Month: April 2018

Back in my first career as a YMCA youth director, I recruited and directed the local Y-Indian Guide program. In this way I was following in my dad’s footsteps, for he had done the same for three YMCAs where he worked. Not only was he the “Wandering Brave” or “Roaming Sachem” for those programs, he also included me as Little Brave to his Big Brave in two of the cities. Actually, I was in the program longer than most boys got to be since my dad was the director, and it was good for him to be a participating member as well as overall leader.

My Indian name was Running Deer and he was Walking Deer, and our “tribe” chose the Kickapoo name for our group of six or seven pairs of braves. The program’s slogan, which we repeated at each meeting, was to be “Pals forever with my dad/son.” I enjoyed the meetings and outings, much like a Scout troop, except our dads had to be present with us at each event. This program was certainly one of the reasons my dad and I had a close relationship right up to his passing in 2013.

So it was an honor for me to lead the program in the YMCAs where I worked. Of course, not everyone understood how the program worked. One dad, a brain surgeon signed up himself and his son after the tribes had already been formed. I checked the rosters, found a placement for them, and called his office to give him the news. The conversation went like this:

• Receptionist: “Hello, Dr. Mirabile’s office.”
• Me: “Hi, could I speak to Dr. Mirabile, please?”
• Receptionist: “I’m sorry, Dr. Mirabile is in surgery right now. Could I take a message?”
• Me: “(pause) Yes, could you tell him that Wandering Brave called and that I found a tribe for him.”
• Receptionist: “(pause) Would you repeat that please?”
• Me: “Tell him that Wandering Brave called and that I found a tribe for him.”
• Receptionist: “Are you one of the doctor’s patients?”

I also remember the day that I arrived at one school to give my recruitment talk to an assembly of grade school boys: as I pulled up to the school, Harry Chapin’s song, “Cat’s in the Cradle,” about a dad who was always too busy with work to spend time with his son, was playing on the radio, and as the final strains of the father lamenting that his boy had “grown up just like me” played, I had to stop and literally wipe away a tear before I could head into the school. I can tell you that my talk that day was the most fired-up one I ever gave, knowing the importance of helping dads and sons build life-long relationships. Later, we expanded to include dads and daughters in the Y-Indian Princess program.

So, how are these programs, that once impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of families each year, doing today? Well, they’re gone, relegated to the fond memories of the vast numbers of “Little Braves” who are now middle-aged adults and seniors. In its place is a program called “Adventure Guides,” which is much smaller and less visible than the original. Hopefully, it still build family bonds the way the program did when I was a Little Brave.

What happened to the program? It was shut down due to increasing complaints about it being culturally insensitive, demeaning, and even racist toward Native Americans. My first awareness of the issue came while I was still a Wandering Brave. I heard that a delegation of Indians had attended the national Indian Guide convention and presented their criticisms of the program. At the time, I was surprised, since to me the program honored the Indian by copying what we saw as positive traits such as strong father-son bonds and reverence for nature. After all, the program got its name – and start – when a real Indian guide from the Ojibwa tribe named Joe Friday commented to the white man he led on a fishing trip, “The Indian father raises his son. He teaches his son to hunt, to track, to fish, to walk softly and silently in the forest, to know the meaning and purpose of life and all that he must know, while the white man allows the mother to raise his son.” These remarks stung the white man, Harold Keltner, who happened to be a YMCA leader. He took it to heart, and with the Ojibwa man’s help, started the Indian Guide program in 1926. So to me, learning about Indian cultures and emulating the father-son traditions were all very positive.

When I read the complaints, though, I recognized that the program had not always been kind to Native Americans or their culture. Fathers and dads sometimes chose goofy names like Running Bear (Bare), Y tribes mimicked Indian dances and adopted stereotypical words (e.g., “squaw”) and broken English (“Me gettum food for camp-out”) in their meetings, satirical logos were used, and religious ceremonies were copied for entertainment. And while some groups studied the culture and history of their namesake tribe, too often the participants just used Hollywood Indian generalities. Admitting these shortcomings, the national YMCA tried to clean up the program, but eventually, decided to drop the ethnic connection.

