Boots and Bibles

Open the Eyes of Our Hearts

There's a good deal of bellyaching about the "post-modern" or "emergent" movements in Evangelicalism. Some of it is quite necessary; other parts, not so much. The "I'm Okay - You're Okay" theology moving along within that sect and the glorification of old church traditions and rituals that still aren't old enough to accurately reflect the beliefs or practises of original Christians are two examples that come to mind. To be sure, a great deal of what they're resurrecting within Protestantism might be some of the most nefarious examples of syncretism that set Jesus' movement down the wide and comfy path that leadeth unto Constantine.

But not all of it is...

A few criticisms in particular strike me as burning the body to fix the warts. While "messy spirituality" has become a codeword for cheap grace, and the "solidarity" with the felt needs of unbelievers seems like the new wave of seeker sensitivism (which the emergent movement supposedly goes against) – not to mention an easy out on ever having to stand for anything, other aspects of the emergent church could probably use re-assessment from some of those so thoroughly opposed to it.

What troubles me more is that some of these aspects seem so integral, so utterly biblical that it boggles my mind how the theological intelligentsia has come to have such grave issues with them. Particularly, I keep hearing about the evils of "mysticism", "contemplation" and "spirituality".

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to pick these notions apart right now, and point out that while the emergent toffs still probably get it wrong, these matters in themselves are absolutely vital in experiencing God, and living out the Christianity fully.

Christ is Died - Christ is Risen

Aμην ναι ερχου κυριε ιησου!

A Friday That Really Wasn't So Good - Not at the Moment, Leastwise

Remember, kids – without crucifixion, there is no resurrection

Thanatopsis

I have never seen someone die.

This should be a good thing, right? I should count myself lucky that the face of our own mortality has never stared back at me, never beckoned to me, never said “You’re next.” I’ve had friends and family who have died, sure, but I see them after the fact. Their faces are made up all pretty; serenity and calm encompass their features. It’s death, but it’s a very cleansed, refined sort of death. It’s like death done by Disney.

I feel strangely cheated by the fact that I've never seen anyone die.

Despite the prevalence of animated violence on televisions and cinema screens, I get the feeling that few people in the Industrialised World – excuse me, certain well-to-do and influential segments of the Industrialised World – would be able to look at death and maintain any calm or sensibility. This is something of an oddity, from an historical standpoint. Death is a part of life; it’s as much a part of life as sex, eating, drinking and pursuing happiness. To be sure, one could technically go through life without engaging in any of these matters – but death is an experience everyone gets to take in. Eventually.

Christian Foot-Soldiers of the Shadow Government – A Review of Jeff Sharlet's The Family

In respect to some comments from Mr. Jeff Sharlet, whom you will see below had a good deal to say about this piece, I am inserting a few editorial notes to indicate where he has either corrected me or heavily disagreed with my interpretation of his book. If you ignore what is in red and in parentheses, my original review is still as it was originally piublished.

Jeff Sharlet is a nice Jewish boy. Well, he's half-Jewish, half-Catholic. (Edit: Evidently, I was dead-wrong about this, and now I'm wracking my brain – as well as Google – to figure out how I became so mistaken in this. Anyway, for the record, he is half-evangelical, not half-Catholic. The Jewish part was right at least... oy.) He's ambivalent about his own personal religious beliefs, but what he seems to believe in more than anything else is that shifting amalgam of sentimental morality, fashion-based religiosity, bi-polar economics and self-righteous politicisation called liberalism. (Edit #2: Mr. Sharlet insists that his faith is not in liberalism. See comments below. Of course, this blows most of my review out of the water right there. Dammit...)

He also writes articles for Harper's. That should probably tell you all you need to know.

But he also wrote a book. Actually, two books. But I'm focusing on the second one. It's called The Family. And while the jacket blurbs give one the sense of it being an ominous tome chronicling the powerful religious elite who are running this nation into the ground controlling our lives, it didn't come off to me so much frightening as it did depressing – because through it all, I held in the back of my mind that the people Sharlet writes about are doing what they do for Jesus. "Jesus Plus Nothing" as Doug Coe, the closet-fascist of whom Sharlet writes about at length, puts it.

It seems that "Jesus plus nothing" can add up to a lot that Jesus would not be happy about.