Category: Worldview

Book Burning And Terrorism

Perhaps you’ve read about the pastor  who plans on publicly burning a Quran on September 11, 2010. Unfortunately, he’s received much media attention, including his 15 minutes of fame on CNN.

I wish, if the pastor really felt the need to burn a Quran, he would have done so privately because his pyromanic plan neither advances the cause of the kingdom of God nor impedes the advance of Islam. What it  does is reveal something about the pastor.

Does the pastor think any Muslim will reject Islam because he burned their book? I don’t think he’s that dumb. So, he’s not doing this for Muslims.

Book burning in the Bible happened when the Ephesians, once converted to Chrisitianity, rejected their pagan practices and brought their books together to burn, demonstrating their renunciation of their former belief. (Acts 19:18-19). In other words, Biblical book-burning–if there is such a thing–is for the benefit of the person who owns the book.

I don’t think the pastor is a Muslim or has recently been one, so I must conclude he is not toasting the Muslim text as a public manifestation of his decision to break with a former belief.

This must mean he is flaming the Quran for other Christians or non-Islamic, non-Christians. But what benefit does he think non-Christians will get from that? If they are non-Christians, they will not have a better opinion of Christianity as a result of the pastor’s conflagration.

And I can’t imagine he thinks he is benefiting Christians by scorching the Muslim script. The only thing I can think is he is trying to inflame them against Islam and Muslims. If this is the point, and regardless, it will probably be the result, then the pastor’s incendiary impulse is seriously misguided.

The best explanation of terrorism is that it’s “a response to powerlessness.”  In other words, those who feel powerlessness to obtain what they desire within the normal and accepted means of society resort to terrorism.

Burning a Quran I suspect arises from a similar impulse. Feeling impotent to respond in any other way, the pastor responds with a public  warming of the Islamic writ.

I’m not calling the pastor a terrorist or suggesting what he is doing is terrorism. I do suspect both acts arise from the same feeling of powerlessness. And while both may give their instigator a momentary feeling of power, both are equally ineffective to achieve their desired results.

What do you think? Is what he’s planning to do a good idea? GS

On An Islamic Center Near Ground Zero

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched with interest the controversy surrounding the plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan. It’s clear Americans don’t like it.  Even those who recognize the relevance of the First Amendment and argue for the right of Muslims to build a mosque there don’t like it.

As a result, the more nuanced opinion at this point in the debate has become, “They have a right to build a mosque there, but I think it’s sensitive for them to do so.”

I think American opposition to Muslim plans near ground zero is more visceral and less intellectual than people let on. In their gut, Americans recognize the brashness of Muslims building a proselytizing base just a few blocks from where Muslim terrorists killed 2700 Americans. They recognize it as a symbol of aggressive Islamic expansion, and that’s a symbol they find offensive.

The problem is an increasingly secularized America is impotent to respond to the spread of Islam. You don’t reply to Islam by extolling the virtues of pluralism and freedom of religion. Muslims don’t convert from Islam to Democratic Capitalism. Democratic Capitalism doesn’t offer meaning in life, instruction on how to treat my wife or raise my kids, or a comprehensive worldview.

Yes, Muslims have a right to build a mosque a few blocks from Ground Zero. And, yes, it’s insensitive that they are doing so, but so what? Making accusations of insensitivity against a faith that has, for 1,400 years, thrived on violent religious imperialism is like accusing Hitler of bad manners.

Islam, like paganism, will eventually burn out, but it won’t happen by merely offering Muslims American citizenship unless we also offer them citizenship in the kingdom of God. GS

Of Economics And Eschatologies

In the 1990s it seemed everybody was getting rich. The money flowed easily and the stock market was up and to the right.  Americans spent themselves into debt believing they would alway have a job and their wages would continue to increase.

Peoples’ attitudes are quite different today. People are saving money again at the highest rates we’ve seen in years. They are also getting out of debt. They expect money to be tight, jobs uncertain and the stock market unfriendly well into the future.

The difference between the attitude of people in the 1990s and in 2010 is not driven by their understanding of economic theory or history.

It’s something more embarrassingly simple: people assume the way things are are they way they will continue to be.

In the 1990s when things were good, people believed they would continue to be that way. In 2010, things are bad economically, so people assume they will continue that way.

What’s true in economics is true in eschatology. People tend to believe that the way things are is the way they will always be.

