God's Not Dead - Neither is Choice

I haven't seen God's Not Dead and not sure if I want to.  I've read quite a bit about this movie and although it touches on some topics that are true (that public universities can have a strong bias toward humanism), however, It saddens me to hear that the movie negatively portrays anyone who is not a Christian, including atheists and Muslims.  

Some people will say "well do you see how Hollywood usually portrays Christians???"  Yes I do.  However, is this movie drawing more people to the love of Jesus by engaging in an "us vs. them" war? I'm not sold on the value of fighting a culture war with Christian movie propaganda like this -- I'm afraid this just reinforces the negative stereotype of the "angry Christian trying to legislate a moral lifestyle" which could in turn give people a false image of a God that is only concerned in people being "good people."

I contend that this subculture of Christianity that is focused on trying to change our country by political power instead of radical love and grace is trying to do something that Jesus is adamantly against.  God respects our choice to follow Him or to not follow Him, so we should also respect the right of others to do so. 

There are countless atheists that have come to know God (C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Alister McGrath, Greg Boyd, to name just a few), so to paint atheists as "the enemy" is be ignorant of the fact that some people require more time on their journey to work through doubt and questions and let God work in their heart and mind.

Also unsettling is how this movie presents a Muslim family that rejects their child for converting to Christianity. This suggests that Muslims are the only faith that disowns family for converting to a different faith.  What about Christians that disown their family to converting to or from Catholicism??  This happens all of the time.  This negative portrait of a different faith is doing no favors for showcasing the beauty of the gospel message in my opinion.  It's fear-mongering.  It's the equivalent of trying to build yourself up by taunting someone else.

I say this with all due respect to the people that created this movie. I will assume that most of the people involved in this movie have good intentions and they have a heart for sharing the love of Jesus, just like I do. Since I have not seen the movie, and I am relying on a movie synopsis from other reviewers, I know that I could be completely off in my commentary about this movie. Regardless, the main intention of this post is to be a humble critique of the "aggressive culture-war fighter Christian" approach to spreading the good news of Jesus.

My Life Story - A Good Read TBD

My life has dramatically changed recently.  I've gone from a character that is afraid of drama, to a character that actually gets a little bit excited about the idea that something thrilling or risky or unexpected is about to happen.  

I'm come to see my life as a story, like a novel.  I want it to be a novel that someone would want to read someday.  The only way this would happen is by creating some good drama, not avoiding it or being afraid of something unexpected.  I credit Donald Miller for writing a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years which provoked this way of thinking.

Everything in our life revolves around stories. When we talk to friends -- we interact by sharing stories.  When we troll facebook -- we're looking at stories.  Texting -- stories.  Reading books, watching movies, reading my words right here is all because we like stories.  But more importantly -- our lives are stories.  Someone once said that our lives are not like novels, novels are like our lives.

You choose what story you believe that you're living in, and you choose what your character in your particular story is going to be.  I think this is pretty amazing.

You can choose to believe that your life was just a chance occurrence in a universe that is a big cosmic accident, and your character is just another mammal that will die in about 80ish years, or you can choose to believe that your life is part of a universe that has something supernatural going on, and your character is trying to make the best of it by pursuing happiness.  You can choose to believe that you're life is not fair, or blessed, and you can choose to believe that your character is a victim, a failure, a success, worthless, troubled, special, unique, and the list goes on.

There are countless stories that you can choose -- and there are countless characters that you can choose to be. The story that we choose and the character that we choose will determine the meaning that we find (or don't find) in life, and it will determine the virtues of our character such as whether or life is mostly self-focused, or others-focused.

I've considered many different stories, and I've considered several different characters, and the best storyline and character choice for myself is a story that involves a character that lives fearlessly, attracts a massive following, changes the way that people look at life and is worshiped thousands of years after he lived on earth.  The character is a Jew named Jesus that lived 2000 years ago in Israel, and the story is that Jesus was actually God in the flesh to show us that He is love.  I want my character to be a character like Jesus.  Every day my character has to look for opportunities to love others, and be ready for adventure.  I think it's a pretty cool character.

It's a crazy and mysterious story to me, but it's the story I choose because there is nothing better than centering my life around showing love and introducing true love to other people.  As a skeptical believer I oftentimes have questions that start like "if this is true, than how come..." but I never question whether love is the one thing in life worth worshiping, and I never question whether there is a better story out there than the life of Jesus to capture what love is.

