Category Archives: General

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Rethinking “Making Him Famous”

fameI don’t know where it started. My guess is within the “Restless and Reformed” community. I’m pretty sure that’s where I first heard it and continue to.

It sounds sexy doesn’t it?!

The phrase came about in a time when America and possibly much of the world became obsessed with fame.

Yeah we had always liked and admired our movie stars, but something happened in 2000’s that made us go crazy about fame. Maybe it was reality TV and the fact that regular people could be famous while possessing no talents that a reasonable person would consider entertaining, or maybe it was the advent of Youtube and viral videos enabling someone to become famous without even being on TV at all. A culmination of these things made people willing to get married on TV to a perfect stranger, or have the first year of marriage filmed for the world to see, it made Paris Hilton one of the most famous people in the world all because she… well I honestly don’t know what she does exactly.

I have no doubt that many people repeating this slogan are well-meaning and even hold in their hearts something good and right when they say it.

But I think it’s a mantra that begs for further examination.

Someone who follows a famous person is called a fan. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m a fan of more than a few people. But Jesus doesn’t need fans.

 

Maybe “making him famous,” isn’t something Jesus wants.

I’m sure that many are saying, ‘But Shane, doesn’t Jesus want to be known in people’s hearts?’ and to that I would say, of course he does, but who is first famous person that comes to your mind? Do you know them… in your heart? Do you know their deepest wants and needs, their dreams and fears? Of course not. You know of them, but you don’t know them.

Why on earth would we use the most superficial of words to describe the way in which Jesus wants to be known to the world?!

You might be thinking that this is splitting hairs, that it’s just semantics, but the truth is, words matter. Words matter greatly. They shape the way we think and behave. We can use them to convey God’s proper place in our hearts, or relegate him to the cover of an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

 

 

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Gosnell & Pro-Life Hypocrisy

We’ve probably all heard the repulsive details that have come to light during the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor on trial for murder.

The internet is not in short supply of articles about the case and the abortion debate as a whole. I don’t usually read articles from pro-life news sources like LifeNews.com, not because I don’t agree with what is said, but because of the general hypocrisy inherent in most pro-life publications. However, I was struck by the title and content of this article from LN, “Why Grisly Abortion Practitioner Kermit Gosnell Should be Acquitted.”

It’s a great set up for one of pro-lifers strongest arguments: Why are these acts found SO hideous, SO egregious and deserving of murder charges when they take place outside of the womb, yet, acceptable and permissible when conducted inside the womb?

The logic being -why should we single out this abortion doctor for doing outside the womb, what is done everyday around the country inside the womb.

I agree with this argument. In fact, I think it’s very astute.

However, while pointing out the hypocrisy of abortion advocates, it further points out the pro-life communities own hypocrisy.

The pro-life community rarely shows concern for life outside of the womb; the life on foreign soil, the life of the orphan, and the life of the single mother.

This hypocrisy is further highlighted when the majority of the pro-life messages on twitter are capped with the hashtag “tcot,” short hand for “Top Conservatives On Twitter,” sending the message that if you’re pro-life but on the other side of the aisle then your isolated, we’re not on the same team, I’m more interested in this political philosophy than a consistently advocating for the sanctity of life.

Dear pro-life community, you’re not taken seriously, because you have shown that you don’t even believe in the sanctity of life.

I’ve written a more exhaustive post on this issue in the past. You can read it here:  Roe V Wade, Abortion & A Hypocritical Pro-Life Movement.

 

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Prototype Officially Released Today!

Although it’s been available in a few select places already, Prototype officially releases today!prototype book

These last few months this message has been coming to me over and over again…
If I truly knew and believed that God both loves AND likes me, my life would be utterly changed.

Insecurity within me would recoil…

Doubt would diminish…

Guilt would vanish…

If I believed that God delighted in me, I would look more like Jesus.

And that, in my words, is what this book is about.

 

Jonathan is not cutting me any commission, so you know I’m serious when I tell you to GO. BUY. THIS. BOOK.

…and if you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to listen to my interview with Jonathan.

 

 

 

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By Fighting Against Legal Gay Marriage Are We Just Worshiping The State?

equalnot equal

With all of the frenzy surrounding the Supreme Court’s deliberating over The Defense of Marriage Act in what I’m calling “Unsolicited Opinion about Gay Marriage Week,” I went back and forth about whether or not to write a comprehensive post, or series of posts, on the subject. At this point I’m deciding to hold off on that.

I do want to offer one thought.

I can’t help but think that the anger, fear and contempt coming from many Christians this week, stems from finding our identity in the state rather than Christ.

Hear me out, it’s really not a stretch at all.

Homosexual couples already exist and the government can’t and shouldn’t have any say in that. They want the right to marry.  The arguments against gay marriage are adorned with references to the Bible, but really the Bible only addresses the act. In no way does it address the state recognizing the union of same-sex couples. When you get right down to it, the basic argument of those who oppose gay marriage is: They shouldn’t be able to have what I have -an official recognition from the state.

This leads me to believe that many Christians are basing the legitimacy of their marriage on the fact that they received a certificate from the government.

The truth of Christian doctrine is that God ordains marriage, not the state.

