God and politics is one of the themes of Andrew Sullivan’s “Crisis in Christianity.”  For my taste, he pushes a bit too hard for a faith that runs the danger of being “privatized,” that is, kept to one self rather than brought out into the open of public discourse.

For example, when addressing the occasional engagement of Christianity in politics, Sullivan suggests that the church filter the God-talk out of the discussion.

When politics is necessary, as it is, the kind of Christianity I am describing seeks always to translate religious truths into reasoned, secular arguments that can appeal to those of other faiths and none at all. But it also means, at times, renouncing Caesar in favor of the Christ to whom Jefferson, Francis, my grandmother, and countless generations of believers have selflessly devoted themselves.

This seems naïve.  How do you contend for a public policy rooted in a transcendent reality without the language of faith?  Part of the broader crisis of our time is the failure of the public sphere to grant a place for conversation that acknowledges the possibility of a divine presence.  The default, acceptable world view becomes a materialistic atheism, with politics devolving into a scramble of how to divide up the pie.  After all, there is nothing else out there.  Presumably. 

Lots of people, Muslims, Jews, Christians, et. al., say that’s a bad presumption.  I don’t think it is possible to always translate “religious truths into reasoned, secular arguments.” 

Let’s try one.  “God is love.”   Okay.  Let’s see, “Transcendent reality is good, personal, and to be trusted.”  Does that work?  It’s not very warm.  It makes my head hurt a little bit.  And, frankly, I don’t think it will make it through the filter of the secular pluralists Sullivan is asking us to appease.

Sometimes the conversation needs to be frank, honest and hard.  The only way I know to maneuver through that successfully is, well, by being anchored in that simple Truth, God is love.  

Kyle

Newspaper, radio, television, internet: “The gospel” has been shaped by the media leaders use to express what Jesus is about. 

“The medium is the message.” Marshal McLuhan said so long ago.  The tool you use to communicate determines what you communicate. 

How do people frame and therefore reformulate Jesus by tools they use? 

Consider some examples:

Joel Olstein’s gospel, in this instance, is “Programming your mind for victory.”  Watch the beginning.  Notice how in the opening sequence the camera sweeps in over a massive crowd of well-dressed, middle-class people gathered in an over-sized auditorium that glitters with lights.

In an earlier generation, Jerry Falwell framed his presentation of the gospel within the constraints of the American political scene.  The camera here captures a traditional Southern congregation.  There is nothing arresting or surprising visually.  Notice how Falwell reshapes the gospel as criticism of the ACLU.

Go back another 20 years to the age of Billy Graham.  (An interesting aside: Notice how different Olstein's gospel is from Grahams'.)  Graham framed his presentation of the gospel within the context of a rally.  His voice, his tone, and the content of his message is received and processed by the crowd and projected back to him.  The emotion of the crowd provides social proof that enhances the perception of the message as meaningful. 

Note that Adolf Hitler pioneered this method and this medium. 

The question, of course, is how does the method we use to communicate frame and reform people’s perception of Jesus? 

Is Jesus present in the medium? 

Or, does the medium serve as a filter that removes Jesus from the message so that, despite our good intentions, the Gospel is emptied of its power?

Leadership Beyond must wrestle with these questions or be eternally irrelevant.

Folks are dying in America with the question unresolved in their hearts.  “Is there a God, and does he love me?”  They have grown up in a culture heavily tainted with the Secularization Myth, the story that God comes out of an older time and really isn’t real or significant.  Most of the “authoritative voices” we hear presume an impersonal, amoral universe with mindless cause-and-effect forces at the heart of reality.

Our culture really has done a poor job of exploring the aching question in the soul, “Is God real, and does he care?”  The story out there that God is an old wives tale or something best left behind in Sunday School really doesn’t answer the pervasive question. 

The church hasn’t been all that helpful in the public square.  We tend to use language that just sounds kooky to people with real questions, or we convey far more judgmentalism than compassion, at least that’s what seems to get noticed. 

The truth is the real care in the community continues to come from simple people who love Jesus and just want to help.  And do every day.

Earlier this year I went through Joplin, MO with Shawn Spiess, a pastor from Kansas City.  Almost a year after the devastating tornado of May 11, 2011, the church is still at work helping families rebuild their lives.  The same is true of the Alabama tornadoes of April 27^th, and of Katrina, tsunamis, earthquakes, famine, fire, and flood…. Everywhere Jesus' people continue to do the work of caring with active compassion, long after the news cameras have left the scene.

The challenge for us remains to live a life that paints a picture of God’s active presence in the world.  Our dominant culture is unlikely to get the message.  Those who experience the love of God through his people will.

