Allow me to preface this post with a full disclosure. I am not a theologian, nor am I a seminarian. There will be many of my subscribers who are better trained than me in these areas, but I feel compelled to share this all the same.
I’ve always been a very direct person in the way in which I write and speak. Whether in my youth, as a evangelical, fundamentalist Christian or in college as an extreme left wing beatnik, I’ve always sought to convey my opinion with a force and clarity that leaves no doubt in the mind of my audience on where I may stand on a particular issue.
What I’m about say in this post falls into that category. Inevitably, some of you will find what I have to say to be offensive or even small minded. That’s fine, you are definitely entitled to your opinion, but please understand that I have experienced life from your perspective–I’ve worshiped in liberal churches, participated in social activism, explored alternative paths to God, I even campaigned for the Green Party. In fact, from the age of 21 until about a year ago, I would probably be described as agnostic.
I turned agnostic because the progressive mindset that I adopted after September 11, never once provided me with the gifts that its followers promised–peace, love, happiness, joy, comfort, etc. Instead, I experienced depression, anxiety, and a true sense of nausea similar to Sartre’s Rouqentin.
I looked at Christianity and I saw two avenues, the one from my youth, where church goers believed every literal word of the Bible and believed our earth was something like 2,000 years old or I could become a bitter curmudgeon like John Shelby Spong and write really cool, eloquent books that force Christians to think. Neither one of those paths was very appealing to me, and disbelief seemed to be a more palatable option.
I then discovered a “middle road” offered by the “emergents” and “those like the emergents” (I’ve found that “they” are very particular about how you use and don’t use the term “emergent”) that stressed Christian spirituality, featured young, bearded and dreadlocked writers, who shared my taste in music, my love of nicotine and a desire for political activism. Blue Like Jazz got me to consider Christianity as viable option again. However, I soon heard Donald Miller speak highly of Che Guevara and I began to research the roots of this movement. Velvet Elvis was suddenly not as beautiful and powerful anymore. Instead, it was a little bit “new age” and scary.
The movement even had its own presidential candidate, either Barrack Obama, with his “audacity of hope”, or a new age Jesus, created by the radical Christian spiritualist, Shane Claiborne.
I decided to start attending church again, not sure what to expect, and even thought I would begin to explore my calling once again. The service I attended was contemporary in nature, but it lacked something. Again, the pastor stressed social justice, but never a word of salvation. I heard a lot about “hope”, but not so much about “faith.” I begin to wonder, at who point do you cease to be a Christian and start to be a new ager, secular humanist?
Of course, this leads to other questions, namely what makes a Christian, a Christian? It’s a very complicated onion to peel and I felt it would cause more tears than anything so I chose not to peel it.
However, tonight I was checking my MySpace page and I saw a bulletin from an old friend. It was a YouTube video clip, obviously compiled by a conservative Christian author, “exposing” the Church of Oprah. Now my problems with Oprah date back to 4th grade and my piano teacher’s husband who would watch Oprah religiously and turn the volume up to the point where I couldn’t hear my teacher’s instructions. Since that time, I have had a bitter taste in my mouth towards everything associated with Oprah. Lately, I have been sickened with the way suburban housewives all over the U.S. will believe anything that she says. So while I’m usually not one for propaganda, I began to pump my fist as this film exposed Oprah for what she really is, a left wing, new age whacko who supports a left wing, new age whacko for President.
In the video, there is a clip of Oprah telling her audience the story of how as a 28 year old Baptist she knew she out had outgrown the Christian image of God when she heard her preacher proclaim from the pulpit that “God is a jealous god”, meaning that the Christian God was the only true God and He was deserving of all our love, praise and worship–all other God’s were false. Oprah found this image to be offensive and began to “take God outside of the box.”
If I may step upon the soap box for a second, you’re doctor jeremiah RIGHT our God is a jealous God and with good reason–HE IS GOD.
Throughout this Presidential campaign, I’ve been forced to hear Barack Obama speak of the “audacity of hope.” He has built his Presidential campaign on this phrase and has duped many young people, who like the way it sounds, into supporting him for President. Personally, hope doesn’t do much for me, but I think that we as true believers have the “absurdity of faith” to cling to, for it is this absurd thing called faith that makes us different from these secular humanists.
It’s absurd to think a man could be born of a virgin. It’s absurd to believe that a man would have the power to heal, restore and give new life. It’s absurd to think that man could be beaten and crucified on a cross only to rise from the dead. Yes, it’s absurd to believe that there is ONLY one way to God. And it is because of an absurd thing called faith–the absurdity of us accepting these things to be true–that God is able to reveal His true nature to us and that we are able to experience the joy of our salvation.
So I say to the world you can keep this audacious thing the world calls hope, because I cling to something much more promising, my absurd faith in Jesus Christ. You see it is this absurdity that brings me joy and peace. It calms my anxiety and takes away the nausea.
I say to the world, you can have this elitist candidate who preaches hope. I’m looking for a candidate who stresses faith—faith in God, faith in country and faith in the individual, as opposed to hope in a hopeless government.
I’m going to try and attach a link to the youtube video clip. I apologize in advance if it does not work.
Tags: absurdity of faith, agnostic, audacity of hope, Barrack Obama, beatnik, Blue Like Jazz, Che Guevara, Christian spiritualist, Church of Oprah, Donald Miller, elitist, fundamentalist Christian, Green Party, Jesus, John Shelby Spong, nausea, Oprah, Rob Bell, Rouqentin, Sartre, seminarian, Shane Clairborne, theologian, Velvet Elvis