So, you may ask, why this excursion into Rich’s ancient history? Simply because the issues raised around the Y-Indian Guide program are still relevant today; in fact, the issues have grown in public discussions and are being applied to all kinds of situations. People are being charged with “cultural appropriation,” which is defined by the Oxford Living (online) Dictionary as, “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Like when a white kid like me dressed up as an American Indian and called myself Running Deer – though I am not apologetic for having done so.

It’s actually become a hot issue, as the term is used as an accusation against people who use or adopt another culture or components of a culture as their own. The assumption is that doing so is insulting and wrong. But is it? I’ve been mulling over the term and its use, especially as it relates to our faith, and offer the following observations:

• I would make a distinction between appropriation and misappropriation.
  • appropriation is adopting things from another culture which one finds useful, beneficial, attractive, or enjoyable. People like what they see or hear, and desires to make it part of their own lifestyle. Thus, no matter where cell phones originated, people of almost every country and culture use them.
  • misappropriation is adopting aspects of another person’s culture in a way that is harmful, insulting, demeaning, or mocking to that other person. Plagiarism is a form of misappropriation, as is outright stealing. The sin of coveting is about wanting to appropriate for oneself what belongs to others.
• Appropriation of another’s cultural traits proves the  statement, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” It says, “I really like what you do/eat/wear and would like to adopt it in my life.” It is a compliment to the person or culture that developed it.
• People everywhere and throughout the ages have had to solve the same basic challenges of life – food, shelter, clothing, protection, language, reproduction, and so on. They have solved them in different ways based on their different resources and experiences. We can learn from each other how to meet life’s challenges by following their example. Thus, people can learn to eat certain plants and avoid others by observing the experiences of other societies. For example: Native Americans introduced corn and potatoes to the European explorers; where would we be without French fries and corn-on-the-cob today? (Note: French fries are just called that; we didn’t misappropriate them from the French. Likewise, when I introduced a Frenchman to French toast, he made a face and said he would call it “American toast.”) As one person learns from another, so one society can learn from another.
• There would be no culture without appropriation. Everything we have, do, or say has been copied/borrowed/adopted from other cultures. If we have developed something new, the skills, material, and even thought processes have borrowed from others before us. Our world would be much plainer without the variety available to us:
  • clothing: tunics (Romans), telescopes (Dutch), dresses, pants (Germanic tribes), pajamas (Persians), sandals, hats, suits, etc.
  • food: sandwiches and blood pudding (English), bratwurst (Germans), hot dogs, hamburgers (Tartars), tacos (Mexicans), pizza (Greeks and Italians), spaghetti (Chinese), bagels and matzohs (Jews), sushi (Japanese), potatoes (Peruvians), crepes (French), corn (Mayans), curry (Indians), chocolate chip cookies (my wife), and haggis (okay, we can skip that one), etc.
  • tools and machinery, electronics. Mathematics such as Algebra (Arabs), and calculus (English and German). The alphabet (Romans who borrowed from the Greeks who borrowed from the Phoenicians).
  • language is appropriated (made one’s own) from someone else. Few of us will create a new word or thing, and if we do, it will die out and disappear unless people appropriate it for themselves. The fact you can read this blog means you understand English, which comes from the English but had been developed over centuries by contacts and infusions with other languages – including Britons, Celts, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Latin writings, etc.
• Appropriation is unavoidable, necessary, and desirable. Proper appropriation is done with respect, honor, attribution, and where possible, permission. The use of one trait by another culture should be a compliment and a way for that trait to persevere.

