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the Manna | April 2010
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the Manna | April 2010
Columns 07 | Signals 09 | On the Air 29 | Perspective
Features
20 | Emergent Christians Mull Theology in Google Era Social networking brings spiritual discussions to a new audience.
21 | Whatever Happened to Shame? What was once condemned is now celebrated.
10 | Joy in the Journey
22 | When Less is More
Savoring life one step at a time.
Downsizing for the good of others.
14 | Thinking Small Can Change the World
26 | Up All Night
Powerful movements often come about in quiet, counterintuitive ways.
Stay in Touch
Grace isn’t amazing until we consider our sin.
18 | Sending a Message
Extras
Utilizing social media for eternal purposes.
24 | Unfiltered
wolc.org | readthemanna.org | April 2010
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the Manna | A Publication of Maranatha, Inc. Editor-In-Chief: Debbie Byrd Contributing Editor: Randy Walter Creative Director: Joe Willey Contributing Writers: Brent Timmons, Karen Tull Media Client Liaisons: Jay Prouse + Rob Brunk
Frequently Asked Questions Who We Are The Manna is published by Maranatha, Inc., a Christcentered ministry called to proclaim the Good News of faith and life in Jesus Christ through various forms of media, as God directs, until He returns. “Maranatha” (mer-a-nath´-a) is an Aramaic word found in I Corinthians 16:22. It is translated, “Our Lord, come!” Joy! 102.5 WOLC is also part of Maranatha, Inc. Its call letters stand for “Watch, Our Lord Cometh.” Maranatha!
Disclaimer Non-ministry advertisers are not required to subscribe to the “Statement of Faith” printed at right; nor are their businesses and products necessarily endorsed by the Manna, Joy! 102.5 WOLC, or Maranatha, Inc., whose viewpoints are not necessarily represented by the opinions or statements of persons interviewed in this magazine; nor are the viewpoints of its advertisers.
Statement of Faith We Believe… that the Holy Bible is the inspired, infallible and authoritative source of Christian doctrine and precept; that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that the only hope for man is to believe in Jesus Christ, the virgin-born Son of God, who died to take upon Himself the punishment for the sin of mankind, and who rose from the dead so that by receiving Him as Savior and Lord, man is redeemed by His blood; that Jesus Christ in person will return to Earth in power and glory; that the Holy Spirit indwells those who have received Christ, for the purpose of enabling them to live righteous and godly lives; and that the Church is the Body of Christ and is comprised of all those who, through belief in Christ, have been spiritually regenerated by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The twin mission of the Church is worldwide evangelization, and nurture and discipline of Christians.
Manna and Joy! 102.5 WOLC P. O. Box 130, Princess Anne, MD 21853 Voice: 410-543-9652 Fax: 410-651-9652 Manna e-mail: manna@wolc.org Joy! 102.5 e-mail: wolc@wolc.org ©2010 Maranatha, Inc. May not be reproduced without written consent of Maranatha, Inc. Photos: iStockphoto and Big Stock Photo
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Signals Brand New Day This is it! A new day in the technological delivery of the Manna has arrived and we welcome you to this premier edition of the new Manna digital magazine! A tremendous amount of work has gone into this process and we thank you, our readers and advertisers, for working with us as we’ve undertaken this project! We are amazed as we look back on the process—from vision to implementation—and how the Lord has directed our steps and cleared the way for this work to be achieved. We are amazed that this day has at last arrived—when we launch this new ministry tool and deliver it to thousands of people through email and online. We are amazed when we consider the sheer volume of people that this publication will now be able to reach with Christ’s message of love and salvation! But we do not stand in amazement of ourselves. We are amazed to simply be part of His great work that He has for this particular moment in time! The ability to reach people by this means, especially with all the “bells and whistles” that come with this new format, may surprise us. We keep scrambling to keep up with the changes in technology. But none of this comes as any surprise to Christ. He knew all along what this day would bring—and though we are unable to comprehend what could possibly come next, He’s got that all figured out, too! Perhaps we’re surprised by our own obedience. He gave direction—and we have followed. We talk about always seeking His will and His direction, but it is sometimes very challenging to be obedient
and not follow after our own desires. What’s really important in all of this is that we are doing what He would have us do now. Sometimes we have a tendency to look back to the Cross, or to look forward to Eternity. But the Lord gives us now. We have choices as to what we would do with our now. We’ve made a commitment to embrace now for Him. We’ve committed to using each moment of each day to share His love with a world seeking the familiarity of His Voice and this new Manna is our tool for now. Our prayer is that you come to know Him as Brother, Friend, Comforter, Healer, Lord and Savior, as we do. That you will share Him with your family and friends—in your neighborhood and around the world—by introducing Him to them through this media. That as we each reach out with this new now technology we can carry forth His Name to all the corners of the earth! Debbie Byrd is General Manager of Maranatha, Inc., a ministry that includes Joy! 102.5 and the Manna.
wolc.org | readthemanna.org | April 2010
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On the Air A Small Price Joy! 102.5 has partnered with Bible League International this month to send Bibles to China. The campaign is called “Don’t Make Them Wait.” It costs just $4 to send a Bible to the Christians in China who are so hungry for the Word of God. It’s a small price to pay, especially when it changes lives half a world away. Between 3.5 million and 4 million people in China come to Christ each year, but they are persecuted daily and cannot legally receive their own Bibles. The government rips them from their hands. Police break down their church doors. Chinese Christians must worship in secret and their leaders are increasingly concerned about the unavailability of Bibles for pastors. Now think about the difference God’s Word has made in your life. Will you con-
sider blessing fellow believers as you’ve been blessed? Our goal is to send approximately 2,000 Bibles through the help of you, our reader and listener. Many have already made a tax deductible gift directly to Bible League International to help fund these Bibles, and we hope you will do the same. Let’s not make our Chinese brothers and sisters wait any longer. To give, call 1-800-YES-WORD (1-800-937-9673) and mention WOLC, or click here to give online. Rodney Baylous is Program Director of Joy! 102.5. Visit www.wolc.org.
