Politics and our Eschatology

Here’s my only political comment on this, the day after election day:

Somewhere overnight or this morning the eschatology of American Christians may become clear. If a Republican wins and the Christian becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that Christian has an eschatology of politics. Or, alternatively, if a Democrat wins and the Christian becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that Christian too has an eschatology of politics. Or, we could turn each around, if a more Democrat oriented Christian becomes depressed and hopeless because a Repub wins, or if a Republican oriented Christian becomes depressed or hopeless because a Dem wins, those Christians are caught in an empire-shaped eschatology of politics.

Read the whole thing!

via Politics and our Eschatology.

Marriage for the 99%: Seeing Family as a Social Justice Issue | Christianity Today

Very interesting — marriage as one predictor of socioeconomic status.  This paragraph blew my mind:

Bill Galston, a senior fellow at Brookings who served as President Clinton’s domestic policy advisor, has explained that an American today must only do three things to avoid living in poverty: graduate from high school, marry before having a child, and have children after age 20. Only 8 percent of people who do these three things are poor, while a stunning 79 percent who fail to meet these expectations live in poverty.

I’m left with a lot of questions, but still food for thought.

Marriage for the 99%: Seeing Family as a Social Justice Issue | Christianity Today.

Feminism — Rachel Held Evans

I think this is a great interview — thoughtful and charitable, but not afraid to tackle tricky questions.

Feminism, people, is not a dirty word.

Rachel Held Evans | Ask a feminist…response.

How to win a culture war and lose a generation

I think Rachel Held Evans is right on in this blog post.  Thoughts?

My generation is tired of the culture wars.

We are tired of fighting, tired of vain efforts to advance the Kingdom through politics and power, tired of drawing lines in the sand, tired of being known for what we are against, not what we are for.

And when it comes to homosexuality, we no longer think in the black-at-white categories of the generations before ours. We know too many wonderful people from the LGBT community to consider homosexuality a mere “issue.” These are people, and they are our friends. When they tell us that something hurts them, we listen. And Amendment One hurts like hell.

Regardless of whether you identify most with Side A or Side B, (or with one of the many variations within those two broad categories), it should be clear that amendments like these needlessly offend gays and lesbians, damage the reputation of Christians, and further alienate young adults—both Christians and non-Christian—from the Church.

So my question for those evangelicals leading the charge in the culture wars is this: Is it worth it?

via Rachel Held Evans | How to win a culture war and lose a generation.

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The author’s description of young people turned off by “Christianism” certainly struck a chord with me.  How about you?

As I get around the country there is one question I hear from pastors more than any other: How do we reach young people? They don’t need research from Barna, Lifeway, Pew, and Gallop to tell them young people are leaving the church. They see it every Sunday as the congregation gets a little more gray.But the evidence is mounting that reaching or retaining the young is going to take a lot more than new music styles or even a systematic rethinking of church leadership and organizational structures. There is the larger cultural matter of politics….

via Christianism Leads to Atheism | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders.

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For the past few months Christianity Today has published an excellent series of articles in the category “This Is Our City.”  In this article, the author offers a critique of the Tea-Party movement as represented in a new documentary.  While I felt the article itself didn’t go into as much detail and depth as I desired, I still found it thought-provoking.

Has anyone heard of the documentary mentioned in this article?  I’m intrigued…  I’d love to hear your thoughts and responses.

Why Liberty Needs Justice: A Response to the Tea Party-Occupy Film | This Is Our City | Christianity Today.

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Thought provoking article.  I highly recommend reading it and thinking through the point the author makes:

How can anyone who identifies as a follower of Jesus not only listen to, but support, this kind of disgusting language?  How can good people—the kind who show up at my door with a casserole the minute they find out I’m sick—openly cheer these kinds of remarks? 

 I can’t know for sure what goes on in people’s minds when they align themselves with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, but I suspect this reaction has something to do with three common blind spots among evangelicals…

Rachel Held Evans | Rush Limbaugh and three evangelical blind spots.

What do you think?

Food Crisis

Lately I’ve been trying to stay at least slightly more informed about what’s going on in the world, thanks to the handy-dandy Google Reader. Hooray, a new distraction on the internets! Just what my studies need…

Anyway, I have noticed an alarming motif in world news: high food prices, leading to food shortages and domestic unrest. A search for “food” in the BBC headlines for the past couple of weeks reveals the following:

• “France to double food aid budget” for poor countries b/c of rising prices (4/18)
• “South Africans march over food prices” (4/17)
• “EU warns against food export bans” – warning food producers “not to restrict exports because of rising prices” (4/17)
• “North Korea ‘faces food crisis'” (4/16)
• “Steep rise in Chinese food prices” – up 21% this year (4/16)
• In Afghanistan, poor families are “marrying off their girls for food” (4/15)
• “Bangladesh faces growing queues as food prices soar” (4/10)
• “Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace” – “in protest at rising food prices” (4/8)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even mentioned the articles on some of the possible reasons for what might be the beginnings of a global food crisis, as voices debate the controversial issue of increased production of biofuels and cry for fundamental changes in the global food system as a whole.

What response should we give? Prayer, yes; increased awareness, yes – but this does not seem enough. But as Christians, is this enough?