Love Wins

Because I'm on twitter and a couple weeks ago I saw, and was distressed by, the furor that erupted over the book Rob Bell was about to release I decided that I would be reading that book.

There are three chief complaints that emerged over this book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
1. It was claimed that Rob Bell's ideas were Universalist
2. It was claimed that Rob Bell suggested Hell does not exist
3. It was claimed that Rob Bell suggested Hell is empty

If you're following along, yes claims 2 and 3 are contradictory in that 3 would suggest that Hell at least exists.  In any case, NONE of these are true claims.  I have only one simple suggestion, if you've read any C.S. Lewis, most specifically The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and A Grief Observed. Nothing Rob Bell has to say should be in any remote way "new" and if what Bell has to say is heresy then so is the work of Lewis. Bell's gift is that he's a great communicator and so it may be easier to understand in his book, but it has been said before.

I'm not going to give you my review of the book, read it for yourself, don't try to find out more before you read it, that's silly. Trying to find out what conclusions he comes to at the end of the book by reading blogs is like searching blogs to find out who committed murder in a mystery novel, and some of the bloggers made up their own ending. So, read it for yourself, and decide for yourself.  While you're at it, read a little Lewis too.

Theodicy in a Groaning World

Theodicy: In essence this is the question of why bad things happen to good people.

Last year at this time I was working on my senior thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas’ literal exposition on the book of Job. Several people I talked to, mostly at church, were intrigued and told me that they would be interested in reading my thesis as they had always been interested in that question of theodicy.  The problem is that I was writing a history paper on Aquinas’ work, and theodicy is a theological question, I suppose I could write on the changing perspectives in theodicy with an emphasis on Aquinas, but the other problem is that Thomas Aquinas genuinely didn’t seem to care about theodicy, and best I can tell people can ask that question of Christianity all they want but it happens to be the only religion that won’t give them an answer. Aquinas approached the book of Job as a question of Divine providence in that God throughout the whole book clearly was watching and had a hand in what was happening, though ‘the Adversary’ conducted many of the trials they were only permitted because God allowed them. So here’s a man whom God is actively allowing “bad things” to happen to, and Aquinas’ response is this:

    For good things do not always befall the good nor evil things the wicked. On the other hand, evil things do not always befall the good nor good things the wicked, but good and evil indifferently befall both the good and the wicked. (Prolog to the Exposition on Job)   

Mind you, this all falls into Aquinas’ argument relating to Providence which I am not discussing in this blog, I didn’t even discuss it in my thesis.  The paper I wrote ended up being a feminist piece on Aquinas’ effect on the role of Women’s Ordination. Also not my topic for this blog.

So why am I even breeching the subject of theodicy now?  For starters a magnitude 8.9 Earthquake hit Japan tonight and portions of the U.S. West Coast are under Tsunami Warning/Advisory only 14 months after a devastating Earthquake in Haiti, and 12 after an Earthquake of similar size in Chile. Recent floods in New Zealand and Australia not to mention earthquakes there in the last year.  My church is currently doing a study on suffering and Wednesday marked the beginning of lent.  Accidents, natural disaster and unpreventable incurable diseases kill our loved ones.

First, now that I have named these things, I want to make a simple point: As an island nation Japan will probably have more damage than Chile, however the damage done in Haiti will still be found to have been worse. A small island nation which was forced to maintain a state of poverty due to brutal dictators and poor international policy of the world powers had, and still has little infrastructure to keep it a float without any natural disasters.  The earthquakes in Japan and Chile were both 8.9, Haiti was a 7.0. I only draw this distinction to say that much, though certainly not all, the devastation in Haiti was preventable. It was already going to be bad, but it didn’t have to be that bad.

