Entry Sixty Three: Disturbed by Unfortunate Truth.

Where do I even begin. It has been such a long time since I touched my blog. I don't want this post to evolve into a political rant or a religious rant, but I do feel urged to write about the reality of church influence and my inner turmoil. There is an incredible and frightening shift taking place in American culture. Christianity is not what it used to be in terms of size, strength, and influence. The persuasive and inherent message of salvation is being smothered regularly, like a cereal killer who habitually puts his victims into permeant sleep by placing a pillow over their face. People of faith need be alert.

The American church once stood as a beacon of sociological moral operation within our society. People embraced the 10 commandments without great friction, they understood human nature in perspective of civic obligations, yet like the geopolitical figure Nicholas Spykman they were also lenient enough to peacefully observe political realism. Up until the 1950s killing the innocent was still wrong, especially "good guys", stealing property was still wrong, especially from "the poor", acting in a way that subverted "a fellow citizen" was still wrong, and it was still shameful to dishonor your parents.

Today's America has been turned to a rusting slab of steel. Its exterior is covered with brown dust, left over by agent orange from the Vietnam war, and pealing material that easily flakes off with just rubbing middle eastern sand against it. The lack of sociological moral operation by an established moral institution parallels the image of a man who forcefully chips away with a toothbrush rather than applying lubricant. The 10 commandments have been removed from almost all general government buildings that pertain to law. Human nature is understood in perspective of personal desire, and an angry majority of church goes rage war against the need for political realism.

In comparison, todays American church looks like a mothball of uninformed people who think as individuals rather than a civic body, who assume their religious liberties and free speech are still being protected, and who continue down a path of inevitable persecution because of their ignorance. They presume christianity is still a dominant ethical and cultural force. They presume that police brutality is only happening in the deep south. They presume all the horrific blunders described in George Orwell's 1984 will remain fiction, however that is probably farthest from the actual truth.

For some christians, my observation is like another guy holding a "end times coming" sign, because they have heard a similar message for so long. For some other christians, my observation is like a kid picking up the Wsj in High school for the first time. Let us address some of the core issues that support my claims. First, recall that a large federal healthcare mandate called The Affordable Care Act was never read and then passed by congress. It had a couple clauses that required non-profits and private companies to provide free birth control. The Catholic Church was put in a direct line of fire.

After the federal government managed to literally force the largest globally recognized religious institution onto its knees, they went after smaller denominations. First they used indirect tactics, starting with simple issues in academic institutions. For example, sharing, which is a common christian ethic, and mutual among many other religions. Sharing food has become outlawed in over 30% of Jr High and High Schools, partly for legal insulation, but there are other ways to protect yourself from a lawsuit than criminalizing an act of kindness. Yet, it doest stop with the most important age group.

Religious minority groups and affiliated clubs are no longer allowed to be funded by student government in over 85% of public universities. Churches across the country are being audited by the IRS because of their political beliefs or sermon context. My own pastor no longer preaches about political issues because of his own growing fear. Now, just this week – in the most conservative state in the entire United States (Texas) – a pastor was subpoenaed by the newly elected lesbian mayor of Houston... because of a sermon he preached about people committing lustful acts of homosexuality.

The church is in a position of defense. It has shields set to maximum and the censorship drones are on patrol to ensure no one in the congregation speaks out against something that can draw a subpoena. It is very strange, especially when considering in Europe, there is a political party called "The Christian Democratic Union", and it holds the majority rule in Germany. Or when considering in latin America, the church is heavily censored, but runs an underground operation at local levels and fervently fights in the public square and political arenas at executive levels. The facts are staggering.

In other parts of the world, christian ethics are either engulfed by secularization or overwhelmed by the threat of tyranny. Only in the United States will you find the perfect temperature of lukewarm. None of these issues really put on blast or pinpoint the real problem, which is a universal apathy Christians have toward getting involved in fighting or engaging political/liberty protection priorities. When I talk with peers in my university or off campus I get the following responses... "this doesn't affect me" – or the more common – "the church has always been persecuted and it has always survived".

