Category Archives: News

Thoughts on the 2008 Election and Politics in General

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I was skimming back through Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, by Nancy Pearcey, today and read this, “They [evangelicals] leaped into political activism as the quickest, surest way to make a difference in the public arena—failing to realize that politics tends to reflect culture, not the other way around.”  I continued to think about this and what it means during the upcoming elections and tonight I found a fantastic paper by John Piper entitled Taking the Swagger Out of Christian Cultural Influence (I have posted this paper in its entirety below).  I debated about posting this closer to the election; however, I concluded it would be best to post now and allow God’s Word to work on you over the coming months.  I will likely post on this again before the election.  Until then I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic.

Taking the Swagger Out of Christian Cultural Influence

The fact that Christians are exiles on the earth (1 Peter 2:11), does not mean that they don’t care what becomes of culture.  But it does mean that they exert their influence as very happy, brokenhearted outsiders.  We are exiles.  “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).  “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

But we are very happy sojourners, because we have been commanded by our bloody Champion to rejoice in exile miseries.  “Blessed are you when others . . . persecute you . . . on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12).  We are happy because the apostle Paul showed us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).  We are happy because there are merciful foretastes everywhere in this fallen world, and God is glad for us to enjoy them (1 Timothy 4:3; 6:17).  And we are happy because we know that the exiles will one day inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).  Christ died for sinners so that “all things” might one day belong to his people (Romans 8:32).

But our joy is a brokenhearted joy, because Christ is worthy of so much better obedience than we Christians render.  Our joy is a brokenhearted joy because so many people around the world have not heard the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).  And our joy is a brokenhearted joy because human culture — in every society — dishonors Christ, glories in its shame, and is bent on self-destruction.

This includes America.  American culture does not belong to Christians, neither in reality nor in Biblical theology.  It never has.  The present tailspin toward Sodom is not a fall from Christian ownership.  “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).  It has since the fall, and it will till Christ comes in open triumph.  God’s rightful ownership will be manifest in due time.  The Lordship of Christ over all creation is being manifest in stages, first the age of groaning, then the age of glory.  “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).  The exiles are groaning with the whole creation.  We are waiting.

But Christian exiles are not passive.  We do not smirk at the misery or the merrymaking of immoral culture.  We weep.  Or we should.  This is my main point: being exiles does not mean being cynical.  It does not mean being indifferent or uninvolved.  The salt of the earth does not mock rotting meat.  Where it can, it saves and seasons.  And where it can’t, it weeps.  And the light of the world does not withdraw, saying “good riddance” to godless darkness.  It labors to illuminate.  But not dominate.

Being Christian exiles in American culture does not end our influence; it takes the swagger out of it.  We don’t get cranky that our country has been taken away.  We don’t whine about the triumphs of evil. We are not hardened with anger.  We understand.  This is not new.  This was the way it was in the beginning — Antioch, Corinth, Athens, Rome.  The Empire was not just degenerate, it was deadly.  For three explosive centuries Christians paid for their Christ-exalting joy with blood.  Many still do.  More will.

It never occurred to those early exiles that they should rant about the ubiquity of secular humanism.  The Imperial words were still ringing in their ears: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13).  This was a time for indomitable joy and unwavering ministries of mercy.

Yes, it was a time for influence — as it is now. But not with huffing and puffing as if to reclaim our lost laws.  Rather with tears and persuasion and perseverance, knowing that the folly of racism, and the exploitation of the poor, and the de-Godding of education, and the horror of abortion, and the collapse of heterosexual marriage, are the tragic death-tremors of joy, not the victory of the left or the right.

The greatness of Christian exiles is not success but service.  Whether we win or lose, we witness to the way of truth and beauty and joy.  We don’t own culture, and we don’t rule it.  We serve it with brokenhearted joy and longsuffering mercy, for the good of man and the glory of Jesus Christ.

—John Piper, August 27, 2003

2007-07-31 The Brief

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            Are There Holy Texts in Your Toilet?: Well let’s hope not as a student at Pace University in New York was arrested on two hate-crimes charges after surveillance videos linked him to acts of flushing Qur’ans down a toilet.  Foreign Policy covers the story here and the original Newsday article is available here.

