Hope & where to next

I shared my ordeal, in more brief terms, with a coworker today, a catholic coworker. I think she could tell that we have started off with a rather defeatist attitude. She had the wisdom to remind me that a positive attitude is often credited with having saved people from diseases. This got me thinking about hope. In essence that was what she was saying, hope saves. I think that is a distinctly Christian ideal. Faith hope and love. Hope in the return of Christ. Hope that the kingdom of God will not be like the kingdoms of men. Christians should be regarded as people of hope. She also volunteered that she would be praying for my father. Although I continue to reject many of the ugly faces of the evangelical faith, I still find myself wearing them sometimes. I wish it didn't, but it surprised me that she prays. It shouldn't and was probably more a commentary on my own prayerlessness than anything about her. But that is what our hope should do to, it should drive us to pray for that which we hope for. I hope my dad sticks around a bit longer. I should pray for that.

Another conversation I had this week was with a christian colleague who is working on a book. He had a recieved a letter criticising his manuscript and his natural inclination was to defend his "baby." I can't blame him, I'm sure I'd do...have done...am doing the same. I couldn't help but see valid points in the critics letter. The book purports to be one that could help an unbeliever come to faith, the critic purports not to have faith and to be unswayed by the book. The valid points weren't problems with my colleague but problems with his modern world view, which works for him, but not for his critic, who seems to have a more post modern take on things. I tried to gently share this revelation with my colleague, but seemed to have only limited success, not so much in getting him to agree with me but in getting him to appreciate the comments of his critic. This makes me realize two things:

1. One of the critic's chief problems with my colleagues book was that he saw the chief aim of the faith spoken of in the book was to get people to believe the right set of facts about Jesus. This has been one of my principle concerns with Evangelical Christianity and for that matter probably most faith systems founded in the modern era. They end up being groups of men huddled around a list of "correct" beliefs which they say define the faith. The problem, in my mind, is that they often require a person to take a particular stance on an issue that scripture leaves kind of vague. Often these stands are on peripheral issues, in my eyes. And lastly but most importantly, this group of men then portrays their denomination as all believing these "correct" beliefs when in reality their people have little or no understanding of the "correct" beliefs often times. Because of this, and other similar reasons, I left the denomination I was with desiring to try to start a church that was less handicapped by such problems. As far as I have considered things this far I think the church would be better served by a list of qualities that define believers rather than a list of "correct" beliefs. Therefore in my next blog entry I will endeavor to start fleshing out this character core that I believe scripture more strongly argues is the defining factor for believers. I also believe this character core could be a unifying factor for believers from different denominational heritages.

2. In my next blog I will talk about "accepting criticism" from the many proverbs that talk about the subject. Evangelical christianity is a proud sect that believes it has it all together, all figured out, in a theology unbounded by time or culture, and only wants to help those outside of it come in. An organization creates what it is. A prideful organization can not create humble members. I think because of this, and becuase we all just want to be right all the time, evangelicals are particularly unable to accept criticism, myself included. Maybe our society is too, but certainly we are. We can not offer Good News to others and be prideful. They won't be able to hear it. Which brings up another great blog topic "what is the Good News?" What is it about it that makes it Good News? Should it be able to be perceived as Good News even by those who will choose not to heed it? I'll save that idea as a draft for the future.

So next time Accepting Criticism...