Category: Podcast

Released on the Spark My Muse podcast

Capacitarianism: Final Gender Post in Series

Post IV
“Capacitarianism” (Transcending the worn out terms “egalitarian” & “complementation”)

I’m drawing this proposal series on gender and the church to a final post. Well, final for now. (I’ll leave room for a sequel series, just in case…)

Plenty of other recognizable names will be shedding light on this topic in the weeks and months to come. Let’s hear if they have anything new to add.

Among all this discussion, I do realize not everybody will be encouraged to push toward a better understanding of gender as it relates to God’s plan of redemption. Plenty of times we talk, and we talk, but we don’t move our positions. We just dig in.

Though many times we learn too little, something much worse can happen too: Talk stays talk.

In the end, talk of men or of angels doesn’t about to anything but noise, if it cannot be a reality of love, enacted. Action, far more than arguments or dialogue is what transforms.

I have no doubts that these issues about equality, roles, church, gender, and what-have-you will be wrestled by laity, theologians, and debaters…ad nauseum. I hope it’s been clear that my point in these four posts was to cast the topic in a new light, and see if we could think bigger than our current terms afford us. Either way, like life, it is all fleeting…just as King Solomon proposed.

For now, I will leave you with these following 5 offerings below, (and I welcome your own additions, or other comments, in the comments section below).

The 5
As we encounter these gender-themed topics and the church; and as we continue dialogue here, or elsewhere, please take these 5 suggestions into consideration.

1. Don’t use the Bible as a weapon. A fine line will be crossed when we use Bible verses as “backing” for our position, and claim we are “being Biblical”, while at the same time cherry picking words and phrases that support what we’ve already been told, or are wont to personally believe.
The Brass Tacks are this: Interpretation of the Bible must well mirror the nature, attributes, and over plan of redemption that is God’s. One’s view on gender must articulate God’s Story.

…Some of you may say the Bible IS a weapon! Yes, the Bible is called the “Sword” of the Spirit, but first let that sharp thing pierce (convict) your own heart, or protect your heart from Evil. Please don’t go chopping away wildly and cut off ears, or other things…

2. Don’t assume or concede that just the two main positions are the only viable stances in contemporary times (i.e. egalitarian and complementation).

I, for one, will not be compliant to this tact, nor will I adopt either view fully as I dialogue, especially as a prerequisite to having a conversation on the topic. 

3. Admit the “answer/s” about gender, and church roles, and how this plays out in typical Kingdom living are hard to find, not cut and dry. I don’t think we can learn from each other, or from God, if we have it all figured out.

4. Don’t let old and worn out terms and ideas corner you, or make you give up on what God has called you to do. God seems to call us to do things that swim upstream, and go against convention or tradition. Make the love of God, and devotion to God your aim.

5. Find common ground. As others have wisely said in the comments sections that egalitarians, complementarians, and the rest of us, (usually) want to please God, live for him, respect the Bible, and enact grace. If we take time to find common ground, we will realize there is much more the same, especially in our intentions, than we first realized.

The Word of God encourages us to live in harmony with each other, and have unity in the bond of peace. This is far harder to dispute than any gender-related position! If you error, do it on the Love (not division) side of things.

Peace to you.
-Lisa 

PS (To read the other 3 posts on this topic, start here or here.) Your contributions to the topic are quite welcome.

Gender Roles and the Early Church (Envisioning “Capacitarianism”, Part II)

As we enter dialogue on gender, or rather, as I’ve proposed, moving past using gender to decide privilege in the church, it’s important to first realize the troubling influence from the (male) leadership in the early church. Their ideas continue to heavily impact the attitudes and practices of the contemporary church, and cause confusion.

Doctrine based on secular thought and culture:
When reading the thoughts of the early church fathers, we notice the heavy influence of secular Greek thought that disparaged women, and valued the spiritual far and above the physical/material, as well as and male over female. (see a bit on Dualism)

The Incarnation trumps cultural assumptions:
The Incarnation, however, fully appreciated the spiritual and the material, both. God reaffirms the dignity of the physicality and spirituality of the human being, and all of his physical Creation. A materialistic/dualistic approach (which still can be found subtly in Christianity, even today), undercuts what God has done in the life, ministry, and sacrifice of Jesus, the Christ.

