Kony 2012, Sex-Trafficking, and the Christian Response to Justice Issues

I’m not sure there’s a more amazing piece of storytelling than the Kony 2012 video. It’s worth the 30 minutes as long as you are prepared to cry, be angry, and get fired up. [WATCH: KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo]

As I’ve spoken with a few people about the Kony video and how Christians should respond, I’m struck by a few thoughts.

There is so much brokenness in the world, how can you ever identify where to get involved? It seems that various winds of doctrine have been joined by various winds of mercy and justice initiatives. Paul obviously has negative connotations for the winds of doctrines and it is rare, though not unheard of, to have heretical justice initiatives. Nevertheless, being tossed about by doctrines or justice opportunities can make us completely ineffective if we do not assess ourselves before jumping in.

Every day we are confronted with a terrible issue in our world, whether it be sex-trafficking locally and globally, the Invisible Children, the global orphan crisis, racial inequality, and global poverty. Every time we see a new issue we could jump at the need to get involved but constantly be shifting our focus.

Living in New York City with 8.5 million people, it is easy to both see and be overwhelmed by the need. How should we respond? How should we approach involvement? Are we supposed to be involved in every justice issue? How does the church or the individual Christian approach these initiatives?

The Gospel Motivates and Empowers us to Mercy and Justice

Imagine pockets of people giving themselves to seeing brokenness restored, injustice ended, and local/global issues resolved. This is not our creation of the church, this is Jesus’ vision and mission for the church. We are inspired by these issues because we were created to embody our God’s character toward these issues. When we engage the brokenness of the world we are reminded of God the Father who sent Jesus, publicly declaring His passion in action to initiate the end of brokenness, suffering, and ills caused by the selfish desires that live inside of us. (Ed Stetzer has some good scriptural evidence for us)

Christian faith gives us a view towards the Kingdom of God where Jesus is King and eliminates all tears, pain, and injustice. There is no greater motivation or means of empowerment.

It also means we have responsibility. None of us can stand on the sideline and avoid issues of justice and needs for mercy. We must engage and we must do so led by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Don’t Just “Like” Everything - Settle On and Do Something

Now that Facebook is integrated into everything in the world, I am guily of hitting the “Like” button and settling into armchair advocate of a cause. Causes aren’t changed simply by web-interaction. It helps with exposing people to ideas, making an idea viral, but personal involvement and engagement of the issue is what rallies people to a cause. So choose a cause and focus on it.

Get Informed Beyond a Moving Video

Joe Boyd had a great article about a Christian response moving beyond emotive acceptance to informed action. Storytelling is powerful, so we must be careful to not enter an issue naively assuming we know the simple solution to an often complex reality.

Invest Deep More Than Wide

Real change happens over a generation. The moving video of Kony 2012 was a decade just in the making and could be a decade in accomplishment.

A sustaining impact comes from commitment to the idea which requires that we move our excitement and emotions to lifestyle-changing action.

The diversity of the body of Christ allows for us to find peace in addressing deeply a few issues rather than addressing broadly every issue on a surface level. We need to encourage people to develop discernment in line with their gifts, talent, and passions to mobilize more people for more issues.

These types of movements make me excited about heaven where we will get to celebrate Jesus’ destruction of injustice. I can’t wait.

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Cross-posted from Logan's personal blog.

Provocative Thoughts on the Precious Puritans

*Editor's Note: This was #6 on our Top Posts of 2012. _

The talented Christian rapper Propaganda just released "Excellent," a strong new album on the Humble Beast label (buy it here).  Humble Beast is the home of Beautiful Eulogy, the group from Portland, Oregon that put out an excellent album this summer.

Propaganda is equal parts slam poet and rapper.  He hits hard in his content and is one of the most provocative rappers around.  I've listened to him since his Tunnel Rats days, and I've always enjoyed him.  His skill is undeniable, and he loves the Lord.  His new album, "Excellent," includes a fiery song on the Puritans.  Here's a sample (complete lyrics here):

Pastor, you know it’s hard for me when you quote puritans. Oh the precious puritans. Have you not noticed our facial expressions? One of bewilderment and heart break. Like, not you too pastor. You know they were the chaplains on slaves ships, right? Would you quote Columbus to Cherokees? Would you quote Cortez to Aztecs? Even If they theology was good? It just sings of your blind privilege wouldn’t you agree? Your precious puritans.

