Dietrich Bonhoeffer On The Church

So I was skimming through Letters and Papers from Prison as I haven't read it in awhile and I stumbled upon this paragraph on pgs. 382-383:

The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.

A big contrast from the mega-church movement and the health and wealth gospel, wouldn't you say?

Baptist News And Views

Here are a few interesting and recent articles from the Baptist world by way of the Biblical Recorder:

Survey: Megachurches attract many under 45

10. June 2009 by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

Megachurches are most attractive to younger adults, and almost all who arrive at their sanctuaries have darkened a church’s door before, a new survey shows.

The study by Leadership Network and Hartford Institute for Religion Research, released June 9 found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of adults who attend Protestant megachurches are younger than 45, compared to 35 percent of U.S. Protestant congregations overall.Researchers found that just 6 percent of those attending a megachurch — defined as a congregation attended by 2,000 or more each week — had never attended a worship service before arriving at their current church. Almost half (44 percent) had come from another local church, 28 percent had transplanted from a distant congregation and 18 percent had not attended church for a while.

“It appears that megachurches draw persons who want a new experience of worship — contemporary, large-scale, professional, high-tech,” said Scott Thumma, co-author of Not Who You Think They Are: The Real Story of People Who Attend America’s Megachurches.

“For the nearly 30 percent coming from a distant church previously ... they want a place to plug in immediately to a community, missions and small groups.”

Read More: Here

Sadly this seems to be the growing trend these days as traditional mainline churches shrink in membership.

Campbell Law juvenile program receives grant
June 4 2009 by Campbell Law

BUIES CREEK — The Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University announced June 4 the receipt of a two-year grant in the amount of $144,904 from the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission for use in the Law School’s Juvenile Justice Mediation program. This grant will enable the program to be expanded to serve Wake County when the Law School moves to its new location in downtown Raleigh...

Read More

This is great news for Campbell Law school.

Iran Erupts In Violent Protests

It seems Safari is doing better today though I still think all my Blog widgets also may be partly responsible for loading problems as well as Summer time web traffic. So let me know if you're having trouble too?



Anyways, over the weekend Iran erupted in violent protests almost akin to 30 years ago---except this time the cry is for a regime change that supports more progressive leaning political aims rather than the all familiar theocracy that was established 30 years ago. Americans who were alive then remember watching with much trepidation the unfolding drama of the Iran Hostage Crisis which was our first taste of the newly established Iranian theocracy---so of course this sole event colors any American political commentary on Iran. What can I say, we are biased by it---because most average Americans don't realize all the complex details that have shaped the Iranian political climate.

The Iranian Revolution is one of the single events in human history which shows us that theocracy is a bad idea. Though the Iranian theocracy is one built on militant Islam---we Christians don't have bloodless hands as we had our own Irans such as the Christian Iran of the 16th century---Calvin's Geneva. See also: TheoPoetic Musings: Fundamentalists Never Cease To Be Laughable and TheoPoetic Musings: Respect For John Calvin. Thankfully the majority of Christians moved beyond theocracy especially Baptists. Anti-theocracy tendencies have always been a part of the Baptist heritage. Consider these statements:

"Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.”
“God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.”
“All civil states, with their officers of justice, in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual, or Christian, state and worship.”---Roger Williams

Wee do freely profess that our Lord the King hath no more power over their [Roman Catholics’] coonsciences than over ours, and that is none at all ... let [people] be heretikes, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever, it apperteynes not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.
— Thomas Helwys

1640
"When they [the Church] have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the Candlestick, etc., and made His Garden a wilderness as it is this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and Paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world, and all that be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the World." Roger Williams, "Mr. Cotton's Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered," The Complete Writings of Roger Williams, Vol. 1, 108.

1773
"Religious matters are to be separated from the jurisdiction of the state, not because they are beneath the interests of the state but, quite to the contrary, because they are too high and holy and thus are beyond the competence of the state." Isaac Backus, colonial Baptist from New England, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty.

1790
"The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever. ... Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians." John Leland, "A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia," The Writings of the Later Elder John Leland, published in 1845.---Assorted quotes on Baptists and liberty

It should be noted that a large majority of Muslims have followed suit and are believers of separation of religion and government like the Republic Of Turkey. And like our Muslim friends, we too have nutcases in favor of theocracy: Pat Robertson, Worldview Weekend, the Religious Right, etc. to name a few.

