Remonstrancean expression of protest

I wish I understood this at the beginning of my ministry instead of the end: I think my ability to see things (and my dismal ability to communicate things) would’ve benefited tremendously.

And it isn’t all that complicated.

In a sentence, it’s this: all our perceived American freedoms come only because we’re rich and powerful, like Roman aristocracy. That’s all.

It’s not terribly profound I’m sure, but it’s quite disorienting for me because I always believed our freedoms came from the Bill of Rights and because America was the world’s first modern democracy. This was the standard doctrine taught by the WWII generation to their kids, and my parents were fiercely patriotic like the rest of their generation. Their views were shaped by the terrible wars they fought against dictators in Germany and Japan, and all the Public Service Announcements, the education system, the churches, and even Saturday morning cartoons taught this doctrine: “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” was the slogan for Superman, as I recall. And Superman was — well, Superman.

But I’ve always been uncomfortable with this American legend because its power rested with “the god of this world,” I could see that much: guns, tanks, stockpiles of nerve gas, and the H-Bomb all made it possible. America really wasn’t a Christian nation, nor was it based on anything Christian that I could see, despite the hype that America’s “founding fathers” were Christians (there were a few, but not many), and the mistaken notion that all our freedoms were based in the Bible.

This popular view ignored the historical facts: democracy was a Greek invention, not Judeao-Christian, so where’s the Bible in that story? The Constitution and Bill of Rights were the direct descendants of the Magna Charta and British politics, not the Bible. Robin Hood played a bigger role than Jesus Christ in that story. The New Testament church actually reads more like Communism in its ideal form, not democracy (see Acts 2:4sff; Eph. 4:1; Phil. 2:1-10); and the Old Testament reads more like a Theocracy–a monarchy–not a democracy.

Incredibly, it was The West Wing that helped clarify the issue for me. The Chinese ambassador tells the White House Chief-of-Staff:

You have always taught us that ‘liberty’ is the same thing as capitolism: that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be crush by greed. Your American Dream is financial, not ethical.

Bippo, bango, there it is: any freedoms we enjoy are certainly the product of wealth and power, not anything moral or spiritual. That’s why a rich guy can murder a poor guy and draw only a month’s jailtime (like the Cleveland Browns player who committed manslaughter while drunk). If you have money, you have “freedom”, if you want to call it that.

I think the better term is power, not freedom.

Judge for yourselves…

That’s what it sounds like these days if a kid gets too excited about Jesus Christ: “You’re in a Cult!”

I first encountered this when I started a Bible study with Kyle, my 7th-grade son, and Sean, my handicapped, 8th-grade son. It was a circus, or what some would call a “Cult”.

“Wonder” was my co-leader (Neil Wonderchuck), with a bare-breasted woman tattooed on his arm (very nice boobs!), and he always wore wife-beaters to show it off. Not quite two years old in Christ, “Wonder” soon took a Sabbatical to study “The Attraction of Canine Regurgitation Habits in North America”, or some nonsense.¹  But we did start a Bible study with a motley crew of Jeff, Steve, Tom and BK. The kids were mostly interested in hanging out at the Black Wolfe pool hall after a brief Bible study.

Some new kid came one night, and we were entering the pool hall when his mom came peeling into the parking lot and shouted through her car window: “Get in!”

I motioned to Wonder to cover that tattoo, then went to introduce myself, but she was too angry. Her son told her he was going the pool hall, not a Bible study! When she found out about the Bible study somehow, she went ballistic.

I explained that we always told the kids to make it clear it was a Bible study, not a pool hall event. But we only studied the Bible about 30 minutes (they couldn’t handle more), and it was a good thing to that gave kids a chance to hear about the Bible. It was an informal thing, just a few friends getting together, I told her.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, putting the car in reverse. “We’ve already had one cult in this area, and we’re not going through that again!” She drove away with her son sulking in the back seat.

I was stunned: pool halls are OK, but not a Bible study?

Did she know what teenage boys usually do at pool halls? Yes she did, because the community was up-in-arms over the Black Wolfe—it was a great place for sex, drugs and fights. The Stow police raided the place occasionally, and the owners complained of being harassed. But this mom was OK with it, not only because she told me, but her boy often loitered around the place.

Cult-Terror

If you start a new Bible study, people think it’s a cult. I realize that, and I know it’s scary especially for parents.

For decades we’ve been exposed to all sorts of Cult-legends like Jim Jones, the Moonies, Children of God, David Koresh, the Japanese Serin-Gas Cult, and that crazy Star Trek cult of suicides.

