Faith in Mother Jones Magazine

I am a subscriber to Mother Jones magazine, which could be described as somewhat radical, liberal, and typically non-Christian. This month's issue just arrived the other day, and I was surprised by the fact that most of the main articles mentioned Christians. Sometimes it was in a negative sense, but not always. Anyways, I thought these would be good discussion starters...

As a sidenote before starting, it was interesting to see a short article on the Ma Jones website concerning Jim Wallis and the Sojourners gang and their newest good works. Good to see they are getting the recognition they deserve. Of course, their One Nation Under God article goes quickly the other way in pointing out the massive amounts of hypocrisy in the American church, as Christians in their Mercedes and SUV's push to establish the Kingdom of God through right wing political agendas. Ouch.

So on to the magazine itself. The first article deals with a politically active Spanish language radio host named Eduardo Sotelo, who was huge in stopping the DC politicians from making undocumented immigrants into felons. Pretty cool guy, it seems to me. Of course, the magazine describes his actions as his SUV approaches a crowd of people. He bows his head, offers a short, audible prayer, then immediately autographs a woman's chest for her. What do you do with that?

Or how about the Reverend John Rausch, who sits in the Appalacians trying to stop coal miners from tearing down every Kentucky mountain. Can Christians begin having a voice in the fight to save the environment, or do we even have a right? Why do we sit on one side or the other, saving souls or saving lives/the world? What would it look like for us to embrace the full meaning of salvation in this day and age?

Of course there is also an article on Fred Phelps' Baptist group who show up at funerals for soldiers with signs that say "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." I'm against war and still have to say that is nuts. Especially their reasoning for the protests, which is that the dead troops are being punished by God for "America's tolerance of homosexuality." What?!

Now for the really wild stuff. In JoAnn Wypijewski's article, The Way of All Flesh, she describes in detail a Christian sex website. Apparently two Texas pastors (a husband and wife team) have started this site that offers advise for Christians, telling exactly what is and is not permissible in the Christian wedding bed, and offering advice on how to please your mate. The sad thing is that while reading this, I realized that even though more Christians are starting to discover that sex isn't a bad thing, they are still obsessed with rules rather than faith (apparently the site is very explicit about the exact things that are sins and not - depending on your thoughts at the time, what the toys resemble, etc...). Honestly, to me it just made our whole faith look pathetic, even before the author began editorializing how Christians are making strides forward but still leave singles, teens, and homosexuals out of the loop. Not a very good article for us...

And then there is Charles Taylor, the "butcher of Liberia," who may finally be going on trial. An evil man like many of the men who have come to power in Africa in the last century. Of course, he is also a born again, Christian according to his own words, a believing Baptist. What do you do with that? And can we see the log in our own eyes while we're noticing the (very large) chip in his?

After all of this, we get to an article on in vitro fertilization. We quickly learn in the article about a woman who wass refused insemination at two different places because she is a lesbian. What should a Christian response be, especially after yesterday's headline claiming scientists may have found some scientific reasons for homosexuality in some men? Who decides who should have a child? And where does it stop? There's a lot of baggage in that controversey, and sooner or later we'll have to wade into it.

Speaking of reproduction, what do we do with leftover embryo's after IVF has worked? As it turns out, nobody knows or wants to really figure it out. According to the MJ article, Souls on Ice, it isn't just Christians who are disturbed at the thought of destroying unused embryos. The majority of the rightful owners of embryos seem to find themselves in a moral quandry, as they don't want to have more kids, don't want to sell the embryos and later see twins of their children running around who are ten years younger, but also cannot deal with the thought of destroying them. But of course the dilemma is that if these are treated as human life, which many are claiming they are, the abortion debate is influenced. And not surprisingly, everyone has an opinion on that. What to do, what to do...

Last, and best. An article called Rock the Junta. Apparently the only people challenging the status quo in the repressive, Orwellian nation of Myanmar (formerlly Burma) are the members of a Christian heavy metal band called Iron Cross. In a country where imprisonment and death are commonplace for even the slightest hint of rebellion, these young men pour out passionate music that draws in massive crowds of young people and keep the government on their toes. The best thing is that their lyrics are subversive, and the only people who can afford to go to the shows are the kids of government employees. In other words, they are influencing the youth who will one day be in power, which just might be enough to provide the Myanmar people with hope for a better future.

I don't know if anybody will read all of this, or even care, but I thought it was wild how much impact (good and bad) we seem to be having on the world around us. I guess the big thought is that we really are being watched. So the question is, what are we representing?

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson. It's a great book (not surprising).