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Scott Weber
Kurt Cobain died about 8 years ago. I remember the day I picked up the newspaper and read about it. He was the founder and lead singer of the rock group "Nirvana." His death was a suicide. He took a shotgun, pointed it to his head, and killed himself. The newspaper was filled with the words of fans and commentators in disbelief saying "Why? It makes no sense." "He had it all . . . a great career, a huge following, plenty of money, a wife and a 19 month old daughter . . . Why?" To most people it made no sense. But I remember sitting at my desk thinking. "Yes it does. It makes sense. Kurt Cobain was living out his beliefs to their logical extreme." You see, Kurt Cobain was a self professed humanist and nihilist. In other words, he believed their was no God and that there was no meaning or purpose to life. His music (poetry) could not be more clear on this matter.
Kurt Cobain’s music was grunge rock. He pioneered this type of music. The alternative rock style of today has evolved from grunge rock. Kurt had a disdain for anything mainstream or acceptable to society. He was a child of divorce. At the age of eight he began to be shifted from home to home, sometimes even being homeless. He was very vocal about his bitterness from that experience. He developed his belief that life was basically rotten and meaningless.
His music often spoke of his anger and disillusionment. One of his most famous songs was called "Nevermind." Its recurring line was "Oh well, whatever, nevermind." Another song he wrote never got released. It was too objectionable to the label company, but Kurt liked it. It was called, "I Hate Myself, And I Want To Die." In another song called "Smells Like Teen Spirit," a well known line says, "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are, now entertain us." The video of that song was voted best video of the decade of the 90’s.
Friends of Cobain say he lived up to his music. He often acted without reason. He was constantly on an emotional roller coaster. But his dips into despair got deeper and deeper. Once, a member of his road crew asked him why he was moping around so much. Cobain replied, "I’m awake, aren’t I?" Kurt Cobain was a young man fueled by nihilism. He had passion, but for nothing. He had a void in his heart that nothing he pursued could fill, and he believed that nothing could or ever would. He had no purpose, no meaning, and he simply lived out his belief in his worldview to its logical conclusion.
He reminds me of another man. Solomon. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes of pursuing all of the things the world has to offer. He also wrote of the despair they brought him. They offered no meaning. Solomon, however, concluded differently than Kurt Cobain. He concluded that purpose and meaning were found in the living God. Only be knowing and serving Him could you rise above the level of despair. And there is even better news than that. Now, God has declared through His Son how much He loves us, and that He wants to spend eternity with us.
"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty."
TV viewing in USA and UK. TV Viewing average in America is 4 hours a day, 2 full months a year, 60% while eating dinner, more TV each year than spent at school. They watch 200, 000 acts of violence, they watch 16,000 murders by the time their 18. ( source national statistics)
And if you think were any better in the UK the average male watches 3hours a day the average female watches 2.15 hours of TV a day what is alarming that some children watch up to 5 hours of TV a day. Nobody is in a position of saying that you’re just indoctrinated by the Bible and that somehow you are neutral and impartial. For we are all indoctrinated the question is by what? ( Get two pairs of glasses: worldviews)
PASSING THE TORCH: LESSONS FROM CASTRO
In August, President Fidel Castro celebrated his 75th birthday. The
Cuban dictator came to power in 1959, after overthrowing former
dictator, Fulgencio Batista.
On the eve of his birthday, Castro made a powerful gesture. He publicly handed a Cuban flag to the head of Cuba’s communist youth organization. This was more than a photo op. The flag represented A "shining torch" to light the way of communism into the future.
Lucia Newman of CNN’s Havana bureau wrote, "Castro was metaphorically
enacting what he calls his most powerful dream -- that Cuba’s younger
generations take over from him once he’s gone to keep his revolution
alive."
The aging Castro knows that in order to keep his regime alive, he must
pass the torch of communism to the next generation. He knows that if he fails to teach Cuba’s children the communist worldview, his revolution will eventually die out. So Castro has been training his country’s children to pick up the torch of communism and carry it into the future.
We wince at the thought of a strong new generation of young people
working to keep communism in Cuba after Castro’s gone. We’ve seen the
sad results of communism in that country and in other parts of the
world. And yet we can learn something important from Castro’s symbolic
gesture. We can learn that torch- passing is essential for us as
Christians if we are to keep Christianity and a Christian worldview
alive for future generations.
The torch of Christianity shines in the world today because of our
dedicated elders -- parents, grandparents, pastors, theologians,
teachers, youth leaders -- who taught Christian doctrine and Christian
practice to this generation. Now we must be careful to do the same, to
continue the work. Author Tim Kimmel writes, "Faith is the foundation of our legacy. It enables us to give one of the most significant gifts of all to our children."
This, however, goes beyond teaching our children Bible stories and right doctrine. We must teach them to think. The world is an increasingly complex place. We face questions in bioethics -- and now terrorism -- entertainment, career, and sexuality, to name only a few, that could not have been imagined a generation ago. What will today’s infants or teenagers face when they’re our age? If we merely teach them what to think about today’s issues, we will not effectively prepare them to creatively think about tomorrow’s. They need to learn first how to think -- specifically, how to think biblically about a...
