I RECALL JESUS SAYING, “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.” NOT, “MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL.”

In Ron Carpenter Junior’s The Necessity of an Enemy he writes: “I believe there’s a level of wisdom and maturity that finally comes to believers who realize they don’t have to condemn or even answer the tongues that are speaking against them.  Remember: Whatever voices you recognize, you’ve decided to give them credibility and allowed them an entry point into your life” (Pg. 171).  I certainly believe this is good advice.  However, I also believe that we need to at least sometimes listen to and heed the words of those that speak against us.  The title of The Necessity of an Enemy is certainly catchy and I agree that there is a necessity for enemies in our lives.  For the most part however, that is where my agreement with what Carpenter has to say in his book ends.  While my many criticisms of Carpenter’s book are my own,  there are parts here and there that I also appreciated.  If Pastor Carpenter were to read this review I would hope that he would at least consider allowing me an entry point into his life.

Before detailing some of what I disagreed with in Carpenter’s book I wanted to provide some context to my review.  Carpenter’s impetus for writing the book mainly stems from an event in his life where the church he pastors began a single mothers ministry that ended very badly.  This ministry was started as a result of a man not long involved with the church approaching Carpenter with the idea.  The ministry was doing great and was even receiving media attention.  It was also receiving monetary investments in large sums.  Not long after these investments came in the man with the idea of the ministry skipped town with the money, resulting in Carpenter being investigated by the FBI.  Carpenter was completely innocent and his church community had been swindled!

I have never experienced anything even close to resembling the kind of betrayal that Pastor Carpenter experienced in my life.  Personally, I like to believe that I live out Jesus’ words of, “Love your enemies.”  If I am honest though, I must admit that I have never really been in a situation that stretches my ability to follow this command and certainly not anything close to what Ron Carpenter had to go through.  This incident in Carpenter’s life sets the stage for the rest of the book.  While I do not agree with most of what Carpenter contends with respect to enemies, without going through something similar myself I cannot say that my ideas on enemies would be much different from Carpenters.  Therefore, I was concerned with how to write a negative review of a book without assassinating the character of the writer.  This, for me, is a challenge!  Therefore, please read what follows critically and with an open mind.  Feel free to disagree or agree—with parts or with the whole.  Also please keep in mind that while I am reviewing a book, I am not reviewing a person.

One, if not the biggest, issue that I have with Carpenter’s book is its failure to distinguish between enemies that are people and enemies that are not people.  By enemies that are not people I mean such things as chemical addictions, lust, greed which all stem from the ultimate enemy Satan.  His book does not have conventional chapters but is broken into small sections, each of which fall into nine different parts.  The following is the title of those parts:

-Part 1: The Necessity

-Part 2: The Plan

-Part 3: The Target

-Part 4: The Enemy Within

-Part 5: Weapons of Mass Destruction

-Part 6: Prowling Your Neighborhood

-Part 7: How to Fight to Win

-Part 8: The Spoils of Victory

Every one of these parts can be interpreted through the lens of war.  Failing to distinguish between human enemies and non-human enemies while using war language does not strike me as something that, in my opinion, Jesus would do.  I honestly believe that a book on The Necessity of an Enemy really needs to be broken into two very clear categories of enemy: our human enemies, and our non-human ones.

“They will beat the swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”  This passage is found in two of the Old Testament Prophets (Isaiah 2 and Micah 4) and if you are not going to start with Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” found in Matthew 5 this prophecy regarding war would be a good place to start for writing a book about enemies.  The story of the Good Samaritan would also be a good place to start.  Carpenter's book however does not really touch on any of these verses or stories in the Bible.

