Crisis? What Crisis?

Posted on October 31, 2005 by me

Okay, so I stole the title from an old Supertramp album…

I started reading John Eldredge’s Waking the Dead. I had read the first chapter online some time ago and thought, “I want to read this!” So, I bought it, and it’s sat around for a few months. Finally – perhaps because I’m more “dead” now and really need it – I decided to pick it up. I’m only 2 chapters into it, but already I’m questioning his premise. In fact, I was questioning his premise before I began reading this book; however, he has set forth 3 propositions that really clarify what it is with which I have a problem.

Here are his propositions in a nutshell:

  1. Things are not what they seem.
  2. Some struggle, quest or battle is under way, and may even be hanging in the balance.
  3. In this desperate hour, we have a crucial role to play.

I do appreciate his discussion on the importance of myth; I believe very much that myth can express “the deep truths of life.” However, myths can also express human needs and desires, which may not be so true. Now, as to his propositions, I can accept the first, that things are not always what they seem. I have referred to The Matrix on many, many occasions to make that very point. I also believe in point number 2, to a point; there is a spiritual war being waged. However, the sense of immediacy that he builds into this proposition concerns me a bit; more on this in a moment.

It’s point #3 that concerns me the most: that we have a crucial part to play. He references Neo of The Matrix, Frodo of Lord of the Rings and other great mythic heroes, claiming that these myths speak directly to us, the meaning being that you and I are each called to fulfill some great quest. Many of us would like to think so. It’s nice to dream that we are special, that we are the ones who can be “the One” save the world, to carry the ring to Mount Doom. But, is this true?

Perhaps Eldredge is writing to people with no sense of vision, and is trying to inspire them. Perhaps – and then I can see his point. But, I see danger in this approach, because I know people who live for this sense of immediacy, where everything is the battle of the century, there’s a demon behind every bush, and the Christian life is all about doing big things for God.

I think this kind of thinking is unfair, dangerous, and contributing to the flakiness of the church. It seems like “fast food” theology: there’s nothing boring or mundane, no planning or preparation, just hot, fast and now. I’m sorry, but life isn’t like that, and it’s not fair to lead people to believe that it is. What about the long, long periods of time between God’s communications with Abraham? We don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that Abraham went on for several years at a time without any major revelation from God; he just lived in faith, holding on what what he had received. Has anything changed today? Is God more in a rush now? Is Heaven in a panic? Somehow, I don’t think so.

Now, think back to all of those myths and great inspirational tales. We see glimpses of important times, focusing on the important people. Was Frodo wasting time all those years before he was given the ring? Then, when Frodo and Sam were off to Mount Doom, Rosie stayed behind to work in the pub. What was her great calling? Apparently, to be stable, and be there for Sam when he returned. What about all of the unnamed characters in any story you know of? What of the years before, and the years after? Can everyone be Neo?

The answer is obviously, “no.” It is insane to think that big or dramatic or any adjectives that we think are important are really that important. What about “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18)? What if that is the essence of your calling? What if your calling is to be a great husband, father and employee? What if the most important, spiritually significant thing you do in your whole life is to teach your children? What if the greatest spiritual battle you face is to love your neighbor?

This is the normal, Christian life, people! You don’t get to save the world (if you recall, that’s been done)! Consider this:

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:10-12)

Whoa, that sounds kind of boring after all that talk of Frodo and Neo. Perhaps. The power of myth can speak to us of universal truths – it can also lie to us, making us think that only the Neos and Frodos are significant, or that we have to live in constant state of crisis. Maybe the real mythic truth is revealed in the story of the tortoise and the hare.

I’ll continue to read Eldredge’s book and see where he goes with this point. Maybe if he can wake me from the dead, I’ll come back some day and delete this post – or at least come back and say that I was wrong. We’ll see. But, for now, I don’t see any major crisis; my plan is just to try to remain faithful with what I’ve got.

Posted in Eldredge, Spiritual stuff | 2 Comments

The Harriet Miers Episode

Posted on October 27, 2005 by me

(and what it revealed about the Republican Party)

In my opinion (of course, this really goes without saying – what else would I write here?), the whole Harriet Miers episode, more than anything else, exposed the hypocrisy and imperialistic tendencies of the ultra-conservatives that seem to control the Republican Party, or at least the Republicans in Washington. For the first time that I can recall, I actually agree with Harry Reid when he said that “the radical right wing of the Republican Party killed” Harriet Miers’ chances to be confirmed for the Supreme Court.

We’ll have to wait and see who Bush’s next pick is – I can only hope that he remains true to his principles and doesn’t allow the power-base to make the pick for him.