The only subject in Science that I’ve really had much interest in was Geology.  Seismic and volcanic activity is something I find interesting.  The shifting of tectonic plates and, quite frankly, the vast devastation that that can bring.  The idea of Harry Truman in his cabin on the side of the mountain telling off the bearers of bad news saying that if St. Helens really is gonna blow then he’ll go down with the mountain, David Johnston doing that last bit of research before he’s trapped and shares Truman’s fate.  Photos of the San Francisco earthquake are interesting to me as well.  One of the major things I learned in my geology classes is simply that none of us are safe.  Right now there is something seriously messed up with the very place that you are sitting and something could happen at any moment, an earthquake, an eruption, a sinkhole, any number of things.  So when people start asking why God would allow an earthquake at this one specific point, be it Haiti, Chile, or Japan I simply feel as though, if they were truly outraged enough, they would be asking why the planet is so broken.

Then, we might be getting somewhere. 

Why is the planet one big powder keg? 
Why do we all have to die? 
Why does it seem that the physical, natural attributes of this planet and our bodies mimic the fragile state of our human relations?

I don’t believe that I will know this side of heaven, and I’m not a “Pie in the sky when you die” sort of believer. Faith must have real application here and now.  I am the sort of believer who thinks Jesus is the Muslim man or woman being marginalized, the homeless man I step over on the street, the undocumented worker who chooses not to report a rape for fear she will get deported.  I’m the sort of believer who believes that God weeps with me and the rest of his children even when he already knows how the situation will be redeemed because he feels our pain. 

I’m the sort of believer who stood at the foot of the steps while my pastor put ashes on my forehead while saying “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return” this past Wednesday. You have to admit that puts life in perspective for a moment.

The truth is other religions have some form of karma, what you do will come back to you.  The problem, in my view, is that that is not always true. It seems like it would make sense and often it does but plenty of people live their entire lives without consequences which is why theology of reincarnation or heaven and hell help, because then we think that maybe they’ll eventually pay.  Christianity however, doesn’t have karma, stuff happens and we’re all broken people in a broken world and that brokenness isn’t just spiritual it’s physical. You want to blame God for such shoddy design.  Not long after his wife died (I believe of some illness, possibly cancer) C.S. Lewis wrote a journal that was later published under the name N.W. Clerk because some of the things he had to say and some of the anger he had to express toward God he was concerned to have directly associated with his name in public on particularly compelling passage reads:

        If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it.
        Sometimes it is hard not to say, 'God forgive God.' Sometimes it is hard to say so much. But if our faith is true, He didn't. He crucified Him.    

I hope what Lewis is saying there isn’t lost, that last paragraph is short but wordy.  The point he makes in the midst of his anger is that God deemed that someone did need to suffer for the brokenness evident in the world so he chose to do it himself. Of course at this point in the book this paragraph does little to reconcile Lewis’ struggle with God’s goodness I still find it to be an interesting thought to spring forth in the midst of his grief.

Following the Haiti Earthquake a particular high profile Televangelist (who shall not be named) blamed the people of Haiti for what he claimed was a deal they made with the devil.  Mind you I do believe that the god they were presented with by their French oppressors was a god worth rejecting, who wouldn’t choose to turn to what they had been taught was the opposite of what kept them in bondage?  Following this man’s declaration he received a great deal of media attention, though I continue to be a fan of the Daily Show With Jon Stewart, after playing the video clip of this man’s words Stewart pulled out a bible and asked incredulously if, out of such a large book, that’s all this man could come up with.  Stewart then quoted a few verses:

•    The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18   

•    Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10   
•    Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles wilt revive me again; from the depths of the earth thou wilt bring me up again. Psalm 71:20  

•    Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10  

I can only pray that someone won’t, once again, make such a heartless statement that will require a comedian on a fake news show to do his job for him. Our faith doesn’t teach karma, sometimes things will come back to bite you in this life but sometimes they won’t. An earthquake is not God’s punishment and it’s not God randomly doling out suffering. The world is broken but healing has already begun and we can join together to make the kingdom “on Earth as it is in heaven.”

For closing, I've found a new favorite song: Jon Foreman lead singer of Switchfoot singing "Instead of a Show"

A Million Miles in A Thousand Years

It's out in Paperback!
Here's a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Miles-Thousand-Years-Learned/dp/1400202981/ref=tmm_pap_title_0



What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.

