Back in Chicago

We are back in Chicago for a few days. We have been working on blogability for Bushnell office so it should be possible to blog from there when we get back. I do go blotto over work sometimes so it is not surprising to miss a month of blogs, like last month but check back, sanity always returns.

I have been thinking a lot about adjusting the gospel presentation to communicate to our changing cultural climate. I do believe we as Christians will always be revisiting the gospel stories and teachings to see if there is something we have missed or misinterpreted. This always going back is not an innovation of post-Christian thought. On the other hand, we often sound as if we do not constantly reassess our theology. We talk about "time honored truth" or "absolute truth" as if that is what is coming out of our mouth. It is not a relativization of truth to recognize that we all are finite creatures who come short, very short, of real-izing ultimate truth. No one of us, not individually or in a group (read denomination) has a perfect grasp of ultimate truth. But saying that is an to actually propose that there is such a thing as ultimate truth.

A lot of Christians are rightly afraid of accommodating our Christian beliefs to worldly pressures. Culture is a powerful thing. We all want to be accepted. Or at least we desperately want our witness for Jesus to be accepted. I am reading a book, Chameleon Christianity by Dick Keyes. In the first few chapters he argues that the Chameleon Christian "will bend to the currently respectable viewpoint on each ethical issue. . ." He also suggests there is another reaction to the culture which he labels Christian tribalism. "Christian tribalism -- the protective containment of Christian distinctiveness within the Christian ghetto or subculture. It entails christian tribal dialects, tribal education, tribal music, tribal television, and even the Christian tribal yellow pages. . ." Having set the two poles, tribalism and chameleon Christianity Keyes notes that there are powerful forces that force people from one end to the other. Young people in a tribal situation think, "Help! This cannot be what the Christian faith is really like.. I need to find some group that offers an alternative to this rigidity!" The only alternative is at the other end of the spectrum. Those in a Chameleon Church think, "Where can we find other Christians who will help us stand against the tide of relativism and moral passivity?" Suddenly the Tribal Christians are looking good.

Tomorrow I will look up a piece I wrote when Cornerstone Magazine staff was agonizing over this very issue. Where the rubber met the road was our seeming liberalism in certain political stands such as caring for the poor verses our seeming conservatism in others such as abortion.