Posted on Kevin's behalf

Fun With Fred Phelps

Hi guys, 

Anyone interested in finding out more about Fred Phelps, the "God Hates Fags" reverend from America's heartland, can easily find way too much of him on the internet.  His Wikipedia entry contains pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about his somewhat shady past and his twisted theology. It's immensely entertaining.  A search for his name in YouTube will provide a plethora of interviews, not only with Fred himself, but with the members of his modest congregation, all of whom seem to be related to him.  One of the first videos that comes up is an interview between a female follwer and Sean Hannity, which immediately spirals into complete hysteria.  I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be rooting for Sean in a "debate"!  There are also a lot of homemade parodies that people have submitted about Mr. Phelps, who, upon hearing of Jerry Falwell's death, threatened to picket his funeral because he considered Jerry a "fag-enabler" who was "soft on gays" (?!).

Generally, most gay people find Fred's hate speech to be the rantings of a publicity-hungry lunatic who is too goofy to be taken seriously and obviously has serious doubts about his own sexuality.  But what really got Fred into hot water was when he and his family-cum-congregation decided to picket the funeral services of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that their untimely deaths were a curse from God because America fell in love with Will & Grace, Brokeback Mountain, and Ellen DeGenerous.  Suddenly soccer moms and construction workers were unified with leather daddies and drag queens in their utter disbelief at what this gentleman would do in order to secure his 15 minutes of fame.

Fortunately, Fred's opinions are too radical for most mainstream Evangelicals, who instead of wasting all that time hating gay poeople would rather ignore them and hope they'll stay on their side of town.  The problem for them is that the gay side of town is a myth.  The gay people they know sit in the cubicle next to theirs at work, ring up their groceries, sit next to them in church, and join them at the pub on Thursday nights (okay, so they probably also cut their hair and coordinate their weddings).  The time is right for Christ-followers who are secure in their own faith and their own sexuality to show God's love to this segment of their society, because too often, by their silence, they have reinforced good ol' Fred's sentiments.

~Kevin

The Insanity of Christianity

"Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom." (Orthodoxy, p.9)

Connor and I have had some conversations about the similarities between the life stages that psychology has identified and the stages of spiritual growth. A little child needs to be told exactly what to do. Yes, eat your food. No, don't touch the hot stove. Similar to the potter/clay analogy. God tells the spiritualy immature person exactly what to do because that is what the person needs. But just as a child becomes an adolescent then a teen and then an adult the way the parent interacts with that person must change in order for the relationship to be healthy. In an unhealthy parent/child relationship you would see a parent treating their adult offspring as if they are still little children and adults acting like little children especially when they are operating in their family systems. My point is this: I feel like a teenager in the spiritual sense. I am going through this rebellious stage where I am moving away from the sprituality of my parents and developing my own. There is literal anger within me about what modern Christianity is and I think this a good thing. Not that I want to remain stuck here, being angry at church and modern evangelical Christianity. That would be unhealthy and counterproductive. But I think God has brought me to this stage so that I can become an adult (spiritually). I want to move on from being the clay in his hands to being a friend of God, even his son. Scripture compares the highest form of relationship with God to a marriage. I can't fathom that but I trust that it is good.

One of my criticisms of the Christianity of modernism is this attempt to reduce relationship with God to simple formulas.

If you say the sinners prayer, go to a Bible-believing church, tell others about your conversion then you will go to heaven. (Or something like that).

It feels to me as though the modern church has tried to apply the scientific method to God in an attempt to know Him. We create if/then statements that might work well in a thesis paper but don't pan out in real life. There was a time when I truly needed to believe in Creationism. More than believe, I needed to know that it was true. I think this is in some way a result of the if/then thinking of modernism. If the Bible says God created the cosmos in 6 days then it has to be literaly true or it upsets the whole foundation of the faith. This is insanity. Chess players think in terms of if/then. Mathematicians think in terms of if/then and it seems to me maybe theologians have been doing it too. The Scriptures use all kinds of imagery, overstatement, and symbolism. What if God did not create the cosmos in 6 literal days? What if it was just a way for God to communicate to ancient peoples that he was before all this, outside of it, greater than it and creator of it? What if He actually used evolution to create man and animals? What if He did it some other way that man has yet to recognize? Is He no less God? Of course not.

