Dear Dr. Laura: Why you can’t use the n-word

August 18, 2010 in Rethink Culture with 7 Comments

Dr. Laura's speech bubble

Photo by Dawn Beattie (license), adapted by Jon Reid

Dear Dr. Laura,

I hear you’ve had a tough time at work, and are now feeling misunderstood, threatened, even repressed. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about you, but maybe that will allow me to provide some relatively unbiased comments. I hope they are helpful.

I did see video clips of your conversation with the caller on your radio show. Frankly, I was shocked. Didn’t you know that sensibilities regarding the n-word have changed dramatically in the last 60 years? I’m no more black than you are, but I was aware that the n-word is regarded as quite offensive. The issue is not whether you or I have a “right” to say what we want; the issue is respect for others. Where offense is likely to be received, let’s take extra care not to go there, even when (really, especially when) offense is not intended.

But as you ask, why is the n-word off-limits for non-blacks, but okay for black men? And I have heard other white people wonder this same question. Let me try to explain using my own background and personal experience:

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Great posts about (and with) Anne Rice

August 14, 2010 in Rethink Faith with 5 Comments

Exit Christianity

Photo by C.P.Storm (license), adapted by Jon Reid

In addition to my own thoughts on author Anne Rice’s announcement that she was leaving Christianity, I wanted to point you to some posts by three of my online friends.

Act One. In Anne Rice — Called Out of Christianity, Chad Estes asks some great questions:

  • What are you to do if you love Jesus but don’t want to be an official member of his somewhat crazed fan club?
  • Is ‘Christianity’ a label that you really need to follow Jesus?
  • Who does Anne’s statement impact? Does God care? Do non-religious people care? Or is it just the fan club that isn’t happy with this decision?
  • What is the appropriate response when you don’t agree with the party line?
  • How could Anne have made a difference from the inside of Christianity. Did she actually have the clout she needed to make any needed changes or is she better off outside of the walls?

He spawned a lot of discussion with these questions — 59 comments at last count. Chad then followed up with his own thoughts, Calling Ourselves Christians, in which he shares some thoughts about the Bible passage where the term “Christians” was first used to identify Jesus’ disciples.

Act Two. In Christ, The Other & Anne Rice, Jamie Arpin-Ricci explores identification with “the other” in rejecting hatred and bigotry. But at the same time, he offers a caution against disassociating ourselves from unsavory elements of Christianity. Are we too easily overlooking those same qualities within ourselves? Does Christ welcome the bigot?

Act Three. Finally, while I and others speculate on Anne Rice’s faith — maybe she is saying this, maybe she is doing that — Mike Morrell interviewed her! (The podcast itself is a little hard to find. Scroll down halfway and look for an on-screen player.) The first seven minutes is the hosts of the podcast introducing their show and other things they have coming up, but then it’s over half an hour of Anne sharing her thoughts, her struggles, and her heart. If anyone has any doubts about the earnestness of her faith, try this quote on for size:

The most important thing for me is to keep Christ the center of my life. …I want to know more about the mystery of Christ, the beauty of the incarnation …he is God and man. That story still compels me, and I do not want the followers of Christ to come between me and that story.

Can I have an Amen?

Anne Rice — Christ without Christianity?

August 14, 2010 in Rethink Faith with 16 Comments

OK. I’ve never read any of the Vampire Chronicles. I didn’t see Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. So when author Anne Rice announced some years ago that she became a Christian, I thought, “That’s nice,” and shrugged.

Ah, but two weeks ago when she announced that she was leaving Christianity, that caught my attention. She made quite the splash by posting on Facebook:

Anne Rice - July 28 Facebook post

And then this follow-up:

Anne Rice - July 28 Facebook follow-up

This has been the reaction of some Christians:

Tom Cruise as a snarling vampire

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Double rainbow all the way!!

August 1, 2010 in Oddball with 13 Comments

“What does it mean??” So this guy, “Yosemite Bear,” posted a video recording his, shall we say, observations of a meteorological phenomenon. It got tweeted by a late-night TV talk show host, and the rest (over 8 million views later) is history. People just can’t quite believe anyone could be so excited for three-and-a-half minutes without being high:

Overnight, another Internet sensation was born. Soon, people began remixing the video into numerous parodies. Here’s one that uses auto-tuning:

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“and” (Philippians 1:1 lectio)

July 19, 2010 in Lectio Divina with 8 Comments

baton hand off

Photo by .sanden. (license)

Philippians 1:1 Lectio: and. For my first Lectio Divina in a long time, I read no further than three words: “Paul and Timothy.” Curiously, the “shimmering phrase” that beckoned to me was the word “and.”

And. We call these “the letters of Paul.” But look at that! A surprising number of Paul’s letters are addressed from multiple people. This shows how intent he was on discipling.

And. They are a team. They are partners, working together. All the words we have, plus the prayers and conversations we don’t have… they were shared, and birthed out of their partnership.

And. They were friends. But it’s a friendship deeper than “liking each other,” or what churches call “community.” This is communitas, the bonds of shared endurance. …Oh Mike, how I miss you.

And. Paul is not only training Timothy by writing this with him; he is also releasing him as a leader by establishing him as an equal. But this is not a hierarchical hand-off of bureaucratic authority. It is a community of faith (Paul and Timothy), speaking to other communities of faith (the believers in Philippi). Life imparting life.

