“Our job is to stand with one foot on earth and one in heaven, with the double vision that is the gift of faith, and to say out of our own experience that reality is not flat but deep, not opaque but transparent, not meaningless but shot full of grace for those with the least willingness to believe it is so.”
- Barbara Brown Taylor
Archive for September, 2003
Got stuck watching “Fox News” at the health club again this morning. (Have to get there before 5:45 to make sure CNN is on!) The thing that bothers me most about Fox is their phrase: “We report; you decide.” It’s the myth of objectivity. We’re just reporting, and we’ll let you decide.
This morning the anchors presented some news involving the United Nations. After the report, one of them said, “You know I’m not much of a fan of the UN. It’s just a bunch of people trying to keep their jobs.” Then they cut away with the “We report; you decide” mantra.
As they came back, they reported a new law in California. One of the anchors yelled, “That is so stupid!” Again, “We report; you decide.”
Occasionally they cut away to a radio personality in Chicago called “Man Cow,” whose job it is to be as bombastic, lurid, and lecherous as possible. “We report; you decide.”
Can you imagine Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw (or Matt Lauer or Katie Couric, for that matter) ending a report by saying, “That’s so stupid”?
Of course, other media aren’t entirely objective either. Choices are made about which stories are reported, about how they are reported, and about whom to interview. But at least they’re not trying to whitewash it with “We report; you decide.”
I heard a Greek professor once try to convince his audience that he was undoubtedly right because, as he said, “I’m just reading text.” He claimed he wasn’t interpreting–just reading the Bible. But of course he was interpreting! No one gets upset when you read the Bible. It’s when you start to explain it that the fireworks can begin.
We all bring our backgrounds, our biases, and our preferences to the table. That isn’t to say we can never come to confident conclusions, but it does mean we come with humility, knowing that we aren’t completely objective.
This summer I did a lot of reading about the “emerging church” movement. I’m so encouraged by what I’ve been learning about it. For the most part the leaders are younger Christians who are passionate about the gospel and who are tired of the consumerism of much of the megachurch movement.
Here are some themes that kept popping up:
1. A focus on beauty–in art, in nature, in humanity.
2. A focus on “the kingdom of God” rather than just on atonement. There is an emphasis on the life of Jesus (as well on as his death) and on God’s larger purposes in Christ (as hinted at in Genesis 1-2).
3. A focus on community–truly entering one another’s lives toward healing and holiness.
4. A focus on mission and witness–rejecting the consumerism (”Here’s how we can serve all your needs”) so common in megachurches.
5. A focus on justice–living right with the poor, with other nations, and with the environment.
6. A focus on simplicity. One of the leaders said a better name than “emerging church” might be “the organic church.”
Want to know more? You might want to start with Dan Kimball’s THE EMERGING CHURCH. Mike Yaconelli’s STORIES OF EMERGENCE and Robert Webber’s THE YOUNGER EVANGELICALS will inspire you. And don’t miss out on their guru, Brian McLaren. Start with A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIAN and THE STORY WE FIND OURSELVES IN. Then maybe move on to McLaren’s MORE READY THAN YOU REALIZE (a great book on “evangelism as dance in the postmodern matrix”).
For helpful websites, check out Emerging Village, Ecclesia Church, The Ooze, and Dan Kimball’s Vintage Faith.