The Secular Culture and Christianity

How involved should a Christian be in secular culture?

I like to read a lot, and when I say a lot I don't mean I read a lot of Christian books. I read Christian books, the good ones, the non-fluff ones that make me think, especially about the Bible and practically living my faith, but the majority of my reading is primarily of creative matter. I also really like the television shows Lost and the Office. I don't miss episodes. Lost makes me think and plays with my emotions and instincts. The Office makes me laugh hysterically and cringe painfully. Both shows are creative, original, and, I believe, not just repetitive, regurgitated content that so many popular culture objects are. Many books I read, like the Road by Cormac McCarthy, challenge many tenants of the teachings of Jesus and the Bible that I know are true. I constantly find interesting thoughts, ideas, themes, quirks, dilemmas, or conundrums in creative works that really cause me to think about and explore my faith in a way that non-artistic/creative/what have you outlets don't.

In the Road, a father and his young son are trying to survive in a world after some apocalyptic event has killed everything. The only life left alive is human life, and those left have to scavenge for old preserved food or turn on their fellow human beings. The father carries a gun with two bullets, partly for protection, but mostly to kill his son and himself if they are ever caught. He knows that if they are they will be tortured and eaten, and his son sexually abused. He can't let his son die this way. This calls into question, what is better, an ended life, or a life slowly ended through constant torture and abuse with no hope of escape? Of course the Bible tells me that suicide and murder are always wrong. If I were in this situation, what would I do? It is not right for my son to have to suffer this way, but it is not right for me to kill him or myself either. Giving in to murder and suicide show a lack of faith on my part. But what if God does not plan to intervene? What if this is part of his plan? What if some kind of good will come from this?

These are the questions that Wild at Heart will never force me to ask myself. These questions may be impractical and perhaps even senseless, but I like them. They force me to examine my faith in ways I never would, usually.

I laugh at jokes on the Office. It's a funny show. I laugh every time "That's what she said" is uttered. But here's the thing: Is that good for me? The Office may be an extreme case, as it is not an overly potty-humor type show like Family Guy, but it still has its moments. Are jokes like this planting an unhealthy sense of humor inside of me? Will this corrupt the sensibilities that God has blessed me with so that when I do encounter some kind of problem of this nature, my response will be affected? How am I different from the rest of the world, then? Others will question my effectiveness as a Christian and perhaps even the validity of my God if they see a life unchanged on the surface level.

The Bible says to focus on things that are "good," "true," and "excellent." (Philippians 4:8) I struggle to classify the Office or similar shows as "good." I don't feel like it changes or corrupts me, but I don't know if has a positive affect. Where do I draw the line?

Then there is the thought that God enjoys when I laugh or am entertained in a good way. When I laugh at the Office or am at the edge of my seat during an episode of Lost, perhaps God is enjoying them with me and is happy that I am enjoying a bit of life. However, there are several other options for humor and entertainment that do not even involve a television set.

This is a difficult question, and I'm rambling. At least I've given you and myself something to think about.

Being Employed by a College Christian Ministry

I have spent the past summer raising financial support for the next year. I applied for an internship with Campus Crusade for Christ, a college Christian ministry that I was heavily involved in when I was in college, and through which I saw immense growth in my faith and relationship with God. I enjoyed being a part of this ministry in college. I enjoyed talking to college students about important subjects, about subjects that we can't always see or know for certain through empirical means of this world, but subjects and thoughts and perspectives that we can only gain through belief, faith, and a force outside of ourselves. American college students are the most willing people in this world to talk about these things and to explore them, and I love that.

I have aspirations to be a teacher. My college degree was a BA in English. I love literature. I love writing. I love dissecting writing, even the bad kind. I love helping others learn how to communicate more effectively with the words they choose to speak and to write, and I love teaching others about the lessons, experience, warnings, and beauty about life that we can all learn from literature. I love teaching. I love forging relationships with young people, even when it's difficult, and I know it will be.

I have plans to go on to graduate school and obtain a Masters in Education, but I feel I'm called into this ministry for at least the next year. I suppose my long to teach and to do College ministry are intertwined somehow. Both do involve teaching and aiding to shape perspectives. Both involve creating relationships, even when it's difficult. Both involve spending time with people younger than me. Both involve being a major part of a young person's world. When I look at these things, these aspects of both jobs, that I love to do and that I feel that I am good at, I feel that it's no wonder God has called me into college ministry in the present and into teaching somewhere down the line. I am encouraged by this.

Faithfully Reaching the iGeneration: From an iGener's View

Recently I read an article on RelevantMagazine.com by a guy named Rex Miller called "The iGen Manifesto." It's an interesting article and contains a lot of insights on the radical differences and shifts that have occurred due to technology in my generation, mainly concerning how we all communicate, find/view/listen/experience media, and how we express ourselves creatively in ways that somehow involve technology, like posting videos on youtube, blogging, or podcasting, and how this is going to affect the world we are inheriting and the Church that we Christians are a part of. Miller views part of these technological forms of communication as a means of escapism from the world that his generation, the Baby Boomers, have left for us, full of war, environmental, and humanitarian problems.

From my perspective, I felt the article was somewhat pointing out the ineffectiveness that the masses have felt to change anything in the larger scale due to the boomer generation. I'm not being pessimistic about that generation, however, and I know for certain several members of that generation have done great things for this world and for more importantly, the Church, but when it comes to the politics of this world the boomer generation has seemingly made the masses feel pretty ineffective at changing anything on a global scale. Things are screwed up and many feel we can't change it, so the "igeneration" has resorted to blogs, online video games, and youtube to find another world where we can create works that actually contribute to something in someway.

