Response to “Buju Banton’s Original Sin” by C. Cooper

In response to the article in the Sunday Gleaner, “Buju Banton’s Original Sin” printer November 1, 2009, written by C. Cooper.  Located online here: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20091101/cleisure/cleisure3.html

I tend to like reading Cooper because she writes copiously on issues of Jamaican culture inclusive of matters related to Dancehall music, in which I have a keen interest due to among other things the fact that it is through dancehall music I learned most of what I knew about Jamaica before moving here in 1998.  The song in question Boom By By was released during my junior high school year and was an instant hit in Grenada.  The language barrier conquered by my inquisitive mind and a careful listening of the song, I sang along word for word, line by line with little thought of anything else.  Today of course its an entirely different matter.

I suspect that the writer of the article chose the words ‘original sin’ as one of the many puns that she used in the article deliberately, but I cannot help commenting that that too falls into the category of my first concern with the article, that is the twisting of theology presented therein.   While I can understand  why that statement may have been necessary given her location of her arguments in the Torah, beginning with the creation accounts in Genesis and proceeding to the Levitical code, I have a difficulty passing it off as just a play on words.  My concerns are as follows. 1. Original sin is relegated to Adam and ought not to be applied to anyone else.

2. Fundamental theology should not be made to be synonymous with ‘taking the Bible literally.’  There are parts of the Bible that are to be taken literally and others that are not to be taken literally.  It is true that Biblical interpretation has ‘matured’ (even to the extent of a hermeneutic that may totally strip the Bible of any super natural-ness) but a part of that maturing also involves a systematic way of viewing the Bible as God’s progressive self revelation, understanding the difference between Israel’s theocratic governance in the Biblical era, and how the principles enshrined in such matters as the Levitical code find their application in the postmodern era in which we now exist.

3. Reducing the creation of Eve in Gen. 2 to God’s attempt to fix a mistake that He had made.  The writer’s reflection on Gen. 2 gives the impression that the woman was an afterthought.  I read and re read to see if there was any hint that the writer so feels about herself but found none, but if that’s the way she understand the text, I assume it may have implications for her overall view of the Bible, which I am not privy to.  For God to make a mistake is for Him to cease to be God.  This idea presented here therefore flies in the face of a core attribute of God.  The writer quoted Gen 1:27  “So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female.”  Then she quoted from Gen. 2: 18 “”And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him.”  It seems enough to simply put those two verses side by side to see that there is no suggestion of after thought in them necessarily, however let me offer more than that.  Gen. 2: 18 – 25 against the backdrop of 1: 27 is merely the details of the creation of male and female in His image.  The details are provided in chapter 2 of the woman’s creation.  A careful reading of the text will show that before the animals were created God had already spoken about the woman being in place (2: 18).  You should also notice that it is Adam himself who realized that his kind was not among the animal, it wasn’t God who pointed that fact out to him.  I believe God allowed the interim period to heighten the excitement of Adam when Eve was presented to him.  Note the tone of excitement is his exclamation bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh and his subsequent naming of her.  Chapters 1 and 2 ought not to be seen as two accounts of the creation of humans, but a continuum.  The writer makes some statements of opinion and then passes them off as Biblical statements.  Yes she was taken from his rib and yes the word helper is used, and here is where I will agree with her use of the word archaic to describe the language of the King James Version, because the translation to helper does carry a very negative connotation.  Again Gen. 1: 27 is instructive here, notice both male and female were created in God’s image, hence there should be no hint of male superiority here.  Admittedly many in the church have used the very word helper/helpmate to justify their subjugation of women even to this very day.  To this is I say “Down with that!”   It is therefore not accurate to say  ”Is not me seh so; is di Bible.”   I must hasten to reiterate that such thinking is shared by notable figures in the realm of Christendom as well so this is in no way meant to discredit the writer (who I think would hardly claim to be a theologian).

