nakedpastor

I was skimming through a book on Genocide, by Alexander Laban Hinton. I’m fascinated by such topics because they expose the depravity of the human heart. Social engineering was the preoccupation of the Nazis, and this holds true for every other genocidal agenda.

Basically, social engineering intends to institute a new and better order. Genocide intends the design of the perfect society, and to implement this design through planned and consistent effort. The way this happens is two-fold: first, by facilitating the propagation of healthy stock, and two, by the containment or elimination of any disruptive factors.

I’m interested in how our designs for spiritual communities in many ways resemble genocidal intentions for society. How often have I been attracted to an alluring, charismatic and convincing personality who had an agenda to create and build a new kind of order? And how often have I witnessed and experienced the isolation and eventual separation and elimination of those who did not fit the program? I have to be even more honest than that: How often have I supported and even promoted these kinds of agendas to shape spiritual communities and the people within them?

This is a vital issue for me because I claim to be passionate about diversity in community. I argue that diversity is healthier than homogeneity for community life. I also insist that we must be brutally honest about what our intentions are for the community and the people within it. What are our designs for people? What plans do we have for them? How are we hoping to change them and shape them into the kind of community we want? Because the kind of community we want is going to determine what kind of plans, visions and goals we impose upon them. How much do our plans and intentions and designs violate who they already presently are? And is something already wrong with them that they need to be changed? Who is the judge of that? How do we treat people who will not or cannot comply with our wishes for them, no matter how good and noble our wishes might be?

These are important questions. If the church is to represent and actually be the vastly multifaceted and varietal diversity of the body of Christ, a body in which we cannot and are not to judge between the good and bad fish or the crops and the weeds, a body upon which we are not to call down fire from heaven to destroy the bad parts, then how does this determine the plans we have for this body? When we try to engineer the kind of community that we want, are we actually doing violence to the body of Christ and violating his parts?

Hey everyone. Here’s a big thank you for reading my blog. The readership is growing. The cartoons, more than the things I write, seem to be finding their way all over the blogosphere and other media.

I am going on a trip today out to western Canada to see my brother, two years younger than I. He left home when he was 16 under difficult circumstances and I have maybe seen him a total of 5 days since. It is a rare opportunity that I’m taking. He doesn’t have a computer and I’m not taking mine. So I will not be posting for about a week, unless I come across a stray computer somewhere and I have something to say. Otherwise, I’ll see you in a week.

Again, thanks for peeking in on my cartoons and reading my posts. Maybe over the next week you can catch up on some of the posts you’ve missed. Later! Peace! Out!

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This is my submission for this week’s Illustration Friday’s theme, “clique”. Ya, I know it’s an old cartoon, but it’s one of my personal favorites. I’m passionate about diversity in communities. This one seems to be passionate about a smiling but insipid homogeneity.

As I was falling asleep last night my mind fell into deep thought. I was thinking that the further into the mission field you get, the further you get away from God. In a way, the further I go into the world, into the dark world of others’ pain and suffering and need, hopefully with compassion, sympathy and solidarity, it’s at those times when I feel the furthest from Jesus. When Jesus said, “Go!” to his disciples, and they left, they were separated from him. It was only when they returned to his presence that they could rejoice at what had happened.

Years ago a friend and I went on a trip to the UK to observe a youth movement that was happening there at the time. We visited one youth-focused ministry in the middle of a city. It took place in a warehouse. They had it set up like a huge rave hall. Lights. Elevated dancing platforms. Dark corners. Smoke. Monolithic speakers. Dance music so loud I felt my ribs scraping against each other. And security, security, security. They were an intense bunch of young risk-takers who had compassion for the troubled youth of their city. They confessed that they saw no fruit from their labor of love. No visible results. There was nothing overtly Christian or even spiritual about the place or the weekend night events. They simply got to meet, love and secretly pray for those kids. There was often violence, drugs, alcohol, fights, theft, weapons, sex, (more…)