DISQUS

Last summer during our visit to Concord someone told me how the town tore down a historic downtown building in order to build a new jail. They started demolishing the historic structure at 1 am so as not to attract attention and the deed was done by sunrise. The townspeople were outraged but of course it was too late to do anything. I wish we'd have a better sense of history to keep our historic architecture around.

As far as this vinyl record guy...i guess my take is that it's nice to know there's an "expert" somewhere out there who knows all there is to know on something like vinyl records. Maybe the Smithsonian will end up buying his collection!

INSERT Homer Simpson quote here:

"DOOOH!!!!"

However, the fact that this particular case was a hoax doesn't affect the principle of what I stated above.

I was going to opine until I read David's post (#1 above). "Our righteous rags are filthier every day." Well said! Our contemporary culture does have that "surreal" aspect to it and this is certainly a good example of that. A "surreal" thing I ran into yesterday (veering off this post's topic, Ben, hope you don't mind!) was a conversation I had with a mission team leader who's here on a short-term mission trip. He's in seminary (won't name which one!) and he's all excited about it and trying to get me to go there and, while it sounds great and something that I probably need, I was absolutely flabbergasted when I found out how much it costs. It costs $30,000 a year for tuition (NOT including living costs and books, etc). As he was trying to talk me into going to the seminary he went on and on about how "Biblical" it is and then I really socked him about the high cost. Is that "Biblical"??? He's a young man with a wife who's one-month pregnant who's going to graduate in a couple of years with a huge mountain of debt. I can't resist asking "What Would Jesus Do/Think About This???" IN my perspective the whole system's messed up and catering to society's pressure to be validated or accredited. Another example, to be, of the surreal nature of our culture that has even infiltrated into the church.

Ok, that was way off topic about the $200 burger but I would be interested in knowing what everyone thinks about the incredibly high cost of getting a seminary education.

Cheers to all.

The preeminence of Christ really is the central factor in this discussion. I'm not sure, Martha, that you understand the complexities and pitfalls of cross-cultural missions. To say something like:

The ” last thing” they need is to NOT go to hell.
It is good not everyone has the opinions that I have read here or there never would be the first “amazonian” to reach the other “amazonians”.

indicates to me that you aren't trusting that God loves this tribe more than you do and He wants to see them saved infinitely more than we can imagine. This is where the preeminence of Christ comes in - He will work out this tribe's unique destiny according to His own plan. And he will include whomever He calls to be part of that beautiful plan - whether that person be white, brown, gringo or Amazonian. What I (and Reed & Ben) are calling attention to is the cultural myopia of the past in the West's engagement in missions. The ends DO NOT justify the means. One has to see for themselves the damage done overseas by well-meaning missionaries and how absolutely counterproductive to the gospel many of the Wests' best efforts have been. We are not putting culture before eternal destiny as you imagine. The simple fact is that culture matters much more than you may realize. It is the sea in which we swim.

When I read this news report and saw the photo of the tribesmen looking up at the plane in disbelief, it at first made me think of one of my favorite movies - "The God's Must Be Crazy." Wouldn't it be interesting to know what these people are thinking? Probably about like what we'd feel like if a UFO landed on the White House lawn. Paradigm shift!

The short-term answer I would put forth is that Brazil (within whose sovereignty this colony lies, if I'm not mistaken) probably has a government anthropological organization that deals with discovering new indigenous populations. Here in Mexico the gov't has something like that that would send in specially trained personnel to make contact with the tribe and then catalog their language and cultural ethnology. There are still lost tribes in Mexico and that occasionally happens here. So I say (short-term wise) to let the government go in and do their thing and let the villagers get accustomed to outsiders and/or integrated into the greater framework of Amazonian tribal societies. Then, (now speaking long-term wise) let the local tribes that have an indigenous Christian church began outreaches to the newly found tribe. I understand that there are some very complex dynamics at play here - like the intense generational warfare between neighboring tribes - but in my view it would probably be best for Amazonians to reach other Amazonians at most with some help and support from Brazilian churches.

The worst thing would be to let something like a U.S.-based missions agency (New Tribes Missions comes to mind...) go crashing in there and try and "convert these heathen." Nothing against New Tribes but that's so 19th Century. There are most likely enough Christian churches already planted in neighboring tribes which would do a much better job in reaching the newly discovered tribe.

Now that's the kind of thing that gets me teary eyed pretty quickly. Thanks for the post. I did one also about Memorial Day.

Over the past several years I've noticed how evangelicals have "discovered" social justice. Now it's the hip thing in our circles but, like you, I caution against people finding their identities in political causes or social action. I get a lot of varied emails from social action groups like Amnesty Int'l (of which I've been a member off and on since the 80s, thanks U2!), Sojourners, Tom Sine's Mustard Seed Network, Int'l Justice Mission, etc and these organizations are doing WONDERFUL things and I support them wholeheartedly but, at the same time, the Great Commission is about preaching a risen Lord who is extending His government (I shy away from the word "kingdom" as it has a too antiquated, anachronistic feel to it) throughout the world. This extension can certainly be augmented through social justice organizations but we need to make sure, as evangelicals, that we're not just riding the latest trend in order to be the hip, politically & spiritually correct Christian who, at the end of it all, could really care less about REAL social justice other than having the IMAGE of someone who cares.

