Christian Civilization and/or Nationalism?

 A long and meandering (or so it appears) essay by someone I've never heard of.

It examines what Christian Culture or Western Civilization is verses what the Bible says about following Jesus. Spoiler alert. They are not the same.

Against Christian Civilization by Paul Kingsnorth

As I continue to listen to the Sons of Patriarchy Podcast and hear about the horrors inflicted on the innocent in the name of Jesus and Christian Nationalism, this essay is a welcome reprieve. It's meanderings explore what true faith and works in Jesus look like verses the cold-hearted war-machine of Christian Nationalism and other cultic and culture war philosophies.

This essay also reminded me of a lecture given by Toby Hemenway entitled, "How Permaculture Can Save Humanity and the Earth, But Not Civilization". which I loved and wished more people could see and understand.

"What is permaculture?" you ask.

That is a huge question and way beyond the scope of this blog post. Even so, the very curious do deserve an explanation, one that isn't an hour long like the lecture by Mr. Hemenway. So below is a link to a brief video about it. There is so much more to permaculture than this six minute video could ever explain. But it is a good start for those who have never heard of it and don't have an hour to give Toby.

PERMACULTURE Explained in Six Minutes

Sorry if this post has gone in a crazy direction. And sorry if this link made between these two things mean absolutely nothing to you. I really only wanted to make this post so I could find Paul Kingsnorth's essay quickly in the future.

Bottom line: the two things that could save our planet and the people living on it as nations fall (imho) are Jesus and Permaculture. 

Money, Power, and Sex

I heard a famous old time preacher back in the day say that it was Gold. Glory, or Girls (or any combination) that makes Pastors, Evangelists, and other Christian leaders fall. This preacher died in 1996. If only he could see things now he would be completely heart-broken over all the corruption in the denominations and mega churches today. More on this after a bit.

My guilty pleasure the last few months is watching "Escaping Polygamy" on YouTube. And the series is exactly what is says it is. It is a reality show starring young ladies who have escaped the Kingston Clan in the Salt Lake Valley who are helping others from that Clan and the FLDS who want to escape.

In the opening credits, one of the girls says, "They think it's about religion but it's not. It's about sex." Also in the credits it is noted that the Kingston Clan, or the Order, rules by fear and intimidation. In one of the episodes I watched recently, it was noted that the Order loves money way more than its own people. Sounding a little bit like Girls, Gold, Glory?

Back in 2011, I used to compare Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS, with John Piper. Warren Jeffs was all about "Keeping Sweet". That is the way he wants his people to behave, especially his women. They are not allowed their own emotions. In comparison John Piper is concerned with how women respond to men, even in the face of abuse. Their response must be sweet and submissive.

As I work my way through the "Escaping Polygamy" series, I am again reminded of how the FLDS and the Kingston Clan have taken the Money, Power, and Sex religion to dizzying levels.

But the Catholic Church, The Southern Baptist Church, and scores of Mega Church pastors have also been worshiping at the Money, Power, Sex Altar. They are sliding down the same slippery slope that the FLDS and Kingstons are on. It is no longer about Jesus and healing the broken hearted. It's about building the kingdoms of men on the sand of greed and narcissism.

Some years back I wrote a series entitled Sex, Drugs, and Mark Driscoll [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4], and I discussed how Driscoll's Rock Star Preacher status helped him to get away with stuff your average guy cannot. I'm adding today that Driscoll's Rock Star Preacher status helped him to get away with things the average Narcissist couldn't get away with. This is bad for both the church and the Narcissist.

So, yes, that old time pastor from back in the day, who was concerned about Gold, Glory, and Girls taking preachers down would be shocked to see that nowadays Money, Power, and Sex are all just in a days work for many of these Rock Star/Celebrity Preachers.

Now I'm going to state the obvious.

This needs to stop.

Viewing Uterus Control through Anthropology

I'll tell you what.

The quote on No Longer Quivering by Vaugh Ohlman has opened a can of worms with me. It is very hard to sit by and watch that much blatant ignorance and misguided self-righteousness on parade go by without pointing out how stupid it is.

Tell you what, Vaugh. You can either be a Christian or a Patriarch on a vendetta to defend your fleshly, cultural privilege. You can't be both. You can't do both. They cannot peacefully coexist.

The only place the New Testament talks about control is in Galatians where it mentions self-control as a fruit of the Spirit. No where in the Gospels or Epistles does it mention that you should have control over another person. And Jesus specifically commands that you not seek to control others in Matthew 23:8-10 and Luke 22:25-27. Look those scriptures up, Vaugh, because you apparently are quite unfamiliar with the words of Jesus, the One you claim to follow and represent as a Christian.

Now on to the Anthropology lesson you so desperately need. (Hope you learned from your history lesson in the last post.)