This is the best character, and the best story that I can live.  This character, and story about Jesus will save us from lesser characters, and lesser lives.

Do you want love or the truth?

If you had the choice to have people always be truthful to you, or to always love you, which would you choose? 

To me it seems like an obvious answer, but the funny thing is that I believe that oftentimes Christians (myself included) feel called to be the truth police instead of love ambassadors as we’re called to be. 

The first argument in response to this statement that you’ll hear from Christians operating out of their truth police mode is that making sure people have the truth is the loving thing to do.  I will agree with that, but I must say that sometimes being truthful is not the loving thing.  Do you remember when Simon Cowell on American Idol used to tell people that they were fat?  There are countless scenarios in life where being truthful is actually being unloving.

Love, on the other hand, is pretty much tough to screw up, if we’re talking about the others-focused love that Jesus talks about and not the cheap greeting card definition of love.

I can be obsessive about having the truth.  Part of this is my wiring in being a “skeptical believer” and part of this is being immersed and sometimes brainwashed in a culture that largely values truth over love and Christian values.  I like to know the truth so I dig into matters of faith, religion, and other nerdy pursuits. But, in doing so, I know that even in my desires to know God and possess the truth I will arrive at conclusions where I could be wrong.  It’s bound to happen for me and it’s bound to happen for anyone whether they study the Bible or not.  God-seeking, truth-seeking Christians across many generations have come to different conclusions on many different subjects in the Bible. Some are wrong, some are right.

Fortunately, God doesn’t command us to be scholars and historians and make sure we get it right on every debatable issue in the Bible. We’re not called to be truth police.  Yes, truth matters, especially if it’s the truth of the core gospel message of love, but it’s our seeking truth that matters to God, not our test scores on a Christian doctrines test.

The pursuit of truth is important, but truth isn’t life-giving and it can be uncharitable.  The pursuit of Love (God) is the meaning of life, it’s the source of life, and it’s the only way to truth. 

Photo credit to Gina Norman

The Problem with Believing in Jesus

Have you ever known someone that says they’re a Christian, but they’re one of the most rotten people that you ever have known?  Of course you have.  We all have.  Chances are, they are someone that merely believes some Christian doctrine, vs. choosing to follow Jesus.  The danger of belief is that you can believe something, and still choose to ignore it as if it's not true. 

“Believing in Jesus” is probably one of the most confused Christian-isms of all time.  For a lot of people, believing in Jesus means that they’re “saved” because they correctly believe that Jesus was real, that he died and rose again and He’s God.  I can’t say that when I was young I didn’t used to think this way. 

Believing in Jesus for other people is a “choice” that they made because they had a “mountaintop experience” and prayed the “sinner’s prayer” and “invited Jesus into their heart” and maybe even were baptized so that they’re “saved.”

Some people were raised in a church and they have “inherited” a belief in Jesus. They’re Christian because their parents were Christian. They believe in Jesus because their family does, and because it’s the right thing to do. 

I’m not trying to patronize anyone that has belief in Jesus as described above.  There are parts of each of these examples that are in my own personal story.  

I share these examples of belief in Jesus because many people, myself included, can reduce “belief in Jesus” into a mental exercise of thinking we’re safe because we believe the right things about God.  Kind of like, we know the answers to the test, so we’re safe.  Believing in something is good – but it’s only the start of faith in the God of love.  You can believe that exercising is great for you – but the belief alone won’t give you a healthy heart.

The Bible says that even the demons believe in Jesus.  Believing in something can equate to absolutely zero life-change.

Instead of belief, I prefer to use the term “following Jesus” because it implies action. To “follow” implies that there is a leader, and it’s not me.  In comparison to “follow,” “belief” requires nothing of you – and again – who doesn’t believe that exercise is good for you?  I believe this, but it doesn’t get me to put on my workout clothes every day.  However, I can’t “follow” something without having some level of commitment. 

Jesus told us to follow him, because he knows that when we don’t follow him we will mindlessly follow lesser things that aren’t worth following such as ego, greed, power, and other things centered around our own self comfort. 

Belief is fresh vegetables in my fridge and running shoes in my closet, following is eating my veggies and getting my heart rate up.  Belief in Jesus is "Christian" on my Facebook profile and a Bible app on my phone, following Jesus is to strive every day to be like Jesus.

Did Adam, Eve and Jesus really exist?

