Thoughts on Kissing

Beginning With A Story

A couple of high school sweethearts had been dating for a while. He was nervous and she was shy. That night sitting on the swing he decided to "boldly" make his move. "Can I kiss you goodnite?" She looked at him adoringly and simply gave him a big smile but said nothing. Not knowing how to interpret such language he thought maybe he said it badly. "MAY I kiss you goodnite?" Once again she dazzled him with her smile and tilted her head but still said nothing. Totally beside himself the poor fellow blurted, "Are you deaf?" She opened her eyes and simply said, "ARE YOU PARALYZED!"

Sometimes I have to wonder if we, who claim to be in the kingdom of God, are paralyzed too. Why can't we "kiss" our world? Over the last while I have seen how we in the church have done anything but kiss our culture, our world. Surveying a number of blogs and emails yesterday I quickly noted how often we are seen to be filled with vindictive rather than love. In a world that longs for relationship why do we have a hard time sharing the greatest definition of God ever conceived: God is love (1 Jn 4.8).

Are we as blind as the young man to the "signals" of our world that show that they are in fact ready to be loved ... to be kissed by God's People?

Kissing in Worship

In the Christian tradition the kiss was a sacred and even sacramental sign of love in worship. Not just peace but love. When we look through the New Testament there is in fact quite a bit of kissing. A relieved Father kisses his son (Lk 15.20); Jesus embraces the kisses of a prostitute and rebukes the church going Pharisee for his refusal (Lk 7.45). Paul and the Ephesian elders kissed one another in their tearful parting (Acts 20.37). Paul commands that the assembled Christians to great one another with a "holy kiss" (Rom 16.16; 1 cor 16.20; 2 Cor 13.12; 1 Thess 5.26) and the apostle Peter enjoins the same act upon Christians in northern Turkey (1 Pt 5.14).

In Jewish tradition, according to the Talmud, there were three basic kinds of kisses: one of greeting, leaving, and of respect. However such kisses were carefully circumscribed. In a fascinating article in New Testament Studies "The Sacred Kiss in the New Testament" William Klassen argues that Paul is the first teacher known to "instruct members of a mixed social group to greet each other with a kiss whenever or wherever they meet." He goes on to say there is no analogy in the ancient texts, Jewish or Greco-Roman, for the transformation of the kiss into a sign of the religious community.

This practice of kissing in worship continued as part of Christian worship. Justin Martyr tells us that after the prayers were completed that believers shared the kiss of love with one another. In the West the kiss was offered after taking the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. After sharing in the bread and the cup of salvation the church declared its oneness and love for each other with the kiss. Klassen tells us that the ritual of the "holy kiss" was a way of symbolizing to rich and poor, men and women, clean and unclean, morally pure and not so morally pure, that they were loved by God beyond anything they could imagine and that God's Spirit played no favorites. It is a public declaration of acceptance and radical love ... we are family! Kissing in worship was one of the distinctive traits of early Christianity. They shall know you are my disciples by your love. Klassen argues that the ritual must go back to Jesus himself because of its radical nature. I agree with him.

Christianity is a high touch and high love faith. This is radically symbolized by the kiss. When Jesus was willing to kiss the world, and Paul was willing to kiss (and even tell) and Peter was right there too ... the question comes to my mind again: Why do we have such a hard time "kissing" our world. Does the world, like the girl above, know we are ready to kiss it? If not then why not?

Just my thoughts for today,
Bobby V

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The Courage to Do the Right: Universityof Buffalo, A Bowl Game and Courage

The Courage to Do the Right

In 1958 a group of college football players at the University of Buffalo rejected a bid to play Florida St in the Tangerine Bowl because two African-American players on the team would not be allowed to play. Here is a video of the boys turned to men fifty years later. It is one of those many hidden victories for the kingdom of God. Watch this short video:



It is often the youth that show us our blindness. Here is a longer article about these men of valor. The article is on ESPN.com called "All or Nothing." We still pray ...

"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven ... Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt 6. 10, 12).

Shalom,
Bobby V

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Our Christian Nation? Christianity & The Founding Fathers

I share this post with a degree of hesitancy because many so are emotional to nearly the point of irrationality this subject. Any reasoned critique is seen as an attack.