There is so much mystery to God. We could apply Systematic Theology to the Scriptures over and over (and we have) and still come away lacking. In fact, what this approach to God and Scipture has created is what we now call the Fundamentalist. The Fundamentalist may in fact be no fundamentalist at all in relation to what Jesus described as the fundamentals: Love God and love your neighbors. Again, the insanity of Christianity. If the fundamentals of the faith are love God and neighbor then why is the message of the Fundamentalist: We hate homosexuals? Did Jesus say "I have come that you may believe in a literal 6 day creation, or adhere to a strict doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy or believe in a pre-trib rapture?" No, he came to offer us life. He invites into a life with him.

Chesterton says on p. 11: A flippant person has asked why we say, "As mad as a hatter." A more flippant person might answer that a hatter is indeed mad because he has to measure the human head.

Is it possible that modern Christians have spent too much time trying to "measure" God and too little simply living with Him, walking with Him, enjoying Him?

Have you ever been in an argument over some theological thing or trying to "defend" your faith and your voice starts to shake and you get red and hot? That's happened to me and I think it's because of my insanity. I was buying the notion that God is going to make logical sense if I can just figure Him out and it will be obvious to everyone. But what was obvious was that I was insane!

"They see a chess-board white on black, and if the universe is paved with it, it is still white on black. Like the lunatic, they cannot alter their standpoint; they cannot make a mental effort and suddenly see it black on white." (p.12)

The Fundamentalist can't see God and the universe any other way than white on black. Think about what this results in. It applies across all belief systems. This kind of thinking creates terrorists, crusaders, inquisitors, doctrine Nazis, real Nazis, suicide bombers etc...

One of my favorite lines in the first half of this book is on p.13, "The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows he has a touch of the madman."

G.K., I hope your right 'cause I can see all of that in myself.

Buechner

Yesterday Erin (my bride) read this excerpt from Frederick Buechner to me. I thought it was worth passing along. I'd be curious to hear what you all think of what he says. He seems to answer the question John asked me about how a "christian" and a "non-christian" may be closer then it might appear.

"Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily believes certain things. That Jesus was the son of God, say. Or that Mary was a virgin. Or that the Pope is infallible. Or that all other religions are all wrong. Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily does certain things. Such as going to church. Getting baptized. Giving up liquor and tobacco. Reading the Bible. Doing a good deed a day. Some think of a Christian as just a Nice Guy. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me"(John 14:6). He didn't say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn't say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could "come to the Father." He said that it was only by him--by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that he embodied, that was his way. Thus it is possible to be on Christ's way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don't even believe in God. A Christian is one who is on the way, though not necessarily very far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of whom to thank. A Christian isn't necessarily any nicer than anybody else. Just better informed."

Next Meeting

Reservations have been made! The next meeting will be at the same place, Thompson's McMenamins, at 6:30 PM on Thursday 28th, February. I made reservations for 10 people so hopefully we will get a bigger table as we were a little too intimate for 8 guys last time, so, I can't imagine how cramped it will be for 10. I will also get this information out to others who have not joined this forum yet.

"Get up. Stand up. . . don't give up the fight."

Sorry for the Bob Marley reference in the title line, but it is useful for my post.

With quotes like:

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living can go against it." and; "The act of Defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice." I wonder if Chesterton became charged/recharged whenever he took a stand on something. Often times, I feel a bit frightened to take a stand for something out of fear that I will offend. So I don't. Then I become a dead thing floating with the stream. I may even feign impartiality just to get out of tackling a contentious topic. Here too, Chesterton goes on the attack: "Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." I neither want to be seen as dead thing floating drifting with the stream nor do I want to be seen as being ignorant. Perhaps in taking a stand for a thing, provided it is the right thing, one can become find the thrill that Chesterton lived out as he championed orthodoxy? Take a stand for the wrong thing and Chesterton here too responds: "Fallacies do not cease being fallacies because the become fashion." Thoughts?

Intro to the Dinklings Blog

Men,

Sorry about naming our group the dinklings. If anyone has a better name that would be fine. I just needed something to get this blog going.

So...have at it. Let's hear what you've got to say about Chesterton. I look forward to an ongoing discussion with you guys as we gear up for another night at Thompson's.