Counter Cultural Revolutions

Well, I’m still plodding (props to “Plod” by A.B. Simpson) on through Brian McLaren’s book “A Generous Orthodoxy”. I have found myself fairly busy over the last couple weeks and have had very little time to sit down for a history lesson with Brian and figure out what I can take from other branches of Christianity. Basically that’s what this book is, Brian takes a look at different perspectives from within the Christian Circle, he looks at where they came from, he looks at the good things we can learn from them (and bring into our post-protestant generous orthodoxy) and he also looks at some things that we can usually ignore. I literally just finished reading the chapter about Anabaptists and am now considering becoming one myself. When I took Church History 2 back in Regina at CBC with Eric Debryun I was supposed to learn about the Anabaptists, but I think I skipped that day and got the handout from Tim Houghton. Thanks once again for getting me all those handouts Tim, you and my one night study crammer with Jon Morrison are the only reasons I passed that class…well that and Debryun overlooking all the skips I had in that class! Anyway, I don’t remember anything about the Anabaptists from that classroom introduction to them that I should’ve had. So reading about them in McLaren’s book was a good refresher and so on. McLaren talks about the Anabaptists and equates them to what we know as the Amish or Mennonite. Even then I don’t know a whole lot about Mennonites except from what I have seen in movies or heard jokes, or whatever Gabe Krahn tells me about his Mennonite background. (does anyone else think it’s trendy to have a Mennonite background these days? At least within Christian circles?)

These are the beliefs that McLaren outlines as key to the life of an Anabaptist. 1) An Emphasis on personal commitment, in that they understand the people have to discover Christ Jesus on their own, and are not saved because they are born into a “Christian family”. 2) Their faith is truly a way of life, Anabaptists live a faith that is not nominal, or notional, but a life that is passionate about Christ and a life that shows the fruit of that love and desire. 3) A Radical Posture to Modernity, a counter-cultural stance on how life should be, or more how faith should be. The only problem is that their counter cultural lifestyle has not influenced the world very much. I really identify with this need to be counter cultural (not that I myself am very counter cultural) but there is something ingrained in my person that usually, not always, but usually rejects things that are trendy and popular because I can see that most of it is all phases. I am looking for something lasting. Sometimes this attitude is more prideful then anything else, like when I didn’t want to help with Urban Bridge Ministry because it was the trendy thing to do, I missed out on an opportunity to serve people and communicate God’s love to them, because I was too busy referring to this popular Vancouver ministry as a phase. But I desire to not follow the culture and what everyone else says is right. 4) Anabaptist has worked in the Margins; they have been rejected and seen as outsiders by both protestant and catholic faiths. What this means is that they haven’t had the “advantage” of being the popular Christian religion, the state religion and so on. They have had to exercise their faith from a position of humility and even unpopularity, and they have survived, and remained strong. 5) A Christ centered faith, even over the teachings of Paul; they view Paul through the lens of Christ, which is a cool idea. 6) Anabaptists seek to practice peace. I think this is something that not only I, but the whole world could benefit from. Obviously I am not naïve to say that we should just lay down our arms and expect that terrorists and ambitions nations won’t take advantage of that and persecute and enslave and murder us (by us I am speaking of Canada and the United States of America) but I am saying that we could do well to live lives of peace, I think that it would have a revolutionary effect on our lives and I wish I could be more peaceful. 7) Anabaptists practice community in creation. I have a high appreciation for community living, and for the creation of community with the Church, and so the idea of living together really appeals to me. I wouldn’t like living out in the country, and being a farmer and so on, but if it were possible to create some sort of community living suburbia: that would be really amazing!
Anyway, I don’t think I’m going to leave the Alliance and move into an Anabaptist Community, I am too comfortable living here in town with my possessions and conveniences, but I have gained a new respect for Anabaptists and a desire to apply some of these principles to my Generous Orthodoxy, if you have any ideas for a giant suburban community living situation, let me know, I would be interested for sure!

Today’s song of the day is called “Stupify”, it’s by some nu-metal band whose name I can’t remember. I’m just joking, I would never make that my song of the day, it’s just playing on the radio right now and I wanted to comment as to how horrible of a song it is, and how I wish to never hear it again. The real song of the day is “Truffle Pigs” by Matthew Good Band. I am a pretty huge Matt Good fan, and this is one of my favorite songs by him and his band. It hearkens back to a time when life wasn’t all that great for a friend of mine and I remember ripping around Indian Arm in his mom’s car listening to Matt Good telling us to “eat sh*t” over and over again, and I was thinking that I was going to die! Honestly, speed is a dangerous thing up Indian Arm in Deep Cove, and I am pretty nervous when people seem like depressed to the point of suicide. Anyway, it’s kind of a depressing song, but it’s really amazing and I listened to it as I got ready for Church this morning. Speaking of Church….

I created this cartoon of Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow (the guys responsible for the lack of NHL Hockey this year) and I drew on them so they looked the like the Devil. (this is all happening in Microsoft paint by the way) Then I used a bible verse from James talking about wisdom not being from Heaven, but being from the Devil. I put it on my computers desktop background and then my computer was used this morning for power point at church today. The whole church somehow got a flash of my evil looking desktop theme during communion today, holy crap did I feel like an idiot!

Anyway, if you have the desire and or means, check out Truffle Pigs by Matthew Good Band, from their last release as a band “The Audio of Being”. Hope you are all Well…Mike