The origin of this post is the hundreds of emails I have received in the last week or so about the election of Barack Obama. Chain mails, forwards, email list ... all with one thing in common. Some of the most recent emails hail the the notion that we are not a "Christian Nation" any more because Obama is either a Muslim or doesn't believe the Bible or (supply the reason). In the process some serious historical claims are made about the Founding Fathers, the role of Christianity in their thought, and related matters, often these claims are simply wrong, sometimes they are imposing meanings upon texts that were not there or intended by those who wrote them. It is true that Christianity has been the dominant religious expression of the European immigrants to this land but it is not true that this has been a "Christian Nation." It is one thing to say that most in the USA claimed to be Christians and another to say that the nation was "Christian" or that it was founded as such. The latter is false. This post does not defend Obama nor does it attack him I am interested in something else altogether. I would recommend a book, seriously, to all interested in what I write about though:

David Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Oxford University Press)

This is an outstanding book. It is fair, objective and solid. There are so many myths about the Revolutionary Era perpetuated by those on the right and those on the left. This book is more than worth the time to read and besides it is a good read.

It is fairly easy to find phrases like "principles of Christianity" in the writings of the Founders. The question is what did they mean by such talk. Lets think this through.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson for example was clearly a theist. But a "Christian" Religious and committed to some kind of "morality" yep but historic Christianity ... I have a hard time with in light of his personalized "Jeffersonian Bible! In 1779 Jefferson introduced a "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" in the Virgina Assembly. This bill makes clear that the state has no authority to compel church attendance or even belief of any kind period. One's religion, or lack thereof, would have no bearing upon one's "civic standing." Here is one memorable paragraph,

"We ... do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened {sic} in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." (A Documentary History of Religion in America to the Civil War, ed Edwin Gaustad) p. 261)

You are free to be religious or irreligious.

John Adams on May 26, 1797 submitted to Congress The Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 below his name makes is clear as a bell what an official government document (ironically with a Muslim country) says.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion ... (See the entire text here)

Adams wrote Jefferson many letters that help us understand what he means by "principles of Christianity. " On September 14, 1813 the former President wrote to the other former President

"...No Prophecies, no Miracles are necessary to prove this celestial communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three; and that one is not three; nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any Prophecy, or the fulfillment of any Prophecy; or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle as We are, from the revelation of nature i.e. natures God that two and two are equal to four.

Had you and I been forty days with Moses on Mount Sinai and admitted to behold the divine Shekinah, and there told that one was three and three was one: We might not have the courage to deny it, but We could not have believed it ...

I believe no such Things. My Adoration of the Author of the Universe too profound and too sincere. The Love of God and his Creation; delight Joy, Tryumph, Exultation in my own existence 'tho but an Atom, a Molecule Organique, in the Universe; are my religion. Howl, Snarl, bite, Ye Calvinistick! Ye Athanasian Divines, if You will. Ye will say, I am no Christian: I say Ye are no Christians: and there the Account is balanced. Yet I believe that all the honest men among you are Christians in my sense of the Word .." (A Documentary History, pp. 297-296)

The whole point of Adams is to deny the reality of Christian revelation in the Bible (i.e. prophecy, miracle, etc). He does not believe it because it does not give the certainty of science. His religion and his god is "nature's God." This is why he exclaims the orthodox Christians would deny his right to the word Christian ... which many did even in the 1790s.

James Madison

In 1785 Patrick Henry and others while rejecting a "Church of America" did want to have a statement about Christianity in general. They wanted Christianity to be recognized as the established religion of the commonwealth. In response to this effort Madison wrote his "Memorial and Remonstrance. " (full text here) This was not a good move in his opinion.

George Washington helps us in many ways by pointing to what he means by "Christian principles" too. In a letter sent to the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches on May 26, 1789 the President wrote of his "dependence upon Heaven" and says that "piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs particularly necessary for advancing and confirming the happiness of our country" (ibid, p. 277). These are "virtues" for sure but there is nothing uniquely or distinctly Christian about them. They are simply the necessary ingredients Washington thinks of having a stable society.

Again religious does not make "Christian." There is no doubt that Christianity has been the dominant religious expression of those who have lived in the USA but there can be little doubt, that the country was founded basically on deistic or even secular foundations. The kingdom of God is not identified with any nation state on planet Earth. The kingdom of God critiques all kingdoms ... Russia, Iraq, Germany, Japan and even the USA.

One more good book that goes beyond the Founders is Jon Meacham's American Gospel: God, The Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation (Random House). This book traces the theme of religion and state far beyond the Founders but to the present and does so rather deftly.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Old woman shoots MP40 Machine gun

This is hilarious!! Grandma with a MP40 (WW II German sub machine gun)

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Here. There. Everywhere: Weekend Readings

Here, There. Everywhere: Weekend Readings

Here are a collection of writings on the net that range from interesting to challenging and all points in between.

Did you read of the Pastor's "Sex Challenge" to the married couples of his congregation. Find it here

India now joins the elite few of nations that have landed on the moon (here)

OPEC thinks oil is getting to cheap (here)

N. T. Wright's speech "Paul's Gospel and Caesar's Empire" bristles with insight into numerous Pauline texts (here) Maybe the gospel is political after all ...

