Ryan’s Opinions

On my birthday, I’ve been wondering about the effect of capitalism on the practices of the church here in America.

I believe that capitalism affects:
1. What we pay our ministers
2. How we define ourselves by the number of people in attendance (not counted in some cultures)
3. We look for “results” in what we do
4. We move “successful” business people into positions of leadership
5. Successful business practices are implemented to help “stagnant” churches. (church growth movement)
6. We look for the success of the institution over the growth of the individual (of which Bill Hybels just repented)
7. Wealthy people are viewed as more mature, hard working, and responsible than the poor.

Not all of these effects are bad, but are we even aware that they are present? Where is the theological reflection on these issues in our sermons and Bible classes? (Guess I have to point a finger at myself here.)

Gertrude Himmelfarb says the following about postmoderns,

“Where modernists tolerate relativism, postmodernists celebrate it. Where modernists, aware of the obstacles in the way of objectivity, take this as a challenge and make a strenuous effort to attain as much objectivity and unbiased truth as possible, post-modernists take the rejection of absolute truth a deliverance from all truth, a release from the obligation to maintain any degree of objectivity or aspire to any kind of truth.”

Postmoderns have moved us from a propositional Christianity to a relational Christianity. This movement has pros and cons in my opinion.

The pros of this include an emphasis on God’s love and man’s need to emulate this. This movement was also characteristic of the teaching of Jesus. The Pharisees needed to hear this as the Church of Christ of the 1950s needed to hear this.

The cons of this movement include the relativizing of Scripture. The Church of Christ is going through interesting changes right now because this goes at the base of its identity as “people of the book.” How do we preach, teach, and organize ourselves when we have a growing population of our own members who don’t want to treat the Bible like a “rule book.”

I don’t think this will be solved unless we can respectfully sit down in diverse settings and discuss exegetical and hermeneutical options without demonizing each other.

My wife and I watched the Will Ferrell movie “Stranger than Fiction” this weekend. It was surprising to see Will Ferrell in a little more serious role and even a lesson-to-be-learned at the end.

The main character, Ferrell, leads a boring life as an auditor for the I.R.S. (If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want me to spoil it, stop reading now.) He begins to hear a voice in his head narrating much of his life. This is a major nuisance as you can imagine. Things get much worse when he hears from the narrator that he will soon die. This fact leads him to try things he had always run away from: pursuing a love interest, learning to play the guitar, taking vacation.

Ferrell is enjoying his new life and is desperate to find the narrator to keep her from ending his life. Except when he finds out she is a novelist who has already written the ending, he accepts it because he is going to give up his own life in exchange for a young boy who would be hit by a bus. I am over-summarizing so forgive me.

It was interesting to me that Ferrell’s character so willingly accepted that his life should be given so readily for someone else’s. The screenwriters must have believed that the moviegoer would understand this as well.

Maybe self-sacrifice is one of the few connecting points that Christianity still has with our culture. The core message of the cross is that someone would give up the good life so that someone else might experience it forever. I was challenged by this movie to show more unselfish love, and perhaps learn to play the guitar.