The View from the West Mesa

Listening to Heard on Campus (available through iTunes) this week, the concept of convicted civility was mentioned to characterize the way in which committed Christians are supposed to view people of other faiths or no faith. As part of a discussion about Christian cross-denominational engagement of culture, the idea in such dialogue is not to abandon – or to ask others to abandon – the central tenets of yours or their faith. Rather, Christians are encouraged to own their faith and yet engage in dialogue with others without condemning or castigating others. It seems convicted civility is an excellent way to characterize the way Christians are called to engage non-Christians in discussions of faith, culture, and policy. This stands in stark contrast to some “calls to arms” we often hear from folks that often demonstrate textual knowledge but precious little understanding of the Faith as we are called to live it. While it is true that we can find such street corner haranguing in Scriptur...

We have just returned from Pepperdine where one of the treats is the few thousand folks singing a capella in the fieldhouse at the evening keynote. The fieldhouse at Pepperdine is a standard college gym with wooden bleachers on two sides and a wide main floor. During the evening events, it is common for folks to come in at various times between the hour-long pre-keynote singing session, or during the keynote hour, while the crowd continues to sing much like a church service. It was during this period of singing that a few middle-aged and older women came in, and having decided where they were going to sit, turned into the bleachers below me and headed up. One of these ladies had some not inconsiderable trouble with one of her legs - it just didn't seem to want to lift her foot over the next higher bleacher level. Her foot would hit the seat and she would resort to climbing the bleachers on all fours. It didn't take her long to reach my fourth or fifth-level and I reached out m...

I have come to enjoy APM's Speaking of Faith series. Here's another little gem from another of their podcasts... We all know the story of the Exodus, the crossing of the split-apart Red Sea on dry ground. The climax of that story comes when the Egyptian Army is engulfed and destroyed by the sea being released to collapse back upon itself. There is apparently a Midrashic story that says at the moment the Egyptian army was engulfed and it was clearly to be destroyed, that the angels in Heaven began singing and praising God for His deliverance of Israel. But God, instead of letting the praise continue, held up His hand and stopped the angels' singing. Why would He do that? The reason, given in the Midrash, is that God does not want rejoicing when creatures, made by His hands and at His command, suffer as did the Egyptians. I don't know if the Midrash says God sorrowed over their deaths, but He did not rejoice over it. God's value, God's care for the Creation is not...

Listiening to a Speaking of Faith podcast on Rumi, the following story was told: There is a statement in the Quran that goes something like this: "I have given you the reminder, and I will protect it." Spoken by God, this statement is routinely applied to the Quran itself. God has given us the Quran, and He will protect the Quran. One day, Rumi was sitting with his students/friends, and he recited this standard interpretation of the Quran statement. Then he said, while that is all well and good, there is another way to understand the phrase. The Reminder in Rumi's version is the desire to know God.   In Rumi's thinking apparently, there is no Original Sin, but rather a humanity that forgets who they and God are. Rumi's explanation of this Quranic passage addresses that theological point by tying together our forgetfulness, and God's implanting in us a drive, an urge that He will ensure remains, to remember. Hebrew Scripture tells us that we are ma...

My wife and I were lying in bed the other night when she commented that the brightness of the moon coming through the window was a wonderful Spring event and provided a pleasant calming effect at bedtime. As the window through which the light was coming was on my side of the bed, I observed that it wasn’t the moon, but a neighbor’s security light that was casting the radiance across our floor. At that, my wife said, “then close the blind; it’s too bright and will keep me awake.” There’s a saying in my profession and shared by many others that asserts “perception is reality.” There are even people who specialize in perception management. This is the idea that what others think about you becomes true in their minds, and we are able to modify their behaviors toward us by adjusting the perceptions they have of us. My wife’s mood and attitude changed solely on the basis of her perception of the source of the light. For the few minutes that the light was caused by a Spring moon, she e...

The following is (most of) a comment I received in response to the last post on Perception. I expected that the expression of the concept in such an open manner would cause some folks to think that reality is whatever I happen to think it is at the moment, I elected to post my comments without explanatory notes. Well, one of my friends from another site makes that very observation. That's a good thing because it prompts me to address some of the limits of perception in response to his comment. Below in standard font are his comments, and in italics are my responses. This gentleman is kind and knowledgeable in Scripture; I have no reason to question his faith, salvation, or commitment to God or Scripture. It is apparent though, that we do see things a bit differently perhaps. Of course, regular readers of this blog won't find that surprising.  “It appears that your "perception" of God and scripture is no different than many others. It may be different in wording or act...