Walter Brueggemann's essay "A Biblical Perspective on the Problem of Hunger" is stimulating too (here)

Clark Gilpin has authored a thoughtful essay on the past and future of the Churches of Christ in "Common Roots, Divergent Paths: The Disciples and Churches of Christ" (here). Can we learn anything about ourselves from a Disciple?? Do we have ears to hear??

Its Friday. Enjoy it.

Shalom,
Bobby V

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Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: A Review

Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died (HarperOne, 2008)

In the modern era, Christianity has been viewed as a “western” religion. And in particular it has been almost seen as European and now “American.” This has profound implications. Perhaps we are almost taken in this direction because of the Book of Acts traces, for theological purposes, the movement of the church from Jerusalem to Rome. Because of our cultural leanings we think of Charlemagne, the Venerable Bede, Francis of Assisi, and St. Patrick when we think of Christian history.

Yet Jerusalem is closer to Tehran than it is to Rome. Travel in the east was just as common as it was in the Roman Empire. Believers went East as well as West. Here is some perspective, in the 5th century, Merv (the largest city in the world in the 12th century located in Central Asia) was a great center for Christian thought and mission activity. In A.D. 500 Christian theologians in Merv were translating Greek and Syriac works into the languages of Central and Eastern Asia. Another tidbit, between 640 and 740 there were 6 popes who derived from Syria (not Europe).

Most of this Eastern Christianity was not Roman Catholic. As Rabban Bar Sauma (i.e. 1290 A.D.) wrote “No one has been sent to us Orientals by the Pope. The holy apostles aforesaid taught us and we still hold today what they handed down to us.” About the time of Charlemagne, Timothy was Patriarch of the Church of the East in the city of Seleucia (now in Iraq). His church spread into India and even China. As Jenkins notes, “the church operated in multiple languages: in Syriac, Persian, Turkish, Soghdian, and Chinese, but not Latin, which scarcely mattered outside western Europe” (p. 11). Timothy wrote “in these days the Holy Spirit has anointed a metropolitan for the Turks, and we are preparing to consecrate another one for the Tibetans.” How many Christians know that in the 17th century there was a pogrom against Japanese Christians in which tens of thousands of them were slaughtered?

It is sort of unsettling to know that “much of what we today call the Islamic world was once Christian.” It is sobering to reflect on the fact that Eastern scholars had a level of learning in 800 that would not be matched in Europe for another 500 years. As Jenkins puts it rather poignantly “literally, only a very few western Christian scholars at the time would have known how to hold the manuscripts: which way was up?”

Throughout The Lost History of Christianity we learn not only the inspiring story of when Christianity was truly a global religion we are confronted with the historical reality that it died in many places. Persecutions from Hindus, Muslims, and sundry others along the way are part of the story. But Christianity survived in many of these hostile environments for centuries so why did it virtually become extinct in many places. Jenkins writes that a bunker mentality” arose among many, “As the Nestorians demonstrated, Christianity lost most of its vigor, and became the cultural badge of yet another hill tribe. It was insular and radically sectarian, and had little sense of connection with the wider Christian world, except insofar as transnational churches were seen as predatory rivals” (p. 240). Sectarianism was a hindrance to the survival, nay the flourishing, of the Christian faith.

Jenkins has become one of my favorite scholars in the last five or six years. His book is not a work of original scholarship. Rather what he has done is mine specialist research and has presented it in a lucid, even eloquent, testimony to a long forgotten story. The pluses of this book are in a sense its drawbacks too. It is brief being a mere 240 pages of text plus endnotes. But it is that brevity that it is its strength because folks might read it. In so doing we are reminded that Christianity thrived around the world before it ever “conquered” Europe and became a North Atlantic entity. We are reminded yet again of the unique Eastern flavor of Christianity that is so painfully lost in the West. Latin and Medieval concepts have taken such deep root in our collective psyche that real early Christianity often looks “weird.” But Latin as one Easterner wrote was “a barbarian and Scythian language” that was unfit for Christian use. We all have our biases don’t we!

There are, of course, areas where I do not agree with Jenkins. But as a whole this book is one that should be read by Christians everywhere. If Jenkins can help us have a broader and deeper grasp of who we are as part of the Christian story, and he can help us recover the sense of belonging to a faith that cannot be separated from the East, and he can help us see long forgotten sacrifices in the name of Yeshua then I can only thank God. This is a book you should read.

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Beatles - Top Ten Non #1s

The Beatles - Top Ten Non #1s

Ok last Friday I posted a video and promised to list the best of the Beatles tunes that did not hit #1. This has proven to be a difficult exercise for me because there are so many songs that I like. The criteria was fairly simple: The song had to be performed by the Beatles and could not have have been included in 27 number 1 songs on the CD The Beatles 1. So I have collected my CDs, surfed YouTube, and jammed. One is struck by the breadth, development and (in my opinion) the quality of the music that in a few short years changed everything. So with these words I will list my the Stoned-Campbell Top Ten Non #1 Beatles songs ... Click on each title for a video on YouTube for that song ...