On Joe Thorn's site, there are also some comments from Propaganda about this torch of a song (see some helpful historical thoughts here).

This song raises some very big issues for evangelicals.  It confronts us with our past, one that is chock full of racism and racist oppression; it asks us to think hard about how Christians of different backgrounds perceive one another; it wonders out loud how much we should listen to past Christians who sinned publicly; it drives us to think about how edgy to be in our quest to influence and edify one another.  I'm glad that Propaganda raised these kinds of questions.  His honesty is needed in evangelicalism.  Racism is real and awful, historically and now.

There is a danger here.  Specifically, I wonder if Propaganda isn't inclining us to distrust the Puritans.  He states his case against them so forcefully, and without any historical nuance, that I wonder if listeners will be inclined to dislike and even hate them.  He groups all the Puritans together, which is problematic.  Not all of them were chaplains on slave ships, as he says later in the song.  Many were not.  But Propaganda blasts them so hard that, though he's not ultimately dismissing them, it sounds as if he is.  He qualifies his words on Joe Thorn's blog--pretty strongly, in fact--but what about all the people who hear his song but won't read that specific blog?

Some people will respond by saying, "Well, he's an artist.  He's supposed to provoke.  That's like the Old Testament prophets."  It is true that artists can provoke reflection that might not otherwise come.  I am a rapper myself.  I love art.  I love creative expression.  I love hard-hitting exhortation.  But the motive of edification does not justify any level of critique.  Artists are not exempt from giving account to God for every word they speak (see Matthew 12:36-37).  I don't know when that idea got in the evangelical bloodstream, but it's there, and it's not helpful (this is not a veiled reference to Jefferson Bethke, whose controversial videos I liked).  Let me say it again: artists will give account.

Let me be clear: If young men are failing today, strong critique and exhortation are needed.  But as a Christian, there must be grace in the mix.  I am not justified at being so edgy, so angry, so authentically steamed, that I take my fellow sinners off at the knees.  I fear that, though Propaganda ultimately points the finger on himself in the last verse, he has been harsh against the Puritans, sinful as they were in being racist and not opposing racism in the power of the gospel.

Look--I'm for public criticism of evangelical "heroes" on this point.  See the biography of Jonathan Edwards that Douglas Sweeney and I wrote for Moody.  We strongly critiqued Edwards for owning slaves, as we should have.  But that doesn't mean that we should tear him down.  He is a sinner like us.  Furthermore, if being a sinner in even a deeply regrettable way disqualifies you from being referenced by modern evangelicals, we are going to have a very difficult time finding anyone to emulate.  Luther was anti-Semitic; Calvin could be preening and cold; Edwards held slaves; and the list goes on.

Racism is awful.  Horrible.  Reprehensible.  It must be called out and condemned.  But one must do so carefully.  To tear the Puritans down with very little nuance of the kind I've offered here is problematic.  Propaganda wrote that he has learned a great deal from these forefathers despite their sins.  I fear that people who don't have his prior appreciation will not do the same.  They will write them off.  That would be a mistake.  It would also seem to be counter to the general spirit of Galatians 6:1.  This is not a passage about who to lionize, but there's a principle that seems to apply here:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

And we take note of this:

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Is the Bible Blind to Womanly Beauty?

Don’t know if you’ve followed this, but Tim Challies kicked up a bit of an Internet storm recently when he helpfully suggested that it was a good thing for Christian wives to give attention to their appearances for the betterment of their husbands.  He was responding to a post a few months ago by blogger Rachel Held Evans, who registered disagreement with Challies’s post.  In response to Evans, Southern Seminary professor Mary Kassian suggested something of a middle way in which womanly attractiveness matters but only as a reflection of God’s far more lustrous beauty. I found the discussion interesting and worthwhile not because this is a matter of outsized theological importance but because it relates closely to issues surrounding men, marriage, and beauty, all topics that interest me.  Kassian’s theocentric rendering of womanly beauty jibes with material I published with Douglas Sweeney in the book Jonathan Edwards on Beauty (Moody, 2010), part of the five-volume Essential Edwards Collection.  Edwards was an aesthetician if there ever was one.  Wherever he saw earthly beauty he saw a reflection of God, who was not only beautiful but was beauty himself.

