Cultural Lingo vs. Technical Biblicality

In American evangelical culture, we tend to say some things differently than society at large. For instance, “PTL!!!!!!” (praise the Lord) commonly replaces “OMG!!!!!” online.  Lately there are some phrases that I’ve been called out on based on their anti-theistic tones. Here’s a couple:

“We’ll make it work.”

“Make it a great day.”

“Crossing my fingers.”

“Good luck.”

Good luck is certainly the most common one I’ve been chided for. Admittedly, a significant percentage of repudiations I’ve heard have been in the interest of sassiness at least in part, but even that displays the discomfiture many feel about it. Here’s the rub: why is it worth chiding for? 

Think about the phrases above. Each either suggests a randomness to human experience, an individuals’ sovereignty in his own life, or both. Both of those concepts  are thoroughly rejected by the Scriptures. The latter two phrases have roots in very old pagan superstitions. And so, last week a young man responded to my “good luck with that” by saying gruffly, “I don’t believe in luck, only in the power of God.” To be honest, I was somewhat offended, which is neither here nor there, except that it got me thinking about whether we’re wrong to use such anti-doctrinal flippancies. 

Personally, I can’t see not using many of these common expressions. We still live in this culture, and must communicate with it. As it stands, saying “may the Power of God make things go well in your endeavor” (or any less-akward version you like) will not communicate what you mean it to in a wider cultural context. “Good luck,” more than anything else, means “I care that what’s about to happen to you goes well.” Very few people actually think you are superstitiously bestowing luck on them. Yet the “Power of God” version is more likely to say “I really wanted to fit God into this conversation even though it says nothing about what I’m feeling.” 

You tell me, which is better?

Post-script:

This afternoon I was listening to [enter evangelical saying] (don’t judge) my club/dance Pandora station. Basshunter’s “I Can Walk On Water” came on (again, don’t judge) and I found it very encouraging. True to Basshunter’s style, the only words in the song are “I will never be afraid again / I will keep on fighting till the end / I can walk on water, I can fly / I will keep on fighting till I die.” Yes, this can be easily seen as a self-focused “I am god” type song and I’m pretty sure that’s what Jonas Altberg intended. Yet, personal encouragement is widely used in scripture, even by God himself. So, if I’m having trouble understanding why life is the way it is, I don’t see anything wrong with having a song influence my determination to keep on - even if it doesn’t mention that I can’t without God’s help.

Richness Via Chant

Night before last, SG introduced me to Gregorian Chant.  Not that I hadn’t listened to it before, but never to actually experience it.  We sat together, one sister helping another through a difficult time by just being, and allowing the music to enter our souls.  

I have never been so affected by music.  A different kind of world, worship, prayer and emotion touched my soul.  In this world, the pace was observant, sensorial and wondering.  Emotion responded unfettered, accepted, essential.  Worship followed by acknowledging the understanding of God gained by the new (or old) pace.  Prayer was deep; a warm blanket combined with a cool spring.  

Last evening, I put the music on again, and read through a prayer from The Valley of Vision.  “Read through” is a crass use of terminology, though, for “pray through” or “meditate on” are more appropriate.  I never understood meditation.  Whenever I tried, I basically ended up thinking so hard I stretched my intellect until it was by no means what we refer to as “meditative,” but rather stressful.  Yesterday was different: I experienced that prayer, meant it, believed it.  I chewed on it, digested it, not as a mental exercise, but as a joint function of heart and mind in the soul. 

Applying to my activities the world communicated by Gregorian Chant brought this about, and I want to keep experiencing God in this manner.  In fact, to live in this way appears a wonderful alternative to majority western culture.  Of course, intellect must apply, and sometimes primarily, but I would like to learn to walk passionately through life sensorially observant and simply contemplative.  It may be slower, but oh, how much richer!

Perhaps a former music major has run away with her thesaurus.  Perhaps a theology major has turned mystic.  

Perhaps the happy-faced intellectual understanding of God so prevalent amongst evangelicals truly misses out on rich stores of interaction with God.

Patriot Day Thoughts

It is September 11th, 2010. Here in Chicago, it's a very rainy, foggy, messy day.

9 years ago: we awoke to images on our televisions that we only expected to find in epic catastrophe movies like Volcano, or maybe from some far off place called Iran - or was it Iraq ("Isn't that the same place?", someone might comment). My younger siblings hardly remember it, since they were so young, and yet I wonder if they attach any more importance to it that do a lot of people my age, or even older. The graphic images certainly won't be forgotten fully, but are suppressed almost out of existence. "We will never forget" stickers used to be common place. Now, they are relegated to the rusting bumpers and dirty windows of the "red-neck" population - and those crazy, fundamentalist right-wing wackos called who drink to much tea.

I checked for any events going on here in the city as a remembrance of 9/11.  A few suburbs had moments of silence and such at fire stations.  There may well be something happening in the city today, but it certainly wasn't readily found via the internet.

