All About Them
By Mitch Berg
Maybe it’s just me – but at around this point in the past few election cycles, it’s seemed that the media has undertaken a campaign to try to give liberal Christians a little boost of self-esteem. Perhaps to help them feel like they matter in the big scheme of things.
In 2007, the media burned a slew of cycles trying to make the case that there was a burgeoning movement of liberal evangelicals. Of course, it came up “meh” at the polls.
Now, I’m a Presbyterian. I am because of the denomination’s theology – not because of its politics, which are (at a regional and national level) almost smug enough to be Episcopal. Note to any conservative Presbyterian sects breaking off from the PCUSA: have your people call my people.
Today’s liberal-Christian superstar is and media darling is Nadia Bolz-Weber. She’s got enough tasteless ink to pass for a bartender at the Seventh Street Entry…
…and she swears in the pulpit, so as to not “be a hypocrite”
Walter Hudson breaks down the reasons Rev. Bolz-Weber is wrong. You need to read the whole thing. But here’s the money quote:
No one who knows God would want to associate Him with filth. That’s why Christian pastors shouldn’t swear from the pulpit, not to “pretend to be something they’re not,” but to glorify who God is.
And that’s the problem with so many of the examples of “liberal christianity” that I see in the media (and conservatives, in too many cases, as well); it’s not about glorifying who God is, but reassuring themselves about who they are.
Which, if you’re a Christian, really really really isn’t the point.
(Also – you want a tattoo, have a tattoo. But that much ink just looks really really really stupid).
November 20th, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Never underestimate what Bonhoeffer described as “the vigilant religious instinct of man for where Grace can be obtained at the cheapest price.”
As for me – and perhaps Bolz-Weber – I don’t want to be conformed to this world’s vision of what is good or bad; I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind to a whole new vision and concept. I don’t want to do or be “good” out of fear or obedience, but because I realize the enormity of the freedom and salvation the gift of Grace has given me, and I gratefully want to live that new life. I was dead in my sin; why would I bring any part of my mouldering old body to the party and try to glorify it?
Yes, grace is extended to us regardless of our tattoos, peccadillos, foul mouths and other cultural camouflage. The thing is, we casually consider that grace is unmerited favor but that means it is all about us and what we want to do or used to do. Grace, to me, is merited favor because Christ merited it in the first place and I want to receive it and share it in that spirit so that my life reflects that. (Not that I’m often successful).
Or, as Bonhoeffer so ably described it: “This is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without Church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without contrition. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His son: ‘ye were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
November 20th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
To continue a theme I started on the Sarah Silverman post, this slag drags the evidently inherent urge to behave like swine shared by many lefty gals into the church, but is it:
A) Deliberate plan to besmirch religion
or
B) Unconscious besmirching, akin to the breathing reflex
or
c) Both
November 20th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
Swearing in a public address merely shows you to be crass, uncouth, disrespectful, and uneducated. Which explains why edgy comics and confused idiot preachers do it and so much of the “progressive” community revels in it.
November 20th, 2013 at 2:07 pm
“In her body and her theology, Bolz-Weber represents a new, muscular form of liberal Christianity”
I honestly think that the author (Michelle Boorstein) misunderstands what “muscular Christianity” means, and what it was as movement. It died with the British Empire for a reason.
November 20th, 2013 at 2:40 pm
Swiftee – I think it is something different than what you offer. I think, much like the REST of the left’s MO, they feel that if something isn’t to their liking, they have a duty, if not a mission (“from G_d”), to change whatever it is to their liking. This goes ENTIRELY against the whole point of religion: that is, to change yourself to be better than you are, according to the doctrines of whatever religion or sect of a religion you choose to partake in. They can’t imagine giving up hedonism, sex and infanticide (which allows for more sex), so therefore they must change (or at the very least, ignore) those tenets of religion that forbid such things.
It fits in perfectly with the amazing selfishness and intolerance that is part and parcel with being a modern progressive liberal.
November 20th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
CityLIfe church in St. Paul is PCA, and Mission on Como is Orthodox Presbyterian.
Or, for that matter, suburban and rural churches tend to be more conservative, theologically and culturally, than their urban and college town branches, even within the same denomination. And when you leave, send a note telling them why.
November 20th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Bill C – I think the reasoning goes something like this:
“Science and reason has given us the ability to greatly improve life on Earth for its inhabitants. For example, God commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We dictate that, and are working on making universal acceptance and love a given in human society. Therefore we are doing the will of God more than conservatives, who do not embrace or practice universal acceptance and love. We are following the will of God more than conservatives, and therefore are better Christians than conservatives are”.
It would make sense if they didn’t reject the notion of sin against God.
November 20th, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Yes her ministry has become a boutique-like congregation attracting in all kinds of liberals from the suburbs who come to here her rail against injustice. That frustrates Pastor Bolz-Weber. There is a strong discussion of her ministry over at the American Lutheran Publicity Board website. http://www.alpb.org/forum/index.php?topic=5259.0
Mitch: I hear good things about Knox Presbyterian in south Minneapolis, just around the corner from my house. Check them out.
http://knoxpc.org/index.cfm/pageid/1
November 20th, 2013 at 9:57 pm
Further evidence, were any necessary, of the bankruptcy of organized religion.
November 21st, 2013 at 6:03 am
I used to attend there when I lived in South Minneapolis, and I loved it.
The two congregations (PCA and orthodox) listed above are right in my neighborhood. I’ll be trying them both).