Relationship - the catch-22 of the Internet Utopia

The Internet has opened up communication and relationship in ways never before possible. Yet we all know the person we are and the person we meet with and interact with on the Internet is often far from the "whole picture" of the person. Bad aspects and good of each other are hidden in the blur of electrons. And, sometimes, it is far too easy to hide behind the Internet than to risk the messy realm of real-time relationship (not over web cams).

Somewhere between a dysfunctional commune (not all communes are by definition dysfunctional) and the 'thought-to-thought communication' of science fiction that may be close-to-possible in the not-too-distant future lies a happy medium of 'relationship.' I, for one, am glad that most 'salvations' still occur during the long, messy process of time and relationship and one-on-one time with God as did before 1992.

-jeremiah

Models of church leadership and decision-making as they relate to outreach

During these days working at a local divinity school, I have had wonderful opportunities to discuss meaningful spiritual issues with folks from different Christian traditions. One conversation recently centered around my observation that it might be extremely difficult – if not impossible – for other Christian faiths to ever accept Papal authority. The reason for this, I theorized, was not simply because the Pope was necessarily infallible or not – for I assented that any model of leadership – single person or not – from any Christian tradition would, at many times, fail, but because I, as a Protestant, was emphasizing scripture to a higher degree than my Catholic counterpart and wondering if the Pope (and even the single “head pastor” role) was violating the general suggestion by God to both the Israelites and the Apostles to not have a “king” among them?

This is not to say God has never used a king or a Pope to do his will. And one cannot dismiss a single spiritual leader role on “behavior record” alone. If truth be told, though great evil and injustice throughout history can be attributed to Papal rule, the same is true for Protestant rule, both in the past and today. We must also give good “credit” where credit is due – there can be no denying that God in the past has indeed used the Papacy to do his will and to spread great good.

I also was able to step inside my Catholic friend’s shoes – and shared with him – even before he shared these ideas with me or even before he had even thought of them at all – the strengths I saw in the Papal leadership model. Ideally, I surmised, the Papacy forms an “upside-down” triangle, with the Pope being the “humblest” and “chiefest” servant of all (particularly of all Catholics). I told my friend I felt the Papacy also models the early structure of “Jesus, his twelve apostles, and the early church,” with the Pope – though admitted by all to be far from equivalent to Jesus himself – modeling the shepherding of both Jesus and, later, Peter.

Now without getting into a debate of church-state separation, I also made the observation that as the church, after the first few centuries, joined Constantine’s empire to itself, the chief movement of the church seemed to be to attempt to assimilate the culture into its Christian/Catholic culture. Not only was the outside world forced to accept Christ, they were forced to accept its “culture.”

A little over 1000 years later, the Reformation occurred, which brought about dynamic reform and evolution in the church and the world. However, when we examine Luther and Calvin and how they felt the church should relate to the world, we sometimes observe a “silo mentality.” This often displays characteristics of leadership and church life where each individual congregation is “holed-up” in it’s own tiny, little fortress (c.f., “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”). The church becomes an isolated community, holding out against the injustices of the Papal state and the political and cultural forces that war against the multiple, tiny church fortresses. And to join, or even enter, these fortresses, requires one to adopt or conform to the culture within the fortress just like church in the Fourth Century A.D.

Most of us have seen the movie, “The Mission,” where the mission that seems to provide the most dynamic life in Jesus does not force the converts to change every aspect of their culture and conform to every aspect of Christian (Catholic) culture. This is becoming more and more the case all over the world today. And both my friend and I lamented that “the world on the outside” (notice our own bias in that statement!) see diversity in Christian traditions and styles, include multiple denominations and flavors of Christianity, not as a celebration of Christian Diversity but as “disunity” that negates the message and Gospel of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be nice if folks saw “denominationalism” and different Christian traditions as a strength of Christianity instead of a weakness?