Gsus Saves: My fondness for music and love/hate relationship with religious kitsch collide

I managed to grab a ticket to see Lifehouse play at the Showbox SODO here in Seattle tonight (for those of you who sleep at midnight rather than go to work read "last night").  Openers for the night were Mindhead a band from Mt. Vernon, Wa they were quite good and I picked up a CD after the show.  I had a blast, I've been a fan of Lifehouse for over a decade. It was very strange seeing so many teenagers at the show, perhaps as strange as when I profess my love of U2's Joshua Tree album... the one that came out the year I was born.  I was very excited to see a guitar tech wearing a t-shirt with a chord chart and the words "Gsus Saves" on it. I like that kind of thing, either mocking cliched religious phrases or the old religious kitsch passed down by very religious relatives that most consider too gaudy and weird to display. I currently have a magnetic Jesus on my fridge (a gift to my roommate) that can be dressed in various outfits, from business suit to pope to sheep costume. I take my faith seriously which is why I think I do it a disservice if I can't have a laugh at the cliches and misuse of it. Thus, the Gsus Saves shirt simply had me in a better mood for the show, I had a stupid smile on my face the whole night, it did dim a bit when I had to run to catch a bus to get to work on time tonight but it was an awesome night nonetheless.

Jason Wade - Lead Vocals, Guitar

The set was awesome, they took requests and played a lot of the songs from the album that came out when I was a teen.  There's also something wonderful about the base and the driving rock in the louder, faster paced songs. I don't just like to hear the music I like it to shake my ribcage.

An oddly placed older gentleman (he looked much older than my dad, I'm guessing a healthy 70s?) next to me seemed a little surprised when I would get really excited about the obscure requests people would make from the band's early work but he seemed to be quite familiar with most the music himself.  One song, a cover of a song originally recorded by Sue Thompson and written in 1952, "You Belong to Me" (1,000,000x better than anything Taylor Swift has ever dreamt of writing but then I'm partial to 1950s music) Jason Wade- Lifehouse's lead singer- said he had only played a couple times before (I assume he meant live).  He recorded it for the Original Shrek film and I distinctly recall recognizing his voice when I saw the movie back in the day and scanning the credits until I saw his name.  [The things we had to do before "google it" entered the modern lexicon.]  I do prefer Wade's rendition but I love the song whenever I hear it played.  Someone also requested Storm, another OLD OLD favorite, it does appear on the Who We Were album but back in the early days of peer sharing I was an aspiring hipster looking for the obscure stuff, perhaps the best sort of music downloading fan in those days.  I bought the albums that were available but anything out of print I hunted for on Napster.  Back in those days I was in love with music in general but listening to Lifehouse felt like something different all together.

Ben Carey - Guitarist

One major event in my life coincided with the arrival of Lifehouse on the scene.  It was the moment when I finally decided to make my faith my own, I was raised in the church but this was the time when I really became a Christian.  Nowadays I still have a very real, very tangible faith and no one I spend time with can deny that I take it very seriously yet religious language makes me cringe.  Sometimes I cringe because it's cheesy, mostly because of the Christian music industry and the commercialization of my faith.  I personally like Jon Forman's (lead singer of the band Switchfoot) response to the unsettling debate over whether or not his band was still a "Christian Band" when they broke out of the Christian niche market (I prefer to call it a self-imposed ghetto) and hit the main stream, he has written and said so much about it that I hate to limit it to one quote but I encourage you to google "Jon Foreman Christian Band" in any case here is just the beginning of my favorite bit that Foreman has written on the subject

"To be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it represents a much bigger issue than simply a couple [of my band's] tunes. In true Socratic form, let me ask you a few questions:

Does Lewis or Tolkien mention Christ [by name] in any of their fictional series?

Are Bach's sonata's Christian?

What is more Christ-like, feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning bathrooms, or painting a sunset?

