Battle 3: Practical foolishness

As the Doubt story is developing, I am finding myself immersed in all kinds of new information. I recently took some time and read Ravi Zacharias's book, The End of Reason, in which he refutes the claims of the new militant atheists led by writers Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Three years ago, in 2006, Sam Harris wrote a book entitled, "Letter to A Christian Nation", a hostile and bitter diatribe against religion and God. His book openly claims that not only is there no God, but that a country such as America is utterly foolish and will bring about it's own destruction if it continues to believe in him. Harris's biggest claim in the book is that a majority of the conflicts, wars, murders, genocides, and holocausts around the world are a direct result of religious beliefs and the delusional results of belief in an imaginary God. He goes on within the book to use old, recycled arguments that atheists have been pushing (unsuccesfully) for centuries to try and support his angry claims.
There is an issue here that I think Zacharias uncovers beautifully in his book "The End of Reason." Sam Harris is making the claim that staunch religious beliefs and intolerance on the part of the church are the cause of mass suffering and pain the world over. However, if he is to make this claim, then he must consider the alternative. One of the first rules of making philosophical statements about religious beliefs, is that if you deny one religious belief, you have to stop and consider what you are affirming in it's place. So, let's take a look at just how much harm and damage atheism has caused, shall we?
First of all, Harris takes a huge shot at Christianity by claiming that the anti-semitism birthed in midieval Christianity spawned the Holocaust. But as Zacharias asks in his book, "Has Harris read about Hitler's own spiritual journey? Has he read anything about Hitler's dabbling in the occult? Is he aware that Hitler personally presented the writings of Nietzsche to Stalin and Mussolini? Is he ignoring the fact that others who were not Jewish were also slaughtered by Hitler? Did he read Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann's last words that refused repentance and denied belief in God? Does he know how many Russians were killed by the Nazi war machine? Does he recall Hitler's words inscribed over one of the gas ovens in Auschwitz - "I want to raise a generation of young people devoid of a conscience, imperious, relentless and cruel"? Does he know that Hitler's point was that the destruction of the weak is a good thing for the survival of the strong and that "nature intended it that way," as is taught by atheistic evolution's tent of natural selection- "the survival of the fittest"? None of these signs of the Holocaust point back to Christianity." In fact they point a pretty damning finger at atheistic belief systems as being the driving force behind the murder of millions during Hitler's chaotic massacre. In fact, two of the other most prolific mass murderers in history, Stalin and Pol Pot, were both professed atheists. Isn't it interesting that when Stalin and Pol Pot do the murdering, it is because they are deranged psychopaths; their atheism has nothing to do with their outrageous hate crimes. However, when a Holocaust is produced from the mind of a crazed ideologue like Hitler, it is the result of 400 years of Christian intolerance of the Jews.
Ravi Zacharias also makes the point that Harris has probably not considered the fact that his own angry writings may end up sowing the seeds for the future slaughter of Christians. Zacharias asks, "Has he paused to think what motivates him to write these things against a group of people? What would he say if two hundred years from now someone says that genocide against Christians can be traced back to the anti-Christian writings of Sam Harris? Atheists can't have it both ways. If the murder of innocents is wrong, it is not because science tells us it is wrong but because every life has intrinsic worth- a postulate that atheism simply cannot deduce."
Another problem is that Harris cannot argue the point that what Hitler did was evil without assigning life a moral framework. Atheists cannot explain why we share a somewhat common morality. If there is no moral law giver, there cannot be a moral law. Therefore (according to atheism), there is no such thing as right and wrong or good and evil. Your morality is your morality, not anyone elses. Yet Harris is quick to present Hitler's Holocaust as wrong. But if he truly believes what he says, who is to say that Hilter was wrong. According to atheistic teaching, morality is objective and therefore Hitler did nothing wrong at all. His actions were moral in his own eyes and that's all that matters. How foolish can you be?!?
Zacharias puts it best when he says,"What is the moral framework Harris adopts on which he has built his entire critique of God? His emotion-laden critique hangs on an argument that says, "I can see no moral framework operating in the world, but what I do see is morally condemnable." In philosophical terms, this is called a mutually exclusive assumption." Harris wants to establish what he views as morally wrong, while claiming that morality does not exist. This is absolute foolishness and has so many wholes in it that it is laughable at best.

