Welcome KPAX Television Viewers  1/22/10

This week’s column represents the evolution of Clothman.

On the one hand, I had a difficult time allowing myself to write it because I knew one sentence would be disturbing to my Evangelical friends. On the other hand (because there’s always another hand), I was strongly compelled to write this column because I wanted to point out what I see are dangerous expectations of some over-confident Christians as well as the loss skeptics may experience by totally dismissing Jesus.

Obviously, I overcame my personal conflict and chose to write the column. Still, I went over it and over it to try and state my opinion with as little offense as possible to my friends. That isn’t easy because conservative Christians can be quite touchy about their beliefs. I know this for two reasons: 1) I was one for over two decades. And 2) I was excommunicated a few years ago because I no longer believe all of the conservative Christian party line.

One of the areas where I’ve had a change of belief is what I now see is a dangerously inflated confidence of knowing who God is and how he behaves – based upon “our” correct interpretation of the Bible. The assumption is that no one else has as accurate of an interpretation as “us” and thus “they” need to be shown the truth and the light – “our” truth and light.

Like a good conservative leader, I tried to teach my flock to be kind and loving to everyone, but we also knew we (and others who thought like us) were the only ones who were getting it right. If we loved others it was primarily to help them see our light. If they refused to agree with our beliefs we stayed polite to them but basically wrote them off – as many now write me off. (Of course there are many conservative Christians who don’t fit that profile and are genuinely loving toward all.)

In my initial draft of the column I included a line that said something like this: “Being overly confident of who God is and how he behaves is a dangerous thing because there is a fine line between being so certain about God and making oneself out to be God.”

The Clothman Car Giveaway has brought me back to life - on my website. As all of you incredibly faithful Clothreaders know, I’ve been terribly absent from this page for months now. I’ve explained some of the reasons why in the past; basically, family issues and work plowed me under.

For a season I had no social life either here on my website or in real life. All of my time was allocated to taking care of the business at hand. In fact, neither Clothwoman nor I had any time to train for or do triathlons which, as you know, are a big part of our lives. I can now appreciate folks who are in a situation where it takes all they have to just get through the immediate challenges of life.

However, Clothwoman and I have now moved all three of our living parents here to Missoula (from Idaho and Washington). They are settled in their apartments and nursing home and have taken care of most of the Trapper Peak size pile of paperwork that moving senior citizens require. We’ve also cleared out, cleaned up and either sold or rented both of the family homesteads. WHEW! I’ve also sewed up much of the time consuming investment phases of all my latest real estate development adventures so I can pretty much chill for the winter – pun intended.

But enough whining…

A few weeks ago we had a Resurrection Party at which we invited many of our friends and family over for a huge barbeque to let folks know that we were still alive and kicking in Missoula. I reckon that this blog is like my Resurrection Party for all of you beloved Clothreaders on the Internet. I’m back and I’m bold and I’m still going bald!

I’m so looking forward to once again have time to do what I love most (apart from sex and watching Montana Grizzly football) … and that is writing. I’ve missed stringing together these tiny little letters and watch them turn into thoughts and pictures, but as Clint Eastwood once hissed, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I just had to lay down the alphabet for a season.

Okay, here’s the deal. First, I’ve been trying to switch my main income stream away from pastoral income to real estate and writing. Or more accurately, zero income from ministry. That has required a personal self-retraining of career fields since I had seven years of formal religious training, 25 years of pastoral experience and zero years experience in real estate and business. It has also taken up a surprising amount of time and energy – especially in this crazy economy.

Second, I’m really expanding beyond the narrow definition of faith that I used to have. The way I was trained, and too many times the way I used to teach and preach, was that we had it right and everyone else, though well meaning, was wrong. (How’s that for a run on sentence.) Our goal, my goal, was to get everyone else to think like me. I no longer think like that.

Third, I’m moving further and further away from the tradition model of church. Not only do I find it increasingly difficult to lead traditional worship services, I’m having a more difficult time even attending them.

Fourth, I just haven’t known how to talk about this much without offending a whole bunch of people in the process. I used to be worried about what people might think about me but I’m happy to say that I’m finally starting to move away from that ego-centric place.

All of that means that I haven’t done much updating to my website because I either don’t have the time or the energy or the desire to do so. This transition in my life has taken much more time than I ever thought it would. I reckon I’m finally starting to come out the other side – only to realize that all of life, if we are open and honest with discovery, is a constant transition.

