred political spirit... Falwell founded the Moral Majority on the argument that fundamentalist Christians, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Catholics and Mormons had so much in common politically that they should overlook their theological differences."
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