Trinity Power Point Presentation

Christian Hate Speech and Gay Marriage

Over at Reformation 21 Carl Truman again gives insightful comments on the current issue hitting the California airwaves: gay marriage. he gives a few things consider as we make our next move in the new culture wars. He writes:

We can no longer assume our children will just agree with us on this issue; they are going to want arguments for holding that homosexual practice is wrong.  We need to go back to scripture and sharpen our swords, so to speak, as we can no longer assume that the cultural bias will play our tune anyway.

Sobering words indeed. I think we have got to come to place where we realize that the West is changing, and we don't have the high ground. We will have to contend with new attitudes, moralities, and mentalities. As a Christian teacher, I wholeheartedly agree that we must be able to give sound biblical arguments as to why we oppose the gay marriage. More so, we owe it to our congregations to do so.

The last point Truman makes is worth the read. He points us to a future for us in the U.S., that is already being realized in Canada and Europe. He writes

Those evangelical leaders, academics and evangelical institutions that prize their place at the table and their invitations to appear on `serious' television programs, and who enjoy being asked to offer their opinion to the wider culture had better be prepared to make a choice.  As I have said before in this column, we are not far from the place where to oppose homosexuality will be regarded as in the same moral bracket as white supremacy.   Those types only appear on Jerry Springer; and Jerry generally doesn't typically ask them their opinion on the ethics of medical research, the solution to the national debt, or the importance of poetry to a rounded education.

Sadly, I'm sure that those churches that already try not to rock the vote, may have already make their choice. Keep praying for California as we continue to have this debate, but keep thinking through the issues, we owe our people, and our God, no less.

How do you pick a book?

As this is a book blog, I have tried to gather some good ideas on how to pick a book. Hopefully this can be of use to you all. Since many of you may be Christian, I will jump ahead and focus on how to get a feel for a book by a Christian author (though I think this would also apply to non-Christian authors too).

1. Amazon
If you are like me, you spend time on Amazon.com just browsing to see what's around, what's coming up, and what people generally think. I usually do this when I buy, am about to buy, or read a new book. Read the reviews. Does it have one, two, or five stars? Do the reviews seem fair? Are there any recurring problems mentioned? Many older theology books are notorious for having bad binding. Are you better off buying it used or in a newer digital format?

2. Blurbs
Who blurbed the back of the book? Blurbs are the endorsements given to an author by other recognized authors, personalities etc.. They're usually found on the back of the book. This one can say a lot or a little. I once thumbed through a book that was endorsed by Donald Miller. He is the author of "Blue Like Jazz" which many of you know makes some "interesting" theological statements. I almost put the book away, but it turned out to be a great book on how to do church discipline today. If I could remember the title of said book I'd recommend it (Something like 10 mistakes churches make)! Of course, seeing well known, respected leaders recommend a book helps. But you must go deeper still. Does anyone who's opinion you trust like the book you are about to read?

3.Table of Contents
Yes, at some point you have to pop open the book and read what the author intends to communicate (you knew you were going to at some point). Is there a structure? What are the headings? Is there an apppendix? If it has a scripture index, does it have a lot of scripture? How long is the book? Who gets mentioned a lot in their bibliography or endnotes? I once had to read a book that had a lot of end notes referencing Carl Jung. It was by a Christian psychologist and it made me be a bit more wary about what the author had to say. 

4. Publisher
Who published it? A company like Crossway is known to publish Reformed authors. The same goes for P&R Publishing and Reformation Trust. Zondervan is one of the bigger evangelical book  publishers. Though recently, I've been concerned as they are cashing in on the Emergent movement with an Emergent line of books. This doesn't mean that all Zondervan books are bad. And yes, to be fair some Emergent books are decent (sometimes). If anything Intervarsity Press is guilty of publishing many questionable books (the openess of God anyone?). I should also add that a publisher's website could have some helpful information-maybe even a free copy of the book. 

