Books I Loved: The Coddling of the American Mind Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

The Coddling of the American had the potential to repair a thinking crisis on American colleges and in the heads of Americans everywhere. I love that it is apolitical with critiques for people on all parts of the political spectrum.

Haidt and Lukianoff center the book around three great untruths. They define a great untruth as having these characteristics. 

• It contradicts ancient wisdom (ideas found widely in the wisdom literatures of many cultures). 
• It contradicts modern psychological research on well-being. 
• It harms the individuals and communities who embrace it.

The three untruths are

• Things that don’t kill me make me weaker
• I can trust my emotions
• Life is a battle between good and evil people

Humanity has until recently believed that our trials and failures make us stronger. We never liked the pain, but we recognized the benefits to us in the long run. But now with the growth of safetyism we fear and avoid all pain, trials, and discomfort of any type, which makes us weaker in the end. We must again embrace the risk and pain if we are to regain our strength.

Emotions cannot always be trusted, so when we trust them uncritically we are bound to make some unwise decisions. Of course we can never remove feelings from the decision process, but it should be in tandem with our reasoning. 

Life is not simply a battle between good and evil. This is a particularly applicable untruth for the evangelical church. We love to think of the church as wholly good and everyone outside evil. We like to think a culture war is an appropriate use of our time and resources. But we are not all good and they are not all bad! This is a great antidote for pride and a boon for connection and trust. 

These untruths are taking hold on our colleges especially, though people of every age are susceptible. America would be far better if Americans of all ages could 

• believe what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger 
• be critical of our feelings, and 
• walk away from the we good- you evil mentality. 

I can’t recommend this book more for anyone but especially for young adults.  Doing these things will be hard but they will be life changing. Start now; wholeness awaits!

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

Cold showers are awesome

You should all start taking cold showers and here is why…

I watched Chris Hemsworth on Disney and while I have not been able to achieve his build I was able accept his shower challenge. Chris taught us that when we turn the shower water completely cold for the last thirty seconds our body produces cold shock proteins that help clean our bloodstream and lower the risk of dementia. I figured that if thirty seconds was good then the entire shower would have to be even better. And I am so glad I did. 

• Cold showers are so fast because you don’t have to wait for the water to warm up and you don’t dawdle. 
• Cold showers save water, a natural resource. 
• Cold showers save energy since the water is not heated
• Cold showers feel great after a workout. 
• Cold showers develop your ability to laugh at discomfort in all areas of your life. 
• Cold showers produce less humidity in the bathroom potentially lowering the risk of mold
• Cold showers make you feel so cold in the shower so that you always feel warm when you step out, even in winter. 

So I challenge you to take the one week cold shower challenge. I don’t think you will ever go back. Let me know if you complete the challenge. I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

All the world needs is Jesus

Preface

I started thinking about the sentence “All the world needs is Jesus” the other day and at the same time it seemed like a no brainer and that something was missing. Eventually I figured out what I thought was missing  

Introduction

All the world needs is Jesus.  If this was ALL the world needed, it would really simplify my life. Unfortunately…

Assuming that ALL the world needs is Jesus can lead us to think:

1. It’s not my problem; it’s Jesus’ problem, so I don’t have to worry much about the world. 
2. The problem is the people without Jesus. They did not believe which was their decision, which makes it their fault. 

However, the buck really does stop with us, the church, because the only thing people see in this world to perceive Jesus is Christians. 

And the only thing they see is what they see. When we act like saints in our churches and our soup kitchens but jerks on Facebook and in politics the only thing most people have to go on is our doctor jekel impression. We must be like Jesus in the places people outside the church actually observe Christians. 

I have written about belief more extensively in this other blog but the key point is that we can’t decide to believe. Our beliefs are a primarily a function of our experience and biology neither of  which we control. Therefore the experiences people have had with Christians largely dictate their beliefs and we are the ones that control non-Christian’s experiences with Christians. 

