Sell Everything

Image source.

In Matthew 13:44-58, we have a few parables, then Jesus' rejection in his hometown.

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

These two parables are basically the same idea. In the first one, a man found treasure in a field, and sold all he had and bought the field. In the second, a man found a very valuable pearl, and sold all he had to buy the pearl.

(These parables are the same, right? Or is there some subtle difference in what each of them is trying to communicate?)

And I'm just now realizing I've always misinterpreted these 2 parables. See, the treasure and the pearl are supposed to represent the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus says it's worth it to sell all you have- with great joy- in order to get involved with the kingdom of heaven.

I used to think the treasure and pearl symbolized Jesus, or a personal relationship with God. And certainly in other places, the bible says it's worth all you have to know Christ.  But that's not what these particular parables say.

Selling all you have in order to find the kingdom of heaven and be part of it. And what is the kingdom of heaven? Well, as I've said before, I believe it's God's work and God's people both on earth and in heaven. It's justice and freedom and healing and forgiveness and love. It's "the first will be last and the last will be first." It's feeding the hungry, helping the poor, setting the captives free. It's following Christ's example.

So perhaps the message of the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl is that this is worth all you have. Dedicate your life to bringing God's kingdom to this earth. Partner with Jesus to fight the evils in this world and restore everything to the way God intended. Help people. Love the world.

Which is far different from "give all you have to get Jesus." I definitely believe Jesus brings dramatic transformation to one's individual life, and I've experienced that (and highly recommend it!)- and perhaps this is the first step towards working for the kingdom of God. But the kingdom of God is far bigger than my own individual life.

The Parable of the Fish in the Net

The next parable about the kingdom of heaven describes a net catching many fish, and then the fishermen sort them into good and bad. Similarly, Jesus says, there will be a final judgment, and "The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Umm. So, I don't like that. I've mentioned before that I really really REALLY don't want to believe in hell. (For lots of reasons, which I'll probably put in a blog post someday.) But it sounds like Jesus is talking about hell here. So, umm, apply the brakes to my not-believing-in-hell thing.

BUT. This passage does NOT say hell is infinite torture. It does NOT say hell is eternal. It does NOT say everyone in hell gets punished equally. It does NOT say the criteria for heaven or hell is believing the correct religion.

It says the "wicked" will be separated from the "righteous." What does traditional Christian teaching about "you can't earn your salvation" and "saved by faith alone" have to say about that?

So I will continue to stubbornly cling to my skepticism abut hell, until I get these questions answered. Because really, it doesn't make sense.

Because how do we integrate these 2 teachings about the kingdom of heaven found in this passage? It's worth sacrificing all you have, to help others and restore the world to the way God intended it. Oh, but some people don't make the cut, so screw them.

Uh... Ideas, anyone?

Bringing out of the Storeroom

The last parable is, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

Sounds like the kingdom of heaven preserves some old things and introduces new things. Sounds pretty good. (Yes? If anyone has another interpretation of this parable, let me know.)

Rejected

So Jesus goes to his hometown and starts preaching, and people don't really take him seriously because come on, we know his family and where he came from, how can he be something special? 

I mean, he's a carpenter, remember? Image source.

"And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." A long time ago, I found this to be a very puzzling statement. Why not do miracles? That should convince them, right? Or is it saying that these people are so stubborn that they won't pay attention to any miracles? Or is is saying that Jesus' "miracles" were just tricks for gullible people, and those who lacked "faith" wouldn't be fooled?

But now I see it completely different. Everybody believes what they believe for a TON of reasons. A lot of people have a lifetime of experience following a certain religion, and you're not going to change that in a day, with a couple miracles. (You're not going to change that in one online argument either.)

Some people are at a stage in their life where they're unsure about what they believe and they're looking for answers. Those are the people who will be convinced by miracles. The people who at least had enough faith to investigate who Jesus was.

So if the people in Jesus' hometown have a deeply internalized view that says Jesus can't be anything special, well, it's not like he can change that so fast. It's a change that can happen gradually, and maybe doing some miracles right then and there wouldn't help at all.

Soooooooo the moral of the story is to be realistic. If someone believes something that's wrong or even harmful, you're not going to change their mind in some sudden display of force. It has to be gradual. You have to respect them.

