Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Not only is the American public in general lacking in taste…seems “evangelical Christians” suffer the same malady, but with worse, more far-reaching consequences. Last night after church I watched a debate on TV. The most prominent panel member was Christopher Hitchens, author of a book entitled “GOD IS NOT GREAT: How Religion Poisons Everything”. His main premise is that any kind of “faith” is an obstacle to mankind’s progress toward truth and/or facing the truth in a proactive sense. Besides his Darwinian zealousness and his ideas about man’s progress…his ignorance of what the Bible actually says surprised me. He made reference to the Bible’s teaching about man’s excercise of dominion over the rest of creation as proof that the Bible was just a product of flawed human thought. His take was that the only animals mentioned in the list of things man was to excercise dominion over were the ones known to men at the time and in the place where they were writing. (He says they didn’t mention marsupials because they didn’t know there were marsupials…and that they didn’t mention micro-organisms because they couldn’t see them and didn’t know they were there, and that we all know that micro-organisms actually excercise dominion over us, causing.disease, etc….which is proof that man does not have dominion over the earth.) I kept thinking, “it doesn’t say we HAVE dominion, but that we are to TAKE dominion…and that is what we continue to do as we search for cures to diseases, etc.) Well…all that said, what struck me more than this “expert’s” Biblical ignorance was the commonly shared viewpoint of this man, everyone on the panel(even the pro-faith guy), and apparently most of the audience, of what “modern American Christians” believe. An audience member pointed to “the Christian belief in the rapture” as a reason for Christians to be “unconcerned about global warming” and the Christian acceptance of “fiction as fact” that kept them from really facing the “truths” that science is bringing to light. At any rate, I’m digressing. What struck me with horror was the fact that apparently everyone involved in the debate shared a common perception of the beliefs of American Christians, and that they saw it as if we were all in one collective lump. Their frequent references to the “Left Behind” phenomena during the debate defined what they thought the lump was. It made me consider what the “face of Christianity” looks like to unbelievers in our culture today and the answer made me cringe. Apparently, that collective “face” encompasses all the things I most hate in the church today. It was a sad epiphany to realize that our (collective body of Christ) very worst manifestations have become that which defines the church to the world, summed up in two words, tasteless and ignorant.

Great comments, Peggy, and so very true. Hold those thoughts also because next Sunday night Riverwood will show at Movie Night the documentary “Jesus Camp” and we’ll get another look at what the world sees when they hear the terms “evangelical, “religious right,” and even “Christian.”

Peggy and Jimmy,

Great thoughts, and I heartily agree. It made me think of a comment that I made to Kimberly last night during Jeff Miller’s fantastic performance of O Sole Mio. I said to her, I bet this is the only church in the world where you can hear this. Now, that speaks well of Riverwood, and of Jeff too, and I’m sure that my assertion was somewhat hyperbolic, but not too much. And that’s the sad point.

At the risk of boasting, we at Riverwood enjoy a wide array of theological, social, intellectual, and artistic pursuits. Unfortunately, we seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Why is that? Why should the church not seek out beauty and artistic merit, even if not explicitly religious themed? Why is academic learning and debate so disconnected and compartmentalized from religion? It really frustrates me as a Christian that the body of the church is so incredibly self-limited in its outlook. Through Christ, we have the Truth of the universe. Why do we ignore so much of that?

I’d be interested in anyone else’s thoughts on this.

I sound like a stuck record, but I will say again, these issues point to the great need for a thorough, classical Christian education that seeks to impart to its students the ability to think cogently, logically, critically, comprehensibly,and according to God’s truth…and who are enabled to utilize the tools of learning to seek and apply truth in any arena of human endeavor they become involved in. A great painting does not have to portray a Biblical scene to accurately reflect “true truth” to use Francis Shaeffer’s phrase, and so be Christian in the truest sense. How desperately we need a vision of what real, healthy, robust, mature Christian thought and life really looks like.(It might look like Jeff in a tux singing O Sole Mio for example. :)) The current, perceived “facë” of modern, American Christianity is such a flimsy, unrecognizable imitation. These thoughts bring to mind a wonderful quote of Johannes Kepler mentioned in Sam’s algebra class this week. After preparing extensive logarithmic tables to help in the calculation of astronomical distances,(no calculators then) Kepler observed: “Accordingly let this do for our envoi concerning the work of God the Creator. It now remains that at last, with my eyes and hands removed from the table of demonstrations and lifted up towards the heavens, I should pray, devout and supplicating, to the Father of lights; O Thou Who dost by the light of nature promote in us the desire for the light of grace, that by its means Thou mayest transport us into the light of glory, I give thanks to Thee, O Lord Creator, Who hast delighted me with Thy makings and in the works of Thy hands have I exulted. Behold! now, I have completed that work of my profession, having employed as much power of mind as Thou didst give to me; to the men who are going to read those demonstrations I have made manifest the glory of Thy works, as much of its infinity as the narrows of my intellect could apprehend.” Kepler’s scientific and mathematical works were his means of glorifying God and showing something of Him to men…he did not have to “spiritualize” his mathematics in some superficial way, by, say, counting crosses instead of apples or stars. I’ve seen this shallow approach in many “Christian” textbooks through the years of homeschooling. I.e. for handwriting practice you copy Psalms instead of Mother Goose or Dick and Jane. Now, I think there’s value in copying out the Psalms, as is all exposure to God’s word. I don’t think, however, that is the defining way to make a textbook Christian. Instead, it should be the beauty of the layout…the care of the crafted word, the thorough and accurate nature of the research and content….those sorts of things, that should define a “Christian” text. In other words, that which best imitates and reflects God in His nature, attributes and modus operandi. A Christian text book, painting, musical presentation, or whatever a child of God produces should bear the “family” traits. Truth, beauty, care, mercy,judgement,accuracy,generosity,for example. The presence of these qualities is what should mark a work as Christian.

