A Christian challenge to sexual determinism

The received wisdom of the day is that one is (or should be) defined by who they are sexually attracted to. If you're attracted to members of the same sex then it's folly not to act on that attraction, we're told. Indeed one should make it the core of one's identity. Thus the late-modern language of sexual orientation that would have left the ancients scratching their heads.

Challenge the conventional wisdom on sexual attraction and you're liable to be called deluded, in denial, or worse. Kudos to NPR Weekend Edition for letting us hear from two people who are so bold as to challenge, with utmost humility and graciousness, the CW (scroll through the comments for the requisite barbs and name-calling). Not only do they offer an alternative understanding of sexuality, they are living out a fuller and richer meaning of what it means to be human.

Click the link below to hear their story.

Attracted To Men, Pastor Feels Called To Marriage With A Woman

Chris Broussard makes a defense

Tuesday I posted on the controversy surrounding reporter Chris Broussard's comments on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" about NBA player Jason Collins coming out as a gay man -- the first male athlete in a major American sports league to do so. Yesterday Broussard went on NYC's Power 105.1 FM morning show to defend his views. It's apparent that the hosts are trying to bait Broussard into saying something scandalous and/or back-track on his beliefs. Broussard doesn't take the bait and beautifully demonstrates how to put 1 Peter 3:14-16 into practice.

Give this a listen.


 

Wednesday Wendell: a Sabbath poem (and some links)

X (1979)

Whatever is foreseen in joy

Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark

By our ten thousand days of work.

Harvest will fill the barn; for that

The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

By work of ours; the field is tilled

And left to grace. That we may reap,

Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

Rests on our day, and finds it good.

"X" by Wendell Berry from A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979 - 1997 (Counterpoint, 1998)

Berry was a recent guest on The Diane Rehm Show - LISTEN HERE. If you cry easy don't listen while you're driving. Finally, an article on WB in today's Urban Tulsa Weekly. Grace and peace.

Ross Douthat on Bad Religion

Ross Douthat is a writer I've quoted and linked to several times at this blog. He's just come out with a new book provocatively titled Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics -- which I hope to read. Douthat was interviewed about the book on NPR Weekend Edition.

It's worth a listen.

Rod Dreher calls out Limbaugh

Loathing is not too strong a word for how I feel about Rush Limbaugh's show. Interesting, since it wasn't too many years ago that I listened to him religiously (with all the connotations that word inspires). Anyway, it's nice to see a conservative calling Limbaugh's act what it is. Evil.

What Limbaugh is doing here — defending terrorists and child rapists because it helps him make a political argument that Obama hates Christians — is spectacularly contemptible. It is, frankly, evil. Can’t conservatives see that?

Click through to get the background and context.

Marking 9/11/01

The week leading up to the solemn 10-year-anniversary on Sunday has elicited boatloads of commentary, etc. Here are some links I've found worthwhile. I'll be updating this list as I find more. Check back.


9/11: The Week Before (In Focus with Alan Taylor) - This is a photo essay of events taking place around the world on the week before that unforgettable day, including some poignant shots of the twin towers. Do you remember what you were doing on the days before everything changed?

Prayer at Ground Zero (Michael Horton) - Horton reacts to the outrage of some Christians over NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision not to allow prayers at the official ceremonies. Whether you agree or disagree this fine piece will prompt you to think more deeply about the Christian understanding of prayer and the role of religion in public life.

New York's Post-9/11 Church Boom (John Starke) - A terrific piece of reporting on the surprising resurgence of evangelical churches in the Big Apple.

It's Still the 9/11 Era (Ross Douthat) - One of my favorite columnists asks Reagan's famous question: "Are we better off than we were 10 years ago?"

In an odd way just about any New York City movie made after September 11, 2001 is touched by that day. Though Spike Lee's 2002 film 25th Hour isn't explicitly about 9/11 -- the novel and screenplay were written before -- the events hang like a spectre over it, and I find the opening credit sequence (embedded below) to be the most beautiful cinematic remembrance I've seen. I was moved when I first saw it in the theater in 2002 and still am today.




Simply Evil (Christopher Hitchens) - Here's Hitch at his best calling the perpetrators of 9/11 what they were. Evil.

Simply Incoherent (Douglas Wilson) - And here's Doug Wilson pointing out the irony of Hitchens (the guy that wrote God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) calling anything "evil".

Slain Priest: 'Bury His Heart, But Not His Love' (NPR) - A remembrance of Father Mychal Judge by the police lieutenant who carried his body out of the North Tower and the priest who gave his funeral homily.

Lessons learned on the radio

Sometimes my most profound spiritual moments come from listening to This American Life, usually in the car, usually driving to and from work. Not spiritual as in warm and fuzzy "Oprah spirituality", but moments of clarity, understanding and empathy. I guess it just goes to show the power of stories, which is all TAL is. Stories about ordinary people. Case in point Act One of last week's episode KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM. A story about an evangelist intent on debunking his dad's faith, until something surprising happened. I almost had to pull over.

You can listen here

Francis Schaeffer said the final apologetic of Christianity was love. Unfortunately he didn't do too well in that department with his own son, but he was right.

America's favorite temperance drink

I've been listening to the latest episode of This American Life, in which Ira Glass & Co. claim to have found the secret recipe for Coca-Cola.

I don't drink the stuff, but I'm fascinated by the history and iconography of this enduring cultural artifact. Much of the mythology of Coke revolves around Coca-Cola's inventor, druggist John Pemberton. Like many Confederate veterans Pemberton became addicted to morphine -- the drug of choice for treating wounded soldiers. After the war he began experimenting with a concoction that contained extract from coca leaves, as in cocaine. The hope was that it would help wean addicts off of their dependence on morphine. His first product was a wine containing caffeine, and yes, cocaine. Must have been quite the energy drink! When temperance mania hit Atlanta; Pemberton realized he needed to adapt to the changing social mores. He removed the alcohol from his beverage, tinkered some more and -- voila! -- the primitive version of Coca-Cola was born. It's his recipe that Ira Glass attempts to reproduce on this week's show.

Interestingly enough; coca leaves are still used in the official formula, but not before they're de-cocainized at a plant in New Jersey. That makes the Coca-Cola Company one of the biggest importers of a Schedule II controlled substance in the country!

Listening to Brian

I first heard Jake Warga's taped conversation with his college friend Brian on This American Life. It's one of the most haunting things I've ever heard on the radio. Here's TAL's description:

This story wasn't originally made to broadcast on a radio show. It's a tape made by a guy named Jake Warga, who'd never put anything together for radio. He made it to give to his friend Brian, who wanted to kill himself. After Brian tried to overdose, Jake took him out to a park bench to talk, and brought along a recorder. Later, Jake decided to edit the conversation down and give it to Brian as a gift, hoping that if Brian heard what he was saying, if he heard how he sounded, it might stop him from trying again.

I tracked down the original piece which is slightly different than the version aired on TAL. The link is below. Among other things Brian talks about his Lutheran upbringing, his fears about life after death, views on sin and forgiveness, and the limits of self-motivation. "As my therapist says -- it has to come from within. There doesn't feel like there's much within. You know."

Listen here