In Defense of Thomas Kinkade

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Matt

First, let me make it clear that I am not defending Thomas Kinkade’s artistic talent or sensibilities.  I am neither an art critic nor an art conisseur, and am entirely unqualified to make such a defense if, indeed, one is justified.  This doesn’t bother me too much because even though I like and want to appreciate art, I have a rather low opinion of art critics and the art world in general based on almost exclusively hearing silly nonsense from that quarter.  Now, because I do want to appreciate “real” art, I myself dislike Christian industrial art.  This is because I dislike industrial art as such and don’t want it associated with Christianity.  But frankly, when Christians join up with art critics in condemnations of Kinkade, it reminds me of the second-least popular kid in school joining others in making fun of the least popular kid in school.  For such children, it’s a rare pleasure to be able to dismiss others as inferior, and though they themselves regularly suffer from such dismissal, their participation does let them feel like the popular kids for a brief moment.  Maybe the critics’ motivations are pure–I have no way of knowing one way or another–but that is the impression I get from these pile-on moments.

What I do want to defend the late Mr. Kinkade against specifically is a theological charge that I see cropping up:  that by imagining and painting a world without a Fall, he is rejecting grace, teaching works righteousness, and instructing us that all we and the world need is a little sprucing up.  Most recently, this post by Daniel Siedell on the subject has been making the rounds and receiving plenty of praise as it goes.

I find it quite instructive that in Scripture, God provides the very thing Kinkade attempted to provide in his own work–regardless of how well or poorly he carried it out.  A perusal of both Old and New Testament (especially the Prophets and Revelation) reveals numerous expressions of an unfallen world that make use of images from this one.  You see this at the beginning of Genesis, obviously.  But lest anyone see that as mere historical fact, you routinely see the theme of a new creation throughout scripture–a creation in which sin has no place. “And death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4).  “For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness.  I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.  No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not fill out his days…  The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”  (Isaiah 65:18-20,25).  Nature without carnivorous slaughter? How “trite, uninteresting, and sentimental!” Nevertheless, according to God, the “fear, anger, and desperation” that make up Siedell’s “Light” will be completely absent in the new creation.

Surely this does not mean that scripture “denies the very foundation of our relationship to God in Christ” by painting these word pictures.  On the contrary, they dovetail beautifully with that very message of our reconciliation to God in Christ.  After all, being saved so that after we die of cancer on Earth, we can eternally suffer from cancer in a gritty and “real” Heaven is not the Gospel.  On the contrary, we are being saved so that we can live in perfect innocence and blessedness with God forever–in a real and sinless world.  We are going to be led back to a new Eden and our lives put in order.

I, for one, am very glad that God has made this clear to us.  You see, there are two parts to really understanding that this fallen world is not our true home no matter how much we try to spruce it up.  The first is indeed what Mr. Siedell points out: the recognition that this world is dirty and gritty.  This is true and I’m quite glad there is art that captures this.  The second part, however, which the critics seem to take entirely for granted, is that there really is such a thing as “home.”  Without that second understanding, the true realization that the world is a nasty place is just shallow nihilism–nothing matters or has any value.  If “home” is a meaningless concept, you cannot say that the world is not your home; all you can say is that the world stinks.

With such a clearly legitimate purpose to serve, it appalls me that Christian critics jump on Kinkade’s attempt to paint a world without the Fall and then attach nefarious purposes like “His images give us a world that’s really okay, a world in which all we need is home and hearth, a weekend retreat, a cozy night with the family to put us right with God.”  Where did this come from?  Where exactly did an attempt to crystallize the abstract concept of “home” in canvas and paint transform into instructions on justifying ourselves before God through works?  Could someone take it that way?  Sure, but one can take “thou shalt not murder” that way as well.  I have yet to see anyone make the case that it must necessarily be taken that way or that Kinkade intended it to be taken that way.  Without such evidence, this whole charade is merely an exercise in bearing false witness against our late neighbor.  Why should he have “felt excruciating pressure to live up to these paintings?”  I don’t typically feel excruciating pressure to live up to the end of Isaiah or Revelation–I feel relief that God has both promised and achieved such a world for us.  I feel the same thing when I see “A Peaceful Retreat”–comfort that our struggle with sin will end.

Is showing an unfallen world insufficient on it’s own for teaching that this world is not our home?  Yes.  Does it fail to teach Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf?  Yes.  Well, eating only bananas is insufficient for proper nutrition, and I don’t see people leaping up to condemn Chiquita on those grounds.  Is staying exclusively within the safe confines of Thomas Kinkade healthy?  Certainly not.  But if that’s the charge being made here, it’s hidden within quite a bit of vitriol directed towards Kinkade personally and his work as such rather than any abuse thereof.

Posted in Culture, Lutheranism, Theological Pietism | 1 Comment

The Ten Commandments of Reaching Younger Generations

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Matt

The other day, my alma mater posed a question on Facebook:  “How can the Church more effectively reach out to younger generations?”  Many Christians are asking this as church membership in America declines, and there are a lot of bad answers out there.  As someone right on the border between the two generations in question, I’d like to get the basic answer down first:  What do Millennials and Gen-X need from the Church? Forgiveness of sins.  So I guess the best approach to reaching us would be convincing us that we need it (preaching the law) and then delivering it to us (preaching the gospel).

