Life Update 8/30/2007

Dear family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ,

If you are still reading this post - not shying away from the words "Life Update" in anticipation of boredom - then thank you for caring. I am aware that many people read this blog who may perhaps be more interested in my doings and well-being than in my wandering musings.

It is true that I had a "rough" year at school last year - which is a nice way of saying that I didn't do very well. But because I am convinced that I can do better, I am returning this fall semester to give it the old college try again. I hope I am more determined than I was last year to succeed. Nevertheless, your prayers are cherished.

My parents are trying to sell the house. Usually people ask where my parents want to move to, and I usually say they want to find an apartment somewhere in Kalamazoo (our current home), but they're not too worried about finding a new place yet. They're just waiting for the house to sell.

My mom helps out with youth fund-raising at church, and puts much effort into this service. My sister and I are very proud of her for this.

My sister has a boyfriend - his name is Corey. [Yes, that's him to the left; not me.] She first met him on a mission trip. She liked him because she felt comfortable talking to him. I think this is still the case. Oh, I forgot: my crafty, scheming sister got up the nerve to play paintball with him before they started dating as a means to win his heart. I think they always play on the same team, to avoid inter-couple combat. You see, now my sister likes the sport. What's a brother to do? . . .

I'm currently in love with the sweet tunes of this band: Rodeo Ruby Love; and of my friend Frank Schweikhardt's solo material. I am also waiting to receive in the mail Paul Simon's newest release, "Surprise," at the behest of my good friend Burke (who is also starting a new band: Owlsburg. I can't wait to hear them!).

This summer I was too lazy and asocial, somewhat unintentionally. So if you live in Kalamazoo, I am sorry that we didn't see each other more often this summer. It was my fault. Please forgive me. Along with being asocial came staying inside the house too much. Every time I go outside I appreciate the wind . . . moving air, not restricted by four walls or windows. I believe God did a much better job creating than we did in modifying our environment.

On the bright side, I did do a bit of reading - mostly by John Howard Yoder (a Christian pacifist with convincing arguments) and N.T. Wright (a prolific New Testament scholar who is now the bishop of Durham, England). Many of the books I read this summer I've listed to the right under Books I Read.

This summer I also attended youth group as a sponsor at my church, where we talked about the 10 commandments. Thanks to Pastor Kevin for very insightful teaching!

[As I write this they are moving a house up our street - which is quite a sight. This has been frustrating, though, because they are about 10 days late from the original date. They said there would be chance of power-outage for 4 hours on our block during the move. They postponed the move date about three times without formal notice. So, because my mom works at a computer at home and couldn't risk working during a power outage, she had to work very early in the morning at least three times in vain on days when they didn't move the house. Bleh.]

These are the courses I hope to take this semester (which begins next Tuesday), all of which are 3 hours long, totaling 12 credit hours:
- Homiletics I (preaching)
- Patristic Theology (reading the early church fathers)
- Church History I (the New Testament to Martin Luther)
- Beginning Greek Independent Study

Right now I am trying to pack for school, which is proving to be interesting. I have a lot of things I am leaving at home, and just a few things I'm taking, which makes the task deceiving. I cannot judge my success by how clean or empty my room is. Rather, I have to check and re-check my list and my brain for what I intend to bring, and what's not yet packed.

A good number of my friends have graduated and now live off-campus (Joe, Dave, Dusty&Natalie, Adam&Becky, Chris &Joyce, Burke, and a few others). This will mean many a phone call and bike ride to see them (although it's always nice to get off-campus). However, I can always lure them in with free meal swipes (this works quite well, actually, at attracting friends to campus - free food).

All kidding aside, I cannot wait to return to Marion on Saturday, so that I may see my friends and start the semester off strong.

Please do keep in touch, friends. You can write me at the following addresses:

hand-written (preferred):
Scott Hendricks
IWU 825 Student Ctr.
Marion, IN 46953

email: shoot[insert my first name here, no brackets]anemail@gmail.com

Peace to you all, and stay strong.

American Liberty

The following is a "letter to the editor" of sorts that I hope to send in to a local newspaper after some more editing. This particular newspaper prints the same Bible verse between the paper's title and the front page headline every day. The paper says they prefer letters of 200 words or less, but I doubt I can shorten this much more. I am already saying less than I want to.

_________________

If there is any ideal American value, it is liberty. We declared this from the British in 1776, listing it among the “certain unalienable Rights” of all humans. Patrick Henry sounded, “…give me liberty, or give me death.” Our Constitution’s bill of rights preserves our liberties from tyranny. Americans count it their duty to be ever vigilant for the cause of liberty.

So should it surprise us that the front page of every copy of [this newspaper] bears a Bible verse sanctioning our national sentiments: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17)?

I do not know why this verse stands beneath [the paper's] title, but I am confident that because ‘Liberty’ is capitalized, an American would most likely read the verse to mean: “The presence of the Lord’s Spirit is the cause of our national Liberty.”