And as for the summary of this passage: Give all you have for the kingdom of God. Perfect Number is confused about hell. And people's beliefs are deep and complicated. :)

-------------------

This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

Previous post: Jesus and Gardening (Matthew 13:24-43)

Next post: Pro Tip: Beheading People is Wrong (Matthew 14:1-12)

Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

You Are Not Gum

Image source.

[trigger warning: rape]

In a recent article, Elizabeth Smart speaks on human trafficking, Elizabeth Smart explains why, after she was kidnapped and raped, she didn't try to run:

Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins human trafficking forum, saying she was raised in a religious household and recalled a school teacher who spoke once about abstinence and compared sex to chewing gum.

"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.' And that's how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value," Smart said. "Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value."

And oh my goodness. I know exactly what she's saying. This is EXACTLY what purity culture teaches. This is EXACTLY what I used to believe.

Smart did not misunderstand or make unwarranted extrapolations from the teachings about purity. This message- "if you have sex, then you are no longer valuable and no one will want you"- this IS the core of purity culture.

For those who are unfamiliar, let me explain her analogy about the "chewing gum." It is common for adults who are teaching girls about "purity" to use object lessons like this. Perhaps they will take a piece of gum, get a volunteer to chew it, and then ask if anybody wants the chewed gum. Or they'll hold up an oreo, and pass it around so everyone can handle it and lick it, and then ask if anyone would like to eat the oreo. Or they'll take a glass of water and let everyone spit in it, and then ask if anyone would like to drink it. Etc etc.

The point is, a girl's purity/virginity is the fresh piece of gum, untouched oreo, or clean water. Something good and desirable. But then, if she has sex, that's like letting other people spit all over it and get it all dirty. And then, who would want her?

(To answer that, please watch this excellent video: Jesus wants the rose.)

So. If you have sex before marriage, you're dirty and ruined. No chance of having a good marriage. Unworthy of any decent guy.

"But wait," you say, "Elizabeth Smart was raped. That's not even her fault. Purity culture doesn't make a distinction between rape and consensual sex?"

Well... actually purity culture doesn't really talk about rape at all. But as I've written before, purity culture only cares about the outward, physical, tangible things one does with the opposite sex. It's all about the physical. So as far as purity is concerned, it doesn't matter if you had consensual sex, or if it was forced on you. The damage is done. You're not a virgin. You are dirty. You are unworthy of marrying any decent guy.

Unworthy of marrying any decent guy. Because, in purity culture, everything sexual and romantic you ever do is SUPPOSED to be with your husband. (Important side note: I'm specifically talking about what purity culture says to girls- I write what I know. Also in purity land, everyone is straight.) So, there have been many testimonies given about apologizing to one's husband. If you ever had sex with another guy- even if it was long before you met your husband- you must apologize, because all your sexual activity was his rightful property. Ever kissed another guy? Apologize. Ever dated another guy? Apologize. And heaven forbid you took initiative and asked another guy out.

And as for the husband/ potential husband who hears all your apologies- he's under no obligation to accept you. He is well within his rights to dump you right then- you've given away what was rightfully his.

So if you were raped? Well, some guy stole your virginity. (Oh, by the way, in purity land, if you're not a virgin it doesn't matter if you're raped.) Some guy stole what was supposed to belong to your future husband.

Who would want you? Your virginity is your worth. Purity culture likes to say, "The most precious gift you can give your husband is your virginity." Which... seriously? How about friendship? How about unconditional love? How about shared interests and experiences? How about supporting each other through difficulties?

ALL RIGHT, enough of this. This is all a bunch of garbage- but yeah, this is what purity culture teaches. (Not specifically the part about rape- but because rape is never directly addressed, and purity culture is all about the physical, well... what other conclusion is there besides "rape makes a person damaged and worthless, just like consensual sex"?)

So here's the truth: Rape is horrible. It is a physically, emotionally, psychologically traumatizing event, and it should never happen to anyone.

But, if a person is raped, it is NOT their fault. They are NOT damaged and worthless. I mean, there's "damage" in the sense that there's trauma and a long and difficult process to healing (and I don't want to downplay that)... but that's all.

If you were raped, you are NOT dirty. You are NOT unworthy of love. You are NOT "impure." It does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to your worth as a human being. It does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to your worth as a potential spouse.