Our small church is delving into creating bylaws. As much as possible, we have left “membership” "undefined" (no requirement for classes, baptism, assenting to a statement of faith or belief, etc.) Unfortunately, however, because our local congregation operates in a society governed by a legal system, we are forced to define “voting members” and/or “church council members,” “leaders,” “elders,” “bishops,” “popes,” “apostles” – whatever you want to call them. But I can’t help but wonder: what if we trusted our church’s direction to the “voting” or decision-making of anyone – regardless of their “stage” of Christianity or “life-cycle” with our local congregation? What if we – dare I ponder? – trusted church decisions even to “non-believers!?!” Would that, perhaps, more closely model the decision-making and life found both in Jesus and scripture, even with it’s calling for the Apostles, the 24 elders, the 72 sent out, the 120 left after the crucifixion, the 3000 converted at Pentecost?, the 5000 (total) in the church after the lame man was healed, the Seven assigned to distribute bread, the bishops and deacons, and pastors and prophets and evangelists and additional apostles called?

I wonder…

The key is to love one another...

I am becoming more and more convinced that the "key" to the church's "continued success" is how we love one another. Jesus asked, "But will the Son of Man find faith on the earth (when he returns)?" Isn't in funny how - these days - the folks I find myself most "bothered" by are those in my own church family and in other congregations. "Brothers, this should not be so (also refers to a vast distance of rich and poor in the church)" But, regardless of political agendas, we need to (myself included) seek to become "less easily offended" be that which infuriates my about a sister or brother. How long and hard the road of true relationship can be sometimes.

Bloggers grow in Mideast; police watch

-By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 9, 2:23 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - Wael Abbas hasn't been arrested by Egyptian police, but the blogger fears it could happen any day. A democracy activist who never leaves home without a camera, he has drawn the attention of state security by posting videos that show what many Egyptians only talk about behind closed doors — police brutality and male harassment of women on the street, such as fondling. Abbas is just part of a wave of Middle Eastern bloggers who are eroding tight government control on information and thus drawing intense scrutiny from police. Egyptian authorities arrested a string of prominent bloggers last year, including one who remains jailed and is on trial for allegedly defaming Islam by posting criticism of Islamic institutions on his Arabic-language blog. "I might be next," Abbas said at a Cairo coffee shop. He said his family has received anonymous phone calls asking about him, which he suspects come from state security.
"I think there is a campaign against the bloggers here," he said. "We are exposing what all Egyptians know but weren't talking about."

Mideast governments for decades have dominated the media, trying to keep a monopoly on information and deter criticism of authorities. But bloggers are chipping away, writing about everything from human rights to the region's rulers to the most taboo topic — Islam. Weblogs — or blogs for short — started taking off in the Mideast a few years ago as access to the Internet and technology for creating sites grew. There are now hundreds of Arabic- and Farsi-language blogs posted from the Middle East. Many of the blogs are just personal musings. But many others strive to tackle political and social issues, and their authors are increasingly getting into trouble, with governments blocking their sites and throwing them in jail. "I firmly believe that blogs now with normal people using them have become the fifth estate. They watch the watchers, especially in this area of the world, because there are no controls over them," said Mahmood al-Yousif, a Bahraini blogger. Al-Yousif said his blog was blocked by authorities briefly last year after he published articles about an election-related scandal on the Persian Gulf island kingdom.

Reporters Without Borders has five Mideast countries — Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria — on its list of the globe's 13 worst Internet freedom enemies that block Web sites and detain bloggers. Governments defend their Web regulations, saying they are protecting citizens from "immoral" and "defamatory" content. But rights groups and bloggers say officials are really trying to retain their media control. "Five years ago, authorities didn't care about bloggers because the Internet's reach was less," said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders' Internet Freedom Desk. "Now, what is most interesting is the Weblogs in the local languages. You look at what the authorities censor — they censor content in local languages."

Rights groups have been especially critical of Iran, where there have been some arrests of bloggers. Iran has also blocked some Web sites critical of the government — even shutting down access to the video-sharing forum YouTube.com, where Iranian opposition groups abroad have posted videos. Hamed Mottaghi, an Iranian freelance journalist, blogs in Farsi about human rights from the Iranian holy city of Qom. But Iranians can't view his Web site inside the country — authorities blocked it last year. That hasn't stopped Mottaghi. He and another Iranian blogger recently won awards from Reporters Without Borders for taking strong stances on freedom of information. "The number of bloggers is increasing in Iran since people cannot express themselves easily in the society, which lacks freedom. Young people especially are looking for a different place to open dialogue," Mottaghi said.

