Revolutionary Heart

what would Jesus charge?

If you are like me (enslaved in debt for the next 30 years to a bank by way of a mortgage) then you probably receive an inordinate amount of ‘junk mail’ in the form of credit card offers. (Sweet, more opportunities for debt!) I usually just throw the demon offers in the shredder with out reading them (no reason to tempt the consumer beast that dwells within me), but one recently caught my eye. In fact when I saw it, I was brought to tears from laughter (not the kind of laughter from something that is ‘funny ha ha,’ but the kind of laughter that you bellow just on the brink of depression, because what you have just encountered is so utterly, unbearably and overwhelmingly ridiculous).

Here is the image I saw:

Now I have encountered a lot of ‘jesus junk’ in my life time, but this one sent me over the edge.

[DEFINITION ALERT] jesus junk - n. name given to useless crap that is sold to American christians by slapping a christian image, symbol or slogan on it - i.e. “Testa-mints” or polyester ties with a pattern of crosses that are said to make great ‘clergy appreciation month’ gifts

I can just imagine the savvy marketing pitch, “Let that tattooed and pierced cashier with the purple hair at your local Walmart know the truth of the gospel every time you charge your purchase with your Master’s MasterCard!”

Get it? Master’s MasterCard, because Jesus is our master and we are using a MasterCard with crosses on it. (Of course the crosses are empty, because we are good evangelicals and don’t like to see our risen lord still hanging on the cross.)

The fact that this thing exists is a sure sign that American Christendom is sick and in need of reformation. (Perhaps I should nail my credit card offers to the door of my local Conservative Evangelical Church?) We continue to give in to the consumerism and mass marketing of our culture and even worse, we continue to justify our sins by incorporating the ‘American Dream’ into our gospel.

Maybe it’s just me, but considering that our Savior was born in an animal trough, rode on a borrowed donkey, spoke from a borrowed boat, and did not own a place to lay his head; I find it hard to believe that He would use His name to sell an instrument of financial enslavement. (Look up the O.T. commands against usury - profiteering by way of interest.)

“Nuestro Padre, forgive us for our idolatry of mammon. Teach us to live in simple contentment with the daily bread and shelter that You provide for us. I confess my sins of desire for material gain and covetousness, and repent in utter brokenness. Forgive me Lord for adding to the problem and not trusting in You and Your Kingdom. En el nombre de Su hijo Jesus Cristo, amen.”

give me (good) guinness or give me death

My review this week is from a recent trip to a San Antonio landmark. The ‘leaning house’ restaurant known as Liberty Bar. The look and feel of the restaurant is awesome. Dim lighting and the smell of fresh baked sourdough bread greet you as you move to your table. The seating is intimate and the leaning walls give it a surrealistic almost fun house atmosphere. A fun house with a touch of class. The food tastes great and the portions are the perfect size to split with a date. (My bride and I had the pork-chops and sautéed cabbage - I know sautéed cabbage sounds gross, but it was really good.) I say all of this, because I do not want to take away from what the Liberty Bar does best, good food at a reasonable price in a ‘funky’ and unique atmosphere.

Unfortunately, pulling pints of Guinness is NOT what they do best. Although the bartender attempted to take the full 119.5 seconds for the pour, it was to no avail. The head of both Guinni (yes I had two, you can’t always judge by the first pint) was weak and watery. I’m not sure if their gas mixture was off or if the beer was old (there may not be very many Guinness drinkers walking in to Liberty Bar these days), but either way I’m going to have to give their pints a three out of five. Good color, but the texture and the head were way off.

Sorry Liberty Bar, good food, great place, but you need to work on the ‘pints.’ M_Dizzle says if your in SA Town (pronounced SAY-town), go to Liberty Bar for dinner, but stick with the wine menu.

no guarantees

Yesterday, my wife had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which is fancy doctor talk for pulling a gallbladder out with a ‘laser.’ [NOTE: Whenever you read the word ‘laser’ on my blog you must draw it out and make the quotes with your fingers like Doctor Evil from Austin Powers]. The operation, we were told, was routine and done on an outpatient basis usually followed by a three or four day recovery time. Of course this did not stop my wife and I from being a little concerned because we knew that the procedure also required the use of general anesthetic which carries a whole other set of risks.