Anyways, just some stuff to think about. God Bless.

Battle 2: Doubt

The internship continues on! My next story (and the one that I actually get to write) is one about doubt. When Amber laid the initial story ideas out in front of me, I jumped at the chance to write this one. Doubt is a touchy subject for me and I have had run-in after run-in with it. It is one of those pesky struggles that Christ promised would come in John 16:33. However, as that scripture commands, I must take heart and know that Jesus has overcome the world. In this article, it is up to me to take common doubts and questions that students have and try to find answers worth giving. It is a daunting task, considering that I already know from my own experiences that many of these questions have no legitimate answer. In the end they require total faith... my favorite (I wish you could hear the sarcasm behind that last phrase). Here are my ideas so far. They are not as they will be and will certainly change with the story as it goes.

My first year out of high school, I attended a secular community college. I was unsure of what I would do with my life and my parents thought it foolish to throw money into college if I didn't even have a direction to head in. I signed up for general education courses and started knocking them out with relative ease. Then I hit a class that has changed much of how I view life (whether it was for better or worse has yet to be established). I enrolled in basic philosophy. I come from a background of Christianity, born and raised on a church pew. As I entered the world of critical thinking and philosophical debate, I quickly found myself realizing that my faith was largely without critical defense on my part. I knew what I believed, but I had know idea why. My professor was a young man, maybe in his early thirties. He was well-read and educated to the highest degree, but he also had a charismatic (yet somewhat mellow) personality that just resonated with every student in the class. When it came to philosophical debate, he was like a relentless animal, pushing us to defend our points of view and often playing devil's advocate simply for the sake of making a point. When we began to discuss God, he was incredible at articulating both sides of every argument. He could seamlessly switch between defending God and disproving His existence within a matter of minutes. He knew ever angle, every catch, every argument, and every counter-argument. It was obvious that he had spent much of his young life studying the material. Several times throughout the debate about God, students asked him, "Sean, tell us what you believe. Are you an atheist or do you believe in God?" He always managed to sidestep the question, telling us that he didn't want to introduce any bias to our discussions and assignments by revealing his stance. During the last week of class, one student finally remembered to ask him, "Sean, what do you believe." I'll never forget his answer. He simply looked at us and said, "I don't know." Sean was an agnostic, unable to decide whether or not he truly believed that God existed or not. His extensive research in the field had only served to make him indecisive. He knew all the arguments and all the angles, but in the end did not know what he really believed.

As I look back over my own experiences with doubt and compare them to the questions of current students, I find that the root of the problem. We are looking for arguments instead of answers. In the end, all arguments beget more arguments. All debates create new debates. However, when it comes to doubt, the answers are not in arguments. They are in experience. When you are trying to defend your favorite restaurant to a friend, you can sit and debate with them about it all they want, but you will not be able to sway them until you invite them to come and experience the restaurant with you. Should Christianity and God be any different?

Well... I was going to start tackling the questions that I have gotten from the students, but it is well past 1 in the morning here in Springfield, and I figure I'd better get to bed so that I can wake up for class tomorrow. I will finish this later. Thanks so much guys for sharing in my thoughts. I look forward to hearing any feedback you guys have!

