Archive for category Christianity
The Devil Is in the Details: The Confusing Void in Glenn Beck’s Crusade
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Politics, Remnant Reads, Sociology on September 2, 2010
I was finally able to watch the now-notorious Glenn Beck event, and although it helped illuminate many of the mistruths floating around the media, I have to say that it accomplished little else.
In other words, it was easy to tell what the event wasn’t trying to do (divide, aggravate, etc.), but as far as the precise goal and direction it did hope to advance, I was left confused and bewildered.
I’ve heard people use many labels to describe the rally, from patriotic to jingoistic, revolutionary to reactionary, virtuous to dangerous, but as much as I want to label Beck’s event as being one thing or another, it’s extremely difficult to do so.
Let’s start with the more aggressive misperceptions.
First off, many in the “anti-Beck” crowd have missed the point. These are the folks who claim Beck is insensitive, inflammatory, and dangerous. They like to point to “extreme” things Beck has said and will go to great lengths to prove his “evil” intentions. Most of these reactions stem from a fundamental disagreement with his general political positions. When it comes to the recent rally, these anti-Beck polemicists revealed their hysteria adequately, particularly by their widely disseminated assumption that the event was going to be a divisive hate-fest.
Dave Weigel writes about this over at Slate:
The Democrats who pre-butted Beck’s rally by predicting an overtly political hateananny were played for suckers. They didn’t pay attention to Beck’s “Founder Fridays” episodes on Fox, his high-selling speaking tour, or his schmaltzy children’s book The Christmas Sweater. It’s not his blackboard that makes him popular. It’s the total package he sells: membership in a corny, righteous, Mormonism-approved-by-John Hagee cultural family.
Indeed, I would guess that most liberals would breathe sighs of relief if they were to actually listen to Beck’s speech. It was extremely light on specifics — even as far as “orthodox” conservative thought goes. It’s true that Beck will occasionally steer his audience to Read the rest of this entry »
The Age of Adolescence: Peter Pan Syndrome in a Free Society
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Economics, Politics, Remnant Reads, Sociology on August 26, 2010
I’m about one week late to the Web frenzy surrounding The New York Times Magazine’s most recent piece on “emerging adulthood.” I had a variety of reactions to the article (both positive and negative), but I wasn’t interested in saying much until I read Mark Driscoll’s provocative article in The Washington Post (“The world is filled with boys who can shave”).
The Times piece focuses on today’s “emerging adults” and tries to answer why so many are taking so long to reach adulthood. Driscoll seems to accept most of the article’s root analysis, but he uses it more as a launching pad for his own discussion of adolescence as it relates to today’s young men.
Historically, a guy would go through two life phases: boy, then man…But here’s what’s happened. Rather than moving from boy to man by this succession of sociological transitions, we’ve created something called adolescence…
Today, adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years and continues indefinitely. There is no foreseeable end. The problem with adolescence is guys don’t know when they’re ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted on them to do so.
Driscoll goes on to label this trend a “Peter Pan Syndrome epidemic” in which “men want to be boys forever.”
For me, as a twenty-something who has (hopefully) completed the transition through modern-day adolescence, it’s hard to deny the reality of what Driscoll is describing. It was always difficult to identify the exact time I was supposed to Read the rest of this entry »
Up from Feudalism: Cultivating Culture in the Status-Free Zone
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, History, Politics, Remnant Reads, Sociology, Volunteerism on August 23, 2010
When status competition was limited, people were more likely to turn to status-free zones.
Michael Knox Beran has a hearty piece in this month’s National Review discussing the cultural implications of status competition (“Status Hiatus”). In the article, Beran discusses the evolution of such competition throughout human history, focusing primarily on the West.
Beran explains that in the feudalistic societies of old, status was organized through “state-enforced hierarchies” of one kind or another, whereas in today’s free(r) societies there is a great deal of status competition.
However, despite the advances we’ve made in making status mobility more universal, Beran sees a fundamental problem that will always exist:
The difficulty is that every tremor of satisfaction we feel when we look down (upon those who are lower than we are in a particular hierarchy) is counterbalanced by the pain we feel when we look up (to those who are higher). The farther one climbs, the more vexing the problem becomes.
