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__ My candidate OR __ Anti-Christ

Saturday, August 23, 2008
I am constantly amazed by and ashamed of the sheer amount of ignorance and shallowness that passes as legitimate political discourse for so many people.

Please, examine sources carefully and think for yourself before you click "forward." If you think it is in your best interest to attack Barack Obama or John McCain, please at least stop for 60 seconds and ask yourself if your conclusions are based upon the entirety of what they themselves have said, done, or believe or if it is what you have decided based on someone else's filter.

Is it possible to disagree with someone without that person somehow becoming the new Anti-Christ, Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, or Osama bin Laden? Is demonizing the only way to advance a position?

There was a certain American prophet who foretold our current state many years ago:

"All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

"However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

--George Washington


Unfortunately, it looks like Red vs. Blue is here to stay.

Religious porn and me

Monday, August 18, 2008
People who come from my particular religious background sometimes have a terrible addiction. It's an addiction that grips us and holds us down in cycles of self-destructiveness and self-abuse. Yet, we often keep going back to it because it provides such a cheap thrill and arousal.

It's porn. And no, not the naked women kind of porn (at least, not in this case). Religious porn. Yes, I believe there really is a such thing as religious porn, and it took me a long time to realize just how hooked on it I was. That is, until I read Mike Cope, who is a well-known minister, actually describe it as "religious porn."

In this odd Christian denomination called the Church of Christ, there is an intense history of very strict legalism among many parts of it. For a long time, I was somewhat of an heir to this legalistic mindset. Personally, I was never on the extreme end of it, but I was certainly exposed to many people who were or were close. Therefore, I had many elements of that kind of thinking swirling around in my head for years. Part of this mindset includes the idea of "contending for the faith" or "defending the faith." In the legalistic mindset, purity of doctrine and practice is of the utmost importance. Therefore, anything that strays from the doctrinal/structural/theological positions of a rigid and pre-defined system is subject to intense attack. Part of this includes searching out, identifying, and publicly rejecting "false teachers." To people in this mindset, anyone else who claims to be a Christian must pass a long list of qualifications before being treated as such - the first of which is membership in a "doctrinally sound" "church of Christ." And believe it or not, whether that church uses a capital "C" or lower case "c" on "church" is part of that test of soundness. That's how extreme it gets.

Now, in this neverending quest for doctrinal/structural/theological purity, there have arisen a number of publications among this (C/c)hurch of Christ crowd whose sole purpose is to identify false doctrines and those who are teaching them. They literaly make lists, and provide very lengthy explanations as to why certain individuals or churches must be considered apostate. Some of these publications, which have now gone online, even send "undercover" people into certain churches to write weekly reports about the abberant practices and teachings that were practiced that week (such as the number of people who clapped or raised hands during a certain song). Please follow me here - I swear to you I am not making this up. One publication wrote a detailed piece on the preaching minister of my college church. This was just after the 2000 college football season, the year that OU won the football national championship. This piece declared this minister to be the "new champion of the NCAA - the National Church Apostate Association."

What's weird about all this stuff is that it is extremely fascinating to read... and read, and read. Why? Because of the emotional response it creates. It's at the same time both hilarious and infuriating. It's interesting and embarassing. It's ridiculous but has a tremendous following. It's atrocious but in some kind of odd way it represents, for better or worse, some part of my religious identity. It's like not being able to look away at a horrible car wreck because part of you knows that it very well could have been you inside there. But probably the biggest part is that it relentlessly attacks, with a special kind of venom and fire, people and positions that I have come to embrace through the years. It's hard not to want to see what your harshest critics are saying about you and respond in some kind of likewise fashion.

Even though I was slowly working myself away from this world of religious thinking before then, it was truly my college years that brought about an entirely new spiritual awakening in me. But awakenings rarely completely tear you away from who you have always been or the associations you have always had. A whole new world of spiritual experience left me somewhat embarrassed by this tiny, closed off world of (C/c)hurches of Christ, but yet I couldn't bring myself to break away from it, despite the times where I seriously considered the options. I ultimately felt a serious call by God to stay with this tribe of Christians, because despite their failures and limitations, He was still using them and wanted to use me as a part of them. But it left me conflicted. And there's this strange thing that people do sometimes when they feel conflicted - they feed the conflict. And thus, my addiction to the internal conflict and fire fanned by all this "religious porn" just kept me in a relentless circle of dissatisfaction and defensiveness. It's as if to justify my newfound exploration of new kinds of spiritual thinking and directions in my life, I had to be able to destroy, in my own mind, all of the enemies of that kind of change. And there were many.

