Idol

A good definition of "idol" is any thing that takes the place of God in our thinking. We talk about people whose idols are their cars, or success, or house...things.

We all need money. We need it to buy food, or have a place to live. When does money become an idol ? When we cease to think of it as a thing: when we invest it with a spiritual quality against God's place in our spirit: love, for example, or trust. If we ascribe the qualities of a living relation to what is only a thing, we create an idol in our life.

Libertarians: Definition

Libertarians: anarchists lacking the courage of their convictions.

Ayn Rand Again

Ayn Rand is in the news again. Rep. Paul Ryan, author of the 2012 Republican budget, has credited the ideas of that budget to his idol, Ayn Rand. Anyone who has looked at that budget's treatment of the poor can agree.

Chuck Colson, bless his heart, was on top of this several years ago. In a review on a VERY conservative website in 2007, Colson was already warning that in their espousal of Ayn Rand's ideas, "conservatives" were buying into a radically anti-Christian agenda. Colson's warning is worth quoting again.

http://townhall.com/columnists/chuckcolson/2007/10/16/the_legacy_of_ayn_rand/page/full/

"In his new memoir, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan reminds us that author Ayn Rand is still influencing the world. He credits her with turning him into something more than a 'math junkie.'

"Greenspan is not alone. A 1991 Book-of-the-Month Club and Library of Congress survey asked members which book had most influenced their lives. As expected, the Bible finished first. Unexpectedly, Rand’s most famous book, the novel Atlas Shrugged, finished second.

"Fifty years after its publication and 25 years after Rand’s death, Atlas Shrugged is still read everywhere from college campuses to Wall Street. Given its popularity and its impact, Christians ought to be acquainted with Rand’s work and, especially, her worldview.

"As theologian John Piper puts it, Rand’s work manifests a 'complete rejection of a divine or supernatural dimension to reality.' The absence of God causes Rand to get human nature wrong as well.

"In Atlas Shrugged and her other writings, Rand articulated a philosophy she called 'objectivism.' Among other things, objectivism teaches that man’s 'highest value' and 'moral purpose' is his own happiness.

"By 'happiness' Rand meant 'rational self-interest.' For her, 'virtue' consisted of doing what 'secured' your life and well-being.

"Where did that leave altruism and self-sacrifice? As vices. For Rand, altruism and self-sacrifice represented a betrayal of what should be a person’s 'highest values,' that is, his life and well-being. Similarly, justice would be possible only where you never sought for nor granted unearned or undeserved results, 'neither in matter nor in spirit . . .'

"But without altruism and self-sacrifice, how do people relate to one another? Ayn Rand says through exchanges that promote mutual advantage, what she called a 'trade.' In other words, as if each of the parties were businesses, not people.

"Rand’s inversion of biblical norms had predictable results: Scott Ryan, who wrote a book on Rand’s philosophy, called objectivism a 'psychologically totalitarian personality cult that allowed Rand . . . to exercise personal power over [her] unwitting victims.' He cites, for example, the way she manipulated 'her own unemployed and dependent husband' to get him to agree for her to have 'an adulterous sexual affair.'

"We’re not talking here about personal flaws or merely human weaknesses. As Ryan puts it, these abuses are 'demonstrably connected to Rand’s own "philosophical" premises'—that is, her worldview.

"Rand and her followers, you see, lived in a way consistent with her worldview. But you can hardly regard a philosophy that exalts selfishness and condemns altruism as the basis for a good society.

"That’s why it is so important for us as Christians to understand our Christian worldview and to be able to contend for it, because it gets God right, and it gets human nature right, as well. You can find that worldview in the one book that out-ranked Atlas Shrugged."

Disposable Jesus

Stephen Prothero published a thoughtful blog on our culture's "disposable Jesus."