You are loved. You are valuable. I believe God loves every person. And no matter what happens with your genitals (rape, premarital sex, abstinence, WHATEVER), YOUR VALUE AS A HUMAN BEING IS CONSTANT.

And there are many people who want to help and support you. People who advocate on behalf of rape victims, and understand what you're going through. Because you are WORTH that support, you are WORTH getting help and finding healing.

You are loved and you are valuable. And I want to say that over and over again, to drown out all the victim-blaming, to drown out the voices of those who don't believe you, to drown out the shame and the lies.

The article about Elizabeth Smart ends with this line: "Smart says children should be educated that 'you will always have value and nothing can change that.'" And THAT is the message I want to see the church proclaim from the rooftops. Not purity culture. Not "you're damaged goods." Not scare tactics.

"You will always have value and nothing can change that."

Look for This While Reading the Bible!

Image source.

Take a look at Psalm 54, a chiastic psalm.

"What," you may ask, "is a chiastic psalm?"

Chiastic structure is a literary device used in the bible and other ancient writings. Basically, you have something written in the form "ABC...CBA"- the first and last parts are related, the second and second-to-last are related, the third and third-to-last are related, etc. It sort of builds up to the most important point, right in the middle, and then back down.

(The name "chiastic" comes from the Greek letter chi, which looks like an X. Something about how there's a connection between the parts on opposite ends.)

So let's see how Psalm 54 fits this structure (I recommend reading the whole psalm as written before reading how I've rearranged it here):

(v1) Save me, O God, by your name;
    vindicate me by your might.
...
(v7) You have delivered me from all my troubles,
    and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

(v2) Hear my prayer, O God;
    listen to the words of my mouth.
...
(v6) I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
    I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.

(v3) Arrogant foes are attacking me;
    ruthless people are trying to kill me--
    people without regard for God.
...
(v5) Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
    in your faithfulness destroy them.

And the main theme, right here in the center:

(v4) Surely God is my help;
   the Lord is the one who sustains me.

This chiastic stuff is so cool! And it's really helpful to know about literary things like this when studying the bible. As an analogy, think about some literary devices used in English poems- acrostics, rhyme, etc. If you didn't know about them, you would miss out on some of the meaning and beauty of the poem. Same deal with chiasm in the bible. (And here is a good post about chiastic structure in the "wives submit to your husbands" passage.)

So, back to Psalm 54. A psalm about being rescued by God, about God helping to defeat enemies, but the centerpiece is verse 4, "Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."

God is with us. God saves. God defeats evil. And God is with us.

-------------------

This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 54. To read other people's posts, click here: The pursuit that matters most.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. I Don't Want to be a Good Christian Anymore (posted April 29) "There is no fear in love, but fear had wrapped itself around me like a chain. Whenever I paused to hear the voice of the Father, only condemnation echoed in my heart."

2. Jesus In Outer Space (posted April 9)

3. How I Believed Jesus Was Republican and Grew Up To Rethink It All (posted May 1) "We stopped to go to the bathroom at a western hotel. And he stared at the toilet. He had never seen a toilet. He had never seen a stoplight. He had never seen a door and a door knob."

4. Privilege and Biblical interpretation (posted April 30) "I cannot know what it’s like to read a text that has been thrown in my face by an abusive spouse."

5. Why Progressive Christians Should Care About Abortion (posted May 2) This. THIS. This is pretty much EXACTLY how I feel about abortion, and why I'm not exactly pro-life and not exactly pro-choice.

6. Why Jason Collins’ Faith is Ignored... And Tebow’s Isn’t (posted May 2) "Tim Tebow is an example of how the public face of Christian athletes, like the public face of American Christianity in general, is overwhelmingly white—despite the fact that black Americans are the racial demographic most likely to identify as 'very religious.'"

7. Not a Prize: The Language of Pursuit in Dating (posted May 1) "If I do the right work, I'll get a man as a prize - it doesn't matter which man, just a man."

8. The Language of Singleness. (posted May 2) "Perhaps I’m not ready, perhaps he’s not ready, or perhaps we’re both ready but we aren’t in the same city because life is complicated and baffling and sometimes there is no real explanation for being single for 25 years other than it is God’s plan and I need to trust Him."

