theo|digital

Made it to Wrigley twice before heading out here to Colorado. Here’s some pics from 5 May with seminary friends Andrew, Kelsey, and Angie.

I like how I got Sean Marshall’s entire windup.

Wrigley Giants @ Cubs May 2009

Out here in Colorado I’m so isolated from the Cubs! Haven’t seen one game since arriving. Just watching the numbers get worse…

Hard to believe it’s my birthday! I’m barely tracking dates. I’m trying to make a last push on my thesis before leaving town (making some decent progress, actually), and Colorado looms large–I leave here in two weeks! But for my birthday I’m gonna head with just a few friends over to the Chicago Brauhaus for some German sausage and beer and hopefully live polka, which sounds fun.

I’m grateful for my friends all over the place–thanks to those of you who have loved and supported me for a long time. Typically, I’d want to craft something more thoughtful on that, but I think today simple will have to do.

The Covenant Church website has a feature story on my roommate and classmate, Luke Johnson.

‘Frisbee’ Passion Drives Student’s Choice of Seminary

By Stan Friedman

CHICAGO, IL (November 11, 2008) –  Luke Johnson had to decide whether to work fulltime for Young Life or attend North Park Theological Seminary. The decision was a difficult one as the seminary had offered him a Presidential Scholarship, which would pay all of his tuition.

In the end, Johnson says he chose the seminary because it gave him the opportunity to play Ultimate Frisbee.

Johnson is one of a number of North Park students and Covenanters – especially youth groups – across the country who are passionate about the game. The school also increasingly has become a national presence in both men’s and women’s competition.
Read the rest

I’ve never posted on abortion, once I’m finished here, I still won’t have. The issue itself is remarkably painful and deserves compassionate, biblical, and thoughtful care.

This post is about Christian political reasoning.

As much as some pro-life voters want to say it’s not, nuance matters on the issue of legal abortion as well as US political office.  I think for me to say this is not to cave or be weak, it is to think carefully.  I say it again:  all-or-nothing arguments are not accurate when it comes to these issues.

Recently, I was forwarded a blog post by a Christian friend who is voting on the abortion issue. The post he cited is by Randy Alcorn, and it began helpfully concerning Alcorn’s interest in Obama as a pro-racial-equality, pro-environment candidate.  And the end of the day Mr. Alcorn says he will not vote for Obama because of the abortion issue.  While I definitely respect his position, I can’t agree with all his rhetoric. Here’s some comments:

Then the sad day came. I checked out Obama’s actual position on abortion and I was demoralized. I found that in every single vote related to the issue he’s favored abortion, its legality and even the killing of children who survive abortion.

Obama is definitely “pro-choice.” This is the Democratic party platform and he’s supported it. I can’t agree with him (or the party) on this issue.

But some facts should be clarified here. The most atrocious: that Barack Obama would allow a baby just born of a failed abortion to die (actually, Randy is stronger and says “kill”). If this is true, Obama is a monster!

Over-strong claims should be questioned from either side, and this one is awfully untrue. It defies common sense that it’s repeated.

Obama did vote “present” (not “no”) on the Born Alive Infants Protection act in the Illinois Senate. It’s also true that he was the only senator to speak against the bill on the floor. Opponents want to frame this to make him look almost evil, or without a conscience. But better put: he was the only senator to take the time to explain his vote. And if you read his explanation on the floor, his concerns aren’t anti-life. They are that he was pretty sure the way the current bill was worded, it would be ruled unconstitutional by the 7th Circuit Court.

We forget that Obama was a constitutional law professor. He has some useful opinions on these things.

In one of many later interviews on the section, Obama further explains that the law was redundant. The current Illinois State law, and explicitly federal law finally signed into law in 2002 already require doctors to give life-saving treatment to babies born viable of botched abortions. Not to mention the hippocratic oath of the Illinois Medical Association. The statue was more a political move than a real piece of legislation.

I’ll stop my argument and agree that I think Obama could have voted better here.  But baby-killing kind of insinuations are powerful images that stick even when they’re more the result of bright paint than underlying substance.  In short:  it’s unfair to demonize this too much.

But Obama is savvy. He wants to attract young voters, including young evangelical Christians who are sort-of-prolife. He knows to say that he favors reducing or limiting abortions.

Can we point out that this is loaded language? By that to mean, the real argument of the sentences lies “under” the actual statement. “He knows to say” implies strong that Barack Obama is lying.

If this is the charge (and this is rather serious), this one must be supported instead of insinuated.