Here’s a snatch from the book which quotes Edwards’s notebook on “types” (page 49-50 of JEOB):

There are some types of divine things, both in Scripture and also in the works of nature and constitution of the world, that are much more lively than others. Everything seems to aim that way; and in some things the image is very lively, in others less lively, in others the image but faint and the resemblance in but few particulars with many things wherein there is a dissimilitude. God has ordered things in this respect much as he has in the natural world. He hath made man the head and end of this lower creation; and there are innumerable creatures that have some image of what is in men, but in an infinite variety of degrees. Animals have much more of a resemblance of what is in men than plants, plants much more than things inanimate. (Works 11, 114)

One day, the pastor took a walk that unfolded the way natural beauty reflects spiritual beauty (pp. 41-42 of JEOB):

God’s excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon, for a long time; and so in the daytime, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things: in the meantime, singing forth with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce anything, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning. Formerly, nothing had been so terrible to me. I used to be a person uncommonly terrified with thunder: and it used to strike me with terror, when I saw a thunderstorm rising. But now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God at the first appearance of a thunderstorm. And used to take the opportunity at such times, to fix myself to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God’s thunder: which often times was exceeding entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. And while I viewed, used to spend my time, as it always seemed natural to me, to sing or chant forth my meditations; to speak my thoughts in soliloquies, and speak with a singing voice. (Works 16, 794)

This material reveals that Edwards felt free to find resonances of a much greater beauty in the eye-catching things of this world.  In fact, the pastor-theologian made the case for finding “types” in this world.  If we buy Edwards’s argument–and I think we should–then surely we can find images of a greater luster in a flower, a sunset, and the face of a loved one.

I love Edwards’s aesthetics.  He has a major place for beauty in his theological-philosophical system, so much so that some view him as the theologian par excellence of beauty.  By the way, this is part of why he is so relevant for today.  We live in an image-obsessed culture (part of the problem Evans rightly decries), and we can use Edwards to point people to a better way, a far more fulsome and healthy vision of attractiveness than one can find in the ambient culture.

The Bible, by the way, has much to say about physical beauty, contrary to what many think.  Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was beautiful (Gen. 12:11); Rachel was beautiful “in form and appearance” (Genesis 29:17); David “had beautiful eyes and was handsome” (1 Samuel 16:12); Esther had “a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at” (Esther 2:7!); Job’s daughters were the most beautiful of their day (Job 42:15); the man speaking in the Song of Solomon finds his wife “beautiful” to say nothing but the very least; Moses was beautiful as a child (Hebrews 11:23).  Beyond all these realities, the Lord, as Edwards knew, is pictured in Scripture as very beauty himself.  David wished only to “to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD,” Psalm 27:4.  We could go on.

What does this mean?  Well, for starters, the biblical authors and figures are not blind to physical beauty.  Far from it.  They don’t suggest that it is of great importance in itself.  That’s clear.  Neither, however, do they ignore it, just as we do not ignore it, try or not.  We’re all quite conscious of physical beauty.  One could say this is because of our genetic wiring, or our consciousness, or perhaps most satisfyingly, our natural understanding of the way earthly attractiveness prefigures God’s magnificence.  All of these reasons have credence.

In the context of marriage, this means that it is no bad thing to celebrate one’s attraction to one’s husband or wife.  It is in fact a good thing.  We should not make the cultural mistake of grounding our spousal love in physical beauty.  Anyone who has ever heard a pop song knows how common this is, and how laughable.  Those who think that a relationship can stand firm by physical attraction alone clearly have precious little practical experience in actual relationships.  Those who are married know that attraction is an important part of marriage–perhaps very important–but that like any covenantal relationship, marriage requires a continual exercise of the will for its flourishing.  It is the Christocentric and Christotelic dimensions of marriage that are most significant.  Husbands loving wives as Christ sacrificially loved the church, and wives submitting to their husbands as the church submits to Christ in love are the transcendent, indeed transforming, realities of marriage.

But in landing this plane let’s bring our altitude down a bit.  Physical attraction matters in a marriage.  The Song of Solomon makes this abundantly clear, as any red-faced teen knows in hearing it read in church.  No one is suggesting that Christian women should hold themselves up to the (relentlessly airbrushed and digitally edited) cover-girl.  It is, however, a good thing for both husband and wife to take the physical dimension of marriage seriously.  Men shouldn’t nurse a gut, and women shouldn’t let themselves go.  Both should care for the other by devoting a reasonable–and the world’s standards are often unreasonable!–amount of attention to their bodies.