But some say the jury is still out on whether online opposition will transform into social and democratic reform in the Middle East. Though the number of Internet users has grown nearly fivefold since 2000, only about 10 percent of the region's people have access to the Internet, according to the online Internet World Stats, which monitors Web usage around the world. A mass pro-democracy movement has not emerged, said Jesse Sage, of the U.S.-based civil rights organization Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance, which has worked with activists including bloggers in the region. "Blogging is about venting, and the challenge is whether we can move from venting to acting, and that remains to be seen," Sage said. But Saudi Arabian blogger Ahmed al-Omran, a pharmacy student who runs one blog in English and another in Arabic, believes the blog movement will make a difference. "It's a good chance now for bloggers here," he said. "Saudi Arabia is changing, and the margin for freedom of expression is getting bigger and bloggers are taking advantage of this."

Don't squash the counter-revolutionary/the plank in my own eye

This blog was going to be titled, "Woe to you liberal pharisees (a rant)..." - having the danger to distance some friends and fellow synchrobloggers, including some friends who are liberal who this is not intended to apply to - though it is worth consideration from both the "left" and the "right"]. So I will just subtitle it - "Woe to you left and right pharisees..."

[Lord knows many on the "right" are guilty of the following. My point is that many on the "left" are too.]

[Of course, those who I rant against take blogging far less seriously than I do - I REALLY need to take blogging less seriously - but maybe they don't take what they communicate on blogs seriously enough? OR maybe they take their blogs TOO seriously, not realizing the impact what they communicate may have on others?]

[Furthermore, in place of "Woe to you left and right pharisees," one could very well place "woe to you, Jeremiah," (myself) in the following areas and many other areas not mentioned].

All those disclaimers being made, the following echos the frustration of the normal, social ostracizing I have encountered from those with a different "flavors" of political, social, and religious preferences. It is the call of this prophet to remind even those who are doing great work to reduce the influence of rigid, "cultural christianity" that not only good can be found in churches which practice "cultural christianity" but also that evil can be found in the "revolution."
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Introduction:

Mao crushed revolutionaries who disagreed with him, labeling them "counter-revolutionary." Most Chinese Scholars attribute to Mao a belief that "only 'Mao' could 'make revolution.'" I feel crushed as a counter-revolutionary - though it's unintentional by those who (or that which?) have (has) crushed me.

Therefore, in the spirit of Thomas a Kempis, the exchange between "the disciple" and "the master" follows...

The Disciple: "Woe to you left and right pharisees - who boast about your good deeds for the poor in closed circles in some attempt to inspire others - forgetting that left and right pharisees are not the only ones with a monopoly on good deeds for the poor or compassion for folks of different sexual orientation(s)."

(-------You have already received your reward in full).

"Woe to you left and right pharisees - who pontificate almost as much as I do about what you think you have learned while closing your ears to reason and sound truth (as often I as do)."

(-------Your churches have no room for those who disagree with your political ideology - nor do you REALLY seek to understand why folks - who disagree with you - feel, think, and believe the way they do. You just think they're stupid - forgetting that history has proven you just as stupid).

"Woe to you left and right pharisees. You do a great job at not criticizing those who disagree with you directly, but who are so militant about your beliefs that it permeates every other word you say - thus rendering spending time in your social circles unbearable because you spend the rest of the time doing nothing but ranting against what someone finds valuable, worth considering, or, at the very least, interesting."

(-------Your revolution throws the baby out with the bathwater - and you become just like those you despise - unwilling to accept others whose views differ from yours).

Christ: "Lay down your anger and your burden and your own self-righteousness which you preach against, Jeremiah. I am the God who healeth thee."

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SyncroBlogger Friends:

David Fisher at Be
the Revolution

Fishing for Trouble at Phil Wyman's Square No More

Mike Bursell at Mike's
Musings

Restoring Our View of Humanity at Eternal Echoes

Persecuting the Marginalized at JohnSmulo.com

The Ends Justify the Means at Calacirian

Billy Calderwood at Billy
Calderwood

Seeking First Righteousness at Tim Abbott

Jamie Swann at More Than
Stone

Persecution and Martyrdom at Handmaid Leah

"Don't squash the counter-revolutionary/the plank in my own eye" fromJeremiah

The Martyrs of Epinga at Notes from the Underground

Terrorism in Christianity at The Rivera Blog