A Christian's Response to Newtown, Part 1

The last post on the Newtown massacre had an interesting result. People I know in my community have become aware of this blog, and writing some thoughts the last time brought personal feedback from exactly two people in the local community. That has never happened before.  It is notable, these comments were directly opposite of each other.

One thing I have learned in life: disagreement is natural and it does not indicate either party is necessarily wrong. Perspective and the concurrent subjectivity will always cause differences of opinion. None of us escape this.

One community member wrote me privately and one spoke to me at work. With the writer’s permission, I quote from the letter:

“I feel like this shooter in Ct. was deeply let down. He needed help. He clearly was not normal mentally-he was mentally ill. He had no place to lay his head.”

Later he writes:

“And if we ignore the REAL cause of his problems, by claiming that his actions are a logical result of our fallen nature as a species, are we as a society not sinning against him, casting stones that shouldn't be cast?”

I knew as I wrote my initial thoughts on the Newtown massacre, that the perspective represented by the above quotes would be held by many. My effort now is not to debunk the challenge of these words appearing in opposition to mine but demonstrate how these two opposing views are, in fact, in unison. The power of individual perspective is its weakness, as it states its case it often will not expound the complete truth.

For the sake of analysis, divide the topic of how to respond as a Christian to Newtown, into two modalities of thinking. These are spiritual and rational.

By spiritual, I mean simply accepting there is a spirit realm existent which interacts with our material life in ways that are both inscrutable and logical. Though the spirit dimension is neither measurable nor quantifiable and would appear therefore to defy logic, I accept a point of intersection between the spirit dimension and the material dimension which is logically understood.

By rational, I mean both a perspective and an identified system of thought:

1. the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct. 2. Philosophy. a. the doctrine that reason alone is a source of knowledge and is independent of experience. b. (in the philosophies of Descartes, Spinoza, etc.) the doctrine that all knowledge is expressible in self-evident propositions or their consequences.[1]

Many issues of today in the US, it appears to this author, are rooted in the dichotomy presented above between spiritual and rational thought. Western Civilization moved consistently toward rationalism from the Renaissance forward. At one point, this movement became so profound it is now named the Age of Reason. One patriot of renown in our country’s history, Thomas Paine, who helped stir revolution with his pamphlet, “Common Sense,” also wrote one entitled “Age of Reason.”

In the second pamphlet, he writes passionately about the problem as he saw it of religion hindering humanity by its lack of rational thought. We continue to struggle today as a society to balance the benefits of values which many find taught by religion with practical thinking in the construct of law and economics.

The author quoted above mixes spiritual allusion into both of the points he made challenging my last post.  “He had no place to lay his head,” are words used to describe Lanza’s deep estrangement from the world around him. The sentence is in my mind an allusion to Matthew 8:20 NAS. Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

In the second quote, “…(A)re we as a society not sinning against him, casting stones that shouldn't be cast?”  This is clearly a reference to John 8:2-12. My friend’s point is to call me to my spiritual roots as I examine the Newtown massacre and have compassion on the mentally ill person who has been victimized in a sense by the lack of needed help which made him and those around him vulnerable to his mental illness.

Next up on this path in the Wildwood, the unity I see between what appears as our differing thoughts.

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[1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rationalism?s=t

The Massacre of Children

As the pain of watching the news Friday evening wet my cheeks and stabbed my heart, I heard the words more than once from those who were closer to the event than I: “There are no words.”

No words?!

I realized in the words of those reporting the horror, I had many words. My thoughts were full, and many of my words were not polite. I wasn't cussing in my head, though I had anger in desire--lusting?--to curse that twenty-year old killer to hell. I am human, right?

Thoughts banging in my head were not crude or vulgar words lobbed at the gunman. Few people have ever heard me list the moral and on-paper laws I violated as a twenty-year old. I have no condemnation for immature decision-making. I have been forgiven, and we all need the grace in which I am immersed.This gunman represents something more than a badly behaving twenty-something.

