Monthly Archives: February 2007

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How do you perceive the Bible?

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(also originally written some months ago)
Warning: Potentially untheological and possibly heretical thoughts to follow.


I don’t think what I am about to share with you will be heretical in any way, but just so that I feel at ease to speak freely I figured I should start with that disclaimer. I should also say that most of what I am about to share with you is not my theological foundation that I would bank on and argue for, it’s just some of the thoughts that have come to mind over the years. If you do not agree with what I share then please discuss, do not argue with me.

When I started to form my beliefs (heavily influenced by my involvement in a church youth group in high school), I was from the beginning a strong believer in the inerrancy of scripture (“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”). If you doubt or call into question the reliability of the Bible then you could call into question the things recorded in the Bible, and then we’d have all kinds of problems. There is plenty of good arguments and evidence to put forth here, but I won’t bother you with that, if your interested you can find plenty elsewhere.

It wasn’t till later, after having taken Greek (more vested interest in believing in inerrancy), and spent a bit of time in some Bible classes, that I began to have some questions. Why all the male-centered, male-dominance of Scripture if it was God inspired? Why these letters and not others from the Early Church? And primarily, why so much time debating, expounding, and extrapolating on every dot and letter? I mean there is a lot of things in there that are pretty straight forward and clear.

First, the male-dominance of the Scriptures has come to bother me. It wasn’t always this way, I being a male did not have a difficult time seeing the Scriptures as meaningful and personal, but I have come to realize my sisters in Christ do not always have the same comfort.

How do you reconcile what you can see as inherent injustice of a patriarchal society with a book of “God Breathed” scripture? I’m not exactly sure.

What I’ve come to settle on, more then argue for or against, or spend time reading long theological academic journals, is that there are a number of things in the scripture that are clear as day to me. Jesus was real and the Sermon on the Mount is one of the most revolutionary texts I’ve ever encountered. I’m compelled to follow this leader. I could and probably will spend my whole life trying to put into practice the teachings of Christ in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and I still won’t quite know how I perceive the Bible as a whole.

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Million-Dollar Murray and The Homeless Guy’s Quick Take

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The Homeless Guy blogged about a great article by Malcolm Gladwell about ending chronic homelessness:

Why homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.
From the article:

“We found that eighty per cent of the homeless were in and out really quickly,” he said. “In Philadelphia, the most common length of time that someone is homeless is one day. And the second most common length is two days. And they never come back. Anyone who ever has to stay in a shelter involuntarily knows that all you think about is how to make sure you never come back.”

Don’t be surprised that the article is a year old. The solution to homelessness has been known for a long time – perhaps we’ve always known it. But, hey, if we can develop an industry that makes money around a social problem, why bother fixing it?

You’ll enjoy the article, the solution is different then one might think. We spend all this money on caring for the byproducts of homelessness (see Million-Dollar Murray’s hospital bill), why not be pro-active and actually prevent or at least make completely unnecessary, the possibility of being without a home?

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Sites for the Socially Conscience: NY Times

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the NY Times ran a neat article about websites raising awareness for the socially conscience. Seems like folks had the same idea I have with Fair Consumers.

The main site they reference is dotherightthing.com which from what I can tell has a pretty neat interface. Basically users submit stories (mostly news stories) about organizations making positive or negative changes in the world. One of the stories I found on there is that Whole Food is the first major US company to convert all of its energy to green sources.

I think this will probably be a good resource for those readers who want to stay up on the news of companies doing social good in the world, but it isn’t so much a site to go and find links to wear to buy fair trade undies. Maybe there is still a niche for Fair Consumers (is that a dumb name?).

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Consumption Junction: A Visual Tour

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Below is a stack of grocery bags, the kind we use as a disposable resource to get our food from the store into our house. It’s not that big a deal, they are expendable, and their just paper right?
Grocery bags
Click on the image above to see what all of our little grocery trips each hour add up to.

(Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number consumed in the US every hour.)

To see more depictions of our consumption check out Chris Jordan’s “An American Self-Portrait”

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The Church’s role in Suburbia

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It could possibly be over a year ago, I asked readers to give me some topics to write on and this was one of the ones that was brought up. I started a draft with just the title and that’s as far as I got until now. Rather then just delete it I figured it’s time to dig in a share my brief thoughts.


