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Category: Questions with no answers

1st Nations and White Privilege

Published by mhelbert on February 24, 2013

Over the years I’ve had numerous occasions to reflect on what the colonial mindset has done to the American continent’s indigenous people. Yeah, I grew up with cowboys and Indians, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and all of the other evidences of white privilege in this country. But, something never quite sat right in my heart. The First Nations people were human beings. Their world was invaded by outsiders. How were we right? So, like a good little White guy, I started looking at some of the humanitarian and philanthropic ways to “help the poor Red Man.” Little did I know that I would one day run head long into Randy Woodley. Nor, did I anticipate the effects of Dr. William Myer on my worldview. These men, along with Rev. Jennifer Crumpton, Caryn D. Riswold, and the bloggers at Womanist Musings have stretched me to the point of breaking. In fact, I have broken. I’ve broken with the white patristic ideal of America. I’ve broken with the idea that White makes Right. I’ve broken with the idea that God has ordained males for the divine work on Earth. These things make me wish that I was NOT a White Male.
But, I am. I can’t change that. And, for whatever reason, Creator saw fit to make me this way.
However, back to my original thoughts.
Some folks think that humans came to this continent some 10,000 years ago. From these original travelers came the indigenous people that Columbus and the Mayflower, and perhaps the Norse met. I’ve read some blogs and other sources written by Native Americans that indicate that they KNOW that Creator gave them the land. This land. The land that we call ours. In fact, from Columbus to Cortez to the Jamestown community to every White European to set foot on this continent, we have said that God gave US this land. It was God who led the explorers west. It was God who allowed the Conquistadors to triumph. In our arrogance we have interpreted the seeming military successes of our forebears to mean that we were/are right. Everything that we have done in this hemisphere has been god-ordained. This country is God’s country.
Bull.
What if……
The First Nations people are right. Creator gave them this land to live on. To live with. What if those roots were allowed to grow deep and produce much good fruit because Creator Yahweh ordained it so? And, what if God did, in fact, lead the Europeans here? We have been taught that God sent the Europeans to this continent to bring the Gospel. To bring civilization. But, what if Creator brought them here to learn? The indigenes knew the land. They knew Creator. They knew the true reality of life here. What if that’s just what the Europeans needed to learn?

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Just for the sake of discussion

Published by mhelbert on November 6, 2012

Over the years as election time rolls around, a lot of folks, primarily conservative evangelicals, begin to talk about each candidate’s or party’s position on abortion. All of the issues and questions are distilled into that one position. As long as a candidate holds a position that is in favor of repealing Roe v. Wade, she/he gets my vote. It would really be interesting to have all of the candidates on the same side of that issue so that we could actually consider other planks in their platform. But, alas, that’s not the case in 2012. The lines have been etched in stone and for any self-respecting evangelical the question is already answered. As one pastor said a few years ago, “I can’t tell you how to vote, but if you ask me after the service I can help you decide.”
Well, here’s a new wrinkle. What if our concept of being ‘Pro life’ is too narrow? What if this, like any other ethical question, has ramifications far beyond the simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’; ‘black’ or ‘white’ that so many of our evangelical leaders would have us believe? I found an interesting article from the New York Times oped that addresses questions that should be asked by people who truly want to be ‘Pro Life.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-why-i-am-pro-life.html

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Walking in the light in a dark world

Published by mhelbert on May 26, 2012

Over the past months one topic has been recurring in my daily prayer. It is the only thing that has brought me to tears. That is humanity’s ability to inflict damage on itself and the world around us.
Awhile back it was human trafficking and slavery. I just cannot understand how people can use and destroy others in the name of greed and profit. Today, as I reflected on the violence and hatred in the world I saw human kind as a virus that has infected the very good creation. I could see Mr. Smith from the Matrix talking to Neo about the ‘smell’ that the human virus caused. A repulsive stench that needed eradication. I wondered, then, why Creator/Yahweh continues to tolerate this ‘infection.’ We utter meaningless crap about ‘original sin’ and ‘total depravity.’ Yet, we sit on our platitudes and do nothing. We simply accept the status quo and rail against liberal politicians. There are a few voices out there trying to alert us to the dangers. Yet, no one listens.
Can anyone answer me?
How can a grown man kill a 6 year old boy and toss his body into the garbage? How can a white community harass and destroy a benevolent community made up of non-whites? How can a society build and stockpile weapons designed to utterly destroy other societies? How can people steal others and sell them into slavery? How can people worship a green guy named George? This idol is made out of paper, but is used to control, or destroy, entire economies? (Don’t believe me, check out Greece and Africa.) How can we value this false god more than real people and real creatures who live and breath?
My prayer was, and is, “Yahweh! I am spent. I don’t know what to do. How long, O Lord, will You allow this? When will You raise Your people up as one to stand in the face of this evil? Let Your Spirit, Ruach Elohim, hover and brood over the face of this chaos as You did in the beginning. Let order come through the speech of Your mouth. Let Your voice be heard once again bringing life out of death.”