[BACKGROUND] The reason that my wife needed the surgery was due to a ‘polyp’ that was recently discovered and which we found out had been the source of abdominal pain that she has suffered with over the past few years. Also, with a polyp comes the danger of cancer and the doctor felt it was better safe than sorry. So we showed up at 0600 AM yesterday morning to have the procedure done. In order to not leave you in suspense, let me just say that other than an extreme case of nausea (due to the anesthetic) the surgery went super and had no complications.

Based on this being an outpatient surgery and since everything went so smooth, it is too easy to disregard the miraculous aspect of what occurred to my family yesterday. In fact, although I did pray for my wife prior to the surgery, going into the hospital I was guilty of placing my faith in human science. Thankfully one sentence on the release form jarred me back into the reality that all healing is ultimately in the hands of God. As I read through the papers that require a signature prior to any hospital procedure, under the heading no guarantees the following jumped out at me:

“NO GUARANTEES: It is important to remember that surgery IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE *and that there are inherent risks with every procedure...”

What a beautiful sentence to remind me of exactly who holds our lives in hand. Human science, regardless of how exact we may believe it to be, is only a dirty window that we look at the world through. We can make out certain things better than others, but there are details/things that we cannot not always explain/control.

HOORAY MYSTERY! Although it is counterintuitive, this sentence of uncertainty actually made me feel more comfortable about the whole surgery. Now, rather than placing my faith in the skill of a doctor and human science, I was reminded that my faith should only be placed in JEHOVAH.

Thank you Abba for teaching me to depend on you even when I think I have all the answers. Thank you Abba for the prayers of my hermanas(os) from the Church. Thank you Abba for bringing my wife through the surgery in one piece (minus a gallbladder). Thank you Abba for healing that I am trusting in YOU to provide.

Amen

*Caps added by the author for emphasis.

cabello largo

For this post I must first make a confession...we home-school. I guess we have had home-school tendencies all of our lives, but we were just afraid to admit it. We experimented with home-schooling a couple of times in college, but we were really drunk at the time and don’t remember much. Now, I realize it’s just who we are. Whew, now that we are out of the closet, I feel like a weight has been lifted...

I also want to say that our reason for home-schooling is not the typical one. We did not pull our children out of school because we are afraid of ‘sex education’ or the ‘homosexual agenda’ or the theory of evolution somehow causing them to lose faith in God. We have no desire to shelter our children from the world and instead take every opportunity to share with them the realities of life (both the joyful and the ugly sides). For our family home-schooling has offered us an opportunity to process through life experiences together.

[TANGENT ALERT] It seems to me that in our American culture we have a tendency to defer responsibility to the other. We defer helping the poor to the government through welfare, we defer the spiritual formation of our children to the church sunday school program, and we defer the ‘life eduction’ of our kids to the school be it public or private...but more on this in a later post...

Unfortunately, we are finding out that the other home-school parents we meet in South Texas do not feel the same way, as this recent experience illustrates. This August my wife and I decided that joining a home-school coop might be fun for the boys and a necessary break for her (since she carries the lions share of the teaching on her petite shoulders). The coop offers many traditional classes (math, science, etc.) and many electives. Our oldest has taken an interest in art and we want to encourage that (since neither my wife or I had that opportunity) so we enrolled him in a sketching class. Our youngest is obsessed with board games so he was taking a chess class.

[TANGENT ALERT] By the way, if you have never heard our six year old say “en passant” (the french name of a really cool chess move) you haven’t lived.