4. The article hints subtly or not so subtly that sex was that which they were inveigled to indulge in.  Again

a common argument both in and out of the church raises its head.  This erroneous view is extremely

pervasive, and as she rightly said sex has been pathologized for all time.  Sex has been taught by the

church for years through the lens of fall theology, rather than image theology.

Notice that if we go back to my point that chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis are not conflicting accounts but

corollary accounts many issues become clearer, including this point here.  Look again at chapter 1: Gen

1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he

created them. Gen 1:28  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and

fill the earth …..” Notice the highlighted sections.  This proves the corollary nature of the two accounts

but also proves that sexual activity was part of their mandate before the fall (unless we want to argue that

humans were meant to reproduce asexually originally).  I feel somewhat red in the face now as a part of

the church, because the church has played its own part all too well in creating the belief that it is the

serpent who introduced sex to the couple.  I am not quite sure what effect the writer meant to conjure with

the introduction of the play on ‘dem bow’ in that section of the article.  At that point she misses the mark

again, for it is after sinning that they felt ashamed of their nakedness, they did not discover that it was

shameful to be naked, for in 2: 25 after their wedding we see that the man and the woman were both

naked and not ashamed.    Shame implies a sense of guilt, which they did not yet have.

5. As it relates to her comments on the matter of the abominable nature the homosexual act and how Buju’s mindset being influenced by the Bible may have led to the penning of the song, I have already hinted at the proper way to interpret the Levitical laws in our time.  Cooper correctly identified that the same context that prescribed capital punishment for the guilty homosexuals prescribed it for adultery among other things.  It is often amazing to see the vehemence with which persons advocate the killing of homosexuals, yet they themselves are subject to the same penalty if this system of governance was still in place.  Humans tend to be very selective beings.  It is hypocritical to cry for this ‘crime’ and not for rape and murder.  We cannot build a system of thinking on a faulty approach to Biblical interpretation because we are not living under the theocratic rule of Israel, which had Leviticus as its judiciary handbook.  I categorically condemn all violence against any kind of sinner, and while I uphold that homosexuality is an aberration of the creative order to advocate for violence against homosexuals whether as mere creative art or catharsis in song is to stand on a very slippery slope.   There are member of the clergy and many in the pews who uncritically join with the prophets of anti gay songs calling for the slaying of homosexuals, and I humbly suggest to them that we look again at the Jesus of the Gospels, not the one on our calendars with a lamb in his hand and a halo around his head.  The Jesus who was accused of being ‘the friend of sinners,’ the Jesus who said to the woman taken in adultery ‘neither do I condemn  you.’  Any influence that the ‘archaic language of the King James’ may have had on Mr. Myrie in this regard seems speculative (unless the writer knows otherwise) and even then it boils down to more of the interpretative technique of the teachers of the day.  As one who appreciates Buju as a writer and musician I am pleased that there are other ‘archaic expressions’ that are more lucidly  voiced, such, as ‘the destruction of the poor is their poverty…’

Dissecting Culture

Dissecting, transforming culture
Published: Monday | August 17, 2009

THE EDITOR, Sir:
I READ with much interest and ‘hmmm’-ing the article titled ‘Festival daggering’ by Carolyn Cooper in The Sunday Gleaner of August 16. It raises some very serious issues for deep consideration. It became even more relevant to me as I am currently in South Africa, attending a three-month course at the African Leadership Institute for Community Transfor-mation (www.alict.org ), and just last week classes focused on culture and worldviews. The discussions involved identifying and tracing the roots of the cultural practices in our local communities with a critical mind, and understanding the complexities that are involved in transforming culture.
Highly suggestive
The truth is many of those festival dances may indeed be deemed as highly suggestive. This has always been my conviction, and the struggle for me has been how do we accept some things as just cultural, while at the same time shield our young ones, and even adults, from the possible subconscious messages that may be sent?
As a theologian, I admit that the answers to the questions raised here by the columnists are important ones, and they can best be answered if we each come to the table (theologians, anthropologists, artistes, citizens, professors, etc) with a mindset that is not dogmatic, and one that is willing to do the hard work of dissecting culture. Kudos to Cooper.
I am, etc.,
Teddy A. Jones
ghettopriest@gmail.com
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090817/letters/letters3.html

