They Want To Convert Your Children

They Want To Convert Your Children

by | Jun 12, 2016 | Uncategorized

I knew from the moment it hit my inbox what it was. I am a subscriber to more than one creationist blog and I shouldn’t have been surprised. This unnamed magazine (they don’t need any more publicity) started off with a familiar accusation:

“You’ve likely heard the statistics that around 2/3 of children who grew up in Christian homes are leaving the church. And now there are ‘Christian’ organizations trying to ‘deconvert’ our children by causing them to stop trusting the Bible.”

As I used to be a creationist I recognized the vitriol. I’d like to offer up some comments that I hope will prove helpful.

Let’s start with the unsettling statistic that two thirds of kids raised in Christian families are leaving their faith behind when they reach adulthood. There are several possible reasons for this unsettling trend.

One possibility is that they don’t believe God actually exists. While this is a valid reason for playing hooky on Sunday morning, my hunch is that this is the exception rather than the rule. Rumours abound of systemic hypocrisy being the culprit. Some will place the blame for this exodus on shoddy worship music, dated sound systems, poor use of in-service lighting, lame use of colour on interior walls, lack of rain forest certified coffee in the foyer, and a complete absence of video gaming options in the youth room and/or jets in the baptistry. I believe that for more than a few, the problem is much deeper. But totally fixable.

Many of our kids have real questions about God and science and we’ve told them to trust in Jesus and forget about science. Sadly, most christian parents and pastors are not prepared, or equipped to tackle these questions.

The final comment in the quote from my Creationist blogger sums it up nicely. “And now there are ‘Christian’ organizations trying to ‘deconvert’ our children by causing them to stop trusting the Bible.”

Apparently any discussion about science that doesn’t line up with a literal creationist viewpoint is equated as not trusting the Bible.

There is no middle ground. I get it.

I used to live in a 10,000 year old universe where dinosaurs lived on Noah’s Ark along with the millions of other species that have ever existed, and the Grand Canyon was formed in a few short weeks after the flood. Only one problem with this ‘literal’ view of creation. It doesn’t stand up to reason, evidence or any other method we have of measuring reality. It’s not even ‘literal’ unless you can prove that the ancient Hebrews interpreted it that way.

This ‘literal’ 10,000 year old universe doesn’t exist. God didn’t make one anything like this. The only universe he made that we know about can be investigated using all the powers of reason that our creator has endowed us with. And it is very old. Very, very, very old. And you don’t even need a Bible to learn any of this. Got a shovel? You’re good to go.

The problem is that the young earthers have failed to mesh their Biblical worldview with a scientific worldview. (If something is scientifically true it is also, necessarily theologically true. Relax people.) They don’t perceive this exercise in integration as part of the faith journey. They call it heresy. But a Biblical worldview CAN fit with an established scientific perspective. When all parts of life fit together in a unified whole to make sense of all the pieces of this puzzle we call existence, we call this integrity.

For too long our conversations on faith and science have included too little “let’s talk about how your perspective on cosmology, anthropology and biology fit into the Jesus story” and too much “your perspective on cosmology, anthropology and biology don’t count for spit. Here’s the Jesus story. Take it or leave it.”

We shouldn’t be surprised they’re leaving it.

Two thirds of them.

Leaving it.

But are they leaving because the Jesus story is unbelievable or are they walking away from faith because they can’t reconcile the Jesus story with everything else they know about the physical world? And whose fault is that?

Another question while we’re at it:

Why is it that people who interpret a verse differently than I do suddenly “don’t believe”?

Every time each of us read the Bible, we interpret it. It’s what we do when we read anything. Our folly has not been in the reading but in the interpretation.

Here’s an example from the new testament that should make the predicament obvious.

When the subject of adultery came up, Jesus offered the following piece of advice:

“…If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell…”

We can all read Matthew 5:29 and agree on what the text SAYS. What we seem incapable of doing is agreeing on what the text means.

Has your pastor ever suggested during a Sunday morning sermon that we take Jesus words ‘literally’? (insert joke about why there aren’t more one-eyed Christians stumbling around).

Of course we don’t take it literally.

  1. we call on metaphor or hyperbole to explain the text.
  2. we don’t want to take it literally because most of us would have to give up our drivers licenses and stop watching movies in 3D.

But the metaphorical eye gouging that Jesus refers to is only the beginning. Jesus completes the thought by suggesting that our whole body will be thrown into hell. And this is also metaphor. Oh it’s not. Why not?

You see the problem. We can all agree on what the text says, but coming to a consensus on what it means leaves us battered and bruised. So when I hear one group of Christians calling other believers heretics, while they reach for the lighter fluid and torches I get nervous.

So back to the original thought. Do they really want to convert your children?

Well, “they” are me, and yes, I would like to convert all of your children.

I want them to believe in a God that created a universe 17 billion years ago, and watched gleefully as it unfolded over eons, until creatures pretty much like us took over the place and broke it. I want them to believe that God gasped with a broken heart like any parent gasps when their child walks away. I want them know that God, refusing to give up on his creation stepped in, in the person of Jesus, to live with his creation, restore and reclaim us as his children.