But, well…  short and pithy has never been my strong suit.  Leaving it at that is like telling someone that the Law is simply loving God with all your heart soul & mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.  True, it teaches us the core of what the Law is, but doesn’t necessarily teach us what it looks like in practice.  And so just as we need some moral instruction to teach us what the Law looks like, we also may need instruction on what preaching Law and Gospel to “young people” looks like.

I therefore offer up the Ten Commandments of Reaching Young People.  First table is primarily for pastors’ relationships with young people;  2nd table is for all Christians’ relationships with young people.

***First Table***

1.  Thou shalt preach the whole council of God.What does this mean?  Pastors should fear and love God so that they actually preach the whole council of God and trust that His Word contains all matters of theological necessity and that all matters in His Word are necessary.

2.  Thou shalt not come up with artificial preaching gimmicks.

What does this mean?  Pastors should fear and love God so that they do not make every sermon 49% law & 51% gospel or turn everything in the Bible into a bad metaphor for the Sacraments, but rather trust that He has already put these important matters in His Word and has no need for pastors to add them in.

3.  Thou shalt not use the efficacy of the Word as an excuse for poor, shallow, or negligent preaching.

What does this mean?  Pastors should fear and love God so that they do what has been given them to do to the best of their ability.  While they should not trust their own efforts to achieve the Spirit’s work for Him, neither should they see themselves as a mere set of shoulders holding up their vestments so that they need not concern themselves with doing a good job.  They aren’t casting magic spells from the pulpit;  God has promised to act through their work, not instead of it or coincidentally with it.

***Second Table***

4.  Thou shalt not try to “speak their language” or embrace fads that went out of style a decade ago.What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we are content with foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews and not turn these things into ridiculous nonsense for everyone.  In the immortal words of Hank Hill, “You aren’t making rock n’ roll better;  you’re just making Christianity worse.”

5.  Thou shalt not segregate youth from the rest of the church.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not create separate age/life-status groups but instead recognize that there is only one church, and if we segregate youth, we simply push them out of her.  If what we’re already doing is important, then we need to teach them why they should join in. If they rightly suggest that we are neglecting something important, then let them start doing it with us. If they wrongly suggest that we are neglecting something important, then we must teach & correct them.

6.  Thou shalt not command inquisitive minds to “just have faith” and “set their human reason aside.”

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we learn to answer their questions as best we can (i.e. apologetics) and trust Him to create a faith that keeps reason in its proper, God-given place.

7.  Thou shalt guide and discipline the young in doing good.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we trust that His love will motivate Christians to do good works and therefore train our youth to embrace & channel that motivation.  Sanctification is not the Think System.  God has not authorized us to protect the doctrine of justification by refusing His call to provide such instruction.

8.  Thou shalt be counter-cultural when God’s Word is counter-cultural.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we put His Word above the word of our culture–not just on hot-button political issues, but on all of it.  Yes, yes, conservative churches are very good at remembering that marriage is between a man and a woman, and liberal churches are very good at remembering not to favor the rich over the poor.  But I’ve yet to see a church of either stripe where the older women train the younger women on working at home and submitting to their husbands (Titus 2:4-5) or where youth struggling with sexual purity are taught to find a spouse (1 Cor. 7:2,9).  Remember: teach the whole counsel of God, even when it’s not The American Way.

9.  Thou shalt let the Law and the Gospel do their work

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not snatch away the Law or withhold the Gospel.  The Law need not always be encapsulated in “<insert sin here> is very bad and you should never do it, but it doesn’t matter anyway because you’re forgiven.”  It is ok to just say “<insert sin here> is very bad and you should never do it.”  Give them some time to take heed lest they fall.   Likewise, the Gospel need not always be encapsulated in “everything you do is very bad and you can’t help it, but it doesn’t matter anyway because you’re forgiven.”  Don’t wait for fear, trembling, and the pangs of hell before preaching Christ Crucified.  If you remember the whole counsel of God, you’ll cover both of these in abundance without taking either one away.

10.  Thou shalt not use silly gimmicks like “the 10 commandments of ________” as teaching tools.  Otherwise you might have to add superfluous items just to make it to 10.

Like the original 10, breaking any of these means breaking the first, and keeping the first means keeping all of these.  If our congregations really teach the whole counsel of God, they won’t have time to make these common mistakes.

Posted in Christian Youth, The Modern Church | Leave a comment

In Which a Stream of Consciousness Overflows its Banks, Devastating the Local Ecosystem

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Matt

The other day, I was told about about Disney’s new Habit Heroes–an extremely short-lived Epcot exhibit that sought to combat obesity by teaching kids healthy habits.  It included heroic and fit characters like Will Power and Callie Stenics who need to elude the wiles of fat and deformed villains like Snacker, Lead Bottom, and The Glutton.  Naturally, people quickly recognized it as an attempt to shame ugly overweight children while uplifting the fit and attractive.  The exhibit was, as one commenter described it, “picking up where the school bullies left off.”  My first thoughts were pretty much along these same lines;  I mean it’s not exactly subtle, is it?