Which is like limiting rather than criminalizing murder and rape and kidnapping and slavery. A candidate could say “I’m personally opposed to rape,” while he has a 100% voting record favoring the legality of rape. And he could say he favors limiting or reducing the number of rapes. But if he actually supports the legality of the hideous crime of rape, discerning people would see through his rhetoric of rape-reduction.

This argument is a logical fallacy. Abortion cannot be = to rape, kidnapping, slavery, etc, because there is no wide-spread controversy on any of these issues. Therefore they must be approached differently. I believe abortion is morally wrong (as with rape of course), but over 50% of the country doesn’t.

Please read me carefully. I’m not saying actual morality is really determined by majority opinion. God only determines (and reveals) the beautiful and awful in his Creation. What I’m saying that it’s a fatally flawed analogy for democratically elected politicians in a pluralistic society.

John McCain wasn’t my first choice for president. But at least McCain’s a hero, he suffered for his country and fellow soldiers. And at least he thinks innocent children shouldn’t be slaughtered, and has consistently voted that way.

The hero language just doesn’t relate. :-7 I agree McCain’s a Vietnam hero. I also am not sure it relates to being a Christian and voting for Obama when it comes to abortion.

McCain has voted consistently pro-life in the Sentate.

Too bad Presidents don’t vote on legislation.

In fact, the President has little or no direct control on abortion in the United States. About the only thing they can directly control whether abortions on military bases overseas are federally funded. More on this in a second.

I am deeply concerned about the one, two or possibly three Supreme Court justices to be appointed in the next presidential term

The best link here would to any site showing George W. Bush as the presidential candidate in the 2000 election that was pro-life, would probably have to pick several judges, and if elected, would overturn Roe v Wade (like a debate transcript).

Let me say more directly: we’ve had a pro-life President for eight years. Has appointed two supreme court justices, one of them (wait for it…) … the Chief Justice!  But has the legality of abortion changed?

My implication is this: the President of the United States doesn’t have the power to end abortion in America. My conclusion is this: this is not what the thinking Christian votes on as a primary issue (an issue? Yes. The issue? Contradicts both logical sense and real life experience).  (Maybe this Doonsbury says it better than I am…)

Again, I’m not saying abortion is not a serious moral issue. I’m suggesting that a political vote for federal executive isn’t the key way to affect it.

If you listen to the candidates, it’s obvious that McCain/Palin would make a concerted effort to choose justices likely to reverse Roe v. Wade and it is equally obvious that Obama/Biden would choose justices most likely to uphold Roe v. Wade.

Here’s where it gets real hard to keep a straight face. McCain in 2000 ran in the presidential race on a platform where he would not seek to overturn Roe v Wade. (example: Guardian article 15 Feb 2000) It’s why National Right to Life was running radio ads against him.  Do we forget quickly? Mr. Alcorn worries that the younger evangelicals might be vulnerable to smooth talk, but I’m not sure if he’s the one being a little hoodwinked. This is Donald Miller’s concern. I agree with him.

Again, I don’t need to disagree with Mr. Alcorn on the moral issue of abortion… just questioning his clarity on the politics of it.

ps – Don doesn’t think Obama is the Messiah.  Neither do I.  Check out him poking fun of his campaign e-mails.

I’m already long, so I won’t go further into the ways that Obama has pledged to work towards the reduction of the number of abortions, or even his thoughts on variety of other essential life-issues that I believe Christians should care about like poverty and war.

My final disagreement isn’t on the topic of abortion. It’s the insinuation that those who vote for Obama are trying to be “cool” or be in the majority crowd. Maybe that’s the case for some. For me, I’m voting for Obama because of his fundamentally intelligent approach to a wide variety of complicated issues both at home and abroad. Especially abroad, because the President’s role has the most direct impact over military and diplomatic issues off our shores.  And I follow church planter Alan Hirsch when he mentions that the world opinion is quite toward Obama, and this really does mean something.

Well, I reach the end of one of my longest posts hoping I’ve been gracious, thoughtful, accurate, and loving.  We’ll see (I’m hope my friends will point out where I haven’t).  But this is honest to my thoughts right now.  I’m a Christian, I believe abortion is part of the moral despair of our society, yet I believe I can consistently vote for Barack Obama.

One of my best friends Nick just convinced this cute girl to spend the rest of her life with him.  Being trapped back here in Colorado, I had to follow the story long distance, but it was made easier by a couple other good friends with telephoto lenses.  Congratulations, Nick and Amy.  Love you guys.

This is another treading water post, but so-be-it. I’m planning on climbing the high-dive into Marshall McLuhan later this week, so we’ll hit some pool-grate content then. That’ll be good for me too… it’s funny how my brain feels right now… like I was hitting the gym five times a week and suddenly just stopped for the last month. No heavy reading, discussion, writing. It’s been great, but I’m ready to start the lightweight Keep Those Mental Muscles Warm workout.

