Church Voices

Having been raised in the church during the 1980s, I received much knowledge concerning morality, but some tidbits I picked up were less than stellar. One such inculcated gem, was a rabid disdain for dungeons and dragons; that sinister game that could infiltrate the minds of adolescents and convert them into suicidal devil worshiprs. Well, like a good Christian young man, I wasn’t hesitant about expressing my view to my friends who has partaken in that heathen ritual… needless to say, I felt a touch foolish the first time I watched them actually play a game… wondering why on earth we were so bent against it. Years later after having been in the ministry for a while, one of my students afforded me the opportunity to play a game, and I decided I’d try it out. I loved it, and have been playing it nearly weekly ever since. I can tell you truthfully that neither I, nor any of my students who participate in this game have committed suicide, nor have we begun worshipping Satan. In fact, I see that over the past year Dungeons and Dragons has become a peculiar draw to our ministry, as our regular gaming nights tend to draw a specific crowd that the church has largely ignored in the bulk of its outreach endeavors. In fact, two individuals we baptized last month came to us as a direct result of our playing of dungeons and dragons… clearly this is not the adversary’s domain… well, unless we decide to cede it to him, which most of us apparently have. This all begs the question as to why the church occasionally picks innocuous social phenomenon and decides to wage war against it, as though our eternities hung in the balance.

To be honest, I see the hand of a very intelligent adversary in this. During WW2 the British intelligence campaign known as “Bodyguard” engaged in an elaborate ruse intended to misdirect German resistance prior to the invasion of Normandy. One of these techniques was the use of inflatable tanks and contrived tread-marks throughout various fields in England, as well as false landing craft jamming the bays of England. This is how intelligent warfare is conducted… the wise adversary sets up phantom threats to conceal the real dangers in his arsenal. So it is with our adversary. Since the 1980s we’ve seen the occasional revelatory uprising of Christian watchdogs, who proclaim a book or a game to be an open door to Satan worship. It is spiritual death to our children, and our moral duty to openly oppose these things at every opportunity. All the while, religious syncretism, relativism, the death of sexual modesty, and other very real and very dangerous issues went virtually unopposed throughout the world’s congregations. And so, true to form, the American church does the easy thing and targets an adversary that can be boycotted or burned. Brilliant; ignore the call to wage war against spiritual powers and authorities, don’t bother with the corrupting influence of people who read books or play games, just berate a publisher and close your wallets, oh and don’t forget to level some partially conceived diatribe about satanic influence at people who already need Christ. Well, this all mindlessly ends in a bulk of the church jumping on board and rallying their teachings and parental oversight against a perceived threat. I don’t think I’d be exaggerating here if I were to suggest that perhaps 90% or more of said Christian populace has no first-hand experience with said threat, nor do they understand exactly why they should view it as a treat (save for the quick tidbits of zealous accusations they’ve gleaned from other Christians offering opinions on the issue). Are the Christians who jump on these issues bad people? …No, they’re just Christians who trust the church and are under the impression that this zeal of other believers has a solid foundation. Are these believers damaging possible evangelism opportunities, and ostracizing people needlessly? Absolutely. There is no doubt that people outside of Christianity view this type of paranoia as absurd (especially given that the vast majority of it is highly ill-informed and, well… absurd).

So what’s a believer to do? How about exercising a bit of shrewdness concerning the adversary’s intentions, and his ability to carry them out in and through the church? I’ve got to laud the wife of our senior minister who decided to actually read Harry Potter before passing judgment (she of course concluded that it is harmless fantasy fiction). I really appreciate Christians who don’t cede territory to the adversary that doesn’t really belong to him. In way of exhortation, please believers, exercise a bit of healthy skepticism regarding the zealous ranting of other Christians. Don’t take up a position on seemingly harmless issues unless you have a solid reason for doing so. Satan doesn’t have to make us worship him, it’s far easier to keep us looking like hysteric nuts, that no sane person would want to have anything to do with.

If you’ve ever attended a Sunday school class then eventually you’ll hear the phrase, “when people see you they should see a difference”. In my experience what this actually means is “people should notice you don’t smoke, drink, cuss or have pre-marital/adulterous sex”. You’ll see proof texts like, Ephesians 5.8, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light”.

