In the past month or so, I have been taken to task for using dirty words and for putting up pictures of naked women (although, funny enough, not a picture of a naked man!). My wife has questioned my use of foul language, continuing to insist it is unnecessary and more than occasionally counter-productive. A beautiful photograph of a nude women with an apple resting on her closed thighs caused more of a fuss than the post I wrote that the photograph was supposed to illustrate. Most of all, my wife continues to ask me when I am going to post more on "Christian stuff". I think that is a fair question, and this post is an answer to that question. Again, if this whole meta stuff bores you, the exit button is right up top and feel free to use it.
First and foremost, everything I write here, every picture I pluck out of the intertubes, every video that I find at YouTube comes from my beliefs as a Christian. My faith is central to my identity as an individual, as a husband/father, an employee, and a blogger. I find it extremely boring, however, to constantly invoke Jesus' name all the time, or get in to all sorts of discussions over abstruse theological topics all the time. I enjoy it on occasion, but my interests are broader than that. More to the point, I do not believe that I have to bring up Jesus' name, or call on God all the time to somehow "prove" to other people that I am a Christian. In fact, I do not feel I have to "prove" my faith to anyone at all.
Several years ago, maybe more than a decade ago, Tex Sample, a now-emeritus-professor at Kansas City's St. Paul's School of Theology wrote a book called Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians. In the introduction to that book, Sample wrote that he chose "hard living people" as a catch-all term for those commonly referred to as "working-class", but also by less neutral terms such as "poor white trash", "trailer trash", etc. He also issued a warning that the book contained some pretty strong language. He kept the language in the book because it was honest, and the Church does no one any favors when it becomes dishonest in the name of propriety. Remember, we proclaim the resurrection of a man who spent a whole lot of time eating and talking with prostitutes, drunks, lepers, and other undesirables; does anyone here think Jesus fainted when he heard the 1st century equivalent of "fuck"?
The Church preaches, and seminary professors drill in to the soft heads of seminarians, the idea that we should be out there in the world, meeting people where they are, speaking in their languages (whether it's Urdu or street slang), not just as "missionaries" but as participants in their lives. I write what I write, post what I post, because this is who I am as a Christian. My view of the faith is that God is bigger than doctrine, bigger than any denominational utterance or proclamation, bigger than all the would-be monitors of civility out there who insist that we not upset others by dirty words and titillating pictures. I find it amazing that I have to actually write this, but let me be clear. My faith includes the fact that the world is a nasty, dirty place where there are few clear lines of what is good and what is evil, and we make it up as we go along, hoping for the best but recognizing the worst. If others' sensibilities are given affront by the occasional four-letter expletive, all I can say is, "This is my world, welcome to it."
The Church has utterly failed in its responsibilities to actually live in the world if it thinks part of its duty is to give to others an instruction manual in living their lives, with details on dress, language, etiquette, and so forth. We should be listening, not talking; observing, not giving out manuals for how to observe; and learning rather than teaching. For far too long we have arrogated unto ourselves the position of cultural and social nanny. I would much rather learn from others, most especially those of other faiths and those of no faith, than I would tell them how wrong they are about pretty much everything. Of course, I reserve the right to make sure my own position on the faith is clear, especially when I think others are wrong about various matters that pertain to the faith, but that is just the way it is sometimes. People disagree. We should all be big boys and girls out here; I treat others as adults, not children, and expect nothing less from them. I can take criticism, even pointed, heated disagreement. I refuse to be a moral arbiter, however, because that is not the role of the Christian in society, regardless of what some progressive Christians think (please read Jim Wallis here).
This blog is an accurate representation at any given time of what this particular Christian thinks and believes about politics, the faith, social issues, cultural issues, art, music, science, philosophy - all the things that interest me. If you think I am wrong, by all means let me know. Understand, however, that I have no interest in quoting the Bible in every post to prove that I am a Christian. That's not me, never has been me, and will never be me. For those who think I am not explicitly Christian, all I can say is that I am most explicitly me, and as I am a Christian, there you go. I am following my heart in all this, and trust God to make up for any and all shortcomings I may have. That's what is known as "having faith".
