Evolution and Faith

 

As a Christian artist, it’s hard for me to understand the vehemence much of the church has towards the concept of evolution.  I am, quite comfortably, a creationist, but lately I’ve started to regard evolution as one of the most fascinating aspects of God’s creation.   Madeleine L’Engle points out (if I remember correctly, it’s been years since I’ve read it…) in her book Walking on Water, that our ability to create is what puts humanity in “the image of God.”   I like that; I think that one thing that keeps God above us is that He has the ability to create things that evolve, or, if you want to look at the term in another way, things that grow, change, and hopefully progress. 

I don’t bring this up to spark a debate about origin.  Truthfully, I couldn’t care less how old the earth is.  I like to believe that God made man out of dust and breathed life into him, mostly because “from dust to dust” is a poetically fascinating concept.  I like to believe that God’s breath is our source of life.

That said, I think the concept of evolution, even on a small scale–something like language expanding–is one that does not contradict with the Gospel message but maybe sheds light on the nature of how God creates things.  There seems to be an aspect of Christian Culture that upholds the old and refrains from change, even if that change might be progress.  I suppose every one has their own idea about what progress actually is, which makes this a complicated subject.  But whether we like it or not, the world is moving; it’s debated whether the world is moving forward or backward.

Many Christians I know tell me the world is moving backwards.  It’s more violent, more perverse, and slipping down into a pool of hellfire.  If I were only looking at the nature of television (which seems to be a common measurement for the digression of the world), I’d have to nod along.  But there is another side, which is the possibility that the world might also be moving forward.   For instance, today’s world is more connected than it was.  I have lived abroad for almost two years but have been able to stay in contact with several people–something that couldn’t have happened as easily, even a decade ago.  And when disasters strike, like the Tsunami or this horrific cyclone that recently struck Myanmar, the entire world can almost instantly help out, within the matter of days (well, at least, if there’s not a crazy dictator running the country).   And then look at this election.  It’s absurd and draining, yes, but the fact is that a black man and a white woman are each being taken seriously enough to draw thousands of people to hear their stump speeches and the whole world is watching to see the outcome.  The demographic of power in America is changing; that, to me, is progress.  But the point here is not that the world is getting better or worse, it’s that it’s changing.  It’s evolving.  God made this world and it never stopped moving.  Am I the only one fascinated by that?

The Gospel, then, is that God made the moving world but didn’t leave it alone.  Who is it that points out that God starts with a garden and ends with a city?  Probably that Kingdom, Grace, and Judgement guy.  In other words, God’s goal has never been to make another Eden, but a New Jerusalem.  Similarly, I can hope that God’s plan for me is more than just bringing me back to perfection, but instead moving me towards it.  I see the difference and I like it.

Another Banksy

One Step Closer (to an Obama Presidency)

This age is teaching us that if we have a blog, we are entitled to say a few words in response to current events in politics. I’ve been sort of raised to not put my hope in politics, maybe even to ignore them. After 2004’s disappointing election, I was very comfortable with the idea of never voting again. I hated the division–I saw that Right and Left seemed to define so many things about the US. I still hate how we have to choose sides. But I, like so many, have been captivated by the potential of the Obama campaign.

I have had my ups and downs with Mr. Obama. I was first up when I saw him on John Stewart’s show in 2006, soon after he became a senator. He was witty, fun, and real. I could see why he had created a bit of a stir and why people were starting to talk about him running for president. What a relief, after this era of so-called “fear mongering,” to see someone well-spoken and sharp with the name Barack Obama. I even loved the fact that it rhymed with Osama because electing him seemed to have the potential of sending a message across the world (where I am now, actually) that America is ready for something different. We’re switching gears. We’re not afraid to elect a president who doesn’t look or sound like any other man who has represented our country. This prospect excited me then and I decided to pay close attention to what else might come from him.

