Tuesday, May 20, 2014
This Blog is Taking a Break
We won't be publishing any articles for a while. I know, you're crushed. Check back later.
Monday, May 19, 2014
"The Founders" - Four Reasons You Should Avoid Using Them
It's primary season in Texas, so it's that time again. That time when we get to hear this phrase over and over again: "The Founders believed..."
In any political argument, it's the ultimate evidence; the ultimate trump card; the ultimate way of stopping your opponent in his tracks. Just start your sentence with these three words. "The Founders believed..."
Unfortunately, using these three words is very intellectually risky, and often a terrible blunder. Here are four reasons why you should either be slow to invoke "The Founders," or avoid doing so at all:
1. There is no one recognized club of "Founders"
Unfortunately, creating a Founders Club for historical discussion isn't as easy as creating one on Facebook. Are you talking about some of the common big names, like George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson? Or, are you talking about some lesser-known but important men like John Witherspoon, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, and John Jay? Or, maybe you're more progressive and you want to talk about Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren.
Turns out, hardly anyone is EVER talking about the same individuals when they invoke "founders" in their arguments.
2. There is no one point in American History that can be officially dubbed "THE founding."
When people talk about "the Founding" they are often referring to different times, documents, and events. Could be the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Could be the the nation's first constitution, the 1781 Articles of Confederation. Could be the writing of our current Constitution, ratified 1787-89. Or, do you mean the settling of Jamestown in 1607, or Plymouth in 1620, or the peopling of America by Indians in the hundreds of years previous to these?
Who your "Founders" are will depend on which "founding" you are assuming.
3. The Constitutional "Founders" were a diverse group of people, with a diverse set of beliefs on everything, including the Constitution.
The Constitution did not fall out of heaven with everyone in perfect agreement on its divine origin. You chuckle, but we often forget that the Constitution was not merely written down. It was forged through months of debates and compromises in every city and state in the nation. Major Revolutionary leaders like Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams initially rejected the Constitution as antithetical to the ideals of the Revolution. No single man at the Constitutional Convention got exactly what he wanted. What every man did get was a document of compromise that he could settle with, even if he didn't agree with everything in it.
4. The "Founders" were humans, who changed their minds over time.
The Founders were many, diverse, and human. Appealing to them collectively as biblical prophets or as a historical unified front is ahistorical, unfair, and unhelpful.
In any political argument, it's the ultimate evidence; the ultimate trump card; the ultimate way of stopping your opponent in his tracks. Just start your sentence with these three words. "The Founders believed..."
Unfortunately, using these three words is very intellectually risky, and often a terrible blunder. Here are four reasons why you should either be slow to invoke "The Founders," or avoid doing so at all:
Unfortunately, creating a Founders Club for historical discussion isn't as easy as creating one on Facebook. Are you talking about some of the common big names, like George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson? Or, are you talking about some lesser-known but important men like John Witherspoon, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, and John Jay? Or, maybe you're more progressive and you want to talk about Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren.
Turns out, hardly anyone is EVER talking about the same individuals when they invoke "founders" in their arguments.
2. There is no one point in American History that can be officially dubbed "THE founding."
When people talk about "the Founding" they are often referring to different times, documents, and events. Could be the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Could be the the nation's first constitution, the 1781 Articles of Confederation. Could be the writing of our current Constitution, ratified 1787-89. Or, do you mean the settling of Jamestown in 1607, or Plymouth in 1620, or the peopling of America by Indians in the hundreds of years previous to these?
Who your "Founders" are will depend on which "founding" you are assuming.
3. The Constitutional "Founders" were a diverse group of people, with a diverse set of beliefs on everything, including the Constitution.
The Constitution did not fall out of heaven with everyone in perfect agreement on its divine origin. You chuckle, but we often forget that the Constitution was not merely written down. It was forged through months of debates and compromises in every city and state in the nation. Major Revolutionary leaders like Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams initially rejected the Constitution as antithetical to the ideals of the Revolution. No single man at the Constitutional Convention got exactly what he wanted. What every man did get was a document of compromise that he could settle with, even if he didn't agree with everything in it.
4. The "Founders" were humans, who changed their minds over time.
A good example of this is James Madison. In 1787, he was the primary architect of the Constitution, pushing for a stronger national government than many of his contemporaries wanted (like Jefferson and Henry). Only a decade later, in 1798, he helped Jefferson draft the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, now considered classic defenses of the rights of states to challenge the power of the national government. So if you're referring to Madison in your founders argument, which Madison are you referring to - the 1787 Madison, or the 1798 Madison? We change our minds and thought processes over time, and so did they.
