Why am I an Apple User?

The Maccast was one of the first podcasts I listened to after buying a used iPod Photo on eBay back in 2005. Of those early podcasts, The Maccast is one of the few that is still going strong 6 years later. The host, Adam Christianson, recently did an episode where he asks eleven friends of his, "Why are you an Apple user?".

For me, it was in 1992 I decided to get my own personal computer. Up to that point it had sufficed to go to the computer lab at the school I was attending, or use a typewriter. But now being married and a professional, I decided I needed my own computer.

I approach most large purchases in an analytical fashion. At the time, we lived in the infamous "Silicon Valley", very close to headquarters for Apple Computer, IBM and Hewlett Packard. The question at the time was, Apple or IBM? I had seen both. I worked as a minister and most churches used the IBM clones (For some reason they still seem to use Windows boxes. I have a theory about that and will address it a little later). The advantages of an IBM clone seemed clear. It appeared, you could buy more machine for your buck. There were nice big color screens, and more software available for the IBM machines. For a comparable price with Macintosh you got a nine inch black and white screen all in one box.

I talked with an IT friend of mine. He worked in the corporate world and spent his days repairing computers. He said he hardly ever repaired Macintosh machines. Something like 9 out of 10 repairs he did were IBM clones for the same number of issued Macs. Then, another friend loaned me his old Mac Plus. It didn't have much storage, and you had to put in floppy disks to do stuff. It was the small 9 inch black and white screen. This is where I fell in love with the operating system. It was so easy and intuitive. There was something elegant and endearing about it. I was sold. I went into a local Apple reseller store and bought an Apple Macintosh Classic II. It cost about $1500.00 with a printer.

Since then, I have always had Macs and Apple devices. Rarely, do they have problems and the Apple Care support has always made repairs a breeze. I have never had a virus on an Apple machine. The only regret I've had with computers is buying a Windows machine for the family in the late nineties when I thought Apple was finished. I had so many problems with hardware, support, viruses and complexity. I wish I had never bought it. Over the years I have stopped counting the number of Apple machines I have had. I now have an Apple museum in my basement. I still have that Macintosh Classic II, and the iPod Photo. There is also a gum drop blue iMac, a "toilet seat" iBook G3, a Power Macintosh G5,  and the original iPhone. My home and office are filled with Apple desktops, laptops, iPods, iPhones, iPad and accessories.

I'm amazed at the things I've heard over the years about why people don't have Macs. "They cost too much." "There is not enough software." or, "The software I need isn't made for Macs." These are all puzzling statements. Actually, when you factor in the cost of virus software, maintenance, and lifespan of the computer, Macs are less expensive overall. And, I've never been wanting for good software. There has always been a robust developer community for Mac software. Often it is much better than anything available for Windows. These days you can run Windows on a Mac, but who would want to? The above myths are why I believe churches tend to have Windows machines. They seem cheaper in the short run. Emerging young clergy in our post-modern culture are now choosing Apple. That may be their sensibilities leaning them toward a more experiential, soulful, and relational technology.

Over the years my evangelization of Macs has not been 100%. Sometimes, I've encouraged friends to try Macs and they end up going back to Windows. I think this is because they try to use a Mac like a Windows box. I guess this makes sense if that is what they are used to, but Macs are not complicated. So the complexity of Windows is a hindrance.

So, now we come "back to the future". Everybody has an iPod, or now an iPhone or iPad. Apple has done a brilliant job of training everyone with iOS devices and iTunes to use their intuitive software. This is bringing many people to other Apple products like laptops, Mac Mini's and AppleTV.

In summary, I'm an Apple user because the technology does not get in the way of my experience. I am free to be and do whatever I want without thinking about the machine. Also, Apple is intuitive and easy to use. It's safe, secure and elegant. It really is magical. It works better than anything else.

