Month: April 2012

The Absurdity of the Cross

A few days ago I asked for readers to tell me what’s wrong with Christianity, from a perspective of those who don’t follow Christ.  Based on the absence of any response, I’ve come to the conclusion that either I don’t have any readers who don’t follow Christ, or there’s nothing wrong with Christianity in the eyes of those who choose not to follow him (which leads me to believe that the problem contributing to the decline of the Christian faith in the US might lie, not with the belief system, but rather with those who profess the belief system–but that’s for another day).  Since no one else seems to see anything “wrong” with Christianity, let me point out something absurd about Christianity, in honor of Easter.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:   “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Webster’s defines “absurdity” as either incongruous or meaningless; both of these definitions hold the idea that the absurd is irrational or does not align with human understanding.

Face it, it’s absurd to believe that

  • God took the form of man,
  •  walked the earth (that he created),
  • allowed the mankind (that he created) to arrest him, try him, impose the death penalty on him,
  • and then, through a total violation of all human experience, the God-Man rose from the dead,

But in that absurdity the objective mind can find the very reason for the absurdity–by definition absurdity means it doesn’t make sense to the human mind.  Many throughout history have made the mistake of assuming that something incongruous or nonsensical to the human mind is therefore not possible.  To one of Copernicus’ contemporaries, the idea of a rocket was nonsensical, let alone a man walking on the moon.  However, that absurdity did not mean it was impossible, just that it was beyond man’s comprehension.

The historical evidence for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is strong; in fact, denial of the evidence in the face of that evidence is absurd–it defies human reason; unless that denial starts with a presupposed notion that because an event or concept does not align with the individual’s understanding it is therefore impossible.  This rationalistic approach is the basis for most attempts to explain away the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection–“to believe that the Messiah (God’s appointed savior who was to restore the world to the way He intended) was crucified, then raised from the dead defies logic, reason, and all the knowledge and experience of mankind!”  Apply that same logic to claim that the entire Apollo program was a hoax, and most everyone will agree  you’re a kook.

Is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus absurd?  Absolutely!  It flies in the face of all human reason, precisely because it’s not of human reason!

  • God created man, and out of love gave man the freedom to choose to love God, which by definition means he also gave man the freedom to choose not to love God.  What rational man would do that???
  • Man chose to love himself (ok, that certainly fits within our understanding)–he didn’t want to love God, he wanted to be God
  • God loved anyway, and chose to restore man’s ability to exist in relationship with Him
  • God didn’t force us to accept his Son and the restoration that He provided.  He gives us the choice again.

YHWH, I honor you and surrender my life to you.  No god created from human reasoning would subject himself to the humiliation of being made human; of suffering and resisting temptation, of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his creation (corrupted).  No king, let alone a mythological ruler, would look at humanity in all its selfish debasement, not in wrath, but in sacrificial love.  No ruler would weep in anguish in the garden, knowing that those appointed to minister to him were coming instead to take him captive to impose the death penalty on him, in the most heinous form the corrupt mind of man could devise.

Yet you did.  And even after you proved yourself to be God, raising Jesus to life on the third day, you did not destroy us nor imprison us.  These would be the actions of a victorious king who had defeated his captors.  Instead, you not only provided a means to set us free from the bondage of selfishness that we freely submitted to, you have given us a purpose and an authority in your Kingdom, once we step into the freedom you offer. 

Continue to be merciful to me Lord, for the selfishness of my human nature is powerful, alluring, and in its familiarity, it’s even comforting, despite it’s toxicity.  Only through the power of your Spirit could Jesus withstand the temptation, and only through that same Spirit that you freely give can I withstand. 

I’m thankful, particularly today, that you are not limited by the bounds of human reasoning.  Thank you for the absurdity of the Cross.

Let’s Talk Oil Economics!

OK, so no one appears to want to discuss religion, so let’s discuss oil and gasoline prices.   That seems to be a popular topic of late.

It seems everyone is upset about the price at the pump, and is looking for someplace to aim their frustration.  Two popular targets for blame are the government and big oil.  In the interest of total transparency, I am an employee of a major oil company, but I don’t have any “inside knowledge” to share.  Instead, I hope to help readers understand a few things about crude the oil industry, so that maybe there can be a little less anger in the world.  If you’re of the mindset that big oil is nothing more than a bunch of rich guys chomping big cigars and scheming how they can screw you out of more money, hopefully you know me well enough to know that stereotype is not accurate.  If you’re convinced I’m one of those rich guys, you might as well quit reading now, because nothing I’m going to say is going to convince you otherwise.

In the interest of brevity, I’m not going to try to cover all the details of the very complex economics that determine oil and gas prices.  A good source to understand that is the US Energy Information Administration website.  It’s full of all sorts of educational material and statistics about what’s going on in the world energy markets.  If you’re convinced that you can’t believe anything you read there because it’s a government agency, then tighten your tinfoil hat and surf on, because nothing I’m going to say is going to sway you.  If you’re still here, then here is a specific page on that site than can help you understand the basics of the market.

What I specifically want to talk about today is some recent rants I’ve seen on the internet, and heard from politicians, talk show hosts, and generally frustrated consumers about the “obscene” profits earned by oil companies.   The media, politicians, and anyone else that wants to work the public into a frenzy loves to talk about “big oil” profits.  The numbers are astounding–no argument there.  Let’s take Exxon’s annual Consolidated Statement of Income for 2011, where they reported an income of $486 billion.  That’s obscene, right?!  No company should make that much money!  We should revolt!

