The Obama Campaign as a Sign of a Culture in Need of God

The Obama candidacy is a sign of a culture in desperate need of God. I have never seen this degree of hope, faith and religious fervor placed on a candidate. What is sad is that he will disapoint. This is not a comment on Obama's character nor on his stances. If you read this blog, you can easily infer that I am not an Obama supporter. This is post is about being for or against Obama. It is about the sadness of people who place hope that should only be placed in Jesus Christ in a politician. Obama is a finite and sinful man. He will not live up to any of these hopes.

I recognize that the argument can be made that this is just an ad and so is necessarily over the top rhetorically. Fair enough. But if that is that case, then I cannot but conclude that those who made it are acting in a dangerously cynical manner. That is even more disturbing.

Watch this and see what you think:

The Election from Hell

John Derbyshire of National Review Online has a piece that captures my sentiments about the 2008 election.

Here's a sample:

I can’t say that I ever felt much warmth for either John McCain or Barack Obama. The first struck me as a burned-out Senate seat-warmer (term limits! oh please, term limits!) who had shown outstanding courage as a young warrior but considerable wrong-headedness as a politician — a category of persons with which history has, after all, been well supplied. Obama I have never seen as anything but a bag of wind, possessed of great political guile, but steeped in the faddy, solipsistic notions of post-1960s college leftism.

And:

I don’t want either of these men in charge of the federal government, neither the crazy old fool nor the simpering sophomore. I don’t want either the moralistic imperialism of John McCain or the welfare-state-to-the world sentimentalism of Barack Obama. I don’t want my country represented by either a Compassionate Crusader or by Oprah Winfrey in drag. (Possibly in person, too, if the rumors we’re hearing about Obama’s plans for Ms. Winfrey are true.)

I Agree With Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle writes on her blog:

I am not excited about this election. I do not believe that my vote is going to immanentize the eschaton. I do not think that I am engaged in a titanic battle, in which the forces of good must beat back the cosmic evil that threatens to engulf us all. I think I'm deciding which of two politicians to hand a lot of power I don't want either of them to have.

Here here.

Christianity and Politics

This post is not a mini-diatribe about the problem of contemporary Christians -- especially evangelicals -- jumping on the bandwagon of electoral politics. There is plenty of fodder for a good old fashioned snarky tirade against this problem, but that is not what I want to write about.

What I want to write about is the political nature of Christianity itself, or better, I want to say that Christianity is itself a politics. Jesus said no less just before he ascended into heaven, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

One of the most frustrating distortions in contemporary evangelical Christianity is the idea that Christ died so we can go to heaven. Christ didn't die so I can go to heaven. Christ died to conquer sin, death and the devil with the result that he would be King over all things.

(To head off comments. I do believe that if I die before Jesus returns, I will go to heaven. I am not denying heaven. I am denying it as final destination or final goal.)

When Jesus ascended he went to be at the right hand of God. The ubiquitous use of Psalm 110:1 to describe the ministry of Jesus ought to settle this:

The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

This is a kingly Psalm. Jesus is the Lord who sits at the right hand of the Lord (that is enthronement language) and Jesus is sitting there until all his enemies (all who stand against his reign) are turned into his footstool.

Christianity is political. It is its own politics. A Christian is one who swears allegience to King Jesus. Part of what this means is that worship -- proper Christian worship in the divine liturgy -- is a political act.

The Problem of Fervor, pt. 2

It's also how I believe.

Did or did not Jesus take my sin? Did or did not Jesus rise? Is he is he not seated with the Father as my advocate and intercessor? Am I or am I not baptized into Christ?

My fervor makes none of these realities more or less true. Either God tells the truth or God lies. I believe he tells the truth. Therefore, I am in Christ.

It's what God the Son has done in union with the whole Godhead that matters.

The Problem of Fervor

Evangelicalism often measures sanctification/spiritual maturity/holiness by fervor.

This is wrong.

In the Bible and the majority of the Christian tradition, sanctification is measured by how I live and what I do. Do I love my wife as Christ loved the Church? Am I generous with my money? Do I love my children? Do I attend to the public worship of the Church on the Lord's day?

It's how you live.

