Barbaric Christianity?

Judgmental. Finger-pointing. Self-righteous. Conceited.

When pressed, that’s how I would characterize the Christian

presence in the public square. Always harping: The godless are

tearing up the place and provoking the wrath of God.

We heard it again after Katrina, almost before she’d left town.

Good and fed up with Sin City, God sent in his angels of destruction

to clean up.

Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, had

long warned that if the city continued to be home to abortion

clinics, Mardi Gras and the annual six-day gay pride event known as

Southern Decadence, “God’s judgment would be felt.”

In Katrina’s aftermath, Shanks pointed out, “New Orleans now is

abortion-free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras-free. New Orleans now is

free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers,

false religion. God in his mercy purged all of that stuff out of

there.”

That might be true, at least for a spell, but excuse me if I think

that sounds ridiculous.

New Orleans might have had an edge on sin compared to the rest of

this nation’s major cities, but I doubt it was much of an edge. If

Katrina was the hand of God slapping the daylights out of sinners,

should we be bracing ourselves for the Big One? Should the country’s

heartland be hunkering down for the mother of all tornadoes? Or were

those unfortunate souls on the Gulf Coast chosen to take the beating

for us all?

Shanks, though, was just one of countless I-told-you-so-ers to

claim Katrina for God. Riverside pastor and Harvest Crusades

evangelist Greg Laurie used the repercussions of Katrina to get in

another sort of Christian dig.

“You will not see any atheist relief groups rushing to provide aid

to our friends devastated by Katrina. There is no ‘Non-believer’s

Purse,’ or ‘Secular Vision’ or ‘Atheists Army’ out there helping

those in need,” he wrote in an article titled, “Hurricane Katrina: A

Sign of the Last Days?”

But atheists, too, are funneling funds and volunteers into the

efforts to aid the victims of Katrina. They’re doing it with the help

of organizations like American Atheist, the American Humanist Assn.,

Hands on Humanity and others.

Judgmental. Finger-pointing. Self-righteous. Conceited. There’s

never a shortage of these kinds of stories from the hearts and minds

of Christian spokesmen.

I’m ready for something new. And after spending last week in Miami

at the Religion Newswriters Assn.’s 56th annual conference, I’m half

convinced something new might be on the horizon.

The conference’s keynote speaker was Rick Warren, pastor of

Saddleback Community Church and author of the blockbuster book, “The

Purpose-Driven Life,” and he and several young Christian leaders

seemed to be striking a new, more harmonious tune.

As Warren sees it, the church has in recent years come to be known

for what it’s against. Now, he says, it’s time it is known for what

it is for.

During his one-hour keynote address, Warren unveiled what he’s

dubbed his “PEACE” plan. Having identified what he believes are the

five “biggest problems in the world” -- spiritual emptiness,

egocentric leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy -- he plans to

muster “the largest volunteer army in the world,” the worldwide

Christian church, to lick them.

“We find our significance,” he said, “in service.”

“PEACE” is an acronym that stands for partnering with existing

churches or planting new ones, equipping leaders, assisting the poor,

caring for the sick and educating the next generation.

The ambitious plan is the cover story in the October issue of

“Christianity Today.” If you want the details, you can find them

there.

Among the other new-guard speakers in Miami were Erwin Raphael

McManus, the pastor of Mosaic, a Los Angeles congregation, and Rob

Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.

McManus, who believes “the greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus

Christ is Christianity,” is the author of several books, the most

recent being “The Barbarian Way,” a book described on his website as

“a call to revolution against ‘civilized’ Christianity.”

The language hints of riot and violence. But the barbarian way,

quirky as it sounds, is to McManus about love, passion, creativity

and sacrifice, “a community of followers of Jesus Christ committed to

live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope.”

The word “diverse” should be in there too. McManus, when he spoke

at a luncheon sponsored by his publisher, used it again and again.

It’s key to the name of his congregation, which is borrowed from the

art world: Mosaic -- the process that uses various, even broken,

pieces to create a whole.

Art, creativity in general, seems to play a central role in the

faith-visions of both McManus and Rob Bell, who named his own book

“Velvet Elvis: Repainting Faith for Today.”

The book found its title in a painting that hangs in Bell’s

basement. On it hinges an analogy that compares the Christian faith

tradition with art.

The gist of it is this: No work of art, no matter how good, has

ever been or ever will shut down the need for further artistic

endeavors. And so it is with the Christian faith tradition. To be a

Christian, says Bell, means being part of “an endless process of

working out how to live as God created us to live.”

In the introduction to “Velvet Elvis” Bell writes, “For many

people the word ‘Christian’ conjures up all sort of images that have

nothing to do with who Jesus is and how he taught us to live. This

must change.”

If Warren, McManus and Bell have something to do with it, I think

there’s a sporting chance.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].

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