Then I watched the Democratic Convention Speech from 2004. I watched it in my Bangkok office and one of my coworkers came up to me and asked who he was. I told him, “Maybe my next president,” and she said, “He doesn’t look like a president. Is he American?” This, comment, though sort of sad, excited me because I had the chance to say, “Not every American looks, acts, and talks like Bush.” What a relief.

And then there was his message in that speech. The Not Red or Blue States message. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.

I started to read up on him and I found a few pros and cons to the man. The primary annoyance I had with him was that he had voted for some kind of Great Wall of Mexico to keep out immigrants. But I also read this speech I decided his message of listening to the other side outweighed his dumb vote for a dumb idea about immigration control.

Before this post gets too long, I want to get to my initial point in writing it…

I’d been sort of down about the campaign for the last couple of weeks with his string of losses. Not just because he was losing, but because of the way the media kept bringing up the Wright controversy–how the American people seemed to be confused that Reverend Wright was running for president and the first thing he would do in office, if he were elected, was to bring God’s wrath to America. The whole thing just seemed so ludicrous. Sound bites were drowning out the fact that over a million people were behind this idea of America’s Gear Shift, and that his campaign was being run pretty much flawlessly, sticking to his message of listening before leading. For crying out loud, don’t people want a president who listens?

The media could be blamed, I guess, but when it comes down to it, I (and my friends) believed that the reason the media could get away with bringing up Reverend Wright at every possible chance they could was that people wanted to hear that stuff, and they didn’t care that Obama was taking a stand against dirty politics, desperately trying to stick to his message of unity that he had from long before he announced that he was thinking about running for president. And, even though he handled it brilliantly with pretty much the best words anyone has uttered about the racial situation in the USA since Dr. King, the people just wouldn’t drop it.

And then I got mad at Obama. I got mad because I kept thinking of things I wished he would say to put focus back on the American people, but instead, he said stupid things, like Pennsylvanians are bitter and clinging to guns and religion. But I was pretty crazy about him at that point, so I forgave him quickly for his moment of idiocy. But seriously, people, I went to bed at night thinking of things I needed him to say. And then, after his victory last night in North Carolina, he said exactly what I had been waiting for:

Yes, we know what’s coming. We’ve seen it already. The same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn’t agree with all their ideas. The same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy in the hope that the media will play along. The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other for pure political gain – to slice and dice this country into Red States and Blue States; blue-collar and white-collar; white and black, and brown.

This is what they will do – no matter which one of us is the nominee. The question, then, is not what kind of campaign they’ll run, it’s what kind of campaign we will run. It’s what we will do to make this year different. I didn’t get into race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for President because this is the time to end it.

We will end it this time not because I’m perfect – I think by now this campaign has reminded all of us of that. We will end it not by duplicating the same tactics and the same strategies as the other side, because that will just lead us down the same path of polarization and gridlock.

We will end it by telling the truth – forcefully, repeatedly, confidently – and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change.

Because that’s how we’ve always changed this country – not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up; when you – the American people – decide that the stakes are too high and the challenges are too great.

I’m getting ready to return to the US and I will be so happy to know, when I get back, that he is still in the “game.”

You can watch the entire marvelous speech HERE

Strong

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2Corinthians 12:10)

 

I get a little wigged out about the notion of “the first shall be last and the last shall be first,” because, it seems, at any given moment in any given circumstance, I am both at the top and at the bottom.  It just depends on my perspective.  Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, and a lot of times not much has changed, outwardly, in between my ups and downs.   I get wigged out, then, because it seems like we Christians are supposed to sort of strive to be the last so we can be first.  I forget about the image Jesus gives to illustrate this concept: giving up the nice seat at the table, i.e. dropping out of the rat race, and think that if I am doing well, I’m heading to hell in a hand basket, as they say.  The people singing my praises are the ones that are carrying that hand basket.  The first shall be last makes me cynical about whether people like Bill Gates or Oprah, or Bono could ever possibly be decent people.  It took me a little while to realize that yes, a rock star can be a Christian after all…

 

Someone gave me a good thought about jealousy once.  She said, “There’s always going to be someone better than you, in whatever you do, wherever you are.  But you’ll always be better than someone else, too.”  I love this statement because it so clearly depicts humility.  I have a competitive spirit (play me in Mario Kart and you’ll see it come out), though I try to keep it hidden.  I don’t think competition is actually that healthy, but nonetheless, I was raised in the theater.  I’m used to the phrase: “Knock ‘em dead.” The key to confidence seems to lie somewhere in my ability to stop looking to see who is better off or worse off than me.