The Sin Tamer

The following article is located at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/discipleship/sintamer.html

The following article is located at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/discipleship/sintamer.html

The Sin Tamer
Do we ever get to stop fighting against the evil within?
John Ortberg

Monday, June 29, 2009
How much sin should we expect in the church? We have gauges for other elements of church life. We generally monitor attendance. We know how many people are in small groups. Somebody counts the offerings. And often we don’t just measure what we’re interested in—we set goals.
Anybody hear of a church that set a goal for a 5-percent sin reduction next year?
I don’t mean to be glib about this. Sin is, somehow, at the root of all human misery. Sin is what keeps us from God and from life. It is in the face of every battered woman, the cry of every neglected child, the despair of every addict, the death of every victim of every war.
Pastors have historically understood their primary battle to be not the battle to build a big church, but the battle against the power of sin. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood … .” Christians have measured the seriousness of the battle by the suffering and bleeding of Calvary.
And sin doesn’t seem to be going away, either outside or inside the church. So how should we be thinking about sin, in our congregations and in ourselves?
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,” writes John.
It always helps to begin by identifying the boundaries over which error lies. Then at least we know what mistakes to avoid. And one boundary is the notion that we can be fully rid of sin in this life; that by enough vigilance and will-power and careful adherence to rules we can reach what used to be called sinless perfection (is there another kind?).
The problem with what might be called the “victorious Christian living” mindset is not that it takes sin too seriously. The problem is it inevitably becomes selective about which sins God hates the most, and they always end up being somebody else’s sins. It misses the deeper layers of sin: sin not just as concrete acts of lying or cheating, but the sin of narcissism that infects my preaching and image-management that corrupts my conversations; the sin in my motives and emotions that is real but that I cannot simply turn off.
Jesus told the story about the tax collector and the Pharisee to a group of people “who were content in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.”
The irony is that “looking down on everybody else” is a violation of the law of love, which according to Jesus is the absolute essence of righteousness. Sin is protean. It is a cancer that keeps mutating, and just when you think you have killed off one form, it turns out a deadlier strain yet is threatening your heart.
Recalibrating your sin monitor
There is a paradox about sin: it may be impossible to know how well you’re doing at battling it. People who are in great physical shape usually know it. Musicians who have honed their craft could generally tell you how.
But when is the last time someone whose soul you deeply admire said to you: “I have really been on a roll when it comes to overcoming sin lately”? Those souls among us who are doing the best in contesting it don’t seem to think they’re doing particularly well. Maybe this is more than just modesty or neurosis. Maybe they’re aware of the insidious danger.
Somebody asked Dallas Willard once if he believed in total depravity. His reply was that he believed in “sufficient depravity.” Never having run into that doctrine before, the interviewer asked for clarification. Dallas said, “I believe that every human being is sufficiently depraved so that no one will ever get into heaven and say, ‘I merited this.’”
Perhaps we are sufficiently depraved that the more we grow spiritually, the more our awareness grows of the health and sanity of what a life freed from depravity would look like.
Psychologists who study incompetence say that the first result of incompetence is the inability to perceive my incompetence. Maybe spiritual growth involves an increased capacity to diagnose the true condition of my soul.
But shouldn’t I be making progress?
On the other hand, almost every page of the New Testament letters includes statements, not simply about the change people will experience one day, but the transformation that seems to be expected now.
Peter says, “You have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other.”
Paul says to the church at Thessalonica: “Your faith is growing more and more, and the love you have for one another is increasing.”
A sobering observation about the battle against sin is offered in Hebrews: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
Whatever else the New Testament teaches, it is surely more than the hope that God will get a group of justified people into heaven when they die. Paul clearly believed that, with the power of the Holy Spirit, a new way of living was available to ordinary human beings in a new kind of redemptive community. And that they ought to expect this.