Here’s the thing: our culture doesn’t give a crap about smoking, drinking, cussing or pre-marital/adulterous sex (in the case of smoking abstaining has become the norm, for the other three abstaining isn’t seen as admirable). Sure, they may notice you’re different, but it won’t be in a good way, and could even be in a “wow what a freak way”.

But here’s the other thing. I’m not sure the Biblical admonitions to be different from the world have anything to do with the sort of “don’t do these thing” lists put together by (generally) evangelical churches. Check out a couple of verses here:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
1 Peter 2:12

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16

In other words, what people should notice is different about us is not what we don’t do, but rather what we do do.

Here is the account of a guy who left Restoration Movement for Lutheranism.

As I read through his account it struck me how different the teaching I’ve received are from what he received. Check out his account of the Lord’s Supper:

In the Restoration Movement, the Lord’s Supper had always been about how well we cleansed ourselves via our sense of humilty before taking the Lord’s Supper. Instead of the sacrament being about how God touches His people, it was about how His people ascend to him through an impossible exercise of spiritual purity.

Contrast that with this from The Faith Once For All by Dr. Jack Cottrell, “The Lord’s Supper likewis is both worship and edification. We take the emblems not only as a memorial to honor our Savior, but also as a means of reminding ourselves that his blood is the only reason we are saved.” Now, I am by no means equivocating a sacramental view to the Restoration Movement, or to this particular statement. What I am saying though is that this view of the Lord’s Supper and the view that the Lord’s Supper is some sort of works based leaping towards God don’t equivocate either.

In fact as I found myself reading over his journey to Lutheranism I found myself thinking that if I were presented with the same sort of faith through the Restoration Movement that he was I would probably be Lutheran today as well.

Sadly, his story didn’t surprise me. Unfortunately, due to the decentralized nature of the Restoration Movement, and taking our theological identity from baptismal regeneration* there is a riptide of works based theology. I believe its fading, but its still out there, and I would rather have someone journey to Wittenberg than flail about in a vain attempt to work their way into the kingdom of God.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is brilliant:

Because evangelicals have too closely aligned themselves with political agendas, instead of the Scripture-derived social mission of the church, two camps have emerged over the past few decades. On the one hand, you have the “Christian-means-Republican” camp where many biblical imperatives are pursued through legislation and government force, and on other hand, you have the pathetic economics and theocratic biblical theology of prophetical left in the likes of guys like Bono, the One Campaign, and so on. Both camps pursue the same method, except that “the right” might start with the Pentateuch and Romans whereas “the left” might begin with the Prophets and the Sermon on the Mount. Both turn to government instead of the church to do the work of the Kingdom of God.

I noticed as I was flipping through channels the other day that there were approximately 40 episodes of Law and Order on at the same time. Oh, there was also CSI, Crossing Jordan, Forensic Files, and Without a Trace. So if you want a crime drama featuring weird angles, beautiful people, dim lighting and blue filters on every camera you’re pretty much set. But if you want much of anything else then you’re pretty much out of luck.

Ever feel that way about Sunday School? You can change classrooms and all you get are different variations on the same theme? Maybe its divided by age, and maybe its a different subject matter, but adult Sunday school classes are all teacher to class communications with (if you’re lucky) a bit of discussion thrown in.

What if we changed up the genre just a bit? What if instead of the Nth different crime drama we threw in a documentary, a comedy, some sports, or maybe a game show (preferably Jeopardy)? But how do we do that? How do we change the channel on our Sunday School classes? Here’s a starting point.

1. Avoid creating just another variation of what we already have. This means a new curriculum, or isn’t the answer.

2. This isn’t about style. DVDs, and changes of format aren’t what we’re looking for here. This is supposed to be a change of genre, not a newer, slicker version of what we had before.

3. Much of what your church already does might work. Simply slot it into the Sunday School hour, with some changes for new people to catch up to what you do, and to accommodate the time limit.

Here’s some suggestions:

The Service Channel
This channel consists of planning and doing service projects. This channel will likely require at least some participation at other times but smaller projects can be handled during that hour, such as shoveling walks of nearby houses or other types of simple upkeep.

The Innovation Channel
Have the church leadership outline and describe problems in the community. Use various brainstorming techniques to develop solutions to these problems. Have them juggle several issues at once so they can step away and come back to them. Also make sure to have them level criticisms at their own solutions. When they’ve refined their solutions have them bump the proposal up to the leadership. If a church is large enough for two such groups you can have each group give possible roadblocks to each of the proposals of the other group.