We can only hope that an Ataturk will rise up in Iran to free his/her people someday for the sake of all the Iranians who are longing for a government that truly promotes freedom and democracy. More on Iran later until then see also: Shuck and Jive: Yeah, right..

On Socialism and Capitalism and Theology

Here's part of an interesting post from Wes Ellis' Blog---Living In The Kingdom:

Both Capitalism and Socialism fail to dream theologically about work. Both views primarily relate work to money (wage-labor) and not to creation, thus we fail to see ourselves as co-creators with God and we deceive ourselves into understanding our work and ourselves as commodities for the production of wealth. I find it interesting that the second you criticize capitalism, People think you'd prefer socialism, people call you a socialist (or even a communist). I think this reality is a testimony to our apparent lack of imagination. Can't we do better, can't we try harder than both of these systemic options. Can't we come together in love and work together to give life and harmony for the sake of creation and not only for the sake of capital.

Too often we are alienated from the productivity of our work. It's just for money, so what we're actually producing, what we're contributing to the world becomes second (if that) when it should be of primary importance. Rather than finding ourselves alive in our work, offering life through our time and energy, we find ourselves experiencing a sort of death from which we can only escape in our "time off."

(Read On: Here).

Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

See also: TheoPoetic Musings: Flaws Of Communism And Capitalism.

Technical Difficulties---June 12, 2009

I seemed to have had some problems Blogging today so I had to switch from Safari to Firefox to get any Blogging done. It's pretty crazy having to switch web browsers midstream. I'm not sure if these difficulties are due to Safari's recent update, all my gadgets, network problems or what---but anyways, luckily I have more than one web browser to fulfill my Internet needs. I haven't had any problems with Blogging with Safari before as Blogging is all I use Safari for---since I switched from Blogging Internet Explorer to solely Blogging with Safari awhile back. Internet Explorer I use for everything else. Anyways with that said---Safari seems to run more efficiently when I post a bunch of text-only posts after posting a bunch of high media content posts, so that is what I'm trying to do.

What It Means To Be Baptist

My new Facebook friend, David Harmon-Vaught, recently posted this article on Facebook:

Give me those old-time Baptists
By Joe Phelps • Special to The Courier-Journal • June 10, 2009

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Minister and gadfly Will Campbell, speaking at a Baptist college chapel, asked "How many of you are old-time Baptists?" Hands went up across the chapel. "How many would serve on a jury?" Again, hands went up. "How many would fight in a war if asked?" Hands quickly rose. "How many believe in capital punishment?" Same result.
Campbell then observed, "Old-time Baptists, those from the 16th and 17th centuries, wouldn't do any of those things." He paused. "Students, you're not old-time Baptists, you're 1950's Baptists."
Baptists come in all flavors and sizes. With the Southern Baptist Convention's annual gathering taking place in Louisville later this month, and with a recent SBC vice-president saying in an interview that he prays for the death of President Obama, it is timely to recite the old adage, "No Baptist speaks for another." I don't speak for them, and they surely don't speak for me.
Sometimes it's hard to be a Baptist, or at least to admit it in good company. Our caricatures aren't pretty.
But this year is the 400th anniversary of the birth of the Baptist movement within the Christian faith, which seems a fitting time to reflect on "old-time Baptists" and to celebrate the contribution of Baptists to the global religious landscape; namely, our advocacy for uncoerced faith grounded in the right of conscience and the inevitability of dissent from either the government or any religious hierarchy.
Like many of our American freedoms, religious liberty seems an obvious, even innocuous right to us today. But Baptists were born in a day when freedom to declare one's belief or disbelief was prohibited by the laws of the land. Baptists refused to yield to the assumption that faith could be co-opted and exploited by the state. Faith, or no faith, was too sacred to be simply a precondition of citizenship.
You may have been taught that the Puritans came to the New World for religious liberty. In fact, early settlers came for their religious liberty from England, but not necessarily for others. State sanctioned religion was still in vogue, just Puritan state-sanctioned religion.