It’s called the Gospel. Good News. A compelling story grounded in the stuff of science, history, human drama, and God’s forgiveness. Now, let’s go find those missing 2/3rds.

Hebrew and Haiku – Poetry For The Ages

Hebrew and Haiku – Poetry For The Ages

by | Mar 20, 2016 | Uncategorized

Ever had one of those conversations about Bible interpretation when somebody accuses someone else of not taking scripture seriously? Me neither.

While I wish that was the case, I am finding myself more and more in the middle of these literal vs. metaphorical vs. poetical saw-offs. It might be happening more often because I’ve been spending time investigating how certain controversial Bible bits have been interpreted over the ages. And then I use my outside voice to ponder my findings. That’s when the trouble starts.

For example, did you know that even before Jesus was born (2 centuries before) Hebrew scholars were already arguing about whether or not Adam was a real person? This isn’t a new battle. The only difference between the way ancient jewish scholars and many Christians debate this issue is that the old school experts never accused the other side of heresy. Nobody started collecting firewood and reached for the lighter fluid.

Torah (or Old Testament, to those of us familiar with everything after the book of Malachi) was pushed and prodded from opposing angles to discover how it best fit with real world knowledge. It was considered a part of practicing one’s faith, if you were a Hebrew theologian, to struggle with the text and try to make sense of it in light of the latest news on the street.

Now those old Hebrews might have had an easier time interpreting scripture than we do simply because they knew how to read and write old hebrew. If that seems like an unfair advantage it is. They could pick up on nuances of the writing as they processed the text.

To illustrate how this might have worked, I will nonchalantly drop a haiku right into the middle of this paragraph:

The reader searches
Grasping for poetic slant
And is moved by it

If you’re familiar with the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of this ancient Japanese art form you recognize it immediately. Now was that poetic or literal? And why am i suddenly in the mood for sushi? And once we start debating whether ‘moved’ refers to a physical act or an emotional one, the debate could really heat up. Did the reader, in attempting to ‘literally’ pick up a poem that is apparently leaning at a non-perpendicular angle, find himself in motion? Did said poem actually ambulate the reader’s body out of it’s pre-poetic space on the cartesian grid and place it down somewhere else? Perhaps somewhere better?  Is ‘poetic slant’ a metaphor for “slippery slope”? And away we go. ( Note: if you were moved emotionally by that Haiku you need to get out more.)

Literal in this context IS poetic, which explains why, when i am accused of not reading Genesis chapter one literally, I have been known to reply with a whiny “What do you mean by the word literal?”

Literal simply means that the reader understands the text in the same way the original audience did. Of course it’s not as easy as picking up an English translation twenty five centuries later and reading it like you would People Magazine. This doesn’t mean I’ve figured Genesis out. What this does mean is that the conversation, no matter how much fun it is, shouldn’t result in anyone losing an eye.

I don’t think we show the proper respect for scripture or each other until we are prepared to do the homework. Torah For Dummies anyone?

Searching For A Sensible God

Searching For A Sensible God

by | May 10, 2015 | Uncategorized

I have been a Jesus Follower for most of my life unless you’re counting that six week stint in the ninth grade when I went to town with a mouthful of cusswords. In retrospect I think Jesus was okay with my juvenile outbursts. It was my conscience that couldn’t take the stress. So I repented. (Hardly a dramatic story of redemption – “Uhh… well… I accidentally listened to this George Carlin record 46 times and I memorized it. Uhh… and then I felt bad…” And now I wanna get baptized.) Back then, even at my worst, I knew that words were powerful and could be used for both good and evil.

Not much has changed in forty years. I am more convinced today than when I was a scrawny preachers kid that the Bible is an inspired book that can change the destiny of a person or even an entire community. However, I have also come to realize that the Bible can sometimes be a head-scratching summary of God’s attempt to communicate with His creation. And no, the most scrutinized collection of writings in the history of literature cannot be deciphered at first glance like a quick flip through an IHOP menu.

While I have always been able to defend my belief in the God of the Bible, I have sometimes struggled to make my faith fit with the God of Nature. That may sound odd, but I think this is true for many people who call themselves Christians. In the past, regardless of how fervently I held to my creationist perspective, I have often been met with blank stares by people outside of the faith. Trying to share my reasons for God, while pointing into the petri dish of Evangelical Bible Science (or Intelligent Design as it has been rebranded) made the task even tougher.

But in spite of this frustration, I am convinced that the universe makes sense because it was created by a sensible God. The Heavens do, without any doubt in my mind, declare the glory of a Creator. However, based on recent revelations (to me) I must confess to being deaf, blind and willfully ignorant of discerning the fingerprints of God within the framework of the Scientific method.

So… I’ve decided to record my findings and observations while I attempt to sort out the contentious issues that make the faith versus reason argument so compelling to some of us. I’m going to talk to experts and idiots alike. Eventually, I hope to be able to tell the difference between the two.

Your opinions are always welcome. Let me know what you think.