Its important to emphasize to this group that they are creating ideas, that the leadership has the ultimate decision on what to do, and many of their ideas may not be implemented or may be altered, or delayed. Of course this group could also work on problems within the church, but that brings a lot of risks with it for internal conflict.

The Prayer Channel
One of the weaknesses of many churches is reducing prayer to a list of health needs. Its hard to do that when you pray for an hour. A variety of different types of prayer are found in scripture, this channel would imitate them, and would include a variety of individual and group prayer, perhaps an outline of what is being prayed for.

The Creation Channel
Whether its the production of video clips for websites/advertising, or devotions written for the congregation, or artwork and/or decorations for a sermon series. This could include specific projects, or perhaps general set creation/decorations for at theme.

These channels are just a few of what could be offered. It all depends on the needs of a church/community, and the particular gifts of a congregation.

Last week at church one of my congregants made the comment that he was listening to Larry King and agreed with him that one of the major errors Christians have made is allowing things like the Easter bunny to creep into Easter.

I disagree.

First, just let me say that I understand that things like the Easter bunny and Santa Claus, if taken as the reason to celebrate can turn a celebration of Jesus into a celebration of chocolate and gifts. But, I also don’t think that’s anywhere close to as huge an error as being Grimly Christian.

We probably all know someone who is Grimly Christian. Generally its someone who seems to take things like the Easter bunny, wearing proper clothing and Sunday School Attendance as salvation issues. To give you an example there used to be a minister in the area who would yell at people to sit down from the pulpit when they would get up to use the restroom, even if they were older, or younger, or he was rolling up on an hours worth or sermonizing. Want to know if someone is Grimly Christian? Well that’s pretty easy. On Sunday morning look around and try to spot someone who isn’t laughing or smiling (of course the lack of smiling and laughing doesn’t automatically make them Grimly Christian, after all it is early and the coffee and donuts may not have hit their blood stream yet) and tell them a joke, or even better, tell them a joke involving Jesus, or one that is self-effacing. For example:

A rather pompous deacon was teaching a children’s Sunday school class, and asked the kids, “Why would people look at me and think I’m a Christian?” One small child looked up and answered, “Because they don’t know you?”

Its even better if you can take a shot at the denomination you’re a part of, this is a great one for our Baptist readers.

What is the difference between a Baptist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist!

If the person in question laughs he’s not Grimly Christian. If he says “that’s not funny” he’s also not Grimly Christian as he’s clearly indicated he knows what a joke is. If all you get is a cold glare, then you’ve got a live one.

Now lets be clear, the Grim Christian is a Christian (he’s just Grim), and he’s going to be at church every Sunday morning, and Wednesday evening, and will speak up in Sunday School, and may even be leading Sunday school class (God forbid!) and will be volunteering for VBS, and whatever else his church does (or at least whatever else his church has done since he was a child).

So why in the world would I say that Grim Christianity would be a bigger problem than secular practices creeping into Christian holidays? Well, first, take a gander at this:

That’s what Christianity does, makes you hate yourself. To be a Christian, one must believe that their self, their essential self is bad. Christianity takes away the natural exuberance from life. That’s what happened to me as a child, and I spent the next 20 years trying to make peace with the angry sky-god I was told about as a young child. Finally something in me snapped, and I said “ENOUGH!”. The last 10 years have been a search for self and truth. I will not go back to the mental slavery and self-hate that has so colored my life.

I am now trying to get back what was stolen from me years ago.

This is why Grim Christianity is a threat. This is what stone faced, humorless, grimacing, Grim Christians do to people, especially when they end up in leadership. Grim Christians understand salvation, and they understand sin, oh do they understand sin, but they miss completely the results of salvation. Take that last quote and compare it to these verses:

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
- John 10:10

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
- Matthew 2:9-11

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
- John 15:11

The results of salvation is not Grimness, it is joy and life.

Or take the central idea of the writer that the essential self is a terrible thing. This is not the message of scripture (although the message of scripture is that the essential self has been twisted by sin, but more on that in a moment).

