Through a Glass Darkly

This afternoon I’m raking leaves (I know, it’s a Sunday, and my grandpa’s turning over in his grave, but it has to get done). I hate raking leaves. It usually starts out ok — I fire up the big leaf blower and get all those dry oak leaves on the main part of the yard into a few big piles. I feel like I’m getting lots done. But then comes the hard part. I strap on the backpack blower and head into the brush and trees at the edge of the property, vainly hoping to clear out those damp clumps that cling to the forsythia and pachasandra. It takes forever and I never get it looking really clean.

In some ways this reminds me of spiritual growth. It’s easy, sometimes, to make quick progress on some “big” issue — I avoid getting drunk or saying curse words frequently or flat-out lying. But it’s those pesky things stuck to the underbrush that take the real work. The subtle lack of faith reflected in anxious thoughts, the envy reflected in a reluctance to celebrate others’ successes, the anger over past hurts nursed deep down. These are the places where the seasonal clean-up takes patience and time, and is never really finished.

I’m in Washington DC today for a conference. What a great city. Since I live in the NY area, I get to DC now and then on business, and it never fails to give me a bit of a thrill. The depth and breadth of our society, reflected in the public buildngs and institutions around this city, truly is remarkable and unparalleled in history. With all the problems and evils we face, we nevertheless can be amazed that God has chosen to place those of use who are American citizens at this time and place in history.

Recently I’ve been participating in a debate at Challies.com on forms of church music. It’s actually a bit of an anachronistic debate that hearkens back to the “worship wars” of the early 1980’s. My own participation has got me thinking, though, about why I blog and comment on others’ blogs. Is this really a worthwhile activity, or is it a divisive distraction?

The truth is, I love arguing. What’s worse, I’m trained as a lawyer and litigated cases for thirteen years, so I’m pretty good at arguing when I want to be. Occasionally I take positions in blog comments that might not be exactly what I really think, in order to make the other person think through his position more carefully or just to play around with an argument. (The stuff I posted on Challies recently, however, is really what I think). I quite enjoy doing this on sites like Challies, where some of the positions people take, it seems to me, are a bit extreme and not well thought out. (Tim Challies, the blog’s author, is usually thoughtful and articulate, although I often disagree with him; its his commenters who sometimes seem to speak without thinking).

I wonder what this kind of discourse accomplishes. Are we just engaging in the sorts of disputes scripture warns us against? Or is it iron sharpening iron, with the occasional glimmer of better understanding being granted to the participants or to outside observers? Are we compromising unity, peace and love for the disembodied, hermetic arguments we can indulge in online?

I don’t know.

I recently discovered Dawn Treader, another excellent blog with a Reformed bent. Jeff recently wrote an interesting post that sums up what I think many Evangelicals are thinking about tomorrow’s election: it’s a contest of worldviews more than a contest of issues. I had some interaction with Jeff in the comments to his post, and he acknowledged at least one problem with this thesis: worldview itself is an issue, so in that respect the election is about “issues.”

That’s only one problem I see with the “it’s about worldviews, stupid” thesis, however. More significant, I think, is the way this “worldview” argument tends to reduce the candidates’ supposed worldviews into narrow charicatures. Kerry’s “worldview,” for example, is supposedly more “relativist-leaning” because of his views on abortion and same-sex marriage, whereas Bush’s view is more “absolute-truth-leaning” because his views on those issues are more absolutist. But this confuses a candidate’s views about the proper scope of government with the candidate’s views on the “truthfulness” of a given moral position.

Let me use a less incendiary example. Suppose there were a major political debate about whether the federal government should require everyone to drive electric cars. There is a moral issue here: is it morally acceptable to pollute the air others breathe with exhaust from gas powered cars? There also, however, is a legitimate question about federal governmental power: should the federal government legislate in this area? Should it be a matter to be decided by state legislatures? Or should it be a matter each person should decide for him or herself?

In my hypothetical example, both candidates might believe as a matter of absolute truth that it would be better for society if everyone drove electric cars. However, they might have vastly different views about what, if anyting, the government should do to enforce that moral truth. In other words, the difference between them would primarily be a policy difference, not primarily a worldview difference.

Of course, the regulation of abortion and same sex marriage carry different policy implications than the regulation of automobile emissions. But they nevertheless are policy implications. If you argue that life is sacred and therefore worth protecting from the moment of conception — as I would argue — you’re saying that as a matter of public policy the protection of innocent life should almost always trump otherwise legitimate privacy and autonomy interests. If we focus only on worldview — or even primarily on worldview — we aren’t fulfilling our duty as Christian citizens to analyze the policy alternatives thoroughly. It’s really just a form of intellectual laziness.