Today:  Should we spend the day thinking about it, holding candle light vigils, rewatching the footage?  Honestly, we probably shouldn't.  But, should we expunge it all-together?  I think not.

Of course, I didn't do anything about it either, but next year is the 10th anniversary, and I intend to do something.  We need to pray for our country.  Pray for those who are leading it, and those who are trying to bring it to it's knees.  Pray for Muslim countries throughout the world that ultimately serve as breeding grounds for the organizations and ideologies that undergirded the attack on our soil.  If we do not pass the memory and its implications on to those who were too young to understand the geo-political, religious, and national importance, in another 10 years, if not much sooner, we will be right back where we were on September 10th, 2001.

There are a lot of Republican candidates to consider come the primary on August 10th, and it just so happens that all of them claim to be pro-life. Is there a difference? Personally, I believe there are many large and important differences between the various candidates, but more importantly, CRTL (Colorado Right To Life) has published some unfortunate findings as regards expoused Pro-Life positions. CRTL's Blog has a lengthy explaination that is very good - but, lengthy. So, below, I have condensed the info as much as possible, and kept it to the Republican Candidates in the Senate and Governor's races. If you want to read the rest of the candidates mentioned, feel free to read the original article. I hope this is helpful for you in making your decisions for the August 10th Primaries.

About CRTL

We do not assume any candidate is pro-life unless they've responded to our candidate survey, or we have some other reason to trust their positions are sincere. CRTL does not officially endorse candidates for any office, but we will let you know which ones are NOT pro-life, and try to offer guidance on the rest. Please, NEVER assume a candidate is pro-life because of their party affiliation!

U.S. Senate Race

Republican Ken Buck is a credible candidate we consider very strongly pro-life and pro-Personhood, based on conversations with him. He is on record supporting Personhood, though we have not received his candidate questionnaire.

Republican Jane Norton has supported "abortion exceptions" in the past (i.e. for rape & incest, which is from our perspective "pro-abortion with exceptions"), and for some time refused to support Personhood. She was scheduled to meet with someone about Personhood, but the meeting hasn't happened yet despite every effort. However, she has apparently endorsed Personhood recently, along with the other Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Questions to her campaign to confirm this went unanswered, and she has not responded to our survey, sent by certified letter, and she's had enough time to respond.

Again, we must question Jane Norton's sincerity on this issue, because she has seemed more reluctant than willing. She did participate in Gov. Owens' cutoff of Planned Parenthood from state funding, and we applaud her actions on that (as a cabinet member).

Governor's Race

Scott McInnis (R - Former Congressman) is the establishment candidate who the GOP thinks is "the man to beat Hickenlooper." He is running as a pro-life candidate, but is short on meaningful specifics. He was formerly a ranking member of the pro-abortion group Republicans for Choice, and is known to have supported some pro-abortion legislation (including taxpayer funding for abortions) and to have opposed some pro-life measures. He claims to have "changed his mind" about abortion, and has even expressed support for Personhood, but he has not responded to CRTL's survey (sent by certified letter 2 weeks ago, and also several times by e-mail), and we have real doubts about his sincerity. Don't believe his claims that he has a "pro-life voting record" -- HE DOES NOT. [...]

We were impressed when Dan Maes (R) became only the second major candidate to respond to our candidate survey. We had a question about his original survey, and in time and after some dialogue he responded with support for 7 of 7 of CRTL's central points, as explained in our candidate survey. We consider him 100% pro-life, and are happy that he is doing so well in the Governor's race -- no one gave him a chance early on, but he's turned out to be a strong and credible candidate.

[None of the emphasis above was added by me, but reflects the original article]

Thanks for your interest, and don't forget to vote on August 10th!

Out and About and En Route

Just wanted to let people know that I'll be out of town for a few weeks, and then my schedule is going to be slightly crazy after that. Don't want anyone thinking that I've up and disappeared!

As a little personal anecdote of some sort seems called for in a post this short, I'll have you know that I don't like packing. I especially don't like packing 'till 1am the day before I leave. Now how, you may ask, did this unfortunate circumstance come about?

Mom's birthday is right around the time I'll be getting back. I, of course, didn't realized that because we'll be celebrating it the day after I get back, I won't be able to do any cooking, shopping, etc. Fortunately, I did realize this, just not quite soon enough to be comfortable. So, various preparations have been sprinkled over the past few days, which I won't go in to, but the kicker really came today. Actually, the problem started Thursday, which was the day I had planned on packing, but it wasn't painful 'till today.

I had planned on spending maybe and hour and a half packing, maybe an hour helping Dad, Buddy and Birdie on some projects outside, and also spending the morning and lunchtime making Mom's birthday cake. NOT!! I chose a cake that is really beautiful, but was a lot more involved than it appeared in the picture - try 8 hours involved! (The cake is gorgeous, though - a 10" square two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mocha frosting and 70 little pink drop flowers all over it)

Then, I left for Bible study... stayed later than expected... and you have my not so great time slot for packing. However, I hope to have a great time, and all this will be well worth it - and Mom really likes her cake, too :-).