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/11/my-take-poll-on-bin-ladens-death-reveals-a-disposable-jesus/?hpt=C2

One of his examples is the "Golden Rule:" most Americans say they believe we should treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves (though that's not just a Christian teaching). Even when specifically applied, a small majority agreed that we should not do anything to enemies that we would not want done to American soldiers.

But less than half of white evangelicals agreed to that belief. "In other words," observes Prothero, for a majority of white evangelicals, "when Jesus said, 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets' (Matthew 7:12), He didn’t really mean 'everything.' He thought there should be an exception in the case of waterboarding your enemies."

This is what Prothero calls our "disposable Jesus:" the operative attitude that Jesus is not so much the sovereign Head of the Church as a useful pawn for OUR opinions...and can be ignored when He contradicts them. I'd add that this attitude also manifests itself in the treatment of truth (who Jesus said He IS), particularly among followers of the politicized Church.

I have limited interest in heresy-hunting, and the conspiracy-mindedness that goes with it. Heresies and conspiracies are both "out there." But time spent searching them out seems to me a complete waste, and conspiracy-mindedness is forbidden to us (Isaiah 8). I doubt heresies and conspiracies, even those which are real (most aren't), mislead and destroy anywhere near as many Christians as does "disposable Jesus" thinking.

It's again a question of thinking in Kingdom terms. In the Kingdom, the King's word is law.

Amen !!

Wisdom, well-stated

"All Things Considered" today read a letter from a listener who enjoyed a recent news-story.

The writer said he was a gun-owning Libertarian, but praised N.P.R. for its thorough and intelligent coverage of news. He admitted he often disagreed with what he called N.P.R.'s "editorial policies:" but, he ended, "nobody learns anything in an echo-chamber."

Ayn Rand again

I've talked before about the demonic "philosophy" of Ayn Rand, and her pervasive influence on the "conservative" movement.

It seems a movie of one of her books was released...during Holy Week !!...and someone sent me a review. The reviewer considers the movie pretty awful. He attributes that to the fact that it (like the book it's based on) is little more than a screed for Rand's "philosophy:" which makes it fair game for his comments.

Keep in mind, these are excerpts from a secular movie-review, in what some like to call "the liberal media." Kudos to Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post.

"None of the characters expresses a hint of sympathetic human emotion -- which is precisely the point. Rand's novels are vehicles for a system of thought known as Objectivism. Rand developed this philosophy at the length of Tolstoy, with the intellectual pretensions of Hegel, but it can be summarized on a napkin.

Reason is everything. Religion is a fraud. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is a crime against human excellence. Self-sacrifice is weakness. Weakness is contemptible.

'The Objectivist ethics, in essence,' said Rand, 'hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.'...

Rand cherished a particular disdain for Christianity. The cross, she said, is 'the symbol of the sacrifice of the ideal to the nonideal. ... It is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used. That is torture.'...

Reaction to Rand draws a line in political theory. Some believe with Rand that all government is coercion and theft — the tearing down of the strong for the benefit of the undeserving. Others believe that government has a limited but noble role in helping the most vulnerable in society — not motivated by egalitarianism, which is destructive, but by compassion, which is human. And some root this duty in God’s particular concern for the vulnerable and undeserving, which eventually includes us all. This is the message of Easter, and it is inconsistent with the gospel of Rand."

I'm convinced again that reality (in a sense, God's Maker's-mark on creation) doesn't conform to our prejudices. A secular movie-review, in the so-called "liberal media," propounds the gospel. And Christians continue to ally themselves with those who follow "doctrines of demons."

Jesus warned us to "...be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16) Maybe He was hinting that reality seldom operates in accordance with our caricature worldviews.

Same Spirit

It was announced last night that Osama Bin Laden has been killed by American military forces.

The news this morning showed jubilant crowds in downtown Manhattan, outside the White House, and even in towns near me, cheering, chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A.," and singing the national anthem.

I remember the appalling scenes of Islamic crowds on 9/11 cheering and burning American flags at the news that thousands had been killed in the World Trade Center's destruction. But of course, we all know that satan's spirit of murder and revenge are operative in Islam.

