A few weeks ago, Mike Simmons introduced me to a wonderful book of his entitled “Be Intolerant”. We both laughed at it (I read a few pages and dropped it), but I think it represents a larger problem of reactionary religion and the failures of Christianity (and the larger religions in general) to adapt to a changing world.

In the past, people were born, lived, and died in the same general geographic area. This is especially true when we talk of prehistoric times, but I believe still held true (for a large part) up until very recently. In a small town, major disagreements were few and experiences were shared among all the members of a community. When little Susie died of typhoid fever, the entire village quaked with her family. This, of course, is an overly simplified model of “how things were”, but it contrasts perfectly with today’s society. Where once people held jobs for their entire lives, nowadays it is not uncommon for a person to change jobs every 2-3 years, with a strong potential for movement. Globalization and the Internet are allowing interactions between people with completely different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and languages. Just as well, we live in an increasingly pluralistic and ethnically diverse country, with varying degrees of success in social integration.

Organized religions of all sorts have taken it upon themselves to both fight and fail to understand this interaction. I’ll take strains of Christianity as an example, since I know them best, but it’s not difficult to see and apply this to the other major religions.

The young-earth movement is still making followers today as America (almost more than any other nation) takes a stand against “macro evolution” and the big bang. While some of the founding fathers of Christianity like Origen and Augustine had relatively few problems taking a less than literal interpretation of Genesis, modern worldviews have major difficulties differentiating between factual and poetic truths and see any sort of concessions in interpretation as a retreat from the fundamental truths of their religion. The $25 million dollar creation museum of Answers in Genesis ministries is probably the best example of this fact, where dinosaurs ate coconuts before the fall (no death!) and boarded the ark in eggs. It’s disheartening to me when Christians are more busy continually convincing themselves that scientists of all sorts are conspiring to forward their atheistic tendencies rather than dealing with evil and relieving suffering.

The question of pluralism is beginning to show its head more clearly as students everywhere notice that the religious traditions of almost every person in their class is different. Does God love America and hate Africa, as evidenced by the huge differential in the proportion of Christians here and there (quick answer: NO!)? The simple solution that “just because everyone disagrees doesn’t mean they’re all wrong” is ceasing to be as powerful as it once was when the number of disagreements was confined to small minorities within a community.

In response to a culture that is becoming increasingly secular, consumerist, and sexual, Christians are forming a subculture of music, movies, websites, television, and books. I think I even saw a commercial for “Christian lawyers” who “respect the Bible’s authority in their profession”. We have GodTube (a YouTube clone), Christian music charts, Christian coffee shops, and Christian clothes. Throwing out all the “worldly” CDs and videogames has become something of a rite of passage for Christian youth.

The suggestion of the book I mentioned earlier, that we “be intolerant…in love” is earning for Christianity a name we don’t want: unloving. Despite our capacities to convince ourselves of anything, condemnation is never loving.

Yet despite all these difficulties, Christianity in its present state is still flourishing. Making the intellectual jumps required are aided by a large cushioning group of people who are already there to encourage you (oftentimes this is the primary draw for cults), and maintaining a worldview that no longer adequately describes the world is possible by conducting a mental bombardment of media and conversation in accord with your current philosophy. Is this a good thing?

Julian Huxley once noted that Christianity has been able to survive for so long because of the capacity to interpret it a number of different ways that change with the culture of the times. Yet for the first time, Christianity has found a way to interpret “in the world, but not of it” as a rationale to establish a counter-culture, rather than living radically within the current society. I think this, if history has shown much, requires a very delicate balance as moving too far away from reality as it is perceived by the people of the day provides for the entire collapse of the movement.

So what does this all mean? I really am in no place to tell you outright. You’ll have to decide that for yourself. But this is what I’ve been thinking…

A change in times and a change in culture requires changes in perception. There’s no need to “water down” the message, but there is a need to continually adapt our perception of the gospel to current times. Maintaining an archaic (or in some cases, pre-archaic) perception of reality is not required for faith, and by putting it there we are doing more harm than good both in current believers and potential converts who are finding it increasingly hard to believe. Science, for example, is not an enemy of religion. Science begins to cause problem when we prod the militant atheists into thinking education has gone down the tubes (and statistics are saying it has) while they ignore the psychological imperative of religion in the lives of the people around them.

