New Book for Oct 23rd

Hey Fellas,

I apologize for my absence last session (Oct. 2nd). Many of you were wondering about the book that I was going to pick. I have decided, upon the strong recommendation of a former seminary classmate I bumped into, to pick The Shack by William P. Young. Now, I understand that this is a book that some have avoided and that there are "two camps" on the internet that have reviewed it and, from what I can tell, one camp absolutely reviles it and the other has been profoundly inspired by it. There are plenty of copies of it at the Book Bin and I am told that if you go to the official website of the book, that you can get a free copy. Apparently there was a business man who was so moved by the book that he put up a bunch of money to help those who are unable to afford the book, to receive it. Oh yeah, I would also like to bring the discussion back to Porter's Pub. I look forward to seeing you all.

Christians Lynch Obama

I just caught a news article that was seriously disappointing but unfortunately, not very shocking. Upon the campus of our beloved bastion of Christian love and enlightened education, George Fox U., an effigy of Barak Obama was found hanging from a tree with a sign attached reading "Act Six Reject". Act Six is a scholarship program whose goal is to increase minority attendance at northwest Christian colleges. The reason it's not that shocking is that I've been around the Evangelical movement long enough to recognize the deep and twisted connection to ultra right wing conservatism that has taken over the collective mind of Evangelical Christianity.

Folks like Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson have defined politics for Christians for a over 2 decades and one of their primary motivators has been fear. How many times did I wake up to Dobson's schrill cries over the alarm clock radio begging and cajoling me to call my senator before the "Homosexual Agenda" took over our schools and destroyed America's families? I don't know, I finally turned him off about the time of the Iraq war when the president Dobson was in bed with didn't seem that Christian to me anymore. I must admit I started to feel better about life when I wasn't waking up to the-sky-is-falling-propaganda machine that is Focus on the Family.

The other day I walked into a meeting with a men's leadership team from church and somebody had recognized Donald Miller giving the Benediction at the DNC and suddenly it was like I was in the interrogation room, the spotlight shining in my eyes, men in black firing questions- "What exactly is your connection to this Donald Miller? Are you a Democrat Mr. McElravy? Are you?" I was under the gun, I felt the pressure, I was starting to sweat and I just blurted out "I'm still registered as a Republican!" McCarthy was easier on defendants than these guys. But my statement seemed to keep the wolves at bay, for now. One of them muttered, "That Obama scares me." And suddenly I realized, that's what it was, fear. These guys were geniunely afraid. I said, "Obama's just a man. What's so scary about him?" Blank stare, awkward silence, subject changed. No discussion of policy, no banter about who seems to be the most Christlike of the two candidates, and no talk of what Christian faith brings to the politcal discussion. Just a group of church leaders afraid of a Democrat. Sad.

Fear is one of those things that has it's uses. If your in situation where your life is in danger fear kicks the brain into fight or flight mode. In this state fear sometimes gives us super-human strength to do what might normaly be impossible. The adrenaline rushes through the body and gives us the ability to lift cars of people in a wreck (or so I've heard). You know what I mean. But the thing is, it also blocks some of our ability to asses situations realisticly. We don't necasarily see things as they are. Emotions can get the best of us. I fear that fear has been used against us and the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Sorry, that was supposed to be funny, but maybe there's some truth to it.

So the question is, can we (Christians) get passed the fear mongering and engage in real political discussion? Not emotional I'm-right-your-wrong-and-that's-that yelling. Our world faces serious problems and the status quo seems to have marginalized the Christian voice into lockstep with a politcal party who uses guys like Dobson and crew to scare us into their agenda. I'm not suggesting Christians should belong to one party or the other or not. It's bigger than that. I think this book will take us into a deeper discussion of what impact Christians could have politcally and in a much more constructive way than currently is happenning.

Looking forward to the discussion.

For your viewing enjoyment

GOD'S POLITICS

Okay my friends, I am sorry it took me so long to get this going. I know that I said we would read NT Wright a couple of weeks ago and now I'm changing my mind and am going with Jim Wallis' book God's Politics in honor of the political season we find ourselves in. I've read about half of the book and find Wallis' ideas challenging and refreshing. I don't necessarily agree with everything he stands for but this book has given me some hope for the influence Christians can have politically, something beyond just voting Republican because that's what all good Christians do, or simply voting based on a couple of hot button issues. But rather to engage the system like the prophets of old and stand up for justice and truth, to face down the oppressors regardless of party. This book has given me the freedom to go ahead and "talk politics and religion" and let it be okay that there are other sides to the issues, that the truth is it isn't the evil liberals vs. the righteous conservatives. Anyway, it should make for some good conversations.

Since everyone will be getting a late start on the book I'd like to focus our first discussion on Parts I and II, Intro through pg.84. I'll update this blog with some discussions points as we get closer to Thursday.

Mere Christianity Chapters 1-2 for May 22nd

"Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis: The book was adapted from a 1943 BBC radio lecture broadcast while Lewis was at Oxford (during World War II). I haven't searched to find the archive of the radio broadcast because iTunes had audible.com version and I had the Lewis anthology but it would be interesting to contrast the radio broadcast with the audio book.

Mere Christianity presents a case for Truth and popular objections to Christianity (Christian Apologetics). I've been working with other men lately to discover "core biblical truths" and the Lewis contributed to my thinking this past week in the first two chapters by distilling what he called "Moral Law" (Rule about Right and Wrong)commonly known to all human beings which include the suggestion that we should strive toward "fairness" and "unselfishness". He shares his thoughts in direct contrast to the "laws of Nature" presented in mathematics and science of the time.

In the first two chapters he seems to aim at defining "Christianity" as something beyond "Goodness" and lands at the fundamental teachings of the Christian religion. It seems that his intended audience was intellectuals of the 1940s whom some of which understood the jargon of formal Christian Theology. Important to the context was WWII and Hitler who was doing wrong, my almost everyone's standard, even non-religious persons.

Next up; Mere Christianity - Atonement (Chapter 3+)

New Venue???

Gentlemen, 

It was decided, at the last meeting, that, given the hostility shown us by the staff at Thompson's, we should try a new venue.  It was suggested that Schroeder's Guest House be tried.  So, with that said, I called and checked on the hours of operation at Schroeder's and they are only open until 8 o'clock.  So Schroeder's is out.  So here's my question:

Should we give Thompson's one more shot or should we try somewhere else?  If we try somewhere else, does anybody have any suggestions? Personally, I feel that they (Thompson's) just had a bad night and I am willing to forgive and forget and give 'em another go.

Also, if you missed the last meeting it was determined that the second installment of Paulo Coehlo's, The Alchemist would be conducted this coming Thursday, May 8th. 

Finally, Drew, the facilitator of the next tome, has chosen C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity so if you don't have this classic yet, you have plenty of time to obtain it before May 22nd.

  

BTW: I have no idea what the picture has to do with this post, but I liked it and thought I'd post it.

Inner Reflection

Quite as the Forest
Steadfast as the Mountain
Relentless as Fire