But what I had to ultimately come to accept, even though I truly did already know it, is that the validity of my identity does not depend on winning over opponents. If anything, Jesus Christ himself proved that point. Feeding yourself on the divisiveness and hatred of others is the fastest ticket to a daily life of sarcasm and cynicism. Some of my biggest disappointments with those in Churches of Christ who have adopted a grace-oriented theology is their inability to let the scars of legalism heal. Let it go. It's as if some still need to be a victim of their own people to be validated in what they believe. Therefore we still propogate this oppressive "they" - whether or not "they" are even defined.

I write this tonight because I realized that my desire to keep up with all the religious porn has steadily decreased over time, to where it's hardly even an issue for me anymore. There were two vitriolic websites in particular that I used to keep up with regularly, and I discovered tonight that I haven't even thought about going to any of them, much less actually visiting, in quite some time. I consider this freedom. One of the religious porn rags used to come to our campus ministry student center at OU, and as an intern there I used to love getting them and sarcastically reading out loud to others about all the latest "important" issues. Today if those came, I would quietly dispose of them and asked to be removed from the mailing list. I consider this freedom. Freedom to truly live in the beautiful kingdom of love and grace that God has built all around me - free of any shackles that I used to wear or fights that I thought were mine to wage.

Mama told me

Thursday, August 14, 2008
We're closing in on a new school year. We're now on the latest of several thousand years of universities opening their doors and chaotically welcoming in a new batch of young people who are embarking on a whole new era of life.

Just now I was listening to Three Dog Night's 1970 version of "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)", and I realized that this is quite the anthem of what many students are going to experience as they venture into many areas of life they have not explored before. The confusion, the strangeness, the almost suffocating oddness of being in a whole new place where all kinds of strange things are going on all around you. Some will experience the lyrics of this song literally, others in a more general sense. These are Randy Newman's original lyrics to the song, which are just slightly different than Three Dog Night's:
Will you have whiskey with your water
Or sugar with your tea?
What are these crazy questions
That they're asking of me?
This is the wildest party that there ever could be
Oh, don't turn on the light cause I don't want to see
Mama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
Mama said, that ain't no way to have fun
Open up the window, let some air into this room
I think I'm almost choking on the smell of stale perfume
And that cigarette you're smoking bout to scare me half to death
Open up the window, let me catch my breath
The radio is blasting, someones beating on the door
Our hostess is not lasting - shes out on the floor
I seen so many things here I ain't never seen before
I don't know what it is - but I don't wanna see no more
Mama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
Mama said, that ain't no way to have fun

The most important exam that most students will face is how they will deal with these realities. Some will suck completely into the darkness around them, some will hide from them, some will be indifferent, and some will learn to function in a healthy way in the midst of them. This last one seems to be a lot of what Jesus was trying to teach people to do as they lived out their days in the world. This is also exactly what Jesus did - he went to the parties, he hung out with the revelers, he asked tax collectors to be his followers, he made friends with drunks. He of course never became any of these things himself, but he didn't seem to have a fear or disgust for them either. He just seemed to accept them as the realities of the world around them and worked as hard as he could to influence them as much as possible - not by avoiding them or condemning their lifestyles, but by creating legitimacy with them by accepting them as full-fledged people worthy of respect and relationship, regardless of his views of the way they lived. Jesus called Zacchaeus, most likely a thief, out of the tree and invited himself to a party at his house. As a result, this selfish tax collector gave up half his wealth to the poor, repaid everyone he had cheated, and dedicated himself to God. It happens. And not just in the Bible.

That's why I'm always excited about the experiences of a new school year, and driving around town and seeing dozens of pickups loaded with boxes and furniture and UHauls trying to find their place. In a week and half, all of that will be happening at the dorms as well. All new experiences await thousands and thousands of new students, and that's just here in Manhattan. I hope we can carry a little bit of that presence of Jesus into these crazy places where "mama told us not to come."

Japan Update - the Last from Tokyo

Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Ohayou gozaimas everyone,

It's Friday night here and as usual, I'm staying up pretty late. I suppose that's what partly qualifies me as a campus minister.

This will probably be the last major update from Tokyo.

Schedule from Here:

Tomorrow is our last working day, which will be followed by church and our farewell party on Sunday, then a little trip on a big metal bird on Monday. Tuesday morning is our endmeeting in Dallas, and we (or, me at least) will be back in Manhattan Tuesday night. But then - off to Colorado for National Campus Ministries Seminar on Thursday morning.