Carpenter’s book, however seems fixated on making our enemies footstools.  “God’s intent is to make all your enemies your footstools” (Pg. 166).   “As you move through life and ascend to new levels of potential and breakthrough, you’ll discover that your enemies are just as essential as your friends; in fact, they may be even more critical in your times of transition, if you’ll recognize them for the stepstools they are for you” (Pg. 11).  Personally, I believe God calls us to at least try to make our enemies our allies through love.  Nowhere in the New Testament does God call us to make our enemies our footstools if that enemy is another human being.  Of course, “Till I make thine enemies thy footstool” is in three of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. In those three gospels it is the same story of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and quoting Psalm 110:1.  I contend that Jesus is using this quote to challenge the Pharisees regarding who Jesus is.  Psalm 110:1 reads: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’”  Jesus is concerned with, “The Lord said to my Lord” part of this passage because the Pharisees know Jesus comes from the line of David and believe that he is not the messiah.  Jesus therefore asks the Pharisees to explain why David, being the King of Israel and therefore having no Lord, would start one of his Psalms with “The Lord said to my Lord.”  I further contend that Jesus continues with “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” to put the Psalm in context, that is, making sure that the Pharisees know that it is a Psalm of David. I honestly believe that Carpenter’s book has missed the point here—I would perhaps even say that the book has hi-jacked this verse and avoided the paramount topic of reconciliation.

Despite my belief that Carpenter’s book has really missed the point with the necessity of an enemy, some passages pleasantly surprised me.  For example, Carpenter mentions that he wants to “…confront racism in the church and to seek to help break the bondage of poverty in this region” (Pg. 38).  Both of these speak to me and I would be very interested in reading a book by Carpenter that addresses these issues.  Furthermore, toward the end of the book Carpenter pens my favorite paragraph from the entire book: “Jesus always had a way of creating an atmosphere where weakness could be revealed, but we have developed in families, in friendships, and especially in churches today an atmosphere where weaknesses are hidden.  This pressure to be okay and not have our problems show isolates us further from the people and places we should be able to go to for healing of our internal struggles”  (Pg. 199).  This reconciliatory paragraph appears paradoxical when taken with the context of adversarial-enemy relations that the rest of the book presents.  However, being toward the end of the book my hope and prayer is that it is reconciliation that Pastor Carpenter is moving toward rather than the adversarial confrontation  dominating much of the earlier parts of the book.

I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah, who I would like to express sincere gratitude toward for allowing me to share my honest thoughts, insights and criticisms.

Justice Work and Humility

I am currently reading Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  I feel really fortunate to be on a roll with books lately—I am both enjoying and being challenged by them.  I was compiling notes today on Bailey’s chapter on “The Parable of the Rich Fool” Found in Luke 12:13-21.  The following quote rings so true for my life regarding fighting for justice, “Another difficulty is that the person who fights for a just cause usually thinks that he or she is thereby a just person.  Everything such a person does in fighting for that cause usually becomes right in his or her eyes.  Woe to those who fall under the sway of this kind of self-created justice.  This parable presents a new perspective on the cry for justice.”  

This quote hits home for me!  The more I feel called to justice and the more I pursue it the more I realize how easy it is to become prideful and thereby believe that I am just.  The only way I have found to combat this is to ask for humility through prayer.  In fact, convincing myself to write this blog entry is helping me confirm how lacking I am in justice work—a definite answer to prayer in writing and sharing this.  

Sadly, I am thinking over the last week looking for a single example where an act of mine was intentionally done in the name of justice and I am drawing a blank.  I can think and have just thoughts, but they are really meaningless if they are not put into action.  This means it is time to start looking for and seizing opportunities to act on behalf of “the least of these.”

Quiet Speaks Volumes

Cain has written a remarkable book that is both thoroughly researched and beneficial not only to introverts but to extroverts as well.  While Quiet is not a biography, Cain uses many biographical references juxtaposed with psychological studies to support her argument that introverts are overlooked, oppressed even,  in Western society despite having just as much, even more in some cases, to offer than extroverts.  Of course Cain is writing subjectively being an introvert herself.  However, she does not use the book as a platform to bash extroverts.   She contends that extroverts and introverts both have much to offer and rather than societies favoring one personality type over another there needs to be partnership between both.  She argues that in current Western mentality, extroverts are exalted while introverts are viewed as weak or lacking in character.  According to Cain, this painfully overlooks the fact that there is strength in the quiet introvert. 