-Dane Mohrmann

Battle 1: Contentment vs. Progress

It is well after midnight here in Springfield, but I am honestly nowhere near ready for sleep. Today I had an internship meeting at OnCourse magazine. I am currently in the development stage of my story ideas for the next issue. One that I am completely stoked about is the spiritual column, which will be dealing with the concept of contentment as opposed to progress in our Christian walk. The ideas pouring out of my brain for this story were too exciting to keep to myself, so I figured I would write them on the blog (even though I will be assigning the story to someone else haha).
The most important thing to remember when looking at these two seemingly incompatible ideas is the fact that contentment is not the same as stagnation. In the evangelical community at large, people often make the mistake of taking someone's contentment for them simply being stagnant. Stagnation is sitting motionless in one stage of your walk with God, and having no intent of going further. Just as a pond that is stagnant begins to grow all kinds of filth and algae, so a person who is stagnant in their walk with Christ. They begin to become bogged down with the filth all around them and many eventually fall away from their relationships with Christ altogether. Those who don't fall away become wrapped up in license and begin to look for all the ways that they can blur the line between right and wrong and still call themselves "Christians."
These kind of people are not the type of people that this article will be addressing. I am more interested in contentment. Contentment is getting to a stage in your walk and learning to be happy and enjoy it, while looking ahead toward the next level. It is not about standing still. It is about walking in thanksgiving and gratitude while you are in one level. Did you know that in the Bible (specifically the Old Testament), God gives Moses several feasts and parties that the Jews must engage in. The feasts were a time for good food, family enjoyment, relaxation, getting away from the stresses of life, and giving praise to God for His provision to them. God even goes so far as to say that anyone who does not take part in the feasts and parties will be killed! When is the last time you heard that God preached from the pulpit? The God who says, "Take time to relax and party, or I'll kill you." That is certainly not a common view that we have of God. However, I think these scriptures show us that God does want us to take time to be content in Him. Just because we are at one level does not mean we have to stay there. If that's not a reason to stop and party and praise God, then I don't know what is.
Progress is a different animal, because it presupposes the idea that you cannot just stay in one place in God. This unnerves us because we are so horrified by the notion of change from what is comfortable. We love change when it comes to something that we do not quite appreciate. Just look at the last presidential election. Most people voted primarily for the purpose of bringing about some kind of change. The truth of the matter is that God is extremely interested in bringing about change in our lives, and the sooner we get accustomed to it the better. Just as God loves for us to be content and thankful for our current walk, He is also given great pleasure by encouraging us toward the next level. Contentment and progress must go hand in hand in order for God's purpose in our lives to be fulfilled. If you lean too far one way or too far the other, it may be time to reevaluate your walk. Are you so anxious to get to the next thing God has for you that you don't take anytime to thank him for what He is currently doing or what He's done in the past? Or are you so comfortable with where He's brought you that you can't bear the thought of leaving? In either situation, you must realize that God is a God of balance. There are two sides to every coin and two parts to every walk. Stop and take a minute to enjoy where God has you. Then pick your head up, look toward the next checkpoint, and do what you know God is calling you to.

So I'm thinking that whoever ends up writing this will do a great job. Those are just my thoughts. In the end, I am still just trying to sort this whole thing out myself. God bless.

Good News: God Speaks

More often than I care to admit, I will catch myself being spiteful about my upbringing. I was brought up in a church, born and raised in a pew. My parents were the most committed, most sown in, and most ministry-oriented people that I knew. My mom's philosophy was, "If the doors are open, we're there." I sat in church service after church service and sermon after sermon, and I heard every angle of the gospel explained in rich detail. It was great.
That is, until I came into contact with life outside of the church. When I made the decision to come to Evangel, I was coming off of 19 years of nearly perfect church attendance and I had a mind filled with all the Assemblies of God doctrine and years of church sermons and illustrations that you could possibly handle. This worked out just great for a while. In fact a majority of my last two years at Evangel were like a dream come true. They were practically perfect, right down to the little golden halo hanging above my head. Then I got shaken a bit. Under the stress of school, I began to find myself plagued by anxiety. There was a devastating space between me and God. It was what I can only describe as a very large disconnect. I was knocked out of my perfect little experience, and for the first time in my life, I was forced to implement everything that I knew about God. I finally had to pray regularly. I had to fight for everything I was so sure I believed in. I had to prove my faith and perseverance. I quickly found myself unable to do so. It became more and more apparent that all the years of being churched to death had indeed taught me very little about what it meant to truly seek God. I was more lost than someone who had never even heard the gospel, because I thought that I knew everything about God! I was clueless.
The fact of the matter is, I knew of God, but I did not know Him. I knew only what my parents and my pastors had told me about Him. In reality I knew nothing of the living God. I was a retarded and lacking Christian on so many levels. The depth of my hypocrisy was overwhelming as I looked back and forth and up and down for even the smallest glimpse of God in the most remote places. I couldn't find Him at school, and it was getting more and more difficult to find Him at church (this was not the church's fault but mine).
However, I am now beginning to learn how to hear Him speak. For instance, on Thursday between the hours of 5 and 9, God spoke to me three seperate times (though all in reference to the same thing). He spoke to me through a close friend, then through scripture (which another friend showed me, and then through a complete stranger. I would like to tell the entire story, but maybe in a later post.
I guess my point is that it's never enough to simply sit and hear what you should do during trials. Everyone has their own opinions about what brings you through a trial, but I have found that quieting yourself and simply learning how to hear is the best possible thing that you can do. And never underestimate the importance of prayer. I heard a saying once that I have kind of latched onto: "If you're having trouble praying, talk to God about it." It is so simple to talk to God and if you seek Him, you will certainly find Him eventually.