9. Liberals continue their attack on the authority of scripture (posted April 30) "Once you come to see things this way, you’ll learn to decode the language of these 'progressive' so-called Christians. You’ll come to understand that when you hear talk of things like a plan to 'eradicate modern-day slavery,' what you’re really seeing is a plan to overthrow the traditional institutions established by the Bible."

10. Christian Concert – The Chris Tomlin Edition (posted April 23) "And I would be lying if I say that the cynical part of my heart isn’t prone to cataloging every flaw, every cliché, every bit of jargon lasering through the room. But also, I would be lying if I say that I am not moved."

11. The Cost of Being Poor (part 1) (posted April 29) "Without a car, or money for gas to drive to the suburbs, grocery shopping must be done at small convenience stores that often charge significantly more for basic groceries."

12. “To Be Who You Know You Are” (posted April 29) "Being gay, you see, had nothing to do with my best self. My sexual orientation was 'intrinsically disordered' away from Christlike, life-giving love and toward selfish, self-indulgent desires. I lost my faith as a teenager because I couldn’t reconcile these two worlds."

13. CBS News interviews Danny, the guy who got carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers (posted May 1) "He told me that, 'You have to answer his phone, but if you say any single word in Chinese, I will kill you right now.'"

14. If it is not about sex, then why have the gay pride parades across the nation that promote sexual acts. (posted May 3) "You only notice the outrageous ones, because they’re outrageous."

15. Star Wars Day Attack Ad: Say No to May the 4th

16. From Morocco to Denmark: Rape survivors around the world are forced to marry attackers (posted May 2) This is a real thing that happens. In the freaking 21st century.

17. You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old (posted May 2) Yes! Don't let anyone tell you that learning Chinese is impossible for adults. That's a bunch of nonsense.

Jesus and Gardening

Image source.

Matthew 13:24-43 can be divided up into 3 sections:

1. The parable of the weeds (verses 24-30)
2. The parables of the mustard seed and yeast (verses 31-35)
3. Explanation of the parable of the weeds (verses 36-43)

So I'll talk about the middle section first. Jesus tells 2 short parables about the kingdom of heaven:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches."

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."

O_O That is a LOT of flour.

First, what is "the kingdom of heaven"? Writers of the other gospels refer to it as "the kingdom of God." I believe it does not mean heaven, something far away that we go to when we die and we can't experience it before then- instead, "the kingdom of heaven" is God's work, God's kingdom on earth and in heaven.

So in these 2 parables, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed and like yeast, because it starts small but grows enormous, with an influence on everything. Just like God's kingdom on earth would start with Jesus, who was poor, never had any political power, etc, and grow huge. Sign me up.

The Parable of the Weeds

Here's my summary of the parable of the weeds: So, a guy planted wheat in his field. But at night, Johnny Appleseed's evil twin snuck in and planted weeds. The dude's servants were like, "so, do you want us to weed out the weeds?" and he was like, "no because you might accidentally pull up the good plants. Just let them grow like that and then at harvest time we'll pull up everything and separate it out then."

And here's a question to think about: Why does the bible record Jesus' explanations of some parables but not others?

Anyway, one cool thing I noticed was the servants' question in verse 27, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?" Sort of like "If God is good, why do bad things happen?" And if you wanted to find an answer in this parable, it would be 1) evil comes from the devil and 2) God doesn't stop it because he might have to screw up some of the good things. But the question of evil isn't really the main point of this parable, so don't assume that's a complete answer or anything.

Anyway, Jesus provides a key for what each thing in this parable is in verses 37-39, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels."

Jesus goes on to say that angels "will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

(I'll go ahead and file this bit of information under "Perfect Number is trying to figure out what the deal is with hell- she's totally not sure if she believes in it or not." Seems like Jesus is saying hell is real here- but also note that it's a distinction between "the righteous" and "all who do evil." So that kind of throws a wrench in the "saved by faith, not works" thing.)

So. Wheat is good people, weeds are bad people. That kind of makes me uncomfortable- you really can't divide people into "good people" vs "bad people", "us vs them." (And the idea that "good people" come from God and "bad people" come from the devil is just kind of... messed-up.)

