Confessing Evangelical

My post from earlier this week on the "three phases of civilization" has tidied itself up, combed its hair and generally made itself look respectable, and can now be found on Old Solar under the title "Let's Do Lunch": A Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Contemporary Religion.

Do be sure to visit Old Solar regularly - there's some great stuff appearing on there. Some recent highlights include Craig Donofrio's wonderful piece, "A Bunch of Do Do", as well as Rick Ritchie's comments on recent developments in Anglicanism, "The Windsor Report Feels Your Pain".

I particularly enjoyed this observation from Rick Ritchie's article, in which he captures the tone of the Windsor Report perfectly:

Imagine if the letter to the church at Thyatira was written by the same people who wrote the Windsor Report. Instead of "I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess," we would read "Many in your congregation are bewildered by the nature of sexuality in our broken world. We have heard the emotions of alienation of both Jezebel and those who feel alienated by those who tolerate her. We call for a healing process where all can move on a journey together of discovering what communion means."

As Rick points out:

Perhaps this sounds more Christian that the Revelation to some. But there is a danger in trying to be more Christian than Christ.

As for Craig Donofrio's piece, this has already been linked to by Bunnie, but it's still worth highlighting here, as it is simply essential reading. Donofrio describes listening to Christian radio on a snow-bound Sunday morning, and describes it as "a bunch of do do":

As I listened to preacher after preacher including the "pope of the Protestants" Billy Graham, all I heard was how the Christian needs to do this or that or do some other thing in order to be pleasing to God. I heard about how I had to be more giving of myself to others, how I needed to have a love for justice, and how I just need to appropriate God’s forgiveness with my decisions and or public professions.

He contrasts this the Gospel message of the cross of Jesus Christ, in which we hear proclaimed to us "not do do, but done done". His conclusion refers to Christian radio, but could pretty well refer to sermons, books, magazine articles, or even blogs for that matter:

Next time you listen to Christian radio, ask yourself, is this a bunch of do do or is this done in Christ?

If it is do do, turn it off for nothing is more harmful to the soul than this sort of, well, as Martin Luther would gently put it, well… lets keep this PG-13, shall we?