Expect the Unexpected:

We are fully in the mixed up throes of looking forward to coming back but not wanting to say goodbye to the people here either. Reaching the final weeks of a project is always frustrating in a way because it is then that things really start to happen with your readers - people start to truly open up, you are just starting to get to know some of them really well, and you have found your personal groove with the readers, the sessions, and life in general in a foreign land.

Let me tell you about something I learned several years ago but always surprises me when it happens: the Holy Spirit shows up at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. As soon as you think you can control the work or presence of the Spirit, you have lost touch with God. But never fear, that's usually when he shows up and shows you that he's still in control. This happened in a powerful way today with one of my readers who I did not expect to be responsive to spiritual things and it was prompted by a portion of scripture that I usually try to skip past in that particular lesson. I believe a heart was pierced powerfully today - open tears from a Japanese person is pretty unheard of. What's frustrating is that today was our last session. But, I believe God is completely in control of things like this and is going to use the right people and circumstances to help her continue to grow in her budding interest in the things of Jesus. The Christians here are intensely interested in connecting with the readers who are spiritually intrigued.

God has operated in other unexpected ways. I went to the house of one of my readers for lunch on Wednesday and ate with her and her sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law speaks no English, but with my reader as an impromptu translator, I soon found out that she had purchased a Bible some time ago and began reading the Old Testament. Not surprisingly, she soon grew frustrated with her inability to understand many things that she was reading and quit. But she has always remained interested, so we spent a full two hours discussing the stories that she remembered, which led to big questions about the nature and story of God and the place of Jesus. All of this revealed a large interest in the work of Christ in both her and my reader. We scheduled a third session for tomorrow in which both of them are going to come.

So, never think that you can plan or dictate or strategize the presence of God. Just get to work and let him use you in whatever way he decides - whenever he wants to do it. I even experienced this yet again a couple of months ago when I suddenly turned my car around in the middle of Claflin Road in Manhattan to go to the Dusty Bookshelf, where I ended up meeting a guy I am now studying the Bible with. But, I digress. I've said it a million times - the right things happen at the right times. If you let the God take control.

Other Happenings:

Now, back to the goings-on around here. Tomorrow the city of Tachikawa (which is where we are in the prefecture of Tokyo) has a montsrously huge fireworks display that is shot from the nearby municipal park. So, not ever missing an opportunity to get people together, the church here is having a big party on the roof of our building, which is near the park. Now, this is no shoot-some-fancy-fire-into-
the-sky-for-a-few-minutes kind of deal. This fireworks show is going to be over a solid hour. They don't do things halfway here in Tokyo, unless you're talking about the width of the streets. And Tachikawa's show is just one of many just like in all throughout Tokyo in the summer. Now, the real attraction is that all four of us ridiculous American foreigners are going to be wearing traditional summer kimonos (called yukatas).

Last weekend we had the Tachikawa Church's summer family camp. This was an amazing time of camping out in the mountain country west of Tokyo. The mountain scenery was beautiful, the camp was really nice, and we had a lot of great activities that helped us get to know a lot of people in ways that we wouldn't have otherwise (see onsen). We hiked out to a big waterfall on Sunday afternoon and had a massively ginormous BBQ glutton fest on Sunday night - consisting of rounds and rounds of BBQ chicken, vegetables, mushrooms, and yakisoba. Unbelievable.

In Conclusion:

It's getting pretty late so for now I'm going to say, that's all folks. Thank you a million times over for your support, encouragement, and continued prayers for what God is doing here.

If you absolutely have nothing else to waste your time on, check out these photos:

Japan pt. 1
Japan pt. 2
Japan pt. 3
Japan pt. 4
Japan pt. 5
Japan pt. 6
Japan pt. 7
Japan pt. 8
Japan pt. 9
Japan pt. 10
Japan pt. 11

Otsukaresamadesu,

Cary

Japan Update - End of Week Three

Ohayou gozaimas!

I know I'm overdue for an update, which means there is plenty to report on.

http://soonercary.googlepages.com/reading.jpg

Reading Sessions.
Overall, things are going well with the reading sessions. We have continued to maintain a full slate of readers and, with some of them, we are reaching the point in the project where they are opening up more and talking more personally about themselves and their thoughts. We have a handful who have participated in some of the church activities such as the Share Group on Wednesday nights, and a handful who have come to the weekly parties so far. Compared to many other places, reader participation outside of the reading sessions is fairly low though, which seems to be a persistent challenge here. This weekend we will have a family camp with church members and readers in the countryside outside of Tokyo. This will be a good time of relationship building and spiritual focus.

