The problem with the Pharasees was not that they were a bunch of goody-two-shoes. They weren’t merely legalists, obsessed with minutiae. Rather, they were desperate people-pleasers. John tells us that the Pharisees “loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God” (John 12:43). What they craved was distinction. Most of us crave some sort of approval from the people around us. JFK wanted it and knew that Harvard would give it to him if he could get in. So, in his entrance essay he wrote, “To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.” Ironically, some years before, the…
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Have Faith Like a Limpet
When I was 13 I went to an adventure island off the coast of Scotland. We climbed mountains, fished, and were taught survival techniques. The big challenge of the trip was to be abandoned on a small island for a night with nothing but a pair of billy cans, a lighter, a plastic sheet, and some flares in case of emergency. My friend and I made our bivouac and then went in search of food. Dinner was to be heather tea and limpets. Limpets are large volcano shaped mollusks attached to rocks. To get them off the rock you have to pull them off quick (sometimes by kicking them). If…
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Sin Cerity
“Sincerity and reality… don’t make it the better. That which is real and hearty is often called sincere; whether it be in virtue or vice. Some persons are sincerely bad; others are sincerely good… But a being sincere, hearty and in good earnest, is no virtue, unless it be in a thing that is virtuous. A man may be sincere and hearty in joining a crew of pirates, or a gang of robbers. When the devils cried out, and besought Christ not to torment them, it was no mere pretense; they were very hearty in their desires not to be tormented: but this did not make their will or desires…
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Pronoun Paradox
If I told you that my car was a Ferrari, you would say I was mistaken. You would probably take me outside to my driveway and point saying, “look! your car is a Saturn Vue.” If I replied, “no, it is a Ferrari,” you would think that something had gone very wrong. You might point again and say “but can’t you see? Just look at that white car over there! It looks nothing like a Ferrari.” “White car?” I reply. “But that car is red. And it is a Ferrari.” Now you are clear: Ben has lost his mind. Let’s assume I have not lost my mind, that I am…
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God and Government
“we are obedient to a power that is not only higher than the current government, but a power that was the basis of our government” (Mike Huckabee) Tony Blair was most forceful on this point: I don’t do God, he said. Lately, western governments have followed suit. Talking about God and government is just too messy. For a start, there are too many divinities and they all say slightly different things. And then there are militant atheists for whom the mention of anything that has a whiff of divinity is likely to get you trolled and it certainly diminishes your chances of getting their vote. So what’s a god to…
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Christian Cultural Criticism And The Way of Death
“This is the end” Jerry Falwell This is my first experience of an American culture war. And it’s a heated one. In a war like this the voice of the cultural critic is an important one and, for the Christian, a calling, a calling to talk frankly about sin and doom. And after the recent murders perhaps we should listen. Such a task is not novel or a side effect of early twentieth century fundamentalism. Calling out a culture on its sin has been the job of Christians since the church began. Apart from the Bible, which has a lot to say about sin, The Didache, written in the first century, had…
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After Naturalism…
Naturalism has peeked. And when it has collapsed something else will take its place. The question is: What? Naturalism is a combination of a method and an assumption. Methodologically, naturalism is the attempt to understand the world through the natural sciences. The assumption, which, theoretically at least, can be overturned at any moment, is that all that exists is material (whether these two are happy bedfellows is a discussion better left for another day). I say that this assumption can be overturned at any moment because natural sciences don’t claim to have all data at their finger tips. Fairies could be found at the bottom of an English garden and…
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What We Swim In
The aim of this post is cultural awareness. Not merely an awareness of what is happening in culture, what culture produces and an awareness of one’s own reactions, but an awareness of assumptions, “underpinnings” as I will call them. To merely observe a culture and then say what you see is not enough and often leads to oversimplification. As a recent writer for the Huffington Post wrote: As a “Millennial,” perhaps one of the most annoyingly over used classifications in modern lexicon, we are Occupy Wall Streeters and aspiring investment bankers. We consume fast food with frightening regularity yet also create Pinterest-worthy organic meals. We dress in $300 jeans or…