Listen Now! Check out our Program Guide at wolc.org
wolc.org | readthemanna.org | April 2010
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National Bible College
Joy in the Journey By B.A.Timmons
the local church bible college since 1993 ❧
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y opponent was much better than I in the game of Ping-Pong. But given the fact I hadn’t played seriously since getting a daily beating by my college roommate, I was at the least giving Steve a work out. A complimentary remark was made about my hitting the ball into the deep part of the board. It was not my strategy; it was pure good fortune of just being able to keep the ball on the table. A similar “strategy” was being employed on the sidelines. I would frequently hit the ball right on the line, or even on the edge of the table. Not a deliberate placement on my part. The ball should have actually landed off the table, and again luck would often swing in my direction. The excitement of play built in both of us – Steve was trying to avoid being beaten by a clearly less skilled player, I was riding on the hope that I would win at least one game against my new Ping-Pong rival. If I could manage a win, it would surely be the only athletic event I would ever win against my friend. It was in the midst of this adrenaline that I made the shot. His return set it up perfectly, a slow ball landing to the right, enabling me to deliver a blow with some serious top spin. The shot landed perfectly on the back edge of the table, the ball nicking it just enough to alter its trajectory, telling us that it had indeed hit the table. Steve was powerless to return it. An astounding shot. “YES!” I shouted. I pumped both arms in the air and then let out a loud, “WOHOOO!” It was the beginning of a new game. The score…. One – zero.
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The absurdity of the celebration struck Steve a nanosecond before it struck me. What followed next was a full minute of uncontrollable laughter. Steve repeatedly mocked my response to the shot – “WOHOO! ... One – zero!” My subsequent play was hindered by my inability to pull myself together, and needless to say, I lost that game as well. I have never enjoyed being beaten so much though. We would replay the moment all weekend long. No doubt, it will be replayed for years to come. The celebration’s timing was what made it memorable. It was grossly premature. Such a display at the end of a game is understandable, even expected. But being the first point of the game made it something completely different. The celebration of the shot had nothing to do with the end of the game. It had everything to do with the playing of it, with the completion of just one step. It was that one step in the right direction that brought the irrepressible joy. The great pleasure of that moment came even in light of the fact I had far to go in the overall process. As ridiculous as it was, the game stopping first point celebration reminds me of an approach to life. In a similar way, it is good for us to enjoy the journey along the road of our spiritual walk. A few years ago, the Christian Motorcyclists Association used the same notion as its year’s motto. Their ingenious play-on-words theme “Enjoy the Ride” described this attitude perfectly. Michael Card also captured the essence of this in his 1987 song “Joy in the Journey.” I was fortunate to have my mother sow
the seeds of this attitude into my life as a youth. “You need to learn to enjoy today,” she would tell me. Others have watered that seed. It is a plant that needs constant attention. Growth has been stunted at times. It has been a pattern of much of my life to look towards the future, longing for the completion of some difficult task or some stressful period of life, or looking towards a better time that was yet to come. Sometimes we look back at a time we judge was better, or more exciting. I have tended to look forward towards circumstances in the future I hoped to be better. Both are common positions in which we find ourselves. While not necessarily “wrong” areas to visit, I suspect neither is the position in which the Lord would have us dwell. Rather, I believe He would have us dwell in the time He has given us today. This aspiration to take a day at a time isn’t peculiar to believers in Christ. It is similar to an ancient philosophy which many have attempted without Christ. At its best, apart from faith, it involves the striving to accept one’s circumstances bravely and without complaining. At its worse, it is a selfish attitude of living in the moment that can be hazardous, totally oblivious to the future and those around us. Neither is what we speak of here. Believers sometimes refer to this place of contentment as “Rest.” It isn’t a state of inactivity, but a position of the soul. It is a condition which says, “There was One who has already walked this path. He was victorious in it. Because He was, I am victorious and can rest because of my relationship to Christ.” It is this dependence on the
life of Christ within us that distinguishes the believer’s approach. Granted, there are some moments easier to rest in than others. No one wants to live in great physical or emotional pain, or in any kind of severe trial. But taking each day as the will of God doesn’t necessarily mean that my flesh will be eager to remain there. It does mean that in the midst of it, I know there is One whose hands are cradling me. This kind of rest can’t be brought about by my own determination. Rather, it has already been made possible by the Lord Himself being at rest. He is at rest… He dwells in us… we are at rest. My only requirement to rest is to accept His. Most of us do not feel at rest all the time. This presents a problem because we are prone to incorrectly judge The Lord’s work in our lives by feelings. Perhaps we have never been at rest in a particular area of our lives. But we do have a hope. We look to the Lord, and trust Him to live in us, and to replace the unrest in our lives with the reality of rest of His Life. Certainly, it is His desire to bring us to a general state of rest which we dwell in every day. But there are areas in our lives yet to be touched by the Lord. Thankfully, in His timing and as we continue to trust that Christ has paved the way, He will set up the shot, and His rest will manifest itself in each of those areas in a clear and undeniable way. “Wohoo!” we shout… we have connected with Christ… another step in the right direction.