But I wonder, does anyone know how widespread this Cult-thing is? That mother claimed Stow already suffered from one Cult and didn’t need two. I can’t find anyone who remembers our predecessor.

When a couple kids started spreading macabre stories about our Cult-like-ways, the whole city was in an uproar. The Mayor, police, high school, high school security officers, a local church, parents, and even the Akron Beacon-Journal joined in to give us front page coverage. The stories includedD

1. Sexual molestation on camping weekends,
2. Midnight rituals at local graveyards,
3. Sneaking kids out of homes at night,
4. Teaching kids to shoplift,
5. Harassment if anyone left the cult… (Oddly, the stories about Xenos harassment contradict the stories about Xenos “snubbers” and “shunners” but nobody notices it—all the stories are true!)

It’s a Cult-Terrified cult-ure today. More precisely, it’s a Christian-alienated culture.

So why start a new Bible study if it causes all this grief? Why not just work with a more-established Christian group and quit playing the “outsider” role?

Over The Edge

The real problem is the isolation of Christian groups today. Stow high school has about 2,500 students, and no Christian Bible study. The Mayor claimed Atheletes-in-Action were working there and said they were doing a fine job, so why does Xenos need to start something? Nobody heard of this group. It must have been a decade ago, or longer.

But there was a Christian Group called “On the Edge” or something like that working at the high school when we first moved there. They didn’t have a junior high group, so we started one. But I took Kyle and a few kids to their meeting once, and it was an eye-opener for my innocent and naive boys who weren’t raised with the Institutional Church model.

There were about 10 high school kids there, and they began with 45 minutes of singing Christian songs! Both Kyle and Sean hate singing (unless it’s Nirvana), so I was curious how they’d handle it. Sean just sat back and did nothing. Kyle was creative: he leaned forward, focused on the Powerpoint projection, and pretended he was trying hard to “get it” and understand the words. But he never sang one note.

Then the leader chewed-out the kids for another half-hour for being half-assed, uncommitted Christians, and he cited the case of a Stow kid who recently committed suicide. If these Christian kids hadn’t been so selfish, maybe that kid would still be alive! But they never tried reaching out to him, so he’s dead now. That’s just great.

I was raised in the Institutional Church, so I’m not weirded-out by it like Kyle is. But I couldn’t wait to get out of there, and Kyle was leading the way, as soon as possible.

So “On the Edge” went “Over the Edge” and dissolved soon thereafter, of course. Apparently they never figured out the kids weren’t reaching non-Christians simply because they didn’t want to bring their friends to such a goof-ball thing.

Let’s Start a Cult

We always get dinged as a “cult” because we’re reaching non-Christians. It’s that simple. We’re exposed to the secular world, which isn’t familiar with Christian groups working among non-Christians. Churches just don’t do that anymore, so that means we must be a cult; we don’t act “normal” (in many ways, including booby-tattoos).

More significant, we can’t find any churches across the nation with such a high percentage of un-churched attending. It’s around 80% here.

It means growing a church from scratch. (Is it really so bad to have a new church start in the area?) But non-Christians and people alienated from their Christian backgrounds (a growing population) simply won’t tolerate the crazy, silly singing thing called a Worship Service. A group largely composed of church-hoppers will embrace the traditional Worship Service. Christians demand the Worship Service even if it means alienating non-Christians.

But the Worship Service isn’t even biblical! Read what Joel Hughes wrote about it (see “Why don’t we sing?”).

Since “the new group” is always a Cult—as everyone knows—and since we’re reaching non-Christians, we will be a “Cult”. The non-Christian crowd is like the beer-hall or pool-hall crowd (figuratively-speaking). They’re crude, rude, and socially-unacceptable in Christian circles. They also take Sabbaticals to study “Canine Regurgitation”, and that causes more problems.

So let’s start a “Cult”, I say. It ain’t so bad, even with all the headaches. It’s at least better than going “Over the Edge”.

1. A reference to 2 Peter 2:22 [↩]

I promised to reveal the hidden agenda behind the persistent “Xenos Cult” rumors, and this time I will deliver.

It’s really not-so-hidden, and it’s really quite simple: read about it at RevolutionaryJoy.org.

We foment Revolution!

It’s a big no-no when Christians show some energy and have a good time.

Christianity is supposed to be the “Opiate of the Masses,” according to Karl Marx. People like Marx want Christians to be docile. They want us to be wimpy and weak so they can whip it and whip it good, as Devo put it.