In her introduction Cain writes about the partnership of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Parks herself seemed aware of this paradox, calling her autobiography Quiet Strength—a title that challenges us to question our assumptions.  Why shouldn’t quiet be strong?  And what else can quiet do that we don’t give it credit for?...Take the partnership of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.: a formidable orator refusing to give up his seat on a segregated bus wouldn’t have had the same effect as a modest woman who’d clearly prefer to keep silent but for the exigencies of the situation…Yet today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles.  We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.  We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts—which means that we’ve lost sight of who we really are“(Pg. 2-3).

The book is divided into four sections: 1) The Extrovert Ideal; 2) Your Biology, Your Self?; 3) Do All Cultures Have An Extrovert Ideal; 4) How To Love, How To Work. In the first section Cain demonstrates how extroversion has come to be the standard for Western society.  Cain convincingly argues that the rise of the Extrovert Ideal began with Dale Carnegie.  She writes, “Carnegie’s metamorphosis from farmboy to salesman to public-speaking icon is also the story of the rise of the extrovert ideal…America had shifted from what the influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality…when they embraced the Culture of Personality, Americans started to focus on how others perceived them.  They became captivated by people who were bold and entertaining” (Pg. 20-21).  Cain also shares stories about attending a Tony Robbins Unleash-The-Power-Within seminar and visiting Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church to further support her contention of the Extrovert Ideal.

Cain’s distaste for the Tony Robbins seminar and her experience with  Saddleback Church resonate with me—I completely indentify with her!  I feel like these kinds of institutions are pushed upon us by society and Cain convincingly argues that while these institutions may be good for extroverts they are not the best environments for introverts to thrive and our western society would be much better served if this was recognized resulting in more introverted-friendly institutions or environments.

Having established that the West lives within the paradigm of the Extrovert Ideal, Cain looks at the psychology and science related to extroversion and introversion in the second section.  The studies that Cain presents are both enlightening and fascinating.  It was interesting for me at least to learn that evidence suggests that 40 to 50 percent of introvertedness and extrovertedness is genetic (Pg. 108).  I was relieved to learn that a third to half of Westerners are introverted.  Moreover, the fact that introvertedness can be tied to genetics gave more credence to the fact that I am normal.  Finally, as a quick aside to this section if one is not familiar with the life of Eleanor Roosevelt the brief, yet fascinating, biography found at the beginning of chapter 6 alone makes Cain’s book worth purchasing.    

In the third section, Cain looks at Eastern cultures and shows that the Extrovert Ideal is not universal.  In this section she spends time interviewing Asian students from Harvard’s business school and high school students from a public school system in California.  Cain writes, “Individuals in Asia see themselves as part of a greater whole—whether family, corporation, or community—and place tremendous value on harmony within their group.  They often subordinate their own desires to the group’s interest accepting their place in its hierarchy.  Western culture, by contrast, is organized around the individual” (Pg. 188-189).  If there is one area that lacked research in this book this would be it—her research seemed to be limited to those from Eastern cultural backgrounds residing in our Western culture.  It would have been interesting to read about a more thorough discussion of firsthand experience with Eastern cultures.

The fourth section can be best summed up in Cain’s words, “Probably the most common—and damaging—misunderstanding about personality type is that introverts are antisocial and extroverts are pro-social.  But as we’ve seen, neither formulation is correct; introverts and extroverts are differently social” (Pg. 226).  Cain also argues that there is a time for introverts to put on an extroverted face, she writes, “Yes, we are only pretending to be extroverts, and yes, such inauthenticity can be morally ambiguous (not to mention exhausting), but if it’s in the service of love or a professional calling, then we’re just as Shakespeare advised…’To thine own self be true’” (Pg. 210). 

At one point in the book I wrote in the margins, “When you boil it down this book is essentially about relationships.”  Of course no one is a pure introvert nor a pure extrovert but all of us are going to lean one direction or the other and fall on different points along the spectrum.  Cain’s book has helped me realize that if we are more sensitive to these leanings we can be more productive as a society and more importantly we can have more meaning in our lives because our relationships will be deeper.

Frankly, this book spoke to me.  For my whole life I have struggled with the fact that I am a “quiet” person and very introverted—not necessarily shy but, yes, introverted.  I was frustrated that I did not fit what seems to be the norm for our society.  After reading Cain’s book I am both thankful for who I am and much more comfortable with who I am.  For the first time I believe that I have a lot to offer not in spite of my introvertedness but because of my introvertedness.  Moreover, this book helped lessen my animosity toward extroverts because I no longer need to be envious of them and this will allow me to approach them in love and community.  I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah for the purposes of this review.

