The title of this post is not entirely true. I wouldn't say I necessarily dislike elephants. I'm more just confused by them. Real elephants, that is. Now symbolic elephants, that is a whole other story.
Some of you may be aware that, here in the sometimes-good-ol' U.S. of A, the elephant has come to act as the symbol of the Republican party. More and more, though, I think the party might consider shifting towards a new emblem. What might this emblem be, you ask? Terrifyingly, I think it might be a Bible.
Before I go any further, I want to say what this blog is not going to be. I'm not going to sit here and rant about politics and faith. Instead, what I want to talk about today is the public image which Christianity has developed, and the dangers of letting that image go unchecked.
My thoughts on this, though growing for a while now, largely stemmed from a conversation I had with someone in one of my classes. His opinion of Christianity was that it has essentially become a political tool, a weapon which could be used to drive home particular points and establish a certain morality as the foundation for American rule of law. After doing some more digging, I've found that this is a fairly widespread view of Christianity.
Some people, as I'm sure we're all aware, and 100% in favor of this. It's thought by many that America would be a better place if we just ran it like the Bible instructed. The issue with this thinking, though, is that a country is not a person.
In all my talks with people on this subject, not once has the idea that Christianity is a faith which cares about people, not just widespread political action, come up. The truth of the gospel, the fact that Jesus died on a cross so that each and every individual person might have an intimate relationship with God, is completely lost on a good chunk of people. There was no mention of the fact that Christians are called to meet people, right where they are at, regardless of circumstance, behavior, or character, and love them. To the people I talked to, the fact that God is a person, not just an agenda, wasn't even a mental footnote.
As I think back on these conversations, the only thing I can do is ask what happened to our faith? How did Christianity become so viciously misrepresented in Western society? There are plenty of ways in which the blame could be directed. We could blame the Religious Right, we could blame the media and its obsession of inflammatory sound-bites, any number of groups. I've got a different perspective, however.
I'm going to go ahead and blame myself.
I appreciate the thought if you're leaping to my defense, reminding me that I wasn't even born when this particular perversion of Christianity got its start, that I'm fairly new to the faith, that I can't possibly have been the cause of this pervasive lack of trust in God. The fact of the matter is, however, that I haven't done nearly as much as I could have to solve this crisis. I've sat around and bemoaned how horribly my faith is misunderstood, but I haven't taken the time to engage people so that I might challenge their misconceptions.
So here I go. First off, I want to apologize to any who read this for when I, personally, or my faith, as a collective, has failed to truly represent who God is, the unbelievably loving individual who desires a relationship with each and every person on this Earth. I'm sorry for when I have demonized you because of your behavior, when I'm specifically called to love you regardless of where you are at. That's how God loves you, and I don't always do a good job of living that out. I'm learning, though.
Not to say I'm anything super fantastic, but I think this is the attitude that the Church needs to take. We need to stop yelling at a nation, and instead start talking to people. The former hasn't really done God any good, and has alienated more than can be counted. If we're going to begin healing the hyper-political image which the Church, and by extension God, has received, it's going to take engaging with people. If you consider yourself someone who is following after Christ, I invite you to join with me in taking off the sackcloth we have been wearing to mourn the non-existent passing of Christianity, and instead go and show this world who God really is.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. Saint Valentine's Dead, I'm Not Good at Rhyming.
We all know what day it is. Well, some of us might not, and if you're a part of that group and currently dating someone, here's a friendly reminder.
Being the historian that I am, I feel as though it is my obligation to inform you all of the true legacy of the man who this long-distorted holiday "honors". Several different saints claim to have been martyred around February 14th, but the one who gets the credit is known to us as Saint Valentine. How did this man gain such an illustrious title, you ask? As I understand it, Valentine continued the practice of marrying people in the Christian tradition in a day and age when it had been declared illegal to do so. I'm sorry if this is a drain on all the romanticism, but I honestly think realizing what this day is about makes it meaningful. A man was killed for protecting the joining together of two people in what can be an absolutely beautiful way. That's pretty phenomenal.
I can't help but contrast the history of this day with what it has become. Let me say this before you all write me off as a cynic. I am one of the most hopeless of hopeless romantics. Were it not for the current weather, I would be driving one of my core guys and his girlfriend out to this campground where bunnies apparently run rampant, just so that they could have a nice time. I love love, I just don't love what various aspects of our culture have done to it.
The main reason why I don't love our culture's understanding of what love is has to do with the fact that I have been burned by it pretty severely. I'm going to tell you all something that is extremely personal, but I feel is pertinent to what I'm talking about here. I'm not a virgin. I lost my virginity to my first serious dating relationship back in my junior year of high school. After that particular relationship ended, I jumped from person to person, hoping to accomplish the conquest necessary to validate myself as a man, as the culture I lived in understood that term. The man I was during that time was described as a womanizer, and I don't think that was inaccurate.