People like Marx lie about Christians because they fear the freedom that real Christianity brings to people, and I can prove it: Marx and his followers actually wanted to seize power and setup a “dictatorship of the Proletariat,” as they called it. Marx advocated dictatorship. If the Communists really believed Christianity was an opiate, why were they so afraid of it? Why kill millions of Christians? Christianity would help opiate the population and help setup a Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Marx lied about Christians, and he knew it. The Communists knew Christians were free-thinking, freedom-loving, noble and very formidable obstacles to their ambitions. The Communists wanted to control people’s minds. They censor free speech wherever they setup shop, don’t they?

That’s why I say: don’t drink the Kool-Aid.¹

It’s a great badge of honor for Christians when mind-controllers like Communists hate them—what an insult if Marx love Christians!

This is precisely the point Jesus made to his followers:

The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. John 15:19 (NLT)

Jesus was right: without exception anti-Chrisian atheists must resort to lies and alarmist slander in order to attack Christians. Since they can’t find a real issue, they create issues.

Richard Dawkins is another one who loves to hate Christians. He claims to be an equal-opportunity hater of all religions, but gives only token attention to other religions. He had a bad experience with a Christian church when he was young, and it made him bitter for a lifetime.

He learned how to convert his bitterness into a lucrative anti-Christian industry by defining Christian beliefs in the most ignorant and superstitious way possible, then attacking it. As he defines it, the job is easy.

But Dawkins knows he’s only attacking Dawkins-Christianity, not the real thing. Lennox pounded him on this point, leaving Dawkins toothless and stammering. But Dawkins persists in attacking “Blind Faith” Christianity, even though he knows the Bible deplores and rejects “Blind Faith”.

The Cult Myth

Christians are supposed to be lame and tame, according to the modern myth. American culture created a stereotype for us, and when Christians break the mold, the culture simply can’t process us: “It must be a cult!”

Does anyone know what “cult” means?

The term was hijacked by pop-culture. Christians were using “cult” to designate groups that don’t actually teach Christianity, yet still call themselves Christian. Any group which lies is obviously not very nice. “Cult” designated Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists, Universalists and others who claimed to be Christian when their teachings were antithetical to Christianity.

Since Jonestown—which truly was a “cult” as Christians defined it—they’ve been using “cult” against Christians who are actually Christian. Even the most-vile attacks levied against Xenos never once claimed we taught anything but sound, biblical Christianity, so we would never qualify as a “cult” by the Christian use of the term.

The ones leading the charge against Xenos do it for personal gain, like Karl Marx. This has been proven time and again, and it’s the #1 reason why Web posts are done anonymously, citing vague, emotionally-charged rhetoric. Communists did that all the time against Christians, as we all know.

Christian leaders across the nation consider Xenos a model Christian group, but we still get attacked. We’ve been investigated and cleared dozens of times, but the Cult Myth is so emotionally-charged, it’s an easy and uneducated way to slam someone these days. So it will continue as long as it is such an effective slur-word.

By the way, has anyone figured out how Xenos could be such a great source of Bible teachings, yet still be all screwed-up? Even our detractors say Xenos has great teachings. Does it mean we’re hypocrites even as we teach the Bible, and we know it, and the audience knows it? Do we all wink at each other knowingly? How do we get away with teaching sound doctrine while practicing such an unsound faith?

“Cult” is like a racial slur: it’s a scare-word, that’s all. And Christians shouldn’t be scared of it.

Puppetry

Christians allow the culture to control them, you know.

Christian history is a long, tragic story of Christians kissing butt on their culture, beginning with the Roman Empire. (How could they allow a pagan like Emperor Constantine to take leadership of Christianity? What were they thinking?) Then came Greek Christianity, Russian Christianity, German, French and Spanish Christianity…the Spanish tacked the “Spanish Inquisition” on our name, thank you very much! (The Spanish monarchy wanted to get rid of foreigners.) We can’t ignore my all-time favorite: English Christianity, enforced by the armies of King Henry VIII so he could murder his many wives! (Is Henry really part of our heritage? Not mine! I’m Scottish.)

Dawkins & Co. want Christians to defend “Christian history” when it’s really “European monarch history”, and he’s educated enough to know the difference is real. He’s lying.

Do we really have to defend every power-monger who puts on a Christian name-tag? We let people like Dawkins push us into a defensive posture, while Dawkins gets rich from it.

