Entries Tagged 'Church' ↓

The Pope is here, and Washington, D.C., that secularist haven, is all excited. The Washington Post is full of favorable coverage. We even have a discussion of his vestments from the fashion editor.

Why do you think so many secularists are making such a big deal about the Pope’s visit?

The Pope’s here. Did you realize the Catholics too are torn in a worship war? You would think that a historical, hierarchical, traditional-to-a-fault church that dogmatically defines (again, to a fault) every detail of worship could avoid debates over “worship styles.” But no. In fact, as I know from experience, contemporary Catholic worship is even worse than contemporary Protestant worship, the songs even more banal and the music even more sappy. In further fact, at least one scholar (was it John Pless?) has traced the unravelling of traditional worship practices in all traditions, including those of Protestant evangelicals, and their replacement with contemporary modes to Roman Catholicism, specifically, to the worship “reforms” of Vatican II.

Anyway, here are some telliing lines from the article Between Medieval And Folk, Two Mass Audiences - washingtonpost.com:

Imagine a bizarro world where all the 25-year-olds want Mozart and all the 60-year-olds want adult-contemporary. The kids think the adults are too wild. The backlash against “Kumbaya Catholicism” has anyone under 40 allegedly clamoring for the Tridentine Mass in Latin, while the old folks are most sentimental about Casual Sunday (even more rockin’, the Saturday vigil Mass), and still cling to what’s evolved from the lite-rock guitar liturgies of the 1970s. The result, for most parishes, has been decades of Masses in which no one is entirely satisfied, and very few enjoy the music enough to sing along.

An article in the Washington Post on the Pope’s visit to D.C. Tuesday includes a quotation that frames a larger issue perfectly. According to Michael Sean Winters, “The Latin American church still generates culture, unlike the American church. It generates art, myth, the things that help people sustain relationships.”

A Christianity that generates culture! That is what is so lacking in America today. It isn’t an issue of ruling the culture, or of exercising power over anyone. And I’m not saying at all that culture, as such, is in any way what the church’s mission should be. But a vital Christianity, one that shapes people’s thinking and living, has always had cultural side-effects.

Today in America, the church tends to be either reactionary (opposing certain elements of the culture) or conformist (aping whatever the culture does in a usually futile attempt to be culturally relevant). It is generally not, however, generating culture.

Christianity played a role in the development of Western civilization, from its art to its great ideas, that it simply doesn’t play anymore. The culture that Christians generated varied greatly over time and through history. To take examples from English literature, Christianity inspired writers as varied as Dante, Milton, the Metaphysical poets, Coleridge, Hopkins, and even the modernist T. S. Eliot. Christianity generated the invention of the university, universal literacy, the rule of law, non-classical drama, human rights, and on and on.

Perhaps Christians today, though, are laying the foundation for generating culture again. Many are building strong families, which are the basis of every culture. Many Christians are building an educational infrastructure that can bear important cultural fruit. We will know we are generating culture again when Christian artists do not just follow styles but invent new ones that even non-Christians follow; when Christians formulate ideas that shape our larger institutions; when Christianity has a fruitful presence in society once again.

On the other hand, it may indeed be that Christianity is entering a time of cultural marginalization or even persecution. Even in such a time of suffering and testing, Christianity must be vital enough to affect how its adherents think and live. The solution is never to conform to a hostile culture, which would mean the disappearance, or the swallowing up of the church, or its being changed to a mere cultural religion.

Falls Church, one of the oldest congregations here in Virginia, broke away from the Episcopal church due to its rampant disregard of historic Christianity. The congregation, one of the largest in that denomination, affiliated itself with an archbishop from Nigeria. The Episcopal church sued, claiming that it now should get the congregation’s property. But a court last Thursday ruled in favor of the congregation, which will also mean that 11 other conservative parishes in Virginia that are breaking away will also get to keep their property. See this.

One of the priests from Falls Church spoke on our campus today and told us all about it.

There is so much here that is interesting: conservatives revolt against liberal theology; the liberals’ heavy-handed tactics against them; the role of “third world” Christianity–the old mission field–now becoming the protectors of the historic faith in the “first world” that once sent the missionaries.

M. Z. Hemingway, who wrote that Wall Street Journal piece on the “Issues, Etc.” controversy is now blogging at Augsburg1530 on the subject, with much more to say.

Save the LCMS crunches some disturbing financial data.

Great lines from Anthony Sacramone at First Things:

It takes a lot to get Lutherans to shift into activist mode. We pretty much believe if you’re agitated about something, you’re probably a Baptist. And any kind of ventilation (like breathing) is frowned upon for fear of a charismatic renewal. So believe me, Issues, Etc. is going to come back in some form, somewhere. It’s just not a good idea to get Lutherans angry. Last time this happened, historians ended up calling it the Thirty Years War.

