Episode 709

Comedy Central's South Park. I'm not a fan, but I know many of you are. (It happened to come on after the Warriors' basketball game while I was moping about how pitiful the Mavericks were.)

This episode (Christian Hard Rock) was spoofing Christian culture and its music. I'd like to have a copy to show followers how other's often see us and our attitudes, practice, and values. If you took the lyrics out of this context, they might be embraced in many churches.

...thanks to Wikipedia for the synopsis.

Paul Harvey and "The Rest of the Story"

Got this on email (so you know it has to be true...)

When Minister [name withheld] was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard

Heavenly Father,
We come before you today to ask your forgiveness and
To seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says,"Woe to those who call evil good"
But that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium
And reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and
Called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness
And called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists
And called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children
and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power
And called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's
Possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and
Pornography and called it
Freedom of speech and expression.

We have ridiculed the time Honored values of our
Forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God,
And know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin
And set us free.
Amen!"

The email continues

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.

In 6 short weeks [name withheld] Church, where [name withheld] is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India , Africa and Korea .

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio Program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

...the rest of the email (urging us to forward the email to everyone in our address books so that our nation could return to being "one nation under God") was deleted.

Out of the Echo Chamber

This is an excerpt from the Emergentvillage Newsletter

I have become convinced of two things in this travel. First, we Christians in the West or North (and especially in the United States) live in an echo chamber; it's so hard for us to hear "the voice of the other" over the clamor of our own incessant and redundant broadcasting. Second, we desperately need to hear these voices, for our own good and for the potential of increased partnership in the future.

- Brian McLaren

Brian introduces us to Sherman Kuek, an itinerant minister and an Adjunct Lecturer in Christian Theology at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (STM). He spends much of his time journeying with his friends in reflecting on faith, life, and culture in a profoundly theological and yet simple way. Sherman blogs on www.ShermanKuek.net.

It is open knowledge that the emerging people are serious about engaging with the dominant culture confronting the Christian gospel (in the West the postmodern culture, and in Asia perhaps the postcolonial ethos). First and foremost, this engagement is about the vulnerability of allowing the dominant culture to challenge the Christian gospel with serious questions regarding the adequacy, accuracy, and even the absolute rightness of the latter.

But it is probably a misunderstanding beyond proportions that these people engaging with culture are actually permitting the culture to redefine the core [of our beliefs]. It is most likely that culture raises questions which shed doubt on the perennial universality of the core, but not necessarily that culture redefines the core.

...it is not uncommon for contextual thinkers to move beyond the boundaries of their own limited traditions... This explains the openness of the emerging people towards the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and their willingness to listen to other ecclesial voices beyond that with which they are familiar. Again, this is not something deemed acceptable to every Christian thinker of every tradition. Some traditions are, by their sheer nature, implicitly closed to conversations which challenge the rudiments of their all-familiar categories.

For him [the contextual thinker], the challenges posed by cultural confrontations do not cause him to pander into a state of intimidation and self-preserving defensiveness, for he looks beyond himself and his restrained traditional familiarity; and behold, a world of endless possibilities is open before him as he gleans from the voices of his many Fathers who once treaded the path on which he now finds himself.

Visit the Emergent Village @ www.emergentvillage.com