But the verse absolutely cannot mean this.

First, the verse stolen from its original context is already doomed for wrongful interpretation. In his letter “to the church of God in Corinth,” the apostle Paul is engaged in a complex contrast between the fading glory of the old covenant, which Moses veiled from the frightened Israelites when his face shone like an angel’s, and the lasting glory of the new covenant in the church, where that veil is taken away. This is where Paul says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

From what? Well, perhaps freedom from fear of the Lord’s glory; or from ignorance; or from condemnation and death, which Paul considered characteristic of the old covenant. Elsewhere Paul speaks of humans being enslaved to sin; so perhaps he means freedom from sin.

But whatever Paul meant, he cannot be talking about the ‘Liberty’ Americans won from the British in revolutionary war, or the kind of ‘freedoms’ outlined for us in the Bill of Rights. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul is talking about a liberty belonging explicitly to the church, for that is where the Spirit of the Lord is.

The concept of citizens’ individual liberties won through bloody revolution and protected by the state is foreign to the New Testament. Much less should a single verse therefrom be employed as an endorsement by “the Spirit of the Lord” for such a state of affairs.

I do not prefer ‘tyrrany’ to ‘democracy;’ nor do I despise our national freedoms. But the Lord who was brought to trial by his nation’s rulers for his peace-loving proclamation of God’s reign, and having made no defense was crucified (like an insurrectionist) by the Romans occupying his homeland – that Lord was innocent of violent agendas interested in national ‘Liberty.’ To implicate his Spirit in anything of the sort now is nothing less than utter blasphemy.
_________________

This letter started out near 700 words, and now runs beneath 500. This is hardly enough space to explain, much less defend, my argument. That's why I've decided I never want to be a journalist.

While a part of me would like to believe that the freedoms we enjoy in America are blessings from God, and a result of the Christian church's salt and light in the world, in many ways such a position is hard to defend. It is true that governments are ordered by God for the reprobation of wrong and the promotion of the good (Romans 13). But the concepts upon which our nation was established - upon which we declared independence - had their source in John Locke and other political phiolosophers, not in the Christian religion. If they believed "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (elsewhere 'happiness' is 'property' - go figure looking at 'the American dream'), they also believed these rights were secured by governments instituted by the consent of the governed. You will not find this language in the New Testament.

It must be pointed out that our American rights were and still are secured by means of the sword.

Contrast this to Jesus' gospel teaching:

"Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you" (Matthew 5:39-42).

[What? but it's mine! I have the right to decide who can borrow my property!]

And, ". . . if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. . . . And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:30b, 34-36).

[What?! Borrow means it's on loan, not for keeps! It's mine! My life, my liberty, my property! My American dream!]

By now it should be clear that 2 Corinthians 3:17 cannot be interpreted as "the presence of the Lord's Spirit is the cause of our national Liberty." Nor does Christianity sponsor or condone the actions of any state, or any sword. God calls the church to be an explicitly different, holy kind of assembly (organization, polity), in which the least are the greatest and the greatest are the least; in which leaders serve instead of 'lording it over their subjects'; in which peace and unity are maintained at all costs, excepting any use of force or coercion.

What do you think?
How is the church different from the world and the state?
Do you agree or disagree with my critique of this newspaper's prominent Bible verse?
In what ways do Christians sometimes blindly support, sanction or condone the state's agenda instead of preaching and living the truth of Jesus' gospel of love and peace?

Hauerwas on the pitfalls of a liberal democracy

In his essay "The Church and Liberal Democracy: The Moral Limits of a Secular Polity" published in his book A Community of Character (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1981), Stanley Hauerwas sheds some light for us on the question we asked in an earlier post: Why are our neighbors viewed as strangers or even enemies?

On page 81:

. . . liberal polity is the attempt to show that societal cooperation is possible under the conditions of distrust. The very genius of our society is to forge a political and social existence that does not have to depend on trusting others in matters important for our survival. . . .

Of course the more it becomes unthinkable to trust a stranger, the more we must depend on more exaggerated forms of protection. But the human costs of distrust are perhaps the most destructive. For we are increasingly forced to view one another as strangers rather than as friends, and as a result we become all the more lonely. We have learned to call our loneliness "autonomy" and/or freedom, but the freer we become the more desperate our search for forms of "community" or "interpersonal relationship" that offer some contact with our fellows. Even the family is not immune from this development, since we now assume that children should have "rights" against the parents, as if the family itself were but a contractual society.

So, the light Hauerwas sheds on our inquiry is this: Our American society is based on the principle that our competing interests can be served in a land where we are free to pursue them, under a government whose primary task is to preserve the liberty of citizens who have little to do with each other.* But Hauerwas says in this essay that our society's refusal to sponsor anything but freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals** has resulted in a real incapacity for our society to encourage any virtue beyond self-interest (which, from a Christian standpoint, is a poor basis for moral decisions; if it may be called a virtue at all).

