Jerusalem or Babylon?

This is my first post so I sort of feel I’m intruding. I have only been able to make one meeting (so far) due to schedule conflicts. I deeply regret having a conflict this Thursday because this is an HUGE issue for me right now. I’ve just begun a DMin program and the readings we have been assigned are really good. One book I discovered in this process is William Stringfellow’s An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land. (Link) The book was first published in 1973 and has been recently reprinted (2004). I offer the following passage as fodder for the conversation:

“The elemental truth of Babylon’s apocalyptic situation is Babylon’s radical confusion concerning her own identity and, in turn, her relationship to Jerusalem. The awful ambiguity of Babylon’s fallenness is expressed consummately in Babylon’s delusion that she is, or is becoming, Jerusalem. This is the same moral confusion which all principalities suffer in one way or another; this is the vocational crisis, really, which every nation in history endures. This is the vanity of every principality—and notably for a nation—that the principality is sovereign in history; which is to say, that it presumes it is the power in relation to which the moral significance of everything and everyone else is determined. Babylon’s famous wantonness, Babylon’s decadence, Babylon’s profligacy has only most superficially to do with materialism, lust, or the decline of moral values, and Babylon’s fall is not particularly a punishment for her greed or vice or aggrandizement, despite what some preachers allege. Babylon’s futility is her idolatry—her boast of justifying significance or moral ultimacy in her destiny, her reputation, her capabilities, her authority, her glory as a nation. The moral pretenses of Imperial Rome, the millennial claims of Nazism, the arrogance of Marxist dogma, the anxious insistence that America be “number one” among nations are all versions of Babylon’s idolatry. All share in this grandiose view of the nation by which the principality assumes the place of God in the world. In the doom of Babylon by the judgment of God this view is confounded and exposed, exhausted and extinguished. A magnificent celebration in heaven extols the triumph of God’s sovereignty over principalities as well as human beings (Rev. 18:20; 19:1-2).”—Stringfellow, p. 51

God and Country

As we prepare to discuss the connections between faith and national citizenship, I thought I'd post the reflection I offered in my context regarding "Scout Sunday". The sermon alluded to at the end emphasized the priority of love over "being right". Offered to get the conversation started perhaps.

http://www.fpop.org/pastorscorner.htm

Resources on Truth

Hey everybody,
Great conversation today! Thank you all for it.

Here are two more resources regarding truth. The first is Jim’s article that he read from by William Placher. The second is a short sermon by Paul Tillich about the “doing the truth”. This is some of the stuff I was referencing about the practice of truth. Add more at your discretion.

Peace,
Dixon

Is the Bible True? by William C. Placher

Doing the Truth by Paul Tillich from The Shaking of the Foundations

Post Restoration Podcast

Hi all.

Once again, I apologize for missing the last half hour of the conversation today. One day I'll be able to stay for an entire meeting.

I did want to let you all know of a podcast that a buddy of mine and I have started doing called the Post Restoration Podcast. It's a couple of Church of Christ guys talking about a lot of the things that we've been talking about at the Cohort. It's really rough, but of course, we'd like people to listen and add their thoughts to the conversation.

Peace,

Phil

why is "truth"--or the lack thereof--so scary?

"Brian McLaren scares me. It isn't his ambiguity on the question of [you name it] that worries me so much as it is his reckless passion for ambiguity in the first place, and his utter fear that someone, anyone, will take offense for any reason; the larger disease of which the first is a symptom."

i hereby post this comment from a blog...and i post it out of context. but it seems to speak to one of the things about "truth" that i find interesting. why is it that "truth," or perhaps "uncertainty about truth" (maybe those are two completely different things), is such a scary thing. why are we so afraid of those who claim to know it? and why are we so afraid of those who claim not to know it?

Cohort Makes the News!

Hey, if you're reading this today we're going to be on TV at 4:00 on channel 2.
Jamey Tucker (the new religion and ethics reporter from News 2 (abc)) came out to visit our cohort gathering today to talk about forgiveness, the pope and the emerging church among other things. Jamey is a very cool guy and it was good to meet him, although having the camera trained on us while we conversed was a new experience. The story airs today at 4:00 and could feature a good interview with Jay and a bad one with me :) Check it out.

See you all in February when we talk about truth!
Peace,
Dixon