A Month in the Life

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal'.

"I have a dream that one daay on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of the skin but by the content of their character.

"I have a dream today!

"I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of 'interposition' and 'nullification'-one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

"I have a dream today!

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; 'and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together'."

-Martin Luther King, Jr., The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.

MLK's Day
I know us Internet types are known for the voracious speed with which we consume information, rapidly cruising from site to site, like so many honeybees always looking for some new flower. However, take 5 minutes and soak your soul in the heart of one of the most amazing sermons ever preached. I think the apostle Paul would have said, "Wow."

I am really beginning to dig (African-American slang from the West African verb digga, "to understand") black church history; last March, I presented a paper at the UGST Symposium (that's Urshan Graduate School of Theology, the first UPC seminary) arguing that the major root of the Pentecostal movement, especially the Oneness variation, is the African-American church, extending all the way back to antebellum, plantation days! (For those of you who aren't sure what a "symposium" is; it's where Word nerds go to have fun. And what do nerds do for fun? They read their research papers to each other! So just imagine lockerroom backslapping and cajoling accompanied by, "Yo, dude! Check out this totally awesome Aramaic verb I found in the 2nd chapter of Daniel; it's like related to this other obscure Greek word and it's totally blowin' my mind, dude!") Sorry, the Pastor Winter effect hasn't quite worn off yet. But, yeah. Complete boredom for the halfway normal person, but I like it. I can see my wife reading this praying: "Please let our daughter be like me! Please let her be like me!" Which is fine with me; my wife's the "cool" factor in our family.

Anyway, that's the long way around to saying, MLK/Civil Rights Movement is way up on my interest meter. So, I was remembering today a really weird experience I had last year, right about the time I was exploring the West African roots of Oneness Pentecostal's reverence for Jesus' name. I was conversing with a "ministerial colleague" who shall remain nameless; however, it shall be mentioned that he was from a rather more southernly orientation to the Mason-Dixon Line. So I say, off-handedly, "You know, I'm really impressed by MLK; he really transformed American culture in the 60s." And this beloved brother in the Lord responds, "Yeah, too bad he was such a womanizer."

I admit, probably the main reason I was angry is that he wasn't as enthusiastic about my learning as I was. But when my beloved brother happens to be white, something just really set me off. Now, this man is my elder, so I (thank God!) held my tongue. But, there is a lesson here (maybe); I'm sure Martin Luther King had his failings, his skeletons in the closet, but we remember him not for how he lived but for how he died. History is very forgiving when you devote your life to a cause. Why does the media so despise Paris Hilton (other than the fact that she is an idiot!) yet still so thoroughly canonize Princess Di? Both are, in one sense, "spoiled rich girls", but Diana had a cause (or "causes"); she attempted to do something truly good with her public life, no matter how mixed up personal matters may have gotten. Paris Hilton has a poodle. Or a chihuahua. Or a mole-rat. Or whatever that purse-vermin she totes around is!

Leif Enger and a Great Idea
Because of the inclement weather (which actually turned about to be more "clement" than first forecasted), our church cancelled service last night. However, I was privileged to attend for a third time a new short-story club, co-led by our illustrious editor of 90/9. All members are busy professionals/college students (hence, the short-story club), who have an interest in reading and discussing quality fiction by Christian writers. We only meet once-a-month and the page limit is 20 pages per story, so it's not overtaxing (remember when you quit that book club when the president said, "I just love Russian and American literature. So, this month, let's read Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov and next month will read Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full? Remember how you conveniently "forgot" to show up or return any phone calls? Yep, you remember.) And I, as the resident OT guy/person/dude, get the distinct honor of taking every theological rabbit trail I can find; so far, the club members have been good sports. They're saying, "What did you think of this character?" and I'm saying, "She was interesting. But the real question is does Keat's dictum: 'Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth,' really meet the criteria of a Christian aesthetic? Is is theologically accurate?" Thus, they humor me, and I'm grateful to be a part.

This month's selection was a couple chapters from Leif Enger's debut novel Peace Like a River. I promise you, use the 90/9 Amazon link and buy it! As soon as I finish Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude (another great read), it's next. He's got the sure, comic sense of story like Garrison Keillor, brilliant verb-construction, and this luminescent faith in God that glows through every crevice of the book. Often, the "witness" in Christian writing has all the subtlety and attractiveness of an interrogator's flashlight in the eyes. (Sorta like this: "The only way that you will escape this maniacal killer who's in the car behind you," screamed Julia, "is if you repeat the Sinner's Prayer after me! It goes like this . . .") The message is so, well, "forced", that it even turns me off as "corny". Enger's not like that; the Christianity in the book is like the soft shimmer before sunrise, almost imperceptible, always growing stronger the longer you look, and-most importantly-natural and flowing!

What has most amazed me about this "story club" idea is its stark simplicity; literally, anybody could do something like this. You don't have to do specifically "Christian" stories (there aren't a whole ton of serious "Christian" authors"); you could just do your favorite stories and discuss why you like them so much. I would so love to see story clubs like this pop up throughout the movement; it's a perfect way to begin the long journey to truly engaging our culture. And if any of you are doing this or something like it or have done something similar in the past, please let me know. This could be a great non-threatening evangelism tool-it could be a million things! My mind is bursting right now with the potential of this concept; I think I'll have to sleep on it. Let you know if I get any major revelations tomorrow. G'night!


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!