I make my living selling products to people. One of the tried and true principals is to sell in the language of the buyer. Some are looking for all the details. Some want to know what’s in it for them. Some are excited by new stuff and others are afraid of it. One of the quickest ways to torpedo a sale is to speak in the wrong language. This is true with Christianity. We must present Jesus in the language of the people outside the church. It is always the responsibility of the speaker to communicate in a way the other person can understand. We absolutely have no right to present Jesus in the manner that is easy and comfortable for us. 

So saying that “All the world needs is Jesus” is true yet incomplete. 

All world needs is Jesus, communicated by Christians in a way they can understand.. 

So let’s stop trying to absolve ourselves by pushing the responsibility onto Jesus and non Christians and put it back on our shoulders. 

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

Rethinking Homosexuality from a Christian Perspective

Preface

My deconstruction and reconstruction was not instigated at all by LGBTQ issues, but questions about the church in American and its relationship with the LGBTQ community started soon after. I find myself in a difficult spot. There was a time I thought I understood everything and now I don't understand much and, I have way more questions than answers. So here's to way too many questions.

Prayer

Jesus. The LGBTQ issue in America is really difficult. It breaks my heart that so many LGBTQ people don't think of You as loving and think of Christians as hateful. And I understand how Christians got the way we are. To be honest, I think it would have been helpful if the Bible was more clear. I would really like for you to help me be a Christian that helps you bring more wholeness to LGBTQ community.

Introduction

I heard the most shocking opinion ever around 1993 talking to a Christian friend in the Navy. He told me that he would like to gather up all the gays and bring them to a building and collapse the building on them all. Granted that was extreme, but the evangelical church has lost its mind over LGBT issues, ignoring or relegating many other things Jesus talked about. I myself accepted the standard talking points as truth… until I didn’t. Then I started asking hard questions and looking more deeply into LGBT issues, making me question my beliefs.

Christians that Tried to Change

I always thought that people choose to turn against God and then as a consequence choose to live a homosexual life, but now I question this. I have read stories of Christian gay people that grew up in the church and got saved and loved Jesus that desperately tried to change their sexual orientation to no avail. Some have even committed suicide. The largest gay change ministries have folded due to a lack of positive long term results. The Focus on the Family poster child of ex-gay, eventually returned the gay life style. These people are a problem for our theology that trite answers won’t solve. If God creates us for His glory in his image, did he make a mistake with the gays? Or did he make them that way to show his power to heal, but why hasn’t he done so consistently? Did he make them that way so they would grow through suffering? That doesn’t sound very loving.  There is just no easy solution for these people that my community has pretended don't exist.

I think it is minimally a time to practice true empathy with Christian Gay young people. I can't imagine the anxiety for young people that find themselves attracted to the same sex growing up in the American church overemphasizing sexual sin over all others. They grow up memorizing bible verses and attending vacation bible school, and hearing that there is no sin worse than being gay. They are caught between their Christianity and their felt nature, the two ripping them apart.

Gay Christians

I always thought that the homosexual lifestyle was inherently promiscuous and in all ways anti-God, but now I question that. I was more than fifty years old before I was confronted by a monogamous gay person that in every other way was a Christian like me, so it was easy to be ignorant of LGBTQ people that claimed to be Christian. My community considers Christian gays as oxymorons, but these people seemed to love Jesus as much I do. I could not make sense of this theologically.

The Scriptures

I always thought that the scriptures were abundantly clear from the plain reading of the text that homosexuality is always a sin in God's eyes, but now I question that. My community presents progressive Christians as people that twist scriptures for their agenda. We present ourselves as the true believers that don't compromise. However, as I have read theology from progressive theologians, they seem genuinely interested in interpreting scripture as faithfully as any conservative theologian. In fact many problems in scripture make more sense from a progressive theological perspective. Additionally, I never thought about the amount of interpretation that occurs with translation, meaning that there is really no such thing as the "plain reading of the Bible" if you are not reading it in the original language.