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Twitter and Facebook: The New Face of Christian Evangelism Christians Use Social Networking Sites to Advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Mission of Crosswalk.com Richmond, VA (Vocus/PRWEB ) — With social media users sharing everything from what they’re reading to where they’re eating and when they’re going to sleep, it’s no surprise that social sites such as Twitter and Facebook have become a place to voice one’s beliefs and faith. Crosswalk.com, the largest online destination for Christians, has seen how valuable these sites can be for ministry and the sharing of Christian Faith. During a two-week period last summer, Crosswalk.com’s Facebook page experienced a 190 percent growth in fans. “Facebook and Twitter have created an open forum for people to share their faith beyond what traditional forms of communication provide,” said Chad Nykamp, vice president of operations for Salem Web Network. “Social media has become a new medium for evangelism and the spread of Christianity, and we’re excited to see our content and resources being used for that purpose.” Tweets and Facebook statuses such as, “With all the garbage that’s on the internet, Crosswalk is a refreshing oasis,” “Great resource. I feel the folks behind the scenes at
Crosswalk have their finger on the pulse of today’s Christian community,” and, “How awesome is our God providing us with this website. Crosswalk.com, I’m looking forward to learning & sharing the gospel,” have helped Crosswalk.com fulfill its mission of equipping and encouraging others in their Christian walk. “We at Crosswalk.com are always looking for opportunities to encourage Christians to apply their faith to the many difficult issues they will face in this life,” said Stephen McGarvey, executive editor of Crosswalk.com. “Christianity means so much more than simply going to church on Sunday. Websites like Twitter and Facebook provide a tremendous opportunity for Christians to share the many ways our Christian worldview helps us answer the questions of life that come up during the rest of the week.” Visit Crosswalk.com on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/crosswalkcom Follow Crosswalk.com on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/crosswalk_com
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Thinking Small Can Change the World By S. Michael Craven | Christian Post Guest Columnist
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ark Penn, author of Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes (Hachette Book, 2007), is widely regarded as one of the most perceptive pollsters in American politics. It was Penn who identified “soccer moms” as a crucial constituency in President Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. The unique feature of Penn’s approach is that he looks for and has been able to identify, with some success, small patterns of behavior that wield great influence in our culture. According to Penn, “Microtrends is based on the idea that the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us… In fact, the whole idea that there are a few huge trends that determine how America and the world work is breaking down.” Penn points out that “changing lifestyles, the Internet, the balkanization of communications, and the global economy are all coming together to create a new sense of individualism that is powerfully transforming our society. The world may be getting flatter in terms of globalization, but it is occupied by six billion little bumps who do not have to follow the herd to be heard… In fact, by the time a trend hits one percent, it is ready to spawn a hit movie, best-selling book, or new political movement. The power of individual choice is increasingly influencing politics, religion, entertainment, and even war.” In summary, Penn writes, “In today’s mass societies, it only takes one percent of the people making a dedicated choice—contrary to the mainstream’s choice—to create a movement that can change the world.” I find this assertion intriguing. It runs counter to popular thinking. I think we tend to believe that in order to effect longterm change, there must be a massive shift in thinking that achieves majority consensus before real change can occur. In other words, we gravitate toward grand initiatives that promise sweeping results and we’re generally not interested in anything less. (We do this in our increasingly program-oriented churches as well.) I think this might explain, in part, why we are drawn to and often settle on politics. Political leaders promise grand initiatives aimed at this or that problem with the implicit promise of producing sweeping changes. Framed in such altruistic terms as “Hope for tomor-
row” and “Change you can believe in,” the promise becomes almost salvific. However, sweeping benefits rarely occur and what we often discover is that the only real “sweeping” needed is that of removing self-serving politicians from office! The political process, for many, offers an easy response to our social and cultural problems. However, in practice all most of us do is vote periodically, express support for a particular candidate or party, and sign the occasional petition. But given the massive complexities of a large-scale society such as ours, doesn’t this strike you as rather simplistic? How do these political activities actually shape the philosophy of public education or the philosophical worldview on our nation’s college campuses? How do these activities work to shape jurisprudence, or form the sexual ethics of society, strengthen the social commitment to marriage, or resist the cultural shift toward redefining marriage altogether? The present battle to redefine marriage did not emerge as a political initiative—the politics of homosexual activism followed an earlier (small and wellorchestrated) shift in our culture’s moral philosophy. How can political activism counter the scientific worldview that reduces life to its utilitarian purposes or redefines the meaning of human dignity? How do political activities actually shape any ethical matter? They don’t! Politics can and often does become an endless battleground, warring over the same turf with control constantly being wrestled back and forth. Meanwhile, the institutions and mechanisms that actually shape our culture are ignored—except, of course, by those small movements of people committed to changing them. Our present drift toward state-sponsored entitlements and wealth redistribution is not the innovation of one political party or administration but rather the by-product of a generation that has been systematically conditioned to favor socialistic schemes. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying—I’m not suggesting that we stop participating in the political process. I am suggesting that we have to do much more. The fact is, by the time social issues manifest themselves in the realm of politics, it’s too late—by then you’re fighting from a deficit. The ideas that produced these political points of conflict began long before and the process of effecting real change occurs over a generaContinued on page 17