Finally, someone asked me just yesterday if I would chronicle this transitional odyssey in my life for others to follow along with. I found that interesting because that was the way I always used to write – honestly and openly about what was going on in my life. I’ve gotten so much heat and indeed persecution from doing that over the last few years that frankly I moved into a safer, less heated, less honest style of writing. Yuck!

Perhaps I can get back into the groove.

Whew! My Top 10 Religion Stories of 2008 column took forever to write. It required a ton of research and thought – far beyond what a column normally does. Good thing it is the middle of winter in Montana and I have nothing better to do with my time than make lists.

That said, I had a blast writing it because – well I like lists, I’m an anal kind of dude. Beyond that, this list revealed what I’ve been saying for the past few years – major changes are coming to the world in general and America and organized religion in particular.

Take top story #4 for example, the Pew findings. The Greatest Generation could not conceive of a church world where nearly half of the children would leave their childhood denomination early in life; yet that is exactly what is happening right now. Many of those go to other denominations; many simply drop out of church altogether. Such a demographic can and is having a tremendous impact upon all churches and denominations.

I look forward to addressing some of these issues when I write my follow-up column to this one next week. As teaser, on the topic of the Pew findings I think denominations are going the same direction as the Big Three automakers in Detroit.

But my favorite religion story of 2008 and the one that I pray will become the most significant, is the one I put at the top of the list: Muslim and Christian Dialogue. I simply couldn’t stop the excitement that built within me as I read those two documents. I will comment more in my follow-up column, but could the love of God finally be starting to win over the hatred of humans between these two great religions? Could we begin working together to quiet the violent voices and acts of the fundamentalists and radicals within our own ranks?

I grew up on a third world country (northern Idaho) so having little money to spend for Christmas wasn’t any different than having little money to spend for food, clothing and housing. It was as natural as wearing patched secondhand pants and old socks for mittens.

Thus, all of the hullabaloo about people not having a lot of money to spend on Christmas this year doesn’t have me very stirred up. So what! We don’t need to spend a lot of money at Christmas to have a great time with family and friends celebrating Jesus’ birth. In fact, it just might be that not spending a lot of money might cause us to actually have a better time with one another.

Without all of those presents distracting us perhaps we will naturally find ourselves more focused on family and friends and God.

I’ve had a lot of opportunities to visit with lots of people facing the soon and certain end of their life. Not one of them has ever told me they wished they had bought more stuff; nearly all wished they had spent more time with their loved ones. Interestingly, those who don’t have any regrets in this area are typically folks who spent more time with family and friend then money on them.

So this economic downturn seems to a silver lining doesn’t it? Less can lead to more.

I won’t lie, extremists are really starting to bug me. Here’s the latest example of people living by fear and anger instead of by faith and love.

Dan Cooper owns Cooper Firearms just south of where I live. I’ve had the privilege of meeting him a couple of times and he has generously donated some of his custom make rifles for raffle items to help support the youth and handicapped hunts that High Point Outdoor Adventures sponsors every year. Not only is Dan a fine man, his company indeed builds some of the best firearms in North America.

Well just this week, Dan was forced to leave his company. Why? Because he supports Barack Obama. Yip, that’s his crime.

Somehow, word of his support for Obama got out and spread like wildfire over the Internet. Soon fear driven, angry people began calling for a boycott of Cooper Firearms and labeling Cooper a “traitor.” Then, after his own company turned against him earlier in the week, Cooper resigned on Thursday.

What an outrage! This man’s life work has been stripped from him in a week all because fear and anger. Where does such fear come from? Certainly not facts. No way in hell is Obama going to take hunting rifles away from Americans. But fear makes people believe the unbelievable and do the unconscionable.

I began praying that somehow Dan Cooper could return to his company and that somehow this will help, not hurt his company. But how does one go back to the company that turned against him? Only grace, forgiveness and love can bring about a win in this situation.

Instead of drinking iced tea, I’m sipping hot coffee in an attempt to clear some of the crud out of my throat. I’m using a Kleenex to blow out chunks of snot even while I have drops of sweat on my brow. My joints ache and I haven’t even been able to think about doing a typical summer workout.

This is totally wrong. It’s like mowing the yard before turning on the Christmas lights …or drinking Champaign when the church hasn’t even been decorated for the wedding …or smoking before sex.

I’ll be the official starter of the Missoula Half Marathon tomorrow and will work the finish line of both the Missoula Marathon and Half Marathon with my good friend and colleague, The ChaffeMaster.

