ken wilson online

It’s truly amazing how the mere mention of climate change in a blog post stirs up objections from believers. I’m guessing that three-quarters of those who read this blog think climate change is a hoax. 
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A strange thing happened to me in the theater last night once the trailers were finished and the feature film, Inglorious Basterds, began.  I felt a wave of love wash over me.  I felt connected to everyone in the theater as though I knew and loved and was loved by everyone there.  Like Christmas morning, opening the stockings with the family.  It was intense.  I felt like grinning from ear to ear.  I had no idea where this came from or what it was for.  It seemed simultaneously odd and the most normal thing in the world to feel.  Why don’t we always feel this way toward each other, toward other human beings, simply because we are fellow beings, fellow human beings?
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My tribe on the Christian landscape, Vineyard, came to be through poetry.  A group of burned out believers gathered in a living room week after week to sing love songs to Jesus.  One of the early songs of those early days was titled, “More Love, More Power.”  It was  prophetic, because what the world needs now, and what the church has too little of, is love sweet love.
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You may have noticed I’ve taken a bit of a blogging break.  Vacation, then back to the post vacation catch up, finishing up a new manuscript, Mystically Wired.   Other things to do, in other words.  But I write these things fast.  So being busy isn’t the reason for the pause in the action.  I needed a pause.  Maybe you needed a pause from me.  At any rate, somethbing’s settled at least for a while.  I’ve sworn off commentary, even mention of the E-word:  Evan_el_cal, my tribe, my starting point on the Christian landscape. My brother-in-law Bill helped me to see it was time.  So I had to give it a rest, like when you reboot your modem–let it rest for 30 seconds, let the juice run out of the thing,  then re-start.
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We love these sticky phrases, don’t we?  Especially the ones that get us off the hook like this one does. The ones that swoop in and lift us right over the horns of the dilemma that another sticky phrase plunges us into:  “judge not, lest ye be judged.”  How do we do that, without all hell breaking loose?  Gosh, we have to judge don’t we?  He couldn’t have meant, literally, “judge not, lest ye be judged.”  No, he meant judge carefully, judge wisely, judge lovingly, judge well, judge insiders.  So why didn’t he just say that?  Because he didn’t have us around to write his speeches for him! So we come up with our own sticky phrase to “complement” his. “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”  Voila! we’re off the hook!  Or are we?
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Love demands more of us than any other thing. Because God is love, and man, can he be demanding!  So why does an emphasis on love make some people of faith nervous?

I’m mystified by the occasional push back I get on this blog when I quote the golden rule: “”In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7: 12   Someone objected that this is not the gospel.  Oh?
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Words are very potent things.  They carry things like truth in them.  They can function as “memes.”  Memes are bits of cultural data that are analogous to genes.  They get transferred from person to person, outlasting persons and seem to have a life of their own.  They can be as difficult to shake off as your grandaddy’s DNA.   I’ve made my peace with that.  There are three words that I’ve accepted and despite pressure from many quarters don’t wish to relegate to the word bin of history: evangelical, religion, and love. 
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My friend Rich Cizik, a prominent leader of the National Association of Evangelicals resigned recently after the proverbial firestorm of protest.   He candidly answered some questions posed by Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air.“  Cizik revealed the following things about his personal views when asked: that civil unions in his view are OK, that it might be wise for the government to offer contraceptives to those who can’t afford them in order to reduce the number of babies who are aborted rather than born, and that he voted for a Democratic candidate (Barak Obama) in the Democratic primary in his state.
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