There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more Christian than a girls' volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed. These different callings and purposes further demonstrate Gods sovereignty. Many songs are worthy of being written. Switchfoot will write some, Keith Green, Bach, and perhaps yourself have written others. Some of these songs are about redemption, others about the sunrise, others about nothing in particular: written for the simple joy of music. None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music."

(Brackets represent my slight edits to aid reader understanding)
Truth be told however I think the first time I heard someone say something to the effect of "We're Christians in a band, not a Christian band" May have been in an interview with Jason Wade. To those of us who truly appreciate music we need to be ready to acknowledge that maybe, just possibly (and by this I full intend you to read "definitely") "Christian Music", that is to say the kind of music that is produced in the "Christian Music Industry" and sold exclusively in "Christian Stores" with no hope of escape, well... it sucks.  Any band on an exclusively Christian label that turns out to be any good usually gets a record deal in the main stream and, if they weren't already, bombarded with accusations and questions relating to them "selling out".  Good bands seldom start, and NO good band ever stays, on Christian labels- nor should they.

I love music from a variety of genres, the older I get the more I learn that my tastes in music are not as eclectic as I once thought they were.  Living in Miami I realized that I don't like latin music, that's not a slight to latin music I just don't like it.  I have learned to appreciate most music, that which is vulgar and demeaning I will not appreciate, 4'33" as a statement about the music around us is beautiful, 4'33" as an actual song is a waste of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, and honestly songs that say Jesus a lot for the sake of filling some sort of quota or a rock band at a Christian festival whose cred is judged on how many times they pray rather than how hard they rock is... well.. "a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal" noise, cacophony.  I have found that I more deeply appreciate songs of struggle and wrestling with God.  I think, even before I was aware of it, that's why I love Lifehouse's song "Storm". I love the Psalms of Discontent in U2's Pop and Achtung Baby, the ones the general Christian community seems to turn from.  I had my zealous phase in which the world was only painted in black and white shades of morality that centered on eloquent lists of don'ts and high judgment.  Music, starting with Lifehouse never became subject to that rigid world.

Regardless of any particular faith background - or lack there of- I like music, and I still LOVE Lifehouse.  I've always been somewhat fascinated by group dynamics and how members come in and out of a band, Lifehouse doesn't have the same make up that they had when they started which isn't typical for the bands that usually land on my playlist but I like the dynamic, I liked the old dynamic too but life changes a year ago I was primarily concerned with feminist interpretations of Thomas Aquinas' work, and comparative genocide with an emphasis on the Holocaust all in a place about as geographically disparate from my current location as one can manage within the continental United States. Considering my inclinations as an avid concert goer I'm simply disappointed that this was the first time I was able to attend a Lifehouse concert in all these years.

And so, to close out my love letter to my favorite band (well, at least in terms of Longevity, as you may be able to tell from this post "favorite band" is a fairly long list) I would like to offer a small humorous story of waiting in line for the concert:

Upon getting into line I discovered I was immediately behind a pair of teenagers who had no shame in telling me all about the meet and greet they had with the band and how "Jason is SO cute", but "he was pretty cocky".  Mind you, having been an adolescent girl once myself, to a fifteen year old girl an attractive older man who doesn't engage in flirting at their teenage level seems cocky. Not long after having been informed of the attractiveness of various band members one of the girl's fathers slipped into line, I must tell you he cannot be old enough to have a teenage daughter that's crazy.  Also the man was drop dead gorgeous (not even kidding, wish I could've covertly taken a non-blurry picture) but, you know... he was pretty cocky.  ;)

EDIT:
I found a couple videos from last night that someone posted.  They're of "You Belong To Me", "Simon" and "Storm".  "You Belong to Me" and "Simon" are pretty shakey but the audio is good, and then "Storm" has good video and audio although there's a girl near the person recording who seems to want to have a running dialogue with the song that almost comes off as heckling, granted I suppose I understand the excitement.  I couldn't hear her last night so all was well.