This is important to recognize because the transmission of the Christian faith depends on cultural appropriation. We are recipients of a faith first begun in the ancient Middle East. We worship with forms handed down thousands of years ago thousands of miles away. The Word of God was written in languages far different than ours, in formats (scrolls and codices) invented by other cultures. Yet those words, and that faith belong to us because we have appropriated it to ourselves (through the work of the Holy Spirit). Likewise, every time we translate the Bible to a new language using words and phrases familiar to that culture, it now belongs to them as well.

When we proclaim the Gospel to a culture other than our own, we seek to find ways to express our faith in ways that people from that culture will clearly understand. Our goal is not to make “Americans” out of the hearers, but believers in Christ. Our desire is not for them to abandon their culture for ours, but to “redeem” it by bringing Christ into their lives.

Acts 17:16-34 gives the example of Paul’s mission work in the very pagan city of Athens. He uses an object from the Athenian culture – an altar dedicated “To the unknown god” – and quotes from their own philosophers, to make a connection for them with the true God.

The ultimate example of appropriation is our Lord himself, who appropriated human form and culture to become one of us (Philippians 2:5-10), in order to save us from our sins and redeem us for eternal life. Just as he did so for us, so one day will we appropriate his heavenly inheritance for our own (Colossians 3:24, Hebrews 9:15, 1 Peter 1:4).

May your life be rich with the proper appropriation of all that is good. It’s not brain surgery – just faith in Jesus Christ.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Acts 17:16-34

Back during my high school years, I discovered two books that helped shape my adult thinking and fed my interest in words, their meanings, and their impact on people, both positive and negative. One was a book by Darrell Huff called, How to Lie With Statistics. It has proven quite valuable over the years whenever I was bombarded by arguments using statistics to “prove” a point. Not only have I been able to recognize that the writers were using numbers to falsify the truth, but I have often also been able to identify the techniques the authors or speakers were using to “stack the deck” in their favor. Reading that book put me in the 99th percentile of high school students (how’s that for a statistic I just made up?).

The other book I enjoyed reading was S.I. Hayakawa’s Language in Thought and Action. This professor of English (and later President of San Francisco State University and a US senator) wrote his influential book on the role of semantics. His book dealt with how words have both denotations, or “official” dictionary meanings, and connotations, or additional meanings people find in the ways those words are used. Words therefore can have great emotional impact on their users and hearers far beyond the information their definitions provide. For example, in English usage, “man” was often added to a country’s name to designate a person from that country. Thus you had an Englishman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Scotsman, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, etc. Likewise, a person from China was called a “Chinaman,” but because the term came to be used as an insult akin to the “N” word, that term is now very incorrect politically and therefore no longer used. The connotation has overwhelmed the denotation. Add to that now, the issue of using “man” when both men and women are included in a term, and you switch “fireman” to “fire-fighter,” and “policeman (and police woman)” to “police officer.” Again, connotations are more important than denotations when it comes to the impact of many words.

The reason I am bringing up these books, especially the one on language, is because there are some words and phrases going around today that have developed connotations that can be divisive. In fact, some terms which have legitimate usages have become weapons in our culture wars; people use them to silence their opponents and stifle speech or actions. Often, it is a case where the terms have innocent, or at least neutral, denotations, but their connotations are loaded with meanings that become “hot buttons.”

Why does this matter? It matters because we use words to convey the Word; our faith is a propositional one in which word meanings – both denotations and connotations – proclaim the Gospel message we present and affect the way in which people receive it. It is incumbent upon us to strive for the clearest meaning (even if I use the phrase “incumbent upon” instead of the more common and clearer term,”important”).

One term which has become a victim of bad connotations is the word, “bias.” It has become highly controversial today and I believe, is often used incorrectly in ways which harm our defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of bias includes the following denotation: “Inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.” It then gives two examples: “there was evidence of bias against foreign applicants” and “the bias towards younger people in recruitment.” The dictionary definition also includes the connotation: it is “considered to be unfair.”