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Thinking Small Can Change the World Continued from page 15 tion or more, not one political term. Abraham Lincoln made this point quite succinctly when he said, “The philosophy in the classroom of this generation is the philosophy of government in the next.” Holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl underscores this point even more powerfully: I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers (The Doctor and the Soul). He is absolutely correct. The Nazis’ “final solution” did not emerge out of a vacuum; it began decades before, almost imperceptibly, as a new worldview began to supplant another. By the time the National Socialist Party (Nazis) came on the scene, the Germans had already been inculcated with a view of reality that would render them receptive to racial arrogance and justify their barbarism. Consistent with Penn’s findings, these monstrous ideas began small—and they certainly changed the world! This idea of “small movements” is also consistent with the nature of God’s kingdom. The Jewish expectation was a kingdom that would come in great power, changing the political order, displacing all human rule and authority, but as George Eldon Ladd points out in his classic work on the kingdom: The Kingdom of God is here; but instead of destroying human sovereignty, it has attacked the sovereignty of Satan. The Kingdom of God is here but instead of making changes in the external, political order of things, it is making changes in the spiritual order and in the lives of men and women (Ladd, Gospel of the Kingdom [Eerdmanns, 1959]). This is the “mystery” of the kingdom to which Jesus referred. God’s kingdom is at work among men in two different stages. The world has yet to see the coming of God’s kingdom in its full and final power, but the mystery, the new revelation announced by Jesus, is that God’s king-
dom has come to work among men but in an unexpected way. It has come quietly, unobtrusively offering to men the present blessings of God’s rule, delivering them from the power of Satan and sin. The kingdom is here not with power as when Christ comes again and every knee will bow, but with the counterintuitive display of love, righteousness, peace, and justice through a people set free, by grace, to live under His lordship. As Penn notes, small things do matter. What if each of us started with the small step of truly loving our neighbor? What if we just taught our own children to think Christianly? What if we ran our businesses as communities that bore witness to the reality of God’s kingdom come into the world? What if we were simply faithful in the small things—seeking first God’s kingdom? Would this change the world? Of course it would! Christ’s kingdom has been changing people and the world for more than 2000 years! The ultimate question is this: “Will I enter his kingdom—follow Him-and be saved?” or will I, like the rich young ruler, cling to my earthly life and perish—knowing Jesus but never following Him? S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture. Michael is the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress). Michael’s ministry is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, visit: www.battlefortruth.org. Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.
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Sending a Message By Karen Tull
W
e all know it: social networking is insanely popular. Case in point, there are now more than 400 million people on Facebook, and half of those users log in each and every day. In fact, Facebook is such a hotspot among Americans that for the first time, it bested Google.com in visit count for an entire week last month. Why? Well, it’s fun. Online communities are uniquely interactive and engaging. For one, they give us the ability to look up distant family members and reconnect with long-lost friends and acquaintances we might never have spoken to again. Remember your history teacher from the 7th grade? She is probably tweeting a comment to her Twitter page right now. Even with co-workers and other people we see every day—it’s amusing to look at the vacation or Christmas photos they post and be able to write a teasing comment underneath. Plus, we can have a constant audience. We wouldn’t call someone to say, “I’m doing my millionth load of laundry right now.” But make that your status on Facebook and you are almost sure to get immediate feedback. “Aw, bummer!” “Tell me about it—my son just spilled chocolate milk down the front of him!” Suddenly, what were once mundane details of everyday existence are now newsworthy tidbits that can generate a lot of reaction. And increasingly, people are using Facebook to play online games. One such game known as Farmville now has over 83 million players around the world. All of these combined factors have worked to make social networking a true phenomenon. Stop and consider the power that exists there—and accordingly, the potential. That power and potential is very much realized by companies and small businesses who are coming on board the social networking scene to make new customers. They want to drive home their advertising messages in any way available. Here at Maranatha, Inc., we are striving to do the same. We want to maximize every avenue there is to put out a message. But the message we want to share is unlike everything else in the world vying for attention. The difference is, our message has eternal value. Between the ministries of Joy! 102.5 and the new digital Manna, in addition to our growing online presence via blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, our mission is to proclaim the Gospel. We invite you to partner with us in sharing the Good News. The online magazine you are currently reading has many capabilities. Is there an article that could impact one of your non believing friends? E-mail it to him or her. Become a fan of us on Facebook and learn about upcoming news and events you could tell others about. Follow us on Twitter and consider re-tweeting a Scripture verse. However you choose to take advantage of the outreach opportunities, the important thing is that you do. There is an active and attentive audience of people out there in need of the salvation and hope that comes only through Jesus Christ—and we have the power to reach them.