All the Noise You Can Handle

Four days back into the college groove and I am finally sitting down to write something. Today was what I might call a difficult day. It felt very much like last semester (a memory that I am desperately trying to forget). The one good part of my day was my first theology class. I guess it's pretty odd that anyone would get excited about that. I just had some things on my mind that were really pestering me. So, I did what just about anyone does when that happens. I went in my room and cranked up some really loud music and got on facebook.
Then it dawned on me. Why, when life's pressures seem the highest, do we immediately turn to noise? I found myself asking this in my own situation and it seemed pretty apparent to me that the answer was fear. We are afraid of the questions that would haunt us if we turned off the music, or shut down the computer, or turned the tv off for even just a few minutes. We fear that the dark things will come out if we are forced to sit alone with them for a moment. Deep down, we all have dark things that loom over us. Doubts, fears, anxieties, depression, feelings of low self-esteem, worthlessness, narcissism, hopelessness, questions, struggles, uncertainties about the future, overwhelming despair, loneliness, unforgiveness, hatred and impatience are just a few that I could name that I am certain that people deal with. These are legitimate evils that seem like they are waiting just around the corner. It feels as though they will pounce on us the moment we let our mind rest and force our filthy desires out into the limelight where they must be dealt with.
This seems like a terrifying predicament. However, I must say that I don't necessarily know if that is a bad thing! Maybe exactly what some of us need is some time alone with our thoughts. For in truth, we will never be fully alone with them. The God of the universe will be there beside you, not bulldozing your darkest anxieties out into the light, but gently cutting them out with the hands of a surgeon, leaving you intact and fully ready to experience beautiful recovery. The moment we begin to treat God like some careless dictator, who is only interested in the result and not the process necessary for that result, we negate his overtaking grace and kindness, which scripture says is what leads us to repentance in the first place.
I took a moment today, in the midst of what seemed like an awful afternoon, and turned off the noise. It was painful. Facing the thoughts buried deep in the back of your mind is anything but enjoyable. It was the equivalent of sitting in a room face-to-face with a murderer and fearing to address him, but knowing that he will not leave until you do just that.
Self-examination, just as in the case of salvation, is a necessary tool to producing the type of fruit that you wish to see in your life.

Back to Blogging... and school

Through many long discussions with several of my closest friends, I have begun to look at life through the lenses of an author. Every life is a story, like it or not. There was a beginning at some point, there will be a middle (though we will not know it), and sadly enough there will eventually be an end. I suppose that it is a natural instinct or untrained habit to want to write the story as we see fit. When we don't like a part of the story, we change it. When we like a different part we repeat it. When we have a chance to rewrite, we take it. When we mess up, we try to erase it.
There is a problem, however, with our attempts at authorship. We were never intended to be writing our own stories. In a way, our lives are a biography written by God, not an autobiography to be written by us. Our lives are part of a much larger story that belongs to God. Since we know nothing of that larger story, we will never be fully successful at writing our part of it on our own. Just a possibility.

