The Emergent Church, Clint Eastwood, & Gran Torino

Post modernism...
Modernity...
Religion...
Anti - Religion...
Coexistence Theology...

I was speaking with my wife the other night about the emergent Church, because she is taking a class on it and would like some insight as to what I thought about it. Well, I told her to be honest, I don't know much about it but I'll tell you what I know and what I think.

So, to discuss about it, i had done some investigating on the subject, not in depth, but some overall broad spectrum understanding of it. The best description I got was from a pastor friend of mine who stated in a nutshell, that first the emerging church and the emergent church is in fact two different things, even though for the most part they are associated as the same thing. Mostly due to superficial reasons in the way the two churches would look on the outside. However, the core of it is quite different. The emergent church of which is getting more buzz, is based on a more emotionally based ideology, dash of facts, and a generalized pinch of the Gospel. Main focus claiming to be the christ centered model but in a more 21st century, emo - mtv style mode. Instead of worship, it's more like a discussion and debate about the efficacy of Christ and the Church, and is seemingly designed to be a open door policy to allow parishiners the freedom to be right in their own right. Sort of like, trying not to step on anyones toes as to the fear that non - christians will have a bad taste in their mouths and in turn make up stonewalled choices about the followers of Christ. The emerging church, on the other hand, is more about a Gospel centered, free understanding, inclusive idea with 21st century formats. Less about offending, more about worshipping, and deeper believing in the idea that it's not about being politically correct, but more about being truly Christ - centered.

Now, this is my very general understanding of the differences, but there may be more to it than that. Yet, from what I hear of the two, from the pastors, wiki's, forums, and laypeoples, the story seems to be the same. It's a church that is trying to be more hip, in, and of the times. Less about being a church and more about the church breaking societal norms and preconceived notions of Christianity. Bottom line, a 'religion' that is more easily swallowable, and acceptible in a world that is more well informed and 'intelligent.'

So, I began running into an issue with this whole thing. If Christ, God, and the Church are supposed to be blessed, in a world that is cast in darkness, than why the need for the essential catering of the masses to allow God's precepts to be palatable? Are people so sensitive to the matters of faith that we now have to tip toe around such subjects? Have we as a peoples become so in tune with the 'universe' that we rationalize that all religions must be the same, because they all seem to preach about the same things?

This questioning in my own right brought me to a conversation I had with a close friend about the film Gran Torino directed by Clint Eastwood. Crass, in your face, quintessential Eastwood. Brother told me that in a nutshell, the film was about how the world had gone soft, that no one has the capability to take cynacism and insults like they used to. Why would a movie such as this be needed? How many of you out there that are reading this noticed the trend in favorite movies being that the subjects of revenge, Righteous anger, leveling the playing field under insurmountable odds, being the most watched. Everyone, in my opinion, have indeed become soft, and I catch myself in this mode as well at times. Being politically correct and sensitive to emotions as become paramount to society than I dare say health itself. Yet, impressing on the masses the ideologies of Love, Hope, & sometimes Faith are now, no longer sacred nor necassary, but rather what you just say (without spiritual underpinnings.) Some one is down right pissed off at the current predicament, and what do people tell you now, 'aw~ it's okay, it'll all be okay, I will sympathize with you, I will share your pain, I will do my best to let you know that I will 'love' on you.' Now, this sounds like the humane thing to do, right? Yet, is it still right. Can a person truly feel the pain of another, and except all that comes with it. The baggage, the yelling inside, the yelling outside, the rage, the pain, and the endless tissues that will make a person raw in the nasal orifices to the point of a leperous - like deformation. Are we willing to make the sacrifices that entail such a task as sharing in the pain of someone that we care about? Then from another point of view are we dumbing ourselves, of our spirituality by allowing others the oppurtunity to even make a relativly empty statement such as the above? Has human kind become so left in the dark of the world that we forget that there is an almighty God, that once and technically still is ruling over the know understanding of the presence and plain we live in.

We are so stuck in the idea that we can't harm, and also so quick as to love, yet without the full understanding of what it means to love. Love as now be brought down to the level of just something that we are supposed to do because that's what we as a people are supposed to do. Being 'PC' about things as become the main religion of the masses. The most prolific and fastest growing religion in my opinion today, is the church of atheism and apathy with non Christian spritualist coming in at a close 2nd.

So what is a church to do now that the world hates the Christians? Oh, I guess now we just fall in line with the rest of the world and make Christ more politically correct, afterall, the bible was written couple thousands of years ago, and the cultures of the times were so much more different back then. This is what I hear from the mouths of my fellow believers and non believers as well. The justification of the Gospel, becoming p.c. is that the gospel is antiquated?!?! So, now churches are moving in a direction to make Christ kool with a K. Next thing you know, I'll start seeing new modern translations of the new testament with Jesus spelled alittle more like this:

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We are doomed as a society, when we begin to water down and modernify the things that we once held as sacred. Sacred in today's world to some degree has become nothing more than a phrase uttered in a museum that hold sacred artifacts of past religions. I believe that the people of the world today have become soft, are afraid of the impacts that one's own faith will have on the environment around them, and are weakened by the effects of mass media and the rampant rise of over spirituality that is to some degree very reminescent of the late 60's.