Did Adam and Eve really exist?  Did a serpent talk to Adam and Eve like a little cartoon snake?  The story goes that when humans first came on the scene, we had everything that we needed.  Humans didn’t have to work for food because it was all there in all of its vegan glory.  It was like a big salad bar everywhere they walked.  They hung out with the animals, and there was no hunter or the hunted because they lived off of the earth.  However, they were told to not do one thing – don’t eat from one tree called “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  They had a TON of freedom to do just about anything – anything but distrust God.  God gave them everything they needed, and all God asked is that they recognize that God is not holding back anything for them to be happy.  An analogy would be a parent telling their child “We’ll go to the playground today, but just don’t try and cross the busy road.”  

This story might be just an allegory to explain how God created this universe out of love, and that originally there was perfect harmony on earth and that humans lacked nothing.  Humans selfishly decided that the universe revolves around them, and this introduced violence, greed, deceit, stress, worry, shame, and all sorts of pain into our world.  God put freedom of choice at the center of our existence, and with freedom comes the abuse of freedom.  

Did Jesus really exist?  Did God have a son that he sent on a trip to earth to forgive us of our sins?  The story goes that Jesus came to earth as a baby and grew up, made 12 close friends and went around healing people physically and spiritually. Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, and then sure enough, he is crucified and then rises from the dead 3 days later.  It’s an understatement to say that this story has a lot more meaning than even the story of Adam and Eve, but I believe that the core message is that God puts love at the center of our existence, and that love is ultimately sacrificing yourself for others.

To say that the story of Jesus is an allegory would be to ignore every rule of literary criticism that clearly shows that the story of Jesus is written as a historical narrative.  However, there are still people that believe that Jesus didn’t exist, or the story of Jesus is not to be taken at face value.  Regardless, there is truth in story regardless of whether it’s a historical story, or a parable-like story that communicate a truth.  Jesus wasn’t compelled to always deliver truth by detailing historical events – He delivered most of his stories in parables.  

I believe that the historical accuracy of most stories in the bible is beside the point, because I believe the messages of the stories in the Bible show us who God is, and they lead to life, regardless of whether they’re historical narrative, or allegory (I understand that plenty of people will disagree with me on this).  The message of the Bible is more important than the historical or scientific detail of the Bible, even though there is a tremendous amount of support for the historical accuracy for much of the Bible.

What does it mean for you if Adam, Eve, Jesus and other stories of the Bible aren’t historical narratives, but stories people told about the self-sacrificial love of God?  Would you still trust God?  Would you still love sacrificially?  

Do you have faith in a God of love, or faith in a set of doctrines?

Beyond nature

Belief, or unbelief in God, whether we want to or not, requires assumptions of God. Even if you don't believe in God, there has to be a definition of what you don't believe in.  Most atheists don't believe in a God that I don't believe in either.

One of the most common misconceptions of God is that God is a finite being that exists somewhere out of sight apart from our physical universe.  This view is essentially similar to the Greek "Demiurge" as a god that created the physical universe at one point of time "back then."  This is a normal way to view God, because as the material beings that we are, a finite being is an easy category to put God into to wrap our head around him. (Also, it's easy to call God "Him" because as sexual beings we think in terms of sexual orientation, and we like our God to be like one of us.)

This is an easy view for atheists and naturalistic scientists to reject when considering that there are countless scientific laws that can account for the spontaneous generation of any and all universes. If laws can begin to explain our universe, then why do we need God?

A more rational view of God, as explained by philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart, is that laws and physical conditions were logically and necessarily prior to all worlds, all physical laws, all quantum events, and even all possibilities of laws and events.  Neither physical laws, nor quantum states could exist of themselves. God is not a force or cause within nature, and is not a kind of supreme natural explanation.

God is with us, holding our universe together.

When Jesus was kicking around dirt in the Middle East a couple of thousand years ago, he sometimes defied natural laws because He was God manifested on Earth -- the same God that wrote the laws of our universe.  Since God is love, God chooses sometimes to break the rules of nature to prove to us that we are loved.  Jesus' final act on earth was to die and come back to life because He wants us to know more than anything that he is God, and that we can know God by looking at his life on Earth.  He wanted us to see that self-sacrificial love -- giving up our life for others -- is the way of God. 

God is bigger than most of our attempts of trying to categorize and deconstruct Him.  Although God gave us Jesus to understand Him, Jesus didn't do any scientific lectures or "How I Made The Universe" TED Talks.  As interesting as these topics are, they are probably beyond our finite intelligence anyway.  Jesus was solely focused on showing us the way to life that leads to life and love.