A huge amount of healing and change has gone on within me, but what has been left behind is an intense frustration with our culture, particularly the fact that we are constantly told we aren't truly complete unless we are in a relationship. I'm not even dealing with issues of immorality right now. Particularly on this day, our world likes to tell us that we are missing the pivotal aspect of what our lives could be if we're not in a romantic relationship. Speaking as someone who spent years of his life running from relationship to relationship trying to find this aspect of my life, only to end up empty, I feel I can confidently say we need a lot more than a relationship to become complete.
In light of this frustration, I have something I want to say to all of those who are struggling right now with the hardship of feeling like you're not worth anything because you haven't been validated by another person. You, you, are loved, by the God who knows you better than any other person ever can.
I know this time can be painful. We're surrounded by so much romanticism it's hard to feel like we're not doing something wrong. Please, don't buy into the lie that you don't have any worth just because no one bought you flowers. I'm not saying we're not allowed to be sad today. Shoot, I'll probably go get ice cream later, because it's just one of those days. Know this, though. You're worth more than this culture could ever know. This world's version of love doesn't deserve you, and it's missing out on something incredibly beautiful. That's how God sees you.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
Being the historian that I am, I feel as though it is my obligation to inform you all of the true legacy of the man who this long-distorted holiday "honors". Several different saints claim to have been martyred around February 14th, but the one who gets the credit is known to us as Saint Valentine. How did this man gain such an illustrious title, you ask? As I understand it, Valentine continued the practice of marrying people in the Christian tradition in a day and age when it had been declared illegal to do so. I'm sorry if this is a drain on all the romanticism, but I honestly think realizing what this day is about makes it meaningful. A man was killed for protecting the joining together of two people in what can be an absolutely beautiful way. That's pretty phenomenal.
I can't help but contrast the history of this day with what it has become. Let me say this before you all write me off as a cynic. I am one of the most hopeless of hopeless romantics. Were it not for the current weather, I would be driving one of my core guys and his girlfriend out to this campground where bunnies apparently run rampant, just so that they could have a nice time. I love love, I just don't love what various aspects of our culture have done to it.
The main reason why I don't love our culture's understanding of what love is has to do with the fact that I have been burned by it pretty severely. I'm going to tell you all something that is extremely personal, but I feel is pertinent to what I'm talking about here. I'm not a virgin. I lost my virginity to my first serious dating relationship back in my junior year of high school. After that particular relationship ended, I jumped from person to person, hoping to accomplish the conquest necessary to validate myself as a man, as the culture I lived in understood that term. The man I was during that time was described as a womanizer, and I don't think that was inaccurate.
A huge amount of healing and change has gone on within me, but what has been left behind is an intense frustration with our culture, particularly the fact that we are constantly told we aren't truly complete unless we are in a relationship. I'm not even dealing with issues of immorality right now. Particularly on this day, our world likes to tell us that we are missing the pivotal aspect of what our lives could be if we're not in a romantic relationship. Speaking as someone who spent years of his life running from relationship to relationship trying to find this aspect of my life, only to end up empty, I feel I can confidently say we need a lot more than a relationship to become complete.
In light of this frustration, I have something I want to say to all of those who are struggling right now with the hardship of feeling like you're not worth anything because you haven't been validated by another person. You, you, are loved, by the God who knows you better than any other person ever can.
I know this time can be painful. We're surrounded by so much romanticism it's hard to feel like we're not doing something wrong. Please, don't buy into the lie that you don't have any worth just because no one bought you flowers. I'm not saying we're not allowed to be sad today. Shoot, I'll probably go get ice cream later, because it's just one of those days. Know this, though. You're worth more than this culture could ever know. This world's version of love doesn't deserve you, and it's missing out on something incredibly beautiful. That's how God sees you.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Apparently No One Cares That We Exist
I've been reading a lot lately. Thinking more and more on how to do the whole honor God with my mind thing a bit better, I've found myself drawn to exploring the various material which people have actually taken the time to write down. It's refreshing to see that there is still a drive to construct a well crafted point and then commit it to paper, going through all the work that comes along with that, in a day and age where I can just rant on a forum about how the Verizon iPhone is sooooooo much better than the ATT iPhone btw lololololololololol.
I feel dirty for typing that.
As I was saying reading, not unlike a rainbow, is a beautiful and enriching thing which I think we should all have more of in our lives. There was one thing in particular which I read recently, however, that was pretty much the opposite of a rainbow. It was dark, it was depressing, and it made me want to cry (and no, I'm not kidding).