There are six main scriptures that are referenced when considering gay relationships. Reading them in modern English translations at face value with our cultural biases, they look pretty damning. However, I have read a few gay apologists on these scriptures, and while not fully convinced by every one of their arguments, they have instilled reasonable doubt in me. Reasonable doubt, means I can not, in good conscience condemn my LGBTQ Christian neighbors.

This is not the place to recount the entire theology, but I will offer the point that has most hounded me. Does the Bible speak directly to modern Christian, monogamous gay relationships? John Walton, a theologian, said the the biblical authors can not advise us on issues they were not aware of. Modern monogamous Christian gay relationships were not on the mind of any of the biblical authors, because the homosexuality at the time the Bible was written had no resemblance to Christian monogamous homosexuality today. Homosexuality was primarily pederasty, men having sex with boys. Yuck. This is what would have been in Paul's mind when he wrote Romans. It is very difficult to extrapolate that opinion to today's loving homosexual relationships.

I used to think that there is a distinction between the sin of homosexuality and other sins from Romans 1, but now I question that. One of  the most often cited passage is Romans 1:26-32

”Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.“

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭26‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.1.32.NIV

Paul covers a lot of different sins here and in the plain reading of the text they are all worthy of death. I have known plenty of Christians and, two in particular, that were

• Arrogant
• Boastful
• Envious
• Gossipers

Yet they never faced the same condemnation from the church. Where God presents sins as equivalent, we should have the same perspective. It seems that if we exclude people from membership or service opportunities for being gay we should also exclude the arrogant, boastful, envious, and gossipers. This does not show homosexuality as right in God's eyes, but it does speak to how the church should relate to the LGBTQ community. I don't see scripture supporting the churches infatuation with this one sin over all the others.

I have never known a Christian with no sin in their life. We will all die as sinners. If somehow it was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that being gay is sinful, gays would just be sinners like me. My sins might not be the same as their sins. But we would be the same, people that can't always get it right and need Jesus grace badly.

National Blessing

I used to think that God is more upset at the United States when Christians and non-Christians sin and he will remove his blessings based on the level of sinning, but now I question that. The church likes to see America as a new Israel and as such likes to see itself in some ways part of the Old Testament covenant. One belief that results is that God's blessing on our nation is inversely proportional to the amount of sinning that occurs in it. This leads us to want laws that support morality and decrease sinning. But limiting actions doesn't always prevent sinning. Jesus was pretty clear that sin in the heart was sin, just like sin acted out. If that is the case, laws that prevent sinful actions, may do good but they don't prevent sin unless people's hearts are changed as well. And hearts don't change without Jesus. Additionally, it is difficult for me to make equivalences between ancient Israel and the United States.

Evangelism

I used to think that we need to make sure LGBTQ people know they are sinning so they can be saved, but now I question that. If in fact the LGBTQ people are lost, the church's strategy to reach them is poor. It is commonly understood that most people that convert to Christianity do so because of the influence of a loved and trusted friend. Trust always comes before conversion. The church and its members can never develop trust with the LGBTQ community when they only perceive shame and hate from us. The church has often stated the policy of "Love the sinner, hate the sin." While I understand the intention behind this phrase, it has unintentionally left the LGBTQ felling hated, not loved. This is compounded by the war mentality in the church. The war motif in our worship songs, and our speech has so permeated the church, that most Christians have unknowingly adopted a belligerent us versus them paradigm. However, the New Testament presents warfare as only for spiritual beings not other humans. With warfare embedded in our psyche, we easily turn that anger toward our LGBTQ neighbors. As a result people that need Jesus are pushed further away from Him by the church, and the church fails to do its jobs to disciple people.

Conclusion

My perspective on LGBTQ people changed as I began to listen to those outside my evangelical bubble and started asking inappropriate questions. There are no longer for me any easy answers for Christian gays that desperately want to change their attraction, but can't. When I think about Christian gay kids killing themselves because of the churches stance on homosexuality, I realize the stakes are very high and mindlessly parroting the evangelical talking points has significant risk to others. I must be absolutely sure about my beliefs if they could lead to another's suicide. The scriptures that were so obviously condemning before are more complicated now. And if we want to reach the LGBTQ community with the Love of Jesus, our strategy has failed. I have to rethink my perspective because the issue is just not as simple as many in the American church think.