Greater Things

I am about a week away from entering into my final year of school. I'm sure it scares me far more than it scares you. I still can't really say what I want to do after school. I still can't guarantee that I will use my major for anything. I still can't be sure that I won't get scared and run away from where I am headed. However, for all that I can't be sure of, here is what I know I will do this year.

I will go to school at Evangel University. I will study journalism one last year. I will go to class. I will make the grades I deserve. I will have to deal with that no matter what they are. I will live in a dorm room one more time. I will have a roommate. We will get on each other's nerves at some point. I will eat in the cafeteria. I will probably get sick. I will talk to my proffesors and get every bit of knowledge that I need from them. I will try my hardest. I will sometimes fail what I attempt. I will attempt anyway. I will meet new people. I will be friends with some of them. I will love someone. I will learn from that. I will meet people that I will know for the rest of my life. I will meet people that I will quickly forget. I will do some things that I never thought I would. I will dream things that will frighten me. I will sow into ministry. I will get tired. I will sleep. Sometimes I will not get enough sleep. I will hang out with old friends and make new memories. I will go to coffee shops late at night. I will fight for what I believe when called upon. I will trust God to handle what I cannot. I will let that be enough. I will recognize my place in Him and believe that He is for me. I will pray. Sometimes I will forget to pray. I will put my faith behind what God is doing, even when I don't understand. I will hold on to the hope that better experiences are ahead and not behind.

I will do greater things.
I promise.

A Scary Reality Springing from a Good Background

I sort of stumbled onto some very frightening thoughts today at work. Funny how that happens, isn't it? I spend a lot of time at work alone doing different things and have found that sometimes even the distracting roar of my ipod can't chase away some difficult questions and troubling thoughts. Today on the job I was listening to some podcasts (as I usually do) and I began to realize some things. I have hundreds of podcasts on my ipod. I have also sat through hundreds (if not thousands) of sermons. This is primarily due to the fact that I was pretty much born in the church. Today alone I listened to 9 seperate hour-long podcasts. I began to wonder how much information and knowledge of Christianity and of God I have heard that I have no intention of putting into practice. I'm going to try and be totally transparent here when I admit that I do very little with a majority of what I hear. Being raised in the church has taught me how to sit quietly during the preaching of the word, how to act like I know Christians are supposed to and how to give cheap shouts of approval when a preacher gives a good point during his sermon. However, have I really learned from what I've heard? Have I applied the neccessary prayer and meditation to this knowledge. My answer is unfortunately, "No." There is an extremely dangerous aspect to taking in head knowledge but never using it. It develops the exact type of person that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the sower and the seeds in Matthew 13. Jesus says that the seed scattered on the rocky soil represents those who accept the message with joy but have no deep roots. As soon as disappointments and trials arise they fall away, abandoning what is true and drowning in their doubt. Even at my young age, I have found myself in this position. As soon as tribulation, fear, and doubt crept in, I was shaken at my very foundations and feared that I would fall. I began to feel kind of like the prophet Jeremiah when he voices his honest feelings toward God after being severely beaten for prophesying at the temple. In Jeremiah 20:7, he says "O Lord, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me." Another translation even says, "You seduced me!" Interestingly enough, I have felt the exact same way at times. I have felt like I have been striving to do everything according to God's will in the Bible and still things just seem to go horrible. It is in those times that I must rely on God's justice and throw myself on his promises. After all, the apostle Paul was painfully obedient to God and even walked in close relationship with Him, yet we rarely see it go well for him at the surface level. Several attempts are made on his life, he is shipwrecked, bitten by poisonous snakes, placed in prison again and again, and eventually is beheaded. That's why the prosperity gospel is so hilariously untrue (despite it's popularity). It claims that if you honor God and follow Him wholely and devote yourself to obeying His every command, that He will in turn honor you with health, wealth and all kinds of blessings. Please... Tell that to Paul. Anyways, I deeply want to begin to follow Christ in action as well as word. I am sick of listening to sermon after sermon and podcast after podcast and continuing to show no growth in my life because I never apply what I learn. I am tired of allowing my heart to be hardened by constant over-exposure to the gospel. I know that sounds weird, but I am afraid that it is true of me and many of my close Christian friends. Being exposed to the gopel repeatedly has caused it to lose much of it's meaning and become more like a bed-time story or fairytale to us than a real, saving, sanctifying message of truly possible change and glorified life. I am so frightened by this idea and I am hoping that God gives me the strength to fight toward a true relationship with him, no matter what the cost.