My thoughts as I worked my way through a wretched, sputtering sleep, would be called boorish or uncivil in the general social climate of tolerance in the 21^st Century. Likely some will label me the worst possible pejorative, fundamentalist Christian. Risking that label, I write this post.

No words?

In the case of the parents who suffer the greatest loss in the most horrible way, the only words are words of prayer for their consoling in the midst of a towering grief.

No words?

For society, I have plenty. We Americans reap the whirlwind as we have sown to the wind. What happened yesterday is logical. It is predictable, and all our law-making, social activism, editorializing and psychological counseling will not stop it. The First Testament of the Lord God (Some refer to it as the Old. Thanks Frank Viola for the more accurate label.) warns that disobedience brings a cursed state or condition. The warning is intended to protect not punish. He warned humans in understandable words of that historical context of a consequence of living life according to natural desires, of being governed by selfishness. Negative consequence follows idolatry. 

Earlier this week, the front page of the national publication USAToday displayed a title, Urban Outfitters Holiday Catalogue Gets Naughty—followed by the details of the store's nationally distributed catalogue using a vulgar term that starts with "f" in multiple contexts. The article states advertising gurus were praising the marketing strategy. From the article: “Marian Salzman, a national trend-spotter and CEO of Havas PR. ‘It's the right voice for the teen market.’" The article explains that where such a publication would have met serious repercussions only a few years ago, in today’s climate of social media—read, anything is acceptable to say publicly  nowadays—the catalogue is “brilliant.” This is but one minor example of how our culture exhibits a cursed state of humanity. A state which naturally occurs when the Creator of love, self-control, and kindness is rejected. 

The evil of the Newtown school massacre is a much more serious example of societal descent into living out the cursed state of separation from the Lord. Some are shaking their heads at my narrow-mindedness by now. I am but another one lost in myths of spirituality, eh? The modern logic says, "This isn't anything more than a mentally ill person who had easy access to guns." If you live in the secular world and understand all things as more or less random that is the answer…and there are no words except the sifting ramble of psychological terms to attempt a relief from an unbearable grief.

In the Christian paradigm, there is a spirit rampant among humanity which is rallied against the Lord Jesus and His holiness. It lives strong in casual attitudes which are a function of loving pleasure, fame, and wealth. We debate ethics nationally while the population explores all possible human experience. What is often explored is just this century's version of human depravity. Mental health professionals work to alleviate situations where illicit sexual drives and anger have caused immense suffering among individuals and in families, while the entertainment industry pushes graphic sex and death...and we buy it.  We teachers are mandated to teach character ed while the kids are fascinated by and reinforce among themselves on the bus and through social media what gratifies them in the latest pop-culture movie or video-game.

In my seventh grade classroom recently, the fire marshal for the county was showing a video of a night-club fire a few years back. It happened in Rhode Island, and 100+ people died within two minutes. A member of the audience watching the band was video-taping with his phone. Fire leapt from a pyro-technic display onto the ceiling. Within seconds, the flame was spreading and the camera man was caught in a crush of people headed out the only available exit. Finding himself outside, he panned back to the one exit. It was then blocked fully by a human log-jam, a plug made from too many people trying to shove out in panic mode. One of my seventh graders began to laugh, though it had been clearly explained that over one hundred people were trapped inside and dying from smoke and 1000 degree heat. Was my student simply a bad attitude kid who disrespects basic humanity? This disconnect is the result of knowing death only as entertainment.

Why are we shocked when a mentally-ill person or a sane person chooses to act out dark, human feelings and desires which our collective fascination with sex and death has constantly communicated in the entertainments of movies, books, television, video-games, and  through the sensationalism of the news broadcast?  I do not claim here to know what the gunman in Friday's massacre held in his mind or heart. Perhaps he saw himself enacting revenge against some perceived wrong. The dark side of humans is dark for multiple reasons. How does anyone connect with such darkness? We know, but we are in denial. The culture of family and simple living is disdained by pop-culture while sex and death are enshrined. Something in humanity reaches for the dark spirit.