The Womb of Woman: Gateway of Life, Guardian of Culture
(A lesson in which Vaugh should realize that what he promotes is a worldly view rather than Christian)

Learn you lessons, Vaugh. This way you won't look like such a bitter, vindictive old cuss. And if you are a really good student, you might actually be able to 'do' Christianity the way Jesus taught rather than the way taught by violent men who have forcefully entered and seize the kingdom for themselves. (Matthew 11:12)

Quote Concerning Ancient Hebrew Culture

Someone on one of the forums I frequent brought this quote to our attention.
I wanted to share it here:

All modern day translations of the Bible are written from a very westernized perspective and have erased the original Hebraic, Eastern, perspective of the original words in the text. Once the Hebraicness of the text is restored, a common theme can be found throughout the Bible rising to the surface - our nomadic migration through the wilderness of life. 

The quote can be found in this article:

Introduction to Ancient Hebrew culture

A lot of what I see that is wrong with teachings from Driscoll and Piper and a miriade of other teachers is how narrow minded and small thinking they are. The arrogance of the Western mind that thinks all others think the way it does is overwhelming and frustrating.

True thinkers who can think beyond the tiny worlds they live in are more likely to think bigger and touch more of Who our Eternal God is.

Another Book

This is not a recommendation so much, but rather an explanation. I mentioned the movie, "The Thirteenth Warrior" in an earlier post. The movie was nothing spectacular or revealing to me of the Viking culture. But the book that the movie was based on revealed a lot to me. The book is by Micheal Crighton (Jurassic Park) and thoroughly researched and based on the writings of an actual person, a Muslim from Baghdad and his journeys up into northern Europe. Though some of the Viking customs were flat out revolting, especially when explained by the Arab courtier from a far more sophisticated and cushy culture, some of the thinking processes were strangely similar to the thinking processes my ancestors handed down to me. It was a very interesting look at the different cultures, Eastern Muslim verses pre-Christian Western, or should I say, Northern culture. http://www.amazon.com/Eaters-Dead-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061782637 Note: I know I promised actual scriptures concerning freedom and I haven't forgotten. It's just that this structure/chaos(or freedom) thing and cultural constructs has me thinking down many roads that all seem to meet up somehow.

Culture vs Gospel

I don't make very many book recommendations, but here is one that I read early on in my Christian walk that helped my understanding of the difference between true evangelism as opposed to Westernization. This book changed the emphasis of modern missions and helped our missionaries present a more pure gospel as opposed to trying to westernize different people groups. http://www.amazon.com/Bruchko-Bruce-Olson/dp/0884191338

Obsessed With Culture?

A friend from South Africa wants to know? Is the American church obsessed with culture? Are we over concerned with cultural decline and obsessed with finding cultural answers? http://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/greatest-flaw-of-american-church/

It Doesn't Fit

We were in a hurry that morning. My daughter was on the cell phone talking to me about the traffic that was in her way keeping her from picking me up on time. Finally she gets to our house and my younger daughter and I go out to get into her car. It's a two door so I have to pull the little lever and make the seat go up so my younger daughter can get in the back seat. I set the seat back up straight, but unbeknownst to myself in my state of hurried panic, the seat didn't slide back. Because my car is a four-door, it never occurred to me to check it. And as I was trying to fold my 5' 9" frame into a space far too small, the car door comes swinging back, knocks my arm, and my coffee goes flying all over me.

Don't worry, I wasn't burnt. I put too much milk in it for it to be scalding. But it was a mess.

The moral of the story is: Don't try to reduce yourself down to a size that doesn't fit even if you are in a hurry and/or being pressured by someone else.

You know. When you give your heart to Jesus, you just love Him. You love what He's done for you and what He still wants to do for you. And when someone comes along and, with great authority, tells you... "In order to please God you must do this..." you are inclined to believe them.

This what is happening in far too many segments of Christianity. And too many women are told to reduce themselves down to a smaller size in order to please God. They are told with great authority and many adjectives and many proof texts from the Bible.

The women try to do it, try to follow it because they love God and want to please Him. But it doesn't fit. It's too restricting and confining. But women try to make it fit and conform and turn themselves into something they are not. It is like me trying to fold my full frame into vehicle where the seat is pulled up far enough that only a person 5' 1" would fit.

This is what the restrictive roles of CBMW and sweeping generalizations of Wild at Heart do. And there comes a time when a person has to throw off such things and to stop listening to men of great "authority" because those men are not preaching the gospel. They preach their personal preference in culture.

A Window Into My Soul

I have an Internet persona and keep my personal life very private. But for the sake of explaining the appeal of Wild At Heart to me personally, let me tell you about myself.

Even though I now live in the fertile prairies of the Heartland, I was not born here. I was born in one of the Plains states. It is rugged and wild country that I love. And most people not from that country have a hard time appreciating the beautiful, untamed, desolation of that area. John Eldredge is also from the wild country in Colorado. So when he described chasing a deer over that country, it set my heart on fire and made me remember my roots. They are roots that my friends from the Heartland, or the South, or the East Coast don't understand. My ancestors cut out an existence in those unforgiving plains. They went through the Dust Bowl for Pete's sake. They were strong and stoic and sometimes I get impatient with the spoiled heartland dwellers who have only known green and tamed terrain.