I just returned from a 4-day jaunt to Chicago to stand beside my friends Mark & Nicole as they got married. Both were in an I-Team/small group I led lots of years ago when they started dating, and I had lived with Mark in the DawgHaus for five years—my longest roommate outside my buddy Tim. These weddings are always the tears-kind of happy and have the habit of feeling like a short-term museum of relationships arranged nicely at banquet tables. I hugged many I-Life friends and alumni, although I was most warmly surprised to see my friends currently living in Germany: Abby (though no Jeff) and Nate and Steph.

There’s something about the honor of having a had small effect on many people in the same place that made me take a couple seconds near the cheese and fruit table to shed a few tears and thank God for a good life. A gratitude of Now that hasn’t always come quickly this year.

In random thought land:

• United Airlines should be given an award for consistent awful service, and a real bonus should be given to the three total employees they hire to service hundreds of people at a time at large airports: the poor folks are set up to fail. I’ve always usually bought tickets mostly by price and itinerary, not by brand, because they’ve seemed mostly the same. But while a brand has never garnered a positive enough reputation to get my loyalty (possible exception: Southwest Airlines back when they were funny and felt different), United has now succeeded in gaining my negative respect. I’ll be excluding them from future ticket searches, and will be willing to pay more to avoid them, sad to say. ps—as of last Friday, they’ll be charging you any time you check a bag. Really.
• In political poll world, Gallup’s perception polls are interesting. Regardless of who people actually support, Obama leads significantly in who people think will win. The breakdowns are predictable (less Republicans think he will win), but Gallup seemed suprised that the 18-34 crowd—by far Obama’s best demographic—was actually less likely to think he’ll take the Presidency. But this fits the profile: the current post-mod gen is diverse and engaged, but typically cynical (read: roll-eyes despairing) about future goals actually happening, despite the enthusiasm.

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Now playing: Gomez – Cry on Demand
via FoxyTunes

I’ve been incommunicado because my weekend rushed into this Friday, May 2nd, which was my 30th birthday. Wow. Had a great time down here in Champaign – 30 of my friends (not planned like that) joined me at the Dawg Haus for:

• 80 pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken (there’s a 1-800 number you order from with Cheery Chicken People on the other end)
• 20 lbs of mashed potatoes (I made them myself because I wanted to – plus, nobody knows my secret ingredient)
• 48 biscuits
• 3 lbs of buttered corn
• 1 gallon of thick sawmill gravy (5 sticks of butter and whole milk)
• adult picnic-ish drink of choice: hard lemonade.

Honestly, it was just what I wanted on my birthday: some of my closet friends just chillin’ around the DawgHaus and me getting to host it. There’s something about being able to give on your birthday that’s a lot better than getting. Or maybe in the new economy of God’s community, those categories aren’t even that helpful.
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Now playing: The Weepies – Hideaway
via FoxyTunes

For about three hours, I’ve been sitting around trying to think of something poetic about turning 30.

It’s not working (though I did some sweet by-hand ASCII art of your name).

I think I thought, that because both you and I are turning thirty within four weeks together, that I’d be writing from an interior, inspired perspective. A truly empathetic celebration of what it’s like to be born in the 70s but not really remember Vietnam or where Tom Petty came from.

Really, I think we’re children of the early nineties.

Not that we grew up very similarly. You formed by Sports Center and Decatur and Nazarenes. Me by the Navy Exchange and pianos and AP Computer Science. Our sisters on opposite sides, our family tensions written all differently.

30. The best part of laminating numbers as landmarks is that you can make them submit to the mathematics of fear, such as realizing that we double our age (30 times 2) and you and I are both eligible for the Senior Citizen discount in most McDonalds. I don’t think I want that to be something I’m afraid of (I don’t know if you are), but there’s something in me that wants to see my life count so much, and my youthfulness is still pretty sure meaningful impact can’t happen past 39. (Yeah. That number’s already gone up.) It’s just that every time I see a live Fox News interview with a guy that’s 24 years old and the CEO of Tech Wonder, Inc., I become more certain that I’ve missed my chance to be Something. This is where my faith in God’s narrative is pulled thin: do I really believe that discipleship is a winning way to live life, or should I start buying lottery tickets?