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Some times are just difficult

Published by mhelbert on May 26, 2012

I’ve been away for a few days. Sometimes life happens and our nice routines get disrupted. Then, it takes awhile to adjust and get back into form, or maybe a different form. Over the past couple weeks my dad has been ill. As he has gotten older, as it is for all of us, the physical systems start to wear. This has been a source of concern for me and my family. We are trying to adjust to new demands and responsibilities, while maintaining all of the old ones. I’m sure that there are many others out there dealing with similar issues.
How do we make the transition to care givers for aging parents and other family? There are probably as many opinions about this as there are people living through the experience. There will be those who state that it is the childrens’ responsibility to return care to those who gave care for so many years. Others may have the opinion that professionals should be retained to help with care. After all, none of us are really trained in recognizing and meeting the needs of aging adults. I’m sure there are some who hold that the cycle of life simply requires that family care for family; it is the natural response.
I don’t know for sure. This is pretty new for me. I feel that I missed out on some of this while my mom was alive. She was cared for in a professional setting with my dad by her side all of the way. I did not feel it was necessary to watch her closely. Now, I do have some regrets that I was not more involved. Yet, another part of me wants to keep this mortality at arms’ length. I don’t want to get to close to the messiness that any relationship can bring, let alone that of someone nearing the finish line. (See, neat little metaphors rather than simply stating the reality.)
Anyway, it looks like things are changing. I guess that’s the way of it. Not always easy, but hey, no one every said it would be.

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When did “christian” become an adjective?

Published by mhelbert on May 5, 2012

I am revisiting a book I read many years ago. It is What on Earth Are We Doing?: Finding Our Place As Christians in the World by John Fischer. I read it when it was new in the late 1990s. As I pick among the many nuggets of good stuff that Fischer wrote, I am reminded of why this particular book made such an impact on me. In fact, I offered it to other leaders in my church who, whether they read it or not, never seemed to be captured by Fischer’s insights. You see, it takes contemporary evangelicalism to task. In our world we have attempted to build a parallel to what many would call “the world.” You know, that place where sin and debauchery lay waiting to waylay us and subjugate us to the cruel taskmaster of “worldliness.” So, according to Fischer, the word ‘christian’ became an adjective. Rather than the noun that it originally was coined as, someone who was a little Christ, we have made it descriptive. There is christian music and christian bookstores. We have christian novels and christian self-help books. We go to christian concerts and seminars and grocery stores and barbers. We have created a new “christian” world that allows us to have all of the stuff that the other ‘bad’ world has, but with a veneer of christian respectability. Is this what the gospel calls us to? Are we to insulate ourselves against the supposed enemy called human existence?
Back in the early 1970s I was part of the so-called Jesus Movement. One thing that we set as an objective was to show the world how it was possible to live according to the 1st century model of church that we read about in the book of Acts. We figured that if we could show people that this lifestyle ‘worked’ they would beat down our doors to get a piece of it. After all, as Fischer noted, we are a very pragmatic culture. If something ‘works,’ it absolutely MUST be true. We were, in fact, building the foundation of a ‘christian’ worldview. Today, one can look at the myriad organizations and churches that tout that their version of christianity works! You can be successful and have all of your needs met, just ‘step right up’ and climb aboard the gospel train. No more worries, no more stress, no more of the troubles of ‘Your’ world. We actually believed this. And, we preached it. The trouble was, it didn’t work. And, those on the outside could see that it didn’t work. We had televangelists talking the ‘christian’ talk, but failing miserably in life. Co-workers, who saw us everyday struggling to hold two worlds in tension, knew that we were failing. Now, we wonder why the culture has marginalized the message of Christ. We continue to try and show the world how good it is to be in a ‘christian’ world, but they aren’t watching. They really don’t care. As far as they are concerned we are a rerun of some bad 50s sitcom.
So, what to do? Honestly, I don’t have answers. That’s a good thing, I think. We cannot hold Yahweh in some box where we can let Him out when we need Him, but then close it when He gets too close. We want comfortable answers to all of life’s questions. After all, won’t that prove to the outside world that we are correct? Will that not vindicate us? Let me share a quote from Fischer’s book. This is something that he quoted from a lecture series given by Robert Farrar Capon:

