Jesus wants to save Christians

I started reading Rob Bell’s new book, “Jesus Wants To Save Christians” this week. Like Rob’s other two books, this one reads in a narrative manner that reminds me of a conversation at a coffee shop between two life-long friends. One chapter into the book and I already think this will be my favorite of Rob’s works.

Rob is the teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church and his teachings are available in the form of weekly podcasts. I have been a weekly listener for nearly 3 years and remember a series Rob did a year or two ago entitled, “Jesus want to the save the Christians…” During the series, Rob suggested that the teaching of Jesus were often focused on those who identified themselves as religious. Those teachings focused on issues such as greed, love of enemies, and serving others.

You see, as those who identify with religion, Christians are often under the assumption that they would not be greedy, hateful, or proud people. Unfortunately, the contrary is too often the case.

Additionally, far too often, complacency and ignorance are our truest sins. When we shop at stores that sell cheap products made in developing countries by underpaid, overworked people, we are contributing to a system that violets human rights, a system that pays its average store employee little more than minimum wage but whose CEO makes billions a year. When we contribute to systems of degradation and exploitation, we propagate the injustices such a system benefits from.

So what do we do? Boycott? Protest?

Well no, and yes.
No, because boycotts don’t really work and protests rarely bring the attention to the actual matter being protested (the crowd gets the attention instead). But yes, we can do something. We can first stop buying “things” just because we want them. That is a symptom of greed and is something we can do without. We can also find other places to make our purchases. Stores that are responsible and focused on helping others. We can shop in stores that strive to empower instead of exploit, stores focused on helping rather than hurting.

That brings me back to Rob’s book. This is not just a book about economics or systems of power. It is a book about doing what is good, by everyone involved. It is a book about doing that next best thing.

Here is the problem: we (as in Americans) are a part of an empire. We are a part of the system. Capitalism is not the enemy, but it can become a religion when it goes unchecked. In the end, we begin to worship God with words only, and our actions are devoted to the dollar.

This book is about the Kingdom, and a Kingdom ethic of responsibility. It is about the economics of Jesus and the stewardship of those things God has blessed us with. Because, after all, if we are followers of Christ, then we are decedents of the Exile. We inherit the promise of God to Abraham. Specifically, that we will be blessed in order to bless others. This is our promise and our calling. What we have been given is not for us to selfishly enjoy. It is for us to unselfishly share. I am blessed in order to bless others. When we finally figure this out, we will truly begin to help heal our broken and corrupt systems. This is the message of Jesus: you were once slaves in Egypt, but you have been brought out of Exile. Go and bring others out as well.

I know how… (AKA "Is McCain a criminal?")

I have had about 4 days to process the debate from this week. Overall, the candidates said nothing that I had not heard before. In fact there was only one thing that struck me strong enough to inspire this post.

Senator McCain seems to know how to do several things. During the debate, he mentioned that he knows how to fix health care, our energy crisis, Social Security, and Medicare.

Brokaw: The three—health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?

“My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that…present-day retirees have today. We’re going to have to sit down across the table…I know how to do that.”

Later in the debate, when asked about fixing our economy, McCain suggested,

“I know how to do that, my friends…I know how to get America working again…I know how to fix the economy, and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, and stop sending $700 billion a year overseas.”

So, apparently, Senator McCain has a lot of answers. But one of his responses did not sit well with me. When Tom Brokaw asked about Pakistan and the pursuit of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, McCain strung together a disjointed assertion that he, and he alone knows how to find Osama bin Laden and dismantle Al Qeada.

“The point is that I know how to handle these crises…I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to get him. I’ll get him no matter what and I know how to do it.”

I can live with feeble-minded promises from political candidates. Solving an economic crisis is not just the president’s responsibility. The rest of our government must take action as well. Our energy crisis will take much more that a president just willing it to be solved. But I cannot accept McCain’s assertion that he knows how to get bin Laden and that he alone will do it.

Here is the crux of my issue with McCain’s grandiosity: If he really does know how to find, catch, or kill Osama bin Laden and he is not aggressively providing that information to the current administration and to military leaders, then he is a criminal on two counts.

First, he is essentially aiding and abetting a known terrorist, America’s number one enemy. If he knows how to catch him and he is not doing something about it now, he is contributing to bin Laden’s ability to elude us. This is not only criminal, it is treasonous.

Second, if he knows how to catch bin Laden and is only willing to share his knowledge if he is elected on November 4th, then McCain is essentially holding the American voter hostage, using our votes as ransom. This is unconscionable. This is domestic terrorism: holding our own people captive through fear and intimidation.

You can read the transcript of the debate on CNN’s web site.