And Kelly draws a simply devastating cartoon.

McCain shies away from religion talk - Jonathan Martin - Politico.com:

Raised Episcopalian, McCain now attends a Baptist megachurch in Phoenix. But he has not been baptized and rarely talks of his faith in anything but the broadest terms or as it relates to how it enabled him to survive 5 ½ years in captivity as a POW.

Notice how the reporter takes the Baptist view of baptism as being definitive. I’m pretty sure McCain, if he was “raised episcopalian,” WAS baptized as a baby. Baptists, of course, don’t recognize that. They only baptize for church membership. Saying McCain hasn’t been baptized in the Baptist megachurch simply means that he has not joined the Baptist church. That the Baptist view of baptism is the only one secular reporters even know is evident again in the story about the Pope baptizing that Muslim journalist, saying that he was “baptized a Catholic.” As M. Z. Hemingway pointed out, you are baptized into Christ, not into the particular denomination that baptized you, at least according to non-Baptist theologies. Baptism makes you a Christian, not a member of a particular denomination.

But what do you think about the way John McCain keeps his faith private? He does write about it in his book recounting his five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. A lot of people, actually, are reticent about talking about such things in public. Is that a sign of a lack of faith?

UPDATE: Some commenters are saying I don’t have the Baptist view of baptism right, that baptism is not for church membership. If that’s so, thanks for the correction, but I’d like to learn more. Growing up in a heavily Baptist community, I heard this teaching about baptism that I have described.

Isn’t it true that a person who joins a Baptist church, if he was baptized in another denomination has to be baptized again? I thought that held true even if he had been immersed. Or is the mode of baptism the key, not accepting sprinkling but accepting immersion? I have heard that re-baptism is done sometimes even when going from one Baptist congregation to another. Help me out, here. Are there any Baptist pastors reading this who could elucidate the Baptist teaching and practice?

Now Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conseervative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots, takes up the cause of Issues, Etc.

It’s rather surprising to many of us how this seemingly internecine controversy within the LCMS has attracted such attention from outside our circles. But the “Issues” that come up with this case do indeed have wide currency. And that “Issues” is not only conservative, but “crunchily conservative” in Dreher’s sense is surely significant, and not just for Lutherans.

It isn’t just us old people who are defending “Issues,” but, judging from The Wittenberg Trail social networking site, it is young people who are some its biggest fans and who are lighting up the internet. Those who are savvy on the internet, unlike the officials who cancelled the show seemingly oblivious to internet downloads. Those who consider the interview show, which is at the same time both culturally plugged in and theologically in-your-face, to be not just edifying but also cool.

And you don’t have to make your own granola to see Dreher’s point, that a conservatism exists that is young and counter-cultural, with a great concern–given the current cultural inanities–of returning to “roots.” That would include the roots of the church, which is what “Issues” championed.

UPDATE: Michael Horton on White Horse Inn also weighs in. He interviews the author of that piece in the Wall Street Journal, M. Z. Hemingway. Go to Bring Back Issues to hear what she has to say.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Todd Wilken speaks.

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has finally released information about why its radio show “Issues, Etc.” was cancelled. According to the statement’, the church-owned radio station KFUO has been losing money on the show, and viewership numbers were not enough to justify the expense:

In fiscal year 2007-08, KFUO-AM’s operating deficit was $620,698.  Since 2001, the accumulated deficits at the station have been in excess of $3.5 million. . . .

Although some are under the impression that “Issues, Etc.” was profitable and self-supporting, the fact is the program lost approximately $250,000 in the last fiscal year.  While airing for only 18 percent of KFUO-AM’s programming week, “Issues” accounted for more than 40 percent of the station’s total deficit.  These figures are based on the audited financial statements of the LCMS. . . .

Some may also be under a misapprehension about the size of the “Issues” audience.  In 2005, station management decided it could no longer justify paying for expensive ratings reports in light of the predictably low and static nature of KFUO-AM’s audience numbers.  At the time, a blending of the spring 2004 and spring 2005 “books” showed an average listening audience during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot of 1,650.  There is no indication these numbers have grown appreciably since. 

As for the audio streaming of “Issues, Etc.” via the Internet, the numbers are similarly low.  During the last full month (February 2008) for which we have reports, the average number of live, streaming listeners during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot was 64. 

On Sunday nights, when the first hour of “Issues” was syndicated in a number of markets (an opportunity for which, during the past fiscal year, the LCMS actually paid $66,000 in broadcast fees), and where the second hour was available only on the Internet, the peak number of online listeners on the KFUO stream was 39. 