Paul and Timothy. A truly healthy spiritual life takes place only when one is being discipled, and has disciple. I haven’t had either a Paul or a Timothy in my life for many years now, and it shows. ++Lord, send me a Paul. Send me a Timothy.++

Jon and Kay. I misunderstood Kay’s lack of connection with the things that energize me as a rejection of those things. But I have spent the last few years learning that that’s not true at all. We’re just different people. Our differences have made as a team before, dancing, leaning on each other’s strengths. ++Thank you that you have united us again. Will you also use us again?++

Jesus and Jon. I in you and you in me. ++Come fill me. Let’s dance.++

Update: Dave Ingland has blogged the thoughts I stirred with this meditation.

Signs of Life (and Lectio Divina)

July 17, 2010 in Lectio Divina, Rethink Faith with 14 Comments

Growth in the pavement cracks

Photo by kelsey6 (license)

You may not have noticed, but I had an unplanned absence from blog one another for nearly a month. Heck, it felt like I had an unplanned absence from life. Things have been tough, and my spiritual life sank along with the rest of me. I experienced multi-day depression, which was a new and scary experience. (Hats off to you ladies for going through it every month!)

But things are beginning to turn in the desert. Kay keeps telling me this, but I am finally beginning to believe it. The other day I told her, “I wish I cared again. I want to care — that is, I want to want to grow again, if that makes sense. …It’s a start, isn’t it?”

In Lectio Divina, the tables are turned: The Bible reads me.

I happened to receive an email today from my friend Dave Jacobs, who has a ministry called Small Church Pastor. The email was announcing a new resource for men’s discipleship, going over these five topics:

  1. Becoming a man of prayer
  2. Becoming a man of the word
  3. Becoming a man of humility
  4. Becoming a man of ministry
  5. Becoming a man who honors women

I felt moved just reading this outline! My thought was, “Well, my prayer life sucks. I’m not spending time in the word of God. My ministry is zilch.” But to my surprise, I actually felt motivated to do something, beginning with the first two. So before I started “doing” anything today (in particular, before my GTD weekly review), I grabbed The Message and holed up in my room for some Lectio Divina.

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7 Link Challenge

July 15, 2010 in This Blog with 4 Comments

Seven

Photo by sheeshoo (license)

Do you remember those “N things about yourself” memes that used to float around the Internet, especially on Facebook? They seem to have fallen out of vogue for some reason. Darren Rowse posted a “7 Link Challenge” that is just the thing to jump-start me out of my funk and back into this blog. But instead of things about myself, they are things about this blog…

Your first post

That would be My very first blog! Short, but it gives a brief explanation of why I started.

A post you enjoyed writing the most

Easter: The story is bigger than sin and hell shows what our best family devotions are like: a little nutty, and fun to re-read!

A post which had a great discussion

14 Reasons to Stop Evangelizing Your Friends prompted a lot of discussion, including some radio time.

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written

Chad Estes shares a lot of good stories, including Three Preachers and a Sinner meet up at a Party. (My daughter just read this over my shoulder and said, “It sounds like the beginning of a joke.”

Your most helpful post

This was actually a guest post on ChurchETHOS: Social Acceptance: A Missional Metric.

A post with a title that you are proud of

Heck, why not: Frank Zappa shows our evangelism sucks.

A post that you wish more people had read

Listening as a Spiritual Act may be one of the best things I’ve written that you’ve never read.

This was fun! Were any of these new to you?

Read to your children

June 19, 2010 in Books/Movies, Family/Friends with 15 Comments

story time

Photo by aye_shamus (license)

I have been reading aloud to my kids since they were little. Now they are big: our oldest completed his junior year of high school, and we are starting to look at colleges. But I continue to read to them!

We just completed my highest ambition, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, the whole thing, Elvish songs and all. How in the world do you follow up an act like that? Why, with the anti-Tolkien: Terry Pratchett.

“Story time” is one of our family rituals. It has been good for:

  • Greater English skill
  • Exposure to literature
  • Exposure to different times and cultures
  • Shared laughter
  • A bonding “dad thing”

I highly recommend it! Keep it up as long as they will let you.

Do you read to your kids? What have been their favorites?

“Kay sez 21″ on summer vacation

June 13, 2010 in Out of Context with 2 Comments

“We don’t have enough chairs. There are too many butts in the house.”

Substitutionary Atonement: Let me clarify

June 12, 2010 in Rethink Faith with 12 Comments

Substitutionary Atonement, part two

Photo by Randy OHC (license)

Welcome to Part Two. I certainly stirred up more with Part One, Substitutionary Atonement: It’s just a theory than I expected! I do want to explore what I began in The Six Deadly Sins of Evangelicalism — namely, that penal substitutionary atonement may not be the right story to frame the cross of Christ in post-Christian cultures. That’s a lot of buzzwords — or as Kay complains, too many syllables.

There is no “ultimate explanation,” because salvation is in a Person who is deeper than the sum of our explanations.

But I need to clarify some things before we dig in further. Unfortunately, this means I will not get to Matthew Tuck’s good questions this time: “1) What is your critique of the penal substitutionary atonement theory? 2) What alternative(s) would you propose?” Sorry, Matthew, I only have room for hints this round! I’ll get there, but let’s regroup before we go on.

First, I want to acknowledge that penal substitutionary atonement is widely taught (and dearly held) by many evangelicals, especially those in Reformed traditions. So for some people, my raising questions may sound like I am questioning whether Christ died for our sins. And my suggesting alternatives may sound like I am suggesting there are other paths to salvation that avoid the cross.

Of course, that’s not it at all.

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