10) Please, Mr. Postman (cheezy I know)

9) Here Comes the Sun

8) Helter Skelter

7) While My Guitar Gently Weeps

6) Don't Let Me Down

5) Taxman (creative video by high school kids)

4) A Day in the Life (Mick Jagger makes an appearance)

3) Rain

2) Revolution

1) Strawberry Fields Forever

How would your Top Ten Non #1 look? Nearly the same? Radically different?

Shalom,
Bobby V

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Beatles - Rain

The Beatles were innovators. One area was making a video for a song. "Rain" is one of my favs that did not reach #1 nor was it ever released but was the "B" side of Paperback Writer.

In a few days I will be listing the "Best Beatles' Tunes" that did no reach #1. I have been struggling with this list for a few days because there is such a great and diverse body of work. Be thinking what your list would have for the Top Ten NON-#1 Beatles tunes.



Happy Friday,

Bobby V

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President Barack Obama

Thoughts on President Barack Obama: A Historic Election

Well it is, thankfully, finally over! We can all collectively exhale at least for a couple of months before some one decides to start campaigning again. This election, regardless of political affiliation, has been historic. The major candidates for the Democratic Party were a woman, Hillary Clinton, and an African-American, Barak Obama. The Grand Old Party (Republican) broke great new ground by including the ever popular (or scorned) Sarah Palin as the VP candidate. She will likely be a 2012 presidential candidate as she seems to have already indicated (see here)

I am not a Democrat and have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate - well maybe just once. Neither am I a Republican. I do know however that Obama's election is a significant event. Today I read a number of "opinions" about the significance for race relations in the US of Obama's overwhelming victory. Three of them are Walter Fluker President Elect Barak Obama: Race Has Been Haunting This Election, Ron Fournier Obama's Transcendence is Beyond Race and Terry Edmonds "Our Journey from Disbelief to Hope to the White House" I have to agree that this election shows we have come a long way.

Within my own non-denomination denomination, the Churches of Christ, we have sometimes forgotten that race does not matter to God. Leon Burns delivered a sermon, published as a tract, at the West Seventh Street Church of Christ in Columbia, TN on March 24, 1957 with the edifying title "Why Desegregation Will Fail." Burns insists that he will present teaching "in the light of common sense, the teaching of God's word" and "what will be best for both races" (p. 1). He insists he will not deal in "prejudice." Burns gives a warped overview of the history of the NAACP and W.E.B. DuBois, blaming the Republican party for being for race equality and then most of all the Supreme Court for its decision of 1954. If it were not for the meddling of ignorant folks no "Negro" would ever have thought about equality. "Had this question been left to the Negroes themselves, it would have never come up" (p. 5).

The real goal of desegregation, according to Burns, is "free and unrestrained intermarriage between Negroes and Whites, and they will not be satisfied until they get it" (p. 6). Much ink is drained from the pen to make this point. Negroes do not care for equal education or economic advantages, the West Seventh Street Church was told, but when they are "whispered in the ear that they will be able to live with White women he is very interested" (p. 7). The only sure way to keep your little girl from marrying a "Negro" is "to teach that child from its first day in school that you do not want him to marry a Negro, and insist that he not form close social ties with Negro children" (p.9). We simply are not to have to do with the "African savage" (p. 13).

Well that was 1957. This passed for Gospel (!) preaching in many churches across this fair land and not just in Churches of Christ. It is something for which we should be ashamed and even confess as abhorrently sinful before the Father. Yes - the election of Barak Obama shows we have come a long way. The way was made by others and we should not forget that. George W. Bush, all partisanship aside, has appointed more African Americans and "minorities" to high level positions than any American president before him (this includes Bill Clinton). Colin Powell and Condelezza Rice are but two examples of grace and competence. Bush's African Policy (see here) is the most robust in history though it has been completely overshadowed by 9/11 and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My thoughts were stimulated by secular authors suggesting that this election is of historic importance for race relations in America. I think they are correct. Both African-Americans and women changed the way we think about who can be a candidate for the Oval Office. My prayers are with President Elect Obama and the beautiful First Lady Michelle.

May the God who is Lord of All and Overlord of History itself grant wisdom, compassion and humility to the man who will be the most powerful man on the planet ... who happens to be black. We've come along way since Leon Burns sermon at West Seventh Street Church of Christ. I suspect there is more work, yet, to be done. But we give glory to God for the progress that has been made.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Van Halen - Crossing Over

A hard to come by track that would have been on Balance. I like the music. It is moving and reflective.

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