But keep reading on that same report.   To generate that obscene amount of income, they spent–$413 billion.  Then, they paid income taxes–$31 billion.  When you subtract that from their income–the number that’s thrown around to get us all lathered up, you get to an actual earning of $42 billion.  I’m sure we’d all like to try to suffer along on such a paltry sum.  It’s still a huge number, that can easily frustrate us at the pump.  That’s a lot of money!  But stop to think about it a minute–they invested $413 billion to earn that $42 billion.  That “b” word makes this all unfathomable, so let’s get the numbers into normal consumer terms, by just dropping the “billion”.  They invested $413 to earn $42.  Hey, that’s still a 10.2% return on investment-none of us can earn that in our money market fund or CD at the bank, right?  Let’s hate ’em.

Not so fast.  Let’s pick a company that everybody loves… how about Apple?  Apple’s most recent annual report runs through 3Q 2011; close enough for our purposes.  How much income did Apple earn in their most recent reporting year?  Only $108 billion.  Nothing close to Exxon.  But let’s look do the same analysis:

  • Expenses (I’m including Cost of Sales in this numbers for you financial gurus): $74 billion
  • Income taxes:  $8 billion
  • Earnings:  $26 billion

There’s that “b” word again.  In normal human terms:  They spent $74 to earn $26.  Poor Apple, they only made–wait–they only made 35% return on their investment.  35%!  That’s highway robbery!  The only people I ever heard of who could collect 35% on their money were loan sharks!

OK, one more just to be fair.  Everybody knows that computer companies rip us off.  Let’s go for something everybody likes-food.  How about a nice, friendly, likeable company:  Nestle.  Purveyors of Gerber Baby Food, and my personal favorite, Nestle Toll House Morsels, aka chocolate chips, aka the perfect snack food!  Data from their 2011 Income Statement:

  • Sales:  $83.6 billion
  • Expenses:  $71.1 billion
  • Income taxes:   $3.1 billion
  • Earnings:  $9.8 billion (there’s some other things in their report that I’ve left out, but this is their earnings)
  • 13.7% return on investment

So, what’s my point?  Don’t get sucked in by the big numbers the media throws around.  Sure, the super majors earn huge profit numbers, but they spend huge amounts of money to do it.  And they have to, because it takes a lot of money, and a lot of risk, to drill for oil.  When things go wrong, they go bad wrong–as we’ve seen in recent history.  If they don’t have the opportunity to earn a decent return on their investment, why would they spend the money?  As seen above, 10% isn’t a huge return, compared to many other industries that we don’t vilify.  And it is hard work, done in extremely inhospitable places all around the world.  And where do those billions in earnings go?  To their shareholders.  If you own a mutual fund, 401k, or are part of a private pension plan, you’re very likely one of those shareholders.  Federal Government Thrift Savings Plan?  Yeah, you too.

Why are pump prices so high?  Well, it’s complicated.  Is it big oil’s fault?  Not really.  Should we hate ’em?  I submit that if you look at it rationally, your answer will be “no.”  If you need someone to be mad at because you don’t like your gas bill, and you want a simple world to live in where someone else is to blame for all your “problems,” sure, go ahead.  Hate “big oil.”

Somebody pass me a cigar…

What’s wrong with Christianity? No, this is not a Rhetorical Question!

I’ve got lots of friends on Facebook (ok, 108 seems like a lot to me), who hold many different spiritual perspectives, so I’m asking the question:  What is wrong with Christianity?  And yes, I really, truly am looking for responses!

What do I mean?  I’ve just spent the past 90 minutes reading several different Christian leadership blogs that posit different perspectives on why people are rejecting Christianity in our nation.  This is a real phenomenon, and Christian leaders are concerned about it, but can’t agree on why people are rejecting it.  The arguments span the entire spectrum, and I’m at a loss for legitimate answers (I’m sure the problem is complex enough that there’s more than one reason).  While our culture is more spiritual than it has been in generations, fewer and fewer people in the US are Christian, or claim to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Here’s my very sincere request:  In the spirit of the quote at the top of this page, I really want to understand.  I’m not asking to start a debate, or to try to start a dialog so I can proselytize.  No tricks, no traps, honest.  I really want to know:  What is it about Christianity that turns you away (assuming you’re not actively following Christ)?  I sincerely ask, because I desperately want to understand, and I just don’t get it.  I’m admittedly late to the party (as a follower of Christ), but I’ve studied Christianity, and it makes sense to me.  I don’t understand why it doesn’t to others.  And I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me understand.  So please, take a minute or two to comment.  You can either reply to the blog (anonymously if you’d like), or as a comment on the Facebook thread, or even in a PM to me on Facebook.  But I’d really appreciate some feedback.

Thanks!

 

Pastors say some dumb things…

Just read a tweet by a pastor that I follow, that says “journalistic integrity is an oxymoron.”  As the father of a son of the highest integrity, who’s also a journalist, this kind of statement gets my back up.  Painting an entire profession with this broad of a brush is just plain foolish… like saying “professional athletes have no integrity” or “pastors have no integrity.”Here’s the problem, for any of you pastors who might be reading this:  This is not the first time I’ve heard a pastor slam journalists in their public statements (whether from the pulpit, or through written means).  Problem is, some of you don’t realize you’ve got journalists in your audience.  How welcome are you going to feel belonging to a “family” where the leaders denigrate your profession?

Wouldn’t it be better if we had even more Christian journalists (there’s already a bunch of them–surprised?)?  How crazy would that be?  But if you keep slamming journalists from your pulpit, your youth that are listening are either going to choose another career field because you’ve turned them off, or their going to choose that career field, and leave their church behind, so they don’t have to hear pastors (and other church leaders) bash their chosen profession.

Guess what?  Pretty much any profession out there today has an integrity problem.  The problem’s not in the profession, it’s in our world.  The WORLD has an integrity problem!  So, why don’t you start preaching about integrity, instead of railing against a stereotype?