My interview with Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard passed away today after recently being diagnosed with cancer. It would be impossible to describe just how formative Dallas’ work has been for me personally, and for many others. I’m not sure his impact on the thinking of what would later become the emerging Christian movements has been adequately attributed.

I had a few opportunities to speak with Dallas over the years. More than once I travelled long distances by myself just to hear him speak. The last time was almost three years ago when I interviewed him for a christianaudio podcast called Author Sketches. At the time, I was doing these interviews as a part-time gig and jumped at the chance to interview Dallas about his then current book, Knowing Christ Today. I blogged through that book, chapter-by-chapter, here at Pastoralia.

If you’re interested, you can download the interview for free by clicking here (but you’ll have to register). You can tell in the interview I’m more than a little giddy and starstruck, but you can also tell just how incredibly humble and generous Dallas was.

You’ll be missed Dallas. Peace to you in your rest and to your family in their mourning.

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Something less than human

From NBCNews.com: Lutheran pastor apologizes for taking part in Sandy Hook service.

“There is sometimes a real tension between wanting to bear witness to Christ and at the same time avoiding situations which may give the impression that our differences with respect to who God is, who Jesus is, how he deals with us, and how we get to heaven, really don’t matter in the end.”

As a Christian, and former pastor, who now works for an interfaith organization I can tell you that this tension is very real for many of the more than 300 congregations we work with (and they’re the one’s who HAVE chosen to engage). As people, we have a deep impulse to exclude others in order to include ourselves. This is a very old religious story; perhaps the oldest of all.

Just recently I spent time talking through this issue with an evangelical pastor in our network, who was struggling to justify getting involved with us because he didn’t want his presence to be construed as affirmation. Yet, at the same time, he desired the opportunity to be involved with something that might have a wider impact on the community. So there it is again: the desire to be included alongside the desire to exclude.

For me, the irony is that the heart of the gospel is a proclamation about the eradication of barriers. And at the heart of this eradication is the willingness to be identified with those who are not just a little different, but perhaps radically so, perhaps ruinously so.

To pray alongside a jew, or hindu, or muslim – especially in a time of grief or crisis – does not make me a jew, or a hindu, or a muslim. It makes me a human. To refuse to do so, makes me something less.

I’m not religious, just crazy

A recent British study found that people who identified as spiritual but not religious were 50% more likely to suffer from mental health disorders:

“We conclude that there is increasing evidence that people who profess spiritual beliefs in the absence of a religious framework are more vulnerable to mental disorder.”

Which doesn’t bode well for the mental health of the US, I suppose! Queue the “correlation is not causation” comments…

Pastor directed church member to fire woman for being too hot

I don’t know much about this story out of Iowa, but Dan Brennan offers an excellent perspective on the culture of evangelicalism and sexuality:

Irresistible attraction is a story embedded with a cluster of beliefs held by some contemporary Christians (men and women). It is born out of centuries old male-dominated patriarchy. The story sexualizes women and then blames and oppresses women.[...]

This is at the heart of so-called “Christian” rules between men and women like missiologists Ed Stetzer who supports avoidance between men and women. Some Christians like Matt Schmucker believe men and women who are not married to each other cannot share a meal alone together, a cup of coffee or even having a meaningful conversation between each other.

Embedded in this story of irresistible attraction is that any form of sexual attraction is irresistible. In the Christian tradition, some have held sexual attraction as irresistible. It is so powerful, it overwhelms the will. “Sorry, I just couldn’t control myself. You are so attractive, I had to act on my impulses.”

But Christian feminist and ethicist Christine Gudorf says, “It is the root of what makes women fear men as dangerous.”

I can remember being a young pastor on staff at a small church where I was instructed never to have even a cup of coffee with a woman in public who was not my spouse. No joke. But, an especially important comment was made my Amy, who is quoted in the article from her comments at Ed Stetzer’s blog:

“In the outside-church-world, I’m treated less as a latent temptress siren, waiting to lead men astray given mere minutes of a closed, window-free office door. This has been a great relief, and allows for a different level of respect and cooperation between co-workers, regardless of gender. Safe environments, like you say. I found I had to leave the church to find them, unfortunately.”

Spot on. Then, more excellent comments from (presumably the same) Amy in the blog comments on Dan’s post:

It’s been good to be out of church. And despite what I was told my whole life by church, my values haven’t changed, (I do swear more, confession). But regarding patriarchy and sexism, it’s good to be removed from church. Not that there aren’t sometimes undercurrents of some of the same ideas in this regard in the “outside church world” too – because there are, (patriarchy extends beyond Christianity). However, its much more muted. Two main reasons:

1. Patriarchy and sexism are much less tolerated outside of this Christian sub-culture. Therefore, these things are more likely to be called out when they’re seen by either men or women without the man being seen as “not manly” or the woman being seen as “subverting authority”. In general, this helps foster more respect and a more level playing field between the sexes. It’s not a surprise to me that non-christians are confused when commenting on this story, not in the least – it looks like the dark ages to them.

2. This brand of Christian subculture is under-girded by fear, shame and a lack of trust. That may seem harsh, but that’s what I see. I honestly I don’t think most of the world would recognize this particular brand of Christianity without these three things and they may not recognize themselves. In the outside-church-world, there is at least consistent space for places and relationships that aren’t run, (or projected upon by the community) by fear and shame. Therefore, ironically, outside of this culture, it can actually be easier to navigate the fundamental gospel idea of “perfect love” as a love that casts out all fear. If perfect love casts out all fear then how can it possibly exist in any consistent way in a culture under-girded by fear and shame?

It can’t. Until its looked at for what it is, these kind of things will continue to happen, and will continue to confuse non-Christians.

Read the whole post, and the comments. It’s well worth your time.

57 percent of Britons think learning about Christianity is essential

In a fascinating recent British poll:

And just how many Brits ascribe to the belief that Christianity should make a comeback? A YouGov poll reveals that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the 1,800 participants in the study believe that Christianity should be taught in schools because children need to learn about it in order to understand English history. Furthermore, 57 percent say that learning about Christianity is essential for students so that they can truly grasp English culture.

But do the English think that Christianity should be taught for reasons other than to bolster their historical and cultural knowledge? It was found that a slight majority, or 51 percent of those polled, believe that Christianity provides a moral compass that helps children decipher right from wrong.

Many British Christians are apparently finding great hope in this – and I can’t blame them – but here’s another interesting take on the poll results from Andrew Copson, a member of the British Humanist Association:

“Christianity should be taught about, and taught about well, but not, as at present, to the exclusion of other approaches to life and not in any pretense that it is relevant to the developing beliefs, values and life stances of most young people, over two-thirds of whom have non-religious worldviews,” [...] He contends that poll results indicate most British people see Christianity as less of a religion and more of a historical and cultural platform.

“And not in any pretense that it is relevant.” Such a choice sentence. To modify a T.S. Elliot quote: To say that you take Christianity seriously as a historical and cultural platform, really means you don’t take it seriously at all.