            Who Needs Captain Planet anymore?: If you have watched anything on TV, turned on the computer, or picked up a newspaper in the last year then you should know that saving the planet is all the rage.  Der Spiegel provides a lengthy article discussing the recent rush to save the planet.  Call me a pessimist but I wonder how much is about charity and how much is about turning a profit.

            Walking with Giants: World Magazine profiles the recently opened creation museum in northern Kentucky, which I need to go and visit sometime soon.

2007-07-02 The Brief

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Culture:

            The Death Channel:  After Last weeks post on Death and Politics which focused on what death tells us about our culture it is ironic that EosTV, “a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week television channel devoted exclusively to aging, dying and mourning — will hit the airwaves [in Germany].”  Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading newspaper covers this announcement in its article, Dead Air: New TV Channel Takes on Death and Dying.  Albert Mohler has also commented on this in his recent blog entry A New Meaning for “Dead Air” — Digital Death in the Media Age.

            Downtown L.A. residents yell ‘Cut’: As more and more people chose to live in downtown LA, the constant filming that goes on there is becoming a nuisance rather quickly.  This article is more fun than educational.  I used to live on Spring Street, in downtown LA, and was privileged to listen to machine gun fire and explosions for several months during the filming of Transformers, extremely loud music during the Pussy Cat Dolls video shoot, and lots of yelling during CSI: New York (sorry people they film it in LA).  I actually thought this was fun so I am not sure what the complaining is about, but hey, we did get a free steak dinner across from Keanu Reeves out of it so maybe my opinion is biased.

            Do-it-yourself Cosmetic Surgery: I think it was several years ago that liquid nitrogen hit home in the form of q-tips used to freeze off warts and before that Dr. Scholl’s sold those acidic patches used to melt away warts over time.  Both of which seem rather dated now that cosmetic lasers are going retail.  The LA Times article Lasers Hit Home examines whether or not these products will meet the consumer’s expectations.  Whether or not these products meet the consumer’s expectations I think it makes a distinct statement about our culture.

Religion:

            Among other things, I have been reading God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself by John Piper.  One of his statements really challenged me this morning.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Commenting on this he notes that, “The ability to see spiritual beauty is not unwavering . . . this is not an all-or-nothing reality.  There are degrees of purity and degrees of seeing” (p.55).  All too often I think of this as future promise rather than a current reality, but Piper presses upon us the ever-present need for a pervasive holiness because we need spiritual sight.  “Spiritual seeing is seeing spiritual things for what they really are—that is, seeing them as beautiful and valuable as they really are” (p.55-56).  We must constantly strive for purity so that we may maintain the eternal mindset necessary to keep a proper perspective on life, namely that we like Paul can say, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

2007-06-27 The Brief

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Politics:

            The Much Exaggerated Death of Europe by First Things and Think Again: Europe by Foreign Policy take opposing positions on the future of the European Union.

            The Failed States Index 2007 takes a look at the worlds weakest nation states and the effects they have on global politics, trade, etc.

            The Hidden Pandemic examines rising global crime rates.

            The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers examines the future of democracy in the post-Cold War era.

            Campaign 2008:  Foreign Affairs begins their series of essays by the top presidential candidates, beginning with Renewing American Leadership by Barack Obama and Rising to a New Generation of Global Challenges by Mitt Romney.

Culture:

            Death and Politics  First Things tackles the subject of death and what it says about our culture.  “The deepest roots of a civilization are in its funerals and memorials.  The dead define culture.”

Religion:

            I am both Muslim and Christian The story of Rev. Ann Holmes Redding has been everywhere as of late but the fact that anyone would take a person making such a claim seriously just baffles me.  This, however, provides massive insights into our culture, namely that the law of non-contradiction is distinctively tied to modernity and thus postmodernity is freed from this burden and free to contradict itself at will.  As for my two cents, she is neither Muslim nor Christian and her claim trivializes both.

When the Fertility Clinic Meets the Abortion Clinic: A Modern Paradox

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The LA Times featured an Op-Ed article entitled The abortion debate brought home and the tagline: “He and his wife have always been pro-choice; recently, they were forced to make the Choice.” The article details the experiences of a husband and wife who, unable to have children, having underwent two previous unsuccessful in-vitro fertilizations underwent a third. The issue was not; however, with the procedure but its results, namely more children than they wanted.