Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tuesday Mornings

Tuesday Mornings I have breakfast with my posse: Bill Gilmore, Dale Kardos and John Liljegren. It is probably the most important meeting of my week, which doesn't mean much, in that since I've stopped working, a haircut is a significant event in my endlessly long days.

Each of these men contribute to my life. Bill is a rock, facing tough challenges with steadfastness and, most often, joy. Dale can bring any conversation into the writings of the Old and New Book. John is a really interesting study: his intelligence and character haven't silenced the voices from his gut. He is the de facto leader of us four, and he has strong ideas about everything.

John has been following my blog some, I believe, because this morning he referenced some of the opinions I recently voiced in it. His concern was that I was advocating that Christians perfect their own lives rather than address the evils of the world. He feared that all I was doing was reducing the size of the Church while letting children, who suffer the most when family values are abandoned, suffer. John was not speaking hypothetically. One of the many things he does is work with at risk children in a disadvantaged part of Portland.

I usually ponder things before I write about them, and I have been pondering John's comments today. I find myself still of the opinion that Jesus' major concern is about the integrity of His church not the sinfulness of the world. Jesus' corrective comments about the culture around Him were specifically directed at the leadership of the Jewish religious community. He didn't rail at Rome, and never mentions (directly or indirectly) its depravity and excesses.

I was never attracted to the "Jesus Freaks" I encountered on the road who preached at me about my sinfulness. The people at The Lord's House made a deep impression on me with the reality of their community. I was chased daily for a month by the prospect of being part of it. I dealt with the cultural, philosophical, intellectual, political and theological issues about faith in Jesus after my conversion. Whoever's tool I was before that, I was unwittingly. Fighting against me might have assuaged some believer's guilt about confronting the sin of the world, but it missed me entirely.

If you read the New Book, you will find that it clearly teaches human sexuality. Jesus was celibate (He could have married without sinning); He encouraged celibacy in His disciples, though some of them were married. Sex was for committed relationships, under the covering of whatever form marriage took in a particular culture. Marriage was monogamous, though some early believers were converted with multiple wives and were not asked to shed wives to walk in faith. Divorce was permitted if a marriage had been shattered by adultery, and separation was acceptable for a number of reasons. Otherwise, marriage was for the long haul.

Today in the West, sex is part of getting to know someone. You will have eight partners (on average) before a committed relationship leads to living together; engagement and marriage are normally reserved until plans for children or pregnancy itself. The average marriage lasts 8 years and is followed by a pattern of serial monogamy.

I follow Jesus' way because it is Jesus' way. I have no expectation that anyone else, outside of the circle of faith, will do things His way. Cultural Wars are only important if something is gained through them. If children are better off raised in long term, monogamous relationships, then such relationships should be encouraged. Unfortunately, if the focus in a marriage becomes the partners first, not the offspring, then kids will inevitably be put at risk. Whether such risk is greater than that created by ongoing abusive, neglectful, loveless family environments is best determined by sociologists, whose determinations are colored by their political orientation.

As The Moody Blues sang, "just what you want to be, you'll be in the end."

It's simple for me. I have a blueprint about life. I just have to follow it diligently and make it real. And I want to say up front, it's hard as hell, and I think it was hard when everyone believed that it was the right path.

The right path is normally hard. The theologian who declared that "the will of God is the path of least resistance" sold bridges on the side.

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