Book Review: How the Church Fails Businesspeople

When I saw this book on the shelf, I was immediately drawn to it - maybe it's having spent my "formative years" in a rich, suburban congregation where most members were businesspeople, but my heart goes out to  the materially rich of this world - so many of them are so lost, so drained by their efforts.  So many of them have bought into - hook, line, and sinker - the worldly definition of success, and have found it lacking.  And so many of them come to church seeking something deeper, and hear only that "Jesus loves poor people" and "Jesus ate with 'sinners and blue-collar workers'".  So often, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" is - explicitly or implicitly - translated as "It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and likewise, it is impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 

But when we say that - implicitly or explicitly - we are saying 1) that some people are outside the redemptive ability of Christ, 2) that these people are better off just leaving, because they don't belong in church.  We lose the opportunity to share the Gospel - the only thing that can free them from the hamster wheel of "success" - and to help them live out their vocations in a Godly fashion. 

Because Jesus doesn't cast businesspeople aside.  John C. Knapp, who authors this book, reminds us of numerous Biblical passages in both the Old and New Testament that either explicitly or implicitly lift up the business vocation.  Those in business are only criticized when they live this vocation in an unethical or immoral fashion. 

And so Knapp works through the Biblical and theological material on business as a vocation, including reflection on the historical development of "vocation" as a concept extending beyond "be a priest".  He discusses the current church approach to business (mostly, don't talk about it), and the business approach to church (the same).  On the basis of a series of interviews with Christian businesspeople, Knapp has come up with recommendations for how the Church can start to be more helpful and engaged with its members in the business world.  Some of these recommendations are: visit people at work, preach about business, get to know people and their vocations, don't be afraid of lifting up vocations, be clear about your availability to discuss ethical issues, don't say stupid or overly simplistic things. 

A lot of these, of course, are relevant to all vocations - but perhaps the Church could work on being more clearly supportive of those in the business world, and thereby help our businesspeople to live their vocations in light of their faith. 

Bottom line: if you want to know more about what businesspeople are thinking and would like from the Church, check out this book.  It's a quick-but-helpful read, and will give you a lot to think about!

Book Review: God Laughs and Plays

Yesterday while hanging out at my dad's office, I read God Laughs and Plays: Churchless Sermons in Response to the Fundamentalist Right., by David James Duncan.  I was a little suspicious of the title at first, but I thought, "eh, what the heck?  God does laugh and play, so let's give it a shot." 
I was highly disappointed.  Duncan bills himself as a modern-day mystic setting out to rescue "true" Christianity from all those right-wing fundamentalists.  What he really is, is just another in a series of modern-day "spiritual but not religious" people who love "the real Jesus, not the Jesus Christians like to tell you is real." 

Honestly?  Ho-hum.  Do Christians - all of us - get Jesus "wrong" sometimes?  Sure.  We all like to remake him in our own image - passionate about the things we're passionate about, loving and hating the same things and people we love and hate. But there's a way to talk about this, and make this point, thoughtfully, and there's a way to do it not-so-thoughtfullly.  Unfortunately, Duncan comes across as not-very-thoughtful, despite his attempting to portray himself as oh-so-thoughtful.  The biggest problem with Duncan is that, like so many "enlightened true-Christian liberals" these days, he lays all of the problems of the world (from starving third-world children to environmental problems to premillenial rapture theology) at the feet of Bushcheneyhalliburtonrepublicanschristianfundamentalists.  And, really?  That's just getting old.  In the first place, George Bush and Dick Cheney are both members of the United Methodist Church, which, the last time I checked, was not "fundamentalist".  It is thoroughly mainline.  Second, virtually all of the things that President Bush did that people such as Duncan don't like were voted on and approved by people that he presumably does like.  You can scream "unilateral military action" as long and as loud as you like, but it doesn't change the fact that Congress approved Afghanistan, and 39 countries besides the U.S. sent troops to Iraq.  To say that bushcheneyhalliburtonrepublicanchristianfundamentalists are responsible for all the evil in the world is ignorant, foolish, unfair, unhelpful, and frankly, stupid.  It immediately shows you as someone who is more interested in your ideology than in any sort of serious analysis of a situation.

Third, I'm really just tired of being lectured by the oh-so-enlightened crowd about my Christianity.  Is my theology perfect?  Of course not.  Am I sinner?  Absolutely.  But so are you, Mr. Duncan.  Throughout the book, Duncan seems so proud of the fact that he doesn't attend church and has just sort of discovered his own blend of spirituality and faith by picking and choosing what he likes from every religion and philosophy out there.   Now look, even the Roman Catholic church acknowledges that there are elements of Truth to be found in other religions:

Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.

 N.T. Wright notes in his commentary on Colossians 1:15-20 that

"To assert today that one Creator God has revealed himself fully and finally in Jesus Christ is to risk criticism on the grounds of arrogance or intolerance.  The ission of the church, however, doe not commit Christians to the propostiion that there is no truth to be found in other retions.  Colossians 1:16 implies that all philosophies or religions which have some 'fit' with the created world will thereby reflect in some ways the truth of God.

However, he continues, "It does not, however, imply that they are therefore, as they stand, doorways into the new creation.  That place, according to 1:18, is Christ's alone." 

Indeed. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," declares Jesus.  We don't like that verse in this day and age, because it limits our options.  Especially in the Western world, where you can literally spend hours in one aisle of Target trying to decide what kind of toothpaste to buy, being told that "I am the way," as opposed to all the other nice, harmless, pleasant sounding, helpful "ways" out there is not what we like.  And as Nostra Aetate and Wright remind us, it isn't that there aren't elements of Truth in other places.  It's that, in the end, all those other elements of Truth coalesce in Jesus, the Truth.

It's that ground that we must finally stand on. 

A Good Day

So, I realize that some of my recent posts probably sound like I can't stand my family, or I'm not enjoying my time at home getting ready for the wedding, or whatever.  And I feel like I need to clarify.  I don't hate my family.  They are wonderful people, and a great blessing in my life.  Not many people get to have as awesome of a family as I do. 

It's been nice being home and being around everyone, especially since I'm normally so far away from...everything.  It's been fun to help with the finishing touches of wedding planning, and try to keep both my mom and my sister reasonably sane.

It's just getting...long.  And it's been so busy.  Honestly, I thought I would be bored.  Not at all.  There is so much to do.  Granted, some of it is running to places like Target, Hobby Lobby, and the grocery store - usually all three, every day.  It's dress fittings and laundry and organzing closets and doing trial runs of chocolate covered strawberries and and and.  Because, oh yes, someone decided that it would be a good idea to have a freaking garage sale the week before the wedding.  I'm not joking.  My sister signed off on it, mostly I think because she wants to get rid of a bunch of junk before she moves.  Which I guess is fine.  But let none of us think this will be happening at my wedding.  Really, though, I'm having fun, for the most part.  But let's be clear: nothing about this could in any way legitimately be termed a "vacation". 

Nevertheless...

I decided yesterday that the best way to get out of the house for a day, hopefully have a little peace and quiet, and not have to go to Hobby Lobby was to spend the day with my dad.  So I went to work with him - awake at 5:00 am, out the door before 6:00.  Yikes.  Yes, there was coffee involved. 

And since he sees patients all day, there was nothing for me to really do.  Score.  The other PT that works with him was not in today, so I commandeered her office, layed on the exam table, and read.  All.  Day.  Long.  About 11:30 we went to lunch, walked around a little, and then went back to the office.  I took a nap, read some more, and then we came home.  It was glorious.  Glorious, I tell you.

Tonight, Melissa and Joey and Royal Pains.  

Yes, I love the summer.