My second thought was one of hope.  If the obesity fanatics are kept occupied trying to combat obesity without in any way indicating that there’s anything wrong with being obese, maybe we won’t have to hear from them anymore.  Seriously; as soon as you have two premises: A) Obesity is bad and B) we can avoid obesity through our own good habits, then the obese must logically conclude that their behavior has lead to a bad thing.  Where do people think shame comes from, anyway?  Good luck teaching that obesity must be combated with good habits without ever indicating that obesity must be combated with good habits.

Then my wife mentioned how similar this whole thing was to the “educational” film strips from the 1950’s.  The kind they used to make fun of on MST3K and still make fun of on Rifftrax.  It seems like the same kind of shallow morality play meant to indoctrinate kids into becoming a rather narrow kind of good citizen.  But if the 10’s are the new 50’s, they’re a very liberal 50’s.  Nobody really thinks obesity is a good thing, but the overreaching nanny-state programs attempting to deal with this “epidemic” are certainly more dear to those left of center than those on the right.

This “liberal 50’s” take on society also seems to hold water in other areas.  You might not get dismissed from your job for being now or ever having been a member of the Communist Party, but in California, they’ll try their best to dismiss you for hunting.  There are full-page ads in the New York Times claiming that rejecting a new mandate forcing religious organizations to pay for any and all forms of birth control for their employees is a return to the Dark Ages–just about the shallowest slippery slope argument I’ve ever encountered.  You might not see Father Knows Best on TV, but there’s an astonishing amount of moral uniformity across television programs when it comes to matters like extramarital sex, abortion, and homosexuality.  They just happen to uniformly endorse liberal sensibilities.  And, of course, our universities are in a firm ideological grip that doesn’t tolerate dissent from the established orthodoxy.  Many, for example, have begun undertaking efforts to dissolve all student organizations that don’t meet their ideological standards.  Their new orthodoxy just happens to consist of overturning the traditional morality and religion that was rooted in American culture back in the conservative 50’s.  This they confuse with critical thinking–as though academics don’t realize that half a century has passed in the meantime.

But if the 10’s are a liberal 50’s, could the 20’s end up being a conservative 60’s?  Most older conservatives tend to cling to rank & file Republicanism and nominate the most liberal, big-government Republican available as their presidential candidate because otherwise a liberal, big-government Democrat might win and disaster would ensue.  Most of the conservatives my own age, however, seem much more impressed with Ron Paul, the candidate whom the Republican establishment deems a crazy maverick because he’s actually conservative.  They’re quite conservative politically & morally, but they tend to have very little respect for political and cultural institutions.  They want politicians with character and principles, but don’t care whether they have an “R” after their name on C-Span.  They don’t trust educational institutions and end up homeschooling.  They don’t want their future teenagers having premarital sex, but seem open-minded about them marrying before 20.  They’re skeptical that a college education is really the only way to have a full and productive life.  They have little interest in regulating Big Food, but still try to eschew processed vittles in favor of local and homegrown fare.    In short, they have clear ideas on the kind of society they want for themselves and their families, and are quite willing to buck society’s expectations in order to pursue it–even the expectations of conservative segments of society.

Will the coming decades bring us a bunch of free-thinking hippie conservatives who protest America’s liberal establishment, question its moral authority, and seek radical social change that overturns our stale and outdated institutions?  Only time will tell, but I’d like to think that such a 60’s would turn out better than last time.

Posted in Culture, Politics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Equality is Marriage Poison

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Matt

A few centuries ago, humankind added a novel component to their politics–the idea that all people are created equal.  This concept of equality proved to be very successful in advancing the common good.  It helped to modify and remove distinctions between peasant and lord, slave and master, and so forth–distinctions that were frequently abused and worked against justice by allowing those in power to escape its reach when it came to offenses against those under their authority.  In short, equality became an extremely useful political tool that helps protect people from each other.  We should be thankful for it.

But good things are often corrupted, and equality is no exception.  Based on equality’s great success, many wished to apply it to every area of life–not just the establishment of earthly justice.  In short, equality was idolized and became enshrined as Equality.  It was treated as something valuable for its own sake and made into a god which claims authority over our lives.  Much could be said about Equality’s successes and failures.  There is one area, however, in which Equality has done and still does exceptionally deep and abiding harm to many.  C. S. Lewis took up this line of thought in his novel, That Hideous Strength.  He addresses it by means of a conversation between a young woman in a difficult marriage and Ransom (the “director”):

“’I thought love meant equality,’ she said, ‘and free companionship.’
‘Ah, equality!’ said the director.  ‘We must talk of that some other time.  Yes, we must all be guarded by equal rights from one another’s greed, because we are fallen.  Just as we must all wear clothes for the same reason.  But the naked body should be there underneath the clothes, ripening for the day when we shall need them no longer.  Equality is not the deepest thing, you know.’
‘I always thought that was just what is was.  I thought it was in their souls that people were equal.’
‘You were mistaken.,’ said he gravely. ‘That is the last place where they are equal.  Equality before the law, equality of incomes—that is very well.  Equality guards life; it doesn’t make it.  It is medicine, not food.’
‘But surely in marriage…?’
‘Worse and worse,’ said the Director.  ‘Courtship knows nothing of it; nor does fruition.  …  It’s not your fault.  They never warned you.  No one has ever told you that obedience — humility — is an erotic necessity.  You are putting equality just where it ought not to be.’”