Too Righteous for Ashes

You can call me a Christian, but please don’t call me religious.  This used to be my attitude.  Ash Wednesday?  No thanks.  That’s what “religious people”do.  I’m a Christian, and my faith doesn’t involve ashes, or chanting, or beads, or kneeling, or any of the “ritualistic, going through the motions stuff.”  Hello #kevinisajerk. 

I could ramble on about my narrow-minded, predjudiced, hypocrital ways, but I’ll digress from self-shaming.

I have no qualms with you calling me religious now, because I see “religious” in a new light.

It’s all too easy to judge those that seek God in different ways than you do.  Growing up protestant, I felt that my understanding of God was superior to Catholics, Lutherans and any person that worshipped in a church that didn’t have “Church of Christ” in it’s name.  Why?  Because it made me feel like I “had it right.” Like I had the “right interpretation of scripture.” Like I’m good to go when I die.  I was ignorant, to say the least.

Fortunately, with lots of prayer, study and introspection, I’ve moved on from looking at other Christians of different stripes, and people of different faiths and even no-faith with ugly condescension.

I see religious traditions like “Ash Wednesday” a lot differently now.  Even though I’m not “religious” about observing them, I do see a lot of value in observing some of these orthodox traditions. 

I look at Christian rituals and traditions as one way to help us break out of our punch-in, punch-out, autopilot, daily routines.  When we mindfully enter into these traditions we shift our focus toward what brings us life – a God who loves us, and shows us that life comes when we offer self-sacrificial love for others. Especially in western culture there are countless distractions – AKA “secular traditions and rituals” -- that draw us away loving others, and draw us into our own little kingdoms. More “religious traditions and rituals” that displace the self-focused ones isn’t a bad idea, in my opinion.

Reflecting back – why did I have negative attitude towards rituals like Ash Wednesday? For one, it was a tradition that I didn’t grow up with, so it was the typical “fear and disparaging of what you don’t know” and it was also a negative stereotype of thinking that people who do these traditions are just going through the motions, and not really understanding what they’re doing.

Is this stereotype true?  Actually, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that if YOU mindfully enter in to Ash Wednesday, Lent, and most any Christian tradition that focuses our attention on God revealed through Jesus, it will break you out of your daily self-focused life and help you focus on God and others.

That’s being religious. And this is good.

A relationship with the invisible

 Do you have a hard time with the term “relationship with God”?  I’ve struggled with it.  Being a fairly analytical person, it’s difficult for me to think of having a relationship with a God who is invisible. 

Perhaps one of the reasons that this is difficult for me is that one of the main ways that I “relate” is by being with someone, and sharing experiences together.  How does this work with an invisible God?

Belief in an invisible God is as basic for me as believing elementary logic that something never comes from nothing. For our universe to exist there has to be something beyond nature – we call this “God.”  To believe in a universe that came from nothing – not from a supernatural force – I believe takes more faith than believing in God.  Atheists truly have a lot of faith in no-God.

Maybe should ask why would God want a “relationship” with me, or you, or anyone?

I believe God wants a relationship with me, because I believe that love is the reason for existence.  I believe that God would create, or put into existence, beings in his likeness.  Art always reflects the artist.  And because we’re all highly relational beings (why we’re on Facebook…), I believe that God must be relational.  Besides, why would God create something without having any interest in it?  That wouldn’t make sense.

Back to my original question -- how do I have a relationship with an invisible God?  I believe that I have a relationship with our invisible God through loving, and being loved through God’s creation.  It makes perfect sense because how else would a God that transcends nature love us and relate to in-nature beings? I am very blessed to have many people in my life that love me.  You probably do too.  And if you think you don’t, well you should know that God seeking you and God doesn’t make it easy for you to escape his love.  Fun fact: there are always people that will accept being loved by you.  Fun fact number two:  when you love someone else, there’s a good chance they might love you back.  And I’m NOT talking about romantic love here – I’m talking about self-sacrificial love, loving to give, not loving to get, love.  Trust me, in my dating days I had plenty of times I loved with not the same amount of love in return!  If you love like Jesus describes love – it will be hard to not be rich in relationships for long. 

From the minute we are born to the minute we die we are craving love. We crave our mother to love us, and our desire to have love and affirmation from our parents even when we are adults is ingrained in our souls.  Love is as natural to us as breathing is.  Loving and being loved is how relationships happen.  If we believe that God IS love, then loving, and being loved is how we have a relationship with an invisible God.