But perhaps this parable also supports the idea that "you can't divide people into 'good people' vs 'bad people.'" The servants are NOT supposed to pull the weeds. They are NOT supposed to start making judgments on who is "good" and who is "bad", not until the end of the world.

Sometimes the wheat and weeds are hard to tell apart, and it is really NOT our job to judge who is and who is not a "real Christian."

Another really interesting thing: the interconnectedness of the weeds and wheat. The master tells his servants not to pick the weeds yet, because it might damage the wheat too. If we take the weeds and wheat to mean good and bad things (not just good and bad people), we can think about how "good" and "bad" causes and effects are very tangled together and impossible to separate.

Here's a hypothetical example: Let's suppose your dad was a soldier in World War II, and met your mom as a result. So there's something very bad- World War II- which led to something good- your birth. Would you say, "I'm glad World War II happened, otherwise I wouldn't be here"? Eh... I don't know... war is terrible, is anyone going to say they're "glad" it happened?

It's tricky to separate the bad from the good. If you start to think WWII is bad, so therefore everything that resulted from it is bad and shouldn't have happened, then you're not supposed to even exist... so how do you live your life?

Even my existence as a white American has roots in violence against Native Americans- killed or forced off their land. That was very bad and should NOT have happened.

And I've heard many personal stories of how people have lived through tragedies and good has come from it. Christians like to say, "God can redeem anything." Amen to that. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that those tragedies are not bad things that shouldn't have happened. And I would never ever tell someone "God did this bad thing to you so that this good thing could come out of it." God causes evil? No, I don't think so.

Good and bad are tangled together, just like the roots of the weeds and wheat.

Jesus started this parable by saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and that's what it's like- good things growing among bad. Good people and bad people living together (but like I said, I don't like labeling "good people" and "bad people").

The kingdom of heaven. It starts small and it grows, even in the midst of the weeds.

-------------------

This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

Previous post: Types of Soil (Matthew 13:1-23)

Next post: Sell Everything (Matthew 13:44-58)

Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

Feminism 101: Patriarchy

Image source.

Feminism 101 is a series in which I define some of the terms that feminists like to throw around. My goal is to help those who are totally new to feminism understand what it's all about.

Today's term: patriarchy. (Or in some cases, "the patriarchy.")

Now, you might be saying, "Oh, I know what patriarchy means! Literally, 'rule by fathers.' But we don't have that now in the US- men and women have equal rights. Women can totally be in government and all those leadership positions, just like men."

Yes. On paper, men and women have equal legal rights. (Hooray!) But sexism still exists; in many ways, society treats women as less than men.

And this sexist system that's embedded in our culture, that values men over women, that says men (not women) are supposed to have the important leadership roles, is referred to by feminists as "patriarchy." (It's not clearly-defined and explicit rules, it's subtle assumptions about how men and women are supposed to be.)

For example...

Patriarchy is men earning more money than women, with traditionally male-dominated fields paying more than traditionally female-dominated fields.

Patriarchy is endless debates about whether women can "have it all." Everyone feels they have a right to judge a woman's choices concerning family and career- no matter what choice she makes, a whole army of people will condemn her for it. Condemnation for stay-at-home moms. Condemnation for working moms. Condemnation for child-free women.

Patriarchy is people complimenting little girls on their appearance and little boys on their abilities.

Patriarchy is women's opinions being dismissed as "too emotional."

Patriarchy is "women's issues" like violence against women, equal pay, and women's health care being treated as a special fringe topic, not of interest to the general public- even thought half of "the general public" are women.

Patriarchy is when "you [insert action here] like a girl" is an insult.

Patriarchy is women constantly being objectified in advertisements.

Patriarchy is the belief that in churches and families, the men's role is to lead and the women's role is to submit.

Patriarchy is news articles on a female politician's hair and outfit, rather than what she actually did.

Patriarchy is the double standard where women are criticized and judged for sleeping around, while men are praised for doing the same thing.

Patriarchy is the thousands of subtle ways in which women are told their worth is dependent on their beauty and whether or not men find them attractive.

Patriarchy is defining women in terms of their relationships with men. For example, sometimes people make the argument that we need to care about rape victims because "what if it was your daughter, or sister?" Apparently women only matter if they are someone's daughter or sister.

