Church & Politics

I know - these are two things dangerous to mix, but let's be honest - we all do it all the time. The U.S. separation of church and state works on a governmental level (i.e. we are not a theocracy) but not on a personal one - we all have our beliefs and morals affected by our faith, and those in turn affect how we vote.

I was watching a news show on PBS the other day and they had a segment about the growth of evangelical megachurches around the country. I'm not a fan of the megachurch model, but I understand how some people are drawn to them. The story showed several congregations around the country who were very proud to show people what they had to offer - including snippets of conservative preachers blasting same-sex marriage and abortion. I don't understand why these are the big issues to preach on, but they are the stereotypical positions for these evangelical churches. So what? These churches are growing - the numbers of them and the numbers of members they have. I'll be honest - that scares me. Not just because they tend to be conservative and I'm not - I don't think they preach sound theology. And I didn't think there was an alternative until I read this story in the July 30th NY Times.

The story talks with Rev. Gregory A Boyd, a pastor at one of these evangelical megachurches outside Minneapolis/St. Paul who did a preaching series putting down the churches who get too politically involved.

In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others — by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have “power under” others — “winning people’s hearts” by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said. [snip]

“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.

This pastor is by no means a liberal (he admittedly doesn't approve of abortion or homosexuality) but he might really have something with this. I don't know though - maybe I'm just as bad as the conservative, evangelical stereotype but going to other way. I like when my pastor gives a sermon that talks about the reasons a Christian shouldn't be pro-war or why we should vote for certain people who have committed to working against poverty. Those are political choices based on faith values that fall on the liberal end of the spectrum. My faith also tells me that my sexual orientation isn't an issue for God (or Jesus) and I honestly don't know what to do with abortion (I'm fairly anti-abortion but also condemn bombing the clinics and men sticking women with the babies they helped create - it would be a whole different world if men got pregnant).

So, what do you think?? Is there a place for churches to get active in politics? Is this pastor correct in thinking the cross must remain separate to be true?? Is that possible in this day and age?? I recommend reading the whole news story - food for thought if nothing else.

More camp pics

I was having some techinical problems uploading the remaining pictures, so after some tweaking, here they are:

New for this year was canoeing!! Groups could go all together during small group time, or kids could go during their afternoon freetime. They proved to be very popular and I really hope they're back for next year...

This is the "big" creek, which is actually a fork off of the river that runs close by the camp. You can see the water is up to the campers' knees at this point, but it periodically runs even deeper and can get a strong current in flood years. We walk them out 1/3 mile or so to a little swimming area that gets about 8 feet deep. Don't worry - a lifeguard and our camp medic go along for the hike...

Speaking of our camp medic... Here's Angela bandaging a cut knee on the creek hike - which I think was the most major injury we had this year. And look at those white legs - good thing I had my sunglasses with me!

Reflections on Camp - part 2

After three weeks, I've finally had and taken the time to go through my pictures and find some suitable for posting. Hopefully this will help convey the camp experience and you'll begin to see why we love going back each year.

This is a fairly typical activity - playing in the creek! Kids bring shoes to wear in the water (although that's particularly for the "big creek" hike). This small creek runs all the way through the camp and has all kinds of crawdads, minnows, snakes, frogs, etc. which the kids can catch and turn in to the Discovery Center wet and dry aquariums. That way everyone can see what has been found, but the animals remain fairly safe and taken care of. All creatures get released every night, and this is explained to the kids so they start to understand this kind of respect for and care of the animals.

A couple of hours each day are spent in small groups. Activities vary (these kids are going in to the 6th grade so the attention spans are not all that long) and can be anything from games to bible study to crafts or a hike. This is a shot of my small group this year attempting to work together to untangle their knot. It's always questionable whether the kids at this age are ready for this kind of activity or not - some years they get it in a couple of minutes! This year it proved to be quite a challenge, but led to some great conversations afterward.

This is probably my favorite event of 6th grade camp - making our campfire dinner!! Each small group works together and the kids do everything (under supervision) for themselves. Each group gets a cooler with food (hamburger meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, yellow squash, green pepper), a bag of charcoal and aluminum foil. The kids then work together to make a charcoal fire, peel and cut the vegetables, and fill their sheet of foil to make a "hobo dinner" which is then cooked directly on the hot coals. For dessert, they make banana boats (bananas are cooked in foil on the coals with marshmallows, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips - very sweet and gooey and always a hit!) and then everyone helps clean up. It's always interesting to watch the group dynamics as they go through the whole meal. Sometimes the girls will take over tending the fire and the boys will do most of the food prep, while other years they fall into more "traditional" gender roles (although I encourage them to step out of those when possible). Sometimes the kids all whine about how "gross" everything is, and others, like this year, they will just be so excited about getting to do things for themselves and proud when they actually eat things they made.

WW III???

I can't NOT speak up about all the stuff going on in the Middle East right now. Israel and the Palestinians have been fighting for generations - since biblical times - and the conflict with Lebanon is nothing new either, but things sure seem to be getting a lot worse very quickly. I had hoped that with the agreements over the Gaza strip a few months ago, there would be some easing of the violence, but it has been very short lived.

I am very up front about the fact that I'm a pacifist - I don't think violence is the answer to anything, especially political battles. I believe that this is in line with being a Christian, as Jesus taught us to "turn the other cheek" and "pray for those that persecute you." However, most of the conflict in that area of the world seems to not involve Christians, but Jewish/Israelis and Muslims/Arabs. I will be the first to admit that I'm not near as familiar with those religious traditions as I am with my own and I don't understand the cultural dynamics that also play into these situaions, but I can't believe that God (assuming there is one God common to these religions) would want to see bloodshed and hostility between all of these people.

What's the U.S. role in all this?? Historically, we have always supported Israel and it appears that we are continuing to send military equipment and ammunition to them as they request it. I just don't understand why. With our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 5 years, the world, and especially the Arab world, has been watching us very carefully. Do we think they aren't going to react to our sending Israel more bombs?? It seems dangerously close to another world war to me, and I believe CNN said as much the other day as well. Quotes from W saying things like, "You're either with us or against us," aren't going to help anything either. I'm not even sure that WW3 is appropriate - maybe more like the Crusades part 2. Sadly, it appears that this is becoming more and more of a religious-ethnic divide and I don't see how anyone is going to "win." Many lives are already being lost and/or ruined. With Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, and now Israel/Lebanon, how much can we expect this to spread? How much can the U.S. be involved in before it's spread too thin?

I'm not trying to prophecy gloom and doom for the U.S. or anyone else, but I am definitely getting nervous. So, what do you think? Are we headed for a bigger, more global kind of war? Does God choose sides? Is there room for patriotism in a globalized world??