Jeremy's World
Do what you like because you like it. Be who you are with no apologies.
6
Ok, I kind of did. My last blog entry also posted to my Facebook profile. In addition to the insightful comments here, it sparked quite the heated debate there! But you know what? That’s awesome (even though it got out of hand). It means people are passionate about their beliefs. And, that’s a good thing for the things that really matter.
I have a lot of replies to send to folks and will try to do that soon. In the mean time (since I’m horrible about writing) there are a few common themes to respond to though:
You just need to find a good church
That’s a natural reaction. Jenn and I have been burned by “bad churches” before, and the natural response to someone leaving a church is that it must be a bad church or we just aren’t being “fed.” That isn’t the case here. Connections Church is amazing. It is the most accepting and community-oriented church I’ve ever experienced. Sure, it has its issues, but every organization, church or otherwise, does. In sum though, it’s an amazing place for Christians or for people considering Christianity as the answer to life’s questions. If that’s you and you’re in the Triangle-area, check out Connections sometime. The pastor, Fred Turner, is one of the most real, genuine, and honest people I know. I fully expect (and hope!) to maintain that friendship even though we don’t see each other on Sundays. And, for the sake of people choosing the Christian path, I hope Connections continues to thrive.
The “find a good church” comment misses my point. Christian churches, at least those I’ve experienced, by definition base their beliefs solely on Biblical scripture as the word of God. There are varieties there in terms of inspired vs. direct word of God, literal or figurative interpretation, etc. But at the core, the Bible defines the tradition. And, the New Testament teaches us how to live based on God revealing himself through the person of Jesus. That is the issue I have, not the quality of the church or the inherent flaws of human organizations.
Jennifer and I recently decided to leave our church. This was a very tough decision because we had been there since the church started, the pastor is an amazing teacher and great guy, and many (most?) of our very favorite people attend there and/or are part of the leadership team. So why leave?
This decision was primarily a spiritual decision for me. Yes, there was an incident in church one Sunday that I wasn’t happy about, but that isn’t why we left. That was just the final straw. The bigger reason was an overarching questioning of Christianity, how it is plays out today, its positioning in the world, and whether or not I agree with its basic tenants. That’s kind of big stuff. What do I mean?
Saw this on fark.com one time and it cracked me up. I’ll probably burn in hell for posting it and it may provide another reason to run me out of my church. But I did LOL…
Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree…yeah, makes perfect sense.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt. Ever heard of it? It tends to creep in with me during certain seasons of, well, fear, uncertainty or doubt. Right now that FUD for me is my professional life. My career is in flux right now and that can be pretty scary. I thought I would have found the right position by now but I haven’t. FUD. “Did I really screw up leaving my last position in search of a good fit?” “Will I find a better fit in this market?” “What if there’s a gap…How will I pay the mortgage and feed my family?” FUD.
But, that FUD seems to permeate other parts of my life with me. If I’m facing it in one area, for some reason I begin questioning things even more. God, faith, church, religion in general are usually the victims.
My latest doubt revolves around Biblical accuracy (again) and the nature of God (again). I was watching a show on History International the other day covering historical Egypt. They were finding and exhuming corpses that were reliably dated as being from around 3000 BC. That’s certainly possible, even for Biblical literalists who scoff at the millions-of-years determinations by carbon dating. So, these Egyptian people died in the middle of regular Old Testament times, right? Here’s the rub…They mentioned one who died at “about 52 years of age, a relatively advanced age for that time.” Contrast that with Biblical accounts of people living hundreds of years right around the corner from Egypt? Smells funny to me. And, the shorter lifespan version is more logical to me, and there is archeological proof. Not so much with stories about Methuselah. Why trust the Bible?
The nature of God…We’re beginning a new series this week at church called “Prayer (a quick-start guide). In Christian circles (or other faiths, I imagine) I constantly hear, “I’ll pray for you about X” and “Prayer really is a powerful thing.” I’m hearing that a lot with my job hunt and also with some potential family matters we are facing. But does that matter? I mean, is the nature of God such that he will make up his mind and act based on what people pray about? Is he sitting there saying, “I know JD is looking for a job that’s the right fit…I’ll point him to it if enough people pray for it.” Or, “I’d show JD the path to the right job but I have to hear the words from him.” Does that sound like an all-knowing, all-powerful God to you?