There are two basic approaches to “managing” status, both of which present their own problems. First, we can make status primarily about merit (which we have done in America), but by doing so we will risk the marginalization of society’s lower-skilled members. Second, we can try to destroy all hierarchies by force (via government “equalization”), but this route will surely lead us backwards toward feudalistic containment (not to mention the resulting miseries).
To solve the problem, Beran tries to determine which approach leads to more human flourishing. Based on the historical record, Beran concludes that as silly as our status pursuits may be, they do indeed lead us to Read the rest of this entry »
John Piper on Justification: Confusing the Fruit with the Root
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, History, Remnant Videos, Theology on August 19, 2010
Desiring God recently posted a great video in which John Piper discusses justification, and more specifically, how Christians commonly confuse being counted as righteous with becoming behavioral in our righteousness.
Piper’s fundamental concern is that Christians often root their righteousness in holiness (i.e., good works) and thus they undermine the transformative power available through justification, which should be the starting point for any positive action.
As Piper says:
The only instrument by which I am made a participant in Christ’s righteousness is God’s acting through my faith. I am born into that relationship through faith alone, not through any of its fruits, like mercy and justice and love and patience and kindness and meekness and so on, which turn me into a useful person in the world.
But why does it “undermine” justification to bring holiness down to Read the rest of this entry »
Life After Death: The (Secular) Evidence
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Philosophy, Reviews, Science on August 17, 2010
Let’s imagine that an atheist asks a Christian to prove the existence of God. Most Christians would typically respond by pointing to some kind of personal experience or encounter. If the atheist is especially lucky, the Christian may be able to talk about a few fulfilled prophecies or relatively unknown archeological artifacts.
However, if the atheist presses any further on the matter, most Christians would readily throw up their hands and concede with this refrain:
“I just know, ok? I know it doesn’t all add up, but I can just feel that it’s true deep down inside. That’s enough to convince me.”
Don’t get me wrong. Personal experience is important — as are fulfilled prophecies and archeological artifacts — but the problem with arguing on these premises is that such matters seem utterly silly and unconvincing to your average nonbeliever. Unfortunately, the Church is fond of gathering evidence only so far as their own needs and curiosities require.
It is this type of Christian apologetics that Dinesh D’Souza hopes to enrich in his new book, Life After Death: The Evidence.
Although most of D’Souza’s analysis is focused on proving the existence of an afterlife rather than simply the existence of God, many of his arguments could be used to support both propositions. What is clear, however, is that D’Souza’s apologetics are far from the Christian norm.
“We speak one kind of language in church,” D’Souza says, “and must learn to speak another while making our case in secular culture.”
But what kind of “language” is that?
D’Souza continues:
I want to engage atheism and reductive materialism on their own terms, and to beat them at their own game…I am not going to appeal to divine intervention or miracles, because I am making a secular argument in a secular culture…[Secularists] wonder if there is something more beyond death, and they are eager to hear an argument that meets them where they are, uses facts they can verify, and doesn’t already presume the conclusion it seeks to establish.
This is what separates D’Souza’s arguments from the rest. He approaches the likes of Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins not with Bible verses or creationist appeals to God, but with Read the rest of this entry »
Milton Friedman on Greed: Where In the World Do You Find These Angels?
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Economics, Politics, Remnant Videos on August 13, 2010
This classic Milton Friedman interview has now been seen by many on the Web, but since it deals with topics commonly discussed on this blog I thought I’d post it for your weekend enjoyment.
Watch the video here:
Donahue’s first question is this:
Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism, and whether greed is a good idea to run on?
Friedman responds with this:
Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? …The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus.
Friedman goes on to point out a few of these achievements (e.g. Einstein’s theory of relativity, Henry Ford’s automobile), and emphasizes that Read the rest of this entry »
The Last Dregs of Christendom: Islam vs. Postmodernism
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Philosophy, Remnant Reads, Sociology, War on August 11, 2010
Douglas Wilson recently posted a great critique of a speech given by Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on the threat of Islamic fundamentalism (read “The Last Dregs of Christendom”). The speech itself is well worth listening to, but Wilson directs his critique at one specific piece, namely Gingrich’s claim that our struggle with Islam is primarily about preserving “Western values.”
“So?” Wilson asks. “Who cares about that?”
Such indifference to Western values is bound to perplex a few readers. What about the Enlightenment? Scientific progress? Democracy? Capitalism? What do you mean, “so what”?
