Christian America?

CRITIQUE 2013:3 CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR Quietly 1 Neglected Texts DISCERNING LIFE Faithfulness in a Consumerist 2 2013 Issue 3 © Ransom Fellowship 6REFLECTIONS Society EDITOR Loneliness Denis Haack by Scott Schuleit DeSIGNER Karen Coulter Perkins BOARD OF DIRECTORS Steven Garber Director, The Washington Institute, Washington, D.C. Donald Guthrie Professor of Educational Ministries PAPER AND CANVAS Director of PhD Program in Educational Studies Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Illinois 8The Forbidden Bird Denis and Margie Haack A short story by Scott Schuleit Co-founders, Ransom Fellowship, Minnesota Bonnie Liefer RESOURCE Vice President for Marketing and Communications 11 CCO, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Seeing a Stork Henry Tazelaar A review by Wesley Hill of Chair, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology Professor of Pathology Margie Haack’s The Exact Place Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Arizona 14 CONTACT CRITIQUE RESOURCE www.RansomFellowship.org Christian America? 1150 West Center, Rochester, MN 55902 [email protected] A review of John Fea’s AbOUT CRITIQUE Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Critique is part of the work of Ransom Fellowship founded by Denis and Margie Haack in 1982. Together, they have created a ministry that includes lecturing, mentoring, writing, teaching, hospitality, feeding, and encouraging those who want to know more about what it means to be a Christian in the everyday life of the twenty-first century. Except where noted, all articles are by Denis Haack. ReCeIVE CRITIQUE Critique is not available by subscription. Rather, interested readers can request to be added to Ransom’s 15 mailing list, which is updated frequently. Donors to RESOURCE Ransom Fellowship, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-deductible ministry, are added to the mailing list automatically unless Nurturing Instead requesting otherwise. of Depleting Everyone on Ransom’s mailing list also receives Notes A review of Resilient Ministry: from Toad Hall, a newsletter by Margie Haack in which she reflects on what it means to be faithful in the ordinary What Pastors Told us about Surviving and routine of daily life and gives news about Ransom’s ministry. and Thriving COPYING POLICY Feel free to make up to 50 copies of any article that appears in Critique for use with a small group. We only ask that you copy the entire article, note the source, and distribute the copies free of charge. HEARTS & MINDS Hearts and Minds bookstore donates 10% of your DARKENED ROOM purchase to Ransom Fellowship if you mention us when 16 placing your order: www.heartsandmindsbooks.com. When Punkers Meet Fatherhood A film review of The Other F Word FROM THE EDITOR: A QUIET LIFE Quietly Neglected Texts But I’ve never heard a sermon asking Living a quiet life is possible only me to have a quiet life. Or if I have, I’ve for those who actually believe that forgotten it and it’s been lost over time faithfulness in the ordinary things of under an avalanche of one hundred life is the essence of the Christian life. sermons on everything else. If you believe you should do something In 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (ESV), Paul extraordinary for God’s Kingdom urges his hearers “to aspire to live the notion of a quiet existence will be quietly.” And in 2 Thessalonians 3:12 anathema. he encourages them “in the Lord Jesus When the prophet Isaiah described Christ to do their work quietly.” But the coming Messiah he said that he, I’ve never heard a sermon on what he “will not cry or lift up his voice or make means by “quiet” or “quietly.” Or what it heard in the street” (42:2). Unlike he means by “live” or “life.” I’ve heard earthly victorious kings, the Promised many how-to sermons but none on how One would not include a lot of loud activity. And yet, Isaiah insists, he Whenever I reread a beloved book to live quietly, and what it might look like will bring “justice in the earth” to the I discover details I had not noticed in our culture, which is so loud about farthest coastline (42:4). The quiet would before. A description that changes how everything… not mean he was ineffective. I imagine a scene, or a word choice that Paul isn’t just suggesting this to the I wonder what would happen if we is particularly amusing or poignant. Thessalonians. He is urging them to live his followers made it our ambition to And sometimes I miss the details quietly. Wait a second—no, he wants live quiet lives? ■ because I wasn’t expecting them, certain these believers to aspire to live quietly. that some other theme or idea would You could translate