It Is Irrational and Unloving to Affirm All Beliefs

Sia, in a storefront in Ann Arbor

(This post is a shorter, edited version of "Welcoming and Sometimes Disaffirming." I just want to keep this ball in play.)

I was asked the question, "Would a Muslim be welcome in your church?"

My answer was, "Yes!"

And Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists are welcome, too.

I welcome all of them, as Jesus does the same. I would love to have them come. (I have had atheists come to Redeemer, who are mostly students who have been in my MCCC philosophy classes. A few of them have converted from atheism to theism, and then to Christianity.)

I say yes and amen to loving and welcoming all kinds of people. 

Does this mean I affirm all the beliefs of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists? Of course not. No one can logically (coherently) affirm contradictory beliefs. 

Consider, for example, the following three mutually exclusive beliefs.

1) God does not exist (atheism, and Buddhism)
2) There are 330,000,000 gods (Hinduism).
3) There is only one God (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

Unless a person is on drugs, it is not possible to say "true" to these three beliefs, held simultaneously. (Only people on drugs can sing the song "Imagine" and mean it.)

From this we learn an important truth: No one can affirm all the various beliefs of the world's religions. 

To believe something is, ipso facto, to deny many things. Beliefs, by nature, affirm and exclude.

Going further, No one person affirms all the beliefs of any other person. The fact that I, or you, do not affirm the beliefs of someone else should not be shocking. Anyone who claims to affirm someone else's entire belief system is to be dismissed as unbelievable.

Let me prove this. Consider the statement It is irrational to affirm all beliefs. If you think this statement is true, then you believe it is irrational to affirm all beliefs. If you think this statement is false, then you contradict yourself and prove the statement to be true, since you disaffirm the statement. 

In the Jesus worldview, I welcome and love all people. I do not (because it cannot be done, epistemically) affirm all the beliefs of people. It is irrational to expect that I should do so. It is not unloving to say, "I think you are wrong about that." It is unloving, because untruthful, to treat people as if our different beliefs are harmonious. 

The Words of Jesus Were Events

(Butterfly House, Whitehouse, Ohio)

I wrote my doctoral dissertation on metaphor theory and linguistic philosophy; especially, how metaphors refer. I draw on this research in my chapter on the language of presence-driven churches in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church. 

One source is speech act theory (John Searle, and J. L. Austin's How to Do Things with Words). 

Henri Nouwen, in Gracias! A Latin American Journal, links Austin's idea that words have "illocutionary force" with the biblical idea that Jesus is "the Word." Nouwen writes:

"In Jesus, no division existed between his words and his actions, between what he said and what he did. Jesus’ words were his action, his words were events. They not only spoke about changes, cures, new life, but they actually created them. In this sense, Jesus is truly the Word made flesh; in that Word all is created and by that Word all is re-created."

Nouwen encourages us to have what I am calling illocutionary integrity.

"Saintliness means living without division between word and action. If I would truly live in my own life the word I am speaking, my spoken words would become actions, and miracles would happen whenever I open my mouth."

This Christmas, Abide in Him

(At the Gandy Dancer, in Ann Arbor)

A dying man's last words are said to be important.

I was in India, riding in the back seat of a car on a five hour ride from Hyderabad to Kurnool, on one of India's major highways. I could not sleep, even though I was jet-lag tired. India, by their own admission, leads the world in road deaths. 

I thought I was gong to die a hundred times or more on that trip! My driver was a crazed man in a land of psycho-drivers. He would routinely pass cars while going up a hill, or driving around a curve. Occasionally, he played "chicken" with an ongoing car, and sometimes with an oncoming truck. The game was to see who would "chicken out" first and swerve aside. This is beyond ridiculous, I thought, as my Indian friend and host slept soundly next to me through it all, as if this was the normal Christian life.

One time we passed a car going round a curve and came face to face with a truck. My driver swerved at the last moment. When I saw the truck coming at us, I said the following profound, almost-last-words-of-a-dead-man: "Oh no!" Had I died, whoever would do my funeral would have to say, "John the theologian's last words were, "Oh no!""

Jesus' Final Words, aka his "Final Discourse," were profound and continue to guide my life. We hear them in John, chapters fourteen through sixteen. 

The disciples are wondering what they will do when Jesus is gone. Jesus instructs them, and us.

He does not say, "Form some committees, and think of strategies to keep this thing going." He tells them: "Abide in me." 

Jesus says:  

Because I live, you also will live. 

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, 

and you are in me, 

and I am in you. 

(John 14:19-20) 

Call this "reciprocal abiding." 

