church issues

This morning during the church service (I don't think I can call it worship) the pastor did his standard introductory sermon to his regular sermon. He shared two lists which I found sort of interesting. He talked about hearing college age students talk about issues they are concerned with. He apparently asked them what issues their churches discuss and talk about. I don't know who these young people were, but this was the first list he shared. He titled it "Issues churches deal with according to young people." These were free will v predestination, which version of the Bible to use, style of music, length of the church service and sermon, and how often to have communion.

The next list was titled "Life issues of College Age Students." These included racism, the environment, energy conservation, war and gun violence, world hunger and population, alcohol and drug use, parent's divorce, finding and job and paying for college, finding a sense of community and the impacts of the latest technology.

As you can see there aren't many similarities between the two lists which leads to questions about if the church should be addressing these issues and if so, how should they be addressed. Unfortunately, one of the problems is that if the issues above are mentioned, you will generally get tagged with the "liberal" label, which here in the cornfields, isn't generally seen as a good thing. Trust me on that. The other problem is that at least one of the issues above can not be talked about honestly and that is the use of alcohol. The "official" line is that alcohol is bad and shouldn't be touched. There is an old joke that if you don't want a Mennonite to drink all your beer, make sure you invite at least two, then you will have it all to yourself.

The other interesting observation is to note what issues did not make the second list. Notably absent are issues of sexuality (including homosexuality) and abortion, issues which older people assume younger ones should care about but apparently don't.

From this introduction the pastor went into his main sermon based on Jesus calling the disciples. The focus was on the "call" and "making a decision to respond to the call." Yesterday was a long day, and I have to admit I think I dozed off a bit.

As I thought about church, I have to say I don't hear much discussion about issues on the first list which I suppose is a good thing. Still I think there is "an understanding" that good Christians read from the NIV, listen to Christian radio, have read the Left Behind series, and are content to sit through long sermons.

Sadly, I don't hear much discussion at church about the second list either, though at least once a month we hear something about the evils of alcohol. Issues I have heard discussed to some degree are - evolution (bad), six-day creation, 6,000 year old earth (good), dinosaurs on the ark (just plain sad), gun control (ain't nobody gonna take my shotgun away), taxes (bad), ethanol (good if you raise corn, not so good if you don't), Cubs or Cardinals (there is a real divide in the congregation), Hawkeye sports (Ferentz- good, Licklitter-give him another year) and the weather. In reality there don't seem to be good places at church where issues on the second list can be discussed. There seems to be a tendency to avoid bringing up issues which may cause conflict so it is easier to assume everyone agrees and the issue doesn't need to be mentioned. Or if someone does bring something up people won't respond directly to the person involved.
For example, there were those who didn't appreciate the trip I took to the West Bank with a Christian Peacemaker Team, but I didn't find this out till later, and then only indirectly. They apparently didn't want to hurt my feelings.

So why do I keep going back? I have to admit that it isn't for the Sunday morning service. If anything it is because of the people in the Sunday School class I attend, along with some of the other people at church. The class is a place where lots of issues are discussed and to use a phrase from the second list, I "find a sense of community."

To bring this to an end, it may be one reason some students are eager to discuss these issues at school. It just gets tricky when after a discussion, a student asks me directly, "what do you think?" Sometimes I'm saved by the bell, sometimes I respond with more questions for them, orsometimes a story. Occasionally I say what I think and then wonder how many calls or emails I will receive.

Thermopylae

Not long ago I finished reading Thermopylae by Paul Cartledge. The subtitle is The Battle that Changed the World. When our local library gets a new book of history I try to get it read in hopes that it will encourage them to expand their non-fiction selections. Cartledge describes the battle between the Spartans and Persia under Xerxes. I haven't seen the movie 300, but it is the battle on which the movie is based.

What I found interesting was in the description of the Spartans as being extremely religious, not something I would have thought about before. Cartledge describes how the Spartans sacrificed animals to examine the entrails to see what the gods were telling them and how they consulted oracles. During the events leading up to the battle, Cartledge describes the many times Sparta's leaders made their decisions based primarily on religous reasons rather than political or strategic factors. I am certainly no expert on Greek history but this did get me to thinking and some questions came to mind.
Do societies with a strong military need to bolster that with religious beliefs? Does the militarism grow out of the religious beliefs, or are the religous beliefs used as a tool to bolster the militarism?
From my perspective the U.S. is a militaristic society. The country spends more on its military than the next several countries combined. Depending on how it is figured, at least half of the national budget is devoted to the military. So the next question I have been thinking about is how religion has been manipulated so that today it seems most evangelical Christians in the US are strong supports of the military and the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Do they just assume like the Spartans did that the gods want us to go to war, or to continue fighting, and since god is on their side the U.S. will "win." The other part of this is to see how the evangelical church has been corrupted. How it has discarded the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount for a militaristic conquering hero. Or to go back to the Spartans, how all the gods and goddess were portrayed wearing military equipment, even Aphrodite.