Ferndale vs. Wal Mart

For any readers who don't actually know me, I live in the small Northwest town of Ferndale. It is laid back, growing fairly quickly with housing developments, condos, and apartments springing up everywhere, and is in most ways an average town/small city. My wife and I moved here about 18 months ago, thanks to Rob at ADD Theology, and have loved it. We go for walks through town, have local teens over, and are getting to know our neighbors and our community. For the first time in my life I'm beginning to understand what it means to have a heart for where you live and to have a desire to see the gospel birthed in new ways in your local context. I actually care!

And as of this morning, I am very proud of my town. It is not average. David is taking on Goliath. Last night our council voted to stop large stores from building in Ferndale, at least temporarily. This decision is a blatant manuever to stop Wal Mart from moving into town after having it's superstore blocked in Bellingham. It's not permanent, which means there is still work to be done, but I am proud of my town nonetheless.

Lately I've been reading some books that speak into Wal Mart and globalization and all of the issues that come along with these phenomena. Specifically The Foucault Reader, The World is Flat, and The Condition of Postmodernity each speak into this subject matter in very different ways. And each misses many big points as well. The issue, though, is money. It's all about money. Capitalism is like a fire; it has to consume more and more. Globalization is an obvious next step for it as capitalism as it seeks to expand, find cheap labor, and larger markets. And technology is needed for this as well. But nobody seems to really think about what this is doing to our world, our country, our faith, or different cultures and societies.

We are completely self-destructive. We are destroying the earth. We are using others for our advantage. We are abusing ourselves mentally and physically to "get ahead." We are defined as "consumers" rather than contributers. We have no moral ground to stand on. We are quitely watching the gap between rich and poor grow larger and larger. We are violent in blatant and subtle ways.

It is lent. Maybe it's time to try a new way of living. Ferndale made a small step that way. What steps will you take? What do you need to repent of this season? What social sins do we need to take ownership of together?

Peace,
Matt

Books from the Thrift Store

I went to the Goodwill and Value Village yesterday and there were more good books than I am used to seeing. So, since I am being cheap financially but not necessarily in any other way, I spent a $17 a got a nice stack of great books. Here's what I bought:

1. The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Although I've heard mixed reviews, I've been wanting to read it since the book first came out, but didn't want to spend $30. What he's talking about is important, and I am continually realizing how ignorant I am in the area of globalization. This will be a help in that area.
2. Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. I read this book a few years ago and consider it one of my top 10 favorites of all time. I wanted a copy of my own, and yesterday it happened.
3. Generation X by Douglas Coupland. I've never read this but appreciate Coupland, who will be remembered as a literary icon for our time.
4. Meditations from Dorothy Day. Only a fool would pass up a Dorothy Day book.
5. Alister McGrath's The Christian Theology Reader. Just in case I feel like sitting down and reading 700 pages of the history of theology...
6. Gerhard Von Rad: Makers of the Modern Theological Mind by James L. Crenshaw. What can I say... I like Von Rad and I think this will be the nice introduction to his work that I was never given before.

So there it is. More fun for me.

Peace,

Matt

Wealth, Poverty, etc...

I'm slowly moving through Voices from the Margin right now. This morning I was reading an essay titled Marxist Critical Tools by Jose Miguez-Bonino, in which he discusses reading the Bible through a Marxist lens. I don't really want to go into the actual essay right now as much as I would like to share one painful line he brings up about Western Christians and how we read scripture; particularly when it discusses wealth.

"The first thing that comes to mind are Jesus' sayings about 'riches' and 'the rich'. Even a cursory look to Biblical commentary in the Protestant tradition shows the almost uniform ideological train of thought: riches (in themselves) are good - therefore Jesus could not have condemned them as such, nor rich people as such - consequently the text must mean something else - this something else must be found in the 'subjective' sphere (intention, attitudes, motivations). Once this framework of interpretation is in operation, all texts gather around it in one coherent whole. Exegesis follows suit: Luke's version of the Beatitude of the poor, for instance, is interpreted through Matthew's 'in spirit'; this is in time disconnected from the prophetic-Psalmic relation of 'poor' and 'oppressed' or the whole is 'spiritualized' as devotion (humility before God). The ideological function of such interpretation is evident (however different the intention of the interpreter may have been), you can rest assured in your capitalist accumulation of wealth (or your attempt to reach it); religion (reverence for God) legitimizes and blesses your effort!" -p. 60

If that doesn't scream at Western arrogance, particularly when it comes to Biblical interpretation, I don't know what does.

I bring up this quote for a couple of reasons. First, because it is right and needs to be heard. Second, because it is awesome. And third, because I want to do something about it. My first step comes tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, I'm taking up a challenge that was recently posted in the Mustard Seed Association Newsletter: living on $2 a day. Since over 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day (and that's for everything, not just food!), it seems like a small but good start towards finding some sort of solidarity. So starting tomorrow, and going for the following 10 days (at least) I will spend only $2 a day on food.

If you're interested, I'll be blogging the whole adventure. So read up if you want!