NARRATIVES AND TENSION

So, I am back from Egypt and feel like I have so much to process.  One theme that I am currently processing is the idea of narrative.  The more I ponder this concept the more I realize that for as many people there are in the world there are a corresponding number of narratives.  Moreover, each of these narratives deserves a listening ear.

I am currently reading Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  In Chapter 5 the paradigm of narrative fits perfectly with my experience in Egypt.  In this chapter Bailey compares Luke 6:20-26 with Matthew 5:3-12.  It is apparent that these are the same speech in Jesus’ life—The Sermon on the Mount.  However, the narratives differ substantially between the two.  Matthew’s contains nine “Blessed are…” while Luke begins with four “Blessed are…,” but ends with four “Woe to you…”

If you were to ask me what this means for me I could ponder it for some time.  I find it interesting, though, that much of Christianity wants things black and white.  However, if God wants things to be black and white why does his word contain similar, yet at the same time, very different accounts of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount?

Of course, my answer is that God does not want us to live so much in black and white models as He wants us to dwell in tension.  I believe that it is in tension that God breaks us down and molds us into who he wants us to become.

A Brief Thought On The Term "Judeo-Christian"

On a friend’s blog this morning I read the following quote: "Our nation's founders held the Judeo-Christian belief that all human beings are sinners."  I am not sure if it is because in less than a week I leave for a trip with my church to Egypt with our focus being on peace and reconciliation but I was really struck by the exclusion that exists in the term “Judeo-Christian.”

We see the term “Judeo-Christian” so often, yet there is, as many of us know, a third Abrahamic faith and I have never seen its inclusion in the Judeo-Christian term. If we are working toward peace and reconciliation and we want to use the term “Judeo-Christian” we may want to use another, more inclusive term--perhaps “Judeo-Islamic-Christian.”

For me “Judeo-Christian,” while on the surface appearing to be inclusive reinforces the Zionist mindset and is more exclusive than inclusive.

A Reflection on Lent and Fasting

A little more than a month ago I was sitting in the Pollo Campero in Columbia Heights meeting with a friend of mine by the name of Dave.  We were discussing a 21 day fast that our church was doing which led into a discussion about Lent and fasting in general.  Dave announced to me that he was planning to fast the entire year.  Now before anyone thinks that Dave is planning on starving himself to death I will let you know that you can relax.  Yes, food is probably the most common thing that people fast, but Dave has a bunch of things that he is planning on fasting and most of them are not food.

There is one thing in particular that stuck out to me from that conversation in addition to Dave’s plan to fast the entire year.  Dave stated that we live in a society that pretty much declares that we can have whatever we want whenever we want it and that fasting was a great way to break out of the paradigm of “it is all about me.”  That was more than a month ago and I cannot get it out of my head.  I think there are several reasons for this.

 First, there is so much truth to it and something that is really scary about this is how easily it allows us to neglect God.  Just today on the way to work I was thinking what it must have been like to live in Biblical times.  You wake up in the morning thirsty, or needing to take care of your morning constitutional.  There is no running water, there is not a flush toilet, and come to think of it there is no roll of toilet paper that you picked up at the super market last week either.  Funny, the Bible does not mention what people used to wipe with and I do not want to speculate here so we will leave that out.  Anyway, this person needs to get some privacy and, I assume, bring a shovel--again another item that was probably not all that easy to procure.  After this they can take on the second task of getting a drink of water, not coffee, not Red Bull, not Juice, Not Coca Cola, not any other of the plethora of choices that we have today.  Perhaps milk could be a choice if they could find a cow or goat of the nursing, female persuasion, but we will stick with water.  I wonder if this person has a container to fill or if they will have to simply use their hands as a cup.  As I was thinking about this I could not help but think, “Wow, life in Biblical times was way simpler than the life we have today--more difficult for sure, but also simpler!” This simplicity must have made it easier for them to focus on God than it is for us.  Fasting is a great way of simplifying our lives.