http://soonercary.googlepages.com/fuji.jpghttp://soonercary.googlepages.com/sunrise.jpg
(View from above and the sunrise from our vantage point)

Mt. Fuji.
On Sunday night through Monday afternoon, Heather, Megan, and I, along with one of Megan's readers, climbed Mt. Fuji, which is the tallest mountain in Japan. This was extremely challenging but was a spectacular experience. We tested the limits of physical exhaustion and mental will power, but managed to climb all the way to the summit, witnessing the 4:30am Japanese sunrise near the top.

http://soonercary.googlepages.com/fujigroup.jpghttp://soonercary.googlepages.com/crater.jpg
(The group of us with the sunrise and the crater at the summit)

Mt. Fuji is an old, inactive volcano that stands out on the Japanese skyline, and on a clear day can be seen from Tokyo. The summit is at 12,388 ft. We were driven to the mountain (about a 2 hour drive) on Sunday night, and began climbing at around 11:00pm. There are a series of mountain stations (huts) all the way up, and it is most common to start at the 5th station, at about halfway up. After about 8 hours of intense climbing, we made it to the summit, where we enjoyed the views, got about 30 minutes of sleep, and began the descent.

http://soonercary.googlepages.com/fujiview.jpg
(Love the panorama feature on my camera)

It was an extremely exhausting climb, but proved what is possible through sheer willpower. Climbing Mt. Fuji is an extraordinary experience.

Other Miscellany. Our 11 hour reading days plus Sunday activities keep us occupied and closed in most of the time, so we actually get out only two days per week. But we have managed to have some great experiences - a cruise on Tokyo Bay, the Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, local sushi restaurants, a interesting section of Tokyo called Harajuku, and many others. This Friday we will be having lunch with a group of readers who are all friends with each other. One of them asked Rod if he liked bean paste, so we'll see how that goes! The best part of doing a project like this is that you get to have a much richer experience than just being a tourist. Being involved with local people on the level that we are as LST workers means that we get to see many sides of things that we would have never known had we come here just to do the touristy stuff.

http://soonercary.googlepages.com/scavenger.jpg
(A famous Beatles album cover - a digital scavenger hunt clue)

The parties have been fun. So far we have done a K-State themed party, a digital scavenger hunt, and a Wacky Olympics. Next weekend we will be at camp, and after that we will have a talent show and farewell party for our last day here.

Experiencing Japanese culture, especially as more than just a tourist, is extremely interesting. Like most cultures that are very different than our own, it is fascinating, educational, and sometimes frustrating. Being a complete foreigner is an experience that everyone should have at some point in their life. Especially being a foreigner in a place where you are completely illiterate. Simple shopping at a grocery store becomes a gamble because sometimes you are simply not sure if what you are getting is actually what you want. All of it adds up to having to depend on God all the more. Being in situations like intense reading sessions one after another with all kinds of people all day long, having to climb another mile up rocks in the midst of complete exhaustion, and not being able to understand anyone around you are all things that strip away your independence and leave God there saying "rely on me."


There are many other experiences, stories, and whatnot that I could talk about... our own 4th of July celebration with fireworks provided by a reader, buying yukatas (summer kimonos) at a thrift store, navigating the immense public train and subway system, parties... but please know that everything is going very well and we appreciate your continued prayers. Only two weeks left!

In case you haven't seen them yet, here are quite a few photos:

Japan 2008 - part 1
Japan 2008 - part 2
Japan 2008 - part 3
Japan 2008 - part 4
Japan 2008 - part 5
Japan 2008 - part 6

Thank you for all of your support!

Japan Update - Week two

Saturday, August 09, 2008
Hello everyone,

I know it seems like a long time since the last real update, but we are just now finishing our second full week of work here in Tokyo.

So far, things are continuing to go extremely well. Every day is very busy, as each of us are working with right at about 15 readers each, most of whom come twice per week. We begin each day as a team with a devotional together at 9:00am, and then begin work at 10:00am. Our last reading session ends at 9:00pm, so from Wednesday through Saturday we remain pretty busy all day long. Unless we make a trip to the store, we sometimes don't even make it outside the building much during those days.

Our readers have proven to be a very interesting and diverse people. They range in age from teens to late 60s, their level of English conversation ability varies from beginner to fluent, and their interests and personalities are quite different. We have housewives, young professionals, students, retirees, businessmen, and storeroom workers. Two of my readers who are housewives bring their young children (I work in the children's room of the church so I am stocked with all the cool toys). It is our responsibility to find a way to connect with each one of them, which usually doesn't prove to be difficult because the Japanese are a very courteous and accommodating people, so they generally work to do the same. This being the second week, we are just seeing the beginning of the personal side of some of them. Some will probably open up in a very personal way before the project is over, and other may not.