5. Time
What year was this published? If this is older than a decade, the information maybe outdated. But, there are those few books that stand the test of time, so don't hold onto that too hard and fast to this rule.

6. Author Info
Who is this person that you are about to let into your thoughts? Thanks to today's world, you can find a ministry website for almost all Christian authors. Just be careful that their book isn't just an endorsement for even more (and more expensive!) material from them. What is their testimony? What school do they teach at? Have they made controversial statements in previous books? Is their church a good place? Do they have a blog? Are there incriminating pics of them with Lady Gaga?

7. Your own interest
Why do you want to read this? What is it that you need to know? Some books need only a quick glance and a read through a chapter or two to get what you need. Others demand a lot of time, and are worth every hour of reading. In other words, "what's the point"?
8. Does your enemy hate or like it?
You either see this one or you don't.

9. What are the bloggers saying?
Tim Challie's page Challies.com is now THE place to get a good Christian book review. He truly is the Christian Uber-blogger/book reviewer. I trust his judgement when it comes to reviews.

10. Author's intent?
Why was this book written? To inform? Persuade? Make a point? Share an experience? These are things you want to keep in mind. If it's just an angry screed, it would be best to leave it at Borders.

11. Would I want to own this?
Or would I be happy borrowing it from the library? There are a few books I wouldn't want to be caught dead with. Seriously.

12.The friend test
Ask your friends what they think about it (if they have read it). They may save you a trip to the bookstore.

13. Re-read factor
Is this one of those books you'll want to own long enough to read again? Granted some of those books are hard to spot at first, but some you just know you'll read again and again.


Ok there you go, pray, reflect, but for goodness sake tell people. We need to have more open discussions about the books we're reading. 

Who is Jesus? How would you answer that today?

Jesus asked his disciples the question, "Who do you say that I am?". He made it clear that a vague answer was not enough. A definite answer to that question was the only one that could be life changing. Over at Pastoralia, Pastor Jason Coker, has been having people blog on a project where people give an answer to that question. Specifically the questions are: Who is Jesus? what has he done? and why does it matter?  I'm glad to know that thousands of years later, this question is still seen as pivotal to where a person stands with God.
One of the contributors is Pastor Ben Sternke. I was very impressed with his answer. It was clear, biblical, and relevant in the best sense of the word. I have hope that churches can actually present a gospel message like this without making it formulaic, fake sounding or worse: boring.  I'd like to put it here in full with a minor critique after that.

Who is Jesus Christ? Wow, where to start. Jesus is a lot of things. First, I should say he was a man who caused quite a stir around 2,000 years ago by claiming that the God who created the entire cosmos was working through his life to save the world from itself, to make everything right.

Which sounds incredibly cliché, doesn’t it? It’s easy to find nutcases like that today. The thing about Jesus, though, was that he backed up his claims by making things right with unusual power and effectiveness: delivering people from sickness and psychological oppression, bringing freedom from guilt and shame, challenging injustice, and teaching people how to live well.

Ultimately this put him on a collision course with the religious and political authorities of his day, because they had stock in keeping people fearful and needy. But instead of fighting them, Jesus allowed them to torture and kill him. Even those closest to him didn’t understand this. Why not fight to stay alive? They thought it was over after that.

Hang with me, because here’s where the story gets crazy. He didn’t stay dead. A few days later he was alive again, in a totally new way, like he’d gone through death and out the other side. He had actually conquered death by his own death and through his resurrection opened the door for everyone to enter into a truly blessed life in God’s family.

We enter into that life by becoming an apprentice of Jesus. It might sound kooky, but you can actually know Jesus today. You can really be with him and he will teach you how to live a blessed life in God’s family, just like him.

Pretty unlikely story, huh? Yet I find myself living in it every day.