In a recent article entitled "The Leavers", found in the November issue of Christianity Today, the problem of large amounts of 20-30 somethings leaving the Church was addressed. I was just fine with most of this article. It made some very insightful points. Then I came to the section headed "Won't They Just Come Back?" It is apparently a belief amongst some researchers that if people are losing their faith, are being wounded by the Church to the point that they feel like they have to leave, that if people see Christianity as so contrary to Jesus Christ that they just can't remain a part of the institution anymore, it doesn't really matter. They'll come to their senses eventually. This is just a phase.
Hear me, those who would believe this. My generation is not a phase. We are not a fad. You can't write us off just because we're inconvenient.
If I sound angry about this it's because I am. The fact that it is seen as OK by anyone within the Christian Church to simply stop engaging a group of people for a period of time because they tend not to mesh well with what is seen as the established Church structure is a fundamental insult to what Jesus did on the cross. There is so much wrong with this view that I honestly can't articulate very well in this setting.
Some of you may be wondering why I waited so long to talk about this article (it did, after all, come out in November). I've waited because I don't like ranting about things without having some measure of hope to bring to the table. So I've been digging for a while. Looking at both what people have been writing and what people around me have been doing, I'm excited to say that I've found a heaping helping of hope in the face of this, the abandonment of an entire generation. There are plenty of people who are following Jesus well, recognizing that just because younger people have questions and problems with Christianity and the Church doesn't mean they should be forgotten. A recent book, unChristian, does a phenomenal job of showing just how much time is being taken by some to go out and examine why so many younger people have serious problems with Christianity (side note; a very, very small portion of this people have a problem with Jesus. Why do we think that is?).
I have been blessed to not live in a Christian community where I feel as though I have been forgotten, or that my generation has been forgotten. I hope that these sorts of communities are in the minority. I want to say this to those generations who have come before us. My generation is asking a lot of tough, very important questions, that are often extremely intimidating. I would argue that we are questioning ideas of faith more than any Western generation which has come before us. This means we can be much harder to engage with. It also means that we need to be engaged more urgently than ever before. Please, don't forget about us.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
I feel dirty for typing that.
As I was saying reading, not unlike a rainbow, is a beautiful and enriching thing which I think we should all have more of in our lives. There was one thing in particular which I read recently, however, that was pretty much the opposite of a rainbow. It was dark, it was depressing, and it made me want to cry (and no, I'm not kidding).
In a recent article entitled "The Leavers", found in the November issue of Christianity Today, the problem of large amounts of 20-30 somethings leaving the Church was addressed. I was just fine with most of this article. It made some very insightful points. Then I came to the section headed "Won't They Just Come Back?" It is apparently a belief amongst some researchers that if people are losing their faith, are being wounded by the Church to the point that they feel like they have to leave, that if people see Christianity as so contrary to Jesus Christ that they just can't remain a part of the institution anymore, it doesn't really matter. They'll come to their senses eventually. This is just a phase.
Hear me, those who would believe this. My generation is not a phase. We are not a fad. You can't write us off just because we're inconvenient.
If I sound angry about this it's because I am. The fact that it is seen as OK by anyone within the Christian Church to simply stop engaging a group of people for a period of time because they tend not to mesh well with what is seen as the established Church structure is a fundamental insult to what Jesus did on the cross. There is so much wrong with this view that I honestly can't articulate very well in this setting.
Some of you may be wondering why I waited so long to talk about this article (it did, after all, come out in November). I've waited because I don't like ranting about things without having some measure of hope to bring to the table. So I've been digging for a while. Looking at both what people have been writing and what people around me have been doing, I'm excited to say that I've found a heaping helping of hope in the face of this, the abandonment of an entire generation. There are plenty of people who are following Jesus well, recognizing that just because younger people have questions and problems with Christianity and the Church doesn't mean they should be forgotten. A recent book, unChristian, does a phenomenal job of showing just how much time is being taken by some to go out and examine why so many younger people have serious problems with Christianity (side note; a very, very small portion of this people have a problem with Jesus. Why do we think that is?).
I have been blessed to not live in a Christian community where I feel as though I have been forgotten, or that my generation has been forgotten. I hope that these sorts of communities are in the minority. I want to say this to those generations who have come before us. My generation is asking a lot of tough, very important questions, that are often extremely intimidating. I would argue that we are questioning ideas of faith more than any Western generation which has come before us. This means we can be much harder to engage with. It also means that we need to be engaged more urgently than ever before. Please, don't forget about us.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
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