But is it? If you watch or listen to the news or media pundits, bias is a horrible thing we always need to avoid. The pundits charge each other with “media bias” and complain that investigators have operated with preconceived notions and biases, People speak of getting judges or reporters with no biases, so that we can trust their words as being fair and honest rather than slanted to favor one side or slam the other.

Granted, bias can be a huge problem, especially when it comes to administering our laws. We want impartial judges who can consider the facts of a case without prejudice, and render a fair and just judgment. In that realm, we work to strain out bias. If you have ever served on a jury, you know from the attorneys’ questions of the potential jurors that they want people who have not decided ahead of time against their side. (When I was once considered for jury duty, I considered wearing my clerical collar and saying, “Judge not, lest ye be judged” but chickened out. I served on that jury.)

So there are areas where we legitimately try to negate the effects of bias. Unfortunately, we often “throw out the baby with the bathwater” by discrediting legitimate testimonies and arguments by claiming the speaker is biased, and therefore doesn’t need to be listened to.

One of the areas where such charges are made is the testimony of the Apostles regarding Jesus Christ and his resurrection. “Of course,” the argument goes, “you’d expect Jesus’ followers to say good things about him and claim he resurrected; they were his followers, after all, and they were biased in his favor. Only Christians reported the resurrection. Therefore, their testimony is discredited.” Of course, we could reply that only non-believers are biased against the divinity or resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I’ll answer the charge of apostolic bias, but first, I want to state the following proposition: “Bias is not necessarily bad; in fact, it is necessary to human life.” Okay, set aside your bias against bias, and consider the following illustrations:

• You are living in a cave with your family, while outside the wind howls and wild animals growl and roar. You huddle over a fire and eat some roots and berries you gathered during the day. You see your son reach for some white berries he picked, and recognizing they are poisonous, you swat them from his hand and grunt disapprovingly. Why? Because you know they are poisonous and you are biased against them, and in favor of the red berries your spouse picked. Then your toddler daughter walks toward the cave entrance calling “Here, kitty, kitty! Look daddy! Pretty kitty cat!” and just in time you grab your spear and slay the saber-toothed “kitty cat,” saving your daughter and providing a little meat for the family. Again, your love for your family and life experience have created a bias in you for your family and against anything that would harm them.
• In less dire straits, we are biased for favorite sports teams, certain kinds of music, certain foods, the clothing we wear, the cars we drive, certain people we count as friends, and for things that protect our freedom, security, material needs and opportunities. Likewise we are biased against those things we know will harm us, or that just don’t taste good, look good, or smell good. We constantly make decisions based on our experiences and knowledge of what is good and bad, and that ability is absolutely necessary for our survival. We don’t need to put our hand into a fire every day to prove we are not biased toward it being hot; one burn as a kid is enough to bias us for the rest of our life.
• Likewise, when it comes to our social interactions, bias is impossible to avoid. We learn from other people’s experiences that help us shape our understanding and preferences of the world around us. For example, I didn’t have to take up smoking to know from other people’s studies and experiences that smoking would be bad for me. I also have a bias not to take up cage fighting or run for public office, seeing how brutal both those activities can be!

The problem comes in when bias occurs either before one has sufficient facts or experience to base it on, or after learning false or bogus information. An example of the first bias, was my reluctance ahead of time to try sushi because it might contain raw fish; after I tried it I found I could enjoy it after all. (By the way, I’m still biased against trying haggis.) An example of the second one is a bias against certain nationalities or races based on prejudicial “information” given by people who say bad things about the group. This kind of bias always comes out in wartime, when the enemy is demonized in order to make them worthy of hating and killing.

Biases exist, but can we keep them in check so that they serve us, and not have us serve them? Are we willing to change our biases in light of new facts, (Proverbs 18:17) and are we careful to consider those facts in light of the biases which shaped them? Are we wiling to accept that certain biases are absolutely necessary to knowing the truth?

