National Rancid

Apologies for my title. Regular readers won’t get it and shouldn’t be expected to.

However, here’s something you’re more likely to come across than a pun on an obscure, late-career Elvis Costello album title: the online debate over Christian Nationalism is getting hotter and more acrimonious by the week, and with good reason. Young men are drawn to CN like moths to a flame, starved for something useful to do, a cause to stand for, and any sense that clear lines about political realities are finally being drawn within evangelicalism.

Anonymous Asks (332)

“Is not reading the Bible a sin?”

As with so many answers to questions asked here, let’s say it depends on the situation. There have been times throughout history, both during and after the period when scripture was in the process of being written, when large numbers of its intended audience were illiterate, and not by their own choice. Literacy is a privilege and an opportunity not offered to all men and women, and surely the Lord would no more charge people who can’t read with the sin of not doing what they are unable to do than he would charge the innocent poor man for being poor.

Likewise, I don’t see him adding the charge of not reading the Bible to every one of the dead scheduled to appear before the great white throne, though it will certainly leave those who had opportunity to do so without excuse. But they have plenty on their plates without that.

A Tale of Two Elders

I know two elders, one current and one former, who cared for the people of God for a number of years. Concerning the former elder, I can confirm he was perpetually pleasant and present, often greeting at the door with a warm smile on his face. I was not around when he was asked to serve as an overseer and I cannot comment on his qualifications, but I never heard that he disgraced himself in any way, and he was certainly well liked by many. I was only an occasional visitor in those days, but he never forgot my name.

After a few years, he resigned his responsibilities and his family later left the church under circumstances that were less than fully transparent, but I do not hold that against him either. Sometimes discretion is preferable to full disclosure, especially when it involves the confidences of others.

The other elder is still serving, and he has his share of detractors.

119: Heth

Pronounced chet, Heth [ח] is the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, called by Jewish scholars the “letter of life”. They teach that a soul at one with God is enlivened by the “essential life” God himself possesses, which does not seem an unreasonable proposition. Where Christianity differs with Judaism, of course, is over the matter of how being “at one” with God comes about.

As the New Testament teaches, it is only in the person of Jesus Christ that the essential life of God may be communicated to his creatures.

Too Hot to Handle: Virginity as Social Construct

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Christians who frequent the major social media sites are finding it difficult to miss the sudden and precipitous increase in closed accounts, shadowbannings and deplatformings of Christian, conservative and even centrist voices. When so many are being abruptly silenced, it is not unreasonable to wonder which opinions are still acceptable in the public square.

Wonder no more. A mother of five girls is using her TikTok account to try to put an end to the “social construct” of virginity, which she claims is “designed by men to control women’s bodies and ultimately make women feel bad about themselves”. [Caution: coarse language in link.] She says she is raising her daughters to believe there is no such thing as virginity.

Well, not in her home at any rate.

Just Church (4)

Chapter 2: From Among Your Own Selves

“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert …”

The verse above is from Paul’s “swan song” to the Ephesian elders. He knows his ministry with them is done, and he’s concerned that they might not be ready. He knows trouble is coming, and it’s coming from two directions. One they’ll probably expect, the other not so much.

Wolves Among the Flock

There will be merciless, God-hating persecutors — “wolves” — who will come in among the flock and do them harm. Paul says they need to be aware of them, and not to be surprised if such persecution comes. But there’s another danger for which they really need to be on the alert: the danger of people rising up “from among your own selves”. These are people who only appear to be Christians — but equally, may be people who genuinely are, but who have been poisoned, corrupted or misled in some way. Either way, they will be “speaking distorted things”, things that are nearly Christian but are twisted in some way so that they really are not.

Giving Opportunity Away

If you are looking for something to stimulate the tear ducts, this will definitely get you going.

A UK widow writing for The Conservative Woman makes a profound observation about the nature of choice-making in a post entitled “I am so grateful my husband ignored those who would have assisted his dying”. What Gabriella Dunn has to say about her personal experience applies far beyond the issue of assisted dying.

We might say it presents us with a particular type of choice that goes back all the way to Eden.