As part of the enrollment my wife attended the orientation where the administrators laid out the rules of the organization which included a ‘dress code.’ -DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER- This should have been our first indication that things were not going to work, but we thought we could abide by the rules as they were laid out. Some of the rules were that all kids must wear pants (we live in South Texas people. It is the middle of November and we still have 88 degree weather with 80% humidity during the day - let the kids wear shorts for goodness sake) no visible piercings (my wife has her nose pierced and as soon as they said this she felt like every eye in the room was turned towards her in a disapproving stare) and no crazy haircuts (i.e. no colors other than blonde, black, brown, or a natural red). We thought the rules were unnecessary and discriminatory, but for a couple of hours once a week, we figured we could hang.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. My wife received an email from the coop stating:

"I regret to have to inform you that [Our Oldest] is in violation of our
Co-op Dress Code, I am referring to-

Hair – Hair may not be died an unnatural color such as but not limited
too green, red, blue etc.  Boys may not have any facial hair.  Hair is
not allowed to be below the collar line of the shirt.  No "extreme"
hairstyles are permitted on campus.

  Your prompt attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks."

That was it. No consideration of my son’s character --- his hair was too long to fit their mold of what a Good Christian Home-School Educated Child should look like. I half heartedly attempted to work with the coop administration, but I am honestly so jaded by ‘christian conformist’ behavior that I really had no desire to be part of the organization any longer. (A christian conformist - insists that to follow Jesus you must change your outside appearence - i.e. A christian conformist would say, "if you dress 'goth' then there is no way you can be a christian.")

Now the good news. In discussing this situation with our oldest, my wife and I felt that if HE decided to cut HIS hair then that was HIS choice. We would not force him to, but we would present him with the opportunity to conform if he saw fit. Our oldest replied that, “it does not matter how someone looks, they can still be a Christian...I want to show people that a kid with a fro (my son has very curly and long hair) can be a Christian... like Jesus you know.”

Score one for the Holy Spirit and the Gospel. I pray that I would have the 'simple faith' of my children. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could say, “it doesn’t matter what car I drive...or what cloths I wear...or what neighborhood my house is in...or if I get that promotion...or who I vote for...”

The offending locks!

indecent proposition

Here is an answer that I used on my Christian Ethics final regarding the recent (now passed - at the time I wrote this voting had just started) Defense of Marriage Act in Texas:

The issue that I would like to address is that of a state law forbidding marriage for ‘homosexual couples.’ For me this issue boils down to the question, ‘where do I place my faith?’ Is it in the government or is it some where else? The issue with using the government to define marriage, is about giving power to the state that it does not possess. That is why this issue fails from the beginning. God has already defined marriage as being the joining (both spiritually and physically) of one man and one woman in a life long monogamous relationship. As to why He has deemed it this way, that is not for me to say, instead I will affirm the declaration of Job, “Who am I to question God?” He is God and I am not, amen.

That being said, the issue for me is whether I agree that the state should have the POWER and AUTHORITY to define marriage. To this I would say that, while I will abide by the laws of the land that God has placed me in, I do not feel that it is necessary to work through the government structure to uphold what God has already declared. In other words, I do not believe that a declaration by the State of Texas defining what an ‘official marriage’ is makes it any more or less valid in God’s Kingdom. In fact I would even say that (evidenced by the divorce rates in Texas) a number of what the state currently calls marriages really are not marriages because there has not been a covenant made between the two people whereby they are willing to leave and cleave in order to become one flesh.

To me regardless of whether there is a so called ‘defense of marriage’ act the sacrament of marriage will not change. Further more I would say that based on the combativeness of those in the ‘Christian Right’ who claim to speak for ‘Christian Values’ there is more damage to the gospel being done then there is a proclamation of it. This damage is particularly true in the way many conservative christians view the homosexual community (based on the christian rights dogmatic pursuit of laws like the defense of marriage act) because they see gay people as an evil that must be eradicated from our so called Christian nation. Our emphasis should be on the gospel, defined as the message of God’s love and the praxis that must be a symptom of that love, because of this I do not see how using the government to marginalize one group of people can be in line with the message of Christ.