Especially when loyalties get confused, we allow the culture to hijack our faith far too easily. Christians in America who are attracted by its wealth and prosperity are far too willing to fit inside the little box we’re supposed to fit in.

Little Christian Boxes

Here’s the rules of the Little Christian Box in America:

1. Spend all your money building impressive buildings to meet in, just like the ones IBM or Microsoft build. (Christians should imitate Microsoft?)
2. Mark the Little Christian Box with an expensive steeple and other weird symbols (the Nazis made Jews wear tags, and America expects Christians to tag themselves too).
3. Go in your box away from everyone during a time-slot that nobody else wants. (Who gets up early on Sunday morning except Christians?)
4. Don’t meet more than once a week, and not for more than an hour.
5. Stand forever singing songs, chanting, kneeling, and other Medieval exercises which guarantee only Christians will attend the Little Box-Meeting.
6. Belong to an official Christian institution called a denomination. (Christians are questioning this rule more today–finally!)

Following the rules above, Christians receive the “Good Christian Seal” of approval in America. But Christian rule-breakers are trouble-makers, and probably a Cult.

Like I say: Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

Xenos breaks the mold of what Christianity should be, as defined in modern myth. I’ll explain why we’re different, and why we must break the mold next time.

1. With apologies to the Meeting House, who first coined the term “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” in this fashion. [↩]

(This is Part 2 of the Xenos-Cult Controversy – read Part 1 here.)

Ok, I promised to reveal the secret “insider information” that explains the Xenos-Cult controversy, since it keeps burbling in the background…

But first! Consider some other ways to explain the Xenos-Cult phenomena.

Strict Doctrines?

I ran across this “Church Discipline” Web site where the owner/moderator is trying his best to figure it out. He’s a critical thinker, and objective, but he’s working in the dark without any firsthand experience with Xenos. He ran into some bizarre stories which led him to research Xenos, and he initially finds Xenos has “a rather strict doctrine on right and wrong,” and then says:

[Xenos] publishes on its website heavily on the issue of church discipline. They make use of shunning and excommunication and are fairly strict for a mega-church. (Source: CD-Host, Breaking Away Case Study)

Naturally, I’m surprised that Xenos “publishes heavily on church discipline,” so I lookup the links he gives: one is from the Christian Principles Class (CPC), and the other is a policy paper on leadership and authority. Although he reached a more positive conclusion later (in Part 1), I just couldn’t believe Xenos was starting to get “strict” …

“CD-Host” probably didn’t realize the CPC handout is one of hundreds given to leaders-in-training enrolled in those courses, so it’s a rather miniscule part of the coursework (maybe 1%). The paper simply reviews what the Bible says about church discipline. (If a church can’t even study the Bible’s view of church discipline for 1% of its leadership training without being too “strict” these days, what’s happening with Christianity?)

The “Leadership and Authority” paper also is a rather minor blip on the fat Xenos.org Web of hundreds (?) of gigs. It addresses a specific problem in a specific ministry (students), which seems like a responsible way to prevent abuse. But the paper contains some ominous-sounding language which I think raises some concerns:

The elders have reviewed the paper, and have affirmed these findings as accurately reflecting Xenos policy. This paper can be freely disseminated as members see fit. (Source:  on leadership and authority, Xenos Web.)

It reads like a dictum of monumental portent (i.e. important): they “affirmed these findings,” so judgment was pronounced with solemn consideration, to be “disseminated as members see fit.” I glanced askance and immediately recognized the ugly, mismatched colors used on the Web page: it was the work of my colorblind brother, Dennis.

As his wiser-but-younger-brother, I know Den is a pretty nice feller lots of the time, but he’s also rather humorless (Den got all the brains, and I got all the fun-loving traits). Den gets all portentous sometimes when he’s alone in the office, late at night (with his little pet: a 30-year-old turtle he takes out of the aquarium occasionally to exercise across his desk).

And then I understand why CD said Xenos sounds “rather strict” – Den needs to revisit that page in the daylight when he isn’t alone with his turtle, and lighten up a little!

Hello, Den? You listening?

Actually, we get in trouble at Xenos with other churches because we’re too damn loose! Xenoids will cuss, drink, party, go to bars (even raves!), dance, smoke, and carry-on like heathens sometimes—they don’t seem strict in the least.¹  Now that I’m 50+ years old, it’s a little embarrassing when they act that way, and I catch myself chiding them, “Now children, settle down there…” (They laugh.)

