Pandemonium in the Church: Gossip

In October 2007, a new TV series called Gossip Girl begin airing in the United States after having enjoyed its first airing in Canada in September of the same year. Gossip Girl is an American drama television series based on the popular book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. Narrated by the omniscient yet unseen blogger "Gossip Girl," the series revolves around the lives of socialite teenagers growing up on New York City's Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with friends, family, jealousy, and other issues.

As as a Christian, husband, father, and young adult Pastor I take seriously the truths and principles set forth in what I believe to be the word of God, the Bible. With that being said I have come to notice (even within myself) that professing Christians appear to have an affinity or predisposed proclivities to gossip. We like to talk. We like to talk about other people's lives and the challenges and issues they are facing. We like to talk about the problems they are having relative to the manner that we feel they should be handling it or otherwise. There is something about gossip that attaches itself to the desires of our Adamic nature, seemingly a death grip in disguise.

Gossip Girl and other shows with similar characteristics have injected post-modern, Enlightenment, and Kantian ideologies that have made us feel comfortable with offering our judgments and supplanting our ideas into other people's lives thereby making ourselves "living gossip columns." When I mention the Enlightenment I am referring to the European intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason referring to philosophical developments related to scientific rationality in the 17th and 18th centuries. Ok, that's enough technical information, however, that age brought in an ideology of individualism that the world has yet to recover from. It basic tenet was that since I am a free individual, I am free to do what I want, when, how, and where I want, and if someone asks why, my individualism exempts from the obligation of explanation.

My next post will address very specific questions concerning this issue of gossip. They are as follows:

1. When is gossip, gossip?
2. Is gossip only when we malign someone else?
3. Is false testimony about ourselves gossip?
4. Does it make any difference who we are talking about, or what we are talking about?
5. When is it okay to talk about someone else?
6. How about in the use of an example in ministry?
7. Can we do it without names?
8. What are our motives?
9. Is our heart true or vindictive and self satisfying?
10. What is the purpose of bringing up a name or a situation if it’s not glorifying to God?
11. How does gossip affect our walk with the Lord?

See you next time!

A Re-Awakening

It has been quite a while since I last posted a blog. I have literally been consumed by seminary papers, reading, family, church, work, the planning of my yearly conference, etc., and then I noticed that I had neglected the task of writing. This blog had become my outlet, in essence, my "fun" writing, and it was a timely stress reliever. Recently, I was rushed to the hospital for chest pains and numbness on my left side. The entire time all I could think about was Fred Sandford and "The Big One." Fortunately, it was not the "Big One" and the doctor informed me of some things that I knew and had consistently ignored for the past year, namely exercise and better eating habits. He discouraged a diet at this time, but did speak candidly about portion control.

Our bodies will not take care of themselves and it is not always the devil attacking us. We have to do what we are supposed to do. I just came back from walking a mile this morning and I'm glad that I had enough in me to get up and do it. I'll make my way up to at least three miles a day and then I'll join a a gym to begin toning and shaping. Contrary to popular belief, I still have a lot of muscle and don't really need the weights. It's going to be all cardio for me. Please pray for me that I don't get weary in well doing.

Do You Know What You Believe?

As I am afforded the opportunity to preach and teach the Word of God, there is one thing that is noticeable far above anything else: Christians do not know what they believe.

There are very few Christians who understand their faith and consequently are not able to give a reasoned presentation of what they believe and why they believe it. This signals that we are lacking the knowledge of key essentials of the faith, particularly in this generation.

There's nothing wrong with not knowing something; it becomes problematic when we choose to remain in the darkness of ignorance.

This blog will focus on essential Christian doctrines; primarily from a Protestant perspective.

Let's simply start with some base definitions. What is doctrine? Doctrine means "teaching." It is a belief (or a system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative. For Christians the authoritative book of doctrine is the Bible which we believe to be God's infallible Word that has been preserved for us.

In his book, “Unmasking The Cults” - which addresses cults of Christianity (as defined by theology), Dr. Alan W. Gomes writes,

"Central doctrines" of the Christian faith are those doctrines that make the Christian faith Christian and not something else.

The meaning of the expression "Christian faith" is not like a wax nose, which can be twisted to mean whatever the speaker wants it to mean.

1. The Christian faith is a definite system of beliefs with definite content (Jude 3)

2. Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. These doctrines so comprise the essence of the Christian faith that to remove any of them is to make the belief system non-Christian.

3.Scripture teaches that the beliefs mentioned above are of central importance (e.g., Matt. 28:19; John 8:24; 1 Cor. 15; Eph. 2:8-10).Because these central doctrines define the character of Christianity, one cannot be saved and deny these. Central doctrines should not be confused with peripheral issues, about which Christians may legitimately disagree.