Love of course being it's main focus. A universal idea indeed but having the ability to permeate and be used in so many levels. Both beautiful and frightning at the same time. 'The devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist.' - Baudelarie Yes, I know that the Usual Suspects movie made it popular again, but the phrase was taken for the poet above. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called the Screwtape Letters, being about a series of letters written by a lower ranking deamon to it's mentor deamon. The goes in depth in the wily was that the engine of sin is used, and the tools that the deamon utilizes in the best of people to further pull the eyes of man away from God, even using God himself. So perhaps Love is what's being used again to further pull the eyes of the world away from God. Because love is so grand, it's soft, pretty and fluffy like a cat. >.< Well, perhaps it's time that people stopped looking into the looking glass and started taking a look at the world for the way it really is.

So Here is my bold statement to the world. This is not my preaching for those who are sensitive to the ways of the Christian world with aberration. I am a Christian, a follower of Christ. I believe with all my heart, mind and soul that Jesus Christ is in fact the son of God, and died for my sins, and the sins of the world. This is the way it is, this is the way it will be, and that's what I will be. So at the risk of being 'emergent' (like my overuse of quotes) I am not preaching to you reader, I am not trying to subversively brainwash you into the world of Christ, nor am I a deceiver of religion, I am plain, and out there, take it or leave, I have no worries if you don't accept and I don't mind if you don't agree, That choice is yours to make not mine, if anything I have no power, the true power is in God almighty and I am but a mere servant and follower of his way. If you think I'm rude, sorry, but in the world that I live in I try to be a real as possible, I fail at times like most of you, and at times I succeed in the day. So, I suppose that best that we can do is hope for the best, stick to our guns, and have true faith. So be happy that you are alive today, why shouldn't it be the best day of your life, since God allowed you to have another day ^^

- Peace

God, Oriental Medicine, & Aikido

I went back to Aikido last night after almost of year of being outside the dojo. Sensei called me and my friend up a week ago saying that we need to come back so that he can formally give us our 5th kyu certificates and yukyusha card, that way we can officially be a part of the Aikido federation. It was really great to be back and painful at the same time. I had started running daily 1 week before the class so that helped in the cardio department, but not in the stretching and muscle strength department.

Overall, there was lots of pain, but in a good way. More than that though, sensei really gave us some true pearls of Aikido wisdom. Particularly in the area of the concept to be 'one' with oneself and 'one' with your attacker. Diving into ideas of meditation and biblical theology, the aikido concept of this very common idea, became that much more clear. The most impactful image that he gave was, as an aikidoka, if I were to be attacked, and in turn I had a lapse of judgment and caused my attack harm, when I in turn am striving to be one with my attacker, who is it that I really hurt? This sort of thinking is not the norm of the martial arts world, but an idea that is in it's foundations of all martial arts. How is it that these ideas have been forgotten to the point that we read them, hear them and yet not be able to feel them. Has society gone so deep into it's post - modern state that our thoughts are now too complicated with the ways of the world?

Stillness was the other area that sensei had talked about last night. That in everything we do today, there is no sense of singularity in thought but a complex stream of concerns, worries, and trepidations that again take us away from the truth that is supposed to be paramount in our thoughts. That truth being what it is that we are supposed to be focused on at any given time. "How many times have we tried to study a book, read it, read it again, and wonder, how many periods and commas were in the text, let alone ponder upon why the author chose to pick the words and place them in the page as he or she has done so. " Our thoughts are always being bombarded with multiple thoughts even when we try to be in a meditative state of concentration. I know that I myself fall victim to this daily as I'm sure that many other students do, the struggle of calming my mind in order to concentrate on the task that is given to me. Countless number of times that I've read a chapter in it's entirety, only to find that i have to read it again, because I was thinking about how I would cook that piece of venison that is cryo - bagged in my Freezer. The Calming stillness of one's mind is something that everyone yearns for and innately understands it's importance, but in an age of modernity have lost the ability to truly focus ones mind to such a still state that it's physical appearance would be that of a calm ripple - less lake. Biblically, these extra collateral thoughts are supposed to be satan trying to take us away from the truth of God's Universe so as that our minds can remain in the temptuousness of the world that satan rules over. How important than in a world that is a fully fortified battery of temptations in sexy sin, is it that we pray, meditate, and consume upon, with great hunger, the words of the righteous and holy?

The balance game that we play on a daily basis, is truly something to chew on some more before swollowing. TCM, as far as I've heard so far states that the balance of yin and yang is paramount importance in the treatment and well being of the human creature. The upsetting part is that due to the changes in chinese socitey, this idea has been taken to a new level of misunderstanging, by means of removing the spiritual importance of the two. Just as how 21 century Protestants in America have slowly removed the spiritual aspect or worship, TCM has also done so to a certain degree. Judeo Christian thoughts idea on the Spirit makes so much sense in the CCM sense that the focus of healing should be on the spirit and the functional aspect of the being rather than the physical body itself. So, what are these things? Working diligently, living a life of discipline, hungering for the word of God, meditation upon the world of God, Fellowship with brothers and sisters, Loving all those that live on the earth, Taking rest when it is time to rest, and sureing up ones self when it is time to regain. This to me sounds like a pretty darn busy schedule in anyones daily life. Here's something interesting, the bible also states that the physically body that we have on earth is nothing more than a shell for our true selves (spirit).

-Peace