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Emergent Christians Mull Theology in Google Era By Lillian Kwon | Christian Post Reporter
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group of progressive Christians is urging its cohorts to catch up with today’s technology and social media to contribute to theological conversations. In this Google-shaped world, theological conversations are no longer limited to Ph.D. holders, seminary presidents and church heads, says the group, but they’re open to all Christians. Unfortunately, progressives are way behind their evangelical brethren when it comes to making effective use of new technologies and social networking and making their voices heard, it laments. Tony Jones, Tripp Fuller and Philip Clayton are among those who are looking to change that through a “revolutionary project to get theology out of the classrooms [and pastors’ studies] and into the streets [living rooms, pubs, etc.].” Most recently, they brought some 150 people together to Claremont School of Theology in southern California for a three-day conference on “Theology After Google.” “From now on, you all ... we’re the seminary presidents and the deans, and the provosts and the tenured faculty. That’s the way it’s going. The future of the Christian faith and how we’re going to articulate it is going to be in the hands of everybody,” said Jones at the start of the March 10-12 event. “The Ph.D.s from Oxford and Cambridge who used to get to write the encyclopedias have been dethroned,” he added, “and now everybody in the world gets to contribute to the largest encyclopedia that’s ever been assembled.” During the three-day conference, participants twittered and made Facebook postings as they listened to short talks on Church 2.0, Theology 2.0, techies and avatars. “We’ve come from a world that has basically set their standards for theology... and everybody before contributed to you and everybody after you is a threat,” said Spencer Burke of TheOoze—which organized the event in partnership with Transforming Theology. “Why can’t we say all of these are going to be the contributors to the ‘what is yet not now’?” Jon Irvine, a Web designer and also part of TheOoze, paralleled the Web to the Church. He suggested “Church 2.0,” where Christians are no longer passive.
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“In Web 1.0 there was the Web and everything was getting pushed on you,” he noted. “In Web 2.0, you’re being pulled in. ... Your opinion matters.” Much like that, Church 1.0 is about top-down leadership, creeds, doctrines and literal objectives church. Church 2.0, on the other hand, is said to encompass a bottom-up, wiki theology, subjective and ever-evolving culture. “When it comes to technology,” Irvine said, “look beyond the hardware and software, and find the image of God within the creativity of man.” The progressive Christians leading the conference have been associated with the emergent church movement, which conservatives have been highly critical of. The conference was labeled by at least one Christian as a “heresy fest.” Ken Silva, a conservative minister who regularly comments on his blog, Apprising Ministries, on what he finds to be apostasy, cautions that “progressive Christianity aka liberal theology will be showing up more and more around the circles of the sinfully ecumenical emerging church aka emergent church.” And the Theology After Google event, he argued, is evidence of that. Organizers of last week’s event were mainly from Transforming Theology, which is a nationwide movement of people who say they are working to transform and renew the Christian Church in and for the twenty-first century. Clayton, who is leading the movement, says while theology was read, preached and taught by a select few in the Age of Gutenberg, today, “in the Age of Google, theology is what you do when you’re responding to blogs, contributing to a wiki doc or google doc, marking up a Word doc on your computer, participating in worship, inventing new forms of ‘ministry,’ or talking about God with your friends in a pub.” There are no strict criteria for what is acceptable or unacceptable theology, adds Clayton, professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology. Pastor Bob Cornwall of Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Mich., participated in the conference and said he’s on board with the movement to a great extent. But he has some questions. “In our embrace of democratization are we giving way to a rather undisciplined conversation? That is, should we be more concerned about what the Reformed tradition calls doing things ‘decently and in order’? Or, to put it another way, should we be concerned about ‘appropriateness’ of our conversation?” he posed. “How democratic should this be, and should we jettison all expertise? I don’t think that’s the intent, but in our excitement, can this not be the message that gets caught?”
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Whatever Happened to Shame? R. Albert Mohler, Jr. | Christian Post Guest Columnist
E
llen Goodman is morally troubled. The liberal columnist for The Boston Globe surveys the moral landscape and laments “there’s no shame in the game.” Goodman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, whose observations are predictably liberal and feminist, but also marked by a keen eye for cultural detail. I still remember a column she wrote almost 30 years ago about an abandoned church being transformed into a condominium. In “Whatever Happened to Shame?” published in the December 18, 2009 edition of the Boston paper, Goodman reports that The New York Post has hired Ashley Dupre, the prostitute at the center of the controversy that brought down former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, as an advice columnist. Goodman does not welcome this news: “I may be a cynic, but somehow I don’t think the Post was motivated by a desire to reform a wayward (call) girl. Dupre’s second act isn’t reformation. It’s confirmation, if we needed it, that there’s no shame in the game.” Ellen Goodman is not a scold. She tells us this, insisting that “shame on you” is “not a phrase that trips off my lips.” But she does see a loss of shame as an ominous moral signal. She referred also to the “scandal of the moment” centering on Tiger Woods and the financial scandals of the last two years. Her greatest concern is the absence of shame:
If, as anthropologists say, shame comes from a violation of cultural norms, it seems to have found its match in a newer cultural norm: fame. Notoriety isn’t so notorious anymore. If Hester Prynne were around, she wouldn’t be the subject of a novel, she’d be the author of a tell-all memoir with cellphone pictures of a buff Arthur Dimmesdale. Goodman’s reference to The Scarlet Letter will, I fear, be familiar to a decreasing number of Americans each year. The story has less hold on a society that does not fear (or even understand) shame. The problem with Ellen Goodman’s understanding of shame is in her paragraph above. If shame is rooted only in “a violation of cultural norms,” then shame disappears as cultural norms change and what was once condemned is now celebrated. I share Ellen Goodman’s concern about the disappearance of shame, but I do not believe that a secular understanding of morality can sustain a stable structure of shame. Cultural norms are changing before our eyes. The shame that matters is the shame that led Adam and Eve to fashion aprons out of fig leaves and hide from God in the Garden. This is shame rooted in the knowledge of sin, not mere cultural norms. It is shame rooted in the knowledge that we have sinned against God, not merely that we have violated a cultural standard. It is a good sign that Ellen Goodman is concerned about this. I share her concern and appreciate her candor. But my greater concern is that the absence of the category of sin leaves shame floating on an unstable platform of cultural norms. The crying shame is the absence of the conviction of sin, and that absence is explained by the cultural disappearance of God as moral judge. The formula is simple: No sin, no shame. Just ask America’s newest advice columnist. Adapted from R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s weblog at www.albertmohler.com. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. For more articles and resources by Dr. Mohler, and for information on The Albert Mohler Program, a daily national radio program broadcast on the Salem Radio Network, go to www.albertmohler.com. For information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to www.sbts.edu. Send feedback to mail@albertmohler.com. Original Source: www. albertmohler.com.