So God created human beings in his own image… Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
- Genesis 1:27, 31

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
- Ephesians 2:10

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
- Psalm 139:13-14

Do these scriptures indicate that God has created humans in a way that is so awful that each of us should be hating ourselves? In fact, as we take a look at scripture we see that only through Christ can the essential self truly be revealed, because its only through Christ that the destructive effects of sin can be rolled back to reveal who we really are, and it is only through Christ the self has the freedom to be exactly what God intended it to be.

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
- Romans 6:14

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17

A church full of Grim Christians can never, ever communicate these things. Grim Christians exchange the freedom and life that Christ died to give them here, on earth, right now for soul crushing guilt and obligation that has to be endured for the sake of eternity. That’s not what Christ came to do, that’s not what the scriptures teach, and that’s not how God created us or meant for us, so when someone writes earlier about leaving Christianity because it has caused him to hate himself we shouldn’t be surprised because the very nature that God has created us with, and the Spirit that He’s sent to us don’t agree at all.

Hattip: Jolly Blogger
Grim Christian bait

Michael Spencer lays out Five things wrong with evangelical churches. Lets take a peek under the hood (btw, there’s far more to the little quotes I’m pulling out, so go read the whole thing for a fuller view of what he’s really saying, despite the abbreviated quotes I am trying to accurately represent the whole of his writing).

1. Eliminating All Hymns: ….There’s another good point about preserving the heritage of hymnody: it’s already been sorted out by history. Go pick up a hymnal from 150 years ago, and you will find as many bad songs as you’re hearing on K-Love today, but a modern hymnal (Trinity, Celebration, Baptist) has sorted through those hymns to the best of the best. In other words, we know how God has used “Man of Sorrows” and “Immortal, Invisible.”

Evangelicals should find a way to keep the heritage of great hymns alive. Dumping them entirely for secular and CCM music is a dumb move and evidence that too many churches are leaving important decisions to the wrong people.

Usually I stay out of this conversation, but allow me to interject this: the church has a lot of catching up to do. The reason these are sorted out is because the creative outlet of the church was stopped up for so long, we’ve had nothing to do for hundreds of years but evaluate hymns so of course we got our wheat and chaff piles all worked out. However, its only been just recently that the creative juices have begun to flow again, and its hard to justify putting on the brakes when it took so long to find the friggin gas pedal. If you believe that the creative impulse was put there by our creator and it was put there to be used as worship then you’ve gotta believe that it needs to be used. It wasn’t for a long, long time so we’ve got some growing pains to go through, growing pains that will include figuring out what is contemporary but bad, and what is contemporary but good.

2. Goofy Youth Minister Style Preaching: It’s beginning to become clear to me that there’s a stylistic issue that’s consuming a lot of young preachers. Some of you won’t like what I am going to say but I promise you 1) I am a youth minister and 2) I’ve spoken to thousands of young people. I’m a fan of a lot of what I hear from many young pastors, and I know what’s going on…..but…..

Preaching has some basics. When Mark Driscoll suggests that Chris Rock is the preaching teacher you need, I am wincing. The preaching teacher you need is someone like Lloyd-Jones, D.A. Carson, John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson or Al Martin. Chris Rock- or Mark Driscoll- is the influence you need to ADD to BASIC PREACHING ESSENTIALS in order to speak in some settings.

Again we see some of the same stuff as above. Preaching style hadn’t changed in quite some time. I turn on some “classic” preaching from most of the 20th century I can usually pinpoint what theological view the preacher has before he gets to doctrine based on the style of preaching. Its going to take some sorting out what works and what doesn’t and some of it will work in a very local context, and some of it won’t. For now, lets just thank God that the current generation seems to be looking at preaching as something that deserves our creative processes instead of a mechanical, formulaic process. Eventually it will be sorted out and the silliness will blow away.

3. No Church Membership: Oh brother. The church is not an audience. It’s not a crowd that watches a show. It’s not a fan club. It’s a community. It has boundaries.

Eh, whatever. With or without official membership you’ll have the same type of animal emerging and coalescing. As a minister in a church with membership it is kind of nice to be able to point and say “they’re in” and “they’re out” definitively, but that’s not always a good or healthy thing.

4. The MegaChurch Agenda vs The Healthy Church Agenda: That sounds like an entire conference. Maybe it ought to be. Big churches have always driven evangelicalism. The influence of large church pastors has always been pervasive. I can’t imagine that will ever change.