Within moments of the nomination, conservative leaders were yelling and screaming that Harriet Miers was unqualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, and continued to demand her to withdraw. The only basis for the contention that she was unqualified was that they didn’t know her, and weren’t confident that she would be the ultra-conservative judge that they wanted. How could they know she was unqualified? She didn’t even have a hearing. I think it interesting that we heard very little from the Left, except support from Harry Reid. They knew just as little about her as the Right, and had to assume that she was as conservative as Bush. Still, they took a “wait and see” mentality; it was the Right that drove her to withdraw.

Let’s back up a bit: The qualifications for being a Supreme Court Judge are pretty loose. You don’t have to have been a judge of any type in the past, and you don’t even have to be a lawyer. The President can nominate someone he feels would be a good SC Judge, and Congress is to give their “advice & consent.” So, far, she seemed perfectly qualified.

Recall just a few weeks back when Roberts was nominated? The liberals were rattling their swords, and the conservatives were saying, “shame on you, let the man have his hearing.” It seems that the only thing that changed was that Miers was an unknown. The Republicans in Congress apparently are not committed to the process – they are, as liberals are fond of pointing out – just committed to the radical right agenda. In my mind, that’s hypocrisy. If you are going to be committed to the process, it has to be regardless of who the nominee is. Throwing political weight around to stack the deck – and in effect take the real nominating power away from the President – just degrades the process.

Now, I want a good, strict contstructionist judge as much as anyone else. I would have liked to have seen Miers go through the confirmation hearings, and see what she had to say. She may have been confirmed, she might not have been. We may have found out that she’s a complete flake. But, that’s the way the process is supposed to work. At this point, I think it’s safe to say that the process is not working.

Rather than operate as the founding fathers intended (I am committed to the concept of “original intent”), the process has become a tool of the power-mongers. I have said this before, I think the current two-party system has outlived its usefulness. It has become stale; I think the life has all but evaporated out of both parties. All that is left is the “sludge” power-base of each party. The parties no longer function as they should, and as a result government itself is not functioning as it should.

There seems to be a principle that whenever something good grows to have too much power, it ceases to be an agent of good, and becomes, for lack of a better word, a monster. Labor unions are a good example – I am all for collective bargaining, but the unions have now become too powerful, and many now exist simply for self-preservation and power. We need to look seriously at the Republican Party and evaluate whether or not it is serving the purpose for which it was intended.

I personally think that it’s time to break the power-base of the Republican Party. I am tired of the outsiders, like Dobson, as well as many of the insiders. I think we should vote them out, and start fresh. I am not suggesting that people vote Democrat, as I think they have even more problems than the Republicans. I am merely saying they need some new blood; conservatives who are committed to the Country first, and the Party second.

This would be a good time to do it – the Democratic Party has no vision whatsoever (their prime agenda appears to be “hate Bush”), and it’s clear that aside from the entertainment industry and the media (wait… aren’t they the same?), the majority of people tend to share a more-or-less conservative vision of America. Let’s raise up some statesmen (whoa… when’s the last time you heard that word?) who are truly committed to America (and not the radical right or the gun lobby).

I personally think that Bush did a pretty cool thing by nominating Miers. He dared to think independently, which I think infuriated the radical right more than who it was that he chose. Besides demonstrating a desire to not be controlled by the radical right, his nomination of Miers also confirmed that he truly is not motivated by public opinion. I would have thought that public opinion – inspired, of course, by the media – would have been in support of this move. However, it seems that the media is not just slanted to the left; the media on both sides appears to be tied to the power-base and is hesitant to support independent thinking.

It will be interesting to see who the next nominee is, and how the “powers” react.

Posted in Politics/Current Events | Leave a comment

John Kerry: Keeping the Entertainment Value in Politics

Posted on October 26, 2005 by me

It’s obvious every time the man opens his mouth, that John Kerry hasn’t a clue. I don’t know how in the world he got as far in life as he did in politics, but it seems pretty obvious that his “15 minutes” are over – obvious to everyone but him, that is.

I’ve heard rumors that he still has some plans for another Presidential bid, not that he’d even get minimal support from his own party. Actually, it would be kind of fun to see Kerry and Hillary against each other in the primaries – very, very much fun, in fact. Politics has, for the moment, pretty much lost its entertainment value, and we do need to get that back. What is politics for, anyway, unless we can be entertained by it?

One of these days I’ll let you in on my theory about what the real Democrats are up to. By real Democrats, I mean the ones who really have the power, and the brains. If you’re wondering who that might be, I’ll give you a clue: it’s not Howard Dean, or Nancy Pelosi, or any past writer for Saturday Night Live.

