Barney Wiget's Blog, page 12

Love Who?

The enemy-love message is not exactly what you’d call “attractional.” Sadly, it’s easier to gather a crowd with the message about a God who blesses our battles and hates our enemies as much as we do. Fear, anger, and hate are more popular than love and more natural to our darker selves. Unrestricted love is neither popular nor natural. It might fit nicely on a billboard or in a country song, but when it comes to actually practicing the kind of love Jesus commands, we’d much rather love in the abstract. “The first step toward love is a common sharing of a sense of mutual worth and value,” wrote Howard Thurman. “This cannot be discovered in a vacuum or in a series of artificial or hypothetical relationships. It has to be in a real situation, natural, free.”

[An excerpt from WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount]

Waiting for the World to Change

In his first appearance on Fox News, presumably one of many, the recently elected House Speaker Mike Johnson in conversation with Sean Hannity, posited a unique, never considered before, revelation that there’s something wrong with the human heart and that the scourge of mass shootings can be attributed to that unseen wickedness. After the shooting in Maine last week, Johnson said, “The problem is the human heart, not guns. It’s not the weapon, it’s the underlying problem.”

I may not know a Glock from a Beretta but I know something about the human heart. I’ve been reading a book about it for 50 years now. It begins with the creation of the world and ends with the renewal of all things. You know the book. It’s a best seller. Been translated about a thousand times. It’s where we find the only fully legitimate story of Jesus Christ. (Email me if you’re still not sure which book of which I speak.)

Anyway, speaking of “revelation” about the human heart being messed up is no great insight to anyone paying attention these days. But since we have no control over people’s hearts, maybe we can do something about legislating ways to minimize the horrific plans of those who live out of such a corrupt heart by limiting their arsenal. We put laws in place all the time to do just that in regard to murder, robbery, and rape, which are all the result of bad hearts. But we don’t just sit back and blame the heart. We make those things illegal, and punish those who break those laws.

Reminds me of the John Mayer song:

So we keep on waiting
 / Waiting on the world to change…

That’s not what legislators are tasked to do, let alone followers of Jesus. We can’t wait for people’s hearts to change in hopes that these mass shootings will stop. Politicians terrified of the gun lobby shouldn’t be elected year after year. If they are, that’s on us!

Getting back to the heart, yes, it’s only Jesus who can change the human heart, but he rarely if ever does so without human cooperation. So, we pray for people, share the good news, and pray some more. And one by one people come to Jesus and their hearts begin to change. With mass shootings in the U.S. at record highs, we simply can’t wait around until everybody’s hearts are purified and sanctified by the Holy Spirit!

So, what do we typically do in socially tragic realities such as this? We build guard rails to keep people from hurting each other. Common sense gun laws should be considered as such guard rails. It’s not the entire fix, but it’s a beginning. It’s like building levees adjacent to a potentially raging river. One levee that I propose is the banning of semi-automatic rifles, the kind that most mass shooters use, the most recent shooter in Maine included, who slaughtered 18 humans and wound another 13.

Representative Johnson said to Hannity and all his Fox News devotees that “now isn’t the time” to discuss legislation that would address the scourge of mass shootings. That’s what they say, who want to retain the status quo and keep the gun lovers of America happy. “Now is not the time.” So, what do we do? We keep on waiting; Waiting on the world to change…

The problem is, by the time we’re done waiting for a better time, another mass shooting happens. The illusive better time never comes and we’re waiting again.

Every Life Matters

I had plenty of time to read while sick for 3 weeks. One of my favorites was Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution by André Trocmé, the Frenchman famous for saving thousands of Jews (mostly children) from the Nazis during World War II. Yad Vashem (the Jewish Holocaust Museum) awarded him and his wife the prestigious “Righteous Among the Nations” medal for the part they played in the rescue efforts.

Among many other profound statements in the book particularly relevant in this time:

“We know that every birth, every life, and every death matters to God. If each person has thus been invested with such value, how great is the worth of the sum of human history!”

UNFIT TO LEAD?

About whom do I refer? (Careful now, it might be a trick question.)

1. He’s no patriot, but serves only himself

2. He is “great” only in a corrupt worldly sense of greatness.

3. He is ambitious as a ruthless authoritarian

4. He pretends to be on the same page as religious conservatives who are interested in their own acquisition of power

5. He has been married multiple times and cheated on his wives more times than anyone knows

6. He clearly displays narcissistic and sociopathic disorders

7. He’s obsessed with the sexuality of his own female relatives

8. He’s a blowhard who can’t stand the thought of anyone thinking he’s weak

9. His role model was an abusive and temperamental father

10. He is a sexual predator who boasts about his conquests with women

11. He is a tyrant, notorious for putting down his political rivals

12. In his paranoia to hold on to power, he cares nothing for inflicting “collateral damage” on innocents

Immigrants: “Poisoning the blood” of America?

“Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people coming in with disease. People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.” Donald Trump in a recent interview with the National Pulse

OK, let’s analyze this colossally obscene statement by a man that many want to be president again.

“Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from.”

Hundreds of hours of vetting by professionals at the border says that somebody definitely knows where they come from. But wait…

“And we know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums.”

Wait, I thought nobody knows where they come from! So how do we “know” they come from prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums? This isn’t the first time that the former leader of the free world contradicts himself inside of two sentences! I think that’s what you call a non sequitur.

Does anyone care about this oft repeated silliness from Trump? Why are people with brain cells still sympathizing with a man who continually makes such illogical and fanciful claims? He’s bloviated so many things of this nature over the last decade that they’ve lost their shock value. He’s perpetrated such a national moral injury on all our consciences that we can’t even hear the fire alarm anymore. If it weren’t for January 6th, one might just give him one more mulligan for being just another amoral politician. But we can’t. We mustn’t!

He recently advocated shop lifters to be shot and that former Joint Chiefs Mark Milley should be executed! These are fascist, not American jurisprudence ideas.

Not for nothin’, there is no proof that migrants come from prisons or asylums or that they’re terrorists. Zero evidence. Yet, check out the most egregious part of his self-indicting assertions here…

“It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”  

When I first read this, I thought it had to be one of the most insulting Trump statements in a long time. Then I realized that “poisoning the country’s blood” is a near direct quote from history’s most murderous character. As such, this has to be placed near the top of the list of shameful hate-filled comments by our very own former leader. And make no mistake, it’s a long and deplorable list!

Let’s start with the easiest part by reminding ourselves that both his mother and his wife were foreign-born. Does that mean his blood and therefore that of his children are equally poisoned? (Maybe injecting bleach will stop the spread! Couldn’t resist.)

Here’s a parallel sentence from Mein Kampf: “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.” In another place in his asinine excuse for genocide, Adolf Hitler wrote: “This poison was allowed to enter the national bloodstream and infect public life without the Government taking any effectual measures to master the course of the disease.” His assertion that “foreign blood” (that of non-Aryan races) had “poisoned the blood” of the German race and needed purging inspired millions of gullible Germans to murder millions of men, women and children.

Let me be clear, I can’t know for sure that Trump was intentionally quoting or mirroring Hitler or his villainous claims. Nor am I saying that he is a Neo-Nazi. It’s possible that he didn’t even know that this language was Hitlerish. But I’d venture to say that if he’s too stupid to know how offensive and destructive his words were (which I doubt) he was at the very least mindlessly regurgitating language he’s heard a thousand times on his alt-right media outlets.

No doubt he, his campaign manager, or one of his dozens of lawyers on retainer will explain his comments away in some equally contradictory and disjointed fashion. At that point, his sympathizers with their heads sufficiently hidden in the sand, will go on their way humming a merry tune to drown out the last vestige of their calloused conscience.

Yes, Adolf Hitler actually said that Jewish people and migrants were “causing a blood poisoning” of his country. His hatred and the hatred he spread through his Nazi propaganda got six million Jews incinerated. When anyone, a former president of the United States included, uses similar language to describe women and children who have risked everything to get to safety, I call it despicable.

You say, surely he wasn’t paraphrasing the 20th century genocidal maniac. I suppose it can’t be proven that he kept the Führer’s speeches on his bedstand, as has been claimed. But when a reporter asked him about it, instead of denying it he said, “who told you that?” Later, he said “If, I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.” To my mind, not a denial, but a dodge. Something of which he’s a master.

“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” Romans 3:13-14 New International Version

What About Whataboutism

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much over the “whataboutism” tactic so frequently used in social media conversations and debates between pundits. It goes like this: Party A accuses Party B of doing something bad. Party B responds by changing the subject and pointing out one of Party A’s or Party C’s faults — “Yeah? Well, what about that bad thing you (or they) did?”

Marriage partners use it.

Wife to her husband: “You lied about where you were last night!”Husband: “Well, what about you? You lie to me all the time!”

Any schoolyard pre-pubescent kid can master the “yeah-well-you-suck-too-so-there” defense. Or, “But what about my brother’s room? His is worse.”

You gotta love the nobody’s-perfect defense. “OK, I’m not perfect, but neither are you! I saw you smoking behind the barn!” If nobody’s perfect, I guess we all have permission to do all sorts of imperfect thing?

Politicians are masters of art. (Maybe one more than others.)

Bill O’Reilly: “Putin is a killer.”Donald Trump: “There are a lot of killers. You got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?”

Try to get him (or any politician) to admit a lie or an inconsistency in something he just said, it’s pointless because he’ll evade your question and drown you in false moral equivalencies or meaningless factoids.

