I have been thinking, and reading, a lot over the past several months, about freedom, liberty, order, orthodoxy, and personal character. I have been watching how public discourse has descended into cancel culture and attempts to react to cancel culture, as well as seeing broader evangelicalism slide into cultural conformity. This combination convinced me that I need to solidify for myself, and for those whom I lead, the principles upon which I will interact with my community and culture. Some of the influences have been Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Jocko Willink, Rod Dreher, Dan Crenshaw, Edwin Friedman, Thomas Oden, Archbishop Chaput, and Peter Toon.
This list began in a comical way
I spent May of 2010-April 2011 in the Pech River Valley of Afghanistan. Our area of operations included the Waygal, Chapadara, Shuryak, Korengal, and Watapur Valleys. There have been several books and movies written about that area – because it was a shooting gallery.
My battalion was involved in over 1200 “TICs” (Troops in Contact, involving direct and/or indirect fire) in less than a year.
Even though it’s supposed to be my thing, I still find I have blind spots. One of them was Beth Moore.
I was introduced to Beth Moore while serving in an SBC church between 2005 and 2009. Her studies were a regular part of the women’s ministry offerings, and I flipped through a couple while helping with the discipleship program. They were clearly woman-oriented, using language and emotive emphases that didn’t really appeal to me. But, they seemed to be pretty solid.
What you think the Bible says…probably isn’t what it says.
In understanding what we believe and why we believe it, we have to take a hard look at how we interpret the Bible. Most of us use the “What Strikes Me” (WSM)* model of Bible reading, understanding, interpreting, and application. We read a passage, and whatever it makes us think, that’s what we believe it is supposed to mean.
Judas, Responsibility, and the Sovereignty of God
A friend asked me recently, “Was Judas a bad guy and true betrayer for betraying Jesus, or was he really the one who allowed his name to be cursed in order to be the instrument in something that God needed to have done? The Bible pretty much admits that this needed to happen for God to allow Jesus to die for our sins, but seems also to condemn the person who made it happen. Were he and Pontius Pilate just pawns in God’s plan and not actually the villains history makes them out to be? Perhaps Judas had even been asked by God, and that was not made part of the Bible because none of the others were aware?”
When I was in Afghanistan with the Infantry, men sang. The most popular song was, of course, Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”, because a video of scantily clad women in prison, involving Beyonce, is an automatic win for US infantrymen. Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was popular, in no small part because a group of operators made a hilarious parody video of the Miami Dolphins’ Cheerleaders video of the same song. When riding into a suspected battle, Disturbed’ s “Indestructible” led the way. These manly men sang.
Why are there so many strains of *Christianity? Consider the list of the larger **Christian groups represented in the United States - there are 22 denominations with membership of over 100,000 (when you list independent Baptist and non-denominational as denominations) considered Protestant, The Roman Catholic church and its splinter groups, the Eastern Orthodox Church and its splinter groups, the Mormons and their splinters, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Quakers...it's mind boggling.
Of course, many people are a part of their respective faith group because that is all they have ever known. They were either born into it, or they were converted into it from a non-religious background. They have never given much thought to considering anything else.
However, for the many others (including myself) who have changed their Christian affiliation, why do they change?
You were built to overcome fear.
A few days ago, I jumped out of a high performance aircraft for the first time in almost five years. The "Basic Airborne Refresher" was a Godsend. While I miserably failed the virtual jump (hey, the VR goggles kept slipping down my face), I needed the reminders of when to pull the Canopy Release Assembly and the proper placement of the Main Lift Web Tick Tab Assembly for a guy my size. My practice landings were poor the first day, and good enough the morning of the jump. It was going to happen.
When I started this blog, I never intended to write about war. It was only the most emotionally and spiritually intense period of my life - what was I thinking???
In Nate Self's "Two Wars", he overlays his experience in the battle of Takur Guar (Roberts' Ridge) as a spiritual battle between good and evil, God and the devil. He sees the Taliban fighters as physical representatives of evil spiritual forces, bent on destroying the good spiritual forces of the operators trapped on that mountain. We are the good guys, they are the bad guys, and Jesus is on our team - evidenced by Nate's cry out to Jesus in the midst of that battle and his subsequent survival.
I wish it were that simple.