God comes to make his home in the heart of every Jesus-follower. Every Jesus-follower is to tend this inner fire by making his home in Jesus like a branch connects to a Vine.

As we abide in Christ we...

• do the kind of things Jesus has been doing (John 14:12)
• do greater things than Jesus has been doing (John 14:12)
• are taught and led by God himself (John 14:26)
• are immersed in Trinitarian peace (John 14:27)
• live lives that bear much fruit (John 15:5)
• live lives of true, God-love (John 15:9)
• are flooded with the kind of joy Jesus experiences (John 15:11)
• receive the Father's wisdom (John 15:15)
• bear fruit that will last (John 15:16)

Jesus' last teaching was:  

Connect. 

Attach.

Dwell. 

Remain. 

Abide. 

Slow-cook.

In Him. 

He lives, in and through you. 

Let us sing these words together. 

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born in us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell:

O, come to us

Abide with us

Our Lord, Emmanuel

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What I Am Now Reading

 

I read - a lot. I read multiple books at a time. I have done this kind of reading for over 50 years.

I read from one book, then turn to another book, then another, then back to the first books, and so on.

Here are the books I am reading right now.

One Faith No Longer, by George Yancey and Ashlee Quosijk

Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World, by Craig Keener (I have to read this book slowly, since many of the stories are so stunning.)

The Atonement, by William Lane Craig

Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes du Mez (Du Mez teaches at Calvin University. See the reviews.)

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, by Zena Hitz

Into the Abyss: A Neuropsychiatrist's Notes on Troubled Minds, by Anthony David

Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, by Charles Taylor (I've been reading this book for a year!)

Sunday Morning 12/05/2021 - Descending into Greatness

The Discipline of Gratitude Thwarts Catastrophic Thinking

Monroe County

I'm enjoying reading Loving God with Your Mind: Essays in Honor of J. P. Moreland. It's only $2.99 on Kindle! 

In his concluding remarks, J.P. has some important things to say, for the future of the Church, and its leaders. I was especially helped by his comments on practicing the discipline of thanksgiving. He writes:

"I practice the discipline of gratitude. Due to my heredity and upbringing, I have a predisposition to anxiety and depression. One way to avoid these is to train yourself to see the glass half full and not half empty, that is, to habitualize a positive, thankful approach to life. And the best way to do that involves a negative and a positive step. Negatively, learn to spot early on any catastrophizing or totalizing thoughts you have in which you take fears and so forth, blow them up out of proportion, and engage in fearful, negative self-talk. When you spot the negative thought, tell yourself that it isn’t true, that it is overstated, and seek to undermine the thought. Then, positively, turn to God in prayer and thank Him for, say, five to six things in your life, ranging from little things like the taste of coffee to large things like friends and family. I will do this around one hundred times a day, and by now, such expressions of gratitude have become a habit and they have colored my perception of life. The discipline of gratitude keeps one from becoming sour on life and is very, very life giving." (p. 225) 

In Philippians 4 Paul tells Jesus-followers to "not be anxious for anything. (v. 6) The biblical word for 'anxious' is often used in contexts where persecution is happening. For example, in Matthew 10:19, where Jesus counsels his disciples. He said, "When they arrest you, do not be anxious about what to say or how to say it."

When Paul counsels the Philippian Christians to not be anxious, it's not like he is sitting down to a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner. He's in prison! The context is: persecution! These Jesus-followers were suffering under opposition fro their pagan neighbors, just as Paul and Silas had suffered when among them (Acts 16:19-24; Phil. 1:28-30).

I know what worry and anxiety are like. I have, in troubling times, felt consumed by them. So I ask - how realistic is it to be told “Be anxious about nothing?” Paul’s answer, and his experiential reality, is found in his rich, ongoing prayer life. He writes: ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I have proof that this works, (following Henri Nouwen, in his book Gracias!): When I don’t pray I am more easily filled with worry, and fear. In the act of praying I enter into the caregiving of the Great Physician, who dials down the anxiety.

In everyday prayer-conferencing with God, I present my requests to him. I lay my burdens before him (See 1 Peter 5:7). I have a Father God who loves me, in whom I trust. Where there is trust, there is neither worry nor anxiety. A person with a praying life grows in trust, and diminishes in anxiety. A praying person discovers, experientially, that trust and anxiety are inversely proportionate. 

Paul writes that our prayers should be accompanied “with thanksgiving.” Ben Witherington writes: “Paul believes there is much to be said for praying in the right spirit or frame of mind.” This is significant for the Roman Philippians, since pagan prayers did not include thanksgiving. Roman prayers were often fearful, bargaining prayers, not based on a relationship with some loving god.