Fixing Healthcare

One of the reasons prices are high for health care is because competition is squelched and prices are not transparent. Some who advocate a government owned and run monopoly on health insurance (i.e., national health care) argue that we need to "move beyond the market because the market is not working." I beg to differ, our health care system is not market based. Government has its hands all over it and the way it is structured hides costs -- a true market is predicated on price transparency.

If pricing was transparent and patients could choose what doctor to go to based on price, competition would be introduced into the system. I would love see a kind of Google Health website that has prices for all local doctors and procedures. One could click appendectomy and find which doctors charge what and then have consumer based reviews on which doc does the best job for the price.

A model that makes catastrophic insurance universally affordable and incentivizes people to save money for incidental costs and co-pays combined with transparency and competition is the best solution.

Sigh, it won't happen, because most people want to "feel" like someone else is paying for health care even a system where that ""feeling" is spread is irrational and will continue to drive up prices and consolidate medical monopolies.

Prayers of the People: Joining Jesus in Prayer

Jesus is with the Father in the heavenly sanctuary. One of the things he is doing while there is interceding on behalf of the world and the Church. In the economy of the Kingdom the primary pray-er is the risen and ascended Lord Jesus.

Every Sunday in our liturgy we say the prayers of the people. When we pray these prayers we are joining ourselves to the prayers of Jesus. The kinds of things we pray about are the kinds of things (in fact some of the very things) Jesus is praying to the Father.

When we pray the prayers of the people we pray IN CHRIST. We are carrying out our priestly role as God's people (which is a share in Christ's high priestly role) by lifting to the Father the needs of the world and the church.

When we pray the prayers of the people we are doing serious and central Kingdom business. We stand with Jesus and all the saints in heaven and on earth offering the world to the Father that his Kingdom might break into it more and more.

What a great privilege!

Politics and Epistemology or Pick a Party and Vote

I have to admit, I can't relate to folks who spend a lot of time pondering who the best man for the job is when it comes to presidential politics. The reason is that it seems to me that it is impossible to know who the best man for the job is (or woman). Take Obama and McCain -- how can I really know who they are and what they believe?

Should I look at their voting records? Sorry, but that isn't always helpful because there are usually many reasons for a vote on a particular bill -- and often it is about log rolling to get something one wants put in the bill.

Should I look at their platforms? That can be helpful, but both Obama and McCain have moved away from their original platforms?

My answer is to pick a party and vote for it. Why? Because in a republic shaped by a two party system a politician never acts alone, even the president. They have to work with other politicians and they primarily work with politicians in their own party.

When you pick a party you should not look at the details of the platform. That really doesn't matter. You should look at the general trajectory of the party and vote for it. If you generally like the trajectory of the republicans vote republican. If you generally like the trajectory of the democrats vote democratic. This is part of the reason parties exist. The individual voter cannot psycho-analyze candidates and now what they will do as president. Parties have sets of values. Parties attract people to their fold who fit in the party's tent and the party vets the candidate.

So my counsel is pick a party and vote for it. You will save yourself time and energy. And in my view it is a more rational way to deal with the process.

The Anglican Communion and the End of Colonialism

One always tells a story from a particular perspective. This is an inevitable consequence of being finite.

The accounts of the troubles of the Anglican Communion as told by the western press understandably tell the story from a western perspective. What gets lost is a key element in the way the global south Anglicans understand the problems in the AC. Global South Anglicans see the present problems rooted in vestiges of colonialism.

Thirty-Eight equal provinces (national churches) make up the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury is one primate among thirty-eight. He has organizational and symbolic authority (and those are not simply pefunctory things). Cantuar is not the pope. He is the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. He is appointed by Queen and Parliament. None of the other primates have a role in deciding who the Archbishop of Canterbury is. He is imposed upon them by the British Government.

Can you see why they feel like the current structures and the current problems are vestiges of colonialism? An Archbishop imposed by the British Government? How long did they live with all kinds of things imposed upon them by the British government?

To the global south Anglicans the problems in the AC were dealt with when the Primates met together in agreement in 2005. Yet, they have witnessed the Abp. Canterbury taking their decision and implanting in communion instruments centered in Canterbury and as a result have wtinessed the emasculation of their will to bring proper discipline to the errant churches of the Anglican Communion.

To the global south this is colonialism. We in the west don't see it -- it is off our radar screen.

