Author: Robert

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.

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.

Pam and I were talking about MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail this morning and what a remarkable piece of writing and thought it is. If you haven’t read or listened to it lately you can find it at this link from Stanford University (among many other places). The bonus here is that the audio recording is MLK reading the text himself.

There is so much that is challenging in MLK’s letter. I want to briefly focus on his use of Martin Buber’s I/Thou argument. The basic premise of Buber’s argument is that humanity far too frequently finds itself in I-it relationships with each other, a relationship between a subject and an object, or even worse in it-it relationships, a relationship between two objects.

Objects are things we use. We don’t have true mutual relationships with objects. They are for our use, our enjoyment, or production.

Far too often humans see other humans as “it”s. Creatures that are less than image-bearers. Not really worthy of respect other than the respect we may give to a tool that we really enjoy. Any respect we give to an ‘It” comes from its value to us, not from any value that is possessed inherently within itself. You can treat an “it” in any manner that you want because, after all, an “it” is nothing more than an object to be owned and used. When we begin to view a person created in the image of God as an “it” we are at best missing the mark of what is best and very likely sinning.

Instead, we were meant for I-Thou relationships, subject to subject relationships. You have mutual relationships with subjects, even when you strongly disagree with them or they are your enemy. You see the image of God on them no matter how you may feel about the person. Such knowledge restrains and directs how we respond to a person when we are angry or disagree with them. They are always subjects and we must continue to relate to them as subjects worthy of respect.

Most times our us-vs-them relationships are I-it relationships. We disagree with them, perhaps rightly so, and begin to view those we disagree with as evil and less than human. Thus we are justified in any actions we do towards them. We don’t see our counterparts as humans and image-bearers first and foremost. Instead, we merely see them as an object to be defeated. This makes it easier for us to justify a whole “Flight 93 mindset” – they are evil and we have to take them down no matter the cost before they do real harm.

MLK saw Buber’s i-it relationships in racism and realized that was what needed to be fought against. To treat an image-bearer as an “it” hurts both the one viewed as an “it” and the one doing the viewing. It is thus a loving act for your enemy to confront this evil. MLK loved his oppressor and the most loving action he could do for his oppressor was to point out the harm that such i-it relationships did to all of humanity.

I believe we need to do the same with so many of the i-it relationships that still regularly continue as a part of our world, and sadly our faith.

I’m still a bit shocked by the events of the last week. A crowd attacked the U.S. Capitol while the people who are 1st (the Vice President), 2nd (The Speaker of the House), and 3rd (the Senate President Pro Tempore) in the line of presidential succession were in the building. If we are disturbed by the events that are going around us you can rest assured that our children pick up on these same feelings and they may or may not have the same skillset for managing how they feel and experience such news and events.

As a pastor and chaplain, it is not uncommon to be asked “how should I talk about these subjects with my kids?” I’ll begin by saying I am by no means an expert on this matter. I am just a minister who has dealt with many difficult circumstances and has dealt with the ramifications of people, both young and old, receiving and dealing with information about such circumstances.

That’s why when I heard NPR’s Upfirst episode this weekend concerning how to discuss such events with our kids I thought I would share the podcast episode (HERE) and summarize its contents. On a side note, if you like podcasts I would recommend Upfirst to you. It is a short (10-15 minutes) daily episode concerning news that matters for the day, plus a longer weekend edition on a specific subject that relates to the week.

Here are the main suggestions of the podcast for dealing with scrary news with the children that are in our lives.

• Limit their exposure to breaking news – If you have the news on 24/7 they are going to hear it no matter what you do. Control the amount of information they hear or see.
• For big stories, ask: “What have you heard and how are you feeling?” – Limiting doesn’t mean avoiding.
• Give kids facts and context – We all know that in the heat of the moment lots of things are said and reported which are at best speculation, only share with your kids what we know to be facts (from trusted sources). Saying “we don’t know right now” is your friend.
• When they ask why something happened, avoid labels like “bad guys.” – instead talk about people being in pain, being angry, and making bad and wrong choices.
• Encourage kids to process the story through play and art – kids often process through art. Let them.
• “Look for the helpers” – Fred Rodgers famously said “When something scary is happening, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Mr. Rodgers knew of which he was speaking.
• Take positive action together – Do something that helps. Even small things make a difference. Give some money, do an action, attend something that is helpful, write someone a note, etc.

So many of these suggestions ring true to me from my own experience as a parent and as a minister. Personally, I am still haunted by some of the drawings made by the kids we worked with after Hurricane Katrina displaying their experience of their homes being flooded. But I also know those drawings helped them to process what they were going through..

If you would rather read than listen to the discussion on these suggestions you can find the same basic information in this NOW article “- What To Say To Kids When The News Is Scary. Our children pick up on the things going on around them and us. We need to be proactive in helping them to understand and handle such events without being overwhelmed with fear.

I would use the phrase “as many of you know” but the reality is only a couple of people read my blog so I can’t really use the word “few”. I will therefore use the word “couple” since it is more accurate.

So as a couple of you know personal finance is kind of a hobby for me. I read and listen to as much information as I can concerning how to be wise with our finances and every now and then help someone else with their finances. The whole subject means a great deal to me because Pam and I have had to be very careful with our finances. You see, despite what you might think from televangelists, ministers aren’t known for getting the best salaries, and youth ministers and pastors of small churches are definitely not known for having large salaries. So we have needed to be very careful with our money and listen to wise voices in how to best control our finacnes.

One of the voices that has helped me the most is Clark Howard and his team. They have helped us with great advice. Seriously if you want great instruction on how “to save more and spend less” you should listen to his show. This is why I was super pumped today when a question I had submitted to the podcast website was read online today.

They read, and answered, my question at nine minutes and thirty-five seconds in today’s episode.

My question was pretty mundane concerning whether we can contribute to a 529 plan for Noah and still get the Wisconsin tax credit. It was a pretty exciting, however, to hear them say on the podcast “Robert in Wisconsin says…” while I was walking Clive. Seriously, Clark Howard is the best. You should listen to his show.

Thanks to Conor H and Adam T I regularly listen to the wonderful Mockingbird podcast. If you enjoy listening to podcasts concerning faith I encourage you to give it a try. I believe they do an excellent job of exploring places where they see grace and its absence. In this past week’s episode, they brought up a term that they had used earlier but I had not had the fortune of hearing. The phrase is “soul toupee”.

A “soul toupee” is what one of their friends uses to describe the behavior that a person does to cover up an insecurity of theirs that in fact only draws all the more attention to the insecurity, like a really bad toupee calls attention to the lack of hair that the toupee wearer is so desperately trying to prevent us from noticing. If you have ever seen a really bad toupee you will get the image. It is hard to look away from it.

The attempts to look and act younger than a person is probably acts in the same manner. As a fan of The Office I can’t help but think of the time that Creed, scared for his job, tried to convince everyone he was 30 years old.

All Creed’s behavior does it draw all eyes to him. SIDE NOTE – I love Creed in The Office. Back to the too young behavior, being older is a good thing, and dressing and acting like you are twenty merely tells everyone around you that you are UNcomfortable being older.

I know I can relate to the behavior of trying to cover up something I don’t feel great about. I am reminded of my insecurities often and every now and then I catch myself doing something in an attempt to hide them. Like other people can’t see through my attempts to hide my insecurities. Ha! I’m sure my attempts are often pretty hysterical.

If only I can remember that I am accepted, loved, and belong – insecurities, failures, and all. There is no need for a “soul toupee” when you realize being bald isn’t a detriment.