I recently read, George Marsden’s book on Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American theologian, lived and preached during The Great Awakening, the greatest revival in American history. Edwards’s experience in seeing so many people come to the Lord led him to believe he was at the beginning of an era that would culminate in the millennial peace. Instead, twenty-five years later, America was embroiled in a war for her independence.

Today, with moral standards on the decline and Christianity’s influence seemingly waning, people have increasingly adopted a pessimistic eschatology.  This is why Tim LaHaye’s and Hal Lindsey’s books have been so popular. They ring true to people who attempt to predict the future by merely projecting the present.

Now, think back to the 1990s with me. What if you had saved money throughout the 1990’s, not because of any particular view of the future but because thrift is a Biblical command? Where might you be financially today?

And what if Christians, rather than withdrawing from the world because they perceived the culture as being on an irreversible decline, had continued to lead the culture as the salt and light King Jesus commanded? Where might our culture be today? GS

How Being a Kingdom Citizen Makes You a Better Employee

In my law practice, I consult with people about their jobs, usually at a point when they are unhappy about their jobs. I know from studies I’ve seen that their situation is not unique. Some studies have shown that 2/3 of all Americans are unhappy with their jobs. Maybe you feel the same way.

Maybe you don’t like your supervisor or don’t think the company appreciates you.  You may not think you are paid enough or that your last performance review was as good as your performance warranted.  As a result, you may not look forward to going to work, and you may have trouble getting motivated to do your best.

We live in a fallen world and bad supervisors, greedy employers and discriminatory employment decisions exist in abundance. Your chances of avoiding them completely during your career are slim, which probably accounts for the 2/3 statistic. But a citizen of the kingdom of God can avoid becoming a statistic. The key is understanding for whom, as a Christian, you work.

The Apostle Paul said, “Whatever you do, do your work with all your heart, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.” (Colossians 3:23-24).  In other words, as a Christian you work for King Jesus and you should perform your job as if He was your boss (because He is).

If you are doing your work primarily to please men (your supervisor, your company or others), you will inevitably be disappointed with their response. They will rarely appreciate you as much as you think you deserve and will often treat you in ways in which you do not deserve.

If, however, you are working primarily to please the Lord and are looking to Him for your reward, there are at least four good things that can happen.

1. Your work will be more excellent.  After all, how can you be more motivated than when you are trying to impress Jesus?

2. You will work harder. You know the Lord sees all things, and if you are looking to Him for your reward, you will be motivated to give a better effort because you know the one you are trying to please sees all your effort.

3.  You will not be a man-pleaser.  “Man-pleaser” is the theological term for “brown-noser”, and nobody likes a brown-noser. The best way to avoid being a man-pleaser is to focus on pleasing the Lord instead.

4.  Your peers and supervisors will respect you. They will respect you because they will see the integrity of your work and that it is not motivated by what you think you can get from them or the company.

I challenge you to give this new “workview” a test drive; you might find it very liberating.  GS

On Miracles

The Apostle Paul said the kingdom of God was not a matter of talk but power. (I Cor. 4:20).  In other words, the Kingdom is not merely a theological proposition but a realm in which the power of God is manifested.

I firmly believe in miracles, and I’m not talking about the I-lost-my-keys-prayed-and-found-them type.  I’m talking about healings from incurable diseases, people being instanteously set free from drug addictions and the like.  I believe in such things because of what I’ve witnessed, the testimony of others who have witnessed miracles and the testimony of the Bible.

As a trial attorney, I don’t think it arrogant of me to suggest I know something about evidence.  I also like to believe I’m a rational person.  It’s surprising to me then that Christians are so often accused of believing in miracles because of their dogma, while materialists’ disbelief is asserted as being based on reason.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As G.K. Chesterton has noted, Christians believe in miracles because of the testimony of persons who have witnessed them throughout history.  Materialists disbelieve in miracles because their materialist dogma prohibits it.

Ask a materialist why he disbelieves the testimony of persons who have witnessed miracles and he will say those persons are not credible.  Ask why he believes those persons are not credible and he will answer, “Because miracles are not possible.”  His objection to miracles does not spring from evidence, or the lack of it, but from his a priori belief against them.  Chesterton said it like this, “It is we Christians who accept all actual evidence–it is you rationalists who refuse actual evidence being constrained to do so by your creed.”

I’m glad I’ve thrown my lot in with those who are open-minded. GS