If so, we are ready to consider the matter of apostolic bias. Were the apostolic writers of the New Testament biased? Of course they were! John states near the end of his Gospel the purpose of his writing it: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). John was not writing a dispassionate, objective, dry chronology of Jesus’ life and death; he was writing a Gospel, that is Good News, about the Son of God and the salvation which his death and resurrection provided him and his readers. He knew Jesus and was a personal witness to both the crucifixion and the resurrection. His bias came from what he knew, heard, and saw, and not from some preconceived notion that Jesus should be the Messiah. Likewise, Peter recounts in 2 Peter 1:16, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

I want the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ majesty and work on the cross to be completely, passionately, and factually biased toward our Savior. I want them to be willing to lose family and friends, jobs and social standing, and even their lives because they fervently believed in Jesus Christ and who he was/is and what he accomplished for our sake. Something happened that completely won these men (and the women who followed them) to Christ, and the same thing should change us.

I am biased that the Bible is true. I am biased that the worldview in the Bible is true. I am biased that Jesus Christ is the Savior, that he came, died, and rose again for our deliverance form sin and death, and that believing in him I will have eternal life. I am biased against all claims contrary to these truths, and will contend for the truth. So, I ask you, “pardon my bias,” because it is the most necessary bias of all!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: 2 Peter 1:16-21

P.S. For a good rebuttal of the bias charge against the Apostles, check out Steven Bruecker’s article, “Were the Gospel Writers Biased,” at http://biblical worldview academy.org/were-the-gospel-writers-biased/.

 

 

We’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s on a need to know basis,” when speaking of certain facts that may be unknown to some people. Only those who have a “need to know” are kept informed about certain sensitive or private information. For example, a military commander may give orders to his troops who need to know their objective, but don’t need to know all the reasoning that went into selecting that objective. It’s become a cliched phrase used so often in movies, that I find myself using it with Karen; she asks me what I want for dinner and I respond with, “That’s on a need to know basis.” To which she replies, “Well, if you want anything to eat, then I need to know . . .” After which, of course, I promptly tell her!

In my last blog, I tested my readers with a series of True/False statements about things that might have happened to me. Checking with some of you, I learned that most did pretty well in ascertaining what was “Fake News” and what was true. However, when it comes to information about me, there is no real, “need to know” basis. You could have gotten those statements all right or all wrong, and it would not affect your life in the least. What’s true about me and my life is hardly important in the grand scheme of things.

That’s also true about much of what we use to fill our minds. The latest Dow Jones average, the stats of the team that won the NCAA basketball tournament, the dilemmas faced by our favorite soap opera character, whom The Bachelor picks, or what the ratings were for the Oscars; all these are transient, ephemeral details that will be replaced and soon forgotten with little permanent impact (except maybe on the stars who experienced them).

Now, that doesn’t mean there is nothing worth knowing; there certainly is! Your anniversary, where you put that winning lottery ticket, the old cheese in the back of the refrigerator, that book report on Tolstoy’s War and Peace that’s due tomorrow, the Easter egg that the kids didn’t find, and your ATM PIN number, are just a few examples. But there’s something that’s much more important to know than any of these: God’s Word as written in the Holy Bible.

Certainly, most Christians know about the Bible, and many are familiar with some of what it says, thanks to hearing sermons in church or to their own personal reading and study. I’m sure that anyone who reads this blog has more than the average level of Bible knowledge (and that’s before you started reading these articles; hopefully reading them hasn’t caused your Bible knowledge to diminish!) But just to test you a bit about how well you know your Bible, I offer the following short quiz. So, here goes: True or False?

1. The first person to translate the Bible into English was King James of England.
2. The Bible consist of 66 books, 36 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
3. Moses took two animals of each kind onto the Ark (and 7 pairs of each clean animal).
4. The Bible teaches, “God helps those who help themselves.”
5. The Bible claims that two men never died, but went straight to heaven.
6. The wise men took gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the stable in Bethlehem.
7. The Bible says that a donkey actually spoke to a prophet.
8. The Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil.
9. The oldest person in the Bible lived to be 969 years old.
10. Jesus never actually claimed to be God. It was the disciples and Paul who said he was.