It is logical when the eyes of those who are disconnected from a general understanding of what love and respect mean, and who have been conditioned to view life as just a means for gratification, that the horrors of the Newtown massacre will then visit the larger culture of family and home. I contend, it is an invited spiritual condition of the cursed state upon ourselves by our national disobedience and idolatry before a holy God, the Lord Jesus.

No words?
Our national collective tolerating and celebrating sexual license and blood lust has embraced a spirit associated with lust and power and perversity. However our culture rejects "spiritual" answers and prefers labels like neurotic or psychotic to explain human depravity. As long as a human involved in depravity is a consenting adult or just pursuing fantasies as entertainment, we either laugh knowingly or turn the deaf ear of denial. Once the fantasy becomes a nightmare and violently kills innocent people, we grieve deeply over the loss and lament the randomness of the universe. Sometimes we blame our Creator, though He did warn us faithfully about the fruit of our choices, while graciously giving us the choice we cherish.

No words?
Repentance comes to mind.  Adam Lanza lived out his sickness...a sickness of the heart embedded in our culture. A sickness in the human heart which we have embraced as normal thus confusing our young as they develop and cocking the gun in the minds of the mentally ill.

Eyes on Mordor and not on Christ

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a great evil lives. By the end of the story, we are confronted by the image of an oversize eye floating atop a massive stone pillar. The pillar and eye form nothing more than an emotionally thrilling, deeply threatening lower case “i”. The metaphor is simple: "i am God" is a great evil. The lower case indicating the human.

From the most logical stand point, all of life is spiritual. There are choices and activities which hinder spiritual development. Even a weakening or stagnant spiritual life is a spiritual condition. The paradigm shift that needs to occur in the practice of the Christian faith is a decision, an awareness, a self-discipline to reject the notion that some aspects of the Christian life are mundane, human and not spiritual. Rather, there are no coincidences, no simple happenstances which we simply live through. The mundane and every other aspect of our existence is meaningful in Christ.

Christians are sometimes confused or overly confusing regarding what is and what is not spiritual truth. In that confusion, folks influenced by such winds of doctrine are very likely to emotionally disconnect…to not realize, recognize or respond to God as real in a moment...in every moment. String several of these together, and the result is to describe our condition as a “dry time”. The wind will blow a dust in our eyes, stinging and blinding. We are likely to blame God, or in the least lose our focus on Him.  

Our Lord is not the author of confusion nor is there a desert in His Presence. 

Or perhaps, we may not be confused, but experiencing the effects of the great darkness on the earth. In not being aware of how we continue to love life in the earth and what it offers, we unwittingly live on the dark side while professing Christ. Several of the groups into which Christians have sub-divided make a portion of their teaching  to include “spiritual warfare” against the devil. True Ephesians tells us to wear the whole armor of God, and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers in the heavens. Yet it appears to this author in the fights of his life, that what we blame on the devil are very often simply decisions and desires that reside within us in our fleshly-- read that oriented toward our physical body--minds. In being our own person, the "i" rules. In loving ourselves over God, we choose sin instead of submission and reap the natural consequences! Making blanket statements about how the devil is attacking us and asking others for their prayers in the face of this onslaught sounds spiritually effective and dedicated to life in Christ, but such is nothing more than pretense at the forms while denying the awesome power of the love of God.

i know what i am talking about.

Joy of the Feast

I am thankful 

 Immanuel is come. 

The only Eternal Kingdom rules my heart

 and I am filled to brimming over.

With family and friends 

I share a communion

of the Bread of Life
filled with new wine.

I am thankful to You, in-dwelling Presence of Jesus,

 I am clothed with righteousness,

 peace and joy in Your Holy Spirit. 

