What Are We For?

Readers,

Last week, we ran a satirical piece on Frank Pastore’s article claiming Al Qaeda supports the Emergent Church. That piece generated a lot of reader feedback, and Burnside was criticized for publishing articles similar in vein to Pastore’s, specifically that we sometimes pick others apart without offering solutions.

I don’t agree entirely with that criticism, but it did make me think a lot about our goals with this webmagazine. As the folks at the Wittenburg Door can, I’m sure, attest, the world of Christian satire needs to be carefully tread, poking fun while not becoming part of the problem. This issue, we feature an excerpt from Mike Yaconelli’s last book, and we know he was a guy who struggled with the same questions.

Not that we’re entirely known for Christian satire, but we do appreciate it from time to time.

I feel the need to clarify some of our stances and explain why we run the pieces we do, all the while keeping in mind:

A) None of our writers have the exact same views on every subject.
B) We are still human, many of us are young (read: immature), and many of us have a lot to learn. Therefore, while this may clarify some things, we might end up posting an article that appears completely hypocritical next week because we think it’s funny or well-written.

Clarifying point #1: We are not Liberals. We are not Conservatives. We are Christians.

Years ago, I read Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian”. That book had an illustration that struck me. The illustration is this: every human debate and argument (political, theological, food-based), lies on a line, with an extreme right and left, and an infinite number of stances in between. Miles above that line is God, and God’s view on that debate has little to do with the human line.

Jacques Ellul would characterize our position in those debates this way:

“…the Christian must not act in exactly the same way as everyone else. He has a part to play in this world which no one else can possibly fulfill. He is not asked to look at the various movements which men have started, choose those which seem ‘good,’ and then support them. He is not asked to give his blessing to any particular human enterprise, nor to support the decisions of man.”

In some people’s view, Burnside leans to the left on many issues. In response, I would say the majority of Christians in America lean heavily to the Right, so more moderate stances seem more liberal than they actually are. 40 years from now, if the Church has swung Left, I hope we’ll still be around and even more discerning.

Clarifying Point #2: Learning opposing viewpoints is a lost value, and we hope to change that.

During my first year of college (there were only two), I was on the debate team. My favorite aspect of debate competitions was when we were given a topic and a side. Often, I was forced to argue a point completely contrary to my beliefs. I believe this approach to deciding issues is invaluable.

I take this approach every time I read the Bible and read about theological issues.

This isn’t always good, because we don’t want to be swayed by each changing wind, but with the understanding that Christ is our savior, I think our foundation is firm. Since Christianity’s inception, there have been brilliant, Christ-following theologians and church leaders who’ve reach a wide variety of theological points.

This does not mean there isn’t an Absolute Truth. I believe there is. But I also believe God is the only one who understands fully what that Absolute Truth is, and when a human being believes he or she has reached that Truth, we should be wary.

Clarifying Point #3: If we are following Christ, we are the Church, the bride of Christ.

What I mean by this is: we view the Church as ourselves, and we should then react to the Church as we do ourselves.

Most of us would think of ourselves as kind and good people. We treat others with respect, we help others when we can, we often make the world a more beautiful place.

But we also do much evil. We behave selfishly, we hurt our friends and family with our actions, we are greedy and manipulative.

The important part is understanding our propensity for evil, to address is openly, to lay ourselves bare to the people around us and allow them to speak into our lives, and, over time, we grow stronger and closer to Christ. If we don’t accept the conflict and criticism of those around us, we never grow.

And this is how we see the Church. Burnside runs articles about the work missionaries are doing overseas, or how the Church combats the many injustices we live with. But we should have no interest in patting ourselves on the back. If we do good, we should understand this is what is expected of us, we have pleased our Creator and we should keep going. If we are caught lying, we don’t justify that lie because we helped an old lady across the street.

That isn’t to say we don’t take the criticism with a grain of salt considering the source, but it does mean we listen with an open ear and seek to change what needs to be changed in ourselves.

Clarifying Point #4: Our goal, above all, is to be as much like Jesus as we can possibly be.

I’m not talking about Hippie Jesus or Buddy Jesus or Rambo Jesus or American Jesus. I’m talking about the Jesus who is our savior, the one who’s words we read in the Gospels, the one who, when the people wanted him to be king and overthrow an oppressive government, instead died on a cross for something infinitely larger.

We all sometimes want Jesus stuffed into a box. Sometimes we want His salvation to extend to our friends who don’t believe, but who are good people. Sometimes we want Him to return so we can know we were right. Sometimes we don’t want His salvation to extend to people we don’t like, even though it very well may.

But we are so, so thankful that Jesus is not who we want Him to be with every passing whim.

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I hope this clears up some things. I can’t tell you how great it was to think these through and articulate what this site means to me, and what I hope it means to my fellow believers.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Jordan Green
BWC