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

Resources

Walking the Bridgeless Canyon by Kathy Baldock

God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines

Hide that. Close you eyes. Step away from that book and no one gets hurt!

Courtesy of Kristina Flour

Preface

When I began deconstructing and reconstructing my faith, perhaps the biggest change was that I allowed myself to ask off-limits questions and read off-limits content. It was shocking and terrifying to say the least. Long after this change, I began to think a lot about the significance of having off-limits  questions and off-limits content in the first place. Is it wise? Is it right? I finally was able to put some of my thoughts together.

Prayer

God, one of the ways we try to keep people in the church is to keep information from them. To be honest this feels yucky. If you are God, I feel like you should be able to stand the test in a contest of ideas. It makes me think about the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. In that story, you were happy to go toe to toe with the then spiritual alternative.

Keeping us all safe

The Evangelical church’s strategy to keep people in the church is to not let them hear any information contrary to their message. For a long time this strategy made complete sense. 

When my kids were growing up I tried to protect them from all sorts of inappropriate influences. We home schooled them all until high school. We managed their television and encouraged good friends. This was effective and neither wholly good nor wholly bad. In the short term, they were able to hear a clear world view at a time when they could not process complicated issues. On the down side, it was a bit shocking when other ideas came crashing in once mom and dad could no longer manage all inputs. In our case, we practiced an imperfect gradual release from the Christian bubble, though the transition to public high school was certainly a big, not gradual step. Other Christian families try to shield their kids as completely as possible throughout their childhood, high school, and beyond. I have a friend that tried this approach and it completely severed their relationship with their son though in this case he has continued following Jesus. From my observation, the longer kids are in the bubble the more disruptive is the transition out of the bubble. 

I also practiced shielding myself from ideas contrary to my evangelical understanding of the world. I had heard stories throughout my Christian life of people that completely walked away from the faith because they exposed themselves to these dangerous ideas. From many sermons I knew that my faith was tenuous at best and if I opened the door to Satan I would quickly crumble under the weight. 

A good example of this teaching was the dollar bill analogy which was oft repeated in evangelical circles. “Do you see this dollar bill? Is it real or counterfeit? Did you know that counterfeit experts never spend time studying all the different types of counterfeit? Oh no! They study the real thing constantly! When you know the real deal, you can always recognize the fake stuff. So don’t consume books, music, podcasts or any content that does not line up with evangelical teaching. Just focus on a plain reading of the Bible and get to know the truth really well!” This and similar ideas were repeated over and over letting everyone know the danger of listening to anything contrary. Strangely at the time I did not feel like information was being hidden from me. I just thought I was being wise given the dangers out there. 

Problems Begin

Then in 2015-2016 when my deconstruction really began I went into a death spiral as I began to ask questions I was not supposed to ask and read things I was not supposed to read. I no longer felt protected from evil by the church, I felt like information had been systematically hidden from me and I had been lied to, which was very painful from an organization I was so dedicated to. In particular

• I learned that there were gay, Jesus loving Christian’s that desperately tried but failed to become straight, and that some of them committed suicide
• I learned that not every theologian that disagreed with my church's theology had a malevolent agenda, and that faithful interpreters of the Bible can come up with different interpretations. 
• I learned that the scientific explanations of the world make much more sense than I was taught and more sense than a hyper literal reading of the Bible. 
• I learned that the Bible doesn’t collapse when you ask it tough questions. 
• I learned that there are many modern evangelical beliefs that were simply not part of the Nicene creed or apostles creed. 
• I learned there are contradictions in the Bible. 

All of these caused big problems for my theology, and the natural next question on my part was, “if all the above list is true what else are they hiding or lying about?” 