Must be nice to have a nice clean paradigm where a church is either mega or healthy. Alright so that’s a little unfair, but he does let you get through half the section before he clarifies “I’m not saying megachurches aren’t healthy. I’m not trying to get rid of them”. I’m not in the habit of criticizing a bunch of faceless churches out there but, that you can’t quite put your finger on which churches exactly because that’s how you slip into fighting boogymen. But lets leave it at the place we can agree: all churches, whether large or small need to be healthy by teaching proper doctrine and taking care of their fellow brothers and sisters. It just so happens megachurches are an easier, bigger target than small churches that completely burn people up and out. In my life I’ve had really positive experiences with large and medium churches and was completely torched by a small church. Instead of using that to make a broad statement about the terror of tiny churches I’ll just evaluate each as I come across them.

5. Too Much Music: I said “too much music.” I could illustrate this by writing that sentence for 60% of the post, but I won’t be that obvious.

A-frickin’-men.

Here’s sort of an interesting article on church shopping.

It begins:

We have some experience with this, having moved 11 times in 15 years. We’ve also changed churches without moving. If church shopping were a felony, I’d no longer be able to vote.

Church shopping isn’t terribly unusual, (and there’s nothing wrong with it so long as the shopping leads to an eventual purchase), but the demographic I usually associate with church shopping is young (ie not having a family yet), so this is a bit interesting in that we have an entire family church shopping. Like a car shopper she’s looking for a certain set of options.

Now, I know there are many people who have meaningful religious experiences inside ugly churches, but I’m not one of them. I dislike modern structures that resemble gyms with crucifixes, with their rows of folding chairs. I want a church that looks like a church; the grander, the better. And this one looked the part. It was both majestic and simple, with stained glass befitting an anteroom of heaven. It was old. It was loved. Surely the people who worshiped within appreciated beauty and recognized its importance in the adoration of the Creator.

I happen to agree on this point, sadly, because I don’t belong to a church that has wealth accumulated over thousands of years I generally don’t have the option of worshiping in that kind of setting. However, I don’t have a problem with someone taking into consideration the aesthetics of the worship setting. As long as one doesn’t confuse worship preference with a mandate from God Himself.

Now, as Catholic families go, with four kids, we’re hardly pushing the reproductive envelope. But, inexplicably, the pews at this church seat four adults comfortably, five snugly, and so somebody had to sit on a lap. Okay, we could deal with this, and even the kneelers designed by de Sade.

Practical considerations are also good. Trying to attend a church 5 hours away doesn’t work, and if worshiping as a family is important being able to fit in the same pew is also important.

Fleece and denim prevailed, with Spandex close behind. Washing appeared to be optional; ironing discouraged. Men collecting the offering wore T-shirts from their latest 5Ks. Whole families went to Communion in blue jeans with ragged edges that dragged on marble floor. Altar servers wore cowboy boots and Crocs.

Alright, we’ve been here a million times before. These people over here say dressing up shows respect for God, these people over here say it doesn’t matter how we dress God sees the inside not the outside. While I sympathize with the the raggedly dressed people over there, can’t we, at some point, recognize this is an area of Christian freedom and worship next to each other? Or is this one of those issues so important that its worth dividing the body of Christ over? You know, you’ve got baptism, the papacy, communion, and… how people dress. One of these things is not like the other.

For a while, some children were wearing Heelys in the fellowship hall, until the church posted a sign saying they were no longer allowed because they weren’t safe. WEREN’T SAFE? How about because they are disrespectful and inappropriate?

Wow. Just wow. I mean seriously, playing in the fellowship hall is a problem now? Maybe they should put up a nice big sign that says “if you must fellowship, do it quietly, and quite grimly”.

Now, if you want to read the whole thing, please do so, I’d encourage it because the laundry list of problems continues, some of it reasonable, some of it not so reasonable, but here’s the thing, at every single church of every single denomination, at all times there will be something to criticize and/or irk the crap out of you. Some of it reasonable, some of it not so reasonable.

So what’s the solution? Well, I think perhaps there’s a clue early on in the article:

I am a ruthless church shopper, not because my family spends so much time in a sanctuary, but because we spend so little. I figure if we are going to spend only an hour or two each week in formal worship of the Almighty, it better be a quality hour, one with a challenging sermon, soaring music and no Game Boys in the next pew.