I hope you saw what I saw. It's something I could share with anyone I know.  My one concern is one of personal sin. I know he touched on basically anything any of us would (and discipleship has been on my mind a lot lately) but I think we can also forget that our sin placed Christ on that cross as well. As I put it in my response, "Not only did people one day put Christ on that Cross, I did. My sin, my own contribution to the worlds wrongs, put him on there. He died to actually forgive that. If I didn’t have that, I’d be completely lost". The Apostle Paul put it like this:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)

That the Lord died to forgive our sins is pivotal to the gospel message. Without the justification of our past, there is no hope for the future, with it, our whole world changes. I'm glad for the people out there who are making sure the gospel is getting out to the masses clearly. I look forward to seeing more good work from this project.  I'd also like to include some video of people answering the very question of who Jesus is.

Flash Back Fridays!

Hey everyone. Good to see you're all still here. Sorry I haven't been feeding you a weekly dose of religious news, info and my attempts what was has been called "humor". Time to get back on track! Well, here we are on Friday. We all know what that means.  Here's some cool nostalgia just for you.

1. One of the coolest sci-fi flicks of the 80's.



2. Speaking of cool 80's flicks, here's something I have been listening to on my iPod as of late. Here's the very cool song "The Heat is On" from the also very cool movie "Beverly Hills Cop":



3. And while this isn't from the 80's, it's something that has already become pop culture goodness.Colin Hay (Singer of Men At Work) visits the set of Scrubs to play a pretty awesome 80's song.



Thanks again, and look forward to some more blogging on my behalf. I've got: Interviews, book and movie reviews, apologetics, some big announcements, and more YouTube clips. Thanks again, and God bless you-now go tell all your friends to visit.

Summer Reading

Summer is almost here. This will mean a lot of time at the beach, theme parks and family get together's. But if you're like me, you will go to these places with a lot of books. Between BBQ's, lines to the next ride, and that hour after you eat, you will find time to read. But for all my years of reading, I've never really had a summer reading list. Since a lot of people seem to be sharing their lists, I figured I'd share my first summer reading lost. I't's not complete, but it's a snapshot of what I've been trying to read for the last year or so. I think this summer is the time to catch up.

1. Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain's famous children's book is finally going to get the attention is deserves! I'm sorry to admit I haven't read it before, but I assure you I did read some great kid's books growing up.

2. The Reason for God. I'm a fan of Tim Keller. I can't wait to read and listen to a lot of his work. So I want to finally finish this book on apologetics before I start the rest of his works.

3. Christianity and Culture Revisited. D.A Carson wrote a book about the different ways Christians deal and engage with culture. I've heard some positive reviews. I have to admit the first chapter is very eye opening. In essence he asks if C.S. Lewis would be the C.S. Lewis we know, if he had been raised in the killing fields of Cambodia. A good place to start if you ask me.

4.Gospel in Life. Tim Keller's study guide to his Gospel and Life DVD just came out, and it has a lot of great information on living the gospel in the real world.

5. Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of the Three. A little Stephen King never killed anyone. I started reading his magnum opus in High School. Of course, he hand't finished it. All these years later, it's finished and I plan on reading all 7 books. I'm currently reading through this one.

6. Truth Decay. Ten years ago Douglas Groothuis released a book warning us about the dangers of relativism and post-modernism as they were related to the church. I'd like to see what he was warning us about in 2000 and see if his predictions have come to pass. I seriously want to interview him for the blog.

7. The Screenwriters Bible. I got this because I still believe in the stories that are floating around my brain. This summer, I want to started getting ready to get them out.

8. The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. John Frame is a master of philosophical theology. His book is an introduction to theological method and it tries to answer a very tough question: What does it mean to KNOW God? How do you do it? What DO you know? As preparation for Seminary in the fall, I can think of no other book to sharpen the old thinking skills.

9. Don't Waste Your Life. John Piper's books has gotten a lot of the Young Restless Reformed people's attention. I plan on reading it this summer. Perhaps a good think to think through as I start seminary.

