A Note for Church Leaders

If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. (Gal. 5:15)

We have devoured the Fundamentalists. We are consuming the Conservatives. If these are the sheep of our pasture, what does that make us?

Why Social Justice Isn't

The Social Justice movement, particularly as it is manifest in Evangelical Christianity, claims to pursue justice for the poorest, the oppressed, the weakest, and the marginalized. I've heard it again and again: "Jesus was with the poor. He was an advocate for the oppressed. He looked out for the least of us." And he did, to be sure. He even went so far as to identify himself with the least when he said, "That which you have done to the least of my brothers, you have done to me."

The Social Justice movement has gained such considerable traction, particularly among celebrities, that if you don't have a cause (or better yet, several causes) then you are culturally anathema! Evangelicals are "finally coming around" to the real problems of society and speaking out on behalf of those who are powerless. At my own church we minister to the homeless, single parents, outcast refugees, and many others.

This is wonderful, "kingdom" work. But, insofar as it claims to work for justice, it's garbage. There's something missing, and I think you know what it is. It's absence is conspicuous, yet manages to explain everything.

Who is the weakest of the weak? Who is the poorest of the poor? Who is more dependent than the destitute? Who is more frail than the most infirm? Who is more confined than the convict? Who are they who, literally, have no voice? no strength? no power? They are the unborn, and in this country they are slaughtered at a genocidal pace and scale. And yet where are they on the agenda of these so-called compassionate progressives? Social Justice, absent abortion, is purely leftist politics. There is just no getting around this.

How can you cry out "Justice!" and abide this genocide? Tell me, please, where the power of the powerful is more brutally and thoughtlessly exercised against the weakness of the weak, than in abortion? Tell me where the disparity of power between perpetrator and victim is greater? Tell me, in fact, where there is greater injustice in this world than in the wombs of American women?

Twenty-five percent of American pregnancies end in abortion. Yet the Social Justice movement is silent. Would they open their mouths if the murder rate in our schools was 1 in every 4 children? Judging by their deafening muteness, perhaps only if a Republican were in charge--someone they could be against.

Why, my indignant and self-righteous Social Justice brothers and sisters in Christ, is there no room on your agenda for abortion? Why do you never speak of it? I can only conclude that it is because, before you are Christians, you are Liberals. You don't really care about Justice, you only care about political power. You cry out, "Justice! Justice!", but you abide one of the greatest injustices the world has ever seen. If what we have done to the least is what we have done to Jesus, then you have allowed him to be murdered over 50 million times.

Don't you know that there is no abortion in the kingdom? Don't you know that, in the end, the kingdom wins? Don't you know that these 50 million will yield true power in the kingdom, and that they will stand up against you in judgment? How can you be so blind? You have been seduced! You have been bewitched! Come back to your senses! You hold in your hands a wrecking ball, now swing it against that Satanic monolith named Abortion. And when it falls, you and I will dance on the ash and rubble and our faces will glow in the firelight of the destruction of that most wicked of evils.

But first, you must make Social Justice just.

Daddy Blogging

Last night I sent Breena home to Toledo with her mom so that she could get a much-needed break from the chaos around here. This, of course, leaves me home alone with the kids...FOR THE WHOLE WEEKEND! I'm not ashamed to say that, last night, I was dreading this. But things have gone really well so far.

Both kids woke up at 6:45 this morning. I brought them downstairs and fed them breakfast--peanut butter toast for everyone! Eisley tore her bread limb from limb, devouring it like a sadistic toast-cannibal. Cyrus just sat there, staring at his. This is normal.

After breakfast I took them to Kohl's because I need a new pair of everyday shoes after I wore mine disc golfing. I knew I was risking a major possibility of a meltdown in a public place, but the need for shoes was just too high. Cyrus pushed Eisley around in her stroller, and they both enjoyed staring at themselves in the mirror. After about 45 minutes in the store and no meltdowns, we bought the shoes and left. 

Being the extreme risk-taker that I am, I decided to test my fate even further by going to Kroger (aka the Blue Store). The meltdown ratio for Kroger trips has got to be around 2 meltdowns for every 3 trips. This must mean I got lucky. Both kids were great! It probably didn't hurt that I gave in to three of Cyrus' requests for food--cookies, chocolate milk, and Apple Dapples. It also didn't hurt that Eisley can't speak english.

We got home and I pacified the kids with some Apple Dapples while I did the laundry and cleaned the dishes. Then, at around 10:45, I gave the kids a real apple and started making Macaroni & Cheese (aka Packaroni & Cheese). It was the good kind--you know what I'm talking about, the one in the Deluxe box. I can't eat the crap they put in the tall skinny boxes. That stuff is nasty. When daddy gets mac&cheese he gets the good kind. They loved it.

After lunch we played for about a half hour and I put them down for naps. Eisley went right down but Cyrus is still up in his room doing God-knows-what. I hear a lot of thudding. Maybe I should go check on him...but why ruin a perfectly good morning? He'll fall asleep eventually, right?

End of an Era

Today is the last day of my twenties. Because I'm both obsessively self-absorbed and nostalgic, I thought I'd take a look back at all the things I've done in the past decade.

• Moved into a house with 12 guys (Iuka!)
• Got an editorial published in the OSU newspaper that angered a lot of my friends
• Made a terrible relational mistake
• Took a job with the OSU Athletic Department
• Spoke briefly at GCM's national conference
• Dropped out of ministry with New Life Church
• Graduated from OSU with a Theatre Degree
• Turned down a full time position with the OSU AD to move back to Toledo and help lead Unbound, a ministry to college students 
• Discovered my preaching gift
• Fell in and out of love
• Realized my call to ministry
• Made lifelong friends
• Took up photography
• Traveled across the country with Scott
• Received a vision to plant a church
• Enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston
• Nearly lost my mind the first semester
• Worked out a lot and got into great shape (those were the days)
• Spent a summer in Yosemite National Park
• Fell in love with Breena
• Asked Breena to marry me
• Got mono
• Married Breena
• Impregnated Breena
• Graduated from Gordon-Conwell with an M. Div and received an award for preaching excellence
• Watched Cyrus come into the world
• Failed at planting a church
• Took a job at a megachurch and moved to Columbus
• Impregnated Breena again
• Watched Eisley come into the world
• Quit my job
• Accepted new position at same church
• Impregnated Breena a third time

All that in ten years. It was a decade of becoming, and I'm grateful to God for his faithfulness to me. I look forward to the next ten years with hope and expectation.

What I Didn't Realize

Tonight, as I was driving home from work, it occurred to me that I've been at working at my present church longer than I was at Unbound. 

Mind. Blown.