The figures–which are three years old–do not include, however, the main way people listen to radio on the internet: not streaming but downloading. In the last three-month quarter, the show was downloaded 480,000 times. (See this for the number-crunching and this for a comparison of “Issues” downloads compared to KFUO’s other shows to gauge its relative popularity.) Figuring the cost of the show as given in the LCMS statement, this calculation finds the cost comes to 13 cents per download, less than the cost of a printed flyer.

For more responses and information about the grass roots uprising over the “Issues,” go here.

Meanwhile, here is an attempt to privatize “Issues.”

Also, fans suffering “Issues” withdrawal should know about Radical Grace, a similar radio and downloadable program that is already privately operated but hits the same themes as “Issues.”

M. Z. Hemingway explains everything you need to know about the current controversy over the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s cancellation of “Issues, Etc.” in a story in no less than the Wall Street Journal. Her piece is entitled Radio Silence. After discussing the cancellation, including the synod’s latest explanation that the show lost too much money and had too few viewers, Hemingway puts the incident in a larger context and concludes:

The program was in all likelihood a pawn in a larger battle for the soul of the Missouri Synod. The church is divided between, on the one hand, traditional Lutherans known for their emphasis on sacraments, liturgical worship and the church’s historic confessions and, on the other, those who have embraced pop-culture Christianity and a market-driven approach to church growth. The divide is well known to all confessional Christian denominations struggling to retain their traditional identity. . . .

[The program’s] attacks against shallow church marketing included mention of some approaches embraced by the current leadership. It opposed, for instance, the emergent church — an attempt to accommodate postmodern culture by blending philosophies and practices from throughout the church’s history — and the Purpose Driven Church movement, which reorients the church’s message toward self-help and self-improvement.

Michael Horton, one of our most insightful Christian writers, has a striking article in “Touchstone,” entitled All Crossed Up about two models of ministry and worship. He describes them with this set of dichotomies:

Ordinary <> Extraordinary
Communal <> Individualistic
Predictable and Disciplined <> Spontaneous and “Authentic”
Respectful of office <> Respectful of persons
Hierarchical <> Egalitarian
Patient <> Restless
Receptive <> Expressive
Mediated <> Immediate
Wise/Knowledgeable <> Practical/Intuitive
Custodial/Pastoral <> Entrepreneurial
Formal <> Casual
Mature <> Creative
Traditional <> Innovative
Deferential <> Independent

He argues that whereas the Bible and historic Christianity favor the left-hand side, today’s church culture favors the right-hand side.

HT to Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller, whose district president Randal Golter, of the Rocky Mountain District, received this statement from synodical president Gerald Kieschnick and released it with his permission: “The KFUO decision transpired with my awareness but neither by my order nor at my direction.”

HT to the Wittenberg Trail for passing along this message from the fired host, Todd Wilken:

“My thanks to everyone who has been so generous and supportive. Thank you for demonstrating such brotherly concern toward me, Jeff and our families. We are encouraged by everyone’s Christian compassion and friendship. Everyone, go to church. Eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus. Celebrate His death for us. Await His resurrection. It’s Holy Week - the best week of the year.

Go here to sign an online petition urging the powers that be to put the show back on the air. I was #1,999 and the number of signers is soaring.

I don’t want this to be just a Lutheran blog, so I don’t usually blog about inside-Lutheranism issues. But I appreciated how the recent “Things We Don’t Have Anymore” thread was taken over by laments that we don’t have the radio program “Issues, Etc.” anymore! So “Issues” is a valid issue. That hard-hitting interview show, led by Todd Wilken and produced by Jeff Schwartz, would host people like Bishop Spong (that Christianity-denying Episcopal Bishop who would then be taken apart) and, well, me (treating me always very kindly), always making a strong case for Biblical truth and Reformational Christianity, relating them to the cultural “issues” of our day. It was one of the few places where Missouri Synod Lutherans DID interact with outsiders, with Christendom as a whole, and with the secular marketplace of ideas.

Then, suddenly and with no warning, the synod cancelled the program. One of the few outreach vehicles amidst an emphasis on outreach that was working! Untold numbers of people (as has been testified on this blog) have come to our church and even to Christianity because of the influence of this program! Then it gets killed.

I don’t know anything about why, nor does anyone else I’ve communicated with. It’s a mystery. Did it get too controversial in its criticism of, say, Islam or American evangelicalism for our church hierarchy? What did the show air that was the catalyst for this sudden decision? Is this action a sign that the hierarchy is cracking down on its conservative and confessional voices in favor of some new and more liberal direction? I don’t want to believe that, I’m just saying, especially for those of you who wonder what the fuss is about, that this is one reason many people think this is a big deal. If I learn more, I’ll let you know, but I will not pass along rumors, only things I can verify.