The Liturgy as Epiphany

The whole liturgy of Holy Eucharist -- both Word and Table -- is an epiphany. Each of the actions, the prayers, the scriptures, the bread, the wine, etc. is sign offered to the Holy Spirit to manifest the Kingdom of God and to unveil the reality of what is happening in heaven.

Right now, this moment, Jesus is in heaven in the true sanctuary/tabernacle offering himself to the Father with all the saints of God who have gone to be with him in triumph. That liturgy is the true and full liturgy. Our liturgy is a shadowed means by which the Holy Spirit draws us into the heavenly liturgy -- where the Kingdom of God exists in its fullest reality.

The liturgy is where heaven and earth meet until the day that there is a new heaven and a new earth and the glory we now see dimly --as an epiphany -- will fill and infuse all of creation and we will no longer see through a glass darkly.

Small is Beautiful

I am a strong advocate of a smaller and more limited Federal government. This is not because I am a libertarian who believes in self-ownership and personal autonomy. I am a communitarian rooted in the tradition of Catholic social teaching. However, community is a meaningful concept only when it is envisioned and implemented on a human scale. The fashion of speaking of large interest groups as communities -- e.g., the international arts community -- is, to my mind, an utterly meaningless and somewhat Orwellian way to use the word community.

I believe deeply in both community and order. The vision I embrace is of a multiplicity of communities each with their own telos and sphere. Government is good -- contra libertarians. But government should be limited -- contra statist progressives.

All of this is rooted in the idea of subsidiarity. This is the idea that all communal endeavors ought to take place at the smallest communal structures first before it moves up to larger structures. The purpose of this principle is to preserve human persons as bearers of God's image.

An example is how social welfare is implemented. That which is local, independent and relational ought to the central means by which welfare is implemented. Other large institutions -- such as government -- should step in where the smaller contexts are inadequate and rather than usurp these contexts should seek to foster them.

Small is beautiful.

A Note on the Word Epiphany

In common parlance an epiphany is an aha moment -- a sudden, intuitive realization about something. That meaning is not unrelated to the meaning of epiphany in a Christian setting. Of course, those who follow the Christian calendar know of the Feast of Epiphany. Usually this marks the coming of the magi to see Jesus marking the "manifestation" of Jesus to the nations.

Manifestation is a good synonym of the Christian use of epiphany. An epiphany is a kind of unveiling or opening into a deeper reality. One image that helps me is drawn from Thomas Howard's book Evangelical is Not Enough. It is the image of a scrim. A scrim is a shear piece of cloth, often used on a stage to cover action so that it has a shadowy expression rather than the clear showing that happens when the performers are out in the lights. An epiphany is a manifestation but it is a manifestation from behind a scrim. It unveils a deeper reality, but until that reality comes fully into the light we see it in a shadowy manner.

Replay -- Sacraments are Epiphanies

One of the things that trips people up about the sacraments is when they are thought of in cause and effect terms. Take baptism. The Bible says, "Baptism now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21 ). If one is thinking in cause and effect terms, then this would mean that Baptism causes one to be saved.

But what if baptism is an epiphany?

Here are some other words that get what I am trying to put across: sign, portal, unveiling, window, manifestation. What if Baptism is a manifestation of Christ who offered himself to the Father and makes possible our sharing in his offering through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit? Doesn't that change the calculus? Now the issue becomes not whether water magically saves you. The issue becomes whether or not the Holy Spirit acts in the water to manifest/set forth/unveil/make a portal for -- the death and resurrection of Christ that we might live into that by faith.

A sacrament is more than a bare sign that makes me remember something. A sacrament is more than a badge of my profession. But it is not magic. It is revelation. It is manifestation. It is epiphany. It is reality.

It is more real than we can imagine.

3 Reasons to Pray the Daily Office

The Daily Office combines set prayers, the praying of Psalms and reading of scripture into a daily pattern of prayer. For a number of years I have been following this approach as a method of personal prayer. In the last month I have been praying the Office with my wife. This has been a terrific develop in both of our prayer lives by the way.

Here are three reasons to pray the Daily Office:

1. It's Historic. For most of Christian history all of the church has prayed this way and for all of Christian history most to the church has prayed this way. The Daily Office is rooted in the first century Jewish synagogue tradition. If one prays the Daily Office, one will pray in a manner similar to the way Jesus prayed.