The Gospel proclaims a disreputable salvation. It hands us neither an intellectually respectable God nor a morally serious one. It gives us an action of God in Christ that is foolishness to the Greek in us and a scandal to our Jewishness. It presents us with a Sabbath-breaking Messiah whose supreme act is to be executed as a criminal-and who then rises and disappears, leaving us with a blithe assurance that everything is repaired even though, as far as we can see, nothing has been fixed.

It seems that God is way bigger than we can imagine. God’s way of working in the cosmos is not what we would necessarily think it should be. Living as the bible seems to prescribe should work! But, we live in the time between now and the age to come. This life is filled with paradox that cannot be answered. There is a mystery about Yahweh that we cannot possibly understand. Not all of our questions will be answered, nor should they. Living in a separate, disinfected world is not God’s way. Getting closer to Yahweh, letting the Reign of God flourish within us is a way to start. Letting the glorious, good creation immerse us into the very presence of the Creator/Yahweh who walked among us is a way to begin living. Separating ourselves from the very world we are to be witnesses to this Great and Loving Father is not.

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The Prince of Egypt

Published by mhelbert on February 18, 2012

Last night my daughter put in the dvd of the animated “The Prince of Egypt.” It’s the story of Moses as God used him to liberate Israel from the oppression of Pharaoh. As we began, I had in the back of my mind Cecil B. DeMille’s “Exodus” with Charlton Heston. The grandeur of that production with Heston’s portrayal of a larger-than-life, and somewhat other-worldly Moses stood out in my mind. However, the animated production took a very different view of Moses and his relationship with just about everyone. His relationship with Pharaoh was especially interesting. While deMille developed the enmity between the two men, the folks at DreamWorks allowed a more human Moses to arise from the story. Yes, he still kills a guy and runs off to the desert. Yes, he met Jethro and Zipporah in Midian. And, of course, he met God at the burning bush.( I was surprised at how closely DreamWorks kept this particular encounter to the actual text.) Anyway, Moses went back to his tent, without the added gray hair that Heston sported, and had to convince his wife that he needed to go back to Egypt. For anyone who is married, this was an accurate portrayal.
Moses returned and was welcomed by Pharaoh at first. Then began the signs of God’s judgement on Egypt and its gods. I could see the Pharaoh being changed. At first somewhat surprised and incredulous with Moses, he became more and more hardened and angry. Even before the last plague, though, he still tried to woo Moses back into Egypt’s good graces. In the end, however, the angel of God swept through Egypt killing the first born. As Pharaoh’s son lay dead, Moses came to Pharaoh and was told that the people were free to go. Rather than say “I told you so,” the storytellers showed Moses leaving Pharaoh and breaking down to weep. Wow! Even though God had judged Egypt harshly, there was no joy in the deaths of so many. Even later in the story at the Red Sea, I caught some of the ethos of sadness when the army of Pharaoh was destroyed. Although the Israelites were free, and there was joy for that, the loss of so many sons of Egypt was not something to gloat about. These men had fathers, mothers, children, wives, friends and lovers who were left bereft. The parents of the lost first borns were devastated. I truly believe that God was deeply grieved by what happened. Lives were snuffed out in an instant throughout Egypt. First born; warriors. Beloved children; brothers. Not a time to rejoice, but to reflect on the effect that our own pride, arrogance and stubborness can have on us…and others.

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God: To be or not to be…Is that even the question?

