Pick Your Own Morality

(I know that school has begun, and that I am unemployed, and that much has happened since my last entry, of which I might still cover via topics. But with particular things happening, I decide today to take a shift and write a bit about a topic that I've alluded to here, and seems to have begun to surround me more and more. So, I"ll wait with that and write about this instead ... ) Last April, someone I greatly respected and admired had a massive 'moral fall'. Last June, someone else that I admire and respect made some moral choices that disconnected with what he claimed for his truth. And now, this month, the very vocal Christian leader Ted Haggard has also revealed that he has been living a double life - speaking out against homosexuality on one side of his mouth and engaging in these same kinds of acts behind closed doors. These are only three such Christian examples, but I am certain that there are many more that populate any given pew on any given Sunday that can relate on some level to any of these three individuals. I really don't know how to formulate this entry, because there is so much in this that is affecting me. Here are some random, stream-of-consciousness questions and thoughts on it ... From the Christian Perspective and View:

• - Why is it that it seems to somehow always incorporate 'sins of the flesh'? Aspects of our sexuality?
• - Why is it that it seems that sometimes prayer doesn't make any difference?
• - This really emphasizes the Law - things that we do that fall short of the standard that God sets for us. I am reminded of how people misinterpret Luther's statement "sin boldly" and get their noses out of joint when they think he means that we can do anything because we are saved. This would really bring all of this behavior into a type of context, wouldn't it? All these people doing whatever they want because they think it's ok since they are saved anyway? My father truly believes that baptism saves. So, going by this - it doesn't matter what a person does, so long as they're baptized. I don't agree!! But then again ... what do I believe? I'm not sure.
• - What does Christian living really mean? For a Christian to live in the 24-7 between Monday and Monday? I'm thinking for the one that has something like this in his (or her) dark corner but also the one that is on the 'outside' viewing it? like me? what should my life look like? And more so, what should my response be?
• - Where is the balance between those 'fruits' and actions you demonstrate and the condition of your heart? Yes, we are human, and in that alone, we fail. No matter how hard we try to be perfect, we will not be. And yet, does that mean that we don't have to try at all? We don't have to put in any effort because what's the point anyway, other than misery? I think there has got to be something in the middle, but I don't know what.
• - Our world is shifting more and more to a rejection of all things 'Christian' ... things like this contribute to it and help it continue down the path to destruction.
• - Why is it that the the place that should be the safest, where we can be open and vulnerable and who we truly are, where we should be able to go for support and encouragement and love, is the place that so often is the quickest to condemn and attack? I am not surprised that no one knew of Haggard's heart - look what has happened to him from within his own circle when this has come out? He has been attacked and shunned every bit as much as the non-Christians have used him as the butt of their jokes. Where does he have to go now?

From the Western World Culture View:

• - If this is what Christianity has for leadership, what are the followers like?
• - No wonder people are falling away from churches! And maybe that's a good thing?
• - What does it matter any more about what is 'right' or what is 'wrong'? No one seems to follow it anyway. Sex with whoever whenever you feel like it, if this partner doesn't meet your needs, there's always someone else around the corner, wanting a good bang. Marriage is a joke.
• - I'm not even going to touch the same-sex marriage thing. I said a few years ago that this will be a deciding factor of the church. That they had better really watch how they handle this one, for they are being watched. From up above as well as from outside in. How are they going to balance what the bible says (in their perspectives) to the reality of the situation. Wow ... this cannot be 'love the sinner and hate the sin' kind of thinking.
• - What a field-day the entertainers will have (and are having) with this one! Another person to point and show how fu**ed up the Christians really are. For all their high-and-mighty claims, they're a mess.
• - "Actually, this is about the abject bankruptcy of Bible belief, and nothing more. Please read The End of Faith by Sam Harris, and The Mind of the Bible Believer by Dr. Edmund Cohen. It's time for us all to reverse the bible Christian time-machine that is sending our nation back to the fourteenth century at warp speed. The bible itself says, judge the tree by the fruit it bears. Ted is the fruit, in more ways than one. By the bible's own criteria, the religion it has spawned is rotten fruit. " (not my thoughts; found on the internet)
• - The opportunities that things like this and the allegations that Dan Brown puts forth in his The DaVinci Code are more than ample fodder to give an 'educated' person things to disagree with and look to find fault with the Christian group as a whole, poke holes in and show the ignorance and foolishness of the average 'Christian'. How interesting that Gnosticism (and Gnostic Christianity) is raising its head again - within the Church as well as in the general spirituality of all that permeates our culture. And ... most don't even realize it's part of their belief system.

Obviously, I have a lot of questions. There is a lot of this that doesn't make sense to me. Regardless of which side of the coin you look on. As a Christian, I see serious problems - with the leaders as well as with the average Joe Christian. As a member of our Western Culture, I see serious problems, too. I can see how they get this perspective of us and 'a little learning [becomes] a dangerous thing' ... mind you, the average Christian really doesn't know what their faith is all about anyway. They have made it into what they want, and read into the Bible what they want. It really is a man-made religion in a lot of ways.

I like what Rob Bell says: "A Christian doesn't avoid the questions; a Christian embraces them. In fact, to truly pursue the living God, we have to see the need for questions. Questions are not scary. What is scary is when people don't have any. What is tragic is faith that has no room for them. ... And this is why questions are so central to faith. A question by its very nature acknowledges that the person asking the question does into have all of the answers. And because the person does not have all the answers. And because the person does not have all the answers, they are looking outside of themselves for guidance. Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility. A humility that understands that I am not God. And there is more to know. Questions bring freedom. Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out. I can let God be God. ... Maybe that is who God is looking for - people who don't just sit there and mindlessly accept whatever comes their way. .... Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our Maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God. ... This type of questioning frees us. Frees us from having to have it all figured out. Frees us from having answers to everything. Frees us from always having to be right. It allows us to have moments when we come to the end of our ability to comprehend. Moments when silence is enough. ... The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can't be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitely put God into words, we have at that very moment made God into something God is not. ... The bible has an entirely different understanding of mystery [as compared to our mystery paradigm - something happens which is solved in the end and all answers given]. True mystery, the kind of mystery rooted in the infinite nature of God, gives us answers that actually plunge us into even more ... mystery. ... The mystery is the truth. (taken from Velvet Elvis p. 28-33)

I began this entry with wanting to write about how frustrated I am with how people seem to think that it's ok for them to pick what they think is right and wrong, with no moral compass to guide them. A schmorgasboard of things to pick from - all as right as the next. Marriage, celibacy, online pornography, erotic literature, gay marriage, swinging couples, sex-toys, abstinence, 'safe sex', open marriage ... and on and on and ... That's where I started with this entry.

And look where I ended up ... "The mystery is the truth."

Maybe all I can walk away from here right now with is the comfort that it's ok to be asking these questions. That, regardless of where we are as a people, God is not afraid or shocked. That He is with us, in ways unimaginable.

And what a mystery that is! I don't get it ... but then, neither am I God.