Like Jane, most of us were never warned.  On the contrary, we have been taught from childhood that a wife’s submission to her husband’s authority is a horrible crime against women–a concept that is not merely old fashioned, but destructive.  Some very real abuses of this authority are laid out and Equality is offered as a woman’s shield against such harm ever befalling her.  But in this case, the “cure” is worse than the disease.  As we look out over the ruins of marriage’s collapse in the West–the extent of which has lead many to believe that an institution that has been with humans for millennia isn’t even realistic–we can’t help but find ways in which Equality has abused the authority we granted to it.

In terms of marital decision-making, Equality introduces more conflict than it resolves.  One reason for its success in the political realm is the move towards democracy.  But democracy is of no value in a two-person system, for in the event of conflict, there is never a majority.  So how does each spouse receive equal say?  Most decisions are required in the context of a particular time and place–simply waiting for agreement means only that the most obstinate people always get their way.  A couple cannot take turns on important decisions without already having perfect agreement on how important each decision is.  They cannot turn it over to the most qualified individual without perfect agreement on who is most qualified.  Even if one could create a complex logical flowchart in which importance and qualifications are given values that are kept in balance, that would describe the relationship between two computers rather than between a man and woman.  Equality simply does not exist in a marriage.  Couples must often act as one, but Equality has no capacity for it in this context.  What an incoherent obligation like Equality does create, however, is a strong sense of entitlement in both parties.  If fairness is simultaneously expected and impossible, who is one more likely to blame for unfairness In the heat of the moment, oneself or one’s spouse?  Equality only creates a situation in which the other is always in the wrong and commands us to store up resentment.

Equality likewise kills romance.  As Lewis pointed out, obedience is an erotic necessity.  Even our standard romantic metaphors like “falling head-over-heels in love” or “being swept off you feet” imply being under the power of another.  When one offers one’s spouse a surprise gift and asks them to close their eyes, nothing would kill the romance faster than refusing until adequate justification is provided.  The veto which many count on equality to provide is poisonous to romance.  There is no English word less sexy than “no,” and there is no equality to be found in being literally swept off one’s feet.  Neither is there any help in abstracting this submission so that each spouse submits equally overall.  The moment one begins calculating whether their spouse has lived up to their own efforts at romance, the seeds of suspicion and entitlement are sown.  Equality is of no use when it comes to giving as much as one can to one’s spouse (to loving them)–it is entirely a non-issue.  Equality is only relevant to the task of policing one’s spouse to make sure they’re holding up their end of the bargain.  A couple cannot relax and enjoy one-another when they’re too busy measuring and regulating.

Equality is powerless to provide an escape from our society’s marriage problem;  all it can do is transform or discard marriage in the blind hope that maybe that will do some good.  Our only recourse is to remove it from its temple and to recover the natural complementarity between men and women that Equality commanded us to reject.  Not every distinction between individuals is harmful.  A wife submitting to her husband as unto the Lord and a husband sacrificing himself for his wife in imitation of Christ have no room for Equality.  This arrangement is not safe for either person, but when has romance ever been safe?  Far better that we discard the dead weight of the useless shield of Equality and learn and prepare once again to be husbands and wives rather than spouses.

Posted in Feminism | 6 Comments

Abusing Sola Scriptura

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Matt

“The Bible doesn’t say it’s wrong, so I can do it if I want to.”

Unfortunately, this is a common refrain among protestants and Lutherans looking for some kind of license.  We can see this very clearly when it comes to sexuality.  One of the most common questions unmarried Christians ask themselves is “how far is too far”?  Is it ok to hold hands? To kiss?  Make-out?  Heavy petting?  Sex acts that don’t involve penetration?  Intercourse?  One can answer these questions with wisdom, but it is hard to do so with proof texts, and so many simply do whichever of these they want.  Of course the 6th Commandment says that adultery is wrong, but many consider that this means the unmarried have no obligations.  One could point out other passages such as Jesus’ condemnation of lust in the Sermon on the Mount, Paul’s comment on homosexuality in Romans, or the frequent warnings against fornication throughout the epistles.  Nevertheless, anyone raised on the NIV reads only the empty label of “sexual immorality” where fornication is mentioned (“what I’m doing isn’t sexually immoral!”), homosexuality interests only a small portion of the population, and when one comes to the point where one thinks only adultery and lust are wrong but everything in between is okay, one will necessarily lose one’s understanding of what lust is.  And so we end up with the normalcy of premarital sex inside the church and lose any concept of the virtue of chastity.

