The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

I’ve been reading books on writing screen plays, and watching master classes on the same. There is uniform agreement that a good story, a compelling story that invites us in to be part of it, has four characteristics. 1. A character the viewer cares about. 2. who has to reach some kind of goal the viewer understands. 3. The goal must be or become critical, the stakes must be high. 4. Increasingly insurmountable obstacles must come in the way of the character reaching the goal. The drama is driven by our increasing anticipation of success or failure for a character we have come to care about. I’ve taken a couple of shots at conceptualizing screen plays and my friends in the business have said each time: “the stakes aren’t high enough to be interesting.” So I’m back to work. What about the United Methodist Church? We’ve had a lot of drama in the last few years, but a notable lack viewer interest and an even greater lack of those who want to join our story. So I wonder if maybe its becaus...

I was recently involved in a Facebook discussion concerning a quote of Stanley  Hauerwas regarding his  commitment  to pacifism, or  specifically  non-violence.  His quote, particularly in  the  context of his theological understanding of the church, raises for me an  important  evangelistic question:  what is the story the church tells with its life in and before the world? And critically in this case, must it be a story of commitment to non-violence? Must it be a story in which the church witnesses to God’s redemption by its refusal to align itself with the powers and principalities of the world manifest in violence, not merely at play in the national political life, but the underlying value placed on violence and the instrumental use of humanity? Indeed a story of refusing to be entangled with the national political life, to live as "resident aliens" in a nation whose civil  religion  is opposed to ...