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When Less is More By Randy Walter
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he U.S. is second only to China as the world’s leading consumer nation. Amassing personal wealth is relatively new to most Chinese, but Americans have practiced it for generations. Enter the average home in this country and observe the prevalence of possessions. When their houses become too cluttered, Americans throw away their unwanted things, donate them to charities or sell them at yard sales. Americans possess so much that businesses have been launched to help homeowners manage their burgeoning inventories of stuff. The consumer mindset does not see that as wasteful, in spite of all the discarded items choking municipal landfills, and the expense of properly recycling appliances containing hazardous materials. Concern for preserving the environment goes beyond the debate over climate change and global pollution. It encompasses more than limiting the carbon footprint of consumer products and the energy used to produce them. It is about voluntarily decreasing the demand for them – living on less as a way to moderate the depletion of natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing. In other words, it is foregoing the privilege of buying all one can afford. Americans comprise less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet consume 25 percent of its energy. That’s 14 times the amount per capita used by people in most other developed nations. In the meanwhile, basics for survival are unavailable in many places. Only 46 percent of people living in
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Africa have access to safe drinking water. Water-borne diseases are the world’s leading cause of death. Why not pass up the latest gadget and divert its cost to a worthy cause? Who wouldn’t deprive himself if it meant saving or improving someone else’s life? An Atlanta family made news by embracing this concept. Fourteen-year-old Hannah Salwen helped distribute food as a community volunteer since she was 5. Yet she felt that her family should do more, “like we needed to really downsize our entire life, not just our stuff,” she said in an interview. The hunger Hannah saw made her angry, then determined. After six months of discussion, the family of four sold their 6,500-square-foot house, downsized to quarters less than half its size, and used the $800,000 proceeds to help provide food, schools and medical facilities for 30 villages in the West African nation of Ghana. The Salwens’ experience has been documented by Hannah and her father in a book called The Power of Half. According to Hannah’s brother, Joseph, their shift in lifestyle can “lead to a better life for others.” It demonstrates that having purpose is not about how much people can buy but how much they can give. Declaring it was good for the environment and good for Ghana, a news report said it was “redefining the American dream.” Everyone can do something. Think of it as a new slant on modesty – being unpretentious not just in appearance but in consumerism. What if more people purchased less? Bought some of their clothes second-hand? Didn’t have to have everything they wanted? Deliberately lived below their means so they could use the remainder to help others? During the early 1970s, Federal Communications Commissioner Nicholas Johnson was often seen in Washington wearing dungarees and a work shirt – surprising attire for a presidential appointee. Known for his book How to Talk Back to Your Television Set, Johnson was not a typical aspiring bureaucrat. He lived on a couple thousand dollars of his annual salary and gave the remainder away. In Test Patterns for Living, he lists
tactics for a fulfilled life. One is “the resolve that you are not going to be a willing pawn for the lifestyle that fuels the factories and, at the same time, fills the streams and air and earth with the discards of last year’s products that no one needed or really wanted. Once you really feel the reasons why you don’t want all that material fluff junking up your life, you find that you can get along on a lot less income…” Living on less might mean sacrificing good things, not just unwanted things. Giving till it hurts is when people tailor the way they live for the sake of others. A truck driver from an Indian reservation near San Diego lost his legs in a terrible accident. He used the large settlement to open a convenience store for his neighbors. Many of his customers asked if they could buy on credit, and many of them reneged. The man stayed in business as long as his money lasted, but eventually had to close the store. Asked if the experience left him bitter because friends took advantage of his trusting nature, he responded, “If that accident made it possible for me to help so many people, then it was worth it.” Living on less doesn’t always mean making sacrifices; sometimes it is making improvements. This month, the Manna has transitioned to a paperless publication. Although its message remains the same, this advancement yields the benefits of saving ministry resources and natural resources, while possessing the potential to reach a generation which gets its information from screens rather than printed material. By exceeding the limitations of its former distribution area, the Manna online magazine is now a global ministry. The Internet presents unlimited opportunities to more cost effectively reach people for Christ. Broadcast streaming enables stations like Joy! 102.5 to be heard around the world. Churches offer online worship services and podcasts of sermons. Social networking facilitates dialoging about God. Search engines provide access to limitless resources in the search for faith. Living a life in which “less is more” produces rewards in this world and the next. It’s something everyone can do.