Peace,
Matt

Babel

Last weekend I watched the movie Babel. As much fun as it would be to talk about the movie's name and it's link to the Bible, I don't think it would be very original or thought provoking, so I won't do it (although I will say that I think it has more to do with the people seperating into different people groups more than it has to do with languages).

So instead, here's what I will say:

First, one of the best things about the movie was the way it showed how different people in different parts of the world act and live. It was like Crash, but instead of dealing with different groups of people in one country, it dealt with different people of the world.

Second, there were some interesting things they did with Westerners. Not to spoil the plot, but it was the Westerners who had happy endings in the movie. I couldn't say the same for the other people in the movie. What does that say?

But the biggest thing to me, the one thing that made the whole movie worthwhile, was one quick scene. A busload of Western tourists has to make an emergency stop, and so they go to a village that isn't part of their tour. Now, instead of seeing the cleaned-up, spiffy version of Morrocco, they go into an average village in the middle of a very harsh climate. While smiling little children chase the bus down the street, the tourists stare out the windows with nothing but fear on their faces. The word "terrorist" is mentioned more than once, and the people begin to get more and more freaked out being in this village until they decide they'd rather leave their own than be stuck in such a frightening place.

As I watched this all I could think about was how these people are very average; pumped full of fear and mistrust from their news, politicians, and neighbors, they cannot fathom the thought of being in a part of Morrocco that has not been westernized; they would prefer a simulacra, a version of Morrocco that is like Disneyland representing everything American. They don't want reality; they want an altered, better reality than reality. It was disturbing. It was especially saddening to realize I am not much different. One scene. And now I'm stuck figuring out what to do with that in my own life and what I'm supposed to communicate to others.

That's what I "got out of" Babel.

Peace,
Matt

What I've Been Up To

I'm excited about a few different things going on in my life at the moment, so I thought I'd just write 'em down really quick:

1. This morning I went to a local used book store and bought two books. This is exciting to me because I haven't bought a book in a few months and was starting to twitch a little bit. One of the books is called Voices From The Margin, edited by R.S. Sugirtharajah. It's full of Biblical interpretation from scholars from the 2/3 world. I also bought The Foucault Reader. The truth is that although I've read a lot about Foucault, I've only read one of his books before. Why? Because I never felt worthy. But today is a new day and I am ready to study with one of my heroes-in-thinking.
2. Our youth ministry has been doing something that we call "Mission Trip to Your Life." The thought behind it is that students treat their everyday lives like they would a mission trip. This is, obviously, what we are called to do anyways, but putting a title and theme to it has helped them grasp something that always seemed too abstract. They are being prayerful, intentional, loving, and supportive of one another this week and I am very pleased. Also, we have put together a blog where they are commenting on it and sharing their stories with one another. Pretty cool, huh?
3. I'm watching Jesus Camp later today. It actually scares me a little because I don't know what I'll think about it or my faith afterwards, but it should be eye-opening.
4. I had some strange revelations this week about poverty issues and how people in my church view them. I've been inspired to go the route Jim Wallis did before starting Sojourners: I have a Bible and am beginning to cut out all the passages that have to do with caring for the poor and marginalized. Should be an interesting discussion starter. Also, it's causing me to dig into scripture and pray in a way I have not done in years. I suppose that's a good thing...

Peace,

Matt

Slaves, Women and Homosexuals

Yesterday I started rereading William Webb's contronversial book Slaves, Women and Homosexuals. I was inspired to read it after hearing somebody denounce the book in front in a crowd because of it's supposedly false premise; that it says homosexuality is Biblically permitted. What disappointed me about this is that this simply is not true! Webb says outright that he believes homosexuality is a sin. I guess that's just further proof that having one person up front as the teacher of all things is not the best teaching method, because sometimes they are wrong. But now that I'm back in the book, some other thoughts and questions have been coming up for me.

First of all, how are so many pastors and Christians in general getting away with horribly inconsistent readings of scripture? When somebody quotes one or two verses from scripture and says the application to our lives is one-to-one, I feel a bit queasy. When I'm told that women should take a lower role in the church, I begin to wonder why we aren't stopping them from teaching in the children's ministries, or forcing them to wear hats for that matter! Or somebody quotes the Ten Commandments and says that these are how we should live, but they ignore the rest of the Law of Moses because, well, it's odd. It seems like we hold to the Bible literally in certain areas that are easier to hold onto, especially if they involve power. But the areas that are strang, inconvenient, or potentially challenging to existing power structures, we let slide. It is inconsistent, and, to be blunt, wrong.

Secondly, if slavery were still an institution in the United States, how many evangelical churches (and/or churches in general) would stand up against it? I had this funny thought yesterday that every church I've ever been a part of would not. Yes that is presumptuous. And yet, I do not doubt it at all. "What's that got to do with saving souls?" For some reason I doubt that the church of the preemptive strike and blessed wealth would do much more for the oppressed than it already does, especially if that means denouncing the activities of its own nation, to which it has chosen to wed itself. Too bad for the original bridegroom.

Those are just my rantings for the week. I've gotten way too fired up this week and am currently reading and praying in a way that I haven't for a very long time.

Peace,
Matt