So what do we say at our supposedly-"Christian" nation's celebrations today ? Jesus says our Father "is not willing that any...should perish." (Matthew 18:14) Are American celebrants at Ground Zero today manifesting God's Spirit; or are their hearts led by the same spirit as Moslem celebrants on 9/11 ?

May God forgive us !! May our country repent and follow God !!

salvationism

I can't remember what book it was: some Christian best-seller the class had decided to study: and I admit I was a reluctant participant. I prefer a Sunday School class that studies the Bible, but try not to be unpleasant about it.

But God hit me when I read the first sentence: "It's not all about you." I don't remember the title of the book, its author, or anything else the book said. But that sentence was exactly what God wanted me to hear: it remains written on my heart.

The lesson I took from that is that it's all about God. Christianity that's about me is no Christianity at all.

One place I notice it sharply is in our Sunday hymns. So many of the Nineteenth Century hymns are about my need, my joy at finding God, my struggles with faith, my trials in this world. Wallowing in my own sentimental self-centeredness I find contrary to the spirit of WORSHIP. When God's merely an adjunct of my emotional life, it's really all about me.

I grew up in a church that emphasized above all else salvationism...that the first priority of Christianity is our "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." We sang the dreadful same Nineteenth Century hymns every week, and there was an altar-call after every sermon. Its centerpiece was that one-time experience of going forward, then being baptized. The pressure to "be saved" was relentless, so I gave in.

After that, living the Christian life was primarily being in the pews for all the following weekly sermons on the need to be saved. Now that I was, it seemed Christianity had nothing further worth hearing: I abandoned (what I thought was) Christianity to try some things that were more interesting.

God was gracious to call me back, and showed me Christianity is vastly MORE than "being saved." Nobody starts this (I'd have to call it) adventure with Him unless they take the first step...but it is a first step, only a beginning. My experience is that we can't go any farther (and I'd question whether even that first step is meaningful) in the mindset that "it's all about me."

Salvationism can very much tend to that thinking. I'm especially suspicious when "being saved" is the first priority of a church, because that's not God's first priority. His purpose in all creation is that He rule, and that He be glorified. He's gracious to make those who love Him part of His rule and glory: to make us even HEIRS with His Own Son. We miss it all...God, His purpose, His rule, His grace, His glory...if we continue in the thinking that "it's all about me."

Let us repent not just our sins, but our self-centeredness. Let us cast that idol out of the temple and destroy it completely, "that the King of Glory may come in." (Psalms 24:7)

Root Causes

It always takes me a while to work through problems, to their root. This one has taken even longer than usual; but I may have reached some kind of "ultimate cause" for the Church' waywardness. Perhaps our foolish assumptions have made us prey to deceivers.

Politicians are not our friends. Their purpose is not the Church' purpose, and their methods are not our methods. Their criteria is not our criteria, and their kingdom is not God's Kingdom. If politicians pretend to to be on our "side," it is to use us to their purposes.

This is the way of politicians in every age, in every nation. This is most dangerously true of politicians who profess to be one of us, and style themselves the "party of God." Let the American Church therefore be wise, and beware. Let the American Church follow her Head more closely, and shun the deceivers.

No Celebration

On this day 150 years ago, the Civil War began when secessionists fired on a U.S. Army fort. When it was over, 25% of southern men were dead, southern farms, mansions, and major cities were burned to the ground, and the south's economy was wrecked.

The Union lost more dead than the south: the wounded, maimed, orphaned and widowed on both sides probably totalled in the millions. The war changed America in profound ways, and repercussions of the human costs continue to this day in many of our family stories.

It would be blindly foolish to "celebrate" the day: but history's value is that we remember, and learn from past mistakes. Today I remember that the violent spirit of rebellion, of divisiveness, partisanship, and faction is still among us: that "those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21): and that the consequences of operating in that spirit are disastrous even in this world.