I’ve attended quite a few church and I’ve never been content in one I show up at once a week for a worship service. Getting to work, becoming a servant and doing more than just showing up for an hour for a service is required. You’ll still see the warts on your church, probably more than you do showing up once a week for an hour, but for some reason when you’re actually a part of the creation process for some reason that brings with it a sense of satisfaction and belonging that the lack of perfection can’t take away.

Being a huge Pistons fan I was perusing through one of my favorite NBA sites, aptly named Basketbawful and came across this little snippet of Intolerable Cruelty and this jumped out at me:

(Here’s a true story. When I was in college, a buddy of mine went to Sweden to attend Bible school. While he was there, he and several of the other students went down to the town square and sung hymns. Some of the local tough guys didn’t like that, and so they started heckling the group, which was comprised mostly of women and the kind of men who go to Bible school — interpret that however you want. Anyway, my friend confronted them, and, despite the Swedish history of wartime neutrality, one of the tough guys bitchslapped my friend. But being a God-fearing man well-versed in scripture, he remembered Jesus’ advice and turned the other cheek…only to have that one bitchslapped as well. He turned his cheek again, and he got slapped again. This went on for several minutes, until my friend collapsed into unconsciousness. Afterward, he called me from Sweden — which, at that time, was something like $153 per minute — to proudly tell me about getting his ass kicked in front of his friends, just like Jesus would have done! This story always cheers me up.)

There’s a fairly well known story about Teddy Roosevelt getting fired from being a Sunday School teacher. He had a boy in his class who had just come from fighting. When Teddy asked why he had been fighting the boy said because some other boy had called his sister a bad name. Teddy gave the kid $1 and told him to keep up the good work. When the den mothers of the church found out they had him removed from the Sunday school classroom.

Sadly, since that day the Church Den Mothers have ruled the church with an oven mitted fist tightly clenched around anything resembling manliness. In fact, I have it on good authority that the phrase “man up” has never been uttered in a church building, and as time has gone on (as time is wont to do) men began their exodus from the apron stringed slavery found in church buildings until we’ve reached the point where demographic commentary on the men who remain can be made accurately by sites like Basketbawful.

In a related story, Mark Driscoll handled the question from Relevant magazine about challenges the church faces in the future with his usual double fisted aplomb:

Q. What do you see as the greatest challenge for young Christians in the next 10 years?

A. There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types want to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural then Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.

Now am I suggesting that we have arm wrestling contests as part of our worship? No. but I am suggesting that giving a kid a buck for pounding on a bully that picks on his sister is the kind of behavior that should be encouraged from Godly men.

I’m feeling a bit tired right now. And a bit grumpy. Garrison Kielor, known for his homespun stories which contrast greatly with his nasty, venomous pen, has added a new wrinkle to his resume: liar.

Here’s the full account. In case you’re interested. Long story short, for the sake of his ideology he libeled a great many people.

We’ve been here before with the whole Salon dust up where an author picked and chose her interviewee’s quotes to create a story that never happened, but which just so happened to fit her ideology.

And making the latest rounds in the media has been an account of how President Bush secretly despises Christians. This little media event has raised some red flags because it is happening just before an election (how convenient is that timing?), the author is being sold as something he’s not (a “card carrying member of the religious right”, when he’s been a political operative his entire life), the most inflammatory sections of the book are attributed to anonymous staffers making it impossible to verify the statements, and the author has suggested that Christians “fast” from politics, again, convenient that comes just before an election when the author has been railing against a particular politician.

What do these three things have in common? Other than the obvious lies, misrepresentations, and manipulations? Well, in all these cases we have to trust the authors tell us the truth. We have absolutely no way of verifying any of the truth on our own. We are completely at the author’s mercy.

So what happens when the reader discovers the deception? The break in trust is so great, and so profound, that any chance the writer would have had to persaude, or effect the reader in any way is 100% gone. There is no chance for rebuttal, apology, repentance, or rehabilitation. Because there is no check in place for the reader to call the writer into account. Once bitten twice shy and all that.

So what’s the point in all this? Well chances are that if you’re taking time out of your day to read a peice on a blog called “Church Voices” you are probably somewhat involved in your church (or in opposing the church), either way you’re active and probably in some capacity in which you are a communicator, even if it is only informally. The rub comes when your audience detects deception, manipulation or just a propensity for axe grinding. Because once that happens any capacity we have for effective communication becomes exactly zero.