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What makes us who we are? A fruitful class exercise.

11/20/2010

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What makes us who we are? This is one of the most fruitful questions I ask students in many of my classes. 
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This isn't St. Sebastian. It's each of us.
I draw a stick-figure on the blackboard. Inevitably, one student will say "our personality," to which I respond, "So where does our personality come from? What are the most basic building blocks of our humanity?" Then the answers start flowing.
"Genetics" "Physiology" "Biology" "Brain chemistry"
Me: Good. How many of those things do we choose?
Students: None.
Me: Right.  What else influences us?
Students: Family. Schools. Neighborhood. Church. Culture. Geography.
Me: Good. How many of THOSE things do we choose?
Students: None.
Me: Good.  We could also talk about nutritional habits, which are significantly cultural but we have a bit more "choice," our friendships, some of which seem to "just happen" while others seem more selective... 
 Other things come up.  We discuss advertising and other media which no one wants to personally admit being influenced by but everyone thinks other people are influenced.  I often ask how many of them seriously considered NOT going to college.  It is usually very few.  We talk about different kinds of experiences (positive and traumatic), teachers and youth ministers that they did not choose but who had significant influence.
At this point many of them are reeling and ready to become full blown socio-biological Calvinists.
Then I ask some version of this question:
"Do you think people decide to be (fill in the blank - racists, murderers, thieves, child-abusers)?"
Some students at this point might say: "Well no one MAKES them do it!" to which I reply, "So why do some people make those "decisions" and others don't?" 
At this point, the exercise has a number of directions we can take it.  The most basic is this:
"We all showed up in this classroom together having made very few (if any) real autonomous choices for ourselves.  At best, we chose from a very particular and narrow range of options, given that the most determinative aspects of our decision making capacity AND the menu of options were NOT under our control.  We are who we are, so let's try to be honest about our perspectives in here and give each other grace.  Let's allow each other to try out new ideas and perspectives without labeling or feeling like we have to embrace a whole new identity.  We are not fully formed, so we can challenge each other to think differently.  You each are now an unchosen influence on the others." 
I'll demonstrate some other directions to take this exercise in future posts.

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Evangelism, Vicious Babies and a "Failure to Communicate"

11/8/2010

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Nick:  Uh... So, why am I going to hell? (my very intelligent and funny student Nick Sterling assures me that this conversation from his high school days is nearly verbatim)

Her: Well… you see… it has do with the commandments. When we break them, even once, we go to hell.

Nick: Oh, I’ve heard of those. You mean like no killing, no stealing, no being bad? How did I break those?

Her: Well, we murder every day.

Nick: …. …. .… what? …. …. …. you do? (uncomfortable)

Her: I mean… well yeah. Like, when I don’t want to tip a waitress. What I’m really doing is thinking about how I would want her to be dead. So I’m really killing her.

Nick: What!?

Her: I mean that in my head, that’s the intent. That’s what we all do.

Nick: Uhh….okay .… …. well I really like to tip waitresses. I think that they work hard, and I like to surprise them with a good tip so that they can continue to support their families.

Her: See! You’re taking advantage of the waitress; you’re using the opportunity to leave the tip for your own satisfaction.

Nick: …. …. …. …. (nervously wiggling thumbs together)

Her: So you’re really killing her because you’re denying her humanity and taking advantage of an opportunity.

Nick: … okay… and I also have the intent to give to the waitress.

Her: But you’re covering up your real intentions in your head. You see, you’re also lying to yourself, breaking another commandment. We can’t help sinning. We do it all the time because we’re evil.

Nick: So this Christianity… the way you’re twisting my words… it’s like a trap?

Her: That’s the way it is for everyone. We all do these kinds of sinful things, and we’re all sinners.

Nick: You’re now seriously saying that I’m a sinner? I thought that you were joking before.

Her: Yes. We’re all sinners, and evil. All humans… We all are sinners.  We're born sinful.

Nick: You’re telling me that a little baby, when it pops out, is evil? You’re saying that it has evil intentions and would kill waiters if it could? Why did God make us if he knew that we would be bad?

Her: Well… essentially, yes. But God didn’t make us evil. We chose that ourselves.

Nick: What sort of insane religion says that babies are evil!? They can’t even wipe themselves! How can a baby choose to be evil?

Her: Well… it’s Adam… you know?

Nick: Wait… you mean…. like… “the” Adam. The guy with the fig newton leaf? You really believe that story?

Her: Of course The Bible says it, and the Bible is God’s word. Everything in it is true.

Nick: … … … I’m confused. It sounds like I’m missing some terminology. So how does Adam make babies want to kill waiters?

Her: Oh that’s easy! Adam sinned against God, and so we all are sinful because of that. It’s called the “original sin.”

Nick: Wait, so a naked fruit-eating man made me pop out one day… … … as a vicious baby, instead of a cuddly, harmless, innocent one?

Her: You see, since we all come from Adam’s seed, we’re all sinful. And because we –

Nick: (extremely uncomfortable) wait! … … … did you just say “seed?” (I point to a plant)

Her: Okay well. Um. Since he sinned, then we are all sinners. And since we are all sinners, we’re all going to hell if we don’t accept Jesus as our savior. He saves us from being burned in hell for eternity.