The Language of the Debate (11)

Back in March of this year, a Special Reporter advised the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide … has been met.” She was referring, of course, to Israel’s ongoing incursion into Gaza against Hamas.

Nobody blinked. The glib Francesca Albanese redefinition of a well-understood term slid by the council without a murmur of objection. Israel called the report “an obscene inversion of reality”, but news programs around the world now routinely describe the invasion as a genocide without significant pushback.

Was the description accurate?

Anonymous Asks (331)

“Are mono-ethnic churches biblical?”

I have never been to a truly mono-ethnic church. I have no evidence they exist. To remain truly mono-ethnic for more than a few weeks, a church would have to find a way to enforce ethnicity-based membership. Which leads to the obvious question: What makes a person, for example, Chinese? Is 100% racial “purity” required? Or would it be permissible for him to have one Tibetan grandparent, or if not a grandparent, perhaps a great-grandparent?

How would you prove such a thing, and why should you have to?

Reminders and Remembrance

Under the Law of Moses, the sacrificial system reminded devout Israelites of their sins, failures and shortcomings year after year. In this respect, it was much like a nagging mother: you know she’s right, but you wish she’d please stop talking. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it, “It is impossible for the blood for bulls and goats to take away sins.”

If that’s what Israel was looking for, it went home disappointed. The fix was only temporary.

119: Zayin

I don’t always believe everything Hebrew scholars say about their alphabet (or anything else). As I may have mentioned, they have a tendency to be whimsical.

Nevertheless, they suggest the letter Zayin [ז] represents movement and struggle, not to mention the number seven. Literally, it means “weapon” or “sword”, and looks like one — or so it is claimed — if you angle your eyeballs exactly the right way when you squint at it.

I’m still trying to see it, but then I’m about as Hebrew as a polar bear. To me it looks more like a club or maybe a wooden mallet.

Too Hot to Handle: Woman Overboard

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Last week we discussed the “new normal” — that almost 70% of divorces are now initiated by unhappy wives — and suggested a number of possible reasons for a phenomenon that is growing not just in the world but in our churches: young women brought up in Christian homes, most or all of whom have made professions of faith, seem increasingly able to walk away not just from their husbands but from their families, often to raise the children of their new partner.

Tom: We talked about the Internet and the work environment, IC, and the family-associated problems of over-protection and legalism.

But let’s leave the family for a moment.

Just Church (3)

In our last segment of this serialization, we were looking at how a new belief system is currently penetrating evangelical congregations. We saw that it begins with someone, or some group of people, who seems very, very nice ... well-intended, kind, and focused on making sure everybody is welcomed and included, and nobody is made to feel pushed to the margins, especially because of things like “race” and “gender”. It all sounds, at first, like a matter of simple Christian fairness, so it seems hard even to express a hesitancy about it.

However, as this new push for inclusion continues, it becomes apparent that more and more serious changes are involved. Every part of church life is starting to morph, and new people are becoming the voices that are heard first in important church decisions. Should you be concerned? You don’t know. Aspects of the new spirit that is coming over your congregation seem harmonious with Christian kindness; but if you’re attuned to the spirit of things, you’ll also notice a kind of hardness creeping in, a sort of coldness and unkindness to anybody who implies any problems with the new program might exist. And maybe you wonder if it’s all so thoroughly loving and Christ-like as it was first presented to be.

But even if you don’t have those intuitions of concern, you will notice practical changes are going on. Some seem necessary. Others ... you’re not so sure. And this is where we pick our story up.

All But Forgotten

Dying is the great leveler.

I work for an estate service these days, and I’ve seen the closing chapters of men and women on the high end of the financial spectrum up close and personal.

You may not know this, but the rich often die as unpleasantly or mundanely as the poorest of the poor, some more so. The deathbeds of the wealthy sit in rooms with loftier ceilings and more elaborate decor, but they are still deathbeds. The sheets have a higher thread count and those who lie under them are declared deceased in silk undergarments, but the process is no different.

When you’re old and sick, there are things no amount of money will buy.