Another result is that we pervert our assignment to care for the earth. Humans have misunderstood the use of having dominion over the earth as a license to do what we want with the earth. After all, since it is all going to be incinerated (rather than purified by a refiner’s fire), then let’s use it all up before the end.
Instead of a dualistic worldview, we need to have a holistic worldview. The environment is a spiritual issue. There are issues of justice. My abuse and neglect of my environment has huge negative consequences for my neighbor not just down the street but around the world. My waste shows that I don’t really care for what is right. I don’t care about what is the Lord’s. I don’t really love my neighbor.
Spiritual Values in Collegians A UCLA study found college juniors are more likely to be engaged in a spiritual quest compared to when they first entered college as freshmen. The study showed 41.2% of freshmen in ’04 reported they considered developing a meaningful philosophy of life “very important” or “essential.” 3 years later in ’07, 55.4% agreed. 48.7% of freshmen in ’04 said “attaining inner harmony” is “very important” or “essential.” This jumped to 62.6% by ’07. This suggests college is influencing students in positive ways that will better prepare them for leadership roles in our global society. The rise in spirituality also comes as more students feel depressed, overwhelmed by everything they have to do, and feel that their college life is filled with stress and anxiety. The study found growth over the 3 years in spiritual values, such as integrating spirituality into their lives and becoming more loving person.s Also, more juniors reported wanting to reduce pain and suffering in the world, being thankful for all that has happened to them, and higher levels of ecumenical worldview. As juniors they are more likely to agree that “non-religious people can lead lives that are just as moral as those of religious believers.” Despite the rise in spirituality, college students are not making it to religious services. While 38.6% attend services less frequently, only 7% increase their frequency after entering college. Attendance drops from 43.7% in high school to 25.4% in college, and the rate of non-attendance nearly doubles. (Christian Post 12/20/07)
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THE CHURCH?
Relevant Magazine, in their May-June 2008 issue, asked a bunch of church leaders this question: "Faith: What is the biggest problem facing the church today?" Here are some of their response from pages 73, 74:
a. Shane Claiborne: "One of the most dangerous things in the Church today is the prosperity gospel that God has come to bless you and to give you health and wealth. The Christian experience becomes just about what you can get."
b. Nancy Ortberg: "We don't believe God. We don't believe the vision of God. We don't believe who he is. We don't believe that he's good. Were not captivated by that vision..."
c. N.T. Wright: "I think it has to do with relearning the issue of how to think...The Bible still waits there as this wonderful, huge, enormously energizing, complex book, which actually has the robustness and the suppleness to carry us forward into the new place we should be."
d. Chuck Colson: "We have substituted therapy for Truth. We hear a feel-good message, and we've lost our understanding of the basic truths of Christianity...but live out our faith in such a way that people can see the invisible Kingdom made visible in our midst."
e. Brian McLaren: "I think the biggest problem of the Church in America is that we've lost our way. We've gotten comfortable carrying on a version of Christianity that has drifted farther and farther from what God intends."
f. Steve Brown: "I think (the biggest problem) might be self-righteousness. What to do about it? Repent, publicly and often."
g. Cindy Jacobs: "We need to get back to a biblical worldview."
Charles Colson writes in his book, How Shall We Live, the solution to the modern day identity crisis of the American Christian. "How do we redeem a culture? How do we rise to the opportunity before us at the start of a new millennium? The answer is simple: from the inside out. From the individual to the family to the community, and then outward in ever widening ripples. We must begin by understanding what it means to live by Christian worldview principles in our own behavior and choices. Un...
OS GUINNESS ON A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
Os Guinness says that a Christian worldview involves believers thinking about anything and everything in a manner that is consistently shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God's Word and God's Spirit. Such a Christian worldview encompasses core issues and answers such questions as
* Who am I?
* Where did I come from?
* What is the purpose of my life?
* Where am I going?
* As to the universe, where did it come from?
* Is there a Creator, or are we the products of blind chance?
* Is there any grand theme to history and human life?
* If there is a Creator, what, if anything, does He expect of me?
Source: Os Guinness, Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think And What To Do About It. From a sermon by Ken Pell, "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste" 7/13/08, SermonCentral.com)
3-D THEOLOGY
When people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins claim that they can prove that God doesn’t exist, they are making an arrogant mistake. Pardon me while I draw an example from modern animation. When I was a child, the most glorious cartoons were 2-dimensional animations where thousands of painted cels were photographed and shown in rapid succession. Today, children who are used to the 3D graphics of Cars, Shrek, and the like have less appreciation for the 2D art of previous generations. Oh, there is still room for 2D animation on television for budgetary reasons, but motion picture animation is clearly dominated by 3D work. Why would anyone want to go back?
Yet, when we consider God’s presence in eternity compared with our existence in finite limitation, why would God want to conform His revelation to the 2D, if you will, standards of finite limitation, when He can animate all of reality in the 3D splendor of the eternal. Yet, these foes of the gospel demand that we present our theology in the 2D of their limited worldview in order to convince them of a 3D world that they automatically exclude.
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