Wickedly Modern

My wife and I have been married nearly two and half years.  October 18th is the day that we remember the covenant we made and celebrate it.  My wife, being a big fan of theatre "happened" to observe and "hint" that the musical Wicked was showing in Denver near our anniversary.  My parents were going to be in town around then and my mom loves the theatre too.  Their anniversary was coming soon so we decided to make it a double date. To prepare me for the show the CD was purchased and listened to often.

Watching the show that evening I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I thought the story, the music, and the acting was amazing.  I was completely engaged by the tale of Elphaba and Gilinda, I liked the spin, and the alternative perspective to the traditional Wizard of OZ story.  To be honest after the show I could not stop thinking about it and unashamedly singing the songs.  Now I am a little more cautious.

As I thought about the original story of the Wizard of OZ (the movie that is) and processed through the liberties Wicked, which is based on the book Wicked by Gergory Maguire, took the original idea, it seemed vary plausible.  What if the Wicked Witch of the West was not wicked as the the original story intended, but actually just misunderstood as the musical suggests.  Makes for a great story, but I think taking these liberties, is not without consequence.  I think it is a great example in pop-culture of Deconstructionism.  Deconstructionism, in very basic terms is that thought that there is no one way of applying interpretation or criticism to a text, interpretation is up to the reader.  This school of thought was made famous by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Wicked I would contend, is a deconstruction of The Wizard of Oz. The original author (L. Frank Baum) intended the Wicked Witch of the West to be just as her names describes her, wicked, not misunderstood.  This is not me discrediting the musical Wicked, as I said I enjoyed it and still do.  It is a production that is exceptionally well done in all areas.  I am simply pointing out deconstructionism within pop-culture.

The problem deconstructionism presents is to the way people interpret the Bible and/or other sources of literature.  If deconstructionism is true, then meaning in literature is relative to the person reading, not the authors intent.  Even this post's interpretation is up to you, the reader.  Many in our culture, Christians alike, apply this deconstructionist thought to the study of literature.  I want to focus on the the dangers of deconstructionism  in studying scripture.  In many bible studies a question that is often asked is "What does this mean to you?"  With the response "Oh, I never thought of that, good insight, to me it means..."   It seems in many ways, deconstructionism has made its way into the church.  Meaning is interpreted by the reader, not the text's actual meaning.  This can be very dangerous because we can misapply texts thinking they are Biblical truth, and then live our lives in a way that could be opposite of God's intending meaning.  We tend to forget the more important questions "What does this text mean?" or "What is/was the authors intent?"  We do not look at historical context, author, date, preceding text's context, genre, other theologians,  and other important hermeneutical principles. I would contend there is one meaning to a particular text, whether we know what the meaning is, is where the conversations/debates happen.  Though Wicked is entertaining, I think it is a good example of deconstructionism within pop-culture and how ideas can effect our view of literature and more importantly Scripture.

Everything Matters

I recently purchased a book titled Heaven is a Place on Earth, written by Michael E. Wittmer. The tag line is  Why Everything you Do Matters to God.  I have yet to read the book, but I am very intrigued.  This idea, everything matters, can be a liberating one if understood correctly.  As Randy Alcorn wrote in the book Heaven "If your view of Heaven is boring your idea of worship is too small (paraphrase)"  Basically, if our worship of Jesus, is confined to an hour or two on Sunday morning then our view of worship is  inaccurate.  If everything we do matters to God, that means everything we do can be worship.  This does not mean everything is worship, sin is not worship, but it does matter to God.   I am reminded of the first time I experienced this idea of an expanded view of worship.  It was spring semester during my senior year at Biola University.  The intramural season was in full swing, with softball on the docket.  I was in left field on this one Saturday morning.  It was sunny, slight breeze, mid 70's, green grass, birds chirping, blooming trees and all of springs signs of renewal surrounded me.  During a slight lull in the game I started grinning and then it turned into a large, full blown smile.  Like a little boy who just hit a homerun in the championship game, or like Cody Ross hitting his second homerum off Roy Halladay in the NLCS, which was awesome.  I could not keep the smile off my face.  I was having fun!    It was there I thought God did not have to do this, but He loves to delight in His children, He loves to see their joy in things He has done.   I prayed and thanked God, for the game of softball, the community of friends, the weather, the physical ability to play (not that I am good, but that my body can participate), and whatever else was contributing to my joy.  It was a gift from the Lord!