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Think Out Loud
“they were delicious, so sweet and so cold.” It is temptation at the core. We are all tempted and we all transgress. It is our condition and our curse. It is called sin. Is it a leap to pin the heaviness of sin on a couple of cold plums in an icebox? No, not really. It is not temptation that is the sin, but the action after the temptation, even if the plums were sweet and cold. Williams may not have written an epic poem, but he certainly wrote of an epic theme.
This Is Just To Say: William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold William Carlos Williams’ poem This Is Just To Say, is no epic; well, not in its length or language anyway. It is short and reads like a note left on the kitchen table after a late night snack. It is to the point, but yet comfortable in its confession and hints that the one that set aside the plums would certainly understand the great temptation he faced. Temptation is what this poem is really about. Williams uses language lusciously. Just using the word icebox sends a chill. Since the poem was written in 1934, the word “icebox” is no contrivance, but an accurate description. It still sends a chill. Unable to withstand the temptation of the cold plums in the icebox, the writer eats them. “Forgive me,” he writes, Maranatha Media | Home of Joy! 102.5 and the Manna
Give Yourself Away: Robbie Seay Band “Love, is the seed, that is buried underneath the soil of pain and of grief, but it grows into the tree that I’ll climb to see You here.” What a lyric. Give Yourself Away by Robbie Seay Band is full of poetic, intimate lyrics and layers of guitars and reverb. Somewhere in the swirl of it, is something much deeper. Much to their credit, Robbie Seay Band is unashamedly Christian. As I listened to Give Yourself Away, I asked myself if someone would know their lyrics were about God. Yes, Christianity is all over this album. And, it sounds good. As the times I listened multiplied, I kept hearing something and I wasn’t sure what to call it at first, because I don’t hear it as much in Christian music as I thought I did. I stumbled over the intimacy. Intimacy in the lyrics, the instrumentation, the vocals, the production. This album doesn’t sound like it was made for me to listen to so I would buy another Robbie Seay Band album. Give Yourself Away sounds like it was made as a reaction to God’s grace. I just happen to enjoy it too.
The Power of Small: Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval Wildly successful advertising agents for major national product lines, Thaler and Koval “get it,” and they share it well in this short, motivational read. Life is overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. From home improvement projects to a major, career dependent presentation on the job, significant “big picture” stuff often overshadows the lesser stuff. But is it really lesser stuff? It’s paying attention to the small stuff that has not only cemented Thaler and Koval’s professional success, but enriched their lives. Filled with example after example, this little book makes one think about all the important little things we miss as we move through the day; little things that, left undone, can steal the twinkle from an eye otherwise filled with excitement and, conversely, little things that, carried out, can bring joy and satisfaction into a life desperate for meaning. And it’s not just about being nice. Though nice matters. It’s about being thorough. Little things mend hearts, brighten and even save lives, and endear one soul to another. It’s about relationship, personal and professional. It’s about doing what we do, at home, on the job or in the community, with passion and excitement. It’s about not just going through the motions. It’s about living.
Facing Your Giants: Max Lucado Giants come in many forms. Sometimes they’re the past hurts we can’t shake or the addictions we can’t overcome. Maybe they’re the relationships we can’t mend or the payments we can’t make. Whatever they may be, we all have them—and they will defeat us if we don’t adopt the right perspective... that is, if we look anywhere but to God Himself for the help we need. In his book, Max Lucado takes us through the biblical account of David, a man who faced a number of giants in his day (including a literal one by the name of Goliath). With his hope and confidence in God, David was able to enjoy many victories against his adversaries. But he didn’t always succeed. Many times, he flat-out failed. Deceit. Murder. Cowardice. The list goes on. When David didn’t make God his focus and chose to seek refuge elsewhere, trouble often followed. But there is encouragement to be found in David’s story. The man who began as a humble shepherd boy was raised up by God to be the king of Israel and part of the very bloodline that would bring forth the Son of God, Jesus Christ. If a sinner like David could be used by God in tremendous ways, surely God can and will use us—also sinners—above and beyond all our expectations. As the author writes, “The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you.”