Once, when talking to a friend who had recently gotten married, he told me that he and his wife went to a Justice of the Peace to get married before the state, and then, a few days later, on a cruise with their friends and family, they were married before God. I thought that was beautiful, they recognized that for practical purposes it would be beneficial to receive a certificate from the government, but only God could truly ordain their marriage -which leads me to my point. Whatever you believe God thinks about homosexuality, the government issuing a piece of paper doesn’t change that.

Is your marriage legitimate because the government says so, or because God says so?

Like I said, I truly think that all of this anger, fear, and contempt is rooted in the fact that we find more identity in the government than Jesus.

That’s what happens when you worship a Jesus with a  flag draped over him. You just wind up worshiping the flag.

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Christianity: The Most Mystic of Beliefs

candle

As most of you know I recently interviewed Richard Foster (my friends are wondering when I’m going to shut up about it). Besides his teachings meaning so much to me, one reason I admire him so much is because of ability to not only reach across denominations but also across the conservative/liberal spectrum. I still believe this to be true in general, but you can imagine my surprise when I was preparing for my interview with Foster and came across a few Youtube videos dedicated to “exposing” Foster for his mysticism.

I don’t know why I was surprised by ultra-fundamentalists having a problem with Foster, because of course they do. In a world where Westboro Baptist ‘church’ and other ridiculous groups exist, why wouldn’t there be a group of people who dedicate their time to ridiculing a man who is all about… communicating with God.

Then, that group (or a member of it)  took a field trip to my blog.

In the post where I announced that I would be interviewing Foster and would be taking listener questions, a comment appeared…

“What does foster have to say about his quaker roots in mysticism?  Clearly foster is not preaching the Jesus of the bible but another Jesus and another Gospel.

Can you have him comment on this?”

I chose not to include the link to the commenters blog post in which he outlines his indictment of Richard Foster the heretic.

Nevermind that this comment was posted more than a week after I had published the interview with Foster, leading me to believe that this individual is regularly searching the internet for mentions of Richard Foster so that he can inflict some cowboy justice on Foster and save all of us who are being led astray. Obviously this person made no effort to check and see if there was a completed interview, listen to said interview, and hear out what Foster has to say.

This all leads me to believe someone who has issue with Foster’s overall message either needs to…

A.) read Foster’s writings more closely. I tend to wonder if most people who dismiss Foster as a heretic have read his works at all. Anti-intellectualism tends to run ramped in these circles, and I would not be surprised if they believe they should not even read Foster lest they fall under his mystic spell.

or

B.) read scripture more closely.

I want to focus on the latter.

According to dictionary.com (hope there are no dictionary snobs out there)…

The definition of Mysticism is : a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding,or of a direct,
intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.

 

How about we use Peter as a case study?

The books of Acts describes this curious happening:

” 9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.”

Let’s see, “…immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding,” yes, I do believe this qualifies.
“…a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy” we have a winner!

You see, the proper argument to make, is not that Foster and his teachings are not of the Christian-mystic variety, but that Christianity as it is presented in the Bible is a mystic belief.

Meditation? Mentioned 19 times in the Bible (NRSV), 14 if you stick with the translation Paul and Jesus read, the King James Version, (sometimes I worry my sarcasm doesn’t convey well enough in the written word).

Fasting? Mentioned 26 times.

Solitude? How much time did Jesus spend alone in the desert?

Confession? “…confess your sins to one another…” James 5:16

Dreams, visions, virgin birth, God baby, water to wine, multiplying of bread & fish, healing by touch, RESURRECTION, ascension, sudden blindness on the road to Damascus, eschatological prophecy… This all sounds very mystic to me. 

So before we go deciding who’s in and who’s out maybe we should at least make sure our facts are straight and understand that perhaps God is not nearly as narrow as we are. 

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Interview Coming Soon: Jonathan Martin

Jonathan Martin pic

Jonathan Martin will be my next interviewee for Seminary Dropout!

Jonathan Martin leads the liars, dreamers, and misfits of Renovatus: A Church for People Under Renovation, in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his wife Amanda. He is the author of the forthcoming Prototype.

From the publisher:

prototype book

“Jesus is God and we are not. Most of us get that. But what we don’t always understand is that God loves us just as much as He does His son. Many times in the Old Testament, God refers to human beings as His “beloved.” But when God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. He lived every moment of his life fully convinced of His identity. And unlike every other person in history . . . He never forgot. 

In Prototype, Jonathan Martin creates a vivid understanding of what it means to be beloved by God. To completely trust, as Jesus did, that God loves you. To live life without fear, confident in your identity and purpose. To handle life’s wounds as Jesus did, and to wake every day with a deep awareness of God’s presence. 

Martin reveals a startling truth at the heart of the gospel: Jesus is our prototype. And as we discover how the knowledge of being God’s beloved changed everything for Jesus—how it set Him free to live out his purpose and love God, others, and the world—it will begin to do the same for us.”

For anyone interested, you can hear Jonathan’s sermons at the Renovatus website, and catch him on twitter. Both are worth your time!

I’m currently taking listener questions for Jonathan so leave them in the comments!