I spoke to a friend who just finished seminary about what he thought, and he said, "Christianity was BORN and THRIVED in a culture that had temple prostitution, Extra-marital homo/heterosexual relations, pluralism, and polytheism, where you weren't allowed to make exclusive truth claims". So in other words, well, I actually cant translate that without sounding incredibly bitter and antagonistic. The level of irrationality in that statement. People in real persecution fight because they are being persecuted, they don't sit and throw out remarks that immobilize the issue, so they don't fight, so they can fight later.

Our nation has become so backward that black equals white and white equals a C minor. It is not that everyone is spiritually color blind and intellectually tone def, they just revoke the idea of political cognitively. Everyone wants to pretend it doesn't exist so they don't have to use it. To me, it is of great concern, because I am walking into a war zone with my Political Science degree and I have no idea if reinforcements will ever arrive. I suppose this is where I have to really embrace my own Faith.

Entry Sixty Two: Reaching at Revelation

There is nothing more spiritually awakening then being asked what your favorite sermon is and allow me to explain why, but first let me give some context.

Today I was asked this question by a new friend, just about 30 minutes ago via Facebook.  Both of us being political science majors, we first became aquatinted at a Political club meeting about three months ago. Since that meeting we have discussed personal hobbies, interests, economics, our preference on the president, and of course future ambitions. However, during our chats we had never really brought up religion. Though, I am not generally shy about my faith on social media or in the work place, his question still came as a slight but exhilarating surprise. The question was simple and efficient; it read "Any good Christian sermons you recommend on youtube?".

Even with such directness it took me about 3-4 minutes to process what he was asking and what I was suppose to do. I sat there thinking about his job profession, his hobbies, where he may be in life, what he may be going through. I even considered the possibility of there being a deeper question or plea. It was difficult to digest at first, because although this exercise was a normal exchange with my christian friends, with none christian friends, and even with strangers... it had never happened with political friends. I sat there for another couple minutes thinking of my favorite pastors, my favorite churches, sermons that came to mind, and I had absolutely no idea where to start.

After a couple moments I began looking up Ravi Zacharias, then Francis Chan, then Tim Keller. Then I looked up Skyline Church, Experience Life, Mosaic Hollywood, FoothillChurch, and Christ Church of the Valley. I started by looking in the media section of each website, scanning each series theme, then picking a couple I thought might be good. However, for the first time in my christian life I looked at the videos with a whole new level of objectivity. Questions started raising in my head; does this message sound like its attacking atheists, does it sound belittling, does it sound too exclusive, fundamentally does it sound offense? Then I wondered what would be offensive from his perspective.

It takes a certain kind of person to enjoy watching C-span, watching documentaries, reading the news, and following polls as a workplace hobby. I know, because I too enjoy these things and only find like minded people perusing the same field - politics. With someone who works in a major public office, there sits a certain kind of mind that can easily sift through bullshit and poor rhetoric. Thus, for the first 20 minutes I had my work cut out for me, instead of sharing videos I really enjoyed for personal reasons, which had a certain personal context involved... I looked for videos that may be nourishing from where ever he may be in personal walk. I thought of the deep questions he may be asking.

After skimming through about 13 themes and skimming the videos,  something strange came over me. As I continued watching I kept encountering the same thoughts "why is he talking so aggressively?", "why does he keep speaking on the defense?", "why does he automatically assume I am Christian?", "why do I feel like this sermon was written for a Highschool group?", "Where is intelligence?" this is such a crappy speech. After about the third of fourth "why", I realized something. Behind all those questions I was also thinking "man I have heard this a million times", which opened my eyes up to something incredible. I realized how confined the idea of truth has become within modern christianity.

I began thinking about all the times I had watched a Ted Talk and really appreciated the inspiration, or what it used to feel like sitting in church and hearing a theological paradigm I had never experienced before. Now after thinking about the whole thing it dawned on me that in the christian world, the combination of theology and practicality are not combined. For instance, I only know of three organizations that combine science and christianity to explore our purpose. I only know of one none profit institution that uses sociology and psychology to research and preserve the family unit. Lastly, I only know of one book that outlines the powerful politics Jesus created during his time on earth.

A couple weeks ago another friend of mine who is catholic was telling me he would attend church if pastors would talk about the complexity of natural law as they did during Abraham Lincoln's day. This is a friend who enjoys reading about roman history, the great philosophers, and modern global politics. I cant understand why that topic isn't brought up commonly or why people don't use the same kind of complex vocabulary as before, but I wont share that opinion because it will waste space. The point my friend pointed out earlier, and the point I discovered while searching for a good video, is that the christian church has become so consumed by the attitude of pleasing that it has forgotten its duty.