these words as “make Source: The God of the Mundane: be presented instead. As Matthew it your ambition to live quietly.” This is Reflections on Ordinary Life for Redmond points out, this happens when no small thing. [pages 33-34] Ordinary People by Matthew B. Redmond Christians read Scripture. (Kalos Press; 2012) In case you are wondering, Redmond My whole life has been churched....I’ve is not making these texts up. And been supported by pews in a multitude of whether you have heard anyone preach cities, and I’ve preached and taught grace on them or not, he is certainly correct in some others. The number of sermons, that the essential message you hear in good and bad, that I’ve heard must most evangelical churches does not tend number on up into the thousands. to be, “make it your ambition to live And my memory is pretty good. quietly.” Calvin says in his commentary that But I have never heard a sermon calling St Paul in this text is trying to correct me to live quietly. the error that causes people to be “noisy Not one. At least that I can remember. bustlers in public.” Instead, he says, I’ve heard heaps of sermons on what I people should be content to fulfill their should watch, listen to, whom I should calling and lead “tranquil” lives. date/marry, and how I should treat them. I’ve heard sermons on sex and alcohol and tobacco. I’ve heard sermons calling me to be bold about sharing the gospel… And I’ve heard sermons about not worrying what other people think when I witness to them… A MAGAZINE OF RANSOM FELLOWSHIP CRITIQUE 2013:3 1 DISCERNING LIFE: CONSUMERISM Faithfulness in a Consumerist Society As Christians we should be grateful But as with all good things, we network of propaganda that sweeps for every aspect of society that allows know that in a fallen world there is me into patterns of consumption that human beings to flourish. Each is always a darker side. We live in the are shaped not by faithfulness but by evidence of the common grace of God. now/not yet of Christ’s lordship, when the demands of the marketplace. The Rain and sunshine continue to bless his kingdom has been inaugurated but solution is not despair nor withdrawal the land and the lives of farmers even if not yet brought to full consummation. nor assimilation, but a willingness to those farmers refuse to acknowledge the Redemption has been secured after the buttress our gratefulness with reflec- Creator’s existence (Matthew 5:45). The Fall, but the final restoration has not tion that helps us discern the shape of goodness of God still helps them flour- yet occurred. So we live in a world that faithfulness as consumers who wish to ish as persons fulfilling their vocation, tends to vandalize the good shalom live as if Christ is really Lord of all. and that is a grace for which we can give of God and spawns systems that align One aspect of our world that in- praise. themselves against God’s kingdom. vites reflection is the fact that as the Common grace is evident in more industrial revolution than in the gifts of nature, and can has unfolded to produce be glimpsed as well in the unfolding so many readily avail- processes of human history and society. able goods, something The industrial revolution, for example, THE GAP IN OUR ECONOMY IS called consumerism launched in eighteenth century Europe has subtly grown as a and America, introduced industrial BETWEEN WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT hidden motivation to methods whereby a growing flood of consume in ever increas- products could be made available at a WE THINK WE OUGHT TO HAVE—AND ing quantities. As more reasonable price. The average citizen goods are produced, today in America, Europe, and urban THAT IS A MORAL PROBLEM, NOT AN more consumption centers around the world is able to is needed to keep the purchase a host of items that were ECONOMIC ONE. system working. So, mar- unavailable a generation ago—and in keters seek to find new some cases a few years ago. As I type ―Paul Heyne consumers or to induce this, there are products within easy consumers to consume reach of my desk that I use regularly more. Products can have that had not been invented when my obsolescence built into grandfather was alive. I am grateful to them, or they can work be alive at this period in human history, well but go out of style. and the choice presented to me when I Which is why the correct posture for Whatever the details—and they are both go shopping reminds me that the vast the believer is always gratefulness with numerous and ingenious—the result majority of humankind knew nothing discernment. has been a subtle but powerful view of the practical riches I so easily take for St.

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