Imagine an alcoholic going into an AA meeting and hearing: “We’re so glad you’re here. We want you to know that you are loved and forgiven through nothing you have done. Of course, don’t expect to change too much. Don’t expect to actually stop drinking. We don’t like it when people suggest sobriety is possible. We believe that trying not to drink breeds arrogance and self-sufficiency. We have a little bumper sticker: ‘12-steppers are not sober, just forgiven.’”
The whole point of AA (which morphed out of the Oxford Group’s attempt to re-capture classic Christian spiritual practices in the early twentieth century) was to bring freedom from a spiritual power (what the Blue Book calls the “cunning, baffling, powerful, patient” enemy of addiction) that was destroying lives.
This is not to say that people in churches could expect to stop sinning the way people in AA stop drinking. Addiction itself is closely related to sin, and sin is infinitely more complex, subtle, and baffling.
And more dangerous.
One advantage that AA has over most local congregations is this: people going to a 12-step group often know in their bones that their problem will destroy their lives.
For the most part, we simply do not have that understanding about sin.
Recognizing the badness of sin
I re-read Neal Plantinga’s Not The Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin on a regular basis. In fact, if this article does nothing else, it will be worth writing if it convinces you to read his book once every few years.
He writes of how we have largely lost awareness of sin; how sin was once something Christians hated, feared, grieved, and fled; now when we see the word at all it tends to be on menus (“Sinful Chocolate Decadence”).
However, the awareness of sin cannot be recovered simply by trying to crank up the volume when we talk about it. Merely saying loudly and often that sin is bad will not create the tectonic shift needed in our souls. We need to thoroughly understand what it is that is bad about sin, which is power to corrupt the goodness of life:
“Sin is both the overstepping of a line and the failure to reach it—both transgression and shortcoming. Sin is a missing of the mark, a spoiling of goods, a staining of garments, a hitch in one’s gait, a wandering from the path, a fragmenting of the whole. Sin is what culpably disturbs shalom. Sinful human life is a caricature of proper human life.”
We often speak of how people cannot comprehend the wonder of grace unless they grasp the badness of sin. And that is true. But it is equally true that people cannot grasp the badness of sin until they grasp the goodness of the life that sin corrupts.
When we do not understand the destructiveness of sin, we are more concerned about getting punished for our sins than the way we are punished by them.
Does God tire of forgiving the same sins?
Does the persistence of sin in my life threaten my salvation? People don’t generally ask aloud, but they wonder: How much sin can there be in my life before I need to start worrying? In other words, is there a level of sin that is in the acceptable zone for a Christian, but if you go higher, you’re in danger—like the level of mercury in Lake Michigan? Is there a low tolerance for impurity—like FDA standards for homogenized milk? Or is it more like the purity standards for hot dogs—lots of room for junk?
Is it possible to be a Christian and just never grow?
The problem with these is that they are the wrong questions. The issue is not whether God will stop forgiving sins. Jesus told Peter he needed to forgive an offender not seven times, but seventy times seven. And he wasn’t saying Peter could withhold forgiveness for transgression number 491.
Jesus’ point was that forgiving is always the right response to sincere repentance. God is not worried that he might be taken advantage of. He is not afraid that some bad boy will use his charm to put one over on heaven.
The problem is that, eventually, I become as used to my sin as I am to the watch on my wrist. I habituate. It doesn’t bother me any more. I stop even wanting to be rid of it.
Sin damages my capacity for God. Sin blinds. The danger is not that God won’t respond to my repeated repentance; the danger is that I might become so ensnared that I become simply unable or unwilling to repent. This is the dynamic at work when Paul says, “And God gave them over to a depraved mind.”
So the question isn’t “How much sin am I allowed?” The question is “Am I moving toward the darkness or toward the light? Am I growing toward God, or away from him? Am I becoming more sensitive and responsive to Jesus?”
It is because of this that sin is to be taken so seriously. Paul says to the church at Galatia: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”
He doesn’t just say: “Invoke church discipline if there’s a sexual scandal.” He says we’re to help one another move toward freedom from sin. From all kinds of sin.
It is interesting in our day that many churches speak much of Matthew 18:15 and the need for values around resolving conflict. But that is only one application of the larger need stated in Galatians 6:1, which is for Christians not just to confront conflict but more generally to confront sin.