A second reason Dave’s statement stuck with me is because it was convicting—I rarely fast.  Yes, I have given up beer for Lent the past two years—I actually gave up all alcohol, but anyone who knows me knows that I make the world’s top-ten list for beer snobbery.  However, instead of using this time to reflect on God I substituted copious amounts of chocolate milk in beer’s place.  This Lent I decided to limit myself to one Red Bull in the morning and only water for the rest of the day.  I must say that it has not been easy for me, but when I think about how difficult it is I am trying to reflect on God and what it means to be in relationship with Him.  I can also reflect on the Biblical people with no toilet paper, no running water and no flush toilet, which puts things in perspective and helps me to be thankful for the things that I do have.   Next year maybe I could fast the flush toilet for Lent.  However, I don’t think my wife will go for that!

I have probably heard the following definition of humility a dozen times over the past several years: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.”  This is the third reason Dave’s statement stuck with me.  It is crazy to me to think that we live in a society where we can have something that we want by whipping out a 2 by 4 inch piece of plastic—even if we do not have the money in the bank to pay it off.  And it is even crazier that we can have the instant gratification of a new kayak paddle, new shoes, new bike or whatever while nearly half of the world’s population lives on two dollars a day and less than half the population of Africa have access to clean drinking water.  I have been praying for humility and fasting is a form of humility.  Of course giving up beer and all other drinks beside water and a daily Red Bull is not going to solve the issues of those living on two dollars a day and the clean drinking water problem in Africa.  However, when we intentionally deny ourselves instant gratification it is a conscious decision to “think of yourself less” which very well could be the catalyst for solving such issues.

I wanted to add one final note here.  This is my take on Lent and fasting, but it is certainly not the only one.  I recently read an article, by a much more gifted writer than myself, which emphasized that the important thing with Lent is not what you take away, but what you add.  After writing this entry it is certainly paradoxical that I loved this other article and I believe that both my blog entry and his article are spot on in the spirit of Lent.  If you are interested in reading the other article you can find it here.

Man Alive: A Not-So-Great-To-Read-On-Your-Own-But-Good-For-A-Group Book

Before I begin I want to express my gratitude to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing for providing me with free books to read and review.  Knowing that I will need to provide a fair and honest review has made me a better reader and has provided me with books that very often I would not have read otherwise.  Patrick Morley’s Man Alive: Transforming Your 7 Primal Needs into a Powerful Spiritual Life is the latest. Reading Man Alive left me with mixed feelings.

I believe that if you are to read Man Alive on your own what you will get out of it greatly depends where you are on your spiritual journey.  Overall, I was not very challenged by this book.  However, there were some quotes and ideas that I did find insightful. One of my favorites: “The starting point for cycle breaking is to own your stuff.  No doubt the sins against you are real, perhaps tragic.  But it’s what you do next that counts.  Will you take responsibility for yourself.” (p. 98)  I am not sure if it is irony or not but my favorite quote from the book actually comes from Christian writer and psychologist Larry Crabb: “’Biblical counseling must insist that the image of God is central to developing a solid view of personality; that our sinfulness, not how we’ve been sinned against, is our biggest problem; that forgiveness, not wholeness, is our greatest need; that repentance, not insight, is the dynamic in all real change.’” (p. 95)  Also, I really enjoyed chapter 7 “To Love And Be Loved”.  This chapter gave ten useful suggestions for how to love your wife better that I can and will certainly use.  Morley also has 10 suggestions on how to love your children which, if I had children, I believe would be very useful as well.  However, excluding chapter 7 and the few quotes that I liked most of this book was not very deep—I really feel like it just scratched the surface with most things.

Despite not being very challenged by Man Alive I could not help but frequently thinking about the book being used in the context of a small group and its potential to spur really great conversation.  Moreover, I think this context is primarily what Morley was aiming for with the book to begin with.  Each chapter ends with discussion questions which I found useful for the most part.  However, if I was leading a group I think I would add a few questions about the reading itself.  For example: Did you agree or disagree with what Morley had to say in this chapter and why?

I would not recommend this book to a friend for a solo read, but would definitely recommend it to someone thinking about starting a men’s group—for that it would work really well!