 

If the last shall be first is a command to get out of the rat race, then the next question is, what do we get into?   Whether he can be trusted, I don’t know for sure, but I love Barack Obama’s description of Americans working towards a common purpose, which is, essentially, improvement.  I love the idea of forgetting about which “group” or “organization” we belong to (man, woman, Jew, gentile, liberal, or conservative) and trying to keep a broader perspective on the greater good.  Now, I really don’t want to lead a movement or a nation or anything, because at that level, good gets kind of muddy, but in my own life, I can put my competitive spirit aside, stop looking at other people’s successes and failures, and make small improvements so that, eventually, I can feel good about my role in this common purpose thing.  I’m talking more exercise and less soda pop, regular sleep, you know, the basics.

 

Yes, I’m saved by the grace of God and I am thankful for salvation. Seriously, it strips me of most of my fears. But then there is a time when as a Christian I can say, “now what?”  Now that I have salvation, what do I do with that?  Do I join the church choir? Do I go to Thailand? Do I go back to school?  Do I learn how to play tennis?  Some people (mainly Wycliffe) might say that “now what” should be answered by “go out into the world” and start practicing and preaching that great ol’ commission.  But even that is tricky.  I could write a dissertation on the trickiness of interpreting this commission (one that some seminaries wouldn’t let me write) because people are complicated and some people just don’t, do not, have a common purpose.  Ideas of “improvement,” to some, look something like a (gasp) strip mall.  Besides that, the world has tons of little places in it.  This is a world of many worlds.  Even if you did raise your funds and hike over to Bangkok to preach the Good News, which Kreuntep-ian* world are you going to choose? Most people are gonna say the world of sex slaves, but then, do you mean the ones on Nana Sukumvit or the ones in Patpong or the ones on Lat Prao? And do you mean male or female sex slaves? Trafficked or local?    There’s no map of Bangkok in the Bible and essentially, no matter how we answer now what? we’re going to have to make a choice (or ten). 

 

And this is the scary part—the fear that isn’t really covered by salvation:  we fail.  We are NOT re-nailing Jesus to the cross, but we are feeling crummy about stuff.  We drink too much soda pop or lose a tennis game.  Sometimes we do much, much, worse, like lie to get money to fund our missionary trips to go to Patpong and then use that money to buy ourselves too many drinks and we yell at the very sex slaves we believed we were called all the way over there to cheer up.  Well, most of us don’t do that, but we are all capable of that kind of worst.  And sometimes we don’t really do much that is wrong, it’s just that our car broke down on the way to an interview that we were sure was going to get us out of poverty and then its started snowing, but it’s already April, and the sun hasn’t come out in fifteen days.  These both are the times, I think Paul was referring to in that verse (way up there) about being weak. 

 

And this is good news:  When we are weak, we are strong.

 

What about when we’re strong?  There’s no verse that says “When we are strong we are weak exclamation point,” so I’m willing to suggest that when we are strong we are strong.

 

 What I’m trying to say is, we are strong.  Always.  When we’re doing strong things (like donating money to missionaries who have made it their life’s work to show Christ’s brand of love to the love-abused in Kreuntep, offer them safer work, a second chance at education, and a family when their own families have shunned them, www.nightlightbangkok.com), we are strong.  And when we’re weak, we are strong.  Because God is at work on earth and he’s using it all, our good and our bad, to restore this world he loves to be the place he intended, and then some.  All of our April snow or hitting on married people isn’t going to change that.  Praise God, we were called to something higher than the rat race.   And this is my command: find as much delight in things as you possibly can because there is always more than what you’re paying attention to.

