The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

There is an utterly silent but totally effective power by which alone a nation finds redemption. Two Washington Post editorials on October 29th, one by Dana Milbank and one by Huge Hewitt nicely capture the dilemma currently at the heart of our nation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/?nid=top_nav_opinions&utm_term=.890704dbf1fe. On one hand there is surely a link between accepting anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and violence against Jews. On the other hand it isn't a strict causal link. America is full of anti-Semites. I know quite a few. But they would never murder anyone. And America is full of haters - and again at least some appear on my Facebook pages. But they aren't mass murderers. I know lots of people that deplore Ted Cruz, I'm one of them, but I came into the same room I'd just ignore him. (This is best with any politician. Their egos feed on notoriety, so calling attention to them, even making their lives miserable, just throws gasoline on the fi...

Opening and Closing Remarks to the First DFW Summit on Religious Freedom We live in society more diverse and complex than was imagined by the founders of the United States . And this isn’t just a matter of demographics over the entire nation. We each personally experience this diversity and complexity in what appear to be ever accelerating forms. Moreover this experience is becoming a global human experience. Almost no one in the world lives in a monoculture any more. It's worth thinking about this diversity as it is manifest in the public spaces in the United States. First there is greater ethnic diversity than ever, and it is more and more evident in the public space.  There is more religious diversity than ever, and it is more and more evident in our shared public spaces.  There is more ideological diversity that we have known, with the traditional binary of conservative and liberal being fragmented into different groupings that only partially claim or own the legacy of tho...

Will be different from Christian faith in the recent past. Or for that matter During Wesley’s time, or Luther’s time, or in the time of Paul and Silas. No matter how one defines it,  faith it is a human experience , and like all human experiences is shaped by culture. How it  feels  to have faith, and the modes through which we become faithful are different for contemporary Americans than the were for past generations of Americans, because our cultural has changed. And is changing. The changes are not only generational. Depending on one’s social location they may have happened far earlier or later. When I was child my father was completing a PhD in a major university. And we were in a family of educators at a university level. We went to a Methodist church full of university people. Yes, we lived in the South.  But my culture was far different from some of my later friends who were raised in small rural towns and cites. So while cultural shifts are most obvious betwe...

In a recent editorial in Good News Magazine Rob Renfroe  confesses that he is confounded by the fact that the majority of  UM bishops favor the “One Church Plan.” ( https://goodnewsmag.org/2018/09/september-editorial/ )   He professes to comprehend progressives who want same-sex marriage and ordination of LBGTQ persons to be universally allowed in the UMC. After all, they are simply insisting, like traditionalists, that their interpretation of scripture be worked out in the governing of the church. What confounds him is bishops who could accept both a traditional and a progressive position in the same denomination.  And he suspects that this is because the bishops don’t take seriously enough how committed the traditionalists are to their understanding of God’s order for human sexual relations. He feels misunderstood, which is the way we all feel when someone disagrees with us.  Renfroe is not alone in being confounded. Progressives are often equally confoun...

Flash: UN climate scientists warn of dire consequences as average temperatures rise. Flash: unemployment declines but the number of working poor increases as does income  inequality. Flash: 10’s of millions to be unemployed as they are replaced by smart machines in the next few decades. Flash: increasing numbers of refugees are on the move and permenantly displaced by war, famine, gang violence, and job loss.  Any more? Just read your local newsfeed. But you know what? We Americans are capable of solving these problems, especially those which harm those most at risk and most afflicted. As a friend of mine noted, there are no natural disasters, only natural events paired with human folly, incapacity, or inaction. And we are better than folly, incapacity, and inaction. The the effects of climate change are within our capacity to address, as is limiting the human contribution to it, so only folly or inaction will turn them into disasters. Humans have dealt for centuries with risi...

The most important story of humanity up to the present day has been the story of socialization; humans creating ever larger and more complex societies.  Social anthropologists, historians, psychologists, sociologists, and economists may study this process from many perspectives, but the underlying object of study is the same: the long and continuing emergence of the humans as a social creatures in the widest sense. The emergence of humanity . There is another perspective, however, one that emerges in the modern era and is closely linked to the self-understandings of modern humans. This perspective understands humans primarily in terms of  production and consumption  of things .  Humans are tool makers, makers of art, makers of ritual, and builders of villages, towns, and cities. And they are consumers of the same. This focus on production and consumption can lead us to forget that production initially served only one human purpose: the creation of societies. The earl...

I am thinking about writing a book. Based on what I’ve seen on the shelves I have all the qualifications. My father died when I was young. I have survived serious cancer, emergency surgery in a foreign land, a serious heart and a sometimes fatal lung condition. I have been kicked out of one country for my missionary work.  I have been unjustly fired in another country.  I have abused my power and I have been abused by those in power. I've received many rejection letters and still published books. I’ve fought fat and lost weight. I have many plaques from civic organizations in case anyone needs hardwood and metal plates for some kind of small craft project. I have an office suite. I have a "Dr." in front of my name and students mistakenly call me “professor.” And I have a great, if entirely misleading, job title. I still receive residuals from my appearances in a prime time television show. I’ve traveled worldwide, and lived overseas for decades. For resume purposes I coul...

This weekend I was in a different city, and spent my usual time walking in a mall, because of rain. The community I encountered was ethnically diverse, and as is often the case in malls, represented a fair cross section of class, physical ability, and even degrees and types of aging. When you have a Target, a Nordstroms, and a movie theater opposite a major hospital complex all kinds of people are there. All kinds of very normal people. People like all the people I meet on the university campus where I work, at the church where I worship, and the boat club where I waste my time. Or engage in worthwhile recreation as you wish. I didn’t meet a single freak. I don’t think I’ve ever met a freak. But when I turn on the TV, or read the Washington Post, or the Dallas Morning News, or look at Facebook I see freaks. Pop-eyed men and women with contorted faces. Red-faced bawlers, robo-cops with steel covered faces, bizarre avatars, shadows branded by political tattoos, distorted limbs carrying h...