As to the real “worldview” differences between Bush and Kerry, I doubt they’re as significant as some would suggest. In a sense, Bush and Kerry are just different sides of the same coin: they both are privileged middle-aged white males, they both went to fancy prep-schools, they both went to Yale, they both are fabulously wealthy, and on and on. Neither of them live in the more mundane world inhabited by most American Christians. Maybe W. is genuinely more “evangelical” in his faith than Kerry, but that in itself isn’t a reason to choose him as leader of the free world.

Sojourners has an excellent petition concerning the over-emphasis in many conservative Christian circles on Republican policies. It’s worth a look.

Proverbs 14:34 states “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

How should we understand the statement “Righteousness exalts a nation”? Often I’ve heard preachers explicitly or implicitly tie this passage to the concept of God blessing a nation with righteous leaders. This in turn is tied to the idea that we should vote for candidates who profess to be Christians, or who at least seem to promote policies that are consistent with some concept of “righteousness.” Usually, in my experience, this means support for candidates who claim to be “born again” and are pro-life and anti-gay marriage / gay rights. I don’t think this is a fair reading of the passage.

It’s important to understand what this proverb is and isn’t. It is applicable to all nations, not merely Israel. It isn’t, however, connected to God’s covenant relationship with Israel. This is a critical distinction.

The leaders of God’s chosen people – the kings of Israel and Judah we read about in the Bible – were uniquely responsible for the blessings to be bestowed upon or withheld from the nation. When the king turned from God and his law, as most did, God judged the nation. When the king followed and enforced God’s law, God blessed the nation. These judgments and blessings took the form of military and material success, consistent with God’s covenant to establish the nation as a great people.

The same is not true of the rulers of other nations, including the elected leaders of democracies such as the United States. God has no covenant with any nation other than Israel. Our leaders are not proxies for national faithfulness to a covenant in the same way as the Israelite and Judaic kings. There is no military or material blessing that God grants or withholds based primarily on the behavior of our leaders. Therefore, we should not expect that our national prosperity depends directly on the individual “righteousness” of our leaders.

Why does this matter? It matters because our responsibility as citizens extends beyond voting for leaders whom we perceive to be “Christian” or otherwise relatively “righteous” in their personal conduct. We must also consider whether those who wish to lead possess characteristics such as wisdom, justice and mercy.

For example, Prov. 20:26 speaks of a “wise” king who punishes the wicked; Prov. 20:28 speaks of a king being made secure through love and faithfulness; Prov. 25:2 states that it is the “glory” of a king to “search out a matter”; Prov. 29:4 states that “By justice a king gives a country stability…”; and Prov. 29:4 states “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.” In short, Proverbs pictures the good king as one who analyzes issues thoroughly and administers justice evenhandedly.

It isn’t enough for a ruler to profess some degree of personal piety. Our responsibility as Christian citizens isn’t satisfied merely by voting for the “Christian” candidate, or even for the candidate who agrees with us on hot-button issues such as abortion and gay rights. We need to look at the total package and choose leaders who are capable of making wise decisions.

David at Jollyblogger writes about Ashlee Simpson’s Saturday Night Live snafu. I agree with David about the whole Dad expoiting his daughter thing. How sad and sick.

The broader question about lip-synching, however, is a bit more interesting, from my perspective as a musician who plays live every week (I play guitar and sing in our “contemporary” worship band for a congregation of about 600 every Sunday).

I never lip synch, but I do use technical aids when I play live — every rock musician does. For example, I play an electric guitar (Gibson Les Paul Studio double cutaway — sweet!) through an amplifier that includes digital signal processors. These signal processors let me tweak my guitar tone, so I can sound like Pete Townshend cranking through two 100 watt Marshall stacks at one moment and The Edge delivering crystal ringing layers with his Gibson Explorer the next. Yes, the notes and much of the tone come from my fingers on the fretboard, but the distortion, delay and other effects I add electronically support what I’m doing.

So how much of a leap is it from tone shaping electric instruments to supporting a vocal with a guide track? When does electronic support cross the line from enhancing musicianship to deceipt? Very interesting question. I need to crank up my amp and blast a few power chords so I can clear my head enought to think about it.

I love poetry. Although I’m more a of a songwriter than a poet, I’d like to try my hand at more “serious” poetry. So, here’s an initial shot across the bow. The inspiration for this one was a mini-ephiphany this afternoon. My kids were playing outside at the neighbor’s house, even though it’s still kind of cold and muddy. My neighbor moved in last spring, and cleared out the fruit and vegetable garden that previously had occupied most of the yard, in order to make room for his young kids to play. The prior owner was an older man, and the garden was his pride and joy. It got me thinking about how something good and productive sometimes needs to be cleared out to make room for something maybe even better.

Peach Trees

Peach trees grew here a few years ago,
when the summer hung about us like a lazy river
and we let cool nectar run down our chins,
unaware the garden would yield to muddy March ground
trampled by growing children not yet born.
Now the dried out stumps of broken peach trees mark a line
the grass dared not cross,
rich loam meant for deeper roots and
heavy branches thick with fruit.