Granted, whataboutism is an effective strategy to put others down while lifting ourselves up. It works on the principle that offense is the best form of defense. And in political debate these days, more than any that I’ve seen in my lifetime, insulting and offensive language is pervasive. Following the example of those with a bully pulpit have perfected “The Art of the Insult.”

“They’re very stupid people.” “The congresswoman is an extraordinarily low IQ person.” “They’re losers.” “And these other ‘shithole’ countries.” “She’s a crazed, crying lowlife” and a “dog” The District Attorney is a “Soros backed animal,” a “degenerate psychopath” who “hates the USA.” The NY Judge is “deranged.” The president “is stupid. You know that.” “A clueless incompetent.”

And what grieves me most is that so-called Christian audiences cheer for it, eat it up, and follow suit! Most of the worst things ever said to or about me have come from Christians.

The apostle Peter used whataboutism with Jesus, who had just predicted his (Peter’s) martyrdom (John 21). Pointing to John nearby Peter did the classic whataboutism: “What about him?”

If you know anything about Jesus, he doesn’t get flummoxed or let people off the hook for bad debate tactics. “If I want him to live until I return, what is that to you?” he said. “You follow me!”

Sadly, yet predictably, a rumor got started that Jesus said John wouldn’t ever die. Which is an obvious twisting of Jesus’ words. Close cousins to whataboutism are rumors and conspiracy theories. Don’t get me started on those!

We church folk employ it just using different words for the same excuse: “Everybody’s doing it these days!” It being any number of behaviors that are self-destructive and disappointing to the Lord.

Remember when Bill Clinton’s affair became public, not to mention the precise details of what happened in the Oval Office? I was as much or more concerned about the youth of America excusing their premarital sexual experimentation (as did the president) as it wasn’t actual “sex.” “We’re not having sex when we…” Turns out my fear was not unfounded.

Substantive debate should be aimed at arriving at the truth, shouldn’t it? Yet many today on social media, on political debate stages, and cable news shows see disagreements as battles to be won. Their goal is to get their opponent to concede as much as possible without their conceding anything themselves. And in many cases, they’re trying to decimate, if not humiliate those on the other side.

Since my audience is largely “Christian,” I’ll point out that this is not a Christ-like tactic or goal! Do we seek to win people over to the truth or win an argument to make us look good––better than the next guy? If it’s the latter, we should confess our sin, humble ourselves before the Lord, and repent!

Carl Sandburg said, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”

Sound familiar?

Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches

[This is the introduction to the book I’m writing now. I’d love to hear what you think of the theme.]

Major League Baseball fans drool over the “five-tool player” who can run like the wind, throw like a rocket launcher, hit for average like a machine, hit for power like Superman, and catch fly balls like flypaper traps flies. You get the point. To be a great ballplayer one needs to develop more than one skill. The guy who can catch the ball, but do nothing else the sport requires isn’t likely to be able to quit their office job any time soon.

I have friends who are multidimensional Jesus followers. They can do it all. Well, I only consider them “friends” when they’re not making me jealous. And to top it off, they’re humble! Don’t you just hate people like that?

One guy whose blog I follow calls himself: “An Anabaptist, lower-case evangelical, fairly charismatic, slightly liturgical, and sometimes contemplative follower of Jesus.” Talk about covering all the bases! On the other hand, I know people who seem content to be one-tool Christians. It’s not just a matter of their gifting. They seem to value only their preferred aspect of the faith. They’re scholars who know more than Paul––about his own Epistles! They may pray more than the Pope, preach better than Martin Luther King Jr., or fast more than Ghandi. But that’s all they can or care to do for God. It’s all they talk about and all they admire in others. And if you don’t excel in the use of their same “tool” you’re not likely to be admitted into their circle.

It’s my opinion that balanced Christians, not to mention healthy churches, should value and practice more than just one feature of the Christ-shaped life.

The text of our study, the tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, features three scenes––each one unique to the good doctor’s biography of Jesus’ life and teaching: the mission trip of the Seventy, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the account of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his words. These episodes depict three aspects of Christian spirituality and church life: missional, merciful, and worshipful. I don’t claim that Luke, or even the Spirit who inspired him, juxtaposed these three scenarios in the narrative intentionally in order to portray three particular essentials of the Christian life. But it does seem more than a little curious. Like a three-legged stool, each depends on all three for balance and stability.

Of course, the Bible’s chapter and verse breaks were not necessarily inspired by the Holy Spirit. Yet in this one chapter we do have three of the most important, if not the most important priorities for people of the kingdom, individually and collectively.