We are not Platonists.  We live in bodies.  The body is good.  God designed the body, manly and womanly, for his glory.  He gave sex and attraction and passion to couples for their good and his renown.  Marriage in its fullness is to provide the world with a picture of a far greater reality, the devoted loving union of Jesus Christ and his blood-bought church.  We do not obsess over our appearances; we do not worry about physical changes over time; we do not obsess over our frames and forms.  But we do love one another by caring well for the bodies God has given us.  Whatever we do, we seek God’s glory–whether praying in church, church-planting in an unreached land, fixing a leaky faucet, comforting a crying infant, teaching philosophy in a secular college, or running another mile to keep the pounds off (1 Cor. 10:31).

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Cross-posted from Owen's personal blog.

Porn and Future Marriage

*Editor's Note: This was #10 on our Top Posts of 2012. _

***WARNING: Certain aspects of this post may be considered graphic in nature

Indulgence in pornography is not a problem that only young, unmarried boys face. It's an epidemic that stretches into the realm of men who are married and women of all kinds (young or old, married or not). However, this post is aimed particularly toward young, unmarried men. The reason I am speaking to this particular group is because I know from firsthand experience the complications that this addiction causes for young men and their future marriage.

The temptation is unavoidable. Half-naked women are plastered on Facebook advertisements. Billboards don the supposed "class" of the dancers at the club the next exit over. Heck, a pretty woman in a parka and sweatpants can cause many men problems. The carrot is constantly dangling in front of you, drawing you in like a starving child lost in the desert.

Paul exhorts the Philippians:

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

- Philippians 4:8

There are several verses that refer to fornication, lustful thoughts, and worldly passions (Matt. 5:28; 1 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 5:16; Col. 3:5) but I want to hone in on what these activities do to the mind. The mind is a powerful thing as are the memories it keeps. This is why the aforementioned verse in Philippians has been more helpful to me than any passage on lust (not to discount such passages, of course). At the height of my issues, I worked in a kiosk at the mall and my mind was perpetually bouncing from one woman to the next. I was an easy target for Satan and my own fleshly weaknesses. I was severely addicted to women and I knew all the Bible verses about "youthful desires" and "passions of the flesh" but only sought self-gratification. I was no boy scout in regards to females that I dated and saw them as no better or more important than the women I watched on my computer screen. I wouldn't agree with that statement then, but it was true. I was thinking of me. I was thinking of my sexual desires. And truthfully, it didn't matter who fulfilled them or how it happened, as long as I was satisfied. In person or in a movie.

What I did not anticipate was how it would affect my future marriage. I committed many sins in this area, but I assumed that marriage would fix that desire and erase those memories. Unfortunately, my enslavement to sex and pornography dug so deep into my subconscious that I was left with remnants that may last until my final breath. I wish I would have spent much more time thinking on the things of God, as Paul exhorts, but I did not. I am left with baggage that thankfully Jesus has forgiven and is redeeming daily.

There are several destructive aspects of the porn industry, but here are two battles that I have found particularly challenging to my relationship with my now beautiful, godly wife. Young men, I am pleading with you to trust me:

1. Porn damages your ability to be a confident leader in your marriage - For me, my pornography-laden past has caused a fracture in my assurance as a husband. There are times that I feel unworthy of her due to my past sins. There are times that I feel unsure of my ability to please her both in the bedroom and outside. In the bedroom, there's no editing or perfect lighting and you will not always (or ever) be a rock star lover; the bedroom consists of two people that God has joined together, often imperfectly enjoying a great gift that he has given. Pornography does not reflect this truth. Sex was not only designed for procreation, yet it was never designed to be treated as an extracurricular sport. Porn actors are not to be mimicked or modeled. Period. Love your wife the way she wants and needs to be loved - the way that God calls you to love her - and let that be enough.
2. Porn places unfair expectations on your wife - Pornography is professionally done, in a sense. The producers, directors, and stars know what men like to see just like any other film production. There is a false sense of purely carnal excitement and intrigue. You will start to believe that women will do whatever you want and will be excited about hours of endless sexual activity. Then, when you and your wife engage in such marital activities, your mind convinces you that your wife should be a compassionless toy like those portrayed in the movies you watched. In reality, your wife has insecurities, fears, and preferences that are mixed with her foundational desire to be loved and nurtured rather than driven like a Ferrari. These images and ideas that are seared into your mind are physical, mental, and spiritual wars that are not meant to be fought. Let your future wife be your standard of beauty by not cramming more and more images into your head.

