Worldview Case Study 2: Using Columbo
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Worldview Case Study 2: Using Columbo for some more fun with worldviews.
It is a worldview exercise employing a tactic I learned from Stand To Reason called the Columbo tactic.
Come on over and post a Columbo question.
A Case Study In Biblical Worldview
I developed my first case study in Biblical worldview thinking. My goal is to provide practice for all of us in clear thinking with a Biblical worldview using a real world example. I would be interested in your input.
Rather than copying the posts here, I will just link to my posts on
The Dawn Treader.
First post:
The Dawn Treader: Exercise In Clear Thinking - Case 1
Second post:
The Dawn Treader: Exercise In Clear Thinking - Conclusion
The Cultural Commission
The Cultural CommissionIt is Thursday and we have an official heatwave here in St. Louis. I have been back from the second Centurion residency and have finally "come down off the mountain." I did not want to, but as Dawn Treader puts it, I have to get my shoes in the mud. I can echo a hearty ditto to his comments about the various speakers and the interactions among the Centurions. Ken Boa always speaks to my mind and my heart; behind the wit is a two edge sword of truth. Humor can make a slice seem like something beneficial -- and it was spiritually. But for me, the highlight was Sunday mornings service, especially the communion. I don't yet have grasp on where the remaining years of my life are headed, but I DO KNOW that my life has changed, again. A new fork in the road has been revealed; I have just started to take the first steps on this part of the journey. I want to be, my heart cries out, where God is moving providentially.
WOW!! Maybe I havn't come down off the mountain after all.
Dawn Treader's Thoughts on the 2nd Residency
The Centurions program, of which all of the bloggers on this site are members, is a one year long, distance-learning program. On two occasions, however, we meet together for a weekend of teaching and small group interaction. These are called residencies. We just finished our second residency. It started on Friday (7/16) and concluded yesterday (7/18).
I thought it would be helpful for Centurion bloggers to post their reflections of the second residency on this site. Create a new post to do it. Don't use the comments section of this post for your reflections (unless you want to comment on my reflections).
My own highlights.
- Mark Earley's talk was a highlight for me. Mark Earley (of Prison Fellowship Ministry) reminded us that our ministry is one of "teaching and touching." In other words, we need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. He talked about the notion of spiritual authority giving power to one's words. He used the example of Mother Teresa's speech at the 1994 prayer breakfast. She basically read her speech from a piece of paper and never had eye contact with the audience. She gave a lousy speech, technically speaking. Nonetheless, the power of her life made the truth of her speech hit with the force of 10 megaton bomb. The fact of the matter is, the true teacher is ALWAYS the Holy Spirit when it comes to truths about life and faith. A life well lived is something the Holy Spirit uses to add force to the words. Mother Teresa broke almost every rule for good speech making, yet her speech had a life changing impact on those who heard it.
- TM Moore's materials on worldview teaching were powerful. His handout on preparing to teach a series is something I know I will use again and again and again.
- I had a good one on one chat with Pat Nolan of PFM. As a result of that chat, I believe I will be writing and self publishing a book as part of my ministry. It will be focused on the "theology of technology"; this is not Pat's area. My chat with him gave me the idea though. He wrote a simple book about prisoner release and re-entry which has given him a great platform to speak with authority about this important topic. I was able to tell him about my company (Lightning Source), which as it turns out, printed his book. My company is the leading player in the growing "print on demand" segment of book publishing. We print and ship books on demand, kind of like a virtual warehouse of books. He and Mike Synder are interested in leveraging our technology for their materials. It was a divine appointment for both of us.
- I was encouraged by all of the Centurions who are already out there getting mud on their boots teaching worldview in their spheres. God is already at work using the Centurions.
- The panel discussion on Saturday night was riveting. Roberto Rivera continues to amaze me. For those who were there, can you imagine sharing a work cublice with a guy like that? I would come home worn out every night. Roberto's mind is remarkable. What a gift. I am glad he is on our side =)
- I was encouraged by Chuck Colson's willingness to plug our individual worldview teaching efforts on the Breakpoint radio commentary and the Breakpoint website. What an offer. I am continually impressed by Chuck Colson's intentionality in sponsoring little guys like me, and investing in the future. Colson is a great example of a Christian leader who is finishing well in the race of life. As a Centurion, I am privileged to see him a little more up close than the public. His example inspires me.
- Overall, I felt encouraged and motivated to press on with the hard work of thinking, teaching, writing, and advocating the Biblical worldview. We Centurions are a small platoon of Christians who are committed to the notion that God accomplishes big things with small armies. In God's economy, you need to "think small." That is exciting, if you ask me.
Jeff Clinton aka "The Dawn Treader"
This Phenomenon Called Blogging
As a worldview analyst, I want to take a look at the topic of blogging for a moment. What is it about blogging that makes it appealing? What does the explosive growth in blogging indicate about us as a culture?
Here are a few thoughts that I am chewing on.
There are some positive reasons.
One, blogging builds community. We live separate lives, for the most part. Independence is touted as a virtue. What loses? Community. The thing is, we are relational creatures. It is God’s design. Blogging taps into that basic human wiring. We get connected in a large virtual community. We find other people who share our convictions. We find kindred spirits. It is not a perfect proxy for the old fashioned kind of community, however. I can’t come over and help you move some furniture if you live in Asia like
Joe Missionary, for instance. Still, blogging builds community so I think it is popular and good.