A Thanksgiving feast with meat and gravy and cream?

With but rice today will I be any less satisfied?

Ah, the continual feasting

under the banner of the love of 

the Father!

  

  Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness

 And let Your godly ones sing for joy. Psalm 132:9

Reflections on Compassion

Compassion is the topic, a component of the reason for living and the meanings of life to be found illustrated in the Holy Text. Billions of people reject that my reference to a “Holy Text” is valid.

We believe so because our experience of life demonstrates the world rejects the Truth revealed in the Bible and thus, among other things, lacks compassion. Human to human relationships without the revelation of the Spirit of God are rooted in many motivations, but these can all be analyzed as selfish, competitive, or driven by base, physical desires which are instinctive to the fallen nature and animalistic.

The “walk in the Spirit”, when found, is discovered to be a higher way because it introduces a compass, a way to hear and see as a human that looks and listens above the selfish, competitive or bodily drives. The human spirit enlivened by the Lord is tuned to a different frequency on the spiritual level. It is a frequency resonating from God’s heart, and it is the source of love, goodness and beauty. The human who will reject the nature driving all humans and look outside of him or herself for the connection to this Spirit will find the effort is not without merit nor will it be accomplished without the reward of seeing a reality in spirit. It is a reality of humanity to which the unredeemed remain blinded. Our God may be known within the parameters of our limited intellect, but more importantly in the final analysis, through an expanding, love-braced heart.

And the greatest wonder of all is that we do not merit anything, but an act of grace on the Father’s part has opened the door. We accept our sin as a disqualifier and receive the atonement of Christ by an act of humility. Therein we begin a walk into the true state of human existence, an existence defined in large measure by compassion and not competition. It is a reality, which in the act of creation, the Creator intended for those made in His likeness.

Some will say that acts of compassion are numerous among those who do not profess Christ, and as a corollary of evidence against my point, that many who profess Christ are simply mean. Yes, both are true. However, I would say in the latter circumstance of “mean” Christians, we find solid evidence of a rebellion against God; and wherein, some people who profess Christ are false believers. Some “mean” Christians are simply immature, but those opposed to Truth engage in misconstruing all failure to walk in God’s nature in negative terms. In the former circumstance of compassion existing in people who make no profession of Christ, it is evidence that many will choose to live by something God has written upon the heart of humans though they have not yet met the Author of their motivations. I believe that in the end when all is revealed about the earth, that goodness will have one source: the heart of God.

 All else that appeared to weak humans as goodness will be revealed simply as conspiracies of an evil seeking confusion on the subject for the purpose of manipulation. Consider what we know well, modern marketing is a master of making a consumer feel important and valued but only for the opportunity of making a profit on the consumer. Is goodness intended to manipulate truly goodness? 

Reflections on Romans 7 and 8

I ran into the self again yesterday. 

A familiar place, a dreaded place, in which I am not of the spirit of God.

One might attempt to curse against the barren land needy for a seven-times-seventy grace plan.

It only takes a glimpse to recognize the hardened, fallow soil of the earth,

dust and rock and dryness. 

A curse, curiously, is the self mocking righteousness.

The word of Truth ends up lying as waterless seed

in the cemented bottom of the rutted heart.

The lament of Paul

"O wretched man that I am," is identifiable.

Spotted heart, cancerous and blackened

by an illusion of foolish self.

Do not founder here...such run-ins with self

simply call for will 

drawing from a deeper well,

again, 

Living Spirit of Christ, 

in You is a love without separation.

Church is the Compost Bin for Human Garbage

Think of the human soul as a plant. The natural man, the one we know as our inner self, is fallen and sinful and good for nothing that is holy. Yet, this inner man is the rich stuff of humanity. Our ability to love and be compassionate, our ability to empathize, our desire to be helpful and supportive of others was a part of creation before the fallen creature became what humans are. We were created in His image, right? Now all this good stuff is destined to be used for selfish ends. Manipulation and coercion in the name of love, those pressuring expectations we resist from people around us yet continue to foist on others, all stem from our selfish desires mixed with our ability to love. We often believe we have another's best interests in mind, but our whole perspective is usually tainted to one degree or another with our own limited understandings. These limits are usually a manifestation of our self will.