Here’s where I’m planning on being all sappy about this whole next phase of life for us, except you know, it really is a whole new phase of life for us. You just got married. And both of us are leaving our “first job” to go back for some capital investment. I think the scariest part is not that the immediate choices are intimidating (though they have been), but more that the fog seems to be a lot closer to the boat. It’s harder to predict what’s ahead on the water in just two years. What five used to feel like. I wonder if the fog will lift again once some transition passes, or if growing in Trust means that’s How It Is.

Some important things to know about 30. 30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31. It is a primorial as well as the sum of the squares of the integers 1, 2, 3 and 4. It is the smallest Giuga number. 30 is the smallest sphenic number, and the smallest of the form where r is a prime greater than 3. It is the sum of the first four squares, which makes it a square pyramidal number. Adding up some subsets of its divisors (e.g., 5, 10 and 15) gives 30, hence 30 is a semiperfect number.

A polygon with thirty sides is called a tricontagon.

The chances of you understanding all that is about 30 times higher than me.

And while we’re here for a second – I think that’s a pretty good thing. Our differences have sanded each other. Remember that conversation we had one time about not thinking we’d probably have been natural friends? It’s hard to know I guess, but being forgiven and put on the same mission has been an experience of closeness that I wouldn’t replace. And I hope there’s a lot more to come, both rough and smooth. It’s still true that “love, ty” at the end of notes you’ve written over the years is one of the most encouraging things in my life to keep on Jesus’ road.

Wikipedia (where else did the math come from?) also mentions that Jesus was thirty when he began his ministry.

Guess we should start growing our hair out.
The grey doesn’t come ‘till next decade.

love,
chris

ps – visit Ty Grigg.

One of my newer friends is Josh W, the slightly older brother-person to my good friend Matt. Since he (and Matt) both live two hours from me in Champaign, about the best we got is idea exchange, and I’m liking Josh’s thoughts on some of our culture discussion. Having done some studies in theology from a Catholic perspective, it’s a different voice. So Josh, I’m gonna have a go at a few of your most recent comments.

–
Here’s what strikes me as odd about these characterizations – none of them talk about culture as it relates to evangelization.
You catch me off-guard on your observation here. Evangelism is not the first thing I think of in the starting conversation about Christianity and culture.

Maybe first, I’m still thinking of culture in a pretty wide sense. Driving a Japanese-made car. Blue toothbrushes. Required volleyball games during high school P.E. class. Cheerios. Walking on the right side of the sidewalk. Socks. Shaking hands. Smoking or non?

In other words, I want to think of culture first like fish to water – invisible, ubiquitous, and necessary. This lets me emphasize what I have in common with all other humans. We are all fish. And we all swim in water.

To that extent, I think TM Moore isn’t that wrong when he says most Christians seems to fall into his “culturally indifferent” category. Not only have they not spent a serious amount of time pondering their culture, but they haven’t even thought about the category.

Many more conservative Christians *have* spent a more time thinking about how to react to certain pop art productions of culture – music and tv. This is small compared to the wider pie. We can have lots of good discussion here, but the point is, to discuss Christianity and culture might be to discuss immoral effects of economic systems or cultural understanding of sexuality before we get to Scrubs.

I’m way off your thoughts. Back to them.

So few observations (not in order):

Culture can be engaged to evangelize non-believers.
One, is to notice you start with the Christian/non-Christian divide. I hardly deny its reality (I’m a missionary!), but I’d want to begin with same-ness before walking toward difference.


We celebrate liturgical seasons like Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter… things like the rosary, litanies, etc.)
Second, you speak of Christian ritual which some Christians (particularly the liturgical and Catholic traditions) celebrate. Isn’t this Christian culture? By that I mean, it isn’t the natural culture of the girl working at Best Buy today – it’s very foreign to her. Popular American culture and liturgical church culture seems about as far apart as Iranian culture and sushi. Two different cultures colliding or perhaps, if they attend a “inter-cultural function” – in some awkward dialogue. I guess when I’m speaking of how Christians should engage culture, I’m not thinking of how a Christian culture engages a secular culture. This is also to start with both difference and establishment.

(Unless we are making an assumption that general culture and Christian culture are actually the same or similar, but that’s Christendom, and I assume we’re agreed that the world of the Holy Roman Empire is not today.)

But I think what’s most interesting is the idea of using culture as a tool. Culture can be used or engaged in order to accomplish a goal. Back to our fish/water analogy. How does that work?

These were random thoughts. I’m sure Josh will have more. Hopefully next I’ll get to John Howard Yoder and Duane Friesen.

My roommate Mark is pretty good at using his camera. This is his shot, prior to my inevitable return. It was good enough that Chicago webzine Gapers Block picked it up for their photo-o-the-day! Congrats Mark. Congrats my bedroom.