Nick: (exhausted) Oh.

Perhaps incredibly, Nick IS in fact a Christian today; one of the most thoughtful I know.  However, he still does not believe that babies want to kill waiters, so I guess he's a little unorthodox.  Must be all that "emergent" stuff floating around.
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unChristian Biblical Worldview Part 3 - Youth For Truth?

10/26/2010

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In my first post, I gave an overview of two pieces of Barna Group research ("Biblical Worldview"/BWV and the perceptions of non-Christian).  Here, I would like to highlight one philosophical (the nature of "truth") and one demographic factor (the generation gap). 

In David Kinnaman's excellent presentation for Messiah College's 2010 Next Generation Symposium, he stated that 3% of 18-29 year olds and 9% of 30+ year olds have a BWV, while Barna reports that less than .05% of adults 16-24 years old have a BWV.  On one hand, this doesn't suprise me.  In my informal survey of 70 undergraduate students at Messiah College (a private Christian institution), only 7 had read the entire Bible.  How could the general population be expected to have anyone's sort of Biblical Worldview? However, I can't help return to some even more basic considerations.  

First, the BWV that Barna went looking for insisted on agreement with (at least) 2 propositions that younger adults would be likely to resist affirming: the existence of absolute moral truth and the accuracy of the Bible in all that it teaches.  Let it be noted that only 34% of the population and 46% of all of Barna's "born-again Christians" agreed on the former (absolute moral truth).  I suspect that in all cases, this has more to do with epistemological humility (our capacity to discern absolute moral truth) and awareness of moral complexity (is it wrong to lie/kill/steal to save a life?) than complete moral relativism.  On the latter item (Biblical accuracy in all it teaches), I suspect that "accurate" is the wrong word here on several levels:

First, most young adults are probably more versed in the "Scopes Trial" inquisition of William Jennings Bryan that clearly calls "accuracy" into question.  Even Bryan could not uphold complete "accuracy."

Second, is "accurate" the right word to describe the imperative to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," or "love your neighbor as yourself"?  It might be quite easy to affirm the rich "truth" of these statements, but "accurate"?  Are the Psalms and Proverbs "accurate"?  Is it accurate to say that blessing will fall upon those who would take the child of a Babylonian and dash it against a rock (Ps. 137)?  Still, this verse communicates the "true" rage of the exiles in brutal poetry.  The survey could not get at such nuances, but that is the problem with surveys and perhaps surveyors.  The other day, my son was doing an online learning exercise when I overheard the computer instruct him that "a fact is something that is true." It is the classic Modernist flaw to turn this around to say that "only those things which are facts (ie. accurate) are 'true.'"  The BWV survey falls into this trap, as demonstrated by Barna's book, Think Like Jesus.  This fact/truth equivalency is a more fundamental element of Barna's own worldview than any of the items on the Barna BWV list.  It is common sense to many (southern White Protestant?) older adults and it is not for many younger adults.  David K. Naugle's Worldview: The History of a Concept points out that any definition of "worldview" is actually dependent upon the pre-existing worldview of the person who constructs the definition.  I challenged the selection of BWV items in the last post.  Here, I want to challenge the prioritization of worldview itself:

"Worldview" as a crucial category and concept goes back to Kant (1724-1804), among Christians to James Dorr and Abraham Kuyper (c. 1840-1920) and among American evangelicals only to late-20th century leaders Francis Schaeffer and Chuck Colson.  This is a new phenomenon and I have used the language of worldview frequently myself and often found it helpful.  Though Tertullian (160-225) asked "What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?" many early Christians freely defined Christianity as a philosophy.  Others have been quite comfortable with their "religion," but today many evangelicals want to define themselves as "followers of Jesus" and comment that, "Christianity isn't really a "religion," it's a 'relationship.'"  Is it a worldview?  Is it helpful for evangelicals to think about increasing the percentage of people (or Christians) who ascribe to the Barna BWV? 

Barna defines "worldview" as "the product of all the information, ideas and experiences you absorb to form the values, morals and beliefs that you possess (Think Like Jesus p.19)."  If this is the case, then it is massively naive to insist that there could ever BE a desirable static worldview shaped by the Bible, since the Bible can only ever be one element (even if it is the most significant element) in one's worldview.  Everyone who opens the Bible and everyone opens themselves TO the Bible, does so with a culturally influenced WV already in place.  For instance: The Bible by itself will NOT provide anyone with the fact/truth equivalency assumed by Barna, and perhaps by polling in general.

At Messiah College, Kinnaman pointed out that 57% of 18-29 year olds had a commitment to Jesus, with no BWV as did 66% of 30+ year olds.  After doing a tiny bit of demographic research and rudimentary math, I can say that without BWV, the ratio of 18-29 y.o-s. commited to Jesus compared to 30+y.o-s. commited to Jesus was about 1 to 4.  The ratio of these age-groups with BWV was about 1 to 11.  The Barna BWV construction results in generationally divisive judgements and programs designed to assimilate younger people to some theoretically more foundational Christian position than Jesus.  Socialization of youth is a normal and natural part of any healthy community or society, but so is change.  The conversation will continue, but I've said enough.
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    Matt Hunter, Ph.D

    Multidisciplinary religious scholar and practitioner

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