'Soul Shaper'

Slow down
Listen to God
Be silent
Mediate
Make the Stations
Stare at an icon

And, there, do you feel it?
The divine light of the Risen Christ
flickering within you,
slowly building to a roaring fire...
-Tony Jones

Woah

Wow it's been almost a year since I wrote anything here, so probably no one reads here anymore anyway, ah well, c'est la vie. Just shows how long I have been out of internet access :) and that we have now allowed Porn (our flat nickname for Internet) into the flat.

Anyway in spite of feeling like shit or I mean @#$% these are some thoughts that I had recently.

I've been working my way through Exodus, chiefly because Jurgen Moltmann in A Theology of Hope talks about the Exodus church. A tenuous link I know but you gotta start somewhere right?

Anyway it intrigued me that at the beginning of Exodus God calls Moses to lead his people out from Egypt, the land of slavery and tyranny. However, before Moses can lead the people out, he is first sent back in. Back in to Egypt, into the land of slavery, into the land of tyranny. He goes in to both call the people out, showing them a bigger dream of the land of milk and honey, and to challenge the powers and principalities that hold them captive. As a prophet he shows people a better world and challenges power with miracles and the power of God. This is the call to the church. To be a prophetic people called out and so going deeper in. To call others out and to challenge the powers and the principalities that hold people captive.

Heyla

Hey all just a brief post as I'm at work.
Coming up next weekend and people are invited to come around saturday evening for a bbq and social gathering.

Theological Position

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68% Neo orthodox 68% Roman Catholic 46% Classical Liberal 43% Reformed Evangelical 32% Modern Liberal 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 18% Fundamentalist 7% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Wife Swap USA

I was watching tv last week and happened to start watching 'Wife Swap USA'. Now this is not regular progamming for me but this episode caught my eye. For the uninitiated out there the premise behind this show is that two families at polar ends of a spectrum swap spouses for two weeks. For the first week the exchanged spouse has to abide by the family's rules but in the second week they get to impose their rules on the family. In the instance of the show I watched it was a traditional Christian family, father, mother, and 3 boys and a gay family, two father's and two biological daughters.

In the Christian family the father ruled the house. The boys were kept in line by the use of a wooden paddle affectionately known as the 'butt-basher'. The mother did all the cooking and cleaning (as well as worked fulltime as the father at that time was unemployed). The father was emotionally separated from his sons and wife and found it difficult to communicate with them.

This was contrasted with the gay family. No one was better than anyone else. Any problems were discussed together and decisions reached as a family. Everyone helped with chores and cooking the two girls did not even need to be asked. Both father's were working professionals and their daughters felt comfortable talking to them about anything.

This was quite a thought provoking show for me. In the family typically thought of (at least in Christian circles) as a bastion of Christian example the gay couple were leading the way in how a family should operate. It saddens me that people can live in a family such as that and at the same time be following Jesus. The man is the head of the household in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. And when Christ came he did not come with a butt-basher.

What angered me more than anything else were the Christian's responses to the gay man. The father called his pastor when he found out that the spouse he was receiving was a gay man. The pastor came over and counselled the father saying that the bible is very clear on the topic of homosexuality, they are like lepers, we are to treat them as if they had the plague (and not in the nuturing sense). The father ended up continuing in the show but did not allow the other guy to sleep under his roof! This disgusts me from a Christian and worse a minister of the Word. If G@d is a G@d of love then this as far from a godly action as I can imagine. People justify this sort of thing by saying "I'm rejecting the sin but still loving them". Bollocks! It looks like that you're rejecting the sin, and despising and loathing the sinner.

While sadly people might use examples such as this to justify their opinions of Christians I still found this episode worth watching. I found it heartening that the mother who went into the gay household used their example to set her family arights. She began to see the family as just other humans rather than those people. At the end of the show she judged them by who they are rather than judging them by what they are.