We experience the spiritual birth and freedom from self given to us by an act of grace. We become a different plant in our souls--the new creature--but we fail the purity of the love of God often and adopt the stance, "It's a process." The composting metaphor is about this Christian growth process.

The compost pile achieves its wondrous reduction of organic wastes into a rich additive for garden soil by aeration. There are other factors, of course, but that exposure to oxygen enhances the effectiveness of the compost pile. That's why our ceramic, under the counter composter has holes in the lid. That's why our back yard bin has the grid system of vents on all four sides and from top to bottom. Exposure to oxygen is necessary. 

Remember I mentioned the odor sometimes in the under-the-sink container? That's because those holes on the top are a marketing feature. They don't work. There is not nearly enough aeration from these holes, especially as the container fills up. The stuff on the bottom has little air and rots without actually "composting." Those lid holes allow the label to read "kitchen composter" and not simply "multi-use ceramic container". The price is raised, as the container with the holed lid has "value" beyond what it actually is. I've seen this item at $15.00 in most stores. The phrase "Buyer Beware" comes to mind. (Ours was a gift.)

Our Christian journey is like this. We all know and understand the principle of confession. However, in application, we often regard confession as necessary once we have actually sinned. I think our sinful nature needs a place of open sharing on an on-going basis. We need Christian brethren to provide a place of exposure for willful thinking and desire, our sin nature, without judgment or censure. We need acceptance from others for the fallen creature we are. I am not condoning, condoning sin. Rather, I am suggesting a greater level of honesty. Because we fear condemnation from others in our Christian groups for having the thoughts that spring from a sinful nature, we only discuss this reality in guarded ways if at all. The result is our sinful nature doesn't get the exposure it needs to decompose. Exposed in discussion in a safe environment, we gain knowledge that others are experiencing the same and see we are not alone or different. This builds understanding of others and camaraderie between folks, and our sin nature weakens through an exchange that allows us space to deconstruct our feelings and motivations looking for the selfishness to admit in confession. A confession that comes before we act out that selfishness.

What's left in this process is an awareness of our core ability to love and an understanding of how to be angry without sinful attitudes; we gain a connection to our human ability of empathy without a need to manipulate others. By contrast, when we allow ourselves confession only after sin has occurred, it is a bit like those holes in our under the sink ceramic composter. It looks like aeration for the soul's need, it is marketed as such, but deep inside the container, the rot flourishes.

God's Spirit moved to reveal Himself to us; we responded by accepting the atonement. Salvation is the result. However, life within the Body of Christ is the functioning of a sanctification process which is intended to help us deconstruct the power of the fallen nature. We embrace this process fully as individuals through a group dynamic. We willingly create a Christian social climate that fosters mutual admissions of our fallen natures as a daily reality...or we only cautiously give lip service to the same which stumbles us all.  In open climates without judgment, we discover between us a patient love for who we are as fallen beings, and there grows freedom from the fallen state.

Individuals so connected to others will find worship in spirit and truth of our Creator in the prayer closet and throughout the day. When our earthly attitudes are being composted through aeration among brethren, we find ourselves more able to draw sustenance from Him, more connected to His purity and strength, and we become more spiritually skilled at abiding on His stem resulting in a flourishing of spiritual fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in abundance.

We by grace are connected to Him, and in a responsible manner among ourselves, we practice spiritual principles of forbearance and honesty. Then our core human abilities draw life and direction from the stem of the Spirit of God rather than from the spirit of the world which burdens us. We discover a vitally different source of nutrition for our souls.

Church is a compost bin for humans.