The Founders were many, diverse, and human. Appealing to them collectively as biblical prophets or as a historical unified front is ahistorical, unfair, and unhelpful.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Spritual .gifs - How to Survive Church Greeting Time (If You're an Introvert)
The service is going strong until your pastor says those horrible words: "Now, turn and shake hands with your neighbor."
Oh, no.
The church's introverts sneak out of the sanctuary very covertly.
Maybe this is a good time to get a drink of water.
No one will notice. You can just wait it out.
But what if you come back too early and those extraverts are still in there, waiting for you?
The horror.
What if they get too friendly?
Seriously. They don't get it.
Maybe act really tough and they'll leave you alone.
They might walk past you if you pretend you're reading.
Or if you act like you're in the middle of a religious experience.
Try to blend in with your surroundings.
Or, do what I do - learn an instrument. Band members never have to greet people. Too busy rocking out.
And now you know why the band members at your church are weird. If none of that works, just ask for high fives and wait it out. Greeting time can't last forever. Can it?
Oh, no.
The church's introverts sneak out of the sanctuary very covertly.
Maybe this is a good time to get a drink of water.
No one will notice. You can just wait it out.
But what if you come back too early and those extraverts are still in there, waiting for you?
The horror.
What if they get too friendly?
Seriously. They don't get it.
Maybe act really tough and they'll leave you alone.
They might walk past you if you pretend you're reading.
Or if you act like you're in the middle of a religious experience.
Try to blend in with your surroundings.
Or, do what I do - learn an instrument. Band members never have to greet people. Too busy rocking out.
And now you know why the band members at your church are weird. If none of that works, just ask for high fives and wait it out. Greeting time can't last forever. Can it?
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Listen to this: Borderland
I'm slow to take to new music -- especially new Christian music. I've heard the name John Mark McMillan floating around for the last couple of years, but I never bothered to listen. This March, McMillan released Borderland, and I started to see and hear his name even more. After two friends with trusted musical taste both insisted, on the same day, that I give this work a listen, I succumbed and watched this video of Borderland's first single, "First/Last."
I instantly liked it. As a worship leader, I'm always on the look out for songs that work corporately (that is, they are singable, memorable, and true), but that approach old concepts in a unique way. "First/Last" accomplished this goal nicely, so I looked up the rest of the album, expecting to hear more similar worship songs.
What I heard instead was a sonically surprising fusion of rock, pop, folk, and gospel, grounded in McMillan's enjoyably gritty baritone, and lyrics that would more likely appear in a literature class than in Sunday school. All McMillan's songs passed the musical side of my "corporate worship test" with their instant hummability, but the instrumentation -- which starts with contemporary worship's acoustic-guitar-fronted-rock band, but is deepened by lush strings and successful experiments with 80s synth and electronic elements -- would be unlikely in most church worship services. Most unlikely, however, are the beautiful lyrics, that seem to exult in ambiguity, thought-provoking figurative language, and evocative imagery. Take the album's opening invocation, "Holy Ghost:"
Dead in the water
Like lamb to the slaughter
If the wind doesn’t sing her song
And I’m speaking in tongues
Cause I need a Holy Ghost
It's not exactly what you'd hear at church on Pentecost Sunday. Even the album's perfectly singable single, "Future/Past," broadens the Christian vocabulary for speaking about the mysteries of God with lines like, "The constellations are swimming inside The breadth of your desire," before launching into the song's catchy chorus: "You are my first/you are my last/ You are my future and my past..." Here, cliches ordinarily applied to romantic love take on more resonance when sung to a lilting triple meter that, in the chorus's last line, seems to fluctuate and expand, demonstrating musically the mystery of a powerful, benevolent creator who exists beyond the confines of time.
And getting beyond confines is really what this entire album is about. Borderland is an album about the space between spaces, the "already-but-not-yet" of life lived between the fall and the fullness of restoration, when Christ's kingdom has come, but is not yet complete. McMillan luxuriates in the tension of this space, the place "on this side of the thunder" ("Holy Ghost"), "on the brink" ("Love at the End"), where we "see the light of heaven's porch" though we're stuck "outside [the] chain-link fence" ("Borderlands"). McMillan underscores the tension inherent in his theme by dwelling in musical borderlands -- between CCM and Indie-pop; between corporate and individual; between stadium rock and coffeehouse folk; between the strange and the familiar. And while you may never hear more from this album than "Future/Past" in a worship service, Christians and non-Christians alike will enjoy and benefit from spending some time in the musical and spiritual limbo of Borderland.
(Note: After looking into Borderland, I realized that I already loved John Mark McMillan for penning the worship song "How He Loves." See more lyrics here: http://johnmarkmcmillan.com/lyrics)
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