I experienced for the first time, worship not confined to 2 hours a day.   It is lifestyle of worship within God's creation.   God is Creator, but we being made in His image are creators too.  We love creating things, whether it is art, music, movies, sports, machines, buildings, and so much more.  These things matter to God, we sometimes compartmentalize our lives so much that we do not see God's work in all things.  We often view our work or job, our entertainment choices, our leisurely activities as secular and not connected to worship.  As Francis Shaffer so aptly said, Christianity is "total reality", it is True.  Shaffer explains, "When I say Christianity is true I mean it is true to total reality—the total of what is, beginning with the central reality, the objective existence of the personal-infinite God. Christianity is not just a series of truths but Truth — Truth about all of reality." Everything matters to God, enjoy that, find liberation to worship God in work, leisure or playing softball on a bright spring morning.

The Christian Citizen

      I have a passion for politics, always have.  It seems that there is a battle within Christianity about whether or not Christians should care about politics.  Some would contend that Jesus is King (true), focus on the gospel, and stay out of politics it does not concern Christians.  On the other hand Politics effect morality that directly effects Christians (abortion, the poor, the orphan, homosexuality, human rights, the widow just to name a few) so what are we to do?  I have learned not to look at one scripture as the end all or two scriptures but the whole of the Biblical text.  Even beyond that to the nature of God, humanity, and church fathers.  Everyone, Christian and non-Christian, has a worldview and it influences all aspects of their life. This does not mean I want a Theocracy, but that either Christian's will influence policy or another worldview well ie: Atheism, Communism, Islam...  Frank Turek wrote a book titled Legislating Morality and he contends that all policy, is a legislation of morality.  Here is an article that he wrote summing up his book briefly http://www.midwestoutreach.org/journals/legislating.html. 

I recently read a book titled Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft by Frank Beckwith.  Many times as Christians we look to the Acts church as the only source of truth and knowledge on the issue of Christianity in culture, including politics.  As Beckwith states the early church could never have imagined a liberal democracy.   "A liberal democracy is a form of government where citizens have the opportunity to pass laws and support policies that they believe to be just, fair, and advance the common good of the society."  America is a liberal democracy.  He contends that the church of the 4th century saw that they could either shape public policy for good or let the pagans who did not know God shape culture.  With that thought in mind I would contend Christians should be involved in Politics at every level.

Purpose

Blogging is something I have wanted to do for a while, with little motivation to actually start.  Because of the pace of my life with a baby, wife, work, and grad school time was important.  Recently wrapping up my masters, the motivation for critical thinking must be done on my own.  The beauty of being out of school is I finally get to read books that have been on my list for years.  The purpose of this blog is to write what I am learning and how I am thinking as a Biblical minded Christian in a world that opposes Biblical Christianity.  This can range from politics and the christian citizen, to theology and history. Ultimately how does a Christian live in the world and have his Biblical worldview influence his entire life.  There are two areas I want to focus on.  The first is why Christians should and ought to be involved in their world in all facets of life.  The second is to asses my own learning, critical thinking skills, and continue to write and learn how to write and think well.  Unlike most blogs I will stand by what I write, though over the course of years my ideas will probably change as I grow, mature and deepen my understanding of Biblical Christianity.  I have much to learn, this is just one way I am choosing to do so.  Feel free to respond, push back, encourage and challenge my thoughts.  May these ideas and thoughts be profitable to you in you growth and understanding of a Christian Worldview.