Worldview Askew:
The ministry of Jesus, the Son of God, and the first generation of the Christian church was most scandalous in its progressive exercise of women in positions of influence and leadership (i.e. apostles, prophetesses, deacons, teachers, etc.). This thoroughly counter-cultural new sect and off-shoot of Judaism, who affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth, was and is divine, soon succumbed to typical male-dominated power and authority, and instead, mirrored the secular cultural worldview.

Most influential church fathers who articulated the earliest of Christine doctrine and practice, were much like their academic or secular peers in their misogyny. Typical (and secular) morays resumed.

Swiss Cheese Foundation Walls (Holey not Holy):
It seems that conversations and debates about men and women, and their roles in the church have only ever built on the thoughts of these errant church fathers, or, contrastingly, openly revolted against them (i.e. feminist theology). But, these are both tired and worn out arguments and vantage points that now have limited usefulness. We continue to merely speak past each other.

Eve Hating:
The man known in Christianity as, “The founder of Western Theology” is Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus,  best known in English as Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD).

He covered apologetics, heresy, morals, church discipline, baptism, soteriology, and made a huge impact on one of Christianity’s most influential leaders, Augustine of Hippo.

Though Tertullian was well know for elucidating important issues of church life, as well as the gracious treatment of widows, his thoughts and comments about females are truly shocking to our contemporary ears. Read some for yourself: De Cultu Feminarum Book I. Chapter I.—-Introduction. Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women, in Memory of the Introduction of Sin into the World Through a Woman.

 Here are some Tertullian highlights:

• Man, not woman, is created in the image of God.

• Woman was and is the source of temptation.

• Like Eve, each woman is also:

  •  the devil’s gateway
  • the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree.
  • the first deserter of the divine law.
  • the one who persuaded him (Adam) whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.
  • the one who destroyed so easily God’s image, man.
  • the reason the Son of God had to die.

Admittedly,  this glimpse is just that–a glimpse. A careful study of his ideas would be wise.

BUT-Is it really any wonder that women were relegated to inferior status ontologically, and within the community of believers? It’s not a surprise that women still are, only a disappointment.

Yes, Christianity has a sordid past. Humans are flawed. Yet, God’s plan is to use us (all) to bring about his ongoing redemption. I venture that we likely got off on the wrong track long ago. Many of the church fathers’ thoughts were wrong, in the first place. The time is ripe to begin afresh. Big improvements don’t really happen through recycling old methods, but rather by re-creating them from different commencement points.

Moving forward:
Defining “Capacitarian” (now pushed to a future post) will have everything to do with seeing things anew, from the vantage point of a gracious Creator, as much as possible. Our dignity and worth is truly sourced in God, not on the cultural bias of early church leaders.

We must jettison malformed doctrine.

Now, I ask you, if we are to re-envision and redefine the role of citizens in God’s Kingdom (versus deciding “men and women’s roles in the church” based predominantly on body parts) than what should be our foundation as we go forward?

What do you propose to re-shape our thinking? Submit your thoughts and ideas here, please. Please, help and enlist the contribution of others as well. A tweet or link is a great place to start.

UPDATE: Here is a link from Dan, I had to pass along. It’s by Ben Witherington.

 

 

 

Thoughts on my 20 years of Internet Experiences

First internet browser: Mosaic

In a few months, I’ll be using the internet for 20 years. In college, I used something called GOPHER. I got email which consisted mainly of correspondence with other college students, and scientists sharing information. This was text based internet use. That’s right; this was pre-internet browser. (YIKES! I could have lost a whole bunch of you just now. You thought your browser was the internet, right?) 

A whole generation knows nothing of staring at a small monitor with green LED text for connecting with others on their computers.

I had the opportunity to frequent the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University, and enjoyed playing around in computer labs in the summers, and on my holiday breaks. This was especially, delightful when the first Apple computer came out in 1984. Hello, MacPaint! The school was (and likely is) 10-15 years ahead of the curve, technology-wise, compared to other institutions. It’s said that M.I.T. wishes it could be CMU when it grows up. Things like identity cards encoded with meal plan and student account information, campus ATM machines, direct deposit of paychecks, among other things were well in place in the early and mid 1980s.

WIKI tid bit: In the fall of 1990, there were just 313,000 computers on the Internet; by 1996, there were close to 10 million.

Then came a big breakthrough for the world Wide Web: Mosaic (Early 1990s). This was 15 years before more common browsers were created: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari (which I use) and later Google Chrome.