I know the person asking this didn’t intend this, but I think I initially have to say the churches role in Suburbia is to be the same as it’s role everywhere, and that is to make the good news of Jesus known to all people. So the role in Suburbia is the same as in the inner city, the war zone, the church buildings, the workplace, the brothel, the senate, the sweatshop, and in the family. So, if we are going to ask about the Suburbs we need to ask about these other places as well, but you can do that within your own church. on to Suburbia…

Let me start with what I do not think the churches role is, because I think it will get to the heart of what is inherent in this question for many people. I think we’ve started asking these sorts of questions about certain places, activities, and lifestyles in order to justify those things. So, by asking and answering the question of “The churches role in Suburbia” we might automatically acknowledge that it is an okay lifestyle and place in which to dwell for a Christian. A Wealthy CEO with a membership to a country club begins to ask, “what is my role as a Christian in this country club” and inevitably the answer will make the assumption that they should continue to be a member of the country club. The church wouldn’t allow the same question to be asked and answered of a drug dealer in a crack house, we would instead acknowledge that the answer must include that they stop dealing drugs. I hope that made some sense.

So, and I’m going to be bold about this, I don’t think the churches role in Suburbia is to live the lifestyle of suburbia and from there have a role of influence (wait though, I’m not saying you can’t live there). I would argue that the church, made of many individuals and families would do much better moving in geographical proximity to those in physical need (which is not in the suburbs), but that is a whole other topic. For now, let’s assume you are living in suburbia. I think our role as the church is to share the good news of Jesus with our neighbors. And before you think I’m talking about the Romans Road sharing the gospel let me clarify.

Suburbia is full of all the things the world tells us will satisfy our souls. White picket fences, SUVs, makeup and fitness machines, electric can openers and pretty pets, big plasma tv’s and our very own swing sets. If your living in suburbia with all this stuff, and your telling your neighbor it’s really Jesus who satisfies you, let me just say it’s going to be a confusing message.

A vision for the church in Suburbia:
Keep your house… for now. Sell all your unnecessary possessions, or even give them away to your neighbors. Tell them they can have those things because they will not truly be satisfied by the stuff, that only Jesus can satisfy. Take the extra money and give it to the poor. In fact, go out and bring the poor to your house for a big banquet. Sell your trendy car and buy a cheaper one with cash, that gets you from A to B. Take the extra cash flow and start sponsoring a child, take in a foster child, donate to the women’s shelter. Pay off your house in a year or two, because the debtor is slave to the lender. Find a church made up of people that look different then you and who worship in a way that might not be the most comfortable for you, you’ll likely have to drive a ways to find this place. Shed your life of anything that might confuse your neighbors, so that when they so your joyous, selfless life, the only thing they can acknowledge as the source of truth in your life is Jesus Christ.

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Weekend Updating: Fixing Things Up

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A quick update on Trying to Follow and other projects around the blogosphere. First of all, I’m going to try and clean things up on here so that I can send my computer in to get fixed tomorrow. The CD drive isn’t working, but the warranty should cover anything that needs to be done.

I’m really hoping the little eikonproject.org marketing project takes off. I’d love to see some grassroots action on this, it just seems like a fun opportunity. Virgil, a friend over at Planet Preterist, posted about it and has sent quite a few visitors this way. We’ll see what happens.

Another project I was starting on was Fair Consumers. I wanted a site that has all the resources, stories, shopping centers, etc. that folks can go to, to find fair trade items and information. Fair Consumers is up and running, so if you want to log-in and add stories or anything else feel free to. It’s a work in progress, and I might not keep it up, but I’d love to hear others thoughts on it.

I also made yogurt the other day. Thanks to a recipe from Beth.

In addition I’ve been fixing up the site to have more interaction and user friendly elements. I’m hoping more reader’s then just Zach stop by and rate the posts. You can give each post up to a three star rating, either on individual posts or from the front page. So if your willing, make an effort to stop by the front page once a week and vote on the quality of that weeks posts. This will help new readers find the worthwhile articles.

I also added an email and print buttons to make it convenient to share what you find here at Trying to Follow.

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National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week

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Considering I’ve worked with teenagers quite a bit, this is something I think more folks need to be aware of. Statistics tell interesting stories, so I think I’ll just leave you with some to get a better understanding on why awareness of this subject is important.

