tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post3334958340815188501..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: The Third WayLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-80063022034708728172011-03-31T16:52:35.866-05:002011-03-31T16:52:35.866-05:00In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no Sout...In Christ there is no East or West,<br />In Him no South or North;<br />But one great fellowship of love<br />Throughout the whole wide earth.<br /><br />In Him shall true hearts everywhere<br />Their high communion find;<br />His service is the golden cord,<br />Close binding humankind.<br /><br />Join hands, then, members of the faith,<br />Whatever your race may be!<br />Who serves my Father as His child<br />Is surely kin to me.<br /><br />In Christ now meet both East and West,<br />In Him meet North and South;<br />All Christly souls are one in Him<br />Throughout the whole wide earth.<br /><br />I thought of this old hymn while reading the blog today. I feel it describes the “Third Way” very well. I had a professor at Ouachita who would say- “Knowledge begins with the naming of the thing”…. I appreciate the way Augsburger named what I have tried to describe about my own political feelings. Leslie Taylor TomichekLeslie Taylor Tomichekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06966530659682545195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-40306520521416480212011-03-22T10:44:47.964-05:002011-03-22T10:44:47.964-05:00The following e-mail was received from Joe Barbour...The following e-mail was received from Joe Barbour, a local Thinking Friend whom I saw just yesterday at the bimonthly meeting of retired missionaries. I post this with his permission.<br /><br />"Certainly you pointed us in the right direction. Thanks so very much. Where we are politically or socially is not the real issue in life. Our relationship to Jesus Christ is where life hinges. The deeper the better for us and God too. As I recall that the very name Christian was derisive in the beginning to identify believers as “little christs,”speaks so much as to what we are to be all about.<br /> <br />"Thank you so much for pointing that out in your blog today."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-59663998016035452932011-03-22T04:52:15.612-05:002011-03-22T04:52:15.612-05:00Of course, everything hinges on how one identifies...Of course, everything hinges on how one identifies "the way of Jesus and the way of the Kingdom of God." However, in any case, I don't think we really want to reduce the Way to one way alongside the wings of contemporary American political thought.<br /><br />We're talking about how we participate, if at all, in the world. Participation in a world of conflicting interests means taking sides and accepting responsibility for that. The early Anabaptist movement (still some today) saw how problematic that is and opted for separate communities. They were right about one thing: You can't participate and keep your hands clean. This is where Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered exceptional insight.<br /><br />I would suggest that a crucial challenge progressive Christians must face today is that from the New Atheists who condemn even liberal religion because it provides cover for the illiberal. In other words, can we blithely affirm one Christianity that includes even the most jingoistic extremists? We can't criticize moderate Muslims for not taking stronger stands against Islamism if we ourselves don't take strong stands against Christianism.Antonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03945285810893867079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-57555724166868236072011-03-21T11:25:42.800-05:002011-03-21T11:25:42.800-05:00The posting today was interesting. Many have addr...The posting today was interesting. Many have addressed this third way, and have offered good insight for breaking weak paradigms within “Christian” religion, left, right, and whatever. This is much of my sojourn. I am not much interested in Christian left, right, or whatever, but rather truth. Left, right, and whatever seem more built on shifting sands of mores rather than ethics, and personal interpretations rather than truth – foundations of sand which led to splits and splinters and have yielded something like Ian Anderson’s poem Aqualung: “In the beginning man created god, and called him… and we’ll get what we want, ‘cause we’ve got him by the balls…” a very blasphemous but insightful, long poem. The historic, orthodox Church seems to be built on solid foundations of scripture and tradition, much like orthodox Judaism, but is unbending iron which cannot sway with the moving of the Spirit. Jesus was not kind to either the left or the right of his time, but most today would argue that he favored the left, right or whatever (their personal cause).<br />The “Church” could certainly use some unity, if we could figure out what “the Church” and “Christian” are. JP2 made a good run at it with the concept of “separated brethren”, but..<br />And there is still plenty of arrogance and unforgiveness to go around. <br /><br />Having worked with left, right, and whatever churches, I see some in each who truly seek Christ. But they are few. Most have a left, right, or whatever agenda (and a lot just serving time by showing up as a feeble act of religion). It is probably OK to have leanings toward one or all in some aspects, but by and large the agendas may not be worth defending. Just the foundation of truth.<br /> <br />Christ and the Church must be real and alive – there is too much evidence. If only we could fully grasp the Kingdom of God and its place on earth… which brings us back to our personal heros of the faith who challenge us to pursue it – like Steven Wanji, Damon Schroeder, Doug Grandon, or Myron Augsburger.1sojournernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-45172693723430279992011-03-20T16:31:30.479-05:002011-03-20T16:31:30.479-05:00Now I have a theory about why no one has posted ye...Now I have a theory about why no one has posted yet, Google ate my first post! So in case it does it again, I'll be brief.<br /><br />Finding a "third" way is a simple, noble goal, but there is no simple way to do it. Both left and right in America are heavily populated by Christians, and what divides those Christians goes so deep as to reach emotional roots that are very difficult to articulate. Yet teasing out those roots is the only way I see that we might reach beyond the divide. Otherwise we just have an endless series of superficial battles over evolution, higher criticism, abortion, gay rights, and so forth. Both sides know they are right, so not much communication happens.Craig Dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00033176451913108084noreply@blogger.com