I took a field trip to NYC, and a design agency was helping the New York Times have a web presence, using Mosiac. Most companies scoffed at the internet at this time. It was merely a passing fancy, with no real practical purpose. Very few companies would put aside money to have a web presence. Netscape Navigator effectively broke the back of Mosiac in 1994, and like TV, the internet (which was not created by Al Gore, more here,) proved itself to be an invaluable innovation, not just a mere tech trend. The internet starting getting attention, and acceptance.

By 1995, I had my own email address on a home computer, and penned a local article predicting that in 10 years, everyone would be online, in the same way everyone had a home telephone at the time. Plenty of people thought that was absurd. I actually over shot that one. It was 7-10 years, probably.

Then, mobile phones were just gaining ground in the lives of ordinary people. Until that time, had been mostly a beeper market (pagers,), and those users were mostly doctors, firefighters, workaholics, and people who wanted to seem important or rich. They still make pagers, believe it or not. I’m not sure why. Security issues?

Now many of us have smart phones. Direct access to unfathomable amounts of information and connectivity from around the world. Governments, and long-standing dictatorships have been toppled as a result of shared news and information that the internet offers. And participation in internet social media is the rule, not the exception. (Case in point: Social Media just surpassed pornography as the most utilized form of internet use. Now, if that doesn’t say something, nothing does!)

We’ve emerged from the internet stone age (probably), and I cannot even imagine what is to come. You know what else? The predictions that we would be paperless, and book-less by now, were wrong. But, they were wrong about television and home movies/cable/etc. They said movie theaters would be obsolete, and shut down; and that couldn’t be further from the truth. We make room for useful technology, don’t we?

SO! What year did you get email, or start using the internet?

HEY! Remember the America Online (aol) sent out computer disks that would offer 15 free minutes if you signed up with them? I probably had 150 of them sent to me, and I never went for their offer. They would up the minutes in their promotion until it came to several hours worth.

Ahhh, the olden days. Apple won’t even be making computers with CD/DVD drives anymore. How about them apples? Even if you’re 16, you can feel old, when technology adapts so speedily.

A Way of Life

Have you heard the t-shirt, “Life is a Beach”? I think that by law they have to sell it at coastal gift shops. I was going to say, “I you heard of the phrase…” but I’m not sure I ever heard it except when a t-shirt told me.

There are a million “beachisms” out there. Do you know any?

I don’t think life is a beach. I think the beach calls the shots.

I’m taking 3 days off, Dewey Beach style…as a way of life.

See you on the other side.

Lemonade ¢25. Rewards? Priceless.

lemonade stand

Today, my kids made almost $20. Lemonade and Cookies for sale, only ¢25 each.

Okay, I chipped in for the ingredients, and helped them set up, absolutely free, but you get the idea.

The day started off rainy. Not a good day for a lemonade stand. The odds were against them. But, ya know, when a little kid offers you fresh lemonade for a quarter, how do you refuse? I was surprised that some did, but was gladdened that those folks were greatly out-numbered by other types.

First, a friend allowed the kids to set up shop at her business, in a high traffic area. In business, don’t they say something like, “Location. Location. Location.”?

Maybe that’s with real estate.

After that move, even the sprinkles didn’t slow down the customers. Probably more than 80% who walked by, melted visably when they saw the kids with their stand.

The kids really didn’t make (almost) $20. People were generous. They gave a $1, got their cookie and beverage, and said, “Keep the change.” Some gave money to them just because they were there. I parked nearby, but I let the kids do their own business. Attract customers, offer their products, and count the change. I saw how people put in extra effort to support them. It warmed my heart.

There is something very special about being enterprising. There is needed dignity that comes for people when they can make one’s own money, or find their own way, somehow. And yes, generosity makes a big difference too.

Have you been generous enough, lately?

I have this feeling, the same thing is true with spiritual growth, as well. When it comes to spiritual things, do we try to save people the experience of struggle? Growth can take work, and be painful, do we rescue the novices, or give them easy answers? (Pat answers do really help, and they can arrest deeper thinking.) Or do we allow space for mystery, doubt, or the unknown to shape them too.

Can we let pauses in conversation or questions happen, or do we try to fill it up with our “wisdom”? It reminds me of the weird nervous laughter habit people get into sometimes, when they don’t know what to do. They laugh in some odd way, that gets distracting, in its own right.

Do we cuddle or spoon feed, when trying and making a mess will be more helpful; not in the short run, but in the long run.

What are your thoughts?