We find the same thing happening when we consider the use of post-biblical technology.  For example, Rome has long taught that contraception is wrong.  Protestants have long responded that the Bible doesn’t specifically condemn it, so it must be ok.  Now, however, there are a growing number of protestants and Lutherans who find the Roman arguments on the subject compelling.  Some agree with the Roman teaching that contraception is always and without exception morally impermissible.  Many others do not go so far as making it a moral absolute, but do recognize that contraception is not simply ok to use whenever and however one wants (and that our typical usage is indeed wrong).  But these kinds of moral arguments proceed mostly from natural law and wisdom–they are fortified by Biblical attitudes (such as children being a blessing), but not by specific Biblical commands.  We don’t have proof texts, and so most Christians still refrain “the Bible doesn’t say it’s wrong, so we can do whatever we want.”

But why do so many Christians eschew wisdom in favor of proof-texting?  Perhaps because quite frequently, well-meaning pastors and theologians join in the chorus of the license-seekers and claim that Sola Scriptura somehow implies that the Bible is ethically exhaustive.  They do not seek license for themselves, but instead do not want anyone to harm their neighbors’ Christian freedom by laying down new oppressive rules.  And so they teach that anything the Bible doesn’t specifically command or forbid must therefore be morally neutral–that it’s neither right nor wrong.  Indeed, many Lutherans will go so far as to call it morally wrong and harmful to our neighbors to actually discern wickedness anywhere that Scripture doesn’t explicitly point it out.  By doing so, they imagine that they are being more faithful to Scripture than those who use reason and natural law to discern right & wrong and broadly apply Biblical principles as they live their lives.

The irony is that this doesn’t seem to be Scripture’s take on the matter.  Rather, Scripture seems to say that whatever Scripture falls silent on is a matter to be discerned by our good judgment.  There are, of course, Paul’s famous words in 1 Corinthians 6: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful.  ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything.'”   There is also Ephesians 5.  Paul lays out some instructions, certainly, but they are somewhat vague:  we should not involve ourselves in “impurity,”  “foolish talk,” “crude joking,”  etc.  The Bible does not define such terms for us; Paul lays out no flowchart for what counts as crude or impure.  Instead, Paul instructs us to “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”  Once again, our good judgment is required.  Elsewhere, Paul even indicates that our good judgment should be informed by the natural order of things:  “Judge for yourselves:  is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?  Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair it is her glory?  For her hair is given to her for a covering.” (1 Cor 11:13-15a).  (as an aside, this video by Rev. Jonathan Fisk is an excellent treatment of these verses).  The point is that verses like these in no way indicate moral neutrality for everything for which Scripture does not provide a specific command.  On the contrary, they indicate good judgment in such cases–and our good judgment may or may not discern the subject to be neutral.  It may consider it good and necessary or dangerous or forbidden or neutral or something else entirely.

Now, as good modernists, we like to imprint hyper-individualism onto “use your good judgment” and take it to mean “no one else has any right to say anything on the matter; it relies on your own judgment hermetically sealed from that of others.”  This, however, is…  well, poor judgment.  Humans are social beings.  We don’t live in a vacuum and so neither should we exercise judgment in one.  We listen to and learn from others.  Who among us hasn’t, to some degree, learned how to live well from our parents and mentors–including from their rules?  And so if another exercises his judgment, discerns “one must” or “one must not” on a particular matter, and then gives voice to that judgment along with their reasons, it is not necessarily harmful to his neighbors.  It may be a precious gift instead, for we all want “our love to abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that we may be able to discern what is best.” (Philippians 1:9-10).  We most certainly shouldn’t masquerade our good judgment as God’s judgment and call it a new revelation as Rome does, but neither should we pretend our judgment isn’t ultimately about moral goodness in a sense that is in no way God-neutral.

Others who object to using good judgment will point out our sinful natures.  Humans love to make new rules for themselves to make themselves righteous and condemn others.  This makes our moral judgments unreliable.  Reason, after all, is the devil’s whore!  When reason and the law are joined, faith immediately loses its virginity!  Should we not therefore prefer a source like the Bible that proceeds straight from the mouth of God?   This question is usually rhetorical, but it does have an answer.  Is even our Biblically-informed good judgment fallible?  Absolutely!  Should we submit to Scripture when it indicates that we are in error?  Of course!  Any time our good judgment approves what Scripture condemns or condemns what Scripture approves, we must repent of our error.  No matter how solid our reasoning seems in such cases, we must let God be true and every man a liar.  However, this doesn’t mean that good judgment isn’t our best tool for the job when Scripture is silent.  And let’s not over-blow reason being the devil’s whore.  Bread is also the devil’s whore (Matthew 4:3-4).  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make diligent use of bread as appropriate & necessary.  Likewise, though our good judgment must be subject to and instructed by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, we have been given no command to shelve it where Scripture is silent.