In my next post I'm going to link a Rich Mullin's song about the beauty of the plains. One of the lines goes like this, "How the Lord takes by its corners this old world and shakes us forward and shakes us free to run wild with the hope that this thirst will not last long that it will soon drown in a song not sung in vain." The state I was born in is listed in this song.

Rich was an anomaly. A Quaker boy born in the green, moist and tame Heartland wouldn't normally have an attraction to the desolate plains. But Rich did. He appreciated it and he wrote a song about it and about praising God that makes my heart sing. Funny. Other people are not nearly as stirred by that song as I still am.

Further back in my past, my family is from Denmark. Another rugged and desolate place of warriors and Vikings. Their men weren't just fierce, so were their women. They had to be to survive. I read a book that was made into a movie call "The Thirteenth Warrior" and was amazed at the feeling of affinity I had with some of the Viking thought processes. In the next post, along with the Rich Mullins link, I'll link an ancient sounding song with images from the old country which also touches a terrible deep place in me.

Why am I telling you this? I'm explaining the structures in my life, set up by my culture and my heritage that are not dissimilar to the structures in John Eldredge's life. But where he tries to make these structures into Biblical foundations, I know better. They are extra-biblical. This doesn't make them bad. I'm proud of my heritage. But these foundations are not Biblical. And they are not sturdy foundations to build a house of wild, spiritual, freedom on. The word of God is quick and active and sharper than any two edged sword and is able to cut between the soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).

Hopefully, after the post with the song links, I can present Bible verses that promise us freedom. These verses ARE a firm foundation and are not someone else's culture and perspective. They are a spiritual foundation and aren't given to us to cancel out other people's cultural influences.

Order vs Chaos in Pop Culture, part 2

Just a brief note on Apollonian and Dionysus in Pop culture. The opposing forces are often looked upon as left brain vs right brain. The left brainer being logical and good at math. The right brainer is artistic and sensitive. This is a common view of the opposing forces. And trust me, there is a reason I'm pointing all of this out. I am leading up to a point, if you can't guess it. But some of this is stuff people have never thought of before even though it is a strong under currant in our culture. Therefore I think it is worth it to lay the ground work for what is to come.

One band that sang about this back in the 70s was Rush.

Here is a link to a description of their song on Wikipedia.

NOTE: If you hate prog rock or don't give a flip about the 70s, skip this link and read about something more modern below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_X-1_duology


If you think I'm making a big deal about this then let me give you a very stark, very modern example. Natalie Portman was given an Oscar for her portrayal of a ballerina in, wait for it, "The Black Swan". I know of few better examples of our culture's obsession with the dueling forces of Apollonian and Dionysian.

Mary Kassian has written about this on her blog and about how damaging this view of women and female sexuality really is.

http://www.girlsgonewise.com/black-swan-deserves-an-oscar/

Order vs Chaos in Pop Culture

The funny thing about order vs chaos and the human condition is how much it pops up in entertainment. The opposing forces of Apollonian and Dionysian fighting for power and/or balance crop up all over the place.

The girls and I were just watching Jurassic park the other night and sure enough, there it was. Though I was somewhat aware of it before, only after thinking about it for this blog did I realize how blatant it really was.

John Hammond, the creator of Jurassic Park, represents the Apollonian side. He's dressed in white and has complete control (or so he thinks) of this amusement park with electric fences and safety precautions.

Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician and dressed in black, is spokes person for the Dionysus side which is actually represented by the Dinosaurs. He is the one who keeps talking about the chaos theory.

In this scenario, the Dionysian is not necessarily bad. It is just nature doing what nature does. And when that nature is as big and unpredictable as dinosaurs, it is the Apollonian that comes off as in the wrong for trying to create and control what cannot be controlled so easily.

Another obvious place that speaks of the struggle between chaos and control is the TV series and movie "Get Smart". The opposing forces actually bear the names. The good guys work for "Control" and the bad guys work for "Kaos". And in this scenario control is obviously good while chaos is obviously bad.

Remember the old Star Trek from the 60s or at least have you seen a few reruns? Did you know that Captain Kirk had Apollonian and Dionysian advisers. Dr. McCoy was Dionysian and ran on emotion and intuition, whereas Mr. Spock was strictly Apollonian in nature always concerned with logic and reason. And Kirk was always trying to find the balance between them. In this case, then, there are no good guys or bad guys, only a striving for balance between the two poles.

Others who were influenced by the concept of Apollonian vs Dionysian include Stephan King, Ayn Rand, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, and the band Rush

The point of this post is to make people aware of how our culture is influenced by this thinking and how WE are influenced by this thinking and how we may apply it to our lives whether we are aware of it or not. Again remember Job and how his friends worked so hard to Apollonize or use Apollonianisms to order and explain Job's unexplainable chaos. It is human nature to do this. But we must remember, our nature is flawed and fallen and we are but finite living in a universe much bigger than we are. We must take care and not use Apollonianisms when really we ought to be seeking God.