Wednesday, January 31, 2007

What Does All This Have to Do With Christian Faith?- Connecting the Dots


I feel the personal need to re-iterate why I seem to be stuck on the types of subjects I have written about in this blog...

In my mind I imagine some folks that will see a posts on "politics" and fail to see the "geo-theological" narrative that I am working from.... fail to see the connection to Christianity...
I want to say something about that. I was watching something on CBN last night.
There was a guest on the show...the lady from Lebanon who wrote the book "Because They Hate" about radical Islam. I had some thoughts that I believe connects the dots on this.

Here's the deal;

We can all agree that upon the nature of things spiritual and carnal-
things we can change and things we cannot.

In my own view, which seems very simple and kind of obvious to me myself, when we can simply dismiss ALL of the problems of the Middle East as being rooted in a bunch of crazy, suicidal fundamentalists, and that we (the "Christian" nations) are the sort of innocent, virtuous bystanders- and that the Middle eastern world simply hates us for ONLY religious motivations - we are blinded and missing something vital in understanding not only the conflicts- but ourselves as a nation, ourselves as representatives of Christ within that nation, the World, the enemy as in the REAL enemy and his game etc. Sure, there is an obvious connection with the conflicts to the radical Islamic view about those of us who they consider to be infidels. We are often encouraged by voices in our own society to listen and take seriously what radical Islam says on this. They are correct. However, we should also listen when they list the litany of grievances they have that have triggered these movements. I will dare to say that although I would never legitimize or condone killing innocent people with bombs (that goes for us too)- they do have some legitimate beefs with us. if we simply refuse to acknowledge or adjust those items then we cannot even begin to hope for reconcilliation and peace.

Osama himself, when it was suggested to him that his group simply hated freedom and democracy and that is what motivated them, chuckled and said, "Go and ask your President why we didn't attack Sweden then."

That's a good question to start with to get at what I am saying with ALL of these posts.

All this is why fact, truth and perception really matters. If we simply continue to make charicatures out of these problems and not confront our own worldview and not look in the mirror through the eyes of the adversary

I believe that all of this this subject matter cuts right to the heart of nearly everything about our lives, the zeitgeist we live in and the MEANING OF IT ALL... theology...GEOTHEOLOGY if you will.

If you ever saw that movie the Matrix...I have even made references to it here- I regard all this the same way... When you see through the guises, the pretenses, the masks and the games...the MATRIX... you understand the Enemy... suddenly you understand God, you understand life, you understand purpose, you understand more fully what salvation is...what we sare saved from... the value of it and you also understand the Redeemer more fully.

Maybe I am out on a limb by myself on this- but that is where I am trying to
take PEOPLE...not the government...PEOPLE. I am not simply trying to bash
the (R)'s.

I got into another long conversation with a friend of mine the other day who
was kind of ribbing me about the "Super Christian" pose of the blog. I explained to him very lucidly that Christ himself as well as the Apostles and many of the early church leaders were persecuted and/or killed for saying the same sorts of things that I was writing about. They were considered as an element that would weaken the defensive posture of the nation and lead to the "nation" being overpopulated with those who were unwilling to fight and kill for its interests when they were not percieved to be what their God desired and then overrun by its enemies. The truth is that the World runs on the fuel of fear and domination...and when us Christians refuse to engage on those terms and refuse to compromise...we are percieved as a serious threat. The problem is that when we don't refuse to participate we become a tool of the infernal...we become part of the REAL problem.... and the problems are never solved.

Now my friend there is a guy that was raised in Church and then turned away from it
during the rise to power of the Christain Right and the Falwells and Robertsons of the world. Here is a guy that believes in Jesus- but could not stand "Christians"...or what he percieved as Christians...for many years.

The conversation made a serious impression on him....he said he'd never heard anyone say what I was saying...and in fact he has silently believed
the same way for quite some time.... He is also thinking of going back to Church and re-discovering his faith. I feel good about that- not only because my friend is re-awakening to the call of God in his life- but that I am not out on a limb by myself on this understanding of the world as well.

2 comments:

Lynn Green said...

I like the spirit of your blog, but your posts are too long. Consider giving an abstract of your post and then a link to those who wish to go to see the full report.

You seem like a thoughtful person; only you should dose yourself out in smaller spoonfuls.

Scott Starr said...

I fully understand what you are saying. I have wrestled with how to handle that concept quite a bit. The thing is that underlying my drive to put out longer missives is the belief that the bite sized coverage and analysis that "we the people" have gotten used to are part of the problem. The general public has gotten so used to slogans, catch phrases and snap shot analyzes that often the real nuance and substance of issues elude them. This can sometimes lead to disaster. An example could be the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Concision is not always in our best interests. I also get the point that if people are put off from reading something too long then the purpose is nullified.

I imagine that the main audience I am shooting for is fellow Christians. Given that Christianity is a literary, book based religion- I kind of hope and assume that Christians would and should not be put off by floods of words and deeper thoughts.

Anyhow, let me not run long again. I shall try and find ways to strike a happy medium. Thanks for the advice!