Though the Bible is exhaustive concerning the Gospel and Salvation, it is not exhaustive when it comes to ethics.  It was not meant to be because it is not primarily a guide to right living but a declaration that Christ has lived rightly in our stead.  Consider the Sermon on the Mount:  Jesus issues many instances of “You have heard it said… but I say to you…”  For example, “You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Here, Jesus disabuses those legalists who thought they were doing ok because they kept the letter of the law.  The point is not “you had one rule, but now you have two and I’ve gotcha with the second!”  That is still legalism.  He is instead telling us that “thou shalt not commit adultery” always went deeper than the barest literal reading.  Naturally, Luther agrees, which is why his explanation of the 6th commandment isn’t “do not have intercourse with anyone else if you’re married,” but instead “we should fear and love God so that we live a chaste and decent life in word and deed and each love and honor our spouse.”

Salvation is not simply a ticket to heaven–Christ has given us new lives to lead in Him.  These are not truncated quasi-human lives that exclude certain brain functions.  They are full and abundant lives that encompass our entire selves.  The sinful flesh that still clings to us will sometimes lead us astray, but these sins are likewise paid for.  We must lead our lives at the foot of the Cross, but let us not neglect to actually lead them as best we can.

Posted in Ethics, Law, The Modern Church, Theology | Leave a comment

The President’s Shell Game

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Matt

This past Friday, President Obama announced what he called a “compromise” in his plans to forbid those Christians who recognize the moral problems surrounding contraception and abortion from putting those beliefs into practice.  This new plan, he claims, is no longer a blatant assault on religious liberty for the sake of advancing his policies.  Unfortunately, this is simply untrue.

The president told us:

Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services -– no matter where they work.  So that core principle remains.  But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -– not the hospital, not the charity -– will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.

The result will be that religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly.

Make no mistake.  This is simply a shell game.  There is no requirement that pharmaceutical companies provide contraceptives to insurance companies free of charge.  No, the insurance companies will still be paying out money for their policy holders’ contraception.  Where will the insurance company be getting this money?  From the premiums paid by those policy holders–the very same Christian organizations who do not want to be participants in contraception and chemical abortion.  These organizations simply no longer have any choice in the matter–just like under the plan that wasn’t falsely labelled a compromise.

This still takes away religious liberty; the only difference is that liberty is now replaced by plausible deniability.  “Who is paying for the abortifacients and contraception?  We don’t know (wink wink).”  President Obama is allowing Christians to save face by appearing to adhere to their beliefs in public–he is nevertheless taking away their freedom to actually adhere to those beliefs.

Only time will tell whether this con job be enough to silence the opposition and allow the president to force his morality on the American people.

Posted in Feminism, Politics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Chief of Sinners?

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Matt

Human pride can be a funny thing.  We routinely make ourselves out to be better than we truly are by whitewashing our sins and character flaws.  Of course the realization that things like pride and self-righteousness are also sinful leads to some bizarre kinds of prideful behavior.  In communities where humility is stressed, you will find people who are visibly proud of their humility.  In the Church, where we hear pride-crushing statements like “the last will be first” and “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”, our pride often tries to subsume these statements in an effort to preserve itself.  As a result, it’s not uncommon for Christians to actually brag about being last in various respects and to make expressions of what wretched sinners they are into a mark of superiority.  This, of course, is a false humility rather than the genuine article.

So what then do we make of the long tradition of Christians taking Paul’s own label of “chief of sinners” and self-applying it?  It seems strange that those of us who have lead relatively tame lives by worldly standards would take on the label of a man who systematically hunted down and killed Christians.  Is it arrogance and false humility to to describe our own mundane sins as being worse than even the worst mass murderers?

It certainly can be, and it often is.  One of the most frequent mistakes you will see in modern churches is the equalizing of all sins–as though God’s justice has absolutely no sense of proportion. Now, it’s true that anyone who keeps the entire law except for one point is guilty of all.  However, this is an academic point.  While there was one and only one Man who kept the entire law, there was never a man who kept the entire law except for one tiny point.  Adam might have erred in listening to his wife instead of God, but it wasn’t long before he was hiding from God, lying to Him, and blaming Him for his own misdeeds.  Cain might have become jealous, but it was not long before that jealousy turned to murder.  Sin’s nature is to completely corrupt and destroy–it does not know half-measures or how to leave any parts of our lives untouched.

It is also true that even sins that are small in our own eyes are damnable in God’s.  As Christ taught us, “You have heard that it was said to those of old,  ‘you shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘you fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21-22).  But we must not forget that Christ also told Chorazin and Bethsaida that it would be more bearable at the final judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for them and that it would be more tolerable for Sodom than for Capernaum (Matthew 11:21-24).  We therefore cannot conclude from Matthew that all sins are equally bad and will receive equal punishment from God.  And so we cannot conclude that we’re all in a first-place tie for the coveted title of “Chief of Sinners.”  These attempts at equalization have more to do with the Enlightenment’s idealization of equality than with anything God taught us in Scripture.

