February, 2021 | Robert's Blog

February 16, 2021February 16, 2021

Not a Fan

Back before the 2020 Presidential Election my future daughter-in-law introduced me to The Church Politics podcast from the & Campaign (thanks Abby). It is an excellent podcast that focuses on a belief (that I agree with) that there is a cross that neither liberalism nor conservatism is fit to bear. If you listen to podcasts, are a Christian or are interested in Christianity, and aren’t presently listening to the podcast I would encourage you to subscribe to it.

I listened to their episode from February 10th today and particularly liked the last section of the episode in which they discussed Senator Ben Sasse’s response to threats of censure from the Nebraska GOP. What I specifically liked about the section was their discussion that Christians can’t react to politicians as fans of those politicians.

Fans get all excited about merely being in the presence of the one they are fanatic about. Fans want autographs and desire to agree with the one they adore. Fans are team-based and their side can do no wrong while the other side can do no right.

But people of faith are called to hold accountable those in power – both those we like and agree with and those we do not. Look at the Old Testament prophets, they spoke to the powers of their own country and the powers of other countries too. Thus Nathan calls out David over the sin he committed against God, Israel, Uriah, and most likely Batheseheba (did she really have any power to say “no” to his advances?).

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?
2 Samuel 12:7-9

Also Daniel comes before King Nebuchadnezzar and interprets the king’s dream of a great tree being cut down in the following manner.

“My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries! 20 The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds— Your Majesty, you are that tree!
(Daniel 4:22)

Daniel then tells Nebuchadnezzar that he needs to renounce his sins, do what is right, and take care of the oppressed. Daniel was not a fan. Nathan was not a fan. They were prophets and prophets tell people “thus saith the Lord.”

The church is called to do the same thing. We are supposed to be the ones who praise our political foes when they do what is right and call to repentance our political allies when they do what is wrong.

Unfortunately we are often just fans, and cheer for our side no matter what. Don’t be a fan.

February 14, 2021February 14, 2021

Men are from Plover, Women are from Stevens Point

This week I listened to an episode of How to Money concerning how men and women handle money. How to Money is a podcast that I recently began to enjoy after being introduced to it through the Clark Howard Show. One of the things that I really liked about the episode was the discussion they had concerning some of the thoughts that often surround gender and the supposed universal differences between the sexes.

They briefly mentioned the 1990s book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” The book focused on stereo-typical differences between the sexes. Of course, the author, John Gray, isn’t the only one to have ever done this. Lot’s of people take these generalities and focus on them, sometimes to the point of making them universals. Another example of this is Mark Gungor’s Tale of Two Brains.

Now back to the podcast.

What I really liked about the podcast episode is that while it recognized that there are some generalized differences between how most (not all) men and most (not all) women handle money, the sexes have far more in common. That’s the problem with these gender-based stereotypes, they treat the sexes as though we are different species – to make an implication from John Gray’s title, as though we are from different planets. That simply isn’t the case. We have far more in common, emotionally, financially, etc., etc., than we have differences.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t differences that can be stereotyped. For example, in general …

men are more likely to invest but women’s investments are more likely to outperform men’s investment (primarily because women don’t mess around with them all the time)
women are more likely to see shopping as recreational but men are more likely to spend significantly more (both in total spending and price per item).
women tend to be more comfortable with financial security and men are more comfortable with financial risk.

But once again those are just generalities, not universals. These generalities may be cultural, they may be biological, or they could be a combination of both. One thing is definitely true and that is that they are not true of everyone. When we treat them as though they are true of everyone and say “men are like this…” and “women are like this…” we at best lie to ourselves, and at worst exclude people who don’t fit into these generalities. As though they are less of a woman or a man.

We have much more in common than we have different from one another. Or, to readapt Gray’s book title, men are from Plover, and women are from Stevens Point. There are some differences, but not much. We basically all like good cheese.

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021

Augustine of Hippo is Looking at You Qanon’ers

Read this quote from Augustine of Hippo in Francis Collin’s wonderful book “The Language of God” which I am currently reading with a wonderful group of people. Augustine writes the following:

Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?

If Augustine was writing in our own time period instead of 4th & 5th centuries he might have written much the same thing to some believers who keep promoting wild conspiracy theories.