Well there goes my "Holy Relics" online shopping business I was putting together... I remember back in the "Shofar Mania" of the mid-1990s someone (I won't name the name!) kept trying to get your father-in-law to blow the shofar at LWCF and Ben kept on coming up with very creative reasons to put the guy off. Finally, the guy came and said that Ben wasn't qualified to do it because "only those whose lips were anointed by God were allowed to blow the shofar." Guess what? Amazingly enough he then informed us that God had anointed his lips for "such a time as this." This shofar madness was only further propagated when it was blown to open the evangelical movement's "March on Washington" in 1996 (the day I officially left evangelicalism due to its hokeyness and cheesyness. I later returned to the fold, mind you after the turn of the century). Anyhoo, if it was good enough for the Christian "Million Man March," the guy reasoned, then it was certainly good enough for LWCF. So, if my memory recalls it correctly, poor Ben fiiiinally let the hyper guy blow the darn thing.

Personally I'm holding out for one of those Holy Hand Grenades of Monty Python Holy Grail fame...

Well if you want a REAL prez then you should forget the lame bedwetter and throw your support to Nelson. Think about it, he'd nuke the Iranians and then go "HAH ha!" Yeah, Nelson.

I know what you mean about the cotton candy music. That's why sometimes I just have to crank up something raw like Nirvana, for example. But then that leaves me disturbed. I haven't heard of Steven Delopoulos until now but I LOVE his work. Thanks for turning me on to this!

I'm chained to my COMPUTER!!!!

Good message, Ben. How many Roman soldiers were converted by being chained to Paul? Where in the Empire did they go afterwards and what did they do? These are the kinds of things I look forward to finding out in Heaven! It's like Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story"!

This clip could also be called: Joel Osteen - "Your Best Ladder Now!"

Wow...if my son was in public school I would send him on Halloween dressed as the prophet Elijah to call down fire on the pagans just to ruffle the Publik School Tolerance Police.

A book I cannot recommend enough is missiologist Lesslie Newbigin's "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society." A must for the church in the U.S.!!!

Hey, nice new site! Sorry about the crash though. Looking forward to hearing Heather opine!

Yes, I think what Jessica said could be summed up in the phrase "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

That is a conumdrum that God can bless cheesyness, weirdness, or even Jimmy Swaggart hanging with hookers. I like what Rich Mullins said, "God spoke through an ass in the Bible (Balaam's ass) and he's been speaking through them ever since."

To me another factor in this is the problem of aesthetics (or lack thereof). We need to collectively examine what the cheesyness and/or consumerism is doing to our souls (as well as out witness)? Whatever happened to EXCELLENCE??? Truth, beauty, goodness??? To me the biggest problem, not just with the CCM but with evangelicals in general, is one of aesthetics. Nietzsche said there would come a day when people would reject God not based on doctrine or religious beliefs but on aesthetics alone.

Yep...we're there.

"The heart of worship is surrender."

"The heart of Worship(tm) is to sell records."

Is nothing sacred?! Is there *anything* a consumer-driven church won't pimp out?

BTW, I'm going to trademark that "Consumer-Driven Church" thing, write books on it, sell logo bracelets, caps, t-shirts, devotional books, even make a "Consumer-Driven Pimps-R-Us Devotional Bible." So Hillschlongs, stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

That's great! I preached on Jacob twice this past weekend! Likewise, I have had some serious smackdown encounters with the Almighty and I deeply appreciate that God didn't omit the unsavory or even scandalous characters like Jacob from the Bible. I mean really...think about it...Jacob was a lowdown deceiver and flat out liar! Imagine if he was YOUR little brother and duped you out of your inheritance and then masqueraded to be you in receiving the father's all important blessing! Maybe it says something for Esau that he didn't go the way of Cain...

There's a quote from C.S. Lewis that goes something like this: "Beware the Christian leader who walks not with a limp."

Amen.

Did you get a chance to read the Flannery O'Connor post I did on my blog? If not, I think you'd like it. As for me, I think every Christian men's group should view "Fight Club." Oh yeah...I luuuuuuv Fight Club!

So have you ever gone to hollywoodjesus.com ? That is one of my favorite sites to go and read about all films and see the different lessons we can learn from them about either the state of man or God... just go there sometime and read it. It's an interesting site!

Wow! I just noticed your shout-out to my blog! Also, thank you for the kind words. Ben, you have no idea of how you kept me sane during some troubling (and good!) times. I'm honored to have had that place in your life and am glad that, after a decade, we're all beginning to re-connect at a different stage in our lives.

I think that some people just have WAAAAYYYYY to much time on their hands! Creepy!

Ok, that's the Quote of the Day:

"If Stanley Kubrick had put together a boy band, I think the result would’ve been something just like The Wiggles."

Keep those wry comments coming!

Jesus said , "...for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Perhaps the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was the first postmodern (a pre-modern postmodern...?) when he threw up his hands in response to this and said "What is truth?" (John 18:37,38).

Pilate's three words have rang down through the centuries and seem to be particularly popular in our day. Have made truth a doctrine when actually truth is a person? Have we turned truth into cold propositions when actually it is a lover's words whispered into our ears? Are we content to be malnourished by our mismash of Oprah-laced gruel when the King's sumptuous buffet awaits...?

I am SO offended that you wouldn't consider our blog one of your top five.... *sigh*... we will have to work harder to try and make it to the next level.