Indefatigable

I read the word "indefatigable" the other day in the third verse of Psalm 98. This was a new word for me. I immediately understood what it meant, but I had not seen all of these grammatical parts assembled before. The dictionary gave the definition: adjective (of a person or their efforts) persisting tirelessly: an indefatigable defender of human rights. I thought about this for some time as one description of the character of God.

I have also been thinking a lot about Justice. I have been hanging around with the Mennonites for nearly a year now and this is something they talk about a lot. I thought I knew about Justice. You know, as when Justice is served and the bad guys get their due punishment? I've spent most of my 46 years fearing the end of the world; fearing the Justice that God is going to serve up; fearing the punishment. It wasn't until this last prediction of the rapture to happen on May 21st that, if I were honest with myself, I was able to sleep the night before. But I digress.

While reading through Judges and the Prophets recently I noticed a pattern. God seems to be interested in people turning back. Several times it says, "If my people will turn turn from their evil ways... I will be their God." Exile and destruction are a last resort to get people's attention, not to make them suffer as a punishment. The Bible seems to say God's Justice is more about restoration than punishment. Instead of Christ's coming being something awful and bad, it turns out it is good news. It will be a "renewal of all things". God is going to set things right. Every particle of God's good creation will be restored. I guess it is something to look forward to.

Now this can be confusing with groups out there that believe it is their place to make clear certain doctrines of coming conscious punishment. Don't get me wrong. Sin is very real and the consequences are very real too. But, this word "indefatigable". I want some of that! Why would you spend your time sitting around talking about punishment when restoration is available?

There's more good news. This renewal of all things has already begun! And, we can get in on it! Some would like to have us believe it's not coming until later (after the punishment).  But as I read it, nothing we do now for God's project will be in vain. God will use it all, every act of compassion, every drink of cold, clean water in Jesus name, every sustainable atom, in the new creation.

Sometimes I get to work with men who abuse. (i.e. "pedophiles" and "women beaters"). Most Christians will tell you there is no hierarchy of sins. That may be true with God, but not us. These are the unforgivable sins in our society, even among Christians. Justice, we think, is that the perpetrators of these kinds of crimes should be punished, period.

This was evident to me several years ago when I was asked to present an alternative Batterers Education Program (BEP) to a state corrections department gathering. This alternative approach had shown immense promise. The outcomes showed lowered recidivism, increased personal responsibility, and lower expulsion rates. No one was really paying attention until they found out it was 12 hours instead of 32. The outcry was incredible. I thought I was going to lose my job. My boss received a letter from the highest judge in the land reprimanding me and reminding me of the need for more hours of "rehabilitation" instead of fewer. There was definitely a discourse of punishment for perpetrators and not restoration in this sub-culture of society. Recently however, I have met fresh faces in the department with an openness to restorative ideas. This has been welcomed, good news.

In her book, Everyday Justice, Julie Clawson says, "If we respect the image of God in all people, then we need to not only heal the ways that image has been marred in the victims of injustice, we need to also heal the ways the image of God is marred in the perpetrators of injustice... so they too (can) eventually be restored as the whole and healed people God created them to be."

I remember hearing Jürgen Moltmann reply to the question asking if he was a universalist, "No, God may be, but there are some people I don't want to see again," he said, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. It is heartening for me to think that we are being indefatigably restored. God knows I need it. Here is a passage I came across about this kind of Justice.


If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places-firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.   -Isaiah 58: 9-11 The Message

Rob Bell's Hell... and Heaven. Love Wins - My Thoughts...

Many have commented on Rob Bell's new book Love Wins, several even before it came out. Many are more qualified than me to talk about such lofty things as Heaven and Hell and the fate of every person that has ever lived. My friend has a review up on his blog and he is qualified to talk about such things. So, if you are interested in a real theologian check out his fair treatment, especially if you want an arminian, wesleyan perspective.