The duty of the christian church is to explain truth by painting a picture, using broad strokes and also small brushes. Yet today the church paints with only small brushes, or it paints with broad strokes. Instead of getting something beautiful that captures the soul and inspires the mind, we get something that looks good for the slow of heart, and for others it feels like an optional or abstract form of entertainment. It's not that the messages do not have enough material, or enough combination of science and scripture, or theology and astronomy, it is that sermons often fail to answer some of our most common questions. The pulpit points out what may be an issue but then gives no direct resolution.

I was looking at the sermons with an lens given to me by Christian Academia, such as the importance of historical context. Then from political philosophy I gathered the importance of history, law, absoluteness, and good rhetoric. At that point I called my friend Chris for his own personal suggestion, because after examining myself for only a couple moments I figured with such lenses it would be impossible to give my other friend what he needed, clearly there was something going on with myself. Chris sent me a video on Facebook and I thought about forwarding it, but the video raised the same "Whys" as the others. So I just sent my friend a list of my favorite pastors and some great churches.

Most often when the pulpit does proclaim a resolution, it feels awfully like a self help guidebook or check list. When I sent those pastor suggestions and church links I as if I were doing the same thing. I suppose ultimately this is what I am saying: Where are the great readers and thinkers of our time? Where are the youth that know old philosophy, who understand civics, who can retain history. Why do I only know a handful of incredibly intelligent people, why do I know this handful and not a handful of pastors who can beat them? I find myself almost temped to get into pastoral ministry myself. However, I fear that jumping on such a train leads to the problem of being narrowly educated, not a duel artisan.

Entry Sixty Three: Revelatons.

Right now it is 4:35am, I am listening to worship music, and I just had a bad dream. I feel as if this was a call to begin blogging. I dont know where to begin, I want to express the revelations I have had over the past 19 days spent in South Korea. They were spent with the most amazing group I have ever been blessed to be apart of - Azusa Pacific Mens Chorale.

I suppose I should start witht the dream; There were many random dreams that didn't really mean anything, then, I switched to being in a skate shop. I was surrounded by highschool students and said to myself "man I missed out in my youth, I miss being young". I  grabbed my skate board and walked out of the shop into the night, which is funny because I cant skate to save my life. After getting to my car in a somewhat chipper mood I threw the skateboard into the passenger seat and walked around to the driver side. However, I looked at the road in front of me, only to be confronted by a shadowy figure walking toward me, that, looked like a thug. I began to panic and say to myself (oh shit, oh shit, oh holy shit), and woke up. At first I didn't really think this dream was of any significance, because I have bizarre nightmares from time to time due to the food I eat before bed. Yet, in truth, this dream pertains to some of my greatest fears and also a dangerous life theme, that, I sense is currently taking strong root in my spiritual life and physical life.

The skate shop and what I said inside it represents the decisions I am actually making in real life. Many of which were sacrifices for my academics and future career. Some were out of arrogance and fear. It represents the fact I have abandoned all of my friends and community, thus put myself into to a place that requires me to think long and hard about these decisions. The dark shadowy figure represents the enemy that wants to continue moving me away from the truth and truth bearing community. It also represents the danger of the decisions I am making, the danger of being alone and without friends or community. The enemy wants me to dwell in fear, self hatred, and do things for respect, rather then be the person I am, which is something I was made aware of while on choir tour. However this is but one lesson I learned on choir tour. In retrospect there were many lessons, many truths, and many moments where I felt God reaching out directly to me.

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Twenty four hours before we were all supposed to leave for Korea our choir president sent out an email, which stated Harold (our choir director) was in the hospital and experiencing renal failure. It was the biggest shock anyone could have possibly experienced aside from a loved one  passing away. There were questions shuffling around such as "is tour canceled?", "what does this mean spiritually?", "what does this mean for the group?" etc. Harold was perfectly fine two days earlier. The following day everyone showed up in the music building's parking lot with their luggage because tour was still a green light. The dean of music along with the vice president of the school greeted everyone and additional information surfaced: the only reason that Harold was taken to the hospital, was, because he had a routine checkup. Doctors did blood work and it showed that his kidneys were functioning at 6 percent. If Harold had went to Korea he would have most likly died.