This can be done in a way that is not judgmental, because the reality is that we are in no position to judge the actual amount of spiritual growth that has taken place in another person; we do not see the genetic material they wrestle with; we do not know the forces that have shaped them.
Frank Laubach preached the gospel to a tribe that had a long history of violence. The chief was so moved by Laubach’s presentation that he accepted Christ on the spot. He then turned to Laubach in gratitude and said, “This is wonderful. Who do you want me to kill for you?”
That’s his starting point.
I was raised in a church where the Scriptures were taught, given parents who loved me and each other, in a city where being a Protestant Christian was considered normal. So if I think I am superior to the chief because I’m less likely to kill somebody, I’m sadly deluded.
The question is: Am I moving toward the light, and helping others do the same? If I see someone trapped in sin and do nothing to try to help, that is not love. It is the sin of conniving. Conspiring to allow sin to flourish and human life to suffer.
Awakening healthy guilt
As a leader I have to ask myself, “What are the sins in my congregation (and my life) that no one feels guilty over?”
Do I have the courage to awaken guilt?
Taylor Branch wrote how in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1950s bus drivers would accept money from African-American riders, but then would make them disembark and walk on the sidewalk to re-enter through the rear door lest they touch a white person going down the center aisle.
Sometimes, for the fun of cruelty, drivers would take the money and drive off while the person was walking toward the back door, leaving them without fare or transportation.
There was a sin of anger here. But it was not that black people got angry.
It was that white people did not.
Worse, it was that white people, who read the Bible and worshiped in church, did not rise up in fury to demand justice.
Are we lifting up and recognizing and encouraging the sin-convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit?
At Willow Creek recently, Bill Hybels preached a series called “Enough.” After one of the sermons, he challenged members of the congregation to raise their hands if they were willing to surrender their possessions and lifestyles fully to God and actually decide to use their resources to serve the poor and honor God. There was a time for public declaration of intent.
Then Bill said he wanted to have a word with all the folks who did not raise their hands. And this is what he said: “I hope you have a terrible afternoon. And then I hope you have a terrible evening. I hope the Holy Spirit keeps after you, and you have to keep thinking this one through, until you’re able to raise your hand as well.”
Sins I know and sins I don’t
But what’s most difficult about sin isn’t so much what to do about sin in the congregation I serve. It’s what to do about the sin in me! The hard part of sin is my sin.
I get angry at people for not doing what I want. I avoid confrontation I know is needed because I want to avoid pain. I am apathetic toward injustice. I lust. I use other people. I manipulate. I get defensive. I am ungrateful for blessings. I withdraw.
Sometimes I am aware of my sin as I’m doing it.
The other night my wife asked me if I had someone’s number on my cell phone. I immediately said no. The truth was, I was pretty sure it was on my phone, but I didn’t want to take the ten seconds needed to look. I didn’t want to tell her that, so I said no.
Then I felt bad.
So I had to stop, look my wife in the eye, and tell her that I lied to her, and that the reason for my lie was that I didn’t want to give up ten seconds. (It turns out the number wasn’t on my cell phone after all. Hmm. Are you lying if it turns out by accident you were telling the truth?)
It was humiliating and embarrassing, and is so small that even in the telling, it makes me look more sensitive to sin than I really am.
Sometimes my sin is so close to me, like my skin, I don’t even know it’s there.
What matters most, I suppose, is not so much that I am trying to reduce the sin factor. It’s that I come to love the life God has created, the shalom God cherishes, and hate the sin that corrupts it, not because I am so “righteous” but because that life is so good.
Can my sin ever be totally tamed? Not in this life. Much of the sin that is in me I’m not even conscious of yet. As I grow more spiritually aware, I’ll see deficits I don’t have the sensitivity to see right now.
But even the sins I’m aware of are constantly tempting me. The Bible says, “We wrestle … .” We wrestle—not against flesh and blood. We wrestle—and as we faithfully wrestle, God allows us victories along the way. We wrestle—and as we wrestle, a Friend greater than we know is somehow at work wrestling in us and for us and through us.
The greatest sin would be to stop wrestling.
John Ortberg is pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California, and editor at large of Leadership.