. . . our society offers no ready alternatives to liberalism. We are all liberals. In fact for us in America, liberalism, a position dedicated to ending our captivity to nature, custom, and coercion, ironically has become our fate. The great self-deception is in thinking that the tradition of liberalism gives us the means to recognize that it is indeed a tradition. Instead it continues to promise us new tomorrows of infinite creation. (Hauerwas 83)

If anyone doubts "We are all liberals": remember we are not speaking per se of leftist vs. so-called conservative politics. We are talking of "ending our captivity to nature, custom, and coercion." This concept pervades our society. For example, most children are told at a young age that they will have the liberty to choose their own vocation or occupation; we would look down upon a father who insisted his son take up his profession without question. It is the same way in our culture with marriage. Arranged marriage is so far off our moral map that it would be seen as perverse in our society to make someone marry a person they did not love. This liberalist individualism is also epitomized in the American Christian sphere by Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life: what on earth am I here for? (Note how the confusion of the subtitle presupposes a person who has not been given a purpose in life; more specifically, has not received any tradition to hand on to future generations.)

So unless an American is raised in a community that actually encourages moral virtue of some sort, it is very likely that self-interest will domineer the moral decision-making process for any given American. Rather than suggest that Christians attempt to advocate and enact some change to our government, Hauerwas urges that the church do its best at being itself, part of which is certainly teaching, encouraging and exemplifying virtue. We must be the people and family of God, the light of the world:

My call is for Christians to exhibit confidence in the lordship of Yahweh as the truth of our existence and in particular of our community. If we are so confident, we cannot help but serve our polity [i.e. the church], for such confidence creates a society capable of engendering persons of virtue and trust. A people so formed are particularly important for the continued existence of a society like ours, as they can provide the experience and skills necessary for me to recognize the difference of my neighbor not as a threat but as essential for my very life. (Hauerwas 86)

*Note also our economy is free market capitalism.
**This is also primarily what our justice system is based on; rather than really upon any more substantial moral story.
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What do you think?

In what ways does our liberal democracy stifle our society's ability to be/do something together as a whole?

How does it limit our communities and relationships, especially to our neighbors?

And what good news does the church have to proclaim in such an atmosphere?

Strange Holiness

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it (Psalm 24:1).

The church and its members are holy to the Lord, especially through the Holy Spirit, who dwells within them (1 Corinthians 3:16).

A husband is holy to his wife, and vice versa (1 Corinthians 7:3-4).

In many places, automobiles are holy to the road, in which pedestrians are unclean. If a pedestrian transgresses (i.e., crosses the boundary) into the road, then he or she is likely to be cut off from the people. While most vehicles will brake for invading pedestrians, the fatal risk of jay-walking is punishment enough to obviate policing of this crime. Sane adults rarely "struggle" to keep this commandment of the state, but are always reminding and watching their own children as they walk along the way, trying to train them to walk in safe holiness.

All life is holy to the Lord, but death a necessary part of the curse because of Adam and Eve's first sin (Genesis 2:17 and 3:19). In the Old Testament Law dead bodies were unclean, but Jesus sanctified death on his cross and defeated it when God raised him from death back to life. Death then is perhaps not "unclean" per se. For many Christian martyrs have followed Jesus to his loving death in their confession of his kingship of all the world (not only "of the Jews"). But it is a necessary evil.

All death, that is. So while firearms are only holy to animal game as food for humans, this was not the case originally, and should not ultimately be so in the age to come. This leads some (such as my good friend Matt) to be vegan. [Please note: there are other reasons to be vegetarian and/or vegan besides opposing violence to animals. For example, read athada.]

Can anyone else think of strange examples of holiness, like some of the examples above?

Oops . . . duh

I got my first parking ticket a few days ago.

The meter only took quarters, and I only had two of them. It was an unexpected stop, so I hadn't planned on bringing any loose change.

*50 cents = 20 minutes*

After about 34 minutes, I thought to myself: Maybe "METERS ENFORCED BETWEEN [certain hours of day and week]" means that the meters are enforced!

When I returned to my parked vehicle, I discovered a little white slip of paper tucked beneath my right windshield. I was charged $10 for an EXPIRED METER, which I promptly mailed to the 'governing authorities' of the university whose parking tax I had foolishly put to the test.

Life lesson: Don't put "the law" to the test. And keep many quarters in your car.

John Howard Yoder on Hebrews 11

'When the author defines "faith" as assurance of the hoped-for and conviction of the unseen, the "hoped-for" and "unseen" realities are not some otherwise unknown truth, proposition, or prediction but the concrete vindication of obedience. "Faith" is obeying when it is not "visible" that it "pays" or "works."'

- The Politics of Jesus, p.129 footnote 30

We might give that interpretive suggestion a trial run by reading Hebrews chapter 11!