the rant

Syntax over Substance

The logical and rational have always battled against the emotional and intuitive; at least that is how it seems to me. It is as if these concepts in human behavior are mutually excusive in some way, demanding a person to choose a side; as if we did not all come with some measure and ability to operate in all these states of being.

Some fear emotionalism is overtaking the Christian church today. The thinking is that we judge the veracity of everything based on how it makes us feel and that for something to be understood it must be first experienced. It is an idea that has an underlying assumption that emotions too easily become Pavlovian responses to any given set of circumstances and should not be trusted or given merit. It is almost a subconscious perception that feelings are weak, yielding and easily manipulated generally for nefarious and selfish purposes.

There are yet others who look at the pervasion of the dogmatic, doctrinal and orthodox in the Christian church as a rigid legalism that is not content unless everything can be defined, explained and condensed. This concept assumes that one of the only reasons someone would be attracted to this kind of religion is because they are emotionally stinted, compensating for a lack of relational skills with logic; an ideology that loves being right and correct over all things.

It is almost like the heart is in conflict with the mind and that love is battling against truth in a cancerous war where the body of Christ is attacking itself.

Perhaps, I should elaborate, but my get up and go just got up and went, so I am going to close this post.

What got me thinking like this?

The Postmodern Crackup by Chuck Colson
An Open Letter to Chuck Colson by Brian McLaren
Chuck Colson’s Personal Response

WCAL Alt Rock for the Discerning

So my sister Jen sent me this Star-Trib article on the new format of WCAL, the radio station recently purchased by Minnesota Public Radio from St. Olaf College this fall.

The article caught my attention right away with it’s first paragraph:

“Adventurous music lovers whose tastes range from Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” to the current buzz band Arcade Fire will find a commercial-free haven next month on the former classical radio station WCAL.”

Awesome! No really, I am ecstatic about this. The quality and sensibilties of MPR programming married to a music format that I can relate to is something that could get me listening to music on the radio again. No offence intended Radio K.

I immediately began to wonder if there is any room in this format to explore faith-based musical expression, you know, the non-crossover type. So I decided to give the fine staff over at WCAL a shout via a neat little blog they setup for the purpose of sharing ongoing developments and getting future listener feedback.

Here’s what I had to say:
Continue reading “WCAL Alt Rock for the Discerning” →

Romans 14

I originally wrote a version of the following in reponse to a blog post of Messy Christian. I wanted to put it in mine for posterity.

One of the main points of the chapter that we talked a lot about basically states that we should be aware of the conscience of our brethren and to be prepared to sacrifice our liberty out of concern for the other’s sensibilities. Simply put, these sensibilities can lead to sin. Rightly or wrongly, a person’s sensibilities can lead them to sin even if the actual action is not explicitly sinful because “…whatever is not from faith is sin.”

In this chapter, Paul is surprisingly sensitive to the stigma surrounding the use of food in religious observance in a way that says to me that it is not always about being correct about an issue or whether one is at liberty to do a thing, rather that sometimes it is the Godly thing to “self-censor” for the sake of unity and love. For, like Corinthians says, “If I … know all mysteries and all knowledge … but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Self-censorship because of fear is never right but to be aware and sensitive, loving Christ’s body over our liberty is always a good call.

People need to be challenged just as much as they need to be able to voice there opinion. Neither of those needs can hold a candle to our responsibility to love though. It is not so much about what one can or cannot say, or do, rather it is about our relationship to one another and the responsibilities that brings.

What is the Church really?

Looking at the little congregation that i am a part of, i realize that it embodies our tribe’s ‘expression of’ and ‘connection to’ the body of Christ, otherwise known as “the Church”. Our individual relationship to Jesus, at least in some measure, is fleshed out in our connection to one another. God has brought us together at bluer(my church) for a purpose, He has bonded us for a reason.

Do I ever sit and ponder the mystic wonder of that? Do I really embrace the truth of it… honor the holiness of it?

I feel blessed to be a part of bluer and the community around it and really believe that what we are doing there is “the Church”. Is it a perfect reflection of Christ? Not likely, but bluer is, if i can speak for my brothers and sisters, a heartfelt and honest expression of our devotion to God.

This pondering is brought to you by Romans, chapter 12.

Blogging Slump

I was so proud of myself for blogging so regularly for a while there. Alas it was only a temporary euphoria. Now I feel the need just to post something… anything.

There have been quite a few things that I have wanted to blog on in the last month or so but it works out like this; I am a slow typer so it takes me a long time to put together just a few paragraphs and as I am typing I am thinking ahead of what is being typed too. Conceptually I am way ahead of my typing and thoughts get confused between what is being typed and what I am thinking of for the next paragraph. When it gets really bad I start skipping to the current thought in my head by ending the paragraph I am on and starting the next. This cheats the thought of the preceding paragraph and leaves out any thoughts that I may have had that would have linked the two paragraphs together. Not to mention the constant rereading of the current paragraph in order to recapture the essence of what I am trying to blog about in the first place, there by losing the current thought, you know the one two thoughts ahead on the thought being typed, never to be heard from again.

Ya dig what I am saying here?

Of course you don’t. I reread the paragraph and it doesn’t make sense to me… well yes it does, but only because I know the missing parts and the intent of the paragraph.

This whole thing is quite narcissistic and self-critical but interesting none the less. I am amazed sometimes at how my own thought process works. Analytical one moment and emotional the next, emphatic and unsure at the same time, I give myself a headache thinking about how I think.

Ok, so here it is, the obligatory blog entry. I am going to take some Advil now.

Rooting for the Iraqis

I can not help but hope against hope the the Iraqi football team will win a medal in this Olympics. Sadly, they got knocked out of gold and silver contention when they lost to Paraguay today, but they face Italy on friday for the bronze.

The country has been through so much that you just want this for them. They are underdogs in the purest sense of the word and though I am not a fan of the sport, I would love to see that game.

Blogging.

I have just noticed that I blog fairly regularly now. That makes me happy. I have always wanted to have a regular journal and it now seems to be coming to fruition.

Yes, truly, my happy. 🙂