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A new loook at the gay gene theory

APA revises ‘gay gene’ theory

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 5/14/2009 6:30:00 AM

The attempt to prove that homosexuality is determined biologically has been dealt a knockout punch. An American Psychological Association publication includes an admission that there’s no homosexual “gene” — meaning it’s not likely that homosexuals are born that way.

 

For decades, the APA has not considered homosexuality a psychological disorder, while other professionals in the field consider it to be a “gender-identity” problem. But the new statement, which appears in a brochure called “Answers to Your Questions for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality,” states the following:

“There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles….”

That contrasts with the APA’s statement in 1998: “There is considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person’s sexuality.”

Peter LaBarbera, who heads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes the more recent statement is an important admission because it undermines a popular theory.
 
“People need to understand that the ‘gay gene’ theory has been one of the biggest propaganda boons of the homosexual movement over the last 10 [or] 15 years,” he points out. “Studies show that if people think that people are born homosexual they’re much less likely to resist the gay agenda.”
 
Matt Barber with Liberty Counsel feels the pronouncement may have something to do with saving face. “Well, I think here the American Psychological Association is finally trying to restore some credibility that they’ve lost over the years by having become a clearly political organization as opposed to an objective, scientific organization,” he states. (
 
With the new information from the APA, Barber wonders if the organization will admit that homosexuals who want to change can change.
 
“It’s irrefutable from a medical standpoint that people can leave the homosexual lifestyle,” he argues. “Homosexuality is defined by behavior. Untold thousands of people have found freedom from that lifestyle through either reparative therapy or through — frankly, most effectively — a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
 
LaBarbera agrees. “Change through Christ is possible — and it’s one of the most heartwarming aspects of the whole gay debate,” he shares. “Many men and women have come out of homosexuality, mostly through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that these professional organizations will not study that, will not acknowledge that, shows how ‘in the tank’ they are for the homosexual movement.”
 
LaBarbera stresses that even though elites will not recognize the change, that does not mean the change does not exist. In fact, both Barber and LaBarbera believe that God changes people through Christ — regardless of the sin.

 http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=528376

Infinity Security Services

Who offers the best security service?  King Alarm? The FBI? CIA? Mossad? Irish Mob? Russian Mob? The Mafia? Black Ops? Navy Seals? Hawkeye?  This verse provides the answer:

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Many times when we are sharing the Gospel with unsaved persons they would say, ” Me nuh ready yet because me nuh waan run inna church and come back out.”  I often use this verse to explain to them that the truth is we are not the ones who keep ourselves saved.  Yes we have a role to by pursuing the path of righteousness but it is the divine security, the infinite, unending security, yes the eternal security of our salvation which God himself provides which is responsible for keeping us in his plan of salvation.  So many persons are weak and confused about the salvation, they receive Christ, get baptized and then they may committ a sin and feel that they have lost their salvation and that they are condemned.  Here is a difficult verse for many accept, but I will seek to unpack it for us during this week so that we can grasp this very very important Scriptural truth.