Things started this way, but we've seen things change. These Web 2.0 applications, primarily used for entertainment, have in the past few years began to be used as instruments for social change. You can now watch a documentary on the crisis in Sudan on youtube, you can read the blog on the ONE website about firsthand experiences of poverty and crisis throughout the globe, and anyone can go to everystudent.com to read about what the gospel means to today's college student.

Now the iGeneration has come not only to use the interconnectivety and interactions of the internet to change the world now in a physical way, but also in a spiritual way. The gospel can be discovered online now, through simply reading the Bible online, reading a Christian's story about how Jesus changed her life, or watching a video online that examines a message from the Bible in a creative way. These videos are not only online, but used in church services and small group meetings all over. Interconnected social sites such as Myspace and Facebook have numerous ministry groups and events with new ones forming everyday.

So what does this mean for already formed, substantial ministries that are faced with the changes that our generation has enacted? The iGeneration wants involvement, we want things to be open sourced, like Firefox or Wikipedia. How do churches and ministries respond to this? Should they? Do the positives of Web 2.0 and open source in society transfer to ministry?

I don't know.

The prospect of being a part of a church service that has been touched in someway by large numbers of the congregation is exciting. Errors can be corrected. Nuances can be more easily added and smoothed over. But then, I don't really know how this could plausibly work, and I don't think it can peacefully happen.

The Bible clearly states that each Christian is given different gifts, and these gifts correspond to that brother or sister's role in the body. Preachers preach. Leaders lead. Teachers teach. Administrators administrate. Artists create. Writers write. Number crunchers number crunch. Thinkers think. This is how a ministry is run, correct?

I suppose what bothers me is the thought that ministries have to change to reach certain generations. I think this is true to an extent, but it also bothers me that these types of changes are so often forced onto ministries from the outside or from the dreaded problem of low numbers. Are these ministries not seeking the guidance of the Spirit? Do the ministries that change conforming to the world, or following the Spirit's direction to reach the world?

This is complicated.

Christianity and Divorce

My parents divorced when I was in junior high. My dad had been recently been to prison and my family had been through a few tumultuous years of moving, job hunting, new schools, and learning how to scrape by. My father had a lot of issues at the time, one being our family had lost our financial status that my father had attained through 17 hard years of working at the same job. He owned a nice house with a huge yard, a pool, a garage with a basketball hoop, a pool with a deck, and a swing set for his kids. That was all gone and was not attainable anytime in the near future. My father was working a job that was two hours away at the time and financially our family seemed to be getting nowhere. I think this got to my dad, he couldn't take it, and so he left. My parents divorced. My mom was left to raise and support us financially. She did a pretty darn good job. My brother and I are both in college, my sister is going to be soon, and we really never had want of anything.

My family became more serious about our Christian faith when I was in high school. By family, I mean my brother, sister, mother and myself. My father wasn't a huge part of the picture at this point. However, through seeing God's impact on my brother and I's lives, my dad became a Christian. My father, the man who I spent nights and nights praying to come around, the man who went to prison, who struggled with alcohol, was now a Christian. Incredible.

Ever since then I've constantly pondered divorce. My parents are both Christians, and this is what Jesus says about divorce:

"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of
divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for
marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who
marries the divorced woman commits adultery." (Matthew 5:31-32)

"I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel." Malachi 2:16a

My dad was unfaithful to my mother during their marriage, but that was before he became a Christian. Now he is remarried. Is he committing adultery every time he is with his new wife? Is this, in turn, causing her to commit adultery? If this is the case, it's hard to decide what is to be done about it. He is legally married to his new wife, so to stop this sin would mean to divorce her, but that also is a sin. It's just messy.

The dilemma of divorce brings to light the main message of the Bible: Forgiveness and reconciliation. Man sinned, God enacted a plan to reconcile and forgive man, man sinned some more, God punished them so his plan could come to fruition but also forgave them several times, and then God gave his only Son as a necessary sacrifice to destroy the gap between himself and man. God's plan throughout history has been to forgive us and reconcile us to himself through Jesus Christ. Divorce is the exact opposite of that in the marital context. Divorce happens when one or both parties feel the marriage is a failure, and no amount of forgiveness or grace can overcome the problems that exist. That's never true. Through Christ, all things are possible.

This is lofty talk, talk that is difficult, if seemingly impossible, to enact in real life. That's what's great about Jesus Christ. Of course these things are impossible. Of course it's impossible for us to always do the right thing or to always forgive those who do not do the right thing. That's where Christ comes in. His death and sacrifice ended our problems with those things forever. The Spirit we receive after believing in Him convicts us and drives us to do what is right. We experience freedom. We see the world for what it is. In essence, our hearts are completed in the way God designed them to be. Therefore we can strive to be sinless and we can strive to forgive, even if it means forgiving a spouse who lied, cheated, or was just a downright mean person. Even if we don't do these things always, we are forgiven, and we tell God we're sorry, and that love and kindness spurns us on to become better people.

Divorce is okay only after one of the parties has been unfaithful, but I think it's clear in the Bible that Christ still wants a husband or wife to forgive, no matter how grievous the adultery was. As we see time and time again, Christ creates a change in a heart attitude that leads to actual real world change, such as forgiving a spouse, even if that spouse has messed up him or herself.