The West certainly has plenty to offer in the realm of societal order, economic efficiency, and overall justice — and these are fine things to preserve — but when we’re talking about a serious and persuasive religious ideology (i.e. a spiritual force), engaging a struggle in the name of Western values is a bit risky, if not futile.
As Wilson says:
Western values only have value if they are a coded way of referring to something else. And that something else cannot be another horizontal fact, like representative government, or womens’ rights, or anything like that. That just pushes the question back a step. Why should we prefer those? And if we say that Western values simply means “our values,” then why should those outrank “their values”? In the ebb and flow of Darwinian struggle, ours sometimes loses to theirs.
In other words:
“Western values” as an appeal works only if it is a coded references to Christendom, and that only works if Christ is still there. Anything else is Read the rest of this entry »
The New Science of Morality: A Secular Argument for Cultural Competition
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Philosophy, Remnant Videos, Science, Sociology on August 9, 2010
Last week, I came across an interesting talk by psychologist Jonathan Haidt called “The New Science of Morality” (via Arnold Kling).
Haidt is well known for his research on the evolution of morality through cultural and political lenses (he has authored two books on the subject), and he provides a good introduction to his views in this discussion.
You can watch the video here:
If you’re not in the mood to watch all 28 minutes, Haidt’s basic view on cultural formation is this:
I just briefly want to say, I think it’s also crucial, as long as you’re going to be a nativist and say, “oh, you know, evolution, it’s innate,” you also have to be a constructivist. I’m all in favor of reductionism, as long as it’s paired with emergentism. You’ve got to be able to go down to the low level, but then also up to the level of institutions and cultural traditions and, you know, all kinds of local factors.
Unlike this blog, Haidt believes in biological evolution, and likewise he takes a purely secular approach to discussing cultural evolution. However, his perspective is well worth considering, particularly because his conclusion points to Read the rest of this entry »
The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Economics, Politics, Reviews, Science, Theology on August 4, 2010
We have all argued or debated with someone who resists facts and resorts to emotional or idealistic rhetoric. Conversely, we have all found ourselves in positions where we want to ignore the real-world implications of our beliefs for the sake of some perceived justice or goodness.
Whether we’re talking about the foods we eat, the medicines we take, or the public policies we support, we all have a tendency to get religious about the material.
For Robert H. Nelson, author of The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion in Contemporary America, these examples represent various forms of secular religion. If you look close enough into somebody’s core ideology, Nelson argues, you will surely find parallels to the holy books, priesthoods, and dogmas typically found in “regular” religions.
Nelson acknowledges that there are plenty of competing secular religions in the public sphere; however, he believes that two religions in particular have engaged in what is now the most prominent conflict in American society — namely, economic religion and environmental religion.
But why these religions, and why now?
Nelson argues that both religions emerged during the nineteenth century as a result of the Industrial Revolution. During this time, technological innovation boomed, living standards soared, and access to education expanded.
As Nelson explains:
For the first time ever, one of earth’s creatures — human beings — had literally acquired the capacity to remake ‘the creation’…Astonishingly enough, human beings had now acquired knowledge and powers previously reserved for God.
In other words, the dream of creating heaven on earth was suddenly realistic for those who thought such a feat was actually attainable or desirable. Over time, Nelson argues, the successes of the Industrial Revolution resulted in the emergence of two factions — one that “exalted human control over Read the rest of this entry »
Phil Wickham on Radical Individualism: Lose Your Life Just So You Can Find It
Posted by Joseph Sunde in Christianity, Theology on July 30, 2010
Last week I wrote two posts dealing with the connection between self-denial and self-interest (or what I like to call the “upside-down economics of Christianity”).
Today I just wanted to share a song by Phil Wickham that conveys the concept pretty well.
Watch a live performance of the “True Love” here:
In the chorus, Wickham explains how Jesus’ sacrifice gave us freedom of sin:
When blood and water hit the ground, walls we couldn’t move came crashing down. We were free and made alive, the day that True Love died, the day that True Love died.
He then points out what is required to experience such freedom, namely faith in God and a rejection ofworldly (i.e. irrational) self-interest:
Search your heart; you know you can’t deny it. Come on, lose your Read the rest of this entry »
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