All that said, however, there is an entirely legitimate sense in which we can call ourselves the chief of sinners:  there should never be a single person whose sins we understand so well as our own.  By the aid of the Holy Spirit, in our rare moments of honesty, we can recognize our own depths of depravity to an extent that we simply cannot perceive in an another.  This is the sense we find in Augustine’s famous story about stealing pears.  As a youth, Augustine and a group of friends stole a large amount of inferior pears from a neighbor’s property when they had plenty of better fruit of their own.  They did not even enjoy the pears, simply taking a few bites and throwing the rest away.  Oddly enough, it is with this story of mere petty theft that Augustine highlights his own depravity.  Augustine was not trying to say that petty theft was just as bad as murder or adultery.  Nor was he trying to elevate himself by degrading himself.  He did, however, recognize the bankruptcy of his own motives for that theft in a way that he never could for any given murderer or adulterer.  On reflection, he realized that he did not steal because he was hungry or because there was anything good and wonderful about what he stole.  He committed theft only to revel in the misdeed itself–to enjoy placing himself in charge at the expense of God and neighbor.

There was no pretense left about trying to do the right thing or merely being inept at pursuing some higher good.  Even the murderer might have been acting out of desperation or a sense of justice.  Even the adulterer might have been ineptly trying to make the object of his passion happy.  We can speculate on such motives, but can never really know them unless we are, in fact, murderers and adulterers in the strict sense of the words.  If we are honest, however, we can be much more intimate with our own motivations.  We can make educated guesses about the character and depravity of others, but we can only really know ourselves in this regard.  Augustine’s judgement, and the judgment on those Christians who humbly see themselves as the chief of sinners is not a judgment on the severity of acts of sin or on the harm that such acts cause–it’s a judgment on our own character.  This character stands alone as chief of sinners because ours is the only character of which we can make such a precise judgment.  When the person in the pew behind me makes the same judgment about himself, it is none of my concern for we are each speaking without a common frame of reference.

It is paradoxical to try to puff ourselves up by maximizing our sinfulness, but there are no depths to which our sinful nature will not stoop to preserve itself.  So rather than turning confession into a competition by trying to make yourself anything or trying to end the competition by saying we’re all winners/losers, simply be who you are:  a poor miserable sinner redeemed by Christ.  Our standing among all the other sinners out there should not be our concern one way or another.  Ranking ourselves as equally bad is still an attempt to rank ourselves.

Posted in Law, Theology | Leave a comment

Sanctification is not the Think System

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Matt

Let’s begin by making one thing clear.  Some Christian communities apply a great deal of pressure on their members to take up the impossible task of making themselves more Christlike.  The gospel of self-improvement, of course, is not the Gospel at all.  We are not made better through improving our adherence to the Law.  Rather, Christ frees us from the curse of the law by declaring us holy and Himself transforms us into His image.  He sanctifies us.  This sanctification is a gift we receive, not an obligation that we must carry out.  Making ourselves Christlike leads to nothing but error and self-righteousness.

That said, we also need to consider the other side (and yes, there really is one).  The theology held by such communities is rightly opposed by faithful Christians.  Unfortunately, it seems that much of this opposition is falling into the perennial human weakness of avoiding one error so strenuously that they embrace a different error.  In The Music Man, con artist Harold Hill, who sold instruments to River City, lowered their practical cost by offering a solution to all the hard work required to actually learn to play an instrument.  By using his “Think System,” all a budding musician allegedly needs to do is think about good music, and it will happen on its own.  You don’t need experienced teachers; you don’t need practice; you just need a desire to play good music and an imagination.  Needless to say, it didn’t exactly work out that way (though the parents were indeed happy just to see their children “playing” in the end).

Unfortunately, it seems that we have a similar system in many churches when we are told things like this:

  • You don’t have to try to do good works–they flow naturally from faith.
  • If you’re making an effort at being good, you’re enslaving yourself to the Law; let the Gospel set you free from this burden.
  • Let yourself be nourished by Word and Sacrament and good works will just take care of themselves.
  • Actually trying to be Christlike leads to self-righteousness and should be avoided.

The best lies (or the most damaging poorly phrased truths) always contain a strong dose of essential truth:  Good works do flow naturally and spontaneously from faith.  We are free from the burden of the Law.  It is only through Word and Sacrament that we are nourished and sustained in this work-creating faith.  We don’t make ourselves Christlike–Christ makes us Christlike.  And indeed, working to be good can lead to self-righteousness.

But here’s the problem: “spontaneously” does not mean “without effort” for a creature whose God-given nature is to work.  Naturally does not mean “without instruction” for a creature whose God-given nature is to learn.  The sanctified life is not a semi-human life that excludes all sorts of basic steps of living.  This pernicious error creeps in among those essential truths when human effort is not merely displaced from a false role as causal agent, but hermetically sealed off from this new life altogether.  Those caught up in this error take the theology that provides us with the proper understanding of real life and instead use it to supplant real life.  Our spiritual development does happen naturally apart from our accomplishments, but being constantly told to reject any conscious participation in this very development turns a divine blessing into a painful and muddled experience.

