Feb 12 2008
Neozine is growing!
Katey’s Corner - research and feedback from the Director of Counseling at Columbus Xenos.
Love Ethics - Study Group materials from the Love Ethics class.
The Scarlet Thread - Study Group materials and tools for the book.
Feb 05 2008
“Act like men!” God says. That surely is one of the most concise and poignant statements of God’s Love Ethics in the Bible. Three words capture the difference between depravity and redemption, emotional sickness and health, uselessness and significance: act like men. If the writer lived in today’s political correctness it would be phrased at both sexes: “Grow up!” The rest of the quote explains it:
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. - 1 Corinthians 16:13–14
These concepts go together: alertness, resolve, “grow up!” and strength. But how does “love” fit? These thoughts seem so disjointed: all about power…then love? Either these concepts are incompatible, or our understanding is wrong.
This is a three-part series which tries to clarify what it means to “act like men!” It means means understanding God’s plan for growth, which is immediately helpful to all Christians, but it also applies to Christian parents trying to lead their children into maturity. It may require some effort to study this material, but it comes with a great promise: to end the confusion about love means converting painful emotional defeats and struggles into astonishing victories. We begin with the most foundational but hard-to-believe points…
From God’s viewpoint love is the most potent and victorious force in the universe. God proves this in practice: although He is omnipotent (all-powerful), this is not His weapon of choice against a universe in rebellion. If humans held such omnipotence, all personal conflicts would be quickly resolved, but nobody would be left alive on earth!
We foolishly think strength and victory comes from smashing the opposition. The Romans built an empire this way, and even today the Hollywood heroes are those great killers like Clint Eastwood. With glowering eyes and chewing a dead cigar, this cold-hearted killer always wins, or so it seems. But it must be remembered he holds a .44 Magnum, which is impractical for the office or home. Clint also has serious relationship issues. When Clint arrives, the streets vacate, and those who remain are soon dead.
Clint actually lives in a simplistic and childish world where pulling a trigger makes problems disappear, and at the end of his movies he rides away all alone. Psychologists identify similar behavior in “parallel play,” a phenomena seen in little kids in the same room who play by themselves, “parallel playing” and oblivious to each other. This occurs because these children are too immature to understand how to participate in a world outside their own.
God’s strength is loving strength, and extremely victorious. He is always loving, even when dealing with rebellion and hatred. “Love never fails,” the Bible says. To “act like men” means living the way God does, and it means victory is an expected way of life.
All the above points are lost on Infantiles. We need to begin by addressing the fundamental immaturities of the Infantile, because this is where everyone starts in their journey towards Mature Love. People may mature beyond Infantile Love, but they retain vestiges of those immaturities well into adulthood, and would be well-advised to understand what Infantile looks like.
In the process of studying Infantiles, it is necessary to distinguish between Tribal Infantiles and Diffuse Infantiles. Infantiles operate differently in Tribal and Diffuse Love Spheres.
Feb 05 2008
Drop in at the Guest Book page if you’re visiting us at northeast Ohio (neo) Xenos. We promise: no junk mail! We want to know who’s interested and why.
Feb 02 2008
Since ‘83 I’ve been engaged with the growing migration towards online communities. “Back in the day” it was CompuServe, which of course became AOL. In ‘94 I ran a BBS with a modem bank out of my office. (NeoXenos AOL!) Then in ‘96 I was on ICQ with all my old Columbus buddies, including old Buck, and when he moved to Russia we kept in contact daily with ICQ. Now it’s sophisticated CMS systems like MySpace and its close competitor at http://neoxenos.net.
I was always frustrated by the lack of participation and interest from my beloved brothers and sisters. They seemed to appreciate only one mode of fellowship: meeting in a room somewhere (which is a blast!), but can’t we meet online too?
Suddenly the Millennials come along and changed everything…have you ever wished for something, got it, then reconsidered? I’m not there, but close.
Christians are notoriously conservative and easily frightened by new social developments, as if Christ was too. But isn’t it precisely new technologies and social developments which God Himself employed when He brought The Christ to us?
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, Galatians 4:4 (NASB)
In retrospect we know the Incarnation took place at the most strategic point in history, and by this we mean technologically strategic. Christ came at the dawn of Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”) which was marked by the universality of Koine Greek, Roman roads, and widespread Roman authority which enforced peace and promoted trade. Christianity ripped across the civilized world like lightening. Never since has there been such an opportunity for globalization — until the past few decades. God knew how to drop it while it’s hot, fo sho!
the “information super-highway”, Roman-style
Here’s the rub: if a church council scheduled the Incarnation, it wouldn’t happen. Here’s why:
All those modern horrors (in 6 BC) surely would have been anathematized by some churches, I presume, but God didn’t. He can use dirty tools.
So it is today: we have the anathema of TV, movies, and PlayStation (read about it). Now “MySpace” is the new “Boogy-man” for many Christians, but it’s impossible to ignore. This essay grapples with the revolutionary issues kids and parents now face, and will demonstrate a biblical approach which is both practical and necessary for this social revolution.
So the Web is “the devil’s playground” and “the voice of the devil,” Christians complain. And you know what? They’re right!
watch the documentary at pbs.org
Everyone should watch the fascinating and well-researched Frontline documentary, “Growing Up Online.” If you know anything about Frontline, you know it’s the premier showcase of journalistic craft, irregardless of occasional political slants. They do a good job of balanced reporting in this one, and it’s painfully clear the Internet poses incredibly dangerous threats never before seen which parents should know about and which require strategic answers…