I will say up front, I like Rob Bell. I've read his books, and listened to his sermons made available on the internet for a few years now. I love his Nooma videos. I liked this book too. So if that makes you uncomfortable, this review might not be for you. I won't parse theology too much. Like I said, others are more qualified.  Bell said he believes in heaven, hell and that he is not a universalist. Reading the book, it is clear he is not a heretic. It surprises me when he gets accused of being one. Nothing in his books, or in his words is close to this accusation. There are most likely some heretics out there that are clearly not in the Christian tradition. Rob Bell is not one of them. Even Jesus told his disciples to not worry about the other guy casting out demons in His name. They were all working together anyway.

I noticed in Love Wins, Bell makes many references to possible ways of looking at things, but never says absolutely "this is how it is." It seems his accusers assume he is saying this.  I'm puzzled by this. All my life we Christians have had the freedom to stand around at the water cooler, or in the foyer, or on the golf course and ask, "Could hell be...?" without reprisal. Even C.S. Lewis was able to write a fiction story about heaven and hell where people could choose to leave hell and visit heaven and choose to stay there. Everybody knows it is a story. Everybody loves it. Why can't Rob Bell be given the same hospitality?

More of interest to me, is the pattern of interaction this conversation has provoked. I get paid to pay attention to patterns and to use language to help resolve these problems. I have a basic assumption that my use of language and the patterns it invites take precedence over the actual words or beliefs it conveys. I also think the manner in which we respond as followers of Jesus is important, both in the results it gets, and in the ethics it represents.

The whole firestorm started with an inflammatory blog post a couple of weeks ago.  I think I read that 12,000 people reposted warnings on FaceBook, "If this is accurate, Rob Bell followers need to reconsider". I saw several of these posts. Influential Christians also tweeted unsavory tweets about Bell. This led to clever rebuttals. Just today I watched a streamed video discussion panel from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that included the above referenced blogger and three other fat white guys sitting on a platform in leather chairs defending the faith.  Now, some would consider me a fat white guy. I am not without sin. Somehow, they felt the need to immediately respond with their own live streaming event like Bell.  They talked about him with contempt and then at the end prayed for him to come around to their way of thinking.

With all the hoopla, I bought the ebook version in iBooks when it became available.  I also bought the audiobook in iTunes. Total cost was comparable to one hard copy price. Bell reads the book himself in the audiobook. I recommend it. You get many nuances of tone and inflection that I'm sure you miss in the print version.

When I bought the audiobook the first review in iTunes gave the book one star. I'm pretty sure the reviewer had not listened to the book. You don't have to buy it to leave a review. Tersely it said, "Who would want the murderers, wife beaters and pedophiles in heaven, if you do away with hell there is no need for Jesus to die on the cross". Obviously, this person had not read the book. I noticed this theme in the questions after Bell's interview on Monday night. One person who identified himself with a prestigious institution said with a bit of derision, "if there is no hell, what happens to the mission of the church?" The Baptist Seminary forum brought up this point by saying, "If we decide there is no hell, people stop going to church, stop paying tithe, the Church shrinks, it doesn't grow."

Love Wins is clear. Bell believes in hell and leaves room for lots of theories of atonement like did the first followers of Jesus. But let me be honest at this point. If fear is the only motivation for mission, where do I get off this train? I think the ideas Bell proposes and the fresh expression of God's Kingdom they are engendering are signs of hope at a crucial hinge in world history. I have been more excited about what God is doing in the world; I have a renewed enthusiasm to read the Bible, go to church and participate in God's renewal of all things as we all have been called to do. Rob Bell has been part of this renewal in my own life. Love Wins is a document that helps constitute this process more fully.  It, along with other resources, has helped make sense of a religion that has not always made sense to me. These are good things. 

Why I like the Mennonites, Part 2: Warts and All

I wrote a post a few months back titled "Why I Like the Mennonites". Several let me know they would like to hear more when I had been part of the community longer. I think some thought I was being a bit idyllic. I was. Mennonites, like everybody, have warts. And when we have them, we don't like to show them. I read The Naked Anabaptist by Stuart Murray and would highly recommend it. Not just for Mennonites, or people seeking to become Mennonite, but for everyone that wants to see how Anabaptism can enrich your faith. Murray does not hide the warts. The good and the bad are revealed for all to see. Hence, the title of the book.