For me the attempt to pass this definition of marriage in Texas is nothing short of the same legalism that Christ spoke so harshly against in the gospels. Let’s not forget that Christ was offered a political revolution and turned it down in order to die on a cross. For Christians to attempt to use the government to change the hearts of people is nothing short of idolatry, because we are saying that the legislature is more powerful than the Holy Spirit.

That is why, based on my discernment of God’s message of love and the praxis of that love to those who are on the margins I would have to say it is unethical for Christians to attempt to pass a definition of marriage in the Texas legislature.

keep guinness good

My first review is not a San Antonio pub but is very worthy of being in the top ten. The name of the pub is Fado’ (which means long ago or once upon a time in Irish Gaelic). Here is a link to their website:

http://www.fadoirishpub.com/home.php?city=austin

The moment you walk in you feel like you are in a different place. Time slows down. The sound of sport ('football' aka soccer and 'celtic football' aka beat the guy with the ball) being broadcasted from the flat screen tvs around the bar fills your ears with that unmistakeable Irish accent. The smell of Fado is noticably different as well. Instead of the sour smell of old smoke and older beer left in the cornors of the bar, you are greated by the aroma of traditional Irish pub food. As you move to your table the unmistakable smell of hot ‘bangers and mash’ immediately rushes over you. It was a great experience.

The drink of choice is of course Guinness. The pour was excellent, the barmen took the full 119.5 seconds and used the official “tulip” shaped pint glass. The colors were dark and rich and the head was the perfect height and froth. All in all a great place to have a pint.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 pints

m_dizzle says "check it out"

Jesus vs capitalism

Here is a draft of the paper that I have been promising since early September. For all you seminarians out there, keep in mind that this is undergraduate work and that it was completed in under 9 weeks. There are a few points that I would like to develop more. When I do, I will post an update.

Shalom Homies,

m_dizzle

Download position_paper_christianity_in_tension_with_capitalism.pdf

coming soon

I am currently working on a paper that looks at whether or not capitalism is compatible (in it’s current form) with the message of Jesus as contained in the Gospels. Not that anyone is reading this blog yet, but if you stumble across this site, bookmark it. More to come as I develop it.

uncomfortable with comfort

For those who do not know me, you are not aware that I have been wrestling with economic issues as they pertain to my faith. The biggest issue is how the prototypical American Dream (high paying job, big house, nice cars, trophy wife) runs counter (in my understanding) to what the scriptures teach. I have been looking diligently and I have yet to find 'the pursuit of happiness' as the goal of the narrow path. I think the primary issue that defines the difference between what Jesus lived and taught and what we practice in American Christianity is that of comfort.

There are several occasions when Jesus calls us to a life of self-sacrifice (Mark 8:35). Unfortunately, every other message that I receive on a daily basis is the opposite of self-sacrifice. I am bombarded by media messages, assuring me that I am the center of the universe and that I deserve to drive an H3. Slowly lulling that nagging voice in the back of my heart (the one that keeps asking hard questions about how I am using God’s money) to sleep.

My prayer is that the voice will not stop nagging and that I will continue to chafe against my comfortable life. Soon the discomfort with comfort may even grow to a point when I will do something about it. More on this subject soon.

Brilliant!

Find out who pulls the best pint!

An ongoing feature of revolutionary heart will be my personal quest to find the best pint of Guinness in San Antonio and, any other city I happen to be in. It is a hard job but I am up for the task. Be on the look out for my reviews, beginning with some of the local San Antonio pubs.

For those who are unfamiliar with the frothy good stuff, here are some things to know about the perfect pint. A good pint should have a dark caramel, almost black color topped with an inch thick frothy white foam head. Many say that you can tell a good Guinness by drawing a smiley face with your finger in the foam and then drinking the pint. The smiley face should stay intact until you finish your drink.

For more info on how to pull the perfect pint check out the Guinness.com website.