Charlie Sheen — the highest paid, and least grateful, man on television

One of the network morning shows today said Charlie Sheen makes $2 million per episode of “Two and a Half Men.” Yet the morning show replayed segments of a recent radio interview with Sheen. He was calling from the Bahamas, and he had all kinds of abusive language for one of the show’s creators/producers. In these difficult economic times, should not a man have a little sense of his good fortune, and be grateful? Sheen doesn’t have to worry about paying the electric bill. Sheen won’t anxiously watch rising gasoline prices and re-tool his (or his family’s) budget. Sheen was calling from the Bahamas, where he was accompanied by a porn star and a model — and he trashed the guy who helped him make millions.

The missing mode in evangelical thought

Nobel Prize-winning scientists tend to be atheists. Do orthodox Christians shrug-off their accomplishments?

This issue should be addressed from the pulpits, not just in the seminaries:

When Galileo wanted to show Jupiter’s moons to his theological opponents, they refused to look through his telescope. They believed — as Berthold Brecht put it — that “truth is not to be found in nature, but only in the interpretation of texts.” — Jurgen Moltmann, “Science and Wisdom,” in Theology Today, July 2001

Above, Moltmann (and history) provided just a small illustration of a wider problem. A mere response to this problem — like, “I believe the contradiction between Scripture and science is only apparent, and ultimately the two will be reconciled” — is inadequate. Each believer — myself included, because I’m not sure I can do this yet — ought to be able to make a critical assessment of the relationship between the old texts and scientific facts, as well as the two modes Scripture and science represent. In our time, nothing less will do.

Excited about Jesus

She has been a friend of mine for 35 years, and she’s dying.

She told my Mom, “I’ve loved Jesus since I was a little girl. Why wouldn’t I want to see him?”

She lived with us through a time when excitement about Jesus went wrong.

I was about 7 years old, and my family moved into a house with her and other members of our little roving house church.

Eventually, zeal and sharpened perspectives on Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible turned a small community of worshipers into an abusive, controlling mess.

When that small community fell apart, she joined my family as we went to another church, which also fell apart, and then another church.

Today, I hear people say they want to rally around others who are “excited about Jesus.” When they say “excited about Jesus” I just don’t get the same mental images and sensations in my mind as they probably do.

Still, as she prepares to see Jesus, as she has remained excited about Jesus despite the churches that went bad and the zealots who wounded her, I realize someone stands outside of time, unchanged and unchanging, merciful, loving, and waiting for her.

Literary humanists and mercy

Authors and critics perceive the need for mercy, but they can’t find the ultimate source for it or a compelling universal vision that would convince people of its necessity. Religious institutions have been the worst offenders against mercy, and blind faith has been a shameful wound in the Bible Belt, so literary humanists aren’t inclined to consider revelatory traditions.

Learning the need for grace by living Levitical law

Cathleen Falsani, “God Girl,” has a clear, accessible explanation of Leviticus, that most-avoided Old Testament book. Read it!

The spirit of man and spiritual men — C.S. Lewis clarifies

“The rational part of every man is supernatural in the relative sense — the same sense in which both angels and devils are supernatural. But if it is, as the theologians say, ‘born again,’ if it surrenders itself back to God in Christ, it will have a life which is absolutely Supernatural, which is not created at all but begotten, for the creature is then sharing the begotten life of the Second Person of the Deity….

“Some people use ‘spirit’ to mean that relatively supernatural element which is given to every man at his creation — the rational element. This is, I think, the most useful way of employing the word. Here again it is important to realize that what is ‘spiritual’ is not necessarily good. A Spirit (in this sense) can be either the best or the worst of created things. It is because man is (in this sense) a spiritual animal that he can become either a son of God or a devil.

“Finally, Christian writers use ‘spirit’ and ‘spiritual’ to mean the life which arises in such rational beings when they voluntarily surrender to Divine grace and become sons of the Heavenly Father in Christ. It is in this sense, and in this sense alone, that the ‘spiritual’ is always good.”

– C.S. Lewis, “On the Words ‘Spirit’ and ‘Spiritual,’ Appendix A in Miracles

Beauty and being

“Without beauty, what would become of being? Without being what would become of beauty?” — Plotinus

A sacramental world view

Tons in what follows to affirm for our faith and our culture:

“What distinguishes Judeo-Christianity in general from other world religions is its emphasis on the value of the individual person, its view of man as a creature in trouble, seeking to get out of it, and accordingly on the move. Add to this anthropology the special marks of the Catholic Church: the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which, whatever else they do, confer the highest significance upon the ordinary things of this world, bread, wine, water, touch, breath, words, talking, listening — and what do you have? You have a man in a predicament and on the move in a real world of real things, a world which is a sacrament and a mystery; a pilgrim whose life is a searching and a finding.”

– Walker Percy, “The Holiness of the Ordinary,” in Signposts in a Strange Land

Christian apologist Blaise Pascal had some good tips on writing

From Blaise Pascal‘s posthumous collection, Pensees:

“The last thing one discovers in writing a book is what to put first.”

“When one finds a natural style, one is amazed and delighted, for where one expected to see an author, one discovers a man.”

Apply this when trying to write about other people, real or fictitious: “The more intelligence one has the more people one finds original. Commonplace people see no difference between men.”

‘Trust Jesus’ — for what? (an elephant in the room)

I’m not actually the person who wants to decide in advance what God will do and won’t do.

But I’m wondering — for what do you think Christians should trust Jesus?

As happy as I am with my current church, and as healthy as it seems to be, at the moment I’m thinking back to two churches I attended years ago. Both are now long gone.

I recall both churches as places where the Bible was discussed regularly and where the people were intensely interested in communing with God through prayer and praise music.

Yet both churches ended in disaster.

When people say things like, “trust Jesus,” or “we’re dependent upon God’s Word,” or “we really try to enter into the presence of the Lord,” I know they actually need something more. What do they need? I’m not sure.

The difficult conclusion I draw from my own experiences and observations is this: No matter how sincere a church’s worship and no matter how much the members call upon the name of the Lord, they’re still at risk of disastrous problems.

I used to think, if people were really seeking and trying to follow — and if they had picked the right God and right holy text — then God would be involved and lead them.

But that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

At times, I wonder if we as humans really do have to get our doctrine and theology precise-enough (whatever that would be) to enjoy the blessings of God!

Should we still make “read your Bible and pray and go to church and trust Jesus” our formulas and our solutions? Or should we find other ways to articulate this faith?

Trust Jesus for what? Well, I guess I think of Romans 8, which places the reward in the afterlife and reiterates the difficulties of this life. Yet I cannot say that I or others have experienced no blessings in this life — quite the contrary.

I don’t understand these things at all.