Monthly Archives: May 2011

China = the Church

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Henry Kissinger and Chairman Mao, with Zhou En...

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ere is an interesting review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China, in this past week’s edition of Newsweek, entitled, “Dr. K’s RX for China.”  (Accessed 5/31/2011)  (NYT’s Book Review)

A comment made by the review out of Kissinger’s book is that the leadership in China has many millennia of history and experience to draw from when sociological, political, military, and economic decisions are made and strategic plans are developed for dealing with interior and exterior issues and problems.  Whereas, the U.S. has only a couple hundred years of such experience – barely a ripple. 
If there were to be real conflict between the U.S. and China (which, sadly, almost seems inevitable), I suspect that in the long run the winner will be those for whom exists a deep well of wisdom and patience born of hundreds of centuries and who actually pay attention to it – they will probably prevail.  It is not simply that China has such an overwhelming population three times that of the U.S., but that they way they think and the patience that is realized will provide for them, well.  Of course, there is also negatives with this way of thinking, being, and acting.
This is the case for anyone or any nation that is patient and has a clear understanding of where it has been, where it now is, what it is, and where it is going.
This is why, IMHO, the enduring Christian Church with two thousands years of history and experience behind it and informing those who will listen will far outlast the trendy Christian Church of the last one hundred years, and more particularly since the 1960’s.  Even now, statistics suggest this to be the case.  Again, this does not mean that the Church does not or should not engage in change, but that which endures is what is reliable.

Translation

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Torah inside of the former Glockengasse synago...

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“The Old Testament does communicate to us and it was written for us, and for all humankind. But it was not written to us. It was written to Israel. It is God’s revelation of himself to Israel and secondarily through Israel to everyone else. As obvious as this is, we must be aware of the implications of that simple statement. Since it was written to Israel, it is in a language that most of us do not understand, and therefore it requires translation. But the language is not the only aspect that needs to be translated. Language assumes a culture, operates in a culture, serves a culture, and is designed to communicate into the framework of a culture. Consequently, when we read a text written in another language and addressed to another culture, we must translate the culture as well as the language if we hope to understand the text fully.” [Italic emphasis the author’s, Bold emphasis mine]

The Lost World of Genesis One, John H. Walton (Donners Grove: Intervarsity Press; 2009, p. 9)

I think, also, that when we consider passing on the Faith to new generations we must consider how best to translate the Faith, as well as the lessons of Scripture, to that new generation.  We have to understand the emerging culture in which these new generations reside – and the emerging culture is not the same as ours, the adults who are making the decisions.

Of Cards & Attitudes

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Idaeisenhower.pngThe late Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general and the 34th president of the United States, was once asked who he believed to be the greatest man he’d ever met.

He replied in a snap:
“It wasn’t a man. It was a woman – my mother. She had little schooling, but her educated mind, her wisdom, came from a lifelong study of the Bible. One night we were playing a card game, mother, my brothers and I. It was Flinch. Hands were dealt and I drew a bad one. I began to complain.”

He continued: ” ‘Put your cards down, boys,’ Mother said. ‘Dwight, this is just a friendly game in your home where you are loved. But out in the world where there isn’t so much love, you will be dealt many a bad hand. So you’ve got to learn to take the hands life deals you without complaining. Just play them out.’ “

via: Finding Home

Resentment

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From this morning’s Emergent Village post:

Lingering resentment

Forgiving
behavior is dealing with situations as they arise in an assertive
manner and then letting go of any lingering resentment. As the leader,
if you are not able to let go of the resentment, it will consume you and
render you ineffective.

 

James C. Hunter

The Servant

This is a good word for me, today.

Important Considerations

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So much effort by the Religious Right has gone to trying to prove that this country of ours is God’s divine creation and holds a special place in His heart and in His plans – akin to the way the Hebrew Nation was/is considered within the spectrum of the Hebrew Scriptures. This causes so much twisting of history and the writings of our Founders. This also fuels the demand that the geo-political and sociopolitical world of Neo-Conservative is actually what Christianity is all about. As I have often said, this harms the cause of Christ in the United States.

Here is a book that may well bring perspective to such claims by the Religious Right.  Christianity Today has a review of “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction” by John Fea (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)

Fea also sketches a helpful history of the Christian
nation narrative, showing how feuding factions–northern abolitionists
and southern slaveholders, fundamentalists and Social Gospellers,
contemporary conservatives and progressives–have defined and
appropriated America’s contested religious heritage.

In presenting the past disinterestedly, Fea rebukes the
habit of “cherry-picking from the past as a means of promoting a
political or cultural agenda in the present.” Washington’s Farewell
Address doesn’t validate the Religious Right’s blueprint for society,
any more than Jefferson’s bowdlerized Bible validates the Left’s
alternative.

Read the entire article, here.