Glocal Christianity

Seven years on and still blogging

This blog is seven years old today. Can you believe it? I kicked off my first blog on October 8, 2004 and started this blog on April 30, 2005. How the religious and digital landscape has changed! I wonder where I'll be in another seven years.

Human Rights: Is The Language Too Limited?

I must confess that the language of "human rights" makes me uneasy.

Not because I'm politically conservative (because I'm not) nor be cause I disagree with the concept of a fair go (because I don't).

I'm uneasy with the language of "human rights" because (1) it focusses attention on humans, (2) is awfully legalistic and yet (3) seems founded on modernist language, the universality of which is highly questionable. 

Take something like literacy. Is literacy a "human right"? I can't help noticing that for most of human history, universal literacy has been a practical impossibility. Yet is universal literacy something we should aim for? In our society, absolutely! Why? Because in Jesus we discover that God seeks to empower the powerless.

But is this a right ... or a gift?

I'm uneasy with the language of "human rights" because it tends to leave the Creator (and the rest of creation!) behind in the conversation. I'm uneasy with the language of "human rights" because it can all too easily be twisted into talk of personal entitlement and me-ism. I'm uneasy with the language of "human rights" because it undermines the language of generosity and grace. 

This post is part of a synchroblog on Theology and human rights. 

• Matt Stone of Glocal Christianity on Human Rights: Is The Language Too Limited?
• Steve Hayes of Khanya on Cosmas Desmond: human rights actvist

 

Last Supper meets Pan's Labyrinth?

"The Best Supper" by Hillary White. This has got to be one of the most eclectic cultural mashups I've ever come across. Thanks Cara (I think!)

When singleness is faithfulness

"Many singles are the people most committed to Christ and yet most vulnerable in the culture and in the church...If you wanted to be married today you could be...If you had no criteria, no real guidelines, or no moral standards to speak of...Anybody who doesn't have any standards can get married...Singleness for the right reasons is not a matter of fate but of faithfulness, and we need to see it through the eyes of the Lord, who honours those who honour him with their whole being."

- Douglas Webster, How God Shapes us Through Relationships

Great quote don't you think? I came across this through Sarie King's article, Singleness: Not fate but faithfulness, which I thoroughly recommend you read in full. While not single myself, I have a number of friends who are and I think it's appropriate that their faithfulness be celebrated. Indeed I find myself disturbed by what I see as a distorted view of relationships in Protestant churches. Growing up Catholic I had issues with mandetory celebacy in the priesthood. Now as a Protestant I find I have issues with their equal and opposite tendancy: mandetory marriage. We should celebrate faithfulness in every form.  

Predictive search results for different religions

The Sydney Anglican Network recently observed that the Google predictive seach results for the phrase "Christians are..." are, shall we say, less than complementary. I'll let you read their conclusions for yourself, but I thought, what the hell, lets see what the predictive search results are for other religions. Here's what I found.

Buddhists are:

Buddhists are atheists

Buddhists are vegetarians

Buddhists are hypocrits

Buddhists are not atheists

Hindus are:

Hindus are cowards

Hindus are vegetarians

Hindus are great

Hindus are bad

Muslims are:

Muslims are taking over

Muslism are not terrorist

Muslism are allowed to lie

Muslims are bad people

Wiccans are:

Wiccans are crazy

Wiccans are satanists

Wiccans are stupid

Wiccans are evil

Atheists are:

Atheists are wrong

Atheists are

Atheists are so stupid

Atheists are idiots

Where does this leave us?

So, we're all in the same boat it would seem. Google, or at least the people searching on it, are predisposed towards hostility. Which suggested a final predictive search...

Google is:

Google is god

Google is evil

Google is your friend 

Google is skynet

Palm Sunday: India

"In Ranchi, India, Christian devotees waved palm fronds, which represent the palm leaves people laid at Jesus' feet as he entered Jerusalem in his final week of life."

Source: BBC

Witnessing to our own self righteousness

"As we bring the gospel home to our family, we dare not do so as a self-righteous older brother. Even if our family members are out squandering their inheritance with prostitutes or wallowing in the mud with pigs, if we’re pointing to our record of good behavior while condemning their wicked ways, it will be some message other than the gospel that they hear. They would be wise to reject such a message."

Bringing the Gospel Home (Randy Newman)

 

Community Building Prayer Exercise

"Remember the gifts of love you have received through the body of Christ. Give thanks for these gifts. Ask the Spirit to bring to mind those failures of love in which you or your congregation have taken part. Confess your sin and the sin of your people. Ask God to forgive you. As in Isaiah's vision, imagine God's cleansing as a live coal that touches your lips and body as well as your congregation. Receive the words of grace, 'your sin is blotted out' (Isaiah 6.7). In silence, wait before God. Is God asking you to take some healing or reconciling action? How are you called to respond?" (Kropf and Hall, Praying with the Anabaptists)

Equipping disciples in pluralistic suburbs

Many of you are no doubt familiar with the conclusion of Matthew's gospel, where Jesus gathers his disciples to him and says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

During the Christendom era Western Christians typically understood this "great commission" as a call to overseas mission and the support thereof. Now, however, many Christians live in cities where Christendom is a retreating memory and "the nations" have moved into the neighbourhood. What does faithfulness to the great commission look like in such circumstances? How do we equip disciples for engaging with the nations in the west?

It was recently suggested to me that, given it is difficulty of sharing our faith with our Hindus and Muslims simultaneously, that we should focus more broadly on equipping disciples for mission "in pluralism." I can appreciate why this sounds sensible, especially for time impoverished churches, but I think this is a mistake and I'll tell you why. Through experience I have found it is equivalent to suggesting that, in order to speak to our French and Chinese neighbours, we should just learn the universal language of Esperanto because its simpler and easier than learning both French and Chinese. Simpler maybe, but don't be surprise if you just end up talking to yourself. My question is, how many "native" Esperanto speakers have you ever met? I bet you haven't because they don't exist. Esperanto is a constructed, rootless language. It is no path to understanding native languages rooted in living, messy community.

The truth is, different religions and different seekers must be understood in their particularity or not very well at all. Moreover, it needs to be recognize that pluralism is not as a thing in itself but as a juxtaposition of things. Pluralism can only be understood by wrestling with juxtapositions in all their particularity. In short, there are no shortcuts.

Contextualizing the gospel - what it is and what it isn't

Contextualization is not about watering down the distinctiveness of Christ, it's about more clearly articulating the distinctiveness of Christ.