10. 1984. Orwelle's famous book on totalitarianism is still good reading, and a great piece of fiction to think through.

Well, that's my list. Please feel free to comment. How about you? What are you reading this summer?

Kinda Christianity: The Interview!!!!!!

                                   "Are we cool yet Ted?" "Just keep starring Zach"

It's been a few weeks since I posted my review of the book Kinda Christianity from the good people at Gut Check Press. I not only got a copy of the book to read, but I got access to these two highly sought after author's. I do apologize for not getting this interview up in time for Zach's birthday. So for your entertainment, here's my chat with Ted Kluck and  Zach Bartels.  Enjoy!
                              ***************************************************


Frankfusion: Where did the idea for the book come from?

Ted Kluck: Primarily from the two of us sitting in Zach's basement laughing at stuff...we both ended up reading Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christianity" for another project, and it just sort of grew from there.

Zach Bartelis: Yeah, we looked at the volume and quality of books being squirted out by emergent pioneers and thought, "ya know, if they learned the formula, anyone could produce this schlock." So we reverse engineered the formula and put it down in this wonderful volume called "Kinda Christianity."

FF: It's good to see you two applying humor to the Emerging church, but at this point aren't you kicking a dead horse?
TK: Yes, but it's still a funny dead horse. As an example I would offer this website, which is completely serious: http://peterrollins.net/insurrection.html

ZB: And let's be specific here: we're beating the dead horse with segments of rubber garden house, filled with sand.

FF: Do you really think the Emergent Movement is dead? 

TK: As a marketing item, or brand name, yes, it's pretty much dead. But as a way of thinking- that is, liberal theologically, and semi-obsessed with appeasing the culture- unfortunately no.  

FF: But seriously, do you hope more Christians use humor as a means of dealing with different theological issues? And, should theology be funny?


TK: To the first question, I certainly hope not...my plan is to become rich beyond my wildest dreams, piloting the only mega Media Empire on the planet producing 62 page Christian satire booklets. To the second question...definitely not, though theology always seemed like sort of an afterthought to the EC. What we believe is of the utmost importance. But the emergent church reached sort of a "you laugh or you cry" critical mass a long time ago. We're laughing.


ZB: What Ted said. Right Said Ted.

FF: What do you think the limits should be when lampooning another view? 


TK: Hmmm, that's a tough one. I take comfort in the fact that we see it (humor) in scripture. But it's possible that one could take it too far... so I suppose we should be mindful of that and pray for a sensitive conscience. I also take comfort in the fact that there's nothing, specifically, in scripture prohibiting the lampooning of others  by turning their likenesses into Peanut's characters. (FF note: you have to read the book to get that last part) 

F: Is that D.A Carson who looks like the Joker?

TK: Yes. 

FF: For Ted: With a last name like Kluck, I'm guessing you had to learn to have a sense of humor early on in life, did that help you in writing the book??


TK: Really? What's funny about it? (cue: crickets chirping...)


FF:  For Zach,  your bio states you collect Vintage Evangelica, what's the rarest piece of your collection? (Not about the book, but I just had to know).

ZB: It's called a "cuddle cross." I can't say anymore without spoiling the first webisode of "Pastor Zach's Basement," a web series coming this summer to an Interwebs near you!

FF: In light of the recent "South Park"/Muhammad fiasco, how many death threats do you expect after writing this?

TK: Zero. Emergent guys are pacifists.



FF: Where did you two get the name "Gut Check Press?"

TK: When starting a company, I recommend spending the majority of your time deciding critical things like what sort of a logo would look good on a t-shirt. We were going to go with the name Bethany House, and do a lot of Amish Girl Fiction, but then we realized there was already a company like that...so we went with Gut Check.

ZB: The name was handed down from the very top of the KD Empire. They weren't asking. They were telling.



FF: Since everything gets a sequel these days, will we see "Kinda Christianity 2: The Sequel"?

