Author Archives: Steve Long

Ray Boltz is gay

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“Watch the Lamb” will never be the same.

Just a few weeks ago, via an interview with the Washington Blade (“The Gay and Lesbian News Source of Record – DC Gay News, National Gay News, Entertainment and Opinion”), Ray Boltz informed the public that he was gay. Apparently, he’s felt this way his whole life, admitted it to himself and his family in 2004, and become increasingly comfortable with it in the last few years.

One of Ray Boltz’s most popular songs, “Watch the Lamb” was one of the first contemporary Christian songs I ever heard, back in the 80’s when CCM consisted of Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, and a few others. When I first heard the song, it became one of my favorite songs, and I have always liked it.

It will never be the same for me, not because it changes the meaning of the song, or because I can no longer like the song. It’s still a great song, and I still like it. However, whenever I hear it from now on, I will be saddened that the author of the song took his eyes off the Lamb. Instead he turned his eyes to himself and the world around him, declaring that he knew the truth about himself, and looking to the world for affirmation.

After accepting his feelings of being gay, Boltz indicates that “there was a peace he hadn’t felt before” and that he had a “feeling that I didn’t hate myself anymore, so in that sense I felt closer to God.” I have to wonder, does he really have peace with the One True God, or does he have peace with a god of his own making?

Who is his authority? He says, “I felt that the church, that they had it wrong about how I felt with being gay all these years, so maybe they had it wrong about a lot of other things.” According to the article “he doesn’t want to get into debates about scripture.” He says, “I’m just an artist and I’m just going to sing about what I feel and write about what I feel and see where it goes.”

Boltz wrote in another popular song, “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb,” but he certainly isn’t allowing the Word become flesh to be his authority.

The other sad note from the article is the response of the Gospel Music Association. They provided a statement stating that “GMA is a trade organization that works for our members to promote gospel/Christian music, not a religious or political group. As such, we do not comment on the lifestyle choices of people in our community.” For a true follower of Christ, there is no distinction between business (trade) and the living out of our faith. To declare that lifestyle “choices” are not worthy of comment, is decidedly un-Christian.

Poverty and Economics

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The upcoming elections have me thinking about the different approaches to social economics.

Democrats tend to talk a lot about being for the little-guy, the middle-class, the worker, and doing things that will rescue people from poverty. Republicans have the same desire to help the little-guy, the middle-class, and the worker, but they take a different approach. Democrats tend to talk about the people and the goal. Republicans tend to talk about the task and the means. That’s not to say that Democrats don’t talk about the tasks they will undertake to help people or the means of accomplishing those tasks, or that Republicans don’t talk about the people that will be helped by the tasks they hope to accomplish or the goals that will be achieved by the processes they hope to use.

Not only do people at different ends of the political spectrum communicate differently, they have different ideas about how to accomplish their (shared) goals. And this is the difference that really matters. If Democrats and Republicans were going to do the same things, and just talked about them differently, then it wouldn’t really matter what your political views are, we would get the same results in the end. However, since they mostly have different ideas of what it will take to reduce poverty (the shared goal, in this case), it is important to evaluate whose techniques actually work the best.

(Note: I’m using the words “Democrat” and “Republican” in this article, because those are the two major political parties in the US, and they represent ideologies that tend to be distinct and in opposition. There are other words that could convey similar distinctions, like “liberal,” “conservative,” “socialist,” “capitalist,” etc. If you like some of these or other words better, feel free to substitute them in your mind as you read this article.)

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Obfuscatory Asseveration o’ the Day

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(Don’t expect the “Obfuscatory Asseveration o’ the Day” to be a daily thing.)

“The core of the Christian message is the proclamation of a tectonic shift in cosmic reality inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This proclamation radically relativizes all the empirical givens of this world, including all human institutions.” -Peter L. Berger

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/005/10.14.html

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t find those two sentences all that helpful in terms of helping me better understand the core of the Christian message. I think this is what happens when one spends too much time in academia.

Velvet Elvis

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I decided to read Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, mainly to see for myself what kind of teaching he lays out.  I wish I could say my review is entirely unbiased, but unfortunately Rob Bell is well known and comes with a reputation.  For someone who values truth and clarity, that reputation is a tarnished reputation.  I’ll do my best to be fair and balanced, point out the good as well as the bad, and not miss the point of the book.

I’m writing this review one chapter at a time as I read the book, so I expect it may be a lengthy review.  Perhaps when I’m done I’ll do a second review that is more of an overall picture instead of an in depth analysis.

INTRO: “Welcome to my Velvet Elvis”

Bell begins the book with the explanation of the title, a Velvet Elvis painting in his basement, representing one artist’s representation of the King.  He explains that the Christian faith is like art, always changing, always a different perspective.  Just like an artist’s attempt to convey something meaningful in a way that connects with his audience, so our faith should adapt and change in order to be relevant to the current generation.

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Give for Free

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How would you like to donate to a cause without actually spending any money? The following sites will make (small) donations to a specific cause when a visitor clicks on a link.

http://www.thebiblesite.org/

At the site, click on the button that looks like this:

After clicking the button, you will be thanked “for your donation of one book of the Bible, which will be provided to a persecuted Christian who has never had their own copy of God’s Word.”

http://www.thehungersite.com

At the site, click on the button that looks like this:

After clicking the button, you’ll see that “you have given the value of 1.1 cups of food to the hungry.”

The Hunger Site is part of the GreaterGood Network operated by CharityUSA.com. Visit either site for links to their family of sites that allow you to make no-cost-to-you donations to charities supporting children’s healthcare, literacy, breast cancer prevention, animal rescue, and rainforest preservation.