But I think CD could easily get the “strictness” impression from Den’s paper—I would say on Den’s behalf, if you consider 30 years of publishing, that paper seems fairly insignificant. The overwhelming repository of Bible teachings are focused on a very unusual (and refreshing) emphasis on God’s grace and forgiveness at Xenos. You’ll find Xenos isn’t rule-driven at all, and instead teaches a love-oriented, principle-driven ethic which isn’t so black-and-white.

Read all about Love Ethics, which I’ve been publishing over at the NeoZine, and especially Building a Love Ethic which demonstrates a very non-strict ethic operative at Xenos, I think.

Shunning?

CD used the term “shunning” to describe church discipline. I laughed, because I pictured the Amish ritual where everyone turns their backs on someone they kick out.

But now I see the term is now applied to any “excommunication” by various religions, and I’m a little surprised by that: it was a spooky ritual once. But as I read the Wikipedia article, I’m amazed at how the Postmodern world gets away with putting all religions in the same basket.

The original practice of Shunning – and the term still carries that taint – arises from an irrational fear of the real world (i.e. modern world) by separatists and cultish-groups. I wouldn’t want to be called a “Shunner” by anyone—it means you’re close-minded, scared, uptight, and very coercive.

Why does the U.S. Constitution guarantee the right to “Shun” then? It’s the First Amendment—it gives right to practice “Freedom of association” as you see fit. The freedom to associate means “I prefer this group, not that group.” It means groups have the right to determine their own distinctive character, without harassment.

Why are religious groups singled-out as “Shunners”, but not the Democrats and Republicans? You can’t join both parties, you know, they won’t let you—Republicans can’t infiltrate Democrat headquarters (except at night, with White House approval, of course!).

I’ve seen lots of people get kicked out of bars over the years—far more roughly and hurtful than anything I’ve seen at Xenos! Why doesn’t someone open a blog about Bar-Discipline?

I’m being facetious, of course, but the point is obvious: When someone is disturbing the peace, Xenos like any other group on the planet has the right to take steps to ensure the peace and safety of the assembly. When someone wants to redefine your group, they should leave peacefully and go start their own group somewhere.

Secular culture has no room to criticize church discipline—from Xenos or anyone, even cults! The violent rejection practiced across the world makes almost any Christian discipline look like child’s play.

Here’s an example of church discipline at Xenos:

I have seen Xenos discipline first hand. We had a married lady in our group who was cheating on her husband. She was open about it but refused to stop. She was asked to leave the group. (From the Church Discipline Web site.)

But Shunning? I know I’m not afraid to see, talk with, greet, or whatever with anyone who got “kicked out”—I’ll ask them if they’ve resolved their “issue” maybe, I’ll ask how it’s going, but I won’t be an idiot and pretend there’s no reason for our broken fellowship. There are significant differences which make it impossible to resume the “old association” and all the trust and shared worlds we once enjoyed.

Well, it happens: people go their separate ways. Is this bad?

What’s bad is when someone wants to go their “separate way” and also demand that everyone else go that way too! That’s when we peacefully, lovingly, gently and patiently start exercising excommunication (in stages, of course, with lots of warnings) as the Bible instructs us—it’s actually beneficial for the person who wants to leave to quit causing trouble and move on.

(And let’s be clear: it’s not an everyday occurrence—not hardly! In the past 15 years at NeoXenos, we’ve excommunicated, I think, two people.)

Mind Control?

This is one of my favorites, because it’s the Big One. You can really scare people with the “Mind Control” or “Brainwashing” scheme.

It’s also a great way to trash whatever defense we might offer: “You’re talking like someone else is controlling you,” so there’s no need to listen or dialog rationally (nobody can reason with The Brainwashed, after all).

Plus, we all love a good conspiracy, don’t we? Fox “Spooky” Mulder and Scully have been cashing-in on our penchant for conspiracy since 1990… (“I want to believe!”) So “The Truth is Out There,” for some to find – namely, the “Giant Brain” that ties all the Xenoids together, like the famous Borg in Star Trek.

Normally Dennis is “The Great OZ” behind the curtain (with his ancient turtle), but I’ve recently surpassed Den in Mind-Control fame. (Don’t I get a raise, or a medal?) Read about Den’s astonishing ability to “poison minds” which made it on our Web in northern Ohio! But that’s nothing: I made front-page news as a child-manipulating Mind-Controller (read the hype here).