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ever saw the sunrise, ‘til I stayed up all night,” writes the singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It’s true. To see grace something must be lost until at last it is found. Your heart must be in a desperate struggle to push blood through your body before a transplant is even considered a worthwhile risk. The creeping fog of blindness causes hope for a miracle where one wasn’t needed before. A Christian or a non-Christian can glibly sing Amazing Grace, but shouldn’t both question why it is amazing? In the book of Leviticus, wedged in the beginning of the Old Testament between Genesis and Deuteronomy, the cost of a sacrificial system is graphically and sys-
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tematically laid before us. The constantly flowing blood from animal sacrifices and the fetid smell were perpetual reminders to the ones God had chosen to deliver from the slavery of Egypt that they were not blameless. They were, in fact, always guilty. God was stating at a constant and strident pitch that things were not right between people and Him. Even the regulations that the priests— the very ones who performed the rituals on behalf of the people—had to remember were multitude and the disregard or reinvention of the procedure ended in immediate and deadly consequences. The weight of the ritual that rested squarely on the linen draped shoulders of the priests was an ongoing revelation of our inability to stand
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before a righteous and almighty God. It was the worst possible news God was giving them – He is blameless and they were not and there was nothing they could do to remedy the situation. They could cover their sins with animal blood, but it would not remove the sin. Nothing relieved the burden of knowing that their position was hopeless. They just could not measure up. We might say today that nobody is perfect, and they may have said it too. It’s true. Though we are not, God is. Maybe we could figure out a way to make God happy? Please Him with some gift of service or some strict mortification of the body. They tried. Maybe giving up possessions or helping someone we don’t even know? They tried that, too. Maybe God was just being too harsh after all? At this darkest point of the darkest night of the soul, a light bled into the night dissolving the ever widening reach of the darkness. The chasm separating hopeless
people from a perfect God was bridged by the outstretched and surrendering arms of One who was blameless and was in no need of a sacrifice to cover sin. The beating heart replaced the diseased one. Dimming eyes could see. What would this be worth? What price is freedom? It is amazing because God came to us. It is amazing because we cannot earn it. It is amazing because it is complete. It is amazing because it is free. This grace will never be amazing if we don’t know how sinful we are; it will never be amazing if we can’t comprehend not only what was done for us but what we now don’t have to do. Not now, not ever. Becoming aware that there is a cure for our sins is like staying up all night and seeing the lip of the sun rise above the curve of the earth, to see morning for the first time. The stars start to fade, the night is behind and the first gleam of the sun hitting your face is a new beginning; it is more than ordinary, it is amazing.
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Perspective
Don’t Be Duped
S
ince going into ministry with the Manna in 1983, I have seen one thing which has most hurt the cause of Christ and the credibility of Christians – a preoccupation with conspiratorial plots against the Church which turn out to be hoaxes. Some of them are still making the rounds because Christians don’t do their homework. Did you hear the one about atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s petition to have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ban all Christian broadcasting? It was never true, but it generated so much response that the FCC made “religious petition” one of the options for its phone answering automation. The agency received more than 30 million pieces of mail on the subject and continues to process a large volume of complaints. Its website explains, “These rumors are untrue.” Yet because they appeal to a sense of persecution and martyrdom, these rumors are perpetuated by people who never check to see if they are valid. Occasionally I still receive an e-mail requesting my help in battling this bogus petition. Remember when we were supposed to boycott Procter & Gamble because their product labels allegedly contained occult symbols, and the company was accused of supporting the church of Satan? That, too, was a false story kept alive in Christian circles for years. This hoax has been updated to implicate other corporations in similar practices. There have been many choice hoaxes, like the story of the vanishing hitchhiker who delivers a prophetic warning, usually about Christ’s Second Coming, then van-
ishes from the car of the pastor who picked him up. The inference is that this mysterious rider is an angel or Jesus Himself. Then there’s the dreaded supercomputer called “The Beast,” a three-story monster rumored to reside in Brussels and capable of tracking the activities – including buying and selling – of every human on Earth. For identification, it supposedly relies on invisible tattoos on the forehead or back of the hand. The story says these “marks of the beast” are three-digit numbers, and the machine will be used by the anti-Christ to usher in his one-world government. And don’t forget the “voices from hell,” allegedly heard when Soviet scientists on a platform in the North Sea drilled a hole so deep into Earth’s crust that they heard human screams of anguish and smelled sulphur. This fictitious account was widely reported by Christian media which neglected to first check the story’s validity. Why? Because it was what viewers and readers wanted to hear. The Bible talks about people who are easily led astray. Paul had to warn his spiritual son, Timothy, about those who “will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.” In February, someone e-mailed me the latest ruse: That the Treasury Department removed “In God We Trust” from the presidential dollar coins. It showed a picture of the George Washington dollar, the first coin in the series. “Refuse to accept
these when they are handed to you,” the message demands. “Together we can force them out of circulation.” When that coin came out three years ago and I first heard this story, I went to a bank and got one to examine. No, “In God We Trust” was not on the obverse or reverse of the coin. It was engraved on the rim, along with “E Pluribus Unum” and the year the coin was minted. Has the motto since been removed? After receiving February’s e-mail, I obtained the 13th coin, the newly released Millard Fillmore dollar. The motto is no longer on the rim. It is now on the face of the coin. Once again, Christians are being made to look foolish by spreading a false rumor. Don’t go along mindlessly when you get this kind of e-mail and it says to forward it to your mailing list. Consult Snopes or Urban Legends. Determine whether you are being asked to disseminate useful information or being duped. It’s already hard enough for the world to take Christians seriously. When Christians talk about spiritual things, sometimes it’s like when Isaiah wrote, “Who has believed our report?” That is all the more reason for Christians to get their facts straight and not pass on unsubstantiated accusations which bring derision to Christianity from the very world Christians are supposed to teach and win. As representatives of the truth, Christians owe it to the One they represent not to be messengers of fallacy. Randy Walter is Contributing Editor to the Manna.
wolc.org | readthemanna.org | April 2010
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