I’m debating if I should wear my Clothman outfit for this event. I don’t want to draw attention away from the runners; however, I want to make this as fun as possible. I’m in pretty decent shape to I should look okay in the outfit – I’m not sure all superheroes can wear their spandex outfit year round. Besides, does it take a superhero to start and announce a race?

Actually it might take a superhero, or at least a ChaffeMaster. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to spot a number, find the corresponding name on the numeric list and then pronounce it correctly all in a matter of seconds – for 1200-1300 people! Dude, by the time we were done I was more tired than if I had run the marathon – especially after factoring in beginning set-up at 4:30am!

This and RATPOD are my two races each year where I give back. The team’s goal is to making the Missoula Marathon one of the best around. In only our second year we’re already off to a great start in that direction.

If you're running or watching either race tomorrow come say howdy at the announcer stand. I'll be the one in the blue spandex.

Once I went to monthly on the newspaper column and started working on a book manuscript and preparing other columns for magazines I found it very difficult to come back and update my website. I just needed to give it some space. I think I’m still giving it some space, but I have at least found motivation to finally post an update.

In all honesty, I’ve been through a pretty tough go for the past 3 years and I think all that stuff has finally started catching up with me emotionally too. Apparently even an eternal optimist like me has moments of emotional mortality. I wouldn’t say I’ve been depressed, I’d say I’ve been decompressing.

In addition to all the hardships that have hit, I’ve also been going through a big paradigm shift regarding my faith. So much of what I took for granted, or took at face value as true is being tested and not all of it is holding up. I find myself doing source study that I never did. For the most part I just read books that were written by folks with whom I agreed – assuming they had done their homework and their findings were accurate and true. Opps!

No longer is my faith a rigid set of beliefs and practices that I know to be true. Faith is a journey toward that which is bigger than me and my beliefs and practices. God is mysterious and discomforting and wonderful. I’m no longer afraid of discovery but I am unsettled by the freedom of pursuit.

Yep, I did the Grizzly Triathlon for the 9^th time Saturday – along with Clothwoman and a host of other Clothfriends. A total of 350 athletes competed in this race that filled up in only three weeks.

“Clothman, you’re watering down the gospel.”

“Why don’t you use the influence of your column to tell people the most important truths of the gospel – that Jesus died on the cross so that those who put their faith in him can go to heaven and not hell.”

“Our church is praying for you to come back to the truth Clothman and stop going down that slippery slop of liberalism.”

These are some of the comments I’ve gotten recently.  (By the way, I don’t want to sound negative, I have received much more positive feedback than negative.)  I know these folks mean well and I do appreciate them passing on their feelings.  Even more, I know that they are giving me their input from a sincere heart and with good intentions.  Thus, I strive to receive such feedback in this way.

The recent feedback comes from my treatment of traditional advent texts; namely, my discussion of the Magi and Mary.  However, I must say that I couldn’t disagree more with their appraisal of my gospel presentation.  

For years, I and others like myself (including those who are giving me the negative feedback), were in fact the ones who were watering down the gospel when we said the good news was primarily about getting to heaven.  The most important thing was to get souls saved.

However, in the process I completely mistreated the biblical text.  For example, in my column about Mary’s Song I talk about how off track this all-about-getting-to-heaven notion is.  This portion of scripture has little if anything to do about Mary being humble, as most preach it.  Furthermore, Mary nowhere sings anything about the fact that her son was going to save people from hell.  Nowhere!

Read Mary’s Song for yourself in Luke 2.  She’s talking about God reversing the current upside-down order of society.  To say Mary’s Song is about humility or saving people from hell is the true “watering down” the gospel; furthermore, it is completely distorting it and this biblical text.

The fact is (and I somehow missed it for years and years) the gospel is social, it is political, it is about God’s order in heaven becoming real on earth.  And, it is about getting to heaven and being saved from sin.  That is the “full gospel.”

If nothing else, by default our goal of reduction in abortions automatically gives aid and comfort to those who are still mercilessly killing millions of the innocent unborn and doing great harm to just as many women and many others in the process. Thus the "good goal" strategy we may adopt can become the enemy of the ultimate righteous goal, which is the preservation of unborn human lives and the prevention of great harm to women and many others across the board. Both reduction and relative elimination can certainly be pursued at the same time, and in fact they are.

Terry goes on to point out the great work that some, such as crisis pregnancy centers, are doing to in fact reduce abortions every day.  

