EmPulse for Week of December 27, 2010

you can’t get there from here

Road maps. Signs. MapQuest. Garmin. TomTom. Google Maps. Travel guides. Why is it that, no matter how strictly we follow them, we still get lost? The first time we visited a friend in New England he sent me a map with the “most-direct-route.” MOST DIRECT ROUTE?!? “…take a sharp right onto the dirt road that goes around the cow pasture toward Rupert Dump Road. Turn left past the dump.” I thought he was kidding. He wasn’t. Now that we live in New England we understand the phrase—  you can’t get there from here, and its corollary—you don’t want to go there.

There are many road signs whose intent is to guide us to our destination, sometimes, even efficiently (baring traffic and the occasional herd of cows). Road maps are printed in most locations to reflect accurately what actually lies out there, on the real-road. The same is true for spiritual guides—  the Christian Bible, Islam’s Quran, the Hindu Vedas (vaidika dharma) and their Bhagavad Gita, even the Analects, a collection of Confucius’ teachings compiled by his students. In more recent times there seems no end to self-help guides, seminars on success, personal awareness, cleansing the soul, overcoming just-about-anything, executive management, home management, dealing with teenagers, etc. All these—  road maps & signs to help us along the way.

But how do we decide which guidebook or self-help course will work best for us? How do we decide which ones are genuine, which ones are fads, fakes, or just plain exploitive scams? History doesn’t offer much clarification; every world religion, every self-help course, has, at one time or another, gone very astray. So where can we verify that one course or guidebook is better or more true than any of the others? Might I suggest an examination of their polar representations. First, look at the origin, their founding documents—  what was the character of the person who founded the religion, pioneered the movement, or laid down the “primary principles” to which its later adherents would dedicate their lives. Secondly, examine the contributions the followers of these creeds or philosophies have made to our world. How have they contributed to the good of mankind? What have they done to alleviate our world’s pain, feed its hungry, or to bring about peace? In what ways have they made a difference? These religions, or movements, or courses, will most likely have more to offer as you dig deeper into their inner workings. AND, you will, somewhere along the line, start to light up about their life-principles. If you don’t, well, you’re probably on the wrong road. Time to back-track, get a better map, follow a different route.

And try not to get m-o-r-e lost. Maybe you just need to bring a Navigator alongside. You can get there from here. But it is going to take some exertion on your part.

 

Have a nice week,

Gary

Dear Fellow Deep-Freezers,
Unless you live south of the Equator you have just lived through one of the coldest pre-winters on record. Cold enough for you yet!?! As the temperature outside drops into the teens & the snow continues to fall I want you to picture me sitting in our “fire-room,” feet resting on an ottoman, in front of a glowing wood stove fire. It’s the ONLY way to handle winter’s deep freeze.
We’ve seen a lot of changes around NEED’s ministry over this past year. We have definitely moved deeper into the forest of our postChristian community. No less than one-half of our time is spent challenging, debating, and counseling with people who never have a Christian thought. They find it somewhat curious that a genuine Christian, who actually believes in absolute truth, right and wrong, and a God-Who-Created can even exist in the midst of their society. When I tell them that Christ can give them a life they could never imagine, they usually respond, “You’re right… . I can’t imagine it!”
Therefore, we are re-gearing our efforts to connect with a wider community of Christian and postChristian people. Even NEEDNEWS is giving way to newer forms of communication. Our WEBsite grows it’s audience daily. EmPulse, our weekly brain-teaser designed more for our secular audience, is being referred to people with whom we have no prior contact . What a sur-prise! And my personal relationships in Amherst, MA continue to deepen among those who are definitively NOT Christian. Our levels of conversation about the Christian faith still amazes me. One 31 year old grad-student wonders that I journey with him and don’t judge him. I merely tell him that God is the judge of us all. He’s not sure about that. Yet.
PARADIGM LOST: Christians living in a post Christian culture, is being scrutinized by the cohesiveness editor and near publication…, finally.
One of the purposes of this end-of-year letter is not only to update you on NEED’s minis-try, but also to seek your financial support for our ongoing efforts to make a difference in the emerging field of culturally sensitive evangelism. Simply put, we need to learn the language of the people we are trying to reach with the Gospel. NEED trains believers how to do just that. To continue to do so requires financial supporters like you. Please, in these very difficult times of re-cession, consider a financial gift to this ministry that will make a difference. I promise we will use it with Godly graciousness and New England frugality.

Merry Christmas
Gary
Dr Gary Davis
President

EmPulse for Week of December 20, 2010

of coarse…

Sense and Sensibility, Remains of the Day, The Scarlett Pimpernel, even Surprised by Joy…, all bespeak of another era, another time when courtesy, refinement, gentility, and chivalry were the fabric of society. There existed a decorum that pervaded cultured civilization. It was assumed that a man would open a door for a lady, that he would pull back her chair for her to be seated. It was commonplace for children to show respect to their parents, their elders. A gentleman’s hand was his word. But two World Wars, an unresolved Korean conflict, the dissolution of the safety found in traditional families, and the rise of moral deconstructionism has changed all that. Gentility is viewed as pretense, refinement as metro-sexual, and chivalry as simply ridiculous. Common courtesy has been supplanted by a cultural crudeness that drags most of western society to its lowest common denominator.

We live in a exceptionally coarse culture. Clothing styles appear to have lost any semblance of modesty, especially among teenagers. The workplace has become so casual that some places are instituting dress-up Mondays. No one would ever think of writing a formal Thank you note; just text it. The English language, even among Americans, has succumbed to a montage of mispelings, run-on sentences, and a grammar from hell. [Not to mention texting-shortcuts (omg, lol, lyao).]