There is tremendously good news for those who have struggled with pornography. There is a man named Jesus who lived a perfect, sinless life who was hung on a cross to wipe away the very sins that you commit and will commit. You cannot change your past, but Christ can offer you a new life and a better future. Chase him. Cling to him. Let him be your standard of character and flee the temptation to fix your eyes on anything other than him. Your future wife may come along, as God sees fit to provide her, and you will either understand what I am talking about or you will be thankful that you do not have to know. Brothers, think on these things. Keep your mind, your heart, your soul, and your strength fixed on God.

When you are married, let Christ's sacrifice be the reason that you are a confident leader. The more like Jesus you are, the better husband and leader you are for your wife. If you've struggled with lust in various forms, you will be frustrated with yourself and you may have to fight tooth and nail to avoid slipping into old habits. Deal with sin as drastically and seriously as possible. The Holy Spirit will empower you to do so. Jesus is worth it. Your wife will be worth it.

Above all, know this: The gospel is enough. The war has been won, so go into the trenches confidently.

Voting for a Non-Christian President

Some time ago, Denny Burk posted an interesting piece on his website about Wayne Grudem’s endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2007. He quotes Grudem:

Have we come to the point where evangelicals will only vote for people they consider Christians? I hope not, for nothing in the Bible says that people have to be born again Christians before they can be governmental authorities who are used greatly by God to advance his purposes. God used Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to raise Joseph to a position of authority over the whole country, so he could save his people from famine (Genesis 41:37-57). God used Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to protect and raise up Daniel and his Jewish friends to positions of high authority over Babylon (Daniel 2:46-49). God used Cyrus, King of Persia, to restore the Jewish exiles to their homeland (Isaiah 45:16; Ezra 1:1-4), and used Darius, King of Persia, to protect the Jewish people as they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 6:1-12). God used Ahashuerus, King of Persia, to raise up Esther as Queen and to give Mordecai high authority and honor in his kingdom (Esther 6:10-11; 8:1-2, 7-15). In the New Testament age, God used the peace enforced by the secular Roman Empire, the Pax Romana, to enable the early Christians to travel freely and spread the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean world.

Additionally, our own Owen Strachan contributed to the discussion surrounding Romney's Mormonism in a piece at Christianity Today:

What of the upcoming election, which features a Mormon candidate for the presidency? However charitable and even constructive in certain ways, recent Mormon-Christian dialogues have not necessarily assuaged the doctrinal concerns of many evangelicals. The President, however, is not a pastor. As recent books like Could I Vote for a Mormon as President? argue, it is conscionable to support and vote for a Mormon.

Evangelicals might divide over which candidate to support. Yet, even Christians who are impressed by Romney know it may mean a major cultural boost for Mormonism. It would be foolish to ignore this idea—though we should also note that the much-discussed presidency of Kennedy, for example, did not singlehandedly revitalize Catholicism.

What say you?

Don't Waste Your College: An Essay on Adolescence

The American college experience occupies a vaunted place in the mind of many an adolescent.  College, overworked high schoolers assure themselves, will be a place of freedom, experimentation, video games, and goofing off.  And that’s just in class.

The system of delayed adulthood or prolonged adolescence or unmitigated disaster (choose whatever term suits your fancy) is by now a part of American culture.  It starts young.  Parents baby their children, allowing them to live luxe lives at home, chores and work and duress a thing of the bygone past.  They give them all kinds of gadgets and diversions to stave off their ever-shortening attention spans.  Kids are expected to be immature and silly.  This is true even in churches.  We don’t train them to sit through a worship service–perish the thought!–but rather entertain them during the most serious and needed hour in the week.  As a parent, you tolerate all sorts of backtalk and laziness and worldliness, which leads into high school, where it is assumed (stupidly) that children should hate their parents, work even harder than before to avoid responsibility, and learn from their equally immature and uninformed peers.  All this leads to the beulah land of college, where whatever surly bonds of constraint remain are slipped off in pursuit of hedonistic excess and childlike gratification.  As Diana West and others have essentially said, we are training our children to be, well, children.

All of which makes me grateful for Alex Chediak’s superlative Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! (Tyndale, 2011).  Chediak is an Associate Professor of Engineering and Physics at California Baptist University, a school that in my experience turns out some great students.  He has written about courtship, and he has a great blog that you should check out.  Thriving at College is written to counter precisely the kind of culture I’ve just ranted about.  In my humble estimation, it succeeds on all counts.

