Wade Burleson states that Piper’s ‘Masculine Christianity’ actually emasculates.

“The image of God is both male and the female. God is no more all male to the exclusion of female than He is all Jewish to the exclusion of Gentile. To say, as Piper says, that Christianity has ‘a masculine feel’ is as silly as saying Christianity has ‘a white, anglo-saxon feel’…

“Four years ago I wrote a post warning against the growing doctrinal heresy among conservative Christians called “the eternal subordination of the Son” in order to justify the eternal subordination of women to men. The time has come for Christians, particularly Christian men, to stop remaining silent in the face of such doctrinal distortion.”

Rachel Held Evans specifically asked men to respond to Piper’s statement “with posts that celebrate femininity and affirm women in the Church,” receiving over 150 contributions. JR Daniel Kirk wrote:

“…In what is the clearest connection of God to human gender, perhaps the only clear and intentional such connection in all of scripture, it is both male and female, together, who mirror God to the world.This means that a ‘masculine’ church or a church with a ‘masculine feel’ is inherently lacking in its ability to reflect the image of God to the world.”

Jesus Creed posts thoughts by Lindsey Hankins on gendered rhetoric. Turns out what’s new is old – really old heretical thinking Christianity has been dealing with for centuries. She concludes:

“Yet the most important issue is not that Piper’s view would be misunderstood. The absolute fundamental problem would be that it would be mistakenly taken as good news. The fact of the matter is that Piper is “on to something” insofar as he is rather seamlessly capitulating to a long-standing tendency in church history. When women are intentionally excised from the biblical narrative, Piper is right, Christianity sure starts to sound masculine. What the church needs now is not by any means a “masculine feel.” The church has had this broken and un-balanced “feel” for millennia and far from producing a “flourishing [for] both men and women” it has too often been complicit in a systematic de-humanization of half its constituency.”

What’s most obvious to me is this. There are two genders on this planet. Jesus had to assume one of them when he came to earth as a human being. In a world and specifically a culture as patriarchal as the Middle East, it makes sense that he took on the male gender, in order to become a teacher, a Rabbai, to even have a voice. But answer me this: in a world that’s been patriarchal for centuries, what makes Christianity any different? Culture has a masculine feel. Business has a masculine feel. The Church has a masculine feel. FYI, the men are already “in charge.”

Maybe… besides healing and forgiving sins and having dinner with sinners and breaking the Sabbath, what made Jesus and his teaching so radical was that he actually did away with the old world’s “masculine” order. Maybe Ephesians 5:28 really did turn men on their heads – “Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies” – because it was so contrary to the prevailing culture.

In an already masculine world, Galatians 3:28 makes Christianity wildly different: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” That was especially Good News for the Gentiles, for the slaves, and for women.

For example, we’re going to buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate. So even though I don’t have a… semi-sweetheart, I mousse just go ahead and buy some for myself. I mint also go rent a video, something like…Chocolat, and just plan to stay in, and mocha the best of it. Though it might cream like I’m missing out, I think it’s actually butter not to have to go to all that truffle.

Because let’s face it. One thing Valentine’s Day has going for it is the chocolate.

“In this study, researchers split 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults into two groups. Men got 1,600 calories a day and women got 1,400. Half the subjects had a 300-calorie, low-carb breakfast, while the other half got 600 calories in the morning, including a small piece of chocolate cake. Halfway through the 32-week study, both groups had lost an average 33 pounds per person. But in the subsequent 16 weeks, people eating the light breakfast gained back 22 pounds each, while the cake eaters lost another 15 pounds apiece, on average.”

We’ve all heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” This gives that saying a whole new meaning.

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. …thing in the morning.

We all know resolutions are notoriously hard to keep. So it’s helpful when others can help us think about them differently. For example, last year Author Tim Sanders suggested making 3 lists for 2011. Stop, start, and keep. It’s simple.

I made one resolution about 4 years ago, and I’ve been making the same one every year since and it has changed my life. It’s my best resolution.

I resolved to say “Yes” more often.

Sometimes it’s easy. You want to pay for my dinner? – Yes. Other times, it’s harder. You want me to speak to a group of college kids? – (gulp) Yes.