"The secularization theses, that religion is all going to go away is so discredited now that last year the New Your Times Magazine had an article on how evolutionary scientists are trying to figure out why the great majority of the human race still believes in God.”

So observes Timothy Keller in a lecture at the University of Chicago in 2008.* 

The culture keeps trying to push the reality of God to the margins, to say only uneducated dolts still believe in the fairy tale.  But God keeps coming.  Everybody you know (maybe with a very, very few isolated exceptions) keep wondering about the Truth.  The persistent ache to know Him will not go away, and when a scary disease shows up or a loved one dies, that ache becomes a scream.

In that moment, we need to be there with a depth of relationship to share the Good News about the God who is right here and right now, by our being with them affirming that much deeper tug of longing.  Reality breaks in all the time with the Truth of God’s presence.

*Timothy Keller, “Reason for God,“ A Place for Truth, Dallas Willard, ed., Intervarsity Press, 2010, p. 58.

Remember the old Burger King commercial, "Where's the beef?"  That's a great question for discipeship and the work of Multiplication as we take a close look at our lives.  

Our fellowship supports a missionary team working in the Middle East.  Formerly in Baghdad, they are now in Lebanon.  They have moved to a Christian part of Beirut.  It is reportedly safer than other places in the city.  Here is our friend sharing about the new “security” they enjoy in “Christian” Beirut.

Now, back to how safe we are in the Christian area. Tex and Cal popped into a local cake shop to purchase some things delectable a couple of mornings back. They noticed an armed guard at the door. An armed guard for a sweet shop seemed strange (even though it was filled with chocolate, and if you have ever seen the way the Sisses here go after chocolate, well...). Tex asked the woman sales person why they have an armed guard. She said, "It is because of the fast." Tex had to inquire further. She explained that "all" Christians fast from cheese during Lent. Their shop, however, sells cheese goodies during Lent and they need a guard to protect them from Christians who would try to forcibly stop them from selling cheese during the fast. Besides striking us as very cheesy (and funny), we all agreed that there is not a huge difference between the Hezbollah bullies we left and the Christian bullies that now surround us. Come to think of it, where is that cheese burger?

Our missionary friend is commenting on the cultural Christianity in Lebanon.  We shouldn’t be surprised that it looks a lot like, well, the culture in Lebanon.  People naturally conform to the world around them.  We get that.

The need is great.  Easy it is to “conform to the pattern of this world,” simply falling in step with how others live.  The kingdom call to discipleship necessitates the hard work of prayer, truth-telling in community, and transformation.

One of the challenges for us in the US is not to cluck our tongues at cultural Christians in other places, but rather to look close to home and ask the question, "In what ways does our Christianity conform to our dominant American culture?"

Be gentle in your response.  "Speak the truth in love...."

Tebow is a more conventional  phenom, if there is such a thing.  He led the Florida Gators to two BCS National Championships (2007 and 2009) and was the first sophmore ever to win the Heisman Trophy.  College football fans certainly had Tim on their radar screen long before he grabbed national attention with his “miracle wins” this year with the Denver Broncos and his “Tebowing,” taking a knee to acknowledge the Lord of his life “in front of God and everybody.”

Jeremy Lin is different.  Jeremy appeared out of nowhere.  Without a scholarship coming out of high school and undrafted after playing for Harvard, he burst onto the scene with the New York Knicks in February.  You can catch up on the narrative at Wikipedia.

What’s fascinating to me is that Lin is an “ABC,” an American Born Chinese.  Mondy Chen, pastor of the Chinese Christian Church in Davis, CA, focused my attention when he mentioned him at a recent Global Impact Celebration.  Not only is China rising and the Chinese church booming, the ABCs are rallying with a passion for the harvest and a burden for the land of their forebears. 

Catch a glimpse of the fire at KC Liu’s Passion for the Nations missions conference, happening March 17th in LA.

 ...is about Greg Mortensen's remarkable story of founding schools for girls and boys in the heart of Taliban country in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in part as an answer to the oppression of women by the Taliban.  There are now some 80 schools Greg and his Central Asian Institute have started in that rugged mountainous region since the mid-90s.  It is an amazing testimony about the power of hard work and culture-making and how it can change lives, and even cultural prejudices and assumptions. I will make a bold statement-- it appears to me that Greg Mortensen has done more to undermine the fundamental appeal of the Taliban in that region than all the war efforts we have undertaken in that war-torn region over the last twenty years, and with far less expenditure of money and lives.  

Apparently Mortensen isn't a believer, but he's challenging the theologian in making a world changing difference.  Read Dr. Witherington's post, and if challenged, read Mortensen's book, and ultimately, drink "three cups of tea" with those who don't yet know Jesus that they might come to know Jesus.

Kyle Phillips