Patriarchy is movies and books with male main characters being enjoyed by both men and women, but those with female main characters being seen as just for women.

And though patriarchy primarily affects women, it is also harmful to men who don't fit the role that patriarchy assigns them.

Patriarchy says stay-at-home dads don't exist- or if they do, they're failures as men.

Patriarchy tells men they shouldn't show emotion.

Patriarchy is little boys being teased for liking "girl" things- pink, dolls, dancing, etc.

Patriarchy insults men, claiming that men just naturally disrespect, objectify, and rape women, and that's just the way it is. "Boys will be boys." It's useless to try to change society, because men in general aren't capable of behaving any better than that, according to patriarchy.

(One important note: I am not saying that everyone who does any of the above things is TOTALLY SEXIST AND A HORRIBLE PERSON. No. These are just things that are common in our culture, and people perpetuate them because they haven't thought through the implications. The problem is with the system and how common this stuff is on a society-wide scale, NOT individual people and isolated events.)

And feminists say "DOWN WITH PATRIARCHY!" We want an end to this sexist system of expectations for how men and women are supposed to be. And in its place, we want equality. Not matriarchy. Feminists don't hate men, but patriarchy hates women. Feminists don't want the roles reversed so that women are totally in charge and men are mistreated. No! We want equality. We want every human being to be valued.

So... smash the patriarchy!

Basically Good or Basically Bad?

"People are basically good."

Most of the times I've heard that statement, it was presented as a commonly-held idea that must be refuted while sharing the gospel. The Christian would ask, "If you died today, would you go to heaven?" and the non-Christian would say, "I'm a good person, so... I guess I would" or "people are basically good" or something like that.

And then the correct Christian response is to say no no, people are not basically good, not by God's standard. Here, look what it says in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And here in Psalm 53:3, "Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."

Basically, the message is, "No matter who you are or what you've done, you're a failure and a bad person and you deserve nothing good- you deserve hell. But Jesus can get you out of that so better sign up with him."

And yes, the message typically comes with some more positive statements about God's love and having one's life transformed- but so much emphasis is on SIN and how we must be on guard against this fallacy of "being a good person." No one is good. The bible says so.

But...

It's not true. It's just not. It's not true that SIN is the defining characteristic of any random stranger you meet, it's not true that SIN is all we need to know about human nature.

Because reality. Because I know a lot of genuinely kind and good people who really love helping others and want to make the world a better place, even if it's not easy. Some of these people are Christians, some are not.

How do you explain that, if people are basically bad?

Image source.

Let's go back to the bible and start at the very beginning. Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." And then in verse 31, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

The image of God. And it was very good.

But then in chapter 3, there's sin and the fall and the curse. So humans are basically good, created in the image of God. But humans are also basically bad, with a sinful nature.

Basically good. People have a natural capacity for love and empathy and compassion. A conscience and a general understanding of right and wrong (though we may disagree on some details). Many many people work so hard to help others. And also, people are pretty freaking awesome! Intelligent, creative, fun. Humanity is so good!

Basically bad. People have a natural tendency towards selfishness. Taking advantage of others. Judging and rejecting others. Pride, hatred, anger. The world has so much violence and injustice. Humanity is so bad.

So are people basically good or basically bad? Well, both. And I'm very suspicious of any philosophy that emphasizes one over the other. It's both. We have so much capacity to do good, and we have so much capacity to do evil.

And one more thing I'll say about some Christians' over-emphasis on sin: They are making the point that we cannot earn God's love through our actions. Yes, I agree with that. We do not earn God's love through what we do. We already have God's love through who we are.

Are people sinners? Yes. But far more important is God's love. God does NOT believe we are worthless because of sin, deserving of nothing good. No, God loves us and valued humanity enough to send Jesus, God in human form, to live with us and die and then rise again, can I get an amen?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) Love. God so loved the world.

We bear God's image, and we are loved and valuable.

-------------------

This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 53. To read other people's posts, click here: Reading from a Place of Privilege.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. An Angry God Vs. A God Who Gets Angry (posted April 22) "We need a God who sees oppression and poverty and injustice and hunger and disease and homeless and heartache and loneliness and all the other unloving things we do to each other and gets angry because this is not the way he created the world to be."

