“So far as a man may be proud of a religion rooted in humility, I am very proud of my religion; I am especially proud of those parts of it that are most commonly called superstition. I am proud of being fettered by antiquated dogmas and enslaved by dead creeds (as my journalistic friends repeat with so much pertinacity), for I know very well that it is the heretical creeds that are dead, and that it is only the reasonable dogma that lives long enough to be called antiquated.”
–GK Chesterton
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“If
you try to assert wisdom before people have themselves walked it, be
prepared for much resistance, denial, push-back, and verbal debate.”
– Richard Rohr, (Falling Upward; via MINemergent)
This is very true. There is also the reality that people who speak truth in these days, whose “yes” is yes and whose “no” is no, who and actually deal with the issues that become big, white elephants in the room, well these people are going to be resisted, are going to be accused, and are going to be opposed. (The vested interests of the status-quo will not recuse themselves easily, even as their failure is imminent.)
This is too bad, because when we speak truthfully, with consistency, and actually deal squarely with the real problems we face, then real, positive, and workable change for the better can occur. This is, of course, called integrity.
When we live within integrity, we then earn a hearing and garner respect from those who want nothing to do with the institutions to which we (I) belong – namely, the Church.
The new 2011 Beloit College Mindset List for the new freshmen class of 2015 is now out.
“This year’s entering college class of 2015 was born just as the Internet
took everyone onto the information highway and as Amazon began its
relentless flow of books and everything else into their lives. Members
of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1993, are the first
generation to grow up taking the word “online” for granted and for whom
crossing the digital divide has redefined research, original sources and
access to information, changing the central experiences and methods in
their lives. They have come of age as women assumed command of U.S. Navy
ships, altar girls served routinely at Catholic Mass, and when
everything from parents analyzing childhood maladies to their breaking
up with boyfriends and girlfriends, sometimes quite publicly, have been
accomplished on the Internet.”
The whole list is below the jump.
Related articles
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
“Because in fact, we are slipping back fast into something like the ancient world. We are slipping back towards a world of narrow tunnel vision of religions and superstitious practice, a world where lots and lots of people have their lords and god, their practices and their mysticisms, that do not really relate to each other. We are slipping away from the idea that there might be a faith that would bring all human beings together. We are slipping back socially and internationally into the assumption that there really are such differences in human beings that we can forget about God’s universal righteousness.”
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, during Bible studies delivered at the 13th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, Nottingham 2005
Kenda Creasy Dean in her new-ish book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, describes the primary “faith” of American teenagers as “Therapeutic, Moralistic, Deism” rather than a form of the enduring Christian Faith. This description of the faith-system (as much as it can be a formal “system” at this point) comes out of the results and analysis of the National Study of Youth and Religion project.
Both with Rowan and Kenda, these are pictures of where we are culturally, particularly among the emerging generations, and what is to come within the culture and within our individual lives as believers or not. How are we ready?
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
Th
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ere is an interesting review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China, in this past week’s edition of Newsweek, entitled, “Dr. K’s RX for China.” (Accessed 5/31/2011) (NYT’s Book Review)
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“The Old Testament does communicate to us and it was written for us, and for all humankind. But it was not written to us. It was written to Israel. It is God’s revelation of himself to Israel and secondarily through Israel to everyone else. As obvious as this is, we must be aware of the implications of that simple statement. Since it was written to Israel, it is in a language that most of us do not understand, and therefore it requires translation. But the language is not the only aspect that needs to be translated. Language assumes a culture, operates in a culture, serves a culture, and is designed to communicate into the framework of a culture. Consequently, when we read a text written in another language and addressed to another culture, we must translate the culture as well as the language if we hope to understand the text fully.” [Italic emphasis the author’s, Bold emphasis mine]
The Lost World of Genesis One, John H. Walton (Donners Grove: Intervarsity Press; 2009, p. 9)
I think, also, that when we consider passing on the Faith to new generations we must consider how best to translate the Faith, as well as the lessons of Scripture, to that new generation. We have to understand the emerging culture in which these new generations reside – and the emerging culture is not the same as ours, the adults who are making the decisions.
The late Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general and the 34th president of the United States, was once asked who he believed to be the greatest man he’d ever met.
He replied in a snap:
“It wasn’t a man. It was a woman – my mother. She had little schooling, but her educated mind, her wisdom, came from a lifelong study of the Bible. One night we were playing a card game, mother, my brothers and I. It was Flinch. Hands were dealt and I drew a bad one. I began to complain.”
He continued: ” ‘Put your cards down, boys,’ Mother said. ‘Dwight, this is just a friendly game in your home where you are loved. But out in the world where there isn’t so much love, you will be dealt many a bad hand. So you’ve got to learn to take the hands life deals you without complaining. Just play them out.’ “
via: Finding Home
From this morning’s Emergent Village post:
James C. Hunter
The Servant
This is a good word for me, today.
Very good opinion piece by David Brooks in the New York Times. He uses the new musical, “The Book of Mormon,” as his backdrop. This notion of speeding away from anything that distinguishes us or makes us peculiar or diminishes the rigors of the Faith will in the end result in nothing but decline and a faith that has little real impact on the world, particularly for the cause of Christ.
A couple paragraphs:
The only problem with “The Book of Mormon” (you realize when thinking
about it later) is that its theme is not quite true. Vague, uplifting,
nondoctrinal religiosity doesn’t actually last. The religions that grow,
succor and motivate people to perform heroic acts of service are
usually theologically rigorous, arduous in practice and definite in
their convictions about what is True and False.That’s because people are not gods. No matter how special some
individuals may think they are, they don’t have the ability to
understand the world on their own, establish rules of good conduct on
their own, impose the highest standards of conduct on their own, or
avoid the temptations of laziness on their own.The religions that thrive have exactly what “The Book of Mormon”
ridicules: communal theologies, doctrines and codes of conduct rooted in
claims of absolute truth.Rigorous theology provides believers with a map of reality. These maps
may seem dry and schematic — most maps do compared with reality — but
they contain the accumulated wisdom of thousands of co-believers who
through the centuries have faced similar journeys and trials.Rigorous theology allows believers to examine the world intellectually
as well as emotionally. Many people want to understand the eternal logic
of the universe, using reason and logic to wrestle with concrete
assertions and teachings.