Information bubbles and hiding information seemingly work great until a small crack opens and the bubble collapses and the strategy back fires. 

In the cases where questions are addressed in Christian apologetics, I think they fall short. It appears that they are very ready to accept questionable pseudo science to bolster their arguments. And they are often crafted around the more conservative interpretations of the Bible which in my opinion don’t need to be defended. For example, spending time defending a six day creation is a waste of time because it doesn’t matter to me or most of the people in our country how God made the world. There are more important hills to die on. I remember painfully watching Ken Hamm debating Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye made a point, and rather than address the point Hamm kept repeating, “I hope some day you will meet Jesus like me.” It was an embarrassment to Christianity and the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling na na na na na na na na. 

As I see it then, the problems with age inappropriate information bubbles are:

• When the bubble collapses the rejection and deconstruction can be more powerful than if complicated issues are faced head on when they naturally arise. 
• Strong feelings of suspicion are the natural response to having information hidden from you. 
• Defending a very conservative interpretation of scripture can prevent a person from embracing a still faithful, more progressive view pushing them all the way to atheism or agnosticism. 
• Telling or implying that our youth are not smart enough to engage biblical criticism and big questions minimizes them and hurts their growth and confidence. 

The Fear Problem

Finally, it seems that we are primarily motivated by fear and doubt when it comes to bubbles. We doubt that the Christian message can stand up to scrutiny and so we fear that anyone exposed to biblical criticism will lose their faith. This idea is fundamentally contrary to many teachings from  the church. We have also been taught things like:

• God is all wise and true
• We can trust Him
• We don’t have to live in fear
• All things work out for the good. 
• The Bible is trustworthy

Now What?

If the above is true we should not have to live in fear. 

Finally, I fancy myself to be an amateur scholar and I just don’t want to be a part of a religion any more that is terrified of criticism. I want to be part of something that welcomes criticism knowing that there are good reasons for belief. I want to accept that we may have some things wrong and need criticism to help us refine our theology. I don’t ever want others around me thinking there are questions they are not allowed to ask. So let’s do away with age inappropriate bubbles and fears that Jesus and the Bible are two weak for criticism. Then let’s live free of fears willing to work through hard questions confident that God can handle it. 

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz and my Overthinking Journey

Preface

I was thinking the other day about my brain. I was trying to figure out how it could be so ramped up thinking about everything. It can came to a “head” visiting with friends and I had to write down some thoughts because I realized I had gotten a bit jaded. 

Introduction

My mind with a new thought is like someone dropping Alka Seltzer into a cup of water.  Note here: I loved the taste of Alka seltzer as a kid. I did not really mind having a little bit of heart burn because Mom would give me the Fizz and I would feel good and get dessert in the same cup. And yes i realize how screwed up that is, but if you know me at all you aren’t that shocked. Anyways... Sometimes I think God  plays tricks with me.  I imagine Him with some sort of cosmic thought capsule with a few of his favorite angels. They are looking for a good time and God says, “Watch me drop this thought into Tom Boyer’s head. His mind is going to fizz and then explode!” Of course, it’s all fun and games until someone’s mind explodes. 

When I start to think, I over think, and over whelm my brain forgetting the good stuff. 

As you may know, a lot of American evangelicalism frustrates me. That frustration very easily overwhelms my brain and pushes out all the really beautiful things that Christians are doing in the world.  

Conviction 

But, I was with Christian friends recently and I got to hear about some really beautiful parts of Christianity reminding me  that while we Christians may be a little crazy, we are more than just crazy. In many places we are loving the least powerful people and fighting for justice. I need to remember these things when I start to focus on the negative.

While over thinking may be good for analyzing and fixing stuff, I need to learn to not let the crazy stuff cause my brain to fizz and push out the good stuff. And with the church, while we have our issues, I need to not forget the beautiful parts. 

Your Job

So if you see my mind spinning out of control feel free to ask me to remember what’s beautiful. 