TK: We're trying to sign Kirk Cameron to do Kinda Christianity: The Movie. Keep checking the website for updates. Also, keep an eye out for our publishing conference, called T4GC (Together 4 Gut Check).

ZB: The Kindle version is out this week; that could be considered a sequel. Also, as we say in the book, we're thining about lampooning Young, Restless, Reformed types (read: us) next, but I have to admit that I'm less than motivated about that project. We've got more exciting, non-emergent-related stuff in the chamber for Gut Check Press.

FF: Are you two planning any other books after this?

ZB: Totally. We have grandiose plans...

TK: Our company is working on a cookbook with a talented young author, a book on arena football, and hopefully a book on hip hop. Lots of irons in the proverbial fire. Though I would anticipate that between going to conferences and having dozens of feasibility committee meetings on those and other ideas...it could take decades.

TK: As a marketing item or brand name, yes, it's pretty much dead.  But as a way of thinking - that is, liberal theologically, and semi-obsessed with appeasing the culture - unfortunately no.

FF: If Ted could go into the ring with one theologian (living or dead) who would it be? Who would win?

TK: Zach will answer this question much better than I can.  Though I would specify that I would like to fight these theologians in the ring in my basement. 

FF: Finally, according to your bio pages, you two seem to like cigars, what brands do you prefer?


TK: Whatever Zach is buying.


ZB: I go for the maduros, for the most part. I prefer Monte Cristos and Ashtons. Although, being a minister who has to buy lots of diapers, I often settle for Romeo y Julietas, Hoyos, or Arturo Fuentes. I think one of my spiritual gifts is to punch people in the head if I see them smoking anything with a plastic or wood tip. That makes Baby Jesus cry. (And it makes Mormon Jesus angry).

                              ***************************************************

Well a special thanks to the two guys for their time. I hope to see a lot of good things to come out from their media empire: Gut Check Press. 

Kinda Christianity

What would Christianity look like if we were all college sophomores? That is the question Ted Cluck and Zach Bartels try to answer. Their answer? Kinda Christianity. The first book published from Ted and Zack's newly formed Gut Check Press, it it setting the pace for the kinds of books they will be publishing (many of them being aimed at men). This first book get's the laughs at every page. With so many people declaring the death of the Emerging church movement, it had to happen that someone would take a funny look back at the movement that gave us such phrases and ideas as:

-Chastised Epistemology

-Greco-Roman Bound Set Theory

-Glocal

-Post-Evangelical

-Village_____ Church

I read through the book today and it is FUNNY! Read it with this warning in mind:

“We know that the late emergent church movement® is pretty much dead. But if emergent taught us anything, it’s that nostalgia sells. Hence this book, which is a guide to emerging, but is also a nostalgic look at a movement that shaped at least six years worth of evangelical history. Let’s remember it together. This is a humble, generous, incarnational, missional, community-based, grassroots guide to becoming emergent. So roll up the sleeves of your intentionally distressed Dickies work shirt, made entirely out of recycled cardboard, and enjoy!”

As you can tell, this isn't a book to seriously discuss at your weekly group at Starbucks or in your incarnational community. It's just a good chuckle. It even comes with a free and equally hilarious study guide.

To be honest, I think we need this kind of book. Some subjects deserve mockery, and ECM is not immune. More so, part of the reason we don't see more books liek this is because people are afraid to poke fun at what clearly deserves to be made fun of. No subject is spared. Starbucks, Post-Modern feminist Theory, and Warehouse churches get taken to the woodchipper. It also includes such subjects as:

Fashion Personal Grooming Finding the Right Workspace Choosing an Emergent Vehicle Naming Your Church Acheiving the Right Atmosphere

Everyone from Brian Mclaren to Che Guevarra and even D.A. Carson (who is strangely made to look like the Joker) show up and get a little pounced on. Though some get more pounced than other's. If you're in the mood to laugh, I can't recommend this book enough.

Hopefully I'll be putting up an interview with the author's soon.