Change your nature, not your rules

I came across this great article Why Christians do not believe in morality today by Peter Sellick, an Anglican associate deacon:

I have said before that Christianity is not primarily a system of ethics, unlike Islam. Rather, it is a practice that transforms the individual by situating him in the story of God. It is this transformation that produces the moral life which we know we could not live if left by ourselves.

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This is because the gospel forms our desires. We find that greed and the exercise of power have disappeared from our repertoire and we look forward to becoming people of peace, not people who are for peace but a people who are by their nature peaceable.

The point is that Christianity, because it involves an encounter with God, changes our nature, which trumps any planned change in the rules we live by. As the Bible puts it:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:26

This is the heart of Christianity, and actually forms one of the great criticisms of it, that the church is full of hypocrites (as my pastor has said, “It's best place for them!”). The point is that the transformation has an element of continuity to it:

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. ”

2 Corinthians 3:18

Obviously this is classic Christian theology (actually basic knowledge for any believer), but it's rare to see it so well explained, and that in a secular source. Well done Peter!

Christian cannibalism

Reverend Dr David Millikan recently pulled a stunt with his mate to see if the Reverend Benny Hinn could be made to answer an interview question put by someone who had just been 'healed' and had been able to rise from their wheelchair and walk around. Unsurprisingly they didn't get an answer to their question, surprisingly this was because they never asked it! Reverend Millikan wrote about the experience for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Reverend Millikan is a Uniting Church minister (of Balmain Uniting Church) has written about cults, helped produce TV shows on them and has generally become a media expert on them.

The Balmain church website has an interesting discussion paper written by Reverend Millikan entitled Is Jesus God?, wherein he makes a bold defence of the traditional view and scathingly attacks the views of John Spong and the Jesus Seminar. I applaud his willingness to get this debate out into the Uniting Church community, as it is certainly happening within the pews, and can only be helped by some more educated input.

However, I wonder if he is guilty of the same pre-judgement he accuses Spong of in his approach to Benny Hinn. Here is a relevant excerpt from that discussion paper:

“It is interesting to consider why there is such squeamishness about the miraculous. After all religion is the birthplace of the miraculous. It is the meeting point between human beings and the transcendent. But these radical theologians argue that the stories of Jesus healing the sick and commanding the winds and the sea are inventions by the early Christians. They wanted Jesus to look like the person they came to believe he was. Godlike and capable of miraculous things. After all they lived in a pre-scientific age where miraculous things were commonplace.

But I find this enormously patronising. There is no evidence that the early Christians were doing this. In fact the evidence points to them being careful to make sure their accounts of Jesus were accurate. There was no advantage in them inventing these stories. They experienced the same difficulty that we do in explaining the role of miracles in the life of Jesus. Look at the ambiguity in John’s writings concerning what he calls “signs”. He cannot bring himself to use the word miracle. Throughout his gospel he returns to this several times. One on hand he sees miracles as a emerging naturally from the divine powers of Jesus, but at another level he is conscious of how they confuse the picture of Jesus. He knows how easy it is for people to become dazzled by the miracles and see this as the most important thing. This was a major difficult for Jesus, often he told people not to tell others about him healing them. His own disciples thought that Jesus was doing to sweep all before him with fabulous feets of power. But he didn’t. This I believe is what is happening at Hillsong and other charismatic churches. They have turned the Gospel into a miracle sideshow.”

My own bias is apparent, I go to one of these churches, and so fall under the 'miracle sideshow' banner. I wonder how Reverend Millikan reconciles that attitude with Jesus' empowering his disciples to heal? Here's some quotes from the NIV translation.

Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

Here's a photo of some members of the Balmain Uniting Church from their website. I think they look like very nice people, but I wonder how narrow their definition of a 'Godly' church is? And given the rather desperate spiritual state* of many people living in Balmain, I wonder how effective they are in reaching their neighbours?

*based on my personal observations, not the Bureau of Spiritology's predictions - i.e. I'm generalising, don't panic of you live in Balmain (unless you;re neighbours are smoking weird incense-stuff).


For Reverend Millikan to attempt to 'trick' Reverend Hinn into some sort of reaction to his allegations is underhanded and probably reveals an ethical sophistry on Reverend Millikan's part that is unnecessary should he ever attempt to have a sincere private conversation about the gift of healing with Reverend Hinn or any other Charismatic minister. It is his decision to make this a public quest to 'prove' something about Reverend Hinn that makes this most disturbing, and one wonders whether he might not be better spending his time building his own flock, rather than attacking the ministry of another.

Having said that, I recognise that the area of healing and miracles is a problematic one for many people. I myself have my doubts about many of the healing ministries seen on television, and I would be reticent to go to a 'healing crusade' - but then again I am healthy and well. Give me 6 months to live, or confine me to a wheelchair and I would probably seek out any Christian ministry that could help, as well as doing a lot of bible study on healing myself (and some fairly desperate prayer). There is also a school of thought that the gifts of healing are intended to precede salvation, that is, that they are a part and parcel of the saving work of the Holy Spirit and intended to convince unbelievers of God's reality and power. Certainly that is part and parcel of Reverend Hinn's ministry, and in that context he probably simply sees himself as doing the work of an evangelist using the gifts that God has given him.

Losing the culture wars?

It seems that Christians are increasingly becoming aware that we are losing the culture wars, beaten back by the sexual revolution, anti-creation science teaching in schools and the post-modern tendency to see everything as relative and DIY mysticism as a healthy spiritual path.

Time magazine has an article about Christianity's Image Problem, Michael Craven questions whether Christians are the problem and the tepid success of Christian movie brand Fox Faith makes some wonder if Christians are even paying attention. I found this comment about Fox Faith's difficulties most interesting:

Media guru Phil Cooke, president of Cooke Pictures, said Fox Faith faces unique challenges from “a branding point of view” due to the diversity of the Christian community.

“While the general culture looks at 'Christians' being a homogenous group of people, we [Christians] track along a wide range of extremes in our thinking, our attitudes toward culture, and our doctrinal perspectives,” Cooke said. “The Passion of The Christ, which pretty much set this 'faith-based' fascination off in the minds of Hollywood, was a traditional story of the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. It told a story that the main thrust of the Christian community can agree on, and as a result, hit the box office jackpot. But once you drift from that central story that is the core of our faith, all bets are off.”

For me that hits the nail on the head. Christians are losing the culture wars because we are not a simple monolithic block. Different parts of the Christian faith succeed in different areas.

The Catholic church is still very well regarded for its third world missions and charity works, whilst in the first world many look so the Salvation Army or other Christian organisations for hope and mercy. Some Australian denominations like Christian City Church and Hillsong are well known for their emphasis on modern cultural elements in their worship and services, whilst also encouraging their congregation to be involved in the world of media and business. The Anglican church is well regarded for their intellectual rigour and emphasis on academic study, whilst also reaching out to their local communities.

Of course the fact that different groups of Christians have different effects upon the world should not be a surprise to us:

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
1 Corinthians 12:12

The culture wars (if you like to see them that way) are really going to be won one fight at a time by the Christians on the ground. One day the church may be “chief among the mountains” (see Michah 4:1) , but that day is not yet come.