2. It's Easy. One of the most difficult aspects of a regular prayer life is simply doing it. The Daily Office is easy to follow and easy to do. It is especially easy when done in a group setting. This adds a measure of accountability to the practice.

3. It's Sound. Praying the Psalms and praying set prayers written throughout the centuries of Church history makes sure my praying is sound doctrinally and not subject to the whims of my momentary feelings. This is not to say that extemporaneous prayer is bad or unimportant -- in fact the version of the Daily Office my wife and I use includes space for this kind of praying and we fill it in with extemporaneous prayers for friends, family, church etc. But the extemporaneous prayers are rooted in solid biblical prayers. As an example, every morning we pray the Prayer of Mary from the gospel of Luke. This prayer praises God by remembering his great acts of salvation in Israel that have come to fruition in Mary's life. By praying this prayer we remember central biblical themes before the Lord in an act of worship.

Does anyone have any other reasons to add to this list?

Crunchy Con

Rod Dreher of Crunchy Con fame interviewed in GodSpy.

GODSPY: Rod, if you had to reduce Crunchy Conservatism to a few sound bites, what would you say?

ROD DREHER: I'd say that Crunchy Conservatism is nothing new. It's a rediscovery of the kind of traditionalism espoused by Russell Kirk and Richard Weaver and others in the 1940s and 1950s. It's a conservatism that values religion, family, and culture more than individual freedom and the free market. I'd also say it finds the overemphasis on individual freedom and economic liberty in contemporary conservatism inimical to much that we conservatives claim to treasure.

In terms of sound bites, I'd turn to the Crunchy Conservative manifesto on the back cover of the book: The institution most essential to conserve is the family. Beauty is more important than efficiency. Small, local, old and particular are almost always better than big, global, new and abstract. I'd also add that we've gotten to a point in our politics today where the left and the right are too quick to slap a negative label on a challenging or unfamiliar idea, so they don't have to deal with it. For too many of us on the right, calling something liberal and making fun of it is a way of avoiding having to question our own prejudices.

McArdle on Symbol

Megan McArdle on the importance of symbol (and she is a Randian libertarian!).

I'm also completely flummoxed by the people saying a consecrated host is JUST A CRACKER, so why is everyone getting all upset?

Would it be okay if I spraypainted obscenities on your mother's grave because it's just a piece of highly compressed igneous rock with some lines chiseled into it? How about if I photoshop your a photo of your now-grown child onto a piece of child porn, because after all, no one's actually hurt by this--it's just a piece of paper.

Soaking the Rich

One of the myths surrounding the Bush tax cuts is that because of them the rich pay less in income taxes. But that is not true. They pay lower TAX RATES not lower taxes. Actually as tax rates were lowered the rich paid more in taxes. Check out this chart.



If you are confused why this happened (and it happened under Reagan as well) then take Economics 101 again.

Populist ideology says the rich are getting away with murder, but hey, ideology has never been known to be moved by facts. I'm jujst sayin'.

Bp. Howe on the first day of Lambeth

Excerpt from Bishop Howe's letter to his clergy regarding the first day of Lambeth:

But the process was asinine. First of all, why combine five Bible Study groups, if you are then going to sub-divide them into four groups? Secondly, what is the point of this discussion of a document we are seeing for the first time? It seemed more appropriate to a junior high Confirmation Class than to a world-wide gathering of Anglican Bishops. And thirdly, why in the world were we having these conversations in the same room at the same time? (At a cost of approximately $8 million just for the Bishops' part of the Conference!)

I can't believe all this money is spent for Bishops to go to England and experience the equivilant of Group sunday school curriculum -- what is this, episcopal VBS? Jeesh!

Heresy and Schism

One of the tactics of revisionists in the TEC and ghe Anglican Communion is to argue that schism is worse than heresy because schism tears the body of Christ.

Uh, excuse me, but heresy is a schismatic act. The heretic who embraces a view that is separate from the whole is schismatic. One who espouses an idiosyncratic view and teaches/practices it as a public and authorized view/practice of the church is not being catholic. To undermine catholicity is rent asunder the boy of Christ.

Can we please keep things straight!!