mbjones

Links! At least a couple…

• This is an thought provoking article worth reading and digesting. Won’t be everyone’s cup of tea though. If time allows at some point I might interact with it more.

• In Zimbabwe, they found a lost tribe of Jewish people. The Lemba genetically are ancestors, and their priestly clan has the same genetic marker as the Jewish priestly clan. Crazy (and cool)!

• This is one to keep in mind — Are there more earthquakes than there used to be? The quick answer: No.

The frequency of major earthquakes has remained fairly constant throughout recorded history. Since 1900, there have been approximately 18 earthquakes of 7.0 or greater magnitude per year. (One usually crosses the 8.0 barrier.) There are no data suggesting an upward trend in that rate. Seismologists are detecting more and more smaller quakes, but that phenomenon can be attributed to the quality and quantity of detection devices: Since 1931, the number of seismological stations worldwide has increased from 350 to more than 8,000.

• Apparently lots of folks think internet access is a right we are all entitled to. How bout we get “food in the belly” taken care of first, and then maybe decent quality health care that perhaps keeps your baby from dying of things like malaria, and then perhaps after a few other things then maybe — MAYBE — we can move on to internet access.

• You may or may not have noticed that probably a majority of my “news” articles come from the BBC website. It’s because I don’t like the American news outlets. There is one in particular though that generally causes my blood pressure to rise (Fox) and it’s because of commentators like Glenn Beck who, within the past couple of weeks, told viewers to “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!” I’d probably say the opposite “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church web site. If you don’t find them, run as fast as you can because they obviously are ignoring a large part of scripture (the more than 2000 verses addressing it) and Jesus.” It’s why my wife and I are partnering with an organization that firmly believes that the Gospel is holistically transformative and why we are working with the world’s poor (they truly are special in God’s heart and eye) and why, for example, this week I’ll begin to teach people how they can budget and save and such even whilst living on very little and why we one day hope to offer job skill training as an integral part of our ministry. I’m ashamed that Christians let someone like Glenn Beck (who isn’t a Christian and doesn’t hold to the supremacy of the Bible in one’s life) speak for them in such a haphazard manner. Here’s to social and economic justice.

Links! It’s been awhile, but here are some for your enjoyment.

Bill Faris, director of a network of Vineyard house churches, writes about Charismatic boons and busts, here and here. Some choice examples:

Bust: …as a movement, money, wealth and “giving” have been treated in ways that range from somewhat unbalanced to the truly revolting.

Boon: Empowering Women in ministry.

Boon: A quantum leap in the theology of the Holy Spirit.

Bust: A quantum leap in bad theology of the Holy Spirit…that is not grounded solidly in Scripture…that flippantlay exploits the Spirit, His gifts and His power…that turns the Third Person of the Godhead into a Bartender.

Bust: Personality cults.

Bust: The Prophetic Movement…their endless emphasis on God’s “next big thing” is pretty much a distraction from our timeless call to simply and consistently follow Jesus as His disciples — proclaiming His word and doing His works until He returns.

Read the whole thing — he fleshes all of that out and its good stuff.

Here’s one to pay attention to and consider: Rolling Stone on how wall street is recreating the conditions that led to the first crash. I’m not a fan of the bailouts or the seemingly all powerful banking industry though.

The Tall Skinny Kiwi writes about a book I’m looking forward to reading: The Meeting of the Waters.

We pretend we are Christians.

And we’ll leave it at that for the time being. Hopefully you’ve found some interesting reading mixed in there. I’ll do more when I have another grouping of links to share. Until then…

• An interview with Bill Watterson. He created Calvin and Hobbes (my favorite comic strip — I’m trying to figure out how to take some of the books to Africa) and this is the first interview with him in 15 years.

• A good friend, whom I’ve gone to Africa with twice, writes about the Prodigal Son with a mind for spiritual justice, and not just worldly justice.

• A favorite band of mine, Midlake, has a new CD out today. Stream it for free here.

• Speaking of Midlake, here is a link to download their Denton Session. Need new music? Check it out. Free and legit.

• In more bizarro news, it seems that the Somali pirates fashion themselves as modern day Robin Hoods. For one — they funnel a lot of resources back into their incredibly poor communities and two — they are smuggling in aid to Haiti. I don’t recommend any one get into pirating though; I can’t condone armed robbery/hijacking/kidnapping as a modern valid job.

Another day, and some more links.

• To start off this one, here is an article dealing with aid in disaster situations and when it is appropriate for us to go. While there are certainly exceptions to every rule, it does offer some good food for thought (including the fact that local people are well equipped to do a lot of the legwork and that it often acts as a healing agent for them to be involved).

• Speaking of Haiti articles, here is a CRAZY one! You may or may not recall Chuck Baldwin as the Constitution Party candidate for president. I definitely wasn’t impressed then, and I’m even less impressed now. In the article, he questions the veracity of the quake (even if he fails to believe it, my brother felt it on the other side of the island). And why? Among other things:

I am personally convinced that certain members of the Bush and Clinton families have been involved in the international smuggling of illicit drugs for decades.