Most of all, as conversations with Matt Copeland have beautifully illuminated, we must remain sensitive the words of God (and not just the Bible). We cannot so drown ourselves in some sort of cheap culture that we are unable to hear the voice of the divine who, in the past, spoke through fiery mountains and brilliant flashes of light amidst “I could sing of your love forever”. Let us move forward in time as we fully love others, love God, and let God love us, not stopping to try and create a theocracy or force the world to bow to our preconceptions of it.

Lastly, please don’t take my criticisms as some sort of polemic against Christianity. It is my heart that we represent God as clearly and accurately as possible, not to destroy Christianity. Let me know how I’m doing.

Live like you are dying can be an insanely stupid mantra. The lives of dying people in hospitals are rarely peachy and meaningful. But until death becomes a critical part of our view of life, we cannot pretend to value time. Without death, time has no meaning, 1/infinity is 0. But 1/80? Significance falls from heaven, death is a gift from God. But don’t go goth with this one, please.

When people look back on their college experience, almost never will you hear recollections of learning how to do a triple integral over a change of coordinates, or what was the most correct title for the “civil war”. You might hear stories of how crazy they were, the friends they made, maybe how they changed. I don’t even know. But when I look back at my experiences (for this year anyways), I see something of a painful transformation. Maybe a long due period of “self-discovery”, I don’t care. I see some stupid stuff (like hide and go seek in Wal-Mart? at 3:00am?), but most of all I see a lot of people. I think things will continue to be this way, because life is extremely relational. You’ll lose this if you’re caught up in being everyone’s friend. You’ll lose this if you happen upon a girl or boyfriend too early and spend your time entirely with them. You’ll lose this if you grow up and become a loner who spends time with his/her family and spouse and work. Don’t lose this.

I am now a figure of your past,
In full color I stand, the same as I’ve been,
I’m always beside you, I’m still your friend,
But we’ll meet in memories, and I’ll like you forever,
We’ll share the times we always did,
We’ll sing songs, and joke, and kid,
This tie is stronger than distance,
This relationship can withstand death,
Because I’m your friend, a figure of your past.

There are a lot of wonderful people in my past. Some of them are still in my life today, some of them are very far from it, most of them are still alive. Yet one of the challenges of growing up is moving on, taking steps, yet growing in love by meeting new friends, while still loving the old ones. There is no value in “branching out” if you lose those vital connections that make up your roots. Yet without leaves, and branches, and seeds, a tree may never grow.

I guess in a sappy way, if anyone comes across this as a figure of my past, I want to say that I still love you. I do. We may not have talked in years, you may not remember me, but when you cross my mind I am forced to smile. You’re not forgotten.

In a society where friendships are just social connections to pull you through a leg in life, to weather a hard time, or to get a job, it’s very easy to feel used and left behind. But there’s some value in a (potentially ignorant) hope that I mean as much to the people behind me as they do to me.

What I see within myself is a gradual weathering away of memories, some sort of erosion of experience such that what is left is only described as pleasant. That’s foolish, I know to summarize my life with a word like pleasant sounds arrogant or horrendously lucky. But it’s not the actual events, it’s my perception of it now. It takes time, but it’s good. I know I’ve done some horrible things to people, I’ve made mistakes, I’ve suffered, that’s clear, but what strikes me is not these events in time (though they’re not completely forgotten) but an interaction between “souls” if you will. The collision of two consciousnesses in space and time, and the value in that. It’s funny to me because it’s not something that is immediately clear to me. When I meet someone, I don’t realize then what I will go through, I don’t see the depths of their person, I can’t. I can guess, but I won’t know. But looking back I have a progressively clearer picture of exactly what that moment in time meant, and for some odd reason I am thankful.

To all the people who have been in my life, for significant lengths of time, or short times that were endlessly significant, thanks. I will never be able to express my appreciation for what you’ve done, but I love you.