The answers are at the end of this blog. See how well you did, after you finish this article!

Knowledge of the Bible itself is incredibly important. Knowing what God said (and what he didn’t say) is necessary for us to be in a right relationship with him. Are we saved by what we do, who we are, or by what we believe? Who was Jesus – just a teacher, a prophet, a model citizen, a social revolutionary, an example to follow – or Son of God and son of man, our Savior? What does Jesus’ crucifixion mean – the end of a promising ministry or its fulfillment? Who are we, who created us, and what responsibility do we have to the earth, our neighbors, and our Creator?

Knowing Scripture is also vital to counter the attacks and false claims by those who are antagonistic to Christ. A lot of nonsense and false charges are made against the Bible; knowing what it says can correct false impressions and slanders against it. One such false claim is that Jesus never claimed to be God; see the answer to Question #10 below for some of the answers to that charge.

Sharing the faith with others also requires some knowledge of what the true faith is, and it is God’s written Word that teaches us the true faith. As 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, “always be[ing] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” When others see our reverence for God’s Word and how it affects our lives, they will realize that the Bible is not just any book, but rather has power to transform lives – including theirs. Remember, too, that when you quote Scripture, it is not just the sound and meaning of your words that changes lives, but the Holy Spirit who accompanies God’s Word. For “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Knowing the Bible – or at least some of what Jesus called the “weightier” parts of it – by heart can also help us when we are suddenly thrust into critical situations and dire straits. The Bible calls it “laying up,” “letting the word dwell in you,” “storing up in your heart,” etc. as a way to guard our steps and guide the multiple decisions we face every day. The Holy Spirit brings these words to our active remembrance, helping us face challenges and opportunities before us. I like what Proverbs 6:21-22 says: “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”

And finally, one more advantage of learning Scripture: it can help you win trivia contests; but that benefit is, well, trivial. (Unless you’re a pastor being challenged by Confirmation students at a “Stump the Pastors” party!)

Let’s face it: the Bible is on a “need to know basis.” But everyone “needs to know” what it says and what it teaches. There is no excuse for a Christian to be ignorant of the Bible unless they came to faith a few minutes ago – and even then the desire to know more about one’s God and Savior should be unrelenting and all-absorbing. Like falling in love with someone and wanting to know more and more about them, reading and re-reading their love letters time and again, seeking to find every hint and shade of meaning in every word, a Christian has the privilege of having and reading the greatest love letter of all: God’s written Word. It is something we all need to know!

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Psalm 1 and all the Scriptures referenced in the answers below

Answers to the quiz:

1. False. The first full English translation was handwritten by John Wycliffe in the 1380s, although parts had been translated into Old and Middle English as early as the 700s. King James didn’t do any translating, but commissioned it, which was finished in 1611.
2. True, although there are 73 books in the official Roman Catholic Bible. They add books from what we call the Apocrypha, ancient writings that we do not consider to be true Scripture.
3. False. Moses didn’t take any animals onto the Ark; Noah did!
4. False. That saying or teaching is not in the Bible.
5. True. The men were Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).
6. False. The wise men took their gifts to Jesus in a house in Bethlehem.
7. True. The prophet was Balaam, and it says that God opened the donkey’s mouth to chastise Balaam for beating it after it saved his life. (Numbers 22:28-30).
8. False. 1 Timothy 6:10 teaches that the love of money is the root of all evil (or all kinds of evil).
9. True. That person was Methuselah (Genesis 5:27). By the way, he fathered one son when he was 187 years old!
10. False. Jesus asserted his divinity multiple times in many ways, by words and signs. One of his clearest statements was, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Another was, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9). And again, when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” at which point the Jews picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy, since “I AM” is God’s name and they recognized what Jesus was claiming (John 8:57-59). See also Matthew 26:57-68, for how the Jewish Council condemned Jesus for blasphemy in claiming to be God.