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

The Unexpected Connection between Evolution and Sin

Prayer

God, literally the word SIN has so much baggage attached to it, and we tend to have strongly negative or strongly positive views on this word. I have really been thinking a lot about it because it seems powerful and important in Christianity. I think I have been thinking wrongly about this word, and I would like you to help me understand it better.

Preface

My deconstruction/reconstruction has been a journey of asking questions, so many questions I would never allow myself to ask. Separately I asked a lot of questions about evolution, Adam and Eve, and sin. I imagined these as disparate topics until one day they all coalesced in my mind. To be honest, I found it absolutely beautiful, which made me want to write it all down so I could share it.

Introduction

Engineers and physicists talk about about finding the fundamental principles and doing basic research. We think that if we understand the most basic rules of life and the environment that we can easily build on them, and find a myriad of beneficial applications for our world. Theologians are the same but with the spiritual world. Growing up evangelical I learned all about sin. It separated us from God, and you had to obey or else. Without negating all I was taught, I think I understand sin better by understanding the fundamentals which I was not taught. The idea of sin now makes the most sense to me within the context of evolution.

Theistic Evolution

Some of my questioning led me to the idea of Theistic Evolution, which allows God the freedom to use whatever means He chooses to make His world. In particular I devoured the content from BioLogos, learning that the geologic timetable, fossil records, and DNA mapping all point toward an ancient earth with humans evolving from lower life forms over millions of years. Though I always thought that belief in God as creator and evolution were mutually exclusive, I met many Christians that were perfectly fine with serving a God that used evolution to create the various life forms.

Theistic Evolution started to be beautiful to me. The idea that God was willing to wait around for millions of years to lovingly craft all humans and specifically me was amazing. I was astounded by God's foreknowledge about the big bang. How could He know that worlds and stars would result? God's apparent ability to interpolate millions of years into the future and start creation in the right direction had me in awe.

Creation Narratives

I learned as a young man that Evangelicals take a generally literal view of creation as described in Genesis in the Bible. For many, this is a hill to die on, because "if Genesis is not literally true the entirety of scripture has to be called in question." But reading more progressive theologians I found perspectives that made more sense. Allowing, the creation stories in Genesis be less literal, minimized the science-religion anxiety I always tried to ignore.

Evolution Timeline

I began to get the feeling that for whatever reason God really likes evolution. I saw the physical evolution of humanity. I saw the moral evolution of man from Adam to Jesus to us today. I saw the evolution of Christianity over 2000 years. I saw my evolution in the areas of intellect, morality, beliefs, and passions looking back over 53 years. God seems more like bumper rails on the sides of a bowling alley than a pilot carefully navigating a Coast Guard cutter through a narrow channel. Those rails get you to the goal but there are some bumps along the way.

As I considered that God likes evolution and that the Bible may be less literal that I previously thought, I saw in my mind the evolution timeline.

Physical Evolution is the millions of years creating Homo Sapiens. During this period the conditions were ideal as Darwin's survival of the fittest was preeminent. One could imagine that the male sexual drive free from societal norms actually increased the speed of evolution. Perhaps shorter life spans allowed for increased evolution as well. In general one could argue that our biology was exactly what was needed in that time to make our species what it is physically today.

Then came the hockey stick. At risk of overimagining God, I could see him waiting around, for a human that he could really work with. Was he playing solitaire over and over? Was that even fair if He know what cards were under each pile. And then, boom, one day homo sapiens was ready for God. God had a big hairy audacious vision for humanity. He could see great, just societies of people working together selflessly and lovingly for the good of all people. This would be a reflection of God Himself, in His image. But, the problem was that humanity had the features God needed to work with, but we also had bugs. The bugs were the parts of humanity that were important for physical evolution, but would be potentially bad for creating societies. God would have to build on our strengths, but he would also need to manage our "bugs."