Boy, there’s so much here…

Compartmentalization is to blame for much of this. In looking at Schaeffer’s book “The God Who Is There” (RPC Book Group), we have seen how a lot of this was accelerated in the late 19th & early 20th cens. In the modern/postmodern mind, it is generally acceptable to be religious, have faith,etc. The problem comes when that faith (or values) is allowed to interplay or, forbid it, override anything in the other (empirical, ‘factual’, material) side. The best way to limit these value based judgements is to divide and deconstruct all disciplines (and types of thought) into their own boxes. I picture our modern brains looking something like a typical office if viewed from a security camera. Lots of cubicles, fluorescent lighting illuminating only the parts directly under the fixture. The cubicles contain storage of critical knowledge specific to given areas. Although the workers in the cubicles can hear rumblings and occasional words around them, no discernable communication is available. Christ, however, knocks down our cubicles and barriers. His teaching is very ‘w’holistic and the thread of Christ runs through every part of our life. Christians and pagans alike have been taught to think in this way. It’s a hard plant to de-root.

Beauty: I think there has been an effort in place for some time now, to destroy beauty and truth (which to me are two sides of the same coin). We should seek beauty just as we seek truth. Unfortunately, many evangelicals have been trained in relativism and materialism as much as any other demographic. Too many of us have accepted pop culture as true beauty and have never been exposed to beauty as an intellectual concept, much less as an attribute of God. The process of creativity emanates from God, whether the earthly creator intends it or not (Read Dorothy Sayers). Many, if not most, evangelicals are too afraid of the arts to try to redeem them. The arts have ‘dirty’ things attached. Not something we should stain our robes with, etc. Might be part of the reason a lot of artists have left or have been run out of the church. From a Biblical perspective, however, we can educate ourselves to look at arts and culture in a critical, constructive and redemptive way. We can evaulate what a piece of art, literature, music, etc. is communicating and estimate its worth, not based on trend or emotion, but on transcendent qualities that reflect our Creator.

Lastly, what Peggy & Clay said is exactly what I was shooting for. We are not in a vaccuum (as much as some would like it). We must approach, embrace and redeem culture as much as we can. RPC is a strange place. I am very aware of the great freedom we enjoy here regarding artistic expression, etc., and I try to respect whatever boundaries that may be there. Having said that, I want to continue to explore and expose as much as we can during whatever time we have together.

Reading Peggy’s last comment, I was struck by the illustrations of counting crosses instead of apples, and copying the Psalms instead of Mother Goose. It occurred to me that those are the kinds of things that Rod and Todd Flanders might do on the Simpsons. Is that what we’ve come to as Christians? We’ve become the world’s parody of us?

At the risk of this comment thread turning into an advert for classical education, I’ll agree with Peggy’s comments about that as a cure for the ills we’ve identified here. It’s really what draws me to the concept of classical ed in the first place - like Riverwood, it isn’t afraid to take on anything, because we as Christians have that true truth we’ve been talking about. So what do we have to fear? Why not engage the culture holistically?

I think Jeff has hit the nail on the head - we don’t want to get our robes dirty, so we as Christians tend to steer clear of those things that may not be so “clean” - like art, music, science, etc., that aren’t explicitly “Christian.” But the consequences of that are so bad - the culture at large is denied the influence of Christianity, and Christians ghetto-ize themselves.

When I was a senior in college, majoring in Sculpture and Art History, I became a Christian. At first, I ran away from the arts, because so much of what I had learned and been taught to think was such a contradiction of absolute truth and beauty and goodness…my brain needed serious rewiring. I had to find my way as a Christian and I felt I couldn’t do that within the arena I was so used to being in. That may have been a mistake, or not. I trust it all to God. But now I wholeheartedly agree that there is absolutely nothing we should be afraid of. Our God reigns, and why should we hide? God is “Big enough” to take anything rebellious man can throw at Him. What is really funny, at least in my own experience, is that much of what we tend to fear about mingling in various cultural arenas turns out to be just bogie men. (The debate I watched Sunday night is the very thing I would normally be very afraid to engage in…and it was amazing to me how shallow the “expert” was…I think I could have taken him on effectively.)The emperor has no clothes. I pray God will give us increasing courage and concern for the world around us, and that we can equip our children to see life and the issues they confront through the lens of truth and be ready and willing to address the contradiction to these the culture throws their way.