I’m not buying it. If God is an active participant in our lives (and I’m not convinced he is), is he really swayed by what we say? Is thinking it the same as saying it? Will he only act in our best interests if we ask him for it? But I thought God always acts according to “his will.” So…my prayers wouldn’t really impact anything if he’s going to act in his will anyway, right? If that’s the case, then what’s the point of prayer?
I’ll let y’all know if they run me out of my church. 
Wouldn’t life be much simpler if we just accepted everything we have been taught and didn’t ask questions? Ah, but no. If you’ve read my blog you’ve seen that in addition to ramblings about music and sports, I have been periodically writing about my spiritual journey.
I met a cool guy last week who replied to my “Christian *In*clusivity” post with some interesting thoughts. One in particular was that my line of thinking reminded him of the faith in which he was raised: Baha’i.
I had read a bit about Baha’i once before and it seemed pretty compelling. But, having come out of Islam, well, my Christian background won over and I rejected it outright because of that. Silly, but true (and probably WAY more common than you would think). But, it’s continued to gnaw at me a bit and I’ve been reading some more. The basic principles & beliefs include:
- Unity in God (a monotheistic God)
- Unity of Religion
- Unity of humankind
- Gender equality
- Elimination of all forms of prejudice
- World peace (duh)
- Harmony of religion and science
- Independent investigation of truth
- Universal compulsory education
- Universal auxiliary language
- Obedience to government and non-involvement in partisan politics
- Elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty
Like anything, I suppose some items may resonate better than others, and this is no exception for me. I’m not big on having to learn some new universal language, for example, nor do I think that’s necessary for effective faith communication. But at the heart of things, I see 3 basic repeating themes, all of which I can get behind: Unity, Equality, and Universality (is that a word?). Who can argue with that?
Despite identifying as a Christian for most of my life, there are a few questions about faith, God and Christianity that I don’t have good answers for. As a kid and young adult, “God is bigger than us so we can’t always understand him” was an adequate response. For the skeptic in me, that is weak and insufficient.
I can manage with the argument of not being able to prove God exists. I’ve come to terms with the whole “Jesus-is-the-only-way” thing (I’ve written about that before here and here). But this is still troubling, and it isn’t a new question. Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (not David Hume, who I originally attributed this to) summed up the question very well with:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
I can’t answer that well. Ugh.
Both of you who read my blog know that I play drums in my church worship team. I enjoy it and sometimes sing (though I drum better than I sing which isn’t saying much). I was recently made aware of some feedback on our music.
"The band is really great. But all you do are songs written in the 90′s."
Certainly that can’t be true, right? It’s not really true. We do a lot of Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, etc. stuff written in the early 2000′s. But I guess because it’s done so much it just feels old? Well, and of course those are mixed in with the "Trading My Sorrows" and "Better is One Day" classics.
So last night I stayed up scouring for good worship music written within the last couple of years. That proved to be a bit of a waste of time. See, there is a big difference in "good Christian music" and "good worship music." So much of what I found (and listen to) like Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp, Building 429, Kutless, etc. have some really great songs. But, they just aren’t worship songs. Performance? Yes. Worship? No.
Sadly it seems that good worship music generally has repetitive sections and few, repeated phrases so that they are "easy" to sing. A lot of Hillsong, Matt Redman and other "usuals" are exactly that. So what is a worship team looking for something fresh, new and contemporary to do?
Interestingly, nobody seems to have a good answer. There are a few gems that will come out (and as mentioned above, "all in the 90′s" is an exaggeration) but for the most part, churches who actually report to CCLI on what they are using in church are doing "the usuals." (No, the irony of me swiping the CCLI logo from their website without express, written consent is not lost on me)
The February top 25:
- How Great Is Our God
- Blessed Be Your Name
- Here I Am To Worship
- Open The Eyes Of My Hear…
- Shout To The Lord
- Holy Is The Lord
- You Are My King
- Forever
- Lord I Lift Your Name On…
- Come Now Is The Time To …
- God Of Wonders
- Everlasting God
- You Are My All In All
- We Fall Down
- The Heart Of Worship
- You’re Worthy Of My Praise
- Breathe
- Trading My Sorrows
- Beautiful One
- In Christ Alone
- I Give You My Heart
- Days Of Elijah
- Friend Of God
- Better Is One Day
- Above All
Yep. "The usuals." (and I’m too lazy to link them all for your listening pleasure)
That said, Jennifer’s insight last night was, "Yeah, we’re used to them, but that’s part of what makes them good worship songs. I want to be able to close my eyes and know the words or be able to catch on the words after one or two times through."
Is familiarity the enemy of creativity? Or, is it simply a matter of preference?
I alluded before to some of my questions surrounding Christianity. Specifically, the exclusive nature of it (the only way to salvation) and the circular reasoning behind citing Biblical explanations as truth weigh on me. Why do people who identify themselves as Christians think they are the only ones on the right path and everyone else is wrong?!
I took a “History of Christianity” course as an elective when I was in college. I went to a secular state university and was the biggest voice of evangelical Christianity in the room. At the time, it used to bug the crap out of me how critical people were about Christianity (and even Christians themselves). I fought them tooth and nail on it, citing Biblical reference along the way…Especially those feminist theologians in the class! They were really out there! I earned the A, but I also took a lot of “things that make me go ‘hmm’” from it.
In that course we read books by a guy named Marcus Borg (among others). At the time I viewed him as a heretic. Who can call themselves a Christian while holding such a counter-populist view?! As I’ve gotten older (and I guess more open to questioning things), I find myself relating more to Borg’s line of thinking. The Bible scholars I know kind of poo-poo Borg because he’s a bit old school and not fresh or on the “cutting edge” of critical Biblical scholarship. But, I am actually finding some peace in some of his thinking…Or, my own expansion and definitions based on Borg’s thinking.
Metaphorical Jesus.
Some who know me know that I’ve recently alluded to some “tiger” questions regarding my affiliation with and identification as a Christian. I won’t go into details here – yet – but I want to toss something out there. If, for some reason, someone picks up and sees my blog, maybe someone will respond.
- Going back to Abraham, the Jewish race has claimed to be the “chosen people.” Christianity came out of that tradition. Why should we accept that the Jewish people are/were any more “chosen” than anyone else? Because the Bible says so? So a set of books written by Jews and for Jews, giving the history of the Jewish people, say that Jews are the chosen people of God and therefore can assert ownership of land and privilege? That seems oddly self-serving and not a very good argument, really.
- The New Testament says that Jesus is the only way to the Father. Does it really make sense that one person on the planet for 30-ish years is the only way we can be redeemed? The instruction is to “spread the gospel to all the world” yet until 1492 everyone thought the world was flat! “All the world” consisted of the Roman Empire. So, what of all the people in all the areas outside the Roman Empire who a. never experienced Jesus and b. would not be reached by Jesus followers for some 1,500 years? Are they just out of luck?
- Estimates are that the population of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus was about 56 million. The total world population at the time is estimated to be about 170 million with one source estimating as high as 300 million. Would the God who created all of that really choose to redeem all of that creation by only exposing 33% – at best – of his creation to His son and saying “it’s up to you to tell everyone else?”
- Following on the population point…estimates of land area of the Roman Empire are about 2.2 million square miles. The area of land on the planet is estimated to be about 57.3 million square miles. So, even if those directly exposed to Jesus reached the entire Roman Empire, the salvation of the world is dependent on proselytizing the inhabitants of less than 4% of the land God created?
- Don’t even get me started on the rest of the solar system, universe, additional universes, etc. If it’s “all about us,” what’s the point of those other things? Ok, I can see how the sun, for example, is necessary to sustain life on earth. Is Jupiter? Are all the stars needed? Why do we believe we are the center of God’s creation universe?
I’m not claiming any of these questions are new or original. I’m not the first to ask them, and I’m too lazy to look up sources for things on my blog. But, these are things that are really, really bothering me, especially at a time when people on the planet are so polarized based on religion. It just doesn’t make sense.
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