• I was glad to see that there were conservatives upset over the big supreme court ruling a week and a half ago.

With the Citizens United ruling, the court revealed the depth of its contempt for judicial restraint, original intent, and deference to the legislature. The ruling is nothing short of a coup, a fundamental change in the structure of the America polity. It will work not only to the defeat of democracy, but to the destruction of what’s left of the small businessman. From this day forward, no one will hold office who does not have the approval of the corporations, no small business will exist save by their sufferance.

• Speaking of big business and corporations, a documentary recommended to me by Sam D. called The Corporation is now on Hulu. I’ve watched the first 3rd and its good so far and I hope to finish it soon.

And now for some “revival warnings”; Todd Bentley is back in the game. If you don’t remember that name, he was the instigator of the Lakeland fiasco a year and a half ago. It crashed and burned when it came to light that he was having an affair with an intern. After the revival ended, he divorced his wife and married the mistress. Oh and no actual healings or other signs could be found true. World Magazine attempted to verify but everything came back as “not true/not really healed/currently dead.” There are some discerning people within the charismatic world and we’d do well to at least consider their words:

• Dan from Cerulean Sanctum shares a warning that details some occultic practices.

• Lee Grady responds to the aftermath of the Lakeland fiasco.

• Grady also laments the loss of annointing in the American Church; speaking as an insider, his words are especially meaningful (if you were unaware, he has for many years been an editor of Charisma Magazine).

• Switching gears yet again, a minister from The Journey, Adam Schuster, just started a new nonprofit called Share the Sound that seeks to provide new or as-good-as-new sound equipment to ministries and missions across the world that don’t have access to it.

• Neil Cole with a theology of SAFE vs a theology of DEATH. You can probably guess which one I’m for.

Self-preservation = our mission
Avoidance of the world and risk = wisdom
Financial security = responsible faith
Education = maturity

Die daily to who we are
Empowerment of others (not self) is our life
Acceptance of risk is normative
Theology is not just knowledge, but practice
Hold tight to Christ with an open hand for everything else.

I find I collect links fast now that I’m out of a day job. So — if you are bored and looking for some reading material — check some of these out!

• Here’s an article where Greg Boyd tells some Mennonites to “Go to hell!”:

I taught that, while Mennonites have traditionally tended to be preoccupied with keeping hell out of their communities and have thus tended to be a bit reclusive, Jesus is calling them (and all of us) to boldly take the Gospel into the world and aggressively storm the gates of hell (that is, areas that are under the dominion of Satan rather than God). And so, it just seemed appropriate to conclude this section of my talk by telling them to “Go to Hell!” It seemed they appreciate it!

I like Greg Boyd a lot. As I began discovering the anabaptist roots God planted within me, his work was able to help me navigate new territory. One particular tension I had was the anabaptist/mennonite tendency toward separation and seclusion; I didn’t see it at all as appropriate for a people on mission and Greg Boyd succinctly says why.

• David Fitch offers an interesting MLK Jr Day reflection.

And two close out another link post, two aged-yet-still-delightful Shane Claiborne posts:

• Shane writes in Esquire magazine:

I have a friend in the UK who talks about “dirty theology” — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man’s eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay “out there” but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, “Nothing good could come.” It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society’s rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors… a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

• A fun one: Jubilee on Wall Street:

The streets turned silver. Our “pedestrians,” “tourists,” “homeless,” and “business people” began pouring out their change. We decorated the place with sidewalk chalk and filled the air with bubbles. Joy was contagious. Someone bought bagels and started giving them out. People started sharing their winter clothes. One of the street sweepers winked at us as he flashed a dustpan full of money. Another guy hugged someone and said, “Now I can get my prescription filled.”

I tend to post quite a few excerpts. I come across a lot of articles and such I find worth sharing and am going to try weekly to do a link post that collects a few I haven’t excerpted to share with everyone. This is the first (of hopefully many to follow).

• The first is an article by Brian McLaren on fear and terrorism.

Immediately for me, more language from the New Testament comes to mind. What would it mean, in this context, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? What is the primitive brain but what Paul called “the flesh” – and what liberates us from it but the Spirit? What would it mean to “let this mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus?” What would it mean to put primitive ways behind us, and mature from the primitive brain’s fear-driven reacting to the “more excellent way” of love-inspired living? What would happen if we stopped listening to the religious leaders who play to fear and instead began listening to those who lead us to higher ground?

• Dan writes of a missions/social justice conference that didn’t exactly practice what it preached.

Yep, so here we have a bunch of rich Christians dropping thousands of dollars on a conference about missions and justice, and the one homeless guy who is invited to attend gets kicked out because, dammit, the church is going to get the money for recycling those cans. Sadly, while this is atrocious, I don’t find it altogether surprising.

• A humorous/interesting look at Proverbs 31:6-7:

Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more. (Prov 31:6-7)

Now, if you find yourself bored, there are a few links to peruse and ponder.

Two enjoyable articles by Ched Myers here and here, both on Jesus and economics (at least in part).