I also have a theory about why liberals and conservatives very rarely really communicate. Have you ever noticed that they talk past each other, with neither side seeming to understand what the other side is saying? If they could communicate, then something might get accomplished. But, as I think about it … perhaps the miscommunication is what keeps us safe. Perhaps we don’t want politicians accomplishing anything – that could be dangerous. It’s the Tower of Babel principle …

So, on second thought, perhaps I should keep my theories to myself.

Posted in Politics/Current Events | Leave a comment

African Rhythms

Posted on October 25, 2005 by me

One of the first things I think about when I think of Africa is the rhythms – the drums, the dancing, and all that other National Geographic stuff. I was not disappointed by my visit to Ghana – although what I heard, as far as worship music goes, was not necessarily what I expected, not that I had any specific expectations. I am sure there are more varied styles than what I heard, but my visit was limited to a few places in Tema, and one church in the Central (coastal) Region.

Gospel SingersOne of the first things that struck me was the obvious impact of Western Gospel music. The first church we visited had a gospel choir, backed up by what was – from my brief experience – a pretty standard worship band setup, consisting of a drum kit, congas, a portable electric keyboard and bass guitar, all playing at a pretty high volume. The music was a melding of Gospel, jazz & funk, played over African rhythms, and was all pretty up-tempo. In fact, even their slow songs were up-tempo, and they often wouldn’t stop to change songs, they’d just go from one to the other. They wouldn’t even stop to change drummers – something I had not seen before, but saw a couple of times in Ghana. I don’t know who would initiate the change, but on 2 or 3 occasions I would see a guy walk up to the drummer in mid-song. Without losing a beat, the drummer would stand and pass off the sticks to the new guy.

The Shuffle - photo by Fred AllenAnother feature of their worship was the dancing; the women all did the same little shuffle – very low key, but still very much into the beat. They’d do their little shuffle back and forth, then occasionally start doing a “conga line,” weaving up and down the aisles. The men, at least in a church setting, tended to be less demonstrative.

At the YWAM base, worship was a tad more Western. I recognized several Vineyard and other songs I knew, and was surprised to even hear a couple of songs that had been written by people I knew. Now, that makes it seem like a small world. However, even though they were songs that I knew, they were all done with an African rhythm, which was really great to hear. I wished that I could have brought some of the rhythms home with me (I do have some video clips) but they’re a bit more complicated than a standard 4/4 Vineyard beat, and beyond my djembe abilities. One of the YWAM students was one of the best bass players I think I’ve heard – he would do some funk riffs that were just amazing.

At the YWAM base, the guys were not at all hesitant to join in the dancing, and also showed far less restraint than the women. Actually, it didn’t take much for the guys to break into a dance – just a simple rhythm on a djembe, and they’d be in a circle having a blast. Now, I’ve seen guys dance over here, but nothing like this.

Often, worship at YWAM would be led by Diana Akiwumi, who it turns out, is one of Ghana’s more well-known Gospel singers. I recently found an article about her in one of the on-line Ghana newspapers.

As I mentioned in a prior post, we spent 4 nights in an inner-city mission church, where English was more of a second language. Worship here was also a bit less Western, although they had the same basic worship band setup. The music, however, had a different feel – it’s hard to explain, but it had kind of a ska feel, only at a much faster tempo than I’m used to. The women here did the same little shuffle dance that we saw in the first church.

Mission church worship bandOh, it was also all very loud. Apparently it’s better if it’s loud – even if it distorts. And, as it turns out, the guests are usually placed right in front of one of the speakers, I suppose to make sure we can really get the full effect. It was sometimes a bit hard to take. Another surprising thing was that everyone seemed to have an ample supply of wireless microphones. Having batteries die and swapping mics was not an unusual occurrence.

We also spent a couple of days in the Central Region, at a little leadership conference. The conference was being held at a borrowed church, without the benefit of a sound system, or worship band. Worship here was done in what appeared to be a common style to those in attendance, representating several different churches. Worship was sung in something other than English, in kind of a singing chant, with no real rhythm that I could discern. While I didn’t understand what they were singing, I did appreciate the spirit of worship that existed, as well as just being able to experience some other form of worship than that which we saw in Tema.

As you might expect, returning to the States and my home church was a kind of reverse culture-shock. It struck me how self-conscious the worship band was, working so hard to achieve some kind of “smooth” presentation. At the same time, the whole worship experience seemed, for lack of a better word, constipated. This is not to say that worship in Ghana does not have an element of self-consciousness, because it does – it’s just in a completely different way, that I could deal with because it was new. However, I am still having a very hard time with our church’s self-conscious worship, to the point where I have a hard time sitting through it – I just can’t seem to get past the worship band. Maybe I’ll just have to spend more time watching my videos of Ghana.

Posted in The Ghana Experience | 3 Comments