May 7, 2009 by iMonk
iMonk 101 posts are replays of previous Internet Monk posts.
This piece comes from February of ‘07 and was written in response to comments by then NBA player Tim Hardaway about gays. I’ve never republished it. Hardaway apologized for his comments, but Jewish pundit Michael Medved wrote a column that gave the Jesus-subtracted culture war view of the subject. I think it will keep the IM audience involved in the Andrew Marin/Love is an Orientation discussion.
UPDATE: Michael Medved regularly reminds me of the difference Jesus makes in how I look at a cultural issue and how a Jewish conservative looks at the same issue. Law by Moses. Grace and Truth by Jesus.
“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” he said. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.” -Former NBA player Tim Hardaway.
As soon as I read the comments of former NBA player Tim Hardaway, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I heard a Christian come as close as possible to saying the exact same sentiment.
True to my intuition, it happened within a week. “Let’s not join the secular media in condemning Hardaway for not being politically correct, because as Christians, we hate that sin, too…..” [Continue reading]
April 19, 2009 by iMonk
From April of ‘08.
“Now – here is my secret:
I tell it to you with an openness of heart
that I doubt I shall ever achieve again,
so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words.
My secret is that I need God –
that I am sick and can no longer make it alone.
I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving;
to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness;
to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love”
- Life After God, Douglas Coupland, (p. 359) HT to Tim at Sacrosanct Gospel
Did you ever wonder why Jesus didn’t call anyone from the religious establishment or extant established religious movements to be one of his disciples? I think I’m starting to see it more clearly, both in the gospels and in my own experience. [Continue reading]
April 15, 2009 by iMonk
This post is from November of ‘04. It’s a little quote from Martin Luther that’s the kind of anti-legalism/moralism injection all of us need occasionally. Some of you won’t like it for better reasons than others. I like it because Luther gets Jesus and isn’t afraid to be provocative to help me get him too.
This woud be a great excuse for you to buy the NRP “Weak on Sanctification” t-shirt.
“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.” -Martin Luther
Martin Luther is certainly my favorite person in church history. Time and again his grasp of the Gospel and unabashed honest humanity have come to my rescue. Luther has an ability to make the Gospel as outrageous as possible, and to chase the rats of legalism out of the attic before they make a nest. [Continue reading]
April 7, 2009 by iMonk
This is perhaps my favorite statement of the Gospel that I’ve every written. The best sermons should preach to yourself. The Luther quote at the end still rocks me. I’ve been working on this to make it “book friendly,” and I wanted to share it with the IM audience again. If you’re a “good Christian,” go do something else. If you are a mess, this is my gift to you. From 2004 I think.
The voice on the other end of the phone told a story that has become so familiar to me, I could have almost finished it from the third sentence. A respected and admired Christian leader, carrying the secret burden of depression, had finally broken under the crushing load of holding it all together. As prayer networks in our area begin to make calls and send e-mails, the same questions are asked again and again. “How could this happen? How could someone who spoke so confidently of God, someone whose life gave such evidence of Jesus’ presence, come to the point of a complete breakdown? How can someone who has the answers for everyone one moment, have no answers for themselves the next?”
Indeed. Why are we, after all that confident talk of “new life,” “new creation,” “the power of God,” “healing,” “wisdom,” “miracles,” “the power of prayer,” …why are we so weak? Why do so many “good Christian people,” turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed. Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I thought we were different. [Continue reading]
April 5, 2009 by iMonk
From March ‘08.
Because I’ve been wrestling with Protestant/Catholic issues throughout this past year, I receive a lot of email from those who have moved outside of their lifelong evangelicalism and somewhere within sight of the catholic tradition, if not the Roman Catholic church.
Some of that mail takes me to blogs and the writing of people who are in a tortured state of mind and heart. Some are ministers strongly drawn to Roman Catholicism. They have read Hahn and Howard. They are listening to The Coming Home Network on EWTN. They are tired of evangelicalism’s circus atmosphere, its deficits and its many problems.
The unity, antiquity and beauty of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy stand in stark contrast to the divisions, innovations and shallowness of evangelicalism. I have no problem understanding this attraction. It seems that Luther made a terrible mistake, and every person who “goes home” can take satisfaction in healing that historically disastrous and unnecessary rift. [Continue reading]
March 31, 2009 by iMonk
From February of 2005. I’ve never reprinted this one and it’s one of the most “Jesus shaped” essays I’ve written. I have renamed it. It was originally called “Read It Again…And Don’t Skip The Hard Parts.”
Let’s be honest. A lot of Christians have no idea what to do with the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry. What does it mean? What does it have to do with evangelism, church growth and “having a great life now?”
Many of the readers of Internet Monk are familiar with my interest in the Gospel of Mark. I started seriously studying Mark in 1982, in my second year at seminary. I’ve continued reading and studying Mark ever since, in much greater depth than any other Gospel.
Since I came to where I serve today, I’ve had the opportunity to teach the Gospel of Mark 2-5 times a year for a 9-12 week term for 15 of my 17 years here. The Gospel of Mark has really become a part of my mental furniture, and I know my friends have logged plenty of eye-rolls when I reference the Gospel at every possible opportunity. [Continue reading]
March 19, 2009 by iMonk
(From November of ‘08. Part of what this web site is all about. And why some new readers may not exactly get it at first.)
We talk about the evangelical wilderness around here a lot. It’s sometimes academic, and sometimes it’s very personal to all of us. These are some of my thoughts from there today. If God has taught me anything, it’s that you (yes YOU) are out there, and I’m not the only one.
This post is for a particular group of people.
People who really don’t have any choices about what church you attend. Through circumstance or choice, you are a church monogamist, not a church shopper.