After loading all of our luggage the choir circled up in the parking lot. Choir members stood on the inside while family members and friends stood on the outside. We opened in prayer for the trip and the dean along with the Vice present gave a short commencement speech. We left shortly after. The whole experience was 24 hours after finals were over, so no one really had any time to decompress from school or other stresses already taking place in their life. Even so, the bus ride to LAX was enjoyable. When we arrived at LAX it finally set in that I was actually on my way to another country. The entire year prior it just felt like a hope, a wish, a impossibility, something so unreal I couldn't possibly expect it to actually take place. Now, I regret feeling this way about the trip and have taken it as a lesson among many others: I need to have more faith, truth, love, and believe in things that seem unlikely to come through. I need to stop playing it safe, I need to embrace God's plan.

After arriving at the airport all of us boarded the plane, which was a Boeing 747 400 series. The group was allowed to all sit together, so we took up the entire back section of the aircraft. The plane provided movies and basic entertainment and so everyone was fairly quiet. Many people fell asleep. Toward the end of our journey our president announced we would be singing two songs, and so we opened up in song once the hit the tarmatt in South Korea. After getting into the terminal we went through customers and were greeted by a huge Korean Banner! It was a shock to many of the guys, and the beginning of what we would end up experiencing on the entire trip - fame. Pictures were taken in front of the banner and then many of the guys went to get their currency exchanged. I walked over to a small shop to buy a bottle of water and got my first purchasing experience. The shop owner didn't speak english, but used hand gestures and was very polite.

While on the bus driving toward our hotel I was amazed by the city, there were huge buildings everywhere and trees covered the landscape. When we arrived at the hotel it was dark outside. After getting off the bus all of us met up in the lobby and our president addressed the choir, telling us our rooms and call time. When everyone unloaded their luggage they moved to the 5th floor, which is where all of us stayed. By the end of the night the 5th floor was a dorm hall, all the doors were open, people were walking in and out of each others rooms, and it remained this way for most of our trip. It was an awesome experience because when I transfered to APU I missed out on the freshmen experience of living in a dorm. It was like God crammed that year long experience everyone normally goes through into one whole week! There was also another guy in the choir who felt the same way. I could not have possibly asked for a better experience while staying there.

The following morning everyone woke up pretty early and met in the main lobby. We had our first Korean style breakfast, which had rice, qual eggs, kimchi, and some spicy sauce. I remember feeling tired and a little jet lagged, but the food wasn't bad, and everyone seemed to be equally awake. I remember sitting on the floor eating, thinking that it was unbelievable we had made it, and I was excited even while being tired, which rarely happens. We didn't have a concert the first day, instead the bus took us downtown and we were free to explore a market. I couldn't stop taking pictures, everything was so clean, and beautiful, and unique. The shops were small with store owners standing outside holding signs, and the streets were crammed with people. There were even small cart venders selling fried foods and other snacks. I also noticed there were no public trash cans.

All of us broke up into groups after getting to the center of the market. I went with one of my favorite friends, Nick Smith, and my room mate, Matt Lindsley. We roamed around the streets checking out as many shops as possible. After walking around for about 3-4 hours we went to find a place to eat, and finally settled on a restaurant that was in a small upstairs balcony. It was a place where you choose the meat you want to purchase and then you cook it yourself, a new concept I had never encountered before. The waiter brought us various sauces, spices, and things to add into the meat while it was cooking. It was a little pricy, but totally worth the experience. Me and Nick shared a plate of beef and Matt bought some spicy soup. After we finished eating we walked over to get ice cream from this place that was selling it inside long tubes of rice stuff, Matt ended up nick naming them something I cant repeat. We also checked out a book store, and met up with the other guys.

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During the tour we were also blessed to sing at a radio station, and we visited the Demilitarized zone. The trip really renewed a level of spirituality and joy that I hadn't experienced in awhile. It was amazing to feel the privilege of touring another country, experiencing deep bond's between my fellow brothers, However most memorable, was singing at the universities and high schools. Students seemed to eager to hear our music. Some of them even held signs with our names on them.

In short, it was an experience I will never forget.