Terry’s right, but I still believe there is a higher goal that we can strive for without sacrificing our core values of life and choice.  

What I didn’t say in my columns was a forthright statement that I am either pro-life or pro-choice.  That was intentional.  I think there’s something inherently wrong with such a statement.  I’m for life and I’m for freedom.  I don’t think the lines that we’ve drawn between the pro-life and pro-choice movements are as clear as we think they are.  I tried to point this out in my columns. 

I’ve watched this abortion battle go on and on for 30+ years with the constant polarized, partisan ranting from both sides.  I want to move to higher ground, where we can finally begin to resolve this issue.

There are some things that parents should find out only when they get to heaven.  The story in my latest adventure (Clothman On Abortion, Part 3) is one such thing.  Please God, don’t let my mother see it …actually mom has macular degeneration so the chances of her reading it are slim.

Perhaps the worst three days of my life were those thinking that I had gotten Mary (not her real name) pregnant.  Unless you’ve been in such a position I don’t know if you can really appreciate the fear, shock and confusion of it all.  And the crazy thing about it was that (for obvious reasons) I couldn’t for the life of me remember even having sex with Mary and thus loosing my virginity.

But my appreciation for those caught in the web of a crisis pregnancy has always been nurtured by this experience.  Pat answers and rigid solutions really blur when you’re living out a crisis pregnancy and not just speaking about the morality of it from an ideal point of view.

And what about my buddy who pulled this prank on me?  I have to say that I was so incredibly relieved that I didn’t kill him.  I was pissed that he let it drag on three days – although in fairness I didn’t tell him for nearly two days because I was so scared.  Still, I know he was just trying to be funny and it went sideways.  In retrospect, I have to say it will forever be the best practical joke ever played on me and I have tremendous admiration for that.

Why didn’t I recognize his handwriting?  Somehow his feminine side emerged and he really did make it look like a nervous girl’s handwriting.  He even had the cute little curls on the letters like girls do. Dang, he was good. 

I have become unbelievably frustrated with the abortion debate in America.  Both sides sling mud at one another without realizing that they are both grabbing it (the mud) from the same stinking swamp of anger, hatred, bitterness and greed.

In thinking that they are superiorly correct (and often times that God is on their side), each side grabs a pile stinky pride and hate from the swamp and throws it at the “enemy” in the form of vicious rhetoric.  Both sides have descended into a battle to maintain a battle line that was formed three decades ago by people who have long since left the front lines.

I believe it is time to throw off the huge political machines of the pro-life/pro-choice movements.  Forget them both.  They are stuck in a 30 year old war without end or victor.  

Let’s embrace the politics of faith and cooperation.  We don’t have to agree on everything to work together on something.  In my column I gave just two ways both sides can move toward the other with the shared goal of reducing the number of abortions in America.  Pro-choicers, acknowledge that the baby is a person.  Pro-lifers, give up the notion of a constitutional amendment making abortion illegal.  

These steps together toward a common goal will never be accepted by the giant political machines, which is why I say forget ‘em.  Stop sending them your financial support.  Let them dry up and blow away like chafe. 

Plain Truth Magazine was kind enough to ask me to write a feature for them about global warming – then they published it as their cover story.  How cool.  I originally got connected with PTM when they reprinted the column which won 3^rd place in the national Amy Writing Awards.

I can’t post a copy of the global warming article on my website yet; however, I encourage you to go to Plain Truth Ministries and simply request to get on their mailing list for their magazine and their emails.  I have found their material to be quite helpful.  (I also had another column published in the same issue about Clothwoman and I having no curfew for Clothgirl and Clothboy.)

I’ve received a fair amount of response from both columns.  

Another interesting outlet that has developed for my writing is a column called “Back of the Bus.”  It is the last page of a magazine called Student Transportation News.  It is the nation’s largest trade publication for school bus companies.  It is based in CA. 

I originally got connected with them when they awarded me their top prize for original writing in for a local bus company newsletter (I didn’t even know I was entered in the contest).  Afterward they asked if I’d submit some material for their publication and now I'm a regular columnist.

My guess is they’re where I was for most all of my life – conflicted.  I never really felt I should be pro-war, but I had been so indoctrinated by the status quo that I assumed Christians and war were not conflicting interests even though my guts told me otherwise.