Published by mhelbert on January 15, 2012

The past couple of days I’ve spent some time reading the blogs of folks who identify themselves as atheists. It’s been fun. These folks have some really good points that, apparently, aren’t being addressed by theists of any flavor. One of the recurring complaints is “I don’t think I can accept that without explanation or evidence.” I completely understand and respect this position. For people to question and investigate things is inherently human. (Not cat-like curiosity.) I am one of those Christ-followers who embrace the scientific community. Do I think that science knows, or can know, all of the answers to all of the questions that all of the people on this rock can ask? No, not really. On the other hand, do I think that the Bible or any person who searches and studies its contents can know this either? Still, no. One of the respondents to a blog I checked out identified himself as a physicist. He wrote, “In physics and mathematics, special circumstances hold at singularities.  Within classical big bang cosmology (which is regarded as incomplete by essentially all experts, even with the addition of semiclassical inflationary models), the Universe began with a singularity.” He then suggested with these special circumstances it’s possible that the Universe was causeless. I really hope that he’s not correct. I, like a good share of the rest of humanity, would like to think that we, as well as the Universe, have some reason, or cause, to be here taking up space. So, please, scientific community; keep looking!
The reason I can encourage those who seek is that I am not threatened by this. And, I don’t think that the God I follow does, either. I believe that this God has gifted humankind with a mind that questions and seeks. This mind is creative and imaginative, just like the One who imagined it.
In response to those who demand explanation or evidence. Sorry, can’t help you. And, to be honest, I don’t feel that I have to prove a thing. If I am truly to follow Christ, I must, with him, state, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Truthfully, I don’t see any reason to engage the discussions put forth by atheists. I really don’t think that discussion is even possible when there appears to be irreconcilable differences. They want proof, all I can offer is experience. Like one blind person in the Gospel narrative I can say, “I know that once I was blind, but now I see.” No one can share the blindness I experienced, so they cannot possibly understand what I now see. Please, I hope that no one thinks that because I don’t care to debate these issues I don’t care for those who would debate. I do. These are people who have meaning and worth. Their opinions are important, but they are only opinions. I cannot prove that God is a loving, caring Being who lives outside, yet inside of our physical universe. (Please, don’t make me try to say that again.) Nor, can they prove to me that there cannot possibly be any such Being. In the meantime? I suppose we can agree to disagree and get on with life. For some of us, that may be much longer, (shorter?), than we think.

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No religion, please

Published by mhelbert on January 8, 2012

One of the things I cherish is listening to people describe their faith journeys, or lack. Let’s face it, not everyone thinks that religion of any flavor is a good thing. And, I enjoy listening to their stories as well.
In a supplement to our local Sunday paper I read an interview with actor Daniel Radcliffe. For those of you who may have just arrived from another planet, he is the talented young man who played Harry Potter in the film series based on J.K.Rowling’s books. One of the questions asked was, “Your dad is a Protestant from Ulster and your mom is English and Jewish. Were you raised in a particular religion?” Why this reporter asked this particular question, I haven’t a clue. But, I’m that it was asked. Radcliffe’s response was not atypical. He said, “There was never [religious] faith in the house…My dad believes in God, I think. I’m not sure if my mom does. I don’t. I have a problem with religion or anything that says, ‘We have all the answer,’ because there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.’ We’re complex. We change our minds on issues all the time. Religion leaves no room for human complexity.”
While he seems to have lumped all of the world’s religions into one general statement, I think we should read this as a qualified statement about the religious experiences that he has personally had. And, I tend to agree in large part with his assessment. There are a lot of folks who state that they have the answers to the world’s ills.  Just read the Bible. Just pray. Just trust. Just have faith. Just, just, just. As Daniel so aptly put it, “there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.'” Life isn’t that simple.
When I was young during and part of the Jesus Movement of the early 70’s, we had problems with religion, too. We used to say and sing about not having religion, but having relation. It wasn’t important what we thought we knew, it was important who we knew. And, that someone for us was the Jesus of Nazareth. I have spent the better part of my life trying to live up to that statement. It’s hard, for sure. Being a Christ follower does not give me access to all of the answers to life. If that was true, I’d be God. (It’s better for everyone that I’m not.) The Bible does not contain all of the answers to life’s complex questions. It’s certainly not a users manual for humanity. We are all frail, yet complex beings who try our best to put one foot in front of the other without stepping on someone else’s toes.
Radcliffe’s position is honest. But, I think incomplete. I would love to sit and listen to him. To hear the voice from his heart-of-hearts. He is a gifted artist. I would love to hear about his take on his giftedness. Not so I could challenge him. But, so I can learn more about the complexity of our humanness in this great cosmos that we call home.

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