I have been very impressed with the local church's attempts to connect with readers during our project. We have a weekly Share Group on Wednesday nights that is a group English discussion time that involves the church leaders and some members and as many of our readers as are interested. We also do parties every Sunday and the church members were highly involved in our first one. They also do many little things like make posters of our activities (after our K-State themed party last Sunday, the next day a large poster appeared with photos of K-State and large K-State logos and photos from the party). They also keep fresh flowers on our tables with small scripture cards. There is also a looping video of our last party plus past LST activities. So, it's the little things.

Today I am preaching during church, which will be an experience because preaching through a translator is extremely different than my typical conversational style. It must be completely scripted so it can be translated ahead of time (Japanese translation is difficult). It also means one phrase at a time, then translation. One phrase. Translation. One phrase. Translation. One phrase. Translation.

We have every Monday and Tuesday off. Last Monday we spent a good part of the day in a huge municipal park that is nearby in Tachikawa. This involved walking about 6.5 miles, which was a decent workout. On Tuesday we navigated our way through monorails, trains, and subways, and visited central Tokyo. We got an American fix at Hard Rock Cafe and then saw the sights from Tokyo Tower, which is Tokyo's equivalent (literally) of the Eiffel Tower. We then hopped the subway to the Imperial Palace, which we did not know had already closed for the day. But perhaps the best part of our "weekend" was our visit to a conveyor-style sushi shop where you pick plates of sushi off a conveyor that passes in front of you and pay per plate. Cheap Japanese sushi passing endlessly in front of you is a small miracle of life in itself.

Tomorrow we will be heading out to the Tokyo Bay area to take a short cruise and then visit an old Buddhist Temple. We'll also probably stop at a huge bazaar that is basically a massive tourist souvenir shop. So if you have any requests for touristy junk, make them now.

So, that is pretty much the latest from this side of the world. Please continue to pray for our readers and us as this project progresses. There are signs of hope in some and we want to effective servants in helping people know the power of the story of Christ and what that can really mean for them.

Domo arigato!!

God bless,

Cary

First Week in Tokyo

This and the following several posts will be emails from Japan that never made it to the blog.

___________

Hello everyone,

We are almost at the conclusion of our first full working week in Tokyo (a working being reading sessions all day Wednesday through Saturday, and then church, lunch, and party on Sunday). It is Sunday morning, so we will be having church here and then our first party this afternoon.

So far things have been going extremely well. We have almost a full slate of readers, the sessions have begun well, our accommodations are very nice, and the local Christians have been wonderful. We are truly not wanting for anything right now. I'm even typing this out on my laptop connected to the wireless internet that flows throughout our modern church building.

Some of you may have seen my previous blog post, but I will include the link below for everyone else. As always, you can keep tabs at soonercary.blogspot.com to catch things that I may not include in emails, and vice versa.

Also, here are photo albums:

Japan Part 1
Japan Part 2

Please continue to pray for our readers. The first week is all about breaking the ice and establishing good rapport on an individual level. Next week we will begin diving into the reading and conversation out of the book of Luke. Please pray that the stories touch hearts and that God can truly be seen in us. Being Asia, Christianity has not even played a nominal role in any part of the culture so even the basics of the stories and people of the faith are often totally unheard of among many. But, this is often a very good thing in that reading the stories of Christ is a completely fresh activity for many - no preconceptions.

We will spend Monday and Tuesday beginning our exploration of Tokyo itself. There will truly be no shortage of things to do here in this metropolis of 12 million!

Thank you for your continued support, it means everything. Also, for those of you who know David Freeze, please be praying for him as he and the team venture into the bush in Kenya.

God bless,

Cary

Honey I'm home

Sunday, August 03, 2008
Okay, well I figured something would fall through the cracks and sure enough it ended up being the blog. I'm home now for good after six weeks of adventure and intrigue in both Japan and Colorado, and managed to communicate halfway well during that time, except for the blog.

So, sometime here pretty soon I'll post the email updates I sent out while in Japan so that those of you not on my list can get a taste of the experience.

Also, I just rolled in from Denver from my eighth National Campus Ministries Seminar, which I headed off to last Thursday morning after arriving from Japan on Tuesday night. Yowza!

But is has been an amazing half a dozen weeks. Absolutely incredible, from start to finish. Now begins a massive amount of catch up work to get ready for the fall semester. Here we go...!!!!!