Reaching out to lost people, serving the hurting, and pursuing a deepening intimacy with God are all essential components for healthy Christians and balanced churches. As you might expect, people and churches tend toward one or another of these. Some major on sharing Christ everywhere they go, healing the sick, and confronting demons. Others aren’t as proficient at or compelled to good news sharing, yet are passionate about good news showing by serving poor and marginalized people. They’re drawn to social justice in the same way that others are attracted to evangelism. And then there are those whose primary passion is to cultivate a deeper intimacy with God through contemplative prayer, meditation, and worship; while mission and mercy are less of a focus to their spiritual tribe.

Each person, church, or spiritual movement has a particular stream in which they’re most comfortable swimming, while often overlooking, if not minimizing the others. From my vantage point, there are a couple flaws in this approach to following Jesus. First, when we swim exclusively in our own preferred stream to the near exclusion of the others, we tend to lack respect and appreciation for our brothers and sisters who swim elsewhere.

Ours is not a stream, but the whole river! Those other Christians (if they are Christians at all) do it all wrong because they don’t do it like we do!

I’d remind these one-tool Christians to honor one another above themselves, Romans 12:10 appreciate the gifting of others, support their calling, and glean from their passion. Just because others don’t prioritize the same things you do doesn’t mean they’re wrong and you’re right. It might just mean that they have a revelation of a different facet of Christ than you do. So, thank God for them, learn from them, and skim off even just a little bit of their passion for yourself.

I’ve observed that…

The predominantly missional Christian can be critical of the merciful for exclusively serving the poor or judge the worshipful for “wasting valuable time” seeking God when they could be out making disciples.Those who major on mercy can tend to feel that both the missional and worshipful brethren should be doing more for the cause of social justice in the world instead of spending all their energy preaching or praying.The Christian whose primary passion is worship, might have a bone to pick with the missional and merciful folks for placing too much emphasis on working for God and too little time worshipping him.

Sometimes such opinions are generated more by jealously than theology. Rather than envy the strengths of others and concoct a perspective that devalues their contribution, we should celebrate and emulate those who excel in spiritual practices in which we fall behind.

On the other hand, we mustn’t assume that God called others who are strong and passionate in an area to do pretty much all the evangelism or work of justice or intimate worship. Don’t assume it’s their ministry, their gift, what God called only them to do. “Thank God, because I’m no good in that area. And since they’re doing it, I’m off the hook!”

I think it’s ill-advised to so focus our attention on our one tool that we abdicate responsibility to develop the use of the others. Though some are more gifted and compelled by the Spirit toward one or the other of these emphases, it’s unwise, not to mention unbiblical, to shirk our responsibility to improve in every dimension of Kingdom life.

Each person will naturally excel in one of these three areas over the others. Scripture does indicate that there are gifts of “evangelism” (Ephesians 4) and even of “mercy” (Romans 12). But as the ballplayer that isn’t a natural five-tool athlete is coached to work on the weaker aspects of his game, we should thank God for the spiritual task that comes most naturally to us, and then go to work on the others.

To change the metaphor, in order to keep your weight down (or get it down, as the case may be) most doctors will prescribe a good diet and adequate exercise. One or the other will neither adequately nor sustainably reduce girth or lower poundage. In order to get in shape or maintain it we have to practice both. In the same way, in order to be spiritually fit and for our churches to be sound and balanced, we have to work on being missional, and merciful, and worshipful.

Forgive: The Small and the Big Stuff!

“Forgiving small things is easy—like when the neighbor didn’t pick up after their dog and I stepped in it. Or like the time a barber used the wrong number clipper on me and made me look like a Marine. I can release flyspeck hurts with one swing of the forgiveness swatter. But it’s the elephant-size offenses that require a more insistent and painstaking approach. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.’”

[An excerpt from my book: THE OTHER END OF THE DARK: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway]

The Narrow Road

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14)

Though healthy doctrine is important, it’s not theological purity at issue here. This isn’t about how many Bible verses we can recite or what we believe about the Trinity or the Second Coming. What determines outcomes is whether or not we choose to act on what he preached. What makes it so narrow is the challenge of following him in the path of obedience.

Love and bless the most nightmarish people in your life, demolish the idol called “Mammon” in your heart, jump for joy when your goodness makes people hate you, and treat others the way you want to be treated. That’s a narrow road! It’s trying to squeeze through the gate with all our excess baggage in tow that makes the way seem so narrow. No wonder so “few find it.”

[An excerpt from my book: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in both paper and eBook formats.]

The Invitation

“Christianity isn’t a guilt-ridden religion; instead it’s the only effective way to get rid of our guilt. Guilting ourselves into sharing our faith––or into any other spiritual practice for that matter––is not sustainable. Shouldn’t our efforts to influence people toward God be more like inviting them into a cool river on a sweltering summer day?”

This is an excerpt from my book: Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends. If you haven’t read it yet, why not? If you have, why not write a quick review on social media and/or Amazon?