Common Grounds Online

MUST I Care About The Da Vinci Code? Part I

Because the Da Vinci Code has dominated the precincts of evangelicalism, I felt DVC fatigue…a year ago. This past month I’ve felt accosted on all sides by DVC frenzy.  This May, one of my favorite blogs, The A-Team, became All Da Vinci, All The Time. I affirm what the A-Team, Darrell Bock and others have done to respond to DVC; I’m glad they do what they do. However, I don’t personally care about this fad.

Part of my sense of being hemmed in by evangelicals regarding DVC is the repeated assertion [by some] that those who care about non-believers won't miss this incredible opportunity (!) provided by popular culture to connect with non-believers. Ah, guilt…it does a body good.  This past week I’ve noticed material from Christianity Today and Books and Culture saying or insinuating that if you miss this incredible opportunity you suckle at the breast of loser Christianity.

But I really just don’t care. I tried to make myself care for a while, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t muster up the...interest? time?....to make myself read the book or now watch the movie.

You might think, “Ah, he’s got a remnant of fundamentalist separatist boycotter in him.” Hardly. I’ve got strong eye muscles from rolling my eyes at the evangelical boycotts that have come down the pike the last ten years.  In 1996, when the Southern Baptist Convention declared their boycott, I joined Michael Jordan, Tom Brady and my other peers in athletic stardom in saying, “I’m going to Disney World!”

Summer Reading 2006 Non-Fiction List

Non-fiction List

Various CGO Contributors suggested the following books for non-fiction summer reading. The description of each book comes from the Contributor(s) who recommended the book or are taken from the dust jacket of the book.  This eclectic list, arranged alphabetically, will hopefully stimulate CGO readers all summer long.

Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas.  Meet the real Bono, a man of deep compassion, hubris and abiding Christian faith.  A fabulous read, it is essentially one long “stream of consciousness” dialogue between the U2 legend and his favorite journalist.

A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot
A good spiritual biography is like an adrenaline shot to the arm.  The art of story is that you learn without being conscious of it. The desire to emulate a positive character seeps down into our souls in ways that I think form and fashion us in ways that we may never see.  Amy Carmichael, missionary to India, is one of those people who I hope has shaped my life in unseen ways.  Her biography, deftly written by another incredible missionary, Elizabeth Elliot, is well-worth the read.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
This is an excellent book in an area that is underdeveloped in some Christians’ thinking -- that of Christian spirituality and how it integrates with theology and culture.  What does it mean to live fully, to live well, to live to the glory of God, and how do we do it (not just think about it)?  Peterson uses the framework of Christ playing in creation, in history and in community as the structure for this sometimes rambling but almost always insightful book.

The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, Marilynne Robinson. Take the lyrical power of Gilead and aim it at relevant topics as divergent as Darwinism, the Puritans, the Abolitionists, etc and you;ve got something wonderful in your hands.  Sit down and take it slow.

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
I’d highly recommend this book to someone who isn’t familiar with John Piper’s writings, especially to college student and twentysomethings. This book brings the best of his thoughts on Christian hedonism (Desiring God), the role of suffering and the call to mission (Let the Nations Be Glad) into one volume.  He challenges paradigms on what a wasted life looks like and he calls readers to ‘pray and think and dream and plan and work, not to be made much of, but to make much of Him in every part of our lives.”

Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas, by Kelly Monroe Kullberg
“Kelly is a gifted writer with rich insight into what it means to be human: to long for love, to experience beauty and loss, and to hope beyond sometimes seeming hope in the God who made and loves us. With poignancy and poetic phrases, Kelly describes a story that only God, who is Veritas, could weave together.” From the forward by Ravi Zacharias

Gospel and Kingdom, by Graeme Goldsworthy
This is a great look into the central theme of the Bible, the Kingdom of God.

Amy Lauger, Friendly Fire

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I have been thinking about our military and the church. I grew up as a military dependent, a daughter of an US Air Force medic. Military “brats” certainly learn patriotism and respect for those serving in the military. I learned from things as little as being in a theater full of kids standing for the national anthem before movies at the base theater. I learned from the struggle of my father being away for up to a year at a time. I remember vividly what I learned during the first Persian Gulf War. I was perplexed by but came to understand my father’s eagerness to join the effort overseas and his disappointment that he did not go, and I was in tears when I learned about the dreadful reality of “friendly fire.”

Up to a quarter or a third of the US casualties in Desert Storm was fired upon by comrades in arms. The tragedy of such a statistic struck me hard then as a twelve-year-old girl. I thought, certainly, there must be something our military should be doing to prevent all those accidents. Even as a young girl, I knew that the military had an obligation to protect its troops from such friendly fire and that the repercussions could only hurt the overall mission.

Does Marriage Diminish or Enhance Career Achievement?

Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist,  found that scientists' productivity diminishes after marriage.  Other research suggests that marriage provides stability for scientists to flourish in their careers.

Read it all here.

When he calculated the age of each scientist at the peak of his career--the sample was predominantly male--Kanazawa noted an interesting trend. After a crest during the third decade of life, scientific productivity--as evidenced by major discoveries and publications--fell off dramatically with age. When he looked at the marital history of the sample, he found that the decline in productivity was less severe among men who had never been married. As a group, unmarried scientists continued to achieve well into their late 50s, and their rates of decline were slower.

"The productivity of male scientists tends to drop right after marriage," says Kanazawa in an e-mail interview from his current office at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. "Scientists tend to 'desist' from scientific research upon marriage, just like criminals desist from crime upon marriage."