The most glaring problem with the Mind Control theory is the selection of characters: Den is too is simply too morose and turtle-absorbed to care, and although I’m much warmer and more relational than Den, I’m just too ungifted and goofballish to pull it off. Really, Den is like this aloof intellectual playing with his turtle, and he gets very irritated when people don’t think for themselves (he’s brilliant, you know—and he doesn’t understand why everyone else won’t make the effort to be brilliant too).

Besides, if Xenos has been Mind-Controlling for 30 years now (as one blogger claimed), you’d think the CIA and others would be very jealous and very interested in how it’s done: Xenos is the best! (We’re so damn good, we’ve never been caught, and “they” still don’t know our secret ways after 30 years!)

The Cult’s Secret

Which brings me back to my original point: I’ve been in Xenos since before the beginning, and if anyone knows the secret reason for the Xenos-Cult phenomena, I would. (Others were there too, of course, but they aren’t telling, and I’ve got a head-start.)

But unfortunately, I’ve run out of time! We’ll pick this up next time, I promise!

1. There’s no under-age drinking allowed at Xenos. [↩]

See ma?
You told me I’d never amount to a hill-o-beans,
and here I am on the front page of the newspaper!

They say everyone gets “15 minutes of fame” (or an hour?), and I guess this is mine. Well done. At my funeral they’ll say, “He was a GREAT cult-prophet-leader!” (Among other things.)

---

I’ve been dying to blog about it for a few months, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Maybe it’s OK now: the dust has settled, the inflammatory tenor is abated. I’m very thankful for the experience. As I recently told J. Carney (the ABJ reporter), it opened my eyes to how meaningful this cause is: they say “Jesus Saves,” and they’re right, and that’s why He’s worth fighting for. (Read this article to get the background, if you’re lost…)

I learned what “Joy under persecution” means, and why so many people in the Bible (and in the history of Christian martyrs) all experienced joy under such adverse conditions.

I highly recommend it for every Christian—godly persecution, that is, not persecution for idiocy. I researched persecution extensively in the Bible, and from other writers during this time (but I’m surprised at the paucity of current Christian books published on persecution!) and I’ve arrived at a most-astounding, scandalous conclusion:

The people causing us trouble think “persecution” doesn’t fit us, because we’re a “cult”. But their exhaustive efforts to raise public alarm has turned us into the most well-researched, closely-examined, and certified-safe church in Ohio. Months of work with hundreds of man-hours by many outside parties ended—and we were clean. No dirt. Nothing. Their work firmly established this as a classic study in persecution: some people consider Christianity a threat. (Duh).

And that’s all they found here: Christianity on-the-move.

Numerous local Christian groups examined us too, like the Christian Missionary Alliance, Riverwood Chapel, Hudson Chapel, Akron Chapel, Campus Crusade for Christ, and even the local Catholic diocese weighed-in with an opinion: without exception, they all agreed we were receiving persecuted for our faith. They all expressed their sympathy and support!

(The people causing us trouble aren’t convinced: we bribed the ABJ reporter, the police are incompetent, the mayor is in our pocket, the high school principal is lazy, etc., etc., etc. See what I mean here >>)

Why Me, Oh Lord?

Which begs the question: why does Xenos draw the Cult-attack flack?

I was reading another blog on the Web where they’ve been debating the “Xenos Cult” issue for years. Now the site-owner who opened the issue is fed-up with the unfounded and anonymous attacks (he was never involved with Xenos):

I have to say I’m getting rather frustrated with anonymous posters posting comments about Xenos and then not answering followups about what specifically happened, who and when. With abusive churches I’m generally able to get a fairly clear story, and that is not the case with Xenos at all.  CD-Host, posted April 19, 2009 8:50 PM

So, after a few years of collecting Xenos-Cult conversations and material, the site owner concludes:

So I’ll repeat what I’ve said. So far in lots and lots and lots of conversation I have yet to see evidence that Xenos encourages or even tolerates misconduct with regards to discipline from 1991 on. I do not believe they are a cult. I don’t think anyone would accuse this blog of mindless cheerleading for churches. I continue to say my feeling is that Xenos is not guilty. 4/19/2009

(Read this complaint to see an example of these vague but alarming accusations.)

Someone on the site said the Xenos-Cult controversy is 30-years old, but I know it didn’t start until Jonestown (i.e., Jim Jones) threw everyone into a “Cult Awareness” tizzy—then “cult” became the way to give a black eye to groups you didn’t like. (Other Christians and churches expressing sympathy told me they too get the “cