I thought I would take a minute to write a short post here, before I journey into the setting up of my new computer ( which could go simply and easily or could become a much longer detour away from blogging). This is the turn of the year, and while I didn't want to do too much in the way of retrospectives, there are some signposts of where things are going for Christians in 2008 here in the USA, and how that might impact Evangelical Christians.
Not Politics As Usual
A change we saw beginning last year, and deepening in this campaign year is the change of heart Christians have towards the idea of being a "Christian Coalition". Many of us have it woven into our DNA to be ready to defend our freedom and especially to use our rights as citizens to preserve what we believe should be the fabric of our nation: moral conviction and integrity; however, we are changing in the means to accomplish that. There is a lot of disillusionment with the power of the political process to produce good results in society.If we would take the opportunity in this change of heart and move as a group towards investing all that freed-up political energy towards ministering through our churches we might see some real progress. If we simply sour on participation in the greater society as a whole, I think the missed opportunity will be tragic.This is not a call to less political participation, which I personally think is vital, but for those who have buried the political tomahawk it is a plea to not let your "hands hang down". Or your voices go quiet. There was an undue emphasis on what politically allied efforts would achieve, and some naiveté concerning the fact that politicians serve their political career first oftentimes. Which explains why we still have legislated, unmodified, abortion rights in this country.
Women in the Church
As seen in posts on this blog, but also in our churches and society as a whole, the issue of this topic is not something that is going to go away and be quiet. Keeping the conversation civil, we will still need to work on our view of women and their roles in society and the Church.We have a deep schism in society concerning women, their roles, and image, and it is one that is causing problems for those who try to bring synthesis of the conflicting factors. i.e. Britney Spears, once a little girls idol and aspiration, now breaking on the shoals of her celebrity status. The good girl/bad girl roles are mixed, separated, and remixed... and the same happens with all good and bad roles in our pop culture. Look at the many examples of spiritual models that you see in popular TV shows, movies, and books. The same mix, separation, and remix. Like what happened to old fashioned evil Vampires? Just look at the legacy of Buffy in the now new "Moonlight" ( which I like watching ,btw, intriguing plots and twists). What is said about evil, good, roles, and spiritual things such as eternity, eternal destinations, salvation, and other such topics? All is presented with so much reversal and so much schism in the thinking that can't be synthesized, it can't be brought into a form of cohesive thinking. This affects the ideas of what constitutes a meaningful and good direction for a woman's life... proven in the characters they play, and sometimes try to live out
This is what our culture is saying..
It essentially reduces down to perceiving women in the old way of 'lesser being' underneath the modern lip-service to the image of feminism. Keeping the image of a woman who has all choices, possibilities, and morals capable of reaching a happy, successful life, but all the while keeping her a weak and spineless victim of her lusts and circumstances. Romanticism à la bête noire, I'd call it. Those are two very different circumstances of character, with two completely different outcomes; but you wouldn't know it from what is presented on a daily basis. There is a "road not taken" and it does "make all the difference". The doublemindedness on moral issues affects women, and it also affects many other of society's issues, as well.
Who is raising the questions right now? Who is asking whether a woman can have it all...like a few voices were a decade ago? Who is asking whether morals make a difference in the character of a woman and how her life turns out? Where is the lesson of Citizen Kane for modern America and for women? Where is the reality check?
Will Christian women take the forefront of tackling the hard questions concerning women's roles? Or simply parrot the usual stereotypes?
Our culture does not have the answers, and can't give them; we do, but will we choose to define them and unapologetically offer them?
The Need For Separation
I recently saw something that gave me pause. It was a suggestion that businesses hire intercessors to pray for their prosperity. That is so wrong on so many levels. I understood how the person got to that... but it is so out of sync with the gospel and example of Jesus Christ that it made me realize we must, in this coming year and those beyond, separate from the goals and values of "this world". Some serious misdirection is taking place, and if we don't take the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and life lived applied to that, we are in for some severe deception as a group. We have swallowed the celebrity worship of our culture and made high places in our churches. It is time for them to come down, lest we fall with them... because friends, eventually they will fall. They will fall.Separation is not the old idea of running away and hiding in some cave, but the determination of a pure mind. Purging ourselves of the toxic things which we have accepted as "just part of life". The gospel gives an overview of this, but I believe we need to have a personal dedication to refining our own thoughts and lifestyles. It is going to look different according to the individuals, families, and Church groups, but all are a separation from the world that results in more closeness to God. This is what we will have to strive for. We strive. We try. And God will meet us and show us how to achieve our potential in Him.
That is what I see as a general trend in what the Church [us] must leave behind, and what is ahead for us. Honesty, circumspection, change in direction.
