Loose Ends
The Calvary Global Network conference ends today having been nothing like any Calvary Chapel conference I’ve ever watched.
That’s both the good news and the bad news.
While the presentations have been uneven in content and quality and there was no discernable “buzz” as in previous years, there were some real worthwhile moments.
The panel discussions on homosexuality and racial reconciliation were especially thoughtful and worthy of note.
There was little talk of numerical growth and (to the chagrin of some) little mention of Chuck Smith.
Indeed, there were few old guard CC guys anywhere to be seen.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a generic “evangelical” conference addressing the issues in the evangelical world.
It’s in that generic quality that the problem arises.
Another opportunity has been lost to define the identity and purpose of the Calvary Global Network.
Without a clear identity no group can survive or thrive as it’s members have no way to define why they are part of the group.
Why this simple concept is so hard for the leadership to grasp is beyond my understanding.
The failure to do so will show up next year when many of this years attendees stay home.
As a side note one of those leaders kept showing up on the live feed between speakers looking as if he just got back from a successful possum hunt and didn’t have time to get cleaned up…hardly the image one should present for the yearly conference of a struggling organization…
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire and many think his replacement will swing the court to overturn “Roe vs Wade” and possibly even same sex marriage.
If so, now would be the time to start planning for the unwanted consequences of any prohibition on something previously legal…
I get mail…asking what I would do about the immigration situation.
This is really simple, but not easy…they won’t stop coming until it’s safe to stay where they’re from.
If your family was starving and your children in imminent danger, you’d be on the move too…
Finally, the death of our society as we know it won’t come at the hands of foreigners, but at our own.
It will be our hands around the throats of each other, as we’ve convinced ourselves that the “other” is less than human, devoid of the image of God, and unworthy of bare human respect.
We’re running out of time to stop this…
On your last two points, I think this quote from Oscar Romero is salient …
“One begins to experience faith and conversion when one has the heart of the poor, when one knows that financial capital, political influence and power are worthless, and that without God we are nothing…
We learn to see the face of Christ—the face of Christ that also is the face of a suffering human being, the face of the crucified, the face of the poor, the face of a saint, and the face of every person—and we love each one with the criteria with which we will be judged: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.”
Overturning Roe v Wade does not outlaw abortion. All it does is send the issue back to the states. Abortion was legal in California and several states before Roe.
to MLD’s point #2 … one of my first jobs found me running a blue print machine one summer, yeh, i can do that 🙂 … the super quit and his assistant, who was slotted to step into his position found that she was pregnant. Married and healthy and not wanting to lose that job she took time off to have an abortion at a very nice facility. Yes, she told me when she came back the reason for her 2 weeks off. This was California 1955.
I’m sure that the back alley procedures that were touted as the only alternative did happen, but the free and easy cure isn’t a cure. It’s a curse on the nation.
Mobs and slogans are not good problem solvers IMHO
Duane, the quote is indeed salient. But doesn’t it matter who controls the political levers in that these political powers have a large part to say about the treatment of the poor and the treatment of the defenseless and so forth? So, can’t politics be a worthwhile pursuit for the Christian in these narrow ways?
#4 Cash
Indeed, it does matter and politics can be a worthwhile endeavor. I think, however, Romero is calling for politics to be placed in the context of conversion and faith, which begins when we see Christ in “the least of these”…
I must confess that I struggle with the role of money in a Christian’s life and whether it’s valid to be middle class and not take a “vow of poverty.” There are several options —
live like “the least of these,” be middle class and greedy, or be middle class and not greedy (i.e,, share what you don’t need with those in need.)
I lean toward number three, I guess.
But I sure do admire Christians like Oscar Romero!!
Thanks Duane!
That’s a lot of loose ends
How can we fix those other countries?
berean,
The same way we we bleeped them up…we decide to.
Two things create migrations…lack of economic opportunity and violence.
Seems to me we should know a thing or two about how to address those issues.
The reason we won’t is because power profits from misery…
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvnyzq/central-america-atrocities-caused-immigration-crisis
If we’d spent half the effort we put into beating the crap out of middle eastern fascist dictators into supporting the infrastructure of Central America we’d be in a much better place here in the US.