 

*Kreuntep=how Thais refer to Bangkok

A Thought

So, maybe discipline is turning my I coulds to I shoulds and my I shoulds to I wills

 ie

I could write –>I should write–> I will write

Resurrection Day All Year ‘Round

Rob Bell, pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, urges Christians to view their faith like a trampoline rather than a brick wall.  He claims that several churches have turned their doctrine into a wall and if you remove a brick (i.e. condone getting married after a divorce), the whole thing comes crashing down.  The wall keeps Christians divided from each other–in order to accept another person’s faith, they must cross to our side of the wall.  But if we view our faith like a trampoline, these bits of doctrine are like springs.  You take away one and continue to jump.  Evangelism then becomes an invitation to join other believers in jumping on a trampoline, rather than coming over to our side of the wall.

Though that idea doesn’t directly relate to the following bit, I think it’s essential to understanding this next section, which came from Bell’s Easter sermon about Resurrection: 

Everybody is jumping.

Your professors are jumping.

Your friends are jumping.

Your friend who’s really, really, really smart, and who grew up in a Christian home, but they’ve left and now they’re involved and they’re more enlightened because they read very thick books by German people and they don’t have room for the church because of the small, narrow belief system—that person is jumping just as much as the wild hair, on- fire religious fanatic.

 

Everybody is trusting something.  Nobody is on firm ground circling everything else. Nobody is way up top with a higher [perspective], no, everybody has leapt into something.  

 

So when somebody comes and starts picking apart, “How can you believe, how can you believe, how can you believe…?”

…“Well, in the same way that you can trust a. b. c. d.”

 

When we have a discussion between somebody that doesn’t have faith and someone who does have faith, that’s simply not an accurate description of reality.  Everybody has faith. Everybody has taken a leap.

 

I believe in the resurrection because I want to leap, and I want to trust, and I want to continue to jump on the biggest, widest, most beautiful worldview I can possibly find and I can find nothing that makes my soul soar more than the resurrection.  

First Drafts

In the first draft of a story, no rules apply.  You write and write, ideas come, characters change, dialogues come off, speeches become scenes, and surprises occur. You aren’t deciding where a story begins, where it ends, and where it will stop. It’s not there yet.  It is being created; it is creating itself.  It’s hard to know what’s happening and it might be best not to think about it too much anyway.  The less critical judgment you have at this point—the less you let taste, inhibition, second guessing, and anxiety get in the way—the better off you’re likely to be.

(Jerome Stern, Making Shapely Fiction)

Song currently in my head:

“Every time we sin…

…we nail Jesus to the Cross.” This idea must be rid from the Christian thought process.  What on earth could be more rediculous?  Jesus is not on the cross anymore.  Nothing we could do to put Him back up there.  Note:

John tells us the last thing Jesus said was, “It is finished.”  (John 19:30: When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.) Yes, I know this is up to interpretation like everything else, but it is pretty common to believe that Jesus means that His work is done–sins are paid for, no more dying on the cross.  If that isn’t convincing, note Hebrews 10:8-10:

8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Once, not fifty billion times per minute, which would be the case if Jesus gets re-nailed on the cross every time a Child of God sins.

If Bible thumping isn’t your style, use your head.  If Jesus gets nailed to the cross every time a Child of God sins, he would never come down.  But he has come down, he was buried, and the stone was rolled away. Confess your sins, sure, but don’t try and believe that your sins have enough power to reverse what God did and renail Jesus to the cross.

Banksy of the week

I am in the middle of listening to a Rob Bell sermon online and he did a whole slide presentation of Banksy.  I never had heard about him before today, but I plan to keep hearing about him. The picture comes from his website: http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/napalm.html