  • Approximately 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.

  • Females ages 16-24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group
    – at a rate almost triple the national average.
  • Between 1993 and 1999, 22% of all homicides against females ages 16-19 were committed by
    an intimate partner.
  • Nearly one-half of adult sex offenders report committing their first sexual offenses prior to the
    age of 18.
  • 58% of rape victims report being raped between the ages of 12-24.

Now that you know some of the facts, let me give you reason to make sure you are raising awareness amongst others about the need to discuss and provide safe places for teens to talk about these things.

  • 81% of parents surveyed either believe teen dating violence is not an issue or admit they don’t
    know if it’s an issue.
  • A majority of parents (54%) admit they’ve not spoken to their child about dating violence.
  • Nearly 25% of 14-17 year-olds surveyed know at least one student who was a victim of dating violence, while 11% know multiple victims of dating violence. 33% of teens have actually witnessed such an event.
  • 20% of surveyed male students report witnessing someone they go to high school with physically hit a person they were dating.
  • 57% of teens know someone who has been physically, sexually, or verbally abusive in a dating
    relationship.
  • 45% of girls know a friend or peer who has been pressured into either intercourse or oral sex.
  • One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked,
    slapped or physically hurt by their dating partner.
  • In 9 out of 10 rapes in which the offender is under 18, so is the victim.
  • When female high school students were asked whom they would talk to if someone they date is attempting to control them, insults them, or physically harms them, 86% percent said they would confide in a friend, while only 7% said they would talk to police.
  • 83% of 10th graders surveyed at the 4th Annual Teen Dating Abuse Summit reported that they would sooner turn to a friend for help with dating abuse than to a teacher, counselor, parent or other caring adult.
  • Only 33% of teens who were in an abusive relationship ever told anyone about the abuse

And this, is one of the most alarming pieces of information:

Both victims and abusers attribute the responsibility for violent dating behavior to victims, caused by: provocation by the girl; the victim’s personality type; the girl’s need for affection; communication problems; and peer group influence.

For more information and to find references for all information listed on this post, check out the American Bar Association, Teen Dating Tool Kits.

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Task: Convey Our Values about Stuff and Kids

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Task: Convey Our Values about Stuff and Kids

Details: Construct a five line paragraph that politely and succinctly conveys Our values as it relates to “things” in an appropriate format to accompany baby shower invites, birth announcements, etc.

Deadline: Februaryish

Necessary Resources: Readers, particularly the motherly kind or folks who attend lot’s of baby showers, basically people with some experience to tell me if what I write will fly or not.

Reference Material: You might recall my first attempt at explaining my values. It’s obviously a little to long, and maybe to in your face.

Rough Draft #1:
Ariah and Mindy have made it a goal in their lives to “live simply.” One way they have carried this out in their lives has been to only take what they can fit in their car each time they’ve moved (3+ times and counting!). Please respect Ariah and Mindy and the values they hold when considering a gift. They are open to suggestions, but please don’t purchase anything for them outside of what they have registered for (they have already received a number of items). Thanks for showing love to the quirky Fine’s we’ve all grown to love for just those reasons!

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Brilliant Guerrilla Marketing: Want to Join?

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One of the fun sites I’m subscribed to is Houtlust, a blog about nonprofit advertising and social campaigns. This was one of the very neat guerrilla marketing (the low cost unconventional kind) tactics I’ve seen listed. I thought it was so cool I figured we should repeat it. Basically they are little image inserts to put inside table tents you see in lot’s of restaurants and coffee shops. I put together the images below.

I figured the best way to sort of track our impact is to put a website at the bottom that I can use as a launching point to organizations we think people should check out. So, we’ll use eikonproject.org, which is actually the name of a group, but the front page will have links to other organizations to give to. What do you think?

If your ready to do a little guerrilla marketing, culture jamming, adventurous fun, then click on the link below and download the pdf. Print off on some card stock preferably with a colored printer and cut those babies out and put them in your nearest coffee shop or restaurant with table tents.
I’ll keep you all updated on how many people check out the site.

Alright Folks, I really need some help here. Post in the Comments if your willing to join me in this endeavor. I want to know how many we put out there and then see how many hits we get on the website (proof that it’s working).

Looking forward to seeing our stuff in action.