There honestly is too much to cover here.  I told Alex in an email after receiving this book that if I had my druthers, I would buy 1,000 copies of this book and give them out to every college student or will-be college student I know.  That’s not endorsement bluster; I mean those words.  Alex emphasizes Christ-centered responsibility, hard work, and planning throughout.  He gives excellent spiritual advice for young students who have been trained in Christian homes and may meet with ideas counter to their faith.  He sets forth in compelling, compassionate prose the need for young men and women to pursue marriage, though not as an end in itself.

Here’s an excerpt on time management that shows Alex’s blend of wise biblical counsel and personal care:

For starters, your parents shouldn’t remind you when to study, sleep, wake up, read your Bible, exercise, or eat.  You’d be insulted if they did!  They can encourage you in these areas if necessary, but the actual implementation and balance is something young adults must own from day one of college.  Remember, whatever you don’t rule will rule you.  This is equally true for those still living at home, though in that case adult children need to be respectful of any household rules their parents deem appropriate (such as a curfew or a requirement to eat dinner with the family on occasion).  Parents’ house, parents’ rules. (124)

This is the kind of sane, wise advice that populates Thriving at College.  There’s loads of it in the book.  To help students avoid the vagaries of delayed adulthood–a state I’m proud to note that many of my Boyce College students are skipping–buy them this book and work through it with them.  That’s the funny thing about the text–in the end, it’s not really just about college.  It’s about a life of Christocentric virtue accomplished through attention to biblical wisdom.  Taking dominion for the glory of the Savior who took dominion of our lives–this, and not more wasted time and wimpy expectations, is what our youth need.

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Cross-posted from Owen's personal blog.

Superhero Films and Human Longing

I was nearly eight years of age when I rose early on a Saturday morning to watch the premiere of  Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fascination was coming to a close and I needed a new fix. The Red Ranger was the fearless leader, and my friends and I would argue over who would pretend to be him and who would get stuck as the nerdy Blue Ranger. (Of course, back in my day, we went outside to play!) On top of that, I loved superhero comics and television/film incarnations, especially those starring Batman. Let's not forget that Emmitt Smith was a superhero in his own right, seemingly invincible on the football field. I was a boy's boy, not much different than your average boy today. But is this superhero fixation merely a boyhood fantasy? Shouldn't we grow out of this?

The Transcendency of Superhero Worship

In the past decade, superhero worship has been revived largely due to the plethora of films starring such characters as Batman, Superman, The Avengers and related characters, and Spider-Man. Since Spider-Man dominated the box office in 2002, superhero movies have amassed double-digit billions in ticket sales. Most recently, The Avengers and Dark Knight Rises have combined to gross $1 billion in just three months and are not near finished. These crowds have not consisted of only forty-something comic book junkies and young children. These spandex-clad giants of the big screen have transcended gender, age, race, religion, and socioeconomic status. At the midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises, I saw a black man wearing a Batman costume and a high school girl dressed as Joker. I witnessed a family including children and elderly saving seats for the corporate affair. There we were, all over the map demographically, begging Bruce Wayne to convince us how "anyone can be Batman."

Beyond the action, comedy, and cinematic wonderment exists a much more telling indictment of the human condition. There is a reason that the intrigue of superhuman ability surpasses all demographic boundaries.

The fantasy world of superheroes acts as a window to the soul. Mankind, made in the image of God and given the keys to creation, has not scratched the surface of its original design. Even at our highest, we will always crash into the ceiling of reality in a broken world. We claw and scratch for that which we cannot be. We make idols out of anything that brings us self-worth or offers a glimpse into an otherworldly opportunity for perfection and unyielding power. We intrinsically know that we are feeble, unable to repair the most base-level fractures in life. Should we be surprised that the first appearance of Superman was during the Great Depression?

What Shall We Say Then?

The skeptic may argue that Christians exalting Jesus is no different than any other infatuation with the uncanny. It is certainly true that the person and work of Christ is an appealing story to fallen mankind. Not only did he do the impossible in so many ways, but he presents us with an opportunity to join him in glorification. He offers hope beyond the depravity of the world around us. Indeed, Tim Keller might say that Christ is the true and better superhero. However, beyond archaeological and scientific apologetics that can be used as foundational proof for belief in Christ (as they justifiably should be), we must believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that God did in fact write a much more exceptional storyline than Christopher Nolan could ever conjure up in all his worldly genius. Faith takes us beyond the delusion. In light of this, we must exhibit this habitually in the fruit of our character and on the mission field of life.

