Jesus for Governer of South Carolina ?

WE ARE VIOLATED...WE ARE VIOLATED...WE ARE VIOLATED...

is what we keep hearing from our brothers and sisters in South Carolina. If you read:

www.christianexodus.org

you will get a sense of this.

They are calling for Barnabas brothers to move to South Carolina. Ian (our new member) asks "couldn't we do it, like, nine months out of the year?" Actually, they want many, many Christians to move to South Carolina to have a majority.

So, let's say, we all do that...then what? We pass laws that would please all of the Christians? So we pass what laws? Do we pass laws against homosexuals, deers and the arts? Granted, artists like Matthew Barney will want all three of these to be combined (http://www.cremaster.net/) So they would want to forbid Mathew Barney's of the world to make art. We do think Barney's art borders on evil, but if we pass all the laws that we want, would that eradicate all the sins of the world?

Think back to the 50's. Think forward one decade to the 60's. Did the 50's counter against the corruption of culture, or contribute to it? If our brothers and sisters in this movement to move to South Carolina are successful, would that make a better society, or would it cause a huge vacuum in culture in other areas? Are we talking about political Christianity, or are we talking about a Redemptive Christianity?

WE love New York City. We have moved to NYC and plan to raise our families in NYC (except our newcomer Ian, who is called to pastor in Greenwich...) We do that because we believe that God's blessing pours through all people, regardless of whether they believe in Jesus or not. We believe that God loves the cities, because people congregate there, and they are God's creation. Even if they do not know Christ, they still reflect the glory of God. Further, we believe that we NEED non-Christians to learn from, to journey with, because we are "resident aliens" and aliens need friends.

When Constantine (330) came into power, his "Christianizing" of a nation caused Christianity to weaken. Christianity, apparently, is best when marginalized, as an alternative community of God. Perhaps we need to stay in the cities where we are minorities, because we will be more effective.

"I cut myself with a paper...should I be trusted with an automatic weapons?" Was Kevin's last comment as he left.

Food for thought,
Kevin, Bryan. Mako, Ian, and Kirk

How Could Bette Midler be Right/From a Distance?

Mako shared that CBS Morning Show had Bette Midler on this morning to reflect on love (she has been married 21 years). Here's what she said:

"Love doesn't stand still," she said. "It's constantly in motion, it's constantly transforming itself. You have to, I think, be accepting of the way it is. Those great chemical urges you have when you're a kid, they don't hang around, no matter how much Viagra you take. You have to get to the point where you see the person and see the person's soul and you adore the person's soul. That's really what we're here for, I think, ultimately."

Bette, way to go! We are encouraged by someone in music/entertainment that somehow discovered what is really important.

We also discussed a book Kirk brought in: "Plowing in Hope," by a librarian in Oregan named David Hegeman. We ageed that this book is worthy of our attention because the author connects creativity with marriage and worship as Edenic, pre-Fallen activity.

Stephen J Tepper spoke recently at a conference that Kevin attended for Chamber Music America. Tepper noted the rise of the Creative Class is countered by the rise of the Consumer Class, and the demise of America is inbedded in who ends up on top. Either the Creative Class who invests in the cultural account, or the Consumer Class which only seeks to withdraw from the account.

So back to Bette Midler. She has been married 21 years. What she says here connects marriage to creativity and redemption. It's kind of what Hegeman states in his book. Because both marriage and creativity is reflected in the Genesis account of Eden BEFORE the fall, anyone excersizing these activities, whether Christian or not, redeems culture.

The three pre-Fall "God-mandates" of mariage, worship, and culture all were twisted by the Fall. It is encouraging to see those who seem outside the kingdom observe the purity, the Truth, of these mandates...Bette with marriage...and Tepper with culture.

Peace, out
Kirk. Mako. Bryan, and Kevin

"If I had known at the time..."

This weeks topic:

We started with an old subject that we wanted to put on the site because we thought the statement was really cool even though it may seem to do very little with what we talked about the rest of the time...(but if you really think about it deeply, this statement has alot to do with what we talked about.)

"We need more Christian Paleontologists and less Christian Pornographers."

No...really, apparently there is such a thing as Christian pornography. (see www.sexinchrist.com...we of course do not condone this site or its messages in any way)

But what we really discussed were the controversies surrounding the Intelligent Design theory. In a recent lecture by The Village Church attended by Mako and new guest, Tom, they heard about the weaknesses in the ID camp (by established scientists who are Christians who are members of the church)....especially in regards to its claims at being science (they critique Behe and Dembski as not giving proper analysis of scientific evidence) . So we debated several things, first that scientists (Christian or not) themselves are not neutral even though it would seem the general culture treats anything scientific as sacred. We all have presuppositions from which we start. Secondly, we decided that we wanted there to be good science from the ID camp...GOOD science. We wondered why scientists who were Christians were not speaking into this issue and concluded that it might be out of a fear of being misunderstood and incorrectly labeled by either side. Their plight, it seemed, was similar to that of artists in the art world who are Christians. Namely, that their own do not accept them.

We finally concluded that everything, in Theory, was Kevin's fault because he seemed to speak confidently about an issue though he had no expert knowledge...and in fact made up false statistics to support his arguments. He responded "If I had known at the time..."

We are voting at the next meeting as to whether we should forgive our brother for his arrogance (in Theory, of course). If you would like to vote with us on whether to forgive Kevin, please leave your vote on the blog and we will tally them at the next meeting.

(Mako notes here that the best statement by a scientist that night was the statement: "I am glad that my faith does not depend on whether I.D. or evolution being true or not." Amen)

What would remain in 500 years?



Peace Out,


Kirk, Mako, Ryann, Tom...and Kevin