2. Purity Culture and Staying in Abusive Relationships (posted April 21) "I knew at the time that if it didn’t work out, I would no longer be perfectly pure and completely unsullied. It was a gamble I was taking."

3. Can I Pray For Healing For You? (posted April 22) "We are going to differ greatly in our theological standpoints on this, and I don’t think we will ever agree. So I am going to wheel away from you now. But thankyou for your concern."

4. Lego Castle. Well, this is the coolest thing ever.

5. NO! Rub my belly first! SO CUTE!

6. John Paulk, Former Exodus & Love Won Out Leader Apologizes (posted April 24) "Until we can learn to be respectful and give equal dignity to people unlike us, we will endeavor to change them into images of ourselves rather than honor the God-image in each person."

7. So What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? (posted April 22) "So when I was a kid, I was taught that asking kids what they want to be when they grow up was a secular, feminist question. And I was taught that I should just answer 'be a mommy.'"

8. Do You Even Hear Muslims When We Condemn Violence? (posted April 22) "More than 70 percent of America's 64 previous mass shooters were white American men. But not one pundit, nor any politician, nor any Muslim has ever asked why White Americans or Christian Americans are not aggressively condemning these acts of terror."

9. The Breaking of a Child: A Story of Near Disaster (posted April 25) "The Pearls teach that even giving in once—just once—will set back everything that had been gained and even threaten to ruin the child forever. And yet, here was their eighteen-month-old daughter, still toddling and barely starting to lisp words, wasting away before their eyes."

10. The Internet Has Peaked: Cat, On Roomba, Dressed As Shark, Chases Duck. Well, this is amazing.

11. What does the blood of Jesus actually do? (posted April 25) 25 New Testament references here, none of which are about appeasing God's anger.

12. Hey John Piper, Is My Femininity Showing? (posted April 26) "Concern over women's bodies in public is what barred them from representing themselves in civic or political situations 200 years ago, right around when they started feeling the itch for the vote."

13. Reporter/Bride covers China quake wearing wedding gown (posted April 22)

14. A ring by spring or else you #FAIL godly womanhood! (posted April 15) "I didn’t have that one thing that showed I’d been blessed by God, the engagement ring reflecting God’s apparent desire for me to find The One."

15. Bible Files Restraining Order Against Fundamentalism (posted April 12) "He wrote a lot about how no one else understood me like he did."

16. God Doesn’t Know What You Think God Knows [Questions That Haunt] (posted April 28) "If God knew that the incarnation was ultimately going to be necessary, then all of the activity prior to that (expulsion from Eden, Tower of Babel, Flood, Exodus) was just a game."

So did anybody ever figure out why the world is weird?

Happy blogaversary to me! Tell Me Why The World Is Weird is now 1 year old, and the #1 Christianity/feminism/China blog on the internet! (Actually, if you know of any other Christianity/feminism/China blogs- that is, blogs whose main topics are all 3 of those things- please tell me...)

My first post said this would be a blog where I ask questions and discuss why culture and the world are weird (and I mean "weird" in the best possible way here). I was hoping to have discussion in the comments section and I could learn things and discuss things. I had only recently decided I'm a feminist, and that I would be more honest and open-minded about questioning the bible and Christianity-related things, because I'm confident that Christianity is true and Jesus is Lord and the resurrection and all that. So yeah, I had lots of things to ask questions about.

So, that's kind of totally not where the blog ended up going. Instead, I discovered a ton of other bloggers writing about interesting stuff, and I learn things from them rather than trying to get people to make insightful discussion in my comments section. And it turns out I have a lot of opinions about things, so I ended up writing about those.

So anyway. Here is what I have to say about the blog over the past year, and where I hope it will go:

Matthew

I'm going through the gospel of Matthew at the rate of one post per week. Sometimes I feel like I'm totally not qualified to write about the bible, especially the parts I don't understand, but I also believe that you don't have to be the most educated scholar ever in order to get meaningful stuff from the bible. And I'm honest about the stuff that I seriously don't get. (And there's a possibility I could be wrong about everything. Consider that a disclaimer.)

They're not my most well-written posts ever, because I don't want to pull out one point from the passage and write a strong argument around it- I want to study the entire thing, regardless of whether it all fits into one main point. So sometimes I feel like I'm just meandering around the book of Matthew instead of saying anything meaningful. Such is life.

