Great Pursuit

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle | Blog Archive » Federal Way Campus Launch 2nd Informational Meeting

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle | Blog Archive » Federal Way Campus Launch 2nd Informational Meeting

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Friday, May 15, 2009

The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter published in early 1963 influenced the author.

Does current American pop culture encourage or discourage having room for contemplation or logic in daily life?

"An intellectual in some sense lives for ideas – which means he has a sense of dedication to the life of the mind which is very much like a religious commitment." (Hofstadter)

How interesting is it to observe Jacoby using the biblical narrative as a symbolism of the current temptation and the ensuing degeneration of intellectual America when she says, "This condition is aggressively promoted by everyone, from politicians to media executives, whose livelihood depends on a public that derives its opinions form sound bites and blogs, and it is passively accepted by a public in thrall to the serpent promising effortless enjoyment from the fruit of the tree of infotainment."

Cicero, Bacon, and Locke are still the product of their cultures and should not be seen as the standard that needs no evidence for the formulations of their thoughts.

I think Jacoby is correct when she identifies Social Darwinism in America as the ideological fixations that are impervious to evidence that permeates many ideologies in our current age of unreason when she notes, "The new pseudoscience of social Darwinism, like the ancient pseudoscience of astrology and alchemy, used scientific language to mask an essentially unscientific essence."

If social Darwinism is perceived as "pseudoscience," by Jacoby, what would a true or formal science look like?

Would the natural science, which is the child of the Enlightenment, become a formal or legitimate science?

According to Hofstadter's definition or understanding of an intellectual, what lies at the heart of science or intellectualism that makes science its canon, is a religious commitment that is not far from the commitment made by those who regard the Bible as their canon.

In fact, if correctly understood, the Bible has a plenty of room for science while science held by intellectuals do not have much room for the revelation.

There is really no essential difference between the quality of the moment of "Eureka" or moment of discoveries by scientists and those who come to know the truth through the conviction by the Holy Spirit. Both are the experiences and moments of "revelation." The former is general or natural in its nature and its main agent called "reason" and the latter is special and supernatural and its main agent is called "Holy Spirit."

I empathize with Jacoby with her lament over the American unreason, but I agonize over her elevation of reason as the height from which the American culture had fallen from.

Jacoby concludes, "Regardless of political reversals of position, two critical ingredients of American anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism have remained largely unchanged since the 1890s. The first is the belief of a significant minority of Americans that intellectualism and secular higher learning are implacable enemies of their faith. The second is the toxin of pseudoscience, which Americans on both the left and the right continue to imbibe as a means of rendering their social theories impervious to evidence-based challenges." (p. 81)

"A big part of the problem is that we, as a people, have become too lazy to learn what we need to know to make sound public decisions." (p. 309)

"It is possible that nothing will help. The nation's memory and attention span may already have sustained so much damage that they cannot be revived by the best efforts of America's best minds."

'It starts with YOU!' seems to be conclusion Jacoby wants her readers to realize as she quotes Emerson, "…Is it not the chief disgrace in the world, not to be a unit; - not to be reckoned one character; - not to yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear, but to be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand… Not so, brothers and friends – please God, ours shall not be so." (p. 317)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Great Expectations

I remember my first flight headed to Los Angeles, CA three days after Christmas 22 years ago. I was overwhelmed with thoughts of living in a different country and culture with feelings of uncertainty about the future.

I was not alone. My father who left his home in North Korea at the age of 18 was sitting right next to me. It was my father who decided to leave his home again after forty years. This time, it was not North to South, but East to West. My father decided to move his family from one continent to another and from one culture to another.

How did he do this? I believe that his favorite hymn provides an answer to that question.

"I Need Thee Every Hour" words by Annie Hawks and music by Robert Lowry

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;

Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;

Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour, teach me Thy will;

And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

Refrain:

I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee;

O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

I believe that my father now 80 years old expects his Savior to bless him every time he comes to Jesus.

With only a few days before the 1^st Federal Way Campus Launch meeting, feelings of anxiety and uncertainty about what lies ahead remind me of my first flight to the US. As we expect possible departures from familiar faces and places, let us come to Jesus for his peace, his strength, his joy, and his fulfillment of our expectations in us and in the new campus.

Do you need Jesus every hour?

Monday, April 27, 2009

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle | Blog Archive » Mars Hill Church | Federal Way Launch

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle | Blog Archive » Mars Hill Church | Federal Way Launch

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Gospel Coalition Audio and Videos

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/conferences/2009#t=schedule

Friday, April 17, 2009

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle » Federal Way Campus Launch Information

Mars Hill Church | West Seattle » Federal Way Campus Launch Information

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

CAMPONTHIS: MARK DRISCOLL ON ABC NIGHTLINE FACE-OFF
...bringing Mars Hill Church to Mars Hill

CAMPONTHIS: MARK DRISCOLL ON ABC NIGHTLINE FACE-OFF<br>...bringing Mars Hill Church to Mars Hill

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The New Calvinism and Recyling Suburbs

The Times magazine's helpful social observations.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884760,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884756,00.html