I made reference to Brian McLaren's book, A Generous Orthodoxy in part-one of my Mennonite musings. His suggestion is that we take the best from all traditions; that each heritage has something to offer, and like the body of Christ, we all need each other. Greg Boyd believes the Mennonites have something valuable to offer the Church, and I agree with him. He says quite eloquently,

"Cherish Your Treasure! Not in a prideful way, of course, but simply as a precious gift God has given you and that God wants to give the world through you. Be daringly flexible on all matters that aren’t central to the Kingdom (e.g. worship styles, dress, etc.), but be utterly uncompromising on all matters that are central to the Kingdom (viz. everything that pertains to living a Jesus-looking life). My Mennonite sisters and brothers, you have what multitudes in the rising Kingdom movement are longing for. You can provide a home to so many who right now are looking for one. If you hold fast to the faith you’ve been entrusted with (Jude 3), you may just find your fellowship exploding in the years to come. For, I believe, the Anabaptist vision of the Kingdom is a vision whose time has come."

I have found the welcoming Mennonite fellowship I have been attending these past few months to be just that. I still feel like I've come home. Recently, I was invited by the Mission and Service committee to join them on a trip to St. Paul, Minnesota to visit Third Way. I spoke about this new church in my last post. They are an intentional community of Jesus followers that have sought out the Mennonite denomination and asked to join as a participating community of faith, adhering to the Central Plains Mennonite conference confession of faith. What is so amazing to me is how an established, traditional church has been willing to listen and learn from a group so different from them. I just soaked in the experience. It was a torrential rain in the desert of my soul.

Like I said before, Mennonites are good at listening. I've seen this first hand and heard some stories told about intractable situations in the past that were negotiated with patience and prayer to the point of resolution. The local congregation I attend has lasted for nearly 114 years without splintering. Amazing as that sounds, I'm guessing some of their toughest days are ahead. There are at least two possible reasons for this: One, at the same time many are discovering the treasure of the Anabaptist heritage, many Mennonites are letting their distinct theological perspective be diluted by American evangelicalism, or co-opted by politics either to the right or the left. This is not the first time a leavening of a Spirit-filled movement has affected a potent work of God. In the 1920's there was great fear about the influence of "modernism" in the Church. Out of that fear grew the evangelical movement which many would say has led to phenomena like the "religious right" and alignment of church and government. And though some might think those are good things, the net loss was the distinctiveness of some spiritual movements in a joining with a generalized evangelicalism largely undergirded by fundamentalist reformed theology. Now that the Church is firmly rooted in modernism, the same kind of fear of "post-modernism" is affecting a portion of Mennonites to mix the Kingdom of God with nationalism, and even soften their long held stance on violence.

A second concern, and seemingly more troubling for Mennonites is the issue that many denominations are in dispute over at this moment: sexuality. This has come up for the Central Plains Mennonite Conference in specific ways over the last 15-20 years. What interests me most is how it has been handled more that what resulted. Remember, the Mennonites have this tradition of slow deliberation. All voices are invited into the dialogue. Much prayer is undertaken. Unity is of prime concern. Community discernment is the process. Trust in the Holy Spirit as guide. These tried and true tools have been employed for five hundred years with effectiveness. Surprisingly, with this divisive topic, all seem abandoned. As I understand it, as often as there has been a conflict regarding sexuality, there has been haste to make a decision.

The Central Plains Conference is facing this problem again. My hope is that fear is not the guiding force in these proceedings. That those involved will not forget where they come from. That Jesus' example of a Third Way will prevail and the long held confession of Discipleship into Faithfulness will hold sway. If you haven't guessed, I'm an optimist. I think we can do it. We can get through this one like we have gotten through martyrdom, harassment during wartime, listening to the radio, women in leadership. All of the tools are there. It's been done before. God help us.