But Jesus was always a problem.  Clearly, he said some amazingly pacifist statements.  Certainly, he modeled the life of a pacifist.  Yes, he confronted evil, but in a non-violent manner.  Thinking of Jesus as a military leader is like casting Pee Wee Herman in Braveheart.  (Okay so that is a rotten analogy but this is a blog not a column.)

I’m convinced most Christians ignore Jesus being a pacifist because it messes things up too much.  Non-violent confrontation of evil just doesn’t compute.

But, that is not how we should approach Jesus even though I’m embarrassed to say that I did just that for nearly my whole life.  If we’re going to be pro-war than we had better to be able to take Jesus with us into battle – I mean all of Jesus, not just a Jesus that we constructed to fit our needs.

I have one more very interesting observation about Jesus, war and hell that I’ll make next time.

I don’t worry about holding to a denominational line or if people might think I’m a liberal or conservative.  My goal is to try to understand Jesus’ perspective on any given topic.

That said, I’ve really been stretched by my recent series on war.  War is one tough topic and I frankly I don’t know if I’m a liberal or conservative on war, or if I’ve really understood Jesus’ perspective.

I think Jesus would always find a better option than war, but I’m not sure what such options might be.  I also wrestle trying to see how Jesus would have reacted if someone was torturing his mother.  It’s not comprehend how the resurrected responds to evil, but what about Jesus while he was here on earth?  There’s no gospel story that preserves Jesus confronting a situation in which someone was being raped or beaten.  We do have the situation of Jesus himself being beaten and murdered and we all know how he responded to that – even though he clearly had a chance to prevent it with an even greater violence against his attackers.

I guess I just wanted to let you know that I’m still wrestling with the topic of war.  If I had to choose this day, I would say that we need to abandon war, even if it means violence being inflicted upon us and our loved ones.  This cycle of violence has got to take a different direction than it has since the beginning of time.  

We figured this would be a tough day for all of them – the first Father Day without their husband and father.  I figured I could at least be a father presence with them that day and our kids love to hang out together.

Dustin loved to cook breakfast for his family so Clothgirl, Clothboy and I went out and did our best to cook a breakfast like Dustin would (Clothwoman had to work). 

Later that day we took Dustin’s cremains (he was cremated) and asked God to show us where we should bury or spread them.  After three or so hours of looking and praying all the Mitchells agreed on a spot that used to be a staging area for many of Dustin’s hunts, hikes and snowmobiling trips.  It is easy to find for the kids when they get older and may want to bring their kids back to that spot – and it meant a lot to Dustin.

Life often times doesn’t seem fair, yet God has a way of turning good out of bad.  A few months ago this first Father’s Day without Dustin seemed like it would be horrible.  Thanks to Becky, who is doing an amazing job at being a single parent, it was joyful.  Thanks to God it was beautiful.

Not long ago a movement arose in churches called Promise Keepers.  The idea was that men would become better Christians, husbands and fathers if they kept seven specific promises (rules).  Across America men began gathering in weekly small accountability groups where they asked each other how they were doing at keeping these promises.

I felt a bit guilty because I could never board the hugely popular Promise Keepers bandwagon even though nearly every pastor friend of mine quickly signed up the men of their church as fast as they could. 

It sounded so good, but something just wasn’t right.  I wasn’t sure what it was until I had a blunt conversation with my friend Hardwood.  He was deeply involved with Promise Keepers for a season but then quit.  I asked him why.

“I got tired of being the only one who wasn’t lying.  At the start all the guys were pretty honest with where they were in their walk with God.  But eventually most of the guys got tired of admitting their shortcomings week after week – so they started lying to save face.  I refused to that and after awhile the others started looking at me like I was a looser.  I know it was supposed to help us become more mature but it seems to me it only made matter worse.  That’s when I quit going.”

This is exactly what Paul was talking about; that where the laws and rules increase so does sin.  There were some good things that came out of Promise Keepers and I know the founders meant well, but over all I think it did more damage than good.  It basically gave men seven more ways to fail, in addition to all the ways they were already failing. 

Promise Keepers lasted a few years before it began to fade from existence – just like the countless other rule keeping systems and popular programs that churches have embraced over the years.  

New programs continue to appear on the radar screen but frankly I turned off my radar for these things several years ago.  Now, I no longer feel guilty when a hot new book or church program comes along and I just watch it pass by.

I’m with Paul when he said, “Christ has set us free to live a free life.  So take your stand!  Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.  I am emphatic about this.  The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered” (Galatians 5:1-2).