Vulgarity in the arts (theater, film, paintings & sculpture) seems to have sunken to further degradation. Not that this is new; rather, its offensiveness continues to strive to surpass itself. As evidence I offer the photograph accompanying this commentary. It is titled Piss Christ. The photograph, measuring roughly 3’x 5’, is of a plastic crucifix submerged in the artist’s own urine. It was part of a series of objects the artist submerged in milk, blood, & urine. This particular image, created by Andres Serrano (in 1987) was first displayed in 1989, and won the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art‘s “Awards in the Visual Arts” competition (along with the $15,000 prize), which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

If ever there were a culture that needed redeeming it is ours. We have become a nation that has risen to its lowest moral point in history. Children born outside the protection of the marriage bond is accepted as normative. Marriages that last past 5 years, a curiosity. Business contracts are too oft full of loop holes or wiggle-room; hidden escape clauses, personal enhancement codicils.

What our culture needs are men and women who will stand firm for what is right, for what reflects the ethical/moral threads woven into our very being. Men who will be faithful to their families, with integrity in their business practices, and interpersonal relationships; women whose strength does not need a sexual overtone, who contribute to the strength of their communities, the workforce, and the world politic. We need people of faith who will live by the principles they say they believe in; who honor God and their fellow man as one act.

Honoring God and those around us is at our core. What is in yours?

Have a nice week,

Gary

EmPulse for Week of December 13, 2010

ice storm

Ice storms in New England are infamous! The snow storms are great, soft white, blanketing the countryside with peace & gentle tranquility. Albeit, in recent years, not deep enough for this writer. But the ice storms…, well. What’s the Simon & Garfunkel lyric? Slip-slidin’ away, slip-slidin’ away. It seems the nearer you’re destination the more you’re slip-slidin’ away. Ah the joys of four wheel drive! And even then… .

Unless you are a competent, experienced driver, ice storms pose a veritable threat to anyone on the road. Inexperienced drivers pose even more of a threat. Too frequently they assume driving on ice is only marginally different than driving in rain. Thus the predictable “first accident.” I recall one such ice storm found me returning home from Boston at night. The car to my right started skidding into my lane. I hit the brakes and immediately put my car into a 360 . I hit a snow embankment at about 40 mph, launching me, still spinning, into the air. Somehow I landed between two trees, suspended above a ditch, motor still running. “Interesting.” I thought. The reality that I might just have been killed never occurred to me. That dawned later; as did the realization that God had kept me alive for some weird, mysterious purpose.

Spinning around in the air in an ice storm will do a number of things to one’s psyche. So will the loss of a parent, or a child. Being unemployed for a long period of time will make you doubt your abilities, your worth, whether you have a purpose in life at all. Being fired from a job, be it your first employment as a teenager or as a long-standing COO or manager of a major corporation, can be devastating, and costly.

Establishing your foundational core on your vocation and employment can be as dangerous as  New England ice storm; slippery, unmanageable, with little time to react when things go out of control. It is better to frame your foundational core in something other than what you do for a living. Not things like human relationships—they too can be like an ice storm, and just as unpredictable; or stress-relieving techniques, that bring a mechanical, albeit genuine, yea, temporal, re-centering of your core. You know that will come back around on you again! Something more foundational, more primal.

Might I cautiously put before you that seeking a new depth with the God who made you just could be the most foundational foundation you’ll ever find. Notwithstanding the sins of the church and many of those who allege to be “Christian,” I have found my foundation in my friend, Jesus Christ. Where are you looking?

Fortifying and refining your core foundation will go a long way to help you stay the line and stay on course when the ice storms hit. Slip-slidin’ away.

Gary

EmPulse for Week of December 6, 2010

Actionable atheism

No, really…, there’s a lot to be said for atheism. Just think of it—

• No theological squabbles about which religion is the true one.
• Since there’s no after-life one only need be concerned for this life— so go for it! Go for it all!
• Morality is self determined (or a social agreement). There’s no reason to fear a future judgment.
• Friendships can come and go as utilitarian affairs. [Actually, sexual affairs should be considered as merely utilitarian as well.]
• Without a deity in the picture, self-reliance & self-determination are far simpler matters.

To be sure, though, there is a down side to atheism.

• Belief in God has merely been replaced by belief in non-god; which is an odd definer.
• Being concerned for just this life-span must view death as the final resting place. Whereas, from another viewpoint, death is the one aspect of life that does not fit in with the rest of life’s accomplishments, dreams, and aspirations.
• Morality, without an external reference point, like the Ten Commandments, the Code of Hammurabi, or the US Judicial System, becomes somewhat capricious, if not socially destructive and life threatening.
• Friendships more readily become utilitarian; the primary question being “What can I get out of it?” rather than striving for a deeper bond thru trust and transparency.
• Touting self-reliance and self-determination feels a tad arrogant for any species on one planet in one solar system in the myriad of galaxies that populate our universe. [No insightful thanks to “Man is the Measure of all Things“- Protagoras of Abdera ( c. 480-410 B.C.)]

Then there’s the question of what to celebrate? Christmas? NO. Chanukah? No. Thanksgiving? No. Definitely not Easter, or Ramadan, or Mahashivaratri.  Ah…, the Super Bowl. Fourth of July. Labor Day. There must be more.

Actionable Atheism, that is, atheism that effects the daily lives of its adherents, is tough to implement. It takes more work to NOT believe in God than to believe in Him. Sure, some scientists assert that someday science will be able to explain everything; but that is not the case as of this writing. It takes a great deal of faith to believe an assertion of that immensity. So what makes an ath

eist’s faith in someday any different than a Christian’s faith in someday soon, or in the God who is There? Let’s not rewrite history or reinvent the future just yet.

Have a nice week.

Gary