Read More: Here.

See also:

Why I Am a Baptist
By Professor Walter Rauschenbusch

Prelude
Baptists emphasize the primacy of personal Christian experience
Baptists practice democracy in our organized church lift
Baptists insist that a Christ-like lift, not ritual, characterizes true worship and pure religion
Baptists tolerate no creed the Bible alone is sufficient authority/or our faith and practice
POSTLUDE

New Doctor Who And Theology

Doctor Who and the Theology of Identity
By Abigail L. Sines

I admit it: I’m a sci-fi fan. I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a sci-fi “geek;” I don’t think I’m technical enough for that. For me the realm of sci-fi is interesting and entertaining because it allows so much latitude to explore what it is to be human: We learn about ourselves when we encounter what is different. In the imaginary worlds of sci-fi there are infinite possibilities to explore human identity.
Plus, today’s CGI and special effects produce some spectacularly cool-looking aliens and interstellar shoot-em-ups! This is fun.



Star Trek has always been my sci-fi flavor of choice and it was always the conflicted characters that captured my fancy: Mr. Spock balancing his human and Vulcan halves; Lt. Worf, a Klingon, making his way through the ranks of Starfleet; Lt. Commander Data, an android, making forays into the world of human emotions; even the holographic doctor in the Voyager series coming “alive” through his increasingly complex and personal interactions with the rest of the crew.
Recently I’ve taken to watching the latest version of the BBC Doctor Who franchise, featuring David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. (If you care to watch the last couple of years of Doctor Who on DVD in the U.S., you're looking for sets labeled “Third Series” and “Fourth Series.”)
Tennant masterfully presents a quirky, boisterous, and witty Doctor. Who could resist the ongoing battle between good and evil in a universe still plagued by vintage Daleks and Cybermen? Like a bad penny, they just keep turning up. Those ‘70s era robotic designs and digitized “exterminate” and “delete” refrains seem clunky by today’s slick sci-fi standards, yet they still manage to embody evil. But, I'm most interested in the Doctor’s interaction with his human companions, all women: Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble.
The Doctor is fascinated by humans. Yes, us. You see, the Doctor really is a lonely Time Lord with all of time and space at his doorstep thanks to his faithful TARDIS contraption (shaped like a telephone booth on the outside). The Doctor is so far advanced beyond humans that he almost seems omnipotent by comparison—yet, at times, he seems quite in awe of us. He remarks on the human inclination for curiosity, exploration and survival.

...

But this current version of Doctor Who is far more than a sci-fi action flick. Yes, there’s a lot of fun and high adventure in these episodes—but there are deeper questions as well.
In fact, when the human John Smith is confronted with giving up his life to resume the Doctor’s cosmic duties, he is not pleased. In one scene, he cries out: “I’m John Smith…that’s all I want to be…John Smith. With his life and his job and his love. Why can’t I be John Smith? Isn’t he a good man?”

The climax of the drama is remarkably gripping. One schoolboy looks to Smith as an important mentor in his life, describing his beloved teacher this way: “He’s like fire and ice and rage. He’s like a knight and a storm in the heart of the sun…. He’s ancient and forever and burns at the center of the universe…. And he’s wonderful.”
John Smith realizes that he is being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice: He is being asked to die so that the Doctor can resume his bodily existence and foil the plans of the Family. As he holds the watch in his hand, he pleads desperately for a way out, “I should have thought of it before, I can give them this, just the watch…. Then they can leave earth and I can stay as I am.”
I won’t spoil the plot by revealing more, but the script is pointing at larger theological reflections.

As I watched these scenes, I thought of Psalm 139: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (vs. 14). The psalmist marvels that humans are the object of God’s attention, that God even takes note of us: “When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (vs. 14b–15). The psalmists reaches out to God: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (vs. 17–18).
These themes echo throughout the Bible. Read Ecclesiastes, 3:11: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Or, think of Romans 11:33: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” These biblical writers are grappling with the mystery and perfection of divine love—and human limitation within that divine relationship. “For we know in part…but when perfection come, the imperfect disappears…. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (I Corinthians 13:9,12).

(If I wetted your appetite, read the full article: Here).

Originally caught from Peter Wallace's Blog.