Do you know Jesus?

This is the picture of Jesus I have in my head, except here he is more Caucasian.

We’re like John Mayer meets Metallica with some Calypso influences.

God loves fools

As you may have figured out if you read my April post, “It’s a Miracle?”, I enjoy thinking about what the Bible and Christian tradition have to say about the value of knowledge, intelligence and analysis. In the earlier post, I wrote about how even a children’s song reflects some Christians’ lack of interest in how the world works beyond “God did it.”

Lately, I have been reflecting on what the Bible actually says about intelligence. If God created humans and their functions, including thought and reasoning, would he not value brainpower and encourage us to use that faculty to the best of our abilities?

Let’s look at these verses from I Corinthians 1:18-31…

It’s a Miracle?

My brain is composed of at least 30% music lyrics. And at least 12% of those are songs I learned during 18 years of faithful church of Christ attendance (including church service 3x/week, youth group outings and summer camp).

Here’s a delightful jewel I found myself humming the other day:

Fw: Fw: Flag eagle + cross = a Christian nation?

How should I feel about the image below?

Or the text that accompanies it?

“Prayer Wheel for our soldiers…please don’t break it. Please send this on after a short prayer. When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world… Of all the gifts you could give a US Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine & others deployed in harm’s way, prayer is the very best one.” [abridged]

First of all, I hate chain e-mails, especially the ones that attempt to guilt/frighten you into passing them along by saying, “If you don’t forward this e-mail, you’re not a very good friend, you hate Jesus, and you will have seven years of bad luck.” So when I receive an e-mail with the subject line of “Fw: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE,” my bullshit alarm is immediately triggered.

And obviously the image of a flag/eagle clinging to a cross flies in the face (ha ha, so punny) of everything I like about the establishment clause. But most irksome is the sentence “Of all the gifts you could give a U.S. soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and others deployed in harm’s way, prayer is the very best one.” Really? So if you truly want to make an impact on the war, be sure to spend about 30 seconds praying about it and another 15 seconds forwarding this e-mail. There. Your duty as an American is complete. You’ve done absolutely all you can, right? Leave it in the hands of the Big Guy and he’ll deal with it.

And I would think that there’d at least be a dozen other things—especially at Christmas—that the average soldier would name as “the very best” gift before prayer. How about a phone card or a used cell phone to call someone he loves back home? How about a great book to take her mind off the risks she faces in the field every day? How about a card or a letter expressing support and wishing for a safe, speedy return? How about a donation to the USO?

Please don’t believe that prayer on any topic removes your personal responsibility to affect change. If prayer, as an act of meditation, helps calm your mind or focus your thoughts, great. But it doesn’t help anyone else. Activism does.

If you’d like to do some that might actually help U.S. troops, visit the sites below or Google “help troops.”

Cell Phones for Soldiers

Operation Paperback

USO

Any Soldier (letters and care packages)