Corey Widmer, The Trial of the Incarnation

My family is a part of a community of friends who have all taken up residence in the same neighborhood in the inner city of Richmond. One of the questions that I probably most frequently get asked by my suburban friends is what we plan to do about schooling for our kids. The schools in our neighborhood are some of the very worst in the whole city. And although the issue has not become acute, many of us have babies and the question is certainly impending.

I usually say that I don’t know what we’re going to do, but that I take comfort in knowing that there is a whole community of us who will be thinking through the decision together. But recently I have been thinking about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, one of the main theological impetuses that led us to live in our neighborhood. God did not stand aloof and loft vouchers and educational programs into our failing public systems – he came down into the muck, taking on our brokenness as his own, ultimately bearing it to his own grave.

What would I communicate to my neighbors if we chose to send our children out of the neighborhood to private schools? The Incarnation compels us to bear the burdens of our broken community with our neighbors. We say to them: your schools are our schools; your crime is our crime; your corner store is our corner store; your streets are our streets.

Some friends say, Will you make your children sacrifice for your idealistic cause? I hope that’s not what we’re doing. I do hope our children will desire themselves to follow in the path of Jesus and what that means in this particular neighborhood. I hope that they will find joy in the trial of the Incarnation that calls all of us down into the muck.

© Corey Widmer

Catherine Claire Wins Writer Awards

Catherine Claire, a CGO Contributor and writer at Prison Fellowship, won two awards at the Evangelical Press Association's National Convention.

She won first place in the general article category (long) for a piece called “Intersections of Grace,” which appeared in PF’s in-prison newspaper, Inside Journal in January 2005.

Coming in 2nd-5th were:

2.  World Vision with “Ethiopia, 20 Years Later,” by Jane Sutton-Redder

3. Christian Research Journal, “Modern Witchcraft: It May Not Be What You Think,” by Richard G. Howe

4. Books and Culture, “Cracks in the Tower,” by Allen C. Guelzo

5. BC Christian News, “Filmakers Find New Ways Out of Christian Ghetto,” by Kevin Miller.

Catherine also placed fourth in the poetry category for “Mary's Musings,” which appeared in December 2005 in Kindred Spirit magazine.

Congratulations to Catherine!

To read her first place article, "Intersections of Grace," Download IntersectionsofGrace.doc .

Catherine Claire, On Shirking Adulthood

Power, expertise, office, and influence---more likely than not if you were to see this list of items together, as a Christian, you’d be a bit suspicious of them. How many sermons have we heard on the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, where power has been a temptation to avoid? And influence, more likely than not, is something that you lump in the same category as caring too much about what other people think of you.

While certainly this list of items has ample room within it for abuse, what would you say if I told you that these very things are key aspects of our learning to become mature Christian adults?

Aaron Menikoff, "Evangelism & Death"

   
   
    Many years ago, I had the honor of accompanying my former boss, Senator Mark O. Hatfield, to the Capitol Rotunda inWashington, DC where Billy Graham was being presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. If you’ve ever visited the Rotunda you’ll know that it’s lined with statues of famous Americans. When the aged Dr. Graham rose to speak in front of the Vice-President, senators, congressman, and various evangelical leaders he gestured to the statues and asked the simple question, “What do all these men have in common?” After a long pause he answered, “They are all dead.” Then Dr. Graham proceeded to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
     I’ll never forget this experience. With such earnestness and conviction Graham reminded all of us of our mortality and the reality of eternal punishment. He reminded lowly staffers and august committee chairmen that we are all destined to die and face judgment.

            

 

 

Todd Bragg, What I Want

Someone once told me that if you want to be a good parent then you will be.  When I asked for parenting advice, I wasn’t expecting that answer.  But the more I thought about it, the more I saw the wisdom in it.  I have a seven month old boy named Elliott and he is the joy of my life.  He is a content baby, goes down for naps well, seems to be developing properly for his age, is healthy, beautiful, and I can’t believe that he is my son.  I don’t mean that I am questioning whether or not I’m the father, this is certain, I just mean that I feel as though I have turned around and I am 34 years old, married for almost 8 years, and I have a son… I am a dad.

Les Newsom- Of Faith and Fasting

The “sermonette” portion of my visit with this student was mercifully over. I sat back and waited for him to burst into tears and tell me his life was forever changed by the poignancy of my presentation. His response was less than I was hoping for.

“I’ve heard all that before. You don’t understand, Les, I know the information. It’s getting that information to mean something to me, to really grip me. I guess I just don’t have any faith.”

This conversation has repeated itself with countless students over the last decade, to the end that I am realizing that there is an epidemic of misunderstanding the nature and marks of true Biblical faith. In almost every conversation I get to have with evangelicalized students, faith is almost always conceived as a new work, a re-directed effort, or a renewed expulsion of doubt.

For instance, I recently asked a group of students about the nature of Jesus’ miracles. Why weren’t they more spectacular? If I were going to think up a miracle to wow my congregation into belief in me, I would have more pyrotechnics, more drama, perhaps some flying around a bit. But Jesus seems content in the Gospels to heal and feed the sick and poor. To put it more crudely (quoting yet another student visit), “If Jesus wants us to believe in him so badly, then why doesn’t he make himself more obvious?”

Almost without fail, the answer comes back that if God made it that obvious, then we wouldn’t need to demonstrate any “faith.” Faith, so conceived, is the volitional leap into the dark; the more absurd, the better.