Re-energized

I play drums with our church's gospel choir. Last night we traveled from Chicago to Kalamazoo and during the bus ride I had a conversation with a friend who is a history teacher at a Christian High School in the suburbs. That conversation reinforced what I have been trying to do on this blob. Due to a two week break in August and starting a new job two weeks ago, this blog has taken the back seat to other things going on. But now, I have been re-energized.

American Christianity and the mysterious malaise of a middle class who has everything, we seem to have slipped into survival mode. Protect what we have because everyone is trying to take it away from us. The President to the Pastor is preaching fear. But the bible says do not fear. The bible says we have nothing to protect and all that we have, we have so we can give it away and bless those who have none.

Jesus would not drive a Hummer unless he was in the Congo and the engine was powered by a fuel cell. Jesus would not move his church out of communities for bigger and better facilities but would plant a church in areas that needed the plant without abandoning the communities the church is already a part of.

Disagree? Let me know and I will give you my reasons.

Michael Brown: The Governments Scapegoat

It is shameful to see how easily it was for our congress to be manipulated. As the media pounced on Michael Brown for issues that clearly were not soley his, the congressional committee that is investigating jumped on the bandwagon of blame without apology. Someone needs to be blamed for the lawlessness of New Orleans (though only seven were killed by violence during the week, less than a normal week in one of America's murder capital) and Michael Brown was the easiest target.

Not to mention the govenor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans jumped on the same bandwagon, retreating from their own poor response to their own community. Really, in a city of corruption, to look the other way from the mayor only perpetuates the corruption. Had money gone where it was suppose to before the tragedy, much of the response would have been far better.

The collapse happened on all levels of government and shame on the congressional committee for seeking to retreat from their own responsibility by blaming Brown. Had they voted for financial support for Louisiana's infrastructure the levees may have been properly re-engineered.

Then the media says that when the govenor of Louisiana went before Congress the blame game didn't come up and she didn't respond to Michael Brown's allegations. They made her look like a saint, like she's above it all. Except that it was a different committee! Different context! She was not going before government to defend herself like Brown was asked to but was asking for money. Brown did this years ago but received none and it took a tragedy to open the eyes of congress. Now congress, by blaming one person in the collapse of all the local, state and federal government agencies, is desperately seeking to close their eyes again.

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty

The buzz generated by the six Dove women is telling. The advertising agency has spent years destroying the self esteem of females everywhere and to think that Dove and these six women have the audacity to show pictures of themselves in their underwear with curves and all is, well, a breath of fresh air.

The human body is beautiful and yet very few women ever think of themselves as beautiful. Insecurity encouraged and perpetuated by images of women unhealthily skinny in every add from Michelob Light to Victoria's Secret, is an epidemic in our society because society has tried to tell us that skinny is healthy. Even men are now having complexes when their stomach isn't washboard tight.

Dove falls short in one area, however. The girls they chose are beautiful but the only beauty we can see is their bodies. We are making value judgments based on how they look. It is a step in the right direction but still feeds our obsession with our bodies--an obsession that somehow makes us feel less at home in the crude matter called flesh.

But our bodies are part of us, part of our identity and part of our reflection of the image of God. The obsession we have with our bodies is an incredible detriment to who God created us to be. Girls are dying around the country due to anorexia all because of an obsession with how bad they believe their bodies look.

We must remember we are more than our bodies. That is to say our value as a person, as a child of God made in his image, is not based on how we look but on who we are in our very essence as a person. Someday we will receive new bodies to live eternally with Christ Jesus. In that some day we will mirror Jesus (1 John 3). But in mirroring him I do not believe we will look as he looks. If you are females you won't look like a male. But our hearts, character, minds and bodies...the whole person will be reconciled to God and the whole community of God's people. Together, as a community, we will look like him...perfected.