Many Christians whose faith motivates them to try and be better at loving God and serving their neighbors find themselves ill-prepared for the task because their churches have neglected to regularly teach the whole counsel of God.  When they subsequently ask for preparation and instruction from their church, they are often slapped down with accusations of believing in works-righteousness and told to simply attend on Sundays and forget about anything else.  I’ve even heard pastors complain about it being impious for their flocks to desire anything more than showing up on Sunday for the Sacrament.  When these Christians study on their own and eventually try to pass on what they’ve learned to similarly confused brothers and sisters, they are sometimes accused of being busybodies who are trying to reign in those “wicked” neighbors who they secretly look down upon.

The problem lies here:  Many well-intentioned Christians suggest that because good works flow spontaneously from faith, they necessarily require no effort–that we are not just passive recipients of sanctification, but inert recipients.  This, they hope, will keep our own works safely away from our salvation where they do not belong.  In reality, however, sanctification does end up involving my own real effort–not because my efforts are achieving sanctification, but because my efforts (along with the rest of the real me) are what is being sanctified by God.  Humans are creatures that try.  When Christ sanctifies us, he therefore sanctifies our trying, and so we try to do good.  Humans are creatures that learn.  When Christ sanctifies us, he sanctifies our learning, and so we learn to do good.  Humans are creatures that want.  When Christ sanctifies us, he therefore sanctifies our wanting, and so we want to do good.  Humans are self-disciplined creatures.  When Christ sanctifies us, he therefore sanctifies our self-discipline as well, and so we discipline ourselves to do good.

We do these things because we already are being sanctified.  We therefore fall into a theological error when we think our trying and learning and wanting and self-discipline are responsible for our sanctification.  When we do this, we deny Grace and misinterpret our lives to our own destruction.  However, we likewise fall into error when we assume that anyone who is visibly trying and learning and wanting and disciplining themselves to do good is wallowing in works-righteousness.  We do a disservice by reflexively turning our noses up at those pastors, teachers, and laity who actually admonish their brothers and sisters to be imitators of Christ.  We harm our neighbors when we immediately cast suspicion on Christians who ask their churches for training in doing good.  They are not asking anything of their pastors that Christ does not already require of them (see, for example, Titus 2-3).  The apostles were not afraid to admonish Christians towards good works.  Neither should we be.  Telling someone to make themselves Christlike is wrong.  Instructing and exhorting them to be imitators of Christ is part of the very Word through which we are sanctified.

Posted in Lutheranism, Sanctification, Theological Pietism, Theology | 2 Comments

You got religion in my Jesus! You got Jesus in my religion!

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Matt

Another excellent video from Rev. Fisk, addressing a pro-jesus/anti-religion video that’s making the rounds.

People who claim to love Jesus but hate organized religion and the institutional  church must keep their faith shallow and ignorant for the simple reason that Jesus explicitly organized a religion and instituted the Church.  Dismiss him altogether if you like, but Jesus didn’t leave you the option of accepting him but not Christianity.

Posted in Apologetics, Christian Youth, Culture, The Modern Church | Leave a comment

Tales from Flyover Country

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Matt

Since I am one of Iowa’s newest residents, I suppose I should finally comment on professor of journalism Stephen Bloom’s screed against my poor benighted state.  In a nutshell, he takes about 6000 colorful words to argue that Iowans shouldn’t have such a prominent role in selecting presidential candidates because we’re all corn-shucking crackers who don’t represent the beautiful mosaic of American diversity.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read both the original article and Iowahawk’s pitch-perfect satire of it.  But the long and short of it is that the way Professor Bloom revels in Iowan stereotypes manages to fulfill just about every stereotype of elitist left-coast professors.  As Mollie Hemmingway put it, “This reads like a parody of what conservatives claim journalism professors and journalists think about them. Except that, you know, it’s not a parody.”

This is old news, but it seems that Professor Bloom was on NBC last week defending himself against criticism from the hordes of dangerous Jesus-freaks that surround him.  It’s worth watching simply to see him continue to expertly play the part.  He takes the classic elitist professor stance of claiming that everybody is upset because he’s too hardcore for them to handle–which pretty much makes him the Charlie Sheen of academia.  Unlike most Iowans, he’s not on meth, but he is on a drug.  It’s called Stephen-freaking-Bloom!  Or maybe it’s just tenure; I don’t know.

Of course, it’s all an act.  In order to maintain his elitist persona he has to begin by expressing surprise that anyone could be such a simpleton as to be upset over what he wrote.  Then towards the middle of the interview he realizes that he doesn’t want to look naive, so he tells Willie Geist that he knew he was stepping into a dangerous situation when he wrote it.  And, of course, he indicated elsewhere that he’s “sorry” people are offended, but in the same breath tells us that causing offense is the point of journalism (it’s not).  So I guess he’s both sorry he’s a journalism professor and surprised that he’s successful at journalism?  <tangent>In academia, art has been all about causing offense for a long time.  I guess journalism is now too.  How long until the day comes when causing offense is the only knowledge college graduates have?  I’m glad I graduated before computer science and economics are all about offending.</tangent>

In any case, it seems fairly clear that Bloom’s screed against Iowa is about Iowa only in pretense.  His stilted version of the state is merely a foil by which he attempts to establish his own social standing.  At the end of the day, elitists only write about themselves–nothing else interests them.

Posted in Culture | 2 Comments