Some 200,000 Germans came out to hailBarack Obama . Does that make you like him more–after all, he would surely make America more popular around the world–or does it make you like him less, with global politicking and his talk of “global citizenship” giving you the creeps?

So, what do you think about the proposals to to lower the national speed limit to 55 m.p.h. as a way to save gasoline and thus lower prices?

The Russian Orthodox church is calling on the Russian government to denounce communism. OK, it’s a little late, but good on them.

In studying the different theological positions relating Christianity and culture, I find the Orthodox church to be something of a puzzle. It doesn’t seem to fit any of the major categories (culture above the church; church above culture; church separated from the culture; culture and church as distinct kingdoms under God). I asked an orthodox acquaintance who told me that the position of his church is to have monks who withdraw from the culture in order to pray for the culture. That’s a good answer, but it re-enforced my impression that the Christianity of the East is rather passive before the world, submitting to whatever regime it finds itself in but keeping alive an entirely separate spiritual existence. That means Christianity has not been as influential in the cultures of the East (though how could it have been given its domination by Islam and absolutist Czars). At its worse, though, the church sometimes collaborates with those regimes, giving spiritual sanction to the excesses of the Czars and even allowing itself to be infiltrated and used by the Soviets. I do salute the Orthodox Christians who have undergone persecution and martyrdom of their faith, including, arguably, members of the Russian royal family whose remains were discovered recently and confirmed last week.

The Western church, in contrast, both in its Catholic and its Protestant varieties, has always been activist and culture-shaping Even the separatist groups have defined themselves over and against the prevailing culture. This too has sometimes been to a fault.

I know some of you readers are Orthodox or Orthophiles (is that a word? if not, we need to coin it). I’d be glad to learn if this is a correct understanding or if I am missing something.

(I recall that I asked this before on this blog, but I still have questions.)

Here is what I was referring to in my coffee post: Calvin’s doctrine of vocation tends to emphasize working for the glory of God. That CAN result in doing things in isolation, a perfectionism that can be seen as “doing something for God,” possibly degenerating into a kind of work righteousness (as opposed to “works righteousness”). It CAN degenerate into scorn and ill-treatment of those human beings who are actually around us, resenting family members or customers for getting in the way of our work.

Luther, on the other hand, emphasized that vocation does not presume to serve God; rather, it serves our neighbor. Actually, God Himself serves our neighbor through our hands when we work in our callings. Thus, the focus in vocation must always be on the neighbor whom we are to love and serve.

Of course, we are to both glorify God and serve our neighbors, not playing these off against each other. The way God commands us to glorify Him is precisely to love and serve our neighbors, so these are not really in opposition. And, as was said, loving and serving our neighbor should include giving him the very best we can, and not just fulfilling him his possibly unworthy desires.

Right, we don’t know whether or not the barista in question is a Christian whose obsession with excellence was motivated by a desire to glorify God. I have, however, known Christians who pursued their work out of a religious motive but without regard of their neighbors. Also, there is no reason why Luther’s emphasis could not be shared by someone of some other theology, though his notion that God usually works through means–and ordinary, physical means at that–might not be accepted by hyperspiritual theologies.