Let's be clear, watching and enjoying superhero films is not wrong or sinful; what is wrong and sinful is believing that you can accomplish any feat that matters for eternity apart from Christ. You see, where superheroes fail is that they all have weaknesses and baggage that they carry along with them into any mission. The people of God, on the other hand, carry with them the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. With God, not only can "anyone be Batman" - anyone can make Batman look like a schoolgirl. Christians have the ability to accomplish that which no man can do on their own. Christ has conquered sin and death, the greatest foes that have or will ever exist. Through him we have the opportunity - the obligation - to be his ambassadors to this world; to bring restoration.

As Christians engage the world, we must understand the fundamental contamination that exists. The human heart will quickly incline toward Superman's ability to fly or Batman and Iron Man's fortune-funded gadgets. Beyond the screen, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and offers real escape from death and the limitations of our battered minds and bodies. May we leave behind all apparitions of potential completeness and hook ourselves to the anchor of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And above all, may we share this truth with a society clamoring for a world outside of themselves.

Essay on the State of Evangelical Parenting

A story in The Atlantic by Lori Gottlieb entitled “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” raises some helpful questions about modern parenting and how it is stimulating narcissism.  There is some strong language in the piece, so I’m not linking to it.  I will, however, quote a section to show the strength of the ideas in the article:

Another teacher I spoke with, a 58-year-old mother of grown children who has been teaching kindergarten for 17 years, told me she feels that parents are increasingly getting in the way of their children’s development. “I see the way their parents treat them,” she said, “and there’s a big adjustment when they get into my class. It’s good for them to realize that they aren’t the center of the world, that sometimes other people’s feelings matter more than theirs at a particular moment—but it only helps if they’re getting the same limit-setting at home. If not, they become impulsive, because they’re not thinking about anybody else.”

The point continues:

This same teacher—who asked not to be identified, for fear of losing her job—says she sees many parents who think they’re setting limits, when actually, they’re just being wishy-washy. “A kid will say, ‘Can we get ice cream on the way home?’ And the parent will say, ‘No, it’s not our day. Ice-cream day is Friday.’ Then the child will push and negotiate, and the parent, who probably thinks negotiating is ‘honoring her child’s opinion,’ will say, ‘Fine, we’ll get ice cream today, but don’t ask me tomorrow, because the answer is no!’” The teacher laughed. “Every year, parents come to me and say, ‘Why won’t my child listen to me? Why won’t she take no for an answer?’ And I say, ‘Your child won’t take no for an answer, because the answer is never no!’”

These provocative insights, of course, are really just good old-fashioned common sense.  Saying no to a child–what an idea!  This is the stuff of ground-breaking, cover-making wisdom at present.

I’d like to use this piece to offer a few thoughts on the current state of evangelical parenting.  Many of us do focus on developing self-esteem in our children, which has a few positive and many negative effects–good because our children know we love them and are interested in what they do, bad because they can all too easily learn self-centeredness instead of God-centeredness.  That, to say the very least, is a problem, as is the practice of rewarding children for mediocrity and even failure.

But there’s a parallel issue that concerns me about the “parenting style” of many of us today.  It is theological: we love grace.  We so exult in God’s lavish grace–and nothing is more worthy of exulting in, or exalting–that we lose sight of other important biblical-theological concepts.  Like what, you say?  Like the law.  The law does not and cannot save.  Only the gospel can.  But the law is nonetheless of great value to us in forming character, understanding God’s nature, and driving us to the mercy offered us in Christ (see Galatians 3:24).

How does this apply to modern evangelical parenting?  I’m concerned that many evangelicals who prize God’s sovereign goodness as I do are diminishing the importance of rules, morals, and appropriate behavior.  Let’s be clear–I’m not advocating moralism. I don’t want kids to grow up with hard-and-fast ethical boundaries but no grace, no love, no affection.  I guess I’m theologically greedy.  I want both.  I want a home that is driven by and centered in and soaked through with grace.  God-rooted grace should drive the life of a family such that love, not law, is the dominant trait one picks up about a Christian family when one spends time with it.  ”What was it about the Harpers?  They interact with one another in such a loving way.  Why?”  That’s the kind of question people should ask after being around our godly families.

To read the rest, visit the BibleMesh blog, where this piece is posted in full.

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Cross-posted from Owen's personal blog.