Two, blogging provides a platform for shaping thought. It is an easy way to get your ideas out there in the marketplace of ideas. We can bump our ideas up against each other and learn. Sometimes the thoughts we shape are our own. Blogging helps me understand what I am thinking. I am able to coalesce my ideas into a more focused, articulate and cogent form. I blog to get my thoughts to all fly in formation, as it were.
Is all of blogging positive? Not necessarily.
Blogging taps into my desire for control. I own my domain. I make the rules. If I want to be rude, I can be rude. If I want to blow off some steam, I can vent. If I want to say nothing in particular, I can blog about … well … nothing in particular. I can just make noise. I am allowed to. It is my blog. I make the rules. No social mores to worry about. No constraints. No restrictions. In short, it appeals to our culture's love affair with autonomy.
Blogging, for some, appeals to a desire to complain, but do it and stay invisible while doing it. It is a way to easily slip into and out of an argument with no strings attached. Post a comment as “anonymous”. Set up a blog using a pseudonym. We say what we want and then walk away. If someone else’s comment bugs us, we delete it. In short, we don’t have to follow all the rules of engagement that normally apply in social settings. This allows us to get away with being rude and blunt. We don’t have to temper our words and act like nice people. Exception: I am not all against pseudonyms. A blogging friend of mine reminded me of the importance of internet safety. Point taken. I do think some are attracted to the notion of staying anonymous for reasons other than safety, however.
Finally, alas, blogging can appeal to our pride. I see a whole lot of blogs registered in the ecosystem at TTLB including yours truly. I get caught up in checking my rankings and evolution on the ecosystem. I admit it. It is kind of like a game, trying to see whose posts got the most links?. Who is advancing up the chain the quickest? Who has the widest reach?
The Lord continues to work on me. He used two instruments this week. The first was
Joel Belz. I found myself convicted. Was I trying to make a name for myself through blogging? Was I not thinking “small” enough? Was I out there promoting myself? Ouch. The second person the Lord used was my wife Leslie. She asked, Jeff, would you blog even if your audience was just ONE other person? Translation into blogspeak, would I continue to blog even if I remained an “insignificant microbe” in the ecosystem?
Ouch. I had to stop and repent. I sensed pride rearing its ugly head! I want to blog for the right reasons. The heart is deceitful, and my pride needed to be exposed.
Let’s continue to build community and join together. Be encouragers. Be generous and self-less with your praise. Also, go onto the other team's turf some more. Be the visiting team once in a while. Take a look at some blogs who don’t agree with your point of view. Post a comment, but do it respectfully and put your name on it. Own it. Let your posts and comments always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt.
Let’s use this emerging technology to promote good ideas, challenge bad thinking and build community. Let’s blog for the right reasons, and reflect the character of Christ while we are at it.
Blog On!
(hat tip: James Walters for some excellent insight on this topic)
Tolerance Reloaded
Speaking recently at a national conference, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan stated, "Unquestionably, very evil things happen in the world” however "...the difficulty is to know where to draw the line." But "If we are intent on naming evil, then let us name it intolerance."
Really now? Can evil be that difficult to recognize?
Mr. Annan's statements reflect the growing belief that the only virtue is tolerance and the only evil, intolerance -- where tolerance carries the demand of accepting my neighbor, as well as, accepting what he does. It is a tenet at the heart of relativism where value-free choice is touted as a right along with freedom from interference, criticism, or consequence. And in the wake of this new morality, it has become more offensive to name evil than to do evil.
Regrettably, this new morality has also taken root in the Church where, according to George Barna, only 32% of "born-again" Christians believe in absolute truth. After all, since Jesus accepted everyone, He couldn't have been too serious about moral absolutes, right? Seemingly so if you listen to what George Dennis O'Brien, author of The Idea of a Catholic University, has to say,
"...
Any single biblical text may be trumped by the overall message, which for Christian(s) ... is a message of love and acceptance..."
O'Brien's message is that love supplants all other moral truths. This growing sentiment reflects the distortion of the classical view of tolerance, moored in the belief that universal truths exist and are knowable. As a result, the classical view was elitist towards ideas while being egalitarian towards persons.
However, without absolutes personal beliefs became sacrosanct and modern tolerance drifted from its classical roots and became egalitarian towards ideas and elitist towards people. And with time, came the inevitable speech codes to silence those who believe that certain things are true and others false. For example, intolerance has come to mean moralizing, bigotry, racism, misogyny, and fanaticism. The result is the self-destruction of relativism’s very underpinnings, as Gregory Koukl writes in the Myth of Tolerance,
"...
if one rejects another’s ideas, he is automatically accused of disrespecting the person... This often results in the very elitism regarding people relativists say they are trying to avoid. Christians who think their ideas are true are often verbally abused, called bigoted, disrespectful, ignorant and -- can you believe it -- intolerant."
As Koukl indicates, the classical aspect of tolerance -- the ability to have discourse and disagree about beliefs has been totally abandoned in the modern distortion. However, since people can only be tolerant of those with whom they disagree, this underscores the self-refuting nature of moral relativism, where "tolerance" is nothing more than intolerance.
So what are the Christian responses to those whose beliefs and behaviors are different from our own?
True discipleship requires that we not only comfort and feed His sheep, but that we help them understand why they are hungry. The costly nature of discipleship means living AND speaking His truth, even at the risk of being marginalized. As the late Francis Schaeffer writes in The God Who is There,
"Both a clear comprehension of the importance of truth and a clear practice of it, when it is costly to do so, is imperative if our witness and our evangelism are to be significant in our own generation and in the flow of history."