Witherington adds: “Prayer with the attitude of thanksgiving is a stress-buster.”

John Wesley said that thanksgiving is the surest evidence of a soul free from anxiety.

J. P. Moreland counsels that the discipline of gratitude thwarts catastrophic thinking.

The antidote for worry and anxiety is: praying, with thanksgiving.

CHRISTMAS - JESUS DESCENDED INTO GREATNESS

She (by Lora Sue Hauser)

 

                                                     (Del, Donna, Linda, Martha, Lora, Vicki)

She

(By Lora Sue Hauser, Linda's sister)

She was a single parent, not by choice. She delivered her very sick baby alone, except for the nuns. Her husband was serving in the war. It was 1943. Her husband came home on leave, found out that he had a “less than perfect” baby, abused his wife and chose never to come home from the war. They were divorced.

She was very alone. The doctor said that this baby girl would not live past age 12. She moved up to northern Illinois with her baby.

She first saw her second husband in uniform. He was an angry Marine that just finished serving. He hated the military but beneath that rough exterior was a tender heart. He fell in love with the women and her disabled little girl. He taught the child to walk – at age five. He never looked back.

They had a second baby – a normal little girl. Then another pregnancy. This time, the third baby had very serious problems. She would remain an infant all her life. Two out of three girls with great needs. Two out of two adults with even greater needs. The pressure was immense. There was no money, no support, rising medical bills. The care of these three babies became overwhelming. Almost no one could handle the seizures, the feedings, the therapy, the sadness. The doctors said, “No more children.”

The young family needed to start over. They chose Florida with the hopes of starting a small restaurant with a friend. They packed all that they owned inside, and on top of, an old station wagon and headed south.

After a few unsuccessful weeks, and hope was replaced by despair, an old Presbyterian woman walked next door and shared the gospel of Jesus with the man. The man responded with full abandon to the love of God, and his wife, and this suffering young family would never be the same.

Then the unthinkable . . . another pregnancy. How could this be they thought? How could God? How could we? Fear and questions shadowed their new-found faith. They moved back to Illinois again; to the familiar, to the failure. What should we do? How could we possibly cope with another special child? Who is there to help us? They prayed, they cried, they sought the very heart of God. They asked the hardest question of all – should they abort?

They had only been Jesus Followers such a short time. Surely abortion sounded like the most merciful thing but as they looked at their three precious girls, the truth of God’s Word penetrated their thinking, conforming their minds to His. Didn’t this new baby have a right to life? Is this life worth less? Isn’t it true that God causes ALL THINGS to work for the good for those that love Him and are called to his purpose? They did love God. They were called to His purposes. They decided not to abort.

It was July of 1952. The young couple are my parents. I am that baby.

Praying for Change

(Downtown Detroit)

I regularly address God for the sake of me. I need constant help and perpetual change. I have not yet made Christlikeness my own. One way I press on towards this upward calling is by petitioning God.

“’Pressing on’ mode” starts with praying. The act of praying announces “game on.”

I pray through this list.

Transform me into greater Christlikeness.

Assist me in the doing of your will.

Change my heart, O God.

Reduce the “me” in me.

Have your way in me.

Be gracious unto me.

Do not forsake me.

Be glorified, in me.

Orchestrate me.

Increase in me.

Decrease me.

Empower me.

Create in me.

Sanctify me.

Move in me.

Restore me.

Sustain me.

Deliver me.

Renew me.

Guide me.

Direct me.

Fill me.

Surrender Your Children to God

 

(Frost, on our car window)

Even though our boys are adults, Linda and I never stop thinking of them and praying for them. We are so thankful for who they are becoming! And, we have to discern when to let go, and what to let go of. Even Dallas Willard struggled with doing this.

Willard writes:

"The surest way to know what you haven’t surrendered to Jesus is to consider what you’re worrying about. It took me a long time to surrender our first child to Jesus. It took me a long time. At last, I’ve been able to do it. Thank God, I’ve been able to do it. It was a problem from the very beginning when he was born and I held him in my arms as a little boy. I thought he was so beautiful, so wonderful. And I couldn’t accept the fact that this little creature was going out into a world over which I had no control. . . . You know you never get over being a parent. You can’t divorce your kids. But you can surrender them to God. You can give them to God. And it is one of the greatest challenges of parents to do that. You have to surrender your children to God. You have to surrender your future, your mate, your job, yes, your own righteousness and everything about you."

Moon, Gary W.. Becoming Dallas Willard (p. 140). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.