You may be a person in a rural area, and your church choices are extremely limited. Maybe, if you are conscientious about your use of fuel and time, your choices are non-existent. [Continue reading]
March 18, 2009 by iMonk
Posted this a little more than a year ago. Relevant to the recent discussions of the future of evangelicalism.
***Music by The Doors: “The End.”***
There was an elf that met the children at the door. Also in this room was a store that had Barbies, action figures, Brats Dolls, and all of the most popular items that you would find in a Toy-R-Us catalog the day after Thanksgiving. In order for kids to get the merchandise, they had to say a memory verse and earn store credits. The first thing my kids said to me when I went to pick them up was ”Daddy, can we start going to this church?” Can you blame them? For kids, this was a dream church.
If you listened to the interview I just did on Steve Brown, Etc., you may recall a moment when Steve and Eric asked me what was wrong with evangelicalism, and I said it was over. Steve gave a more hopeful view and I admitted that there were some hopeful signs out there, well off the media radar and among ordinary people.
Well Steve, it was a moment of weakness. You were being nice and I fell under your influence. But then I read C. Michael Patton’s post “The Entertainment Driven Church,” and I realized I was right: Evangelicalism is over. Long live post-evangelicalism. (Whatever we are/it is.) [Continue reading]
March 11, 2009 by iMonk
One of the first big splashes this blog made was when this post (2002!) made it into the atheist blogosphere. I got about a hundred notes from atheists saying “Thanks.” I’ve always agreed with what I wrote here, and I’ve always felt it was important. I also know that many culture-warring Christians will say this is a surrender document and I should join in the hatred of those who sometimes hate us. Check with Jesus on that one.
Here’s “Why Do They Hate Us?” from this blog, 2002 version.
I don’t really know why someone thought it was necessary to do a poll to see just who were the most disliked groups in society, but the results are in. While serial killers and IRS agents still come in last, hot on their heels are evangelical Christians. Not Christians in general. Not Roman Catholics. Not all Christians, but evangelical Christians. [Continue reading]
March 10, 2009 by iMonk
So let’s move on….back to some of the predecessors of this little furor.
From October of ‘08, this was a shorter piece on evangelicalism called “One Stock That Needs To Drop.”
If you enjoyed “Collapse,” this is a shorter bit, with a twist at the end. Don’t let the economic metaphor depress you.
Couple of notes from today’s discussion: [Continue reading]
March 1, 2009 by iMonk
iMonk 101 features posts from the iMonk’s vast archive of provocative material.
A blast from the past; August 2005 to be exact. “Plan 9 From Lower Space” was an excursion into one of my favorite literary forms: The Screwtape Letter. In this episode, “Scrawlwart” orients “Bebblerot” to the greatest discovery the demonic realm every made: Without much trouble, the church will do your job for you.
One problem: none of the links work anymore and I’m too lazy to fix the ones to other pieces at IM (Wretched Urgency.) The referenced “file” was a story from our stalwart and dependable state Baptist newspaper telling pastors that parking and landscaping was more important than preaching in a visitor’s decision to return to your church. (Really, by the time that discussion is happening, things are so far gone there’s little hope for recovery. Check back in ten years and hope there was a split.)
READ: “Plan 9 From Lower Space.”
February 12, 2009 by iMonk
It is the tradition of this web site to hear my confessions, my struggles and my emotions. This is what is what was on my table in November of ‘07. I can’t explain it to you; all I can do is write and pray. Trusting God is hard. His ways are not my ways, and his ways are unthinkably difficult for me right now. So if you don’t understand these kinds of posts, I’m sorry. My journey. My struggles. My questions. My wrestling with God.
Here is the original posting and the comments there.
My Bible classes watch a lot of the “Turner” Bible movies. I’ve seen them all so many times that I frequently get them confused with scripture itself. Their storylines and scripts are embedded in my mind and I have to, occasionally, sort things out.
For example, in the movie “David,” the prophet Nathan tells David, “God makes it difficult to be a king.” Scripture never says that (at least not that I know of) but it is appropriate for the story of David and his particular failures. [Continue reading]
February 1, 2009 by iMonk
Considering the discussion on treating servers like Jesus would, this seemed like a good post to resurrect. From April of 07.
Studying Acts with my students, it’s freshly clear to me that the immediate struggle of the early Christians was not only, or even particularly, theological, but practical.
How do we live out, in the church, family, community and world, the significance of Jesus NOW?
What kind of behavior, actions and community appear in “”the Kingdom of God” as Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit create it on earth (and as the church is a “demonstration plot” of the Kingdom?) That is what we’re praying for…right?
What are the relevant issues where the application of the way of Jesus will make an immediate difference? [Continue reading]
January 24, 2009 by iMonk
I’ve written quite a bit on the subject of mental illness/depression.
In 2005 I did an entire series on The Christian and Mental Illness.
In January of 07, I wrote about the issue of anti-depressant medication.
One of my favorite essays from the past recounts how my dad’s depression affected my life: The Boat in the Backyard.
Counseling psychologist Mike Benoit also wrote a guest piece on anti-depressant meds.
January 3, 2009 by iMonk
Our wayback machine today takes us to the first year of Internet Monk.com, where you’ll find a lengthy essay called “Those Magnificent Young Men and Their Pastoring Machines.” (Excuse the spelling errors. No proofreading in the old days.) It’s my original rant about what was happening to the practice of the pastorate at the time. I could have hardly imagined where we’d be today. (Warning: this was written almost 8 years ago, when I was a self-identified Calvinist in the ranks of the SBC. I am NOT a Calvinist today, but little has changed in my view of what it means to be a pastor.) [Continue reading]