Anyway, the bible is great and I want more of it in my life, so I'm glad I'm writing about Matthew.

Feminism 101

So I started this series called Feminism 101, because sometimes I read feminist blogs and they're like "Some privileged cis guy was tone-policing my argument about how slut-shaming narratives reinforce rape culture and patriarchy and don't help to create safe spaces" and ... what?

Feminism is about loving and helping people, especially people who are different than you and may have needs and experiences that you totally didn't know about at all. And that's a pretty simple premise, but feminism comes with all this other language and I want to define those terms so people who may be totally unfamiliar with feminism (like me a few years ago) can understand it.

Unfortunately, so far this blog series only has 2 posts, which define the terms feminism and victim-blaming. But I will totally write more.

But what if I change my mind?

Like I said, a lot of my views have been changing- so what if I write something, and then a few months later I change my opinion on it? OH THE HORROR!

No, it's okay! It's okay to be wrong. We're all just trying to figure stuff out, and if I never blogged anything I might change my mind on... then I'd never blog anything, would I?

More guest posts!

Obligatory. Any time someone writes a post about what they want to change about their blog, they have to include "more guest posts." (There's like a law about it or something.) Current guest post opportunities can be found here.

Cute

I confess that I have not adequately delivered on the promised "hopefully some cute pictures of animals." Please accept my sincere apologies and check out Slacktivist's post with cute animals and this webcam of a beluga whale.

China

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I'm trying to move to China. Once I get there, expect more posts about Chinese language and culture. BECAUSE IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! I just can't get over how fascinating the workings of my brain are when I'm not used to speaking English.

Variety

One of my goals is to participate in more link-ups and stuff, so I'm challenged to write on a topic that someone else chooses, a topic I wouldn't normally write about. And for the topics I do choose, I hope to have some more variety, because I'm unique and special and all that.

I had this big epiphany recently: I'm not Rachel Held Evans, and that's okay! (Her blog is totally awesome, by the way.) I'm going to write about what I want to write about, and I don't want to just stick to the usual topics that Christian feminist bloggers write on.

AND I totally want to write about Disney movies! I love Disney! And sciency nerdy stuff! And dinosaurs!

Image source.

So that's what I have to say about Tell Me Why The World Is Weird. Feel free to leave comments about what you liked or suggestions you have. And thanks for reading!

"I can go home now."

On the highway. In the middle of the night.

In Beijing.

"I was right."

The exit signs on the highway, covered in Chinese characters. Oh, I was right, I was right.

Driving home from the airport. My friend's parents had picked us up. They were asking me questions in Chinese. Which places in China had I visited? Had I seen the Great Wall?

Finally everything felt right. For weeks and weeks, my mind had felt like it was tearing itself apart, because of a belief in a culture so completely different that no hint of its existence could be found in my American life.

A place where the exit signs on the highway had Chinese characters.

And there in that car, I kept saying to myself, "I was right, I was right." It does exist. And I knew I had to be there.

Driving home from the airport, reading the Chinese highway signs. This is what I came to China for.

And then, I thought, "I can go home now."

Because that was all I needed, to see the street signs with Chinese characters. It felt so good, so natural, that I'd forgotten my "home" wasn't like that. My own country, where I had been just 14 hours before this... maybe it was the jet lag that made me forget how much I had struggled to remember China in my own country...

Struggled? How? Here I was, in reality, with Chinese characters telling me the names of the streets. Of course this is normal, and this is all I need, I can go home now.

All those worries about whether my memories of China were accurate. All the doubt and wondering if I was crazy to want to go there again. All the excitement, the feeling like it was too good to be true, when my friend invited me to visit her home in Beijing. All the money for the plane tickets, the phone calls to get a visa, the passport photos at CVS. All that effort- and it all was forgotten in my jet-lagged state in that car. Of course I'm here. How could it have been hard to get here? This is where I'm supposed to be.

And the exit signs with the Chinese characters...

"I can go home now." Forgetting that at home I couldn't rest, for fear of forgetting China. Forgetting that at home, there were no highway signs with Chinese characters.

"I was right." I was right to go to China. I was right to believe in it even when I couldn't see it.

"I was right, I was so right."