I probably need to clarify that this is not an excuse for all the codependent Millie Martyr’s of the world to continue taking on other people’s responsibilities, or not to enforce healthy boundaries, or to otherwise be a doormat. This is saying “yes” at times when you’re tired and would ordinarily just go home. Or saying “yes” to things that are completely outside your comfort zone, or that you have little interest in, or don’t know anything about.

I warn you… it’s radical. I actually live a fairly routine life. But I’ve been to Africa and Thailand because I said yes. I’ve seen things I never would have seen, I’ve taught classes, interviewed mayors, spoken at church, served on a university presidential search committee, made unexpected connections, hosted live-streaming interviews, earned unexpected money, and met the most interesting people – all because at some point further back I said “yes” to an insignificant-at-the-time opportunity.

This year, my friend Jen Taylor wrote a post about what happened to her when she said yes.

You should try it in 2012. You only have to say one word.

Greg recently posted the other side of the story, Craft Brewing for Wine Lovers.

“I got together with my friend Jan recently at a craft brewery in Orange County. Jan is a wine lover, and the first time we met was her introduction to craft brewing. I think that might have been the first time she had finished an entire pint of beer, which was something of a revelation to her. Now we have found a common goal of exploring craft brewing from the point of view of a wine lover, while researching Southern California craft breweries.”

Read more...

I met Greg at a Tweet-up after the Sticky Teams conference. FYI: a “tweet-up” is when people who have only conversed via Twitter actually meet in person at a designated location. Dawn Carter, a sort of social media hub who connects people she meets to each other, introduced me to Greg. They were both very excited about something I’d never heard of: beer tasting.

I grew up Baptist in the Bible Belt, and we just never had alcohol around the house. So I was well into my adult years before I learned some of the major distinctions of wine (red grapes=red wine, white grapes=white wine…who knew?) Little by little I learned about notes and undertones and finishes. Turns out it’s much the same with beer. I tried a really dark beer with a chocolaty flavor. It was delish.

Greg is currently conducting research for his 2012 Craft Brewery Pilgrimage. You can join him in his research – drink some unusual beer, meet some interesting people – a great way to spend an afternoon.

1.: The Carl’s Junior viewpoint (2007):
“Don’t bother me… I’m eating.”

2.: from George Herbert (1593 – 1633):
“Thou that hast given so much to me, give one thing more–a grateful heart.”

[In churches] “We confuse connecting people with being friendly. It’s hard to assimilate new connections into old relationships.” ~ Larry Osborne

“You can have change without growth. But you can’t have growth without change. And you can’t have change without pain.”
“The Gospel is all about change.”
“We’re equipped with the gifts of grace needed to fulfill the calling God put on our lives.”
~ Gene Appel

“The Church is Plan A for our cities. There is no Plan B.”
“Learn to embrace ‘last’ as your first choice.”
~ Chris Brown

“The most important day of your ministry (or marriage) is not the first day, it’s the last day.”
“If you want to kill yourself for the Gospel, don’t get married!” [A great perspective on 1 Corinthians 7:32-35.]
~ Mark Driscoll

Joel Hunter, an Orlando megachurch pastor puts it this way:

“The media have been too eager to feature a simpleton image of evangelicals. Our part of the faith community is, on the whole, intelligent, accepting of diversity, and wanting the best practical solutions for the common good.”

This last sentence is especially interesting to me as we near the beginning of yet another election year. Because at their core, elections are primarily about voting for someone with “the best practical solutions for the common good.” Radio host Hugh Hewitt once commented that if Catholics, Mormons, and Christians could put aside faith differences and recognize that they share the same values, they could create a voting bloc with some real power.

I think we confuse voting for our values with voting for our faith. Would a President Mitt Romney promote Mormonism? Possibly. Would it also put Mormonism under incredible scrutiny? Probably. I’m old enough to remember my Baptist parents’ horror at the thought of a Catholic John F. Kennedy in the White House. Yet in hindsight, America survived those years of a “different faith” influence just fine. Religious freedom is one of our founding values after all.

It’s nearing the end of September. One year from now we’ll be neck-deep in mud-slinging, negative campaign ads, hyperbole and wild misrepresentations by both parties. To Christians who define their faith as being followers of Christ I say: Remember that your faith informs your values, but you are not voting for your faith. Vote your values and for the candidate who most closely shares them. (To be clear, I’m not an advocate for Romney. He’s just the obvious example.)

Our duty in this country – and as followers of Christ – is to vote for solutions that improve the common good. Not just the Christian good.