4. Peripheral (i.e. non-essential) doctrines include such issues as the timing of the tribulation, the method of baptism, or the structure of church government. For example, one can be wrong about the identity of "the spirits in prison" 1 Peter 3:19) or about the timing of the rapture and still go to heaven, but one cannot deny salvation by grace or the deity of Christ (John 8:24) and be saved.

5. All Christian denominations — whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant — agree on the essential core. The relatively minor disagreements between genuinely Christian denominations, then, cannot be used to argue that there is no objectively recognized core of fundamental doctrine which constitutes the Christian faith.

- Source: Source: Alan Gomes, Cult: A Theological Definition, excerpt from "Unmasking The Cults" Zondervan Publishing Company (May 11, 1995)

Stay tuned for the next blog: Man's Problem, God's Solution.

Race, Religion, and Politics: The Black Christian Perspective

This is an old article I did during the primary season that I posted on another blog of mine that you may want to check out.

The historic nature of this year’s election season, in particular the Democratic race, can be described in one word: historic. Politics may not be your “cup of tea”, but when a democratic national debate can effectively compete with the viewers of the ever-popular “American Idol”, it assures us that we are living in an extraordinary, if not unparalleled moment in our nation’s history.

With respect and due deference to the African-American plight in America and how much further we have yet to go, let’s pause for a moment and “smell the flowers” as it were, and look at how far we’ve actually come: for the first time in America we have two traditional minorities, an African-American male and a white female, one of which will have the opportunity to be a candidate for President of the United States. This is not to discount the enormity or importance of what Jesse Jackson accomplished in 1988, (Barack and Hilary are both standing on his shoulders), but the meteoric rise of two non-traditional candidates in an arena largely dominated by white males is exceptional and unmatched in our nation’s history. Call it what you want, but this is history in the making.

This year’s political race has even injected new vernacular into our everyday conversation. We’ve become more familiar with words like divisive, incendiary, and substantive, just to name a few. We’ve witnessed a genuine interest from the college demographic, not seen since the 70’s. Sitcom and reality favorites have had to take a back seat to presidential debates featured on the same night. Voter turnout has skyrocketed to historic highs while major sporting events have played second fiddle to breaking news in the current political arena.

It has been the “War of Words”, as each candidate is forced to choose each word so carefully as not to offend or become an affront to current or future supporters. They are constantly under microscopic critique, assessment, and evaluation each primary and caucus as voters are faced with decisions that will undoubtedly change the course of American history.

So as we thankfully, yes thankfully, come to the close of yet another Bush era, what roles do race and religion play in a society that is set to make a paradigm shift that certainly will become the reference point of gender and race progressivism for generations to come?

As African-Americans I think that it is extremely difficult to see ourselves outside of the experience of slavery, educational and economic genocide, societal prejudices, and years of social injustice. It has been just 44 years since we were given the right to vote. Black executives (men or women) in the public and private sector are as noticeable as growing grass, the disparity in public education in minority vs. white neighborhoods has actually increased since Brown vs. Board of Education, and housing in minority neighborhoods, in particular African-American neighborhoods is so disproportionate to that of whites living in the same city, is egregious and unacceptable in this day and age.

And so it is a natural response that we begin to look for a savior of sorts, someone like us who looks like us, but has been chosen to rise above the issues that have tyrannized us for years, someone who is brazen, bold, and gallant, who will lead the way to freedom and justice. The African-American has had many “saviors.” Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, (yes, even Malcolm ya’ll), Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr., just to name a few, and I do mean just a few. The question now is where does Barack Obama fit into the scope of African-American “deliverers?” Is he the one? Is he our Neo? Can he deliver us from this matrix of monotony and ennui?

Drum roll please…

Sadly, the answer is no.

The answer would be the same if we were talking about Kwesi Mfume, Al Sharpton, (don’t laugh) Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, (again, don’t laugh) J.C. Watts, Condoleezza Rice, Roland S. Martin (start watching CNN for crying out loud), or any other black leader for that matter. None of them could provide the permanency of freedom, equality, and justice that we as a black nation are looking for.

None of them.

None of them have the power to stop racism. None of them have the power to bring about true justice and equality, and fellowship among all men and women. Admittedly, they have the power to change the laws of the land, but they don’t have the power to transform the human heart.

As we remember our struggle in light of what lies ahead the words of Frederick Douglass seem to reverberate louder than ever when he stated, “Without struggle, there is no progress.” And even more pointedly the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom we know as the Strong Deliverer, when he said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)