Why Certainty is Overrated

It is 2 in the morning here in Missouri, so if I start to sound stupid, have a little grace. I was thinking a lot today about why we crave certainty. Think about it. In your life right now, you can not deny that if someone could give you a complete road map of everything you were supposed to do with the next however-many years you have left in your life, you would take. I mean, who wouldn't want that? Me... that's who. I am slowly coming to find that certainty is no longer something I deeply desire. In fact I don't even think that it would make my life easier. The fact of the matter is, if I could look at a complete layout of my life from the present to my dying breath, one of two things would happen. I would either get impatient and try to cut every possible corner to reach the end result faster, or I would get so scared of the hugeness of the end result that I would pick up and run in the opposite direction. I would either try it all in my own power or give up on having any power at all. Another danger to seeing the completed puzzle would be that I would know exactly where the struggles and failures would be and I would try to avoid them. The problem here is that without failure pieces of the puzzle would be missing. In a weird way, the masterpiece needs the failures in order to be complete. Each and every failure is essential to the end result. This doesn't mean that we will ever enjoy being hurt, hurting others, or failing. It just means that with every one of those mistakes, we gain the head knowledge and the heart knowledge to build onto the final product. Make no mistake, it's going to be difficult. All kinds of difficult, shady, unsettling things are going to happen in your life. The key is remembering that with each new lesson learned, you are that much closer to developing the person who God has designed for you to be. When you fail, it is not because you suck and are a general failure. God is not sitting in the heavens going, "What an idiot. Can't he/she ever get anything right?" Your failures are God-ordained and necessary on so many levels. Complete road map to life? No thanks. I'll take the tough road of uncertainty, because I know that there is a God conducting this whole thing and I can be sure that He is certain of what He is doing.

What You Write When You're Starting a Blog

I was helping my friend Taylor record a song tonight and it had such a spectacular theme in it that I just had to write something about it. The song just cries out to God, "Why would You use me?" No lie, that is a pretty legitimate question. Sometimes I am just astounded that God even wants anything to do with me. At my core I am awful, prone to the simple flaws of human nature and wicked down to the very thoughts at the back of my mind. Even more than that is the fact that I have got nothing of my own that is worth putting in front of God. My greatest attempts at righteousness are like foul and dirty rags in front of God's face. It doesn't help that I often prove myself not to be the brightest bulb in the box.
Every time I consider all this, I remember the disciples. A majority of the time in the New Testament, the disciples are just showing how stupid they are with some of the things they say and do and ask. If I was Jesus, I would be looking around like, "Really? Can you be this idiotic right now?" Half of what He says they absolutely do not understand, and the half they do understand they fail at applying. Peter is probably the worst out of all of them, and he ends up being the leader! But, that just brings us right back around to the awesome question, "Why would You use me?" It doesn't make sense to me sometimes. Surely there are a ton of others who are more qualified, with better attitudes and more self-control. But I think the key to all of that is the fact that God knows what we are right now, what we will be 10 years from now, and what we will be like 20 years from now. And the best part is, He loves us just as much now as He will then.
There is so much awesome stuff that God is doing in my life right now and in the area that He has placed me in. Opportunities are practically falling out of the sky for the JR Worship department and God has directed every step. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed by the blessing and provision of God in the use of my talents and I find myself asking, "God, why would You use me?"