The good news was our two brains. We had developed the "lizard brain" the oldest part which housed our fight-flight, lust, and pain avoidance mechanisms. Then we had developed the neo-cortex, our thinking brain. The thinking brain had the ability to override the basic biology in our lizard brain. God would need to train us to the use the neo-cortex to over ride our biology as needed to form loving societies.

Training our neo-cortex would become teaching against sinning. Sin would be anything unloving and self centered that followed our biology instead of our higher level thinking which was beneficial to society. Coming from a world where sin felt more like limitations and punishment, I love thinking about sin avoidance as guiding us toward a more beautiful society.

Therefore, at the point of Creation, I think we are better off to think of humanity being remade in God's image. We had spent millions of years just following our biology, and now God was calling us to a higher level. Our first lesson was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps, literally or figuratively, this was the first time humanity was being called to choose against our biology. I suspect God knew the failure was coming, and I think it was intended. God wanted to show through story how hard it would be to choose to follow His way rather than our biology. So, I question the idea of sin being "born at the fall." I suspect that God was revealing the sin tendency, our self centeredness, that was a normal part, albeit a bug, within us already. Before we could move to lesson Two we had to understand that we would always struggle with doing right.

Lesson Two was teaching us the most basic building blocks of society:

• Humility toward others
• Self Sacrifice for others
• Love for others

These lessons from the pages of the old testament were confusing and conflicting at times. And there may have been more bad examples that good. But, nonetheless the ideas of humility, self-sacrifice, and love were being taught. There were years of painful moral evolution through all the ancient peoples up to Jesus.

Jesus Continues our Training

Jesus, the embodiment of humility, self sacrifice, and love for others, would teach these same lessons orally and demonstrably.

One of the most beautiful stories about Jesus was his conversation about the most important commandments. He stated that the two most important were to Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. Furthermore He said that all the other commandments hang on these two. That's it, Love God and Love your neighbor. If we only did these two things for the rest of our lives, we would be kicking it for Jesus. In Philippians 2, the author recounts how Jesus showed love through his humility when he was among us even though He was so much above us. Loving God and loving your neighbor are the scarlet threads running through our evolution from our beginning until today. Based on Jesus example and the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit, humanity continued growing and evolving along a rocky road.

Romans 5:8-9 But God demonstrates his own love in this. While we were sinners, Christ died for us.

Let us review sin from three dimensions. The three dimensions are

• Object of our sin. Sin against God vs sin against a neighbor
• Focus of our sin. Sin as appearance based vs sin as truth based
• Functional source of salvation. Sinlessness as salvation vs grace as salvation

The Primary Object of Sin

The primary object of sin can be God or neighbor. When our paradigm is primarily God as the object of sin, we can easily accept arbitrary rules regarding sin, because the rule are handed down by God. We easily live in fear because we expect punishment from God for our sins. When our paradigm is primarily neighbors as the objects of sin, we naturally focus on the primary goal of loving our neighbors. We easily live in inspiration because we expect guidance from God to avoid sins. 

The Focus of Sin

The focus of sin can be appearance based or truth based. When our paradigm is primarily appearance based, the way our sin appears to the outside world and others in our community is our focus. We use the appearance of our level of sin to others as a trope for the appearance of our sin to God. While mentally asserting that hidden sin is the same as obvious sin, we unconsciously regard obvious sin as more significant in God's eyes and our eyes. The way we look to others in social media and in the eyes of our community can become more important than our authentic selves. When our paradigm is primarily truth based, hidden and obvious sins are equally significant to us. Our complete authentic selves with all their sins are laid bare before God and ourselves. We don't assume the person with hidden sins to be better than the person whose sin is out in the open.

The Functional Source of Salvation

The functional source of salvation can be sinlessness or grace. Any evangelical will profess that salvation is by grace. However, in actuality, many evangelical Christians live as if sinlessness is the ticket to salvation. With this perspective, the corollary becomes assumed true that sinfulness is condemnation. We then focus on being sinless and we rank and judge each other inside and outside the church based on the apparent sinfulness of each other. This ongoing judging leads us to hide as much sin as possible. Additionally, we avoid the easily observed, cultural hot button sins the most of all. We believe that being close to the obvious sin of others has the potential to infect us, so we avoid doing business with "sinful" people. When we have a grace paradigm, we recognize the sin, hidden and obvious, that is continually part of our lives as insurmountable. We don't harshly judge people with different sins or more open sins than we have.

If we were to assume that:

• Or neighbor is the primary object of our sin
• The the focus of our sin is truth based
• Grace is the source of salvation

We would find that:

We focus on loving our sinful selves, community, and neighbors, humbly baring all our sins and imperfections, appreciating the grace that covers our sins.

Conclusion

In this paradigm, we see God leaning heavily on evolution to move us from ancient common ancestor to image bearer toward humble, self-sacrificing lover. We see the idea of sin rooted in God's great vision of training homo sapiens to achieve much more than our biology alone could do. And we no longer think of sin as violations against an arbitrary code dropped on us by God; rather it is violating God's very best practices for love and sacrifice and whole hearted living in our world. I imagine God watching and cheering for us to make great decisions that lead to whole hearted living. I imagine Him sad for us when we make a wrong choice rather than angry at us for failing again. In this paradigm we prioritize the scarlet thread of love for our neighbor above debatable sins realizing that those who put aside loving their neighbor in order to reject and denigrate others for their sins are disconnected from Jesus vision for humanity.  Understand sin in this way is life giving rather than life robbing.

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.

Unfair Trade Practices and Immigration: A Call for Change

Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash

Preface

Like you, I have been befuddled by the immigration problems and the complete inability of our government to do anything to fix it. That made me think, and think, and think. Somewhere along there I wondered if there could be a connection between fair trade and immigration. Here are my thoughts.

Introduction

I'm neither an economist nor a sociologist, so take my questions for what they are worth. Our country is going crazy about immigration. Neither party seems to have the answer. However, I feel like we all may be missing the root of the problem.

What has been the effect on immigration of decades, if not centuries, of the United States trading unfairly with developing nations?

The USA has a significant power imbalance over our developing world trading partners. For example, when Tom Boyer goes to buy coffee from the grocery store, he can choose to buy Fair Trade coffee or any other coffee. But his natural inclination is to not buy the Fair Trade coffee, which was purchased at a living wage rate, because... it's so much more expensive than the other coffee. Let's assume this difference is the result of us using our trading power to depress the cost of coffee for our savings, to the detriment of the coffee growers. Over billions of transactions where the people of the USA save money, and the people of the developing country do not receive enough money to live above poverty, the USA becomes richer and the poor cannot get past poverty. The wealth disparity grows larger and larger.

The wealth disparity leads to many undesirable and unfair results. The developing country is less educated than it could be, leaving a populace more easily controlled by less than honest political leaders. Lack of wealth can lead to crime, unrest, and hopelessness. On the other hand, the USA is more prosperous, wealthier, and safer. As the wealth disparity increases, the people from the developing country don't feel they have a path to stability and wealth in their country of origin, and, naturally, they desire to immigrate from their country to the USA.

Perhaps this deluge of immigration is less the result of our country's success and more an indictment of its unfair trading practices that did not grant workers the fair wage needed to prosper in their homes.

If perhaps any of these ideas are accurate, should our immigration reform not include ways to begin to help those developing countries to... develop better?

• What if the US government used its power to encourage US companies to pay fair trade prices for goods and commodities from developing countries?
• What if we the people began to choose to have less in order to pay more for fair trade goods? 
• What if the US government negotiated trade agreements which gave less powerful trading partners the respect of reasonable pricing and terms?

The only talk I hear from Democrats and Republicans is about fixing the immigration problem inside our borders, but I think we need to do some hard work to get to the root of the problem. Intentionally lowering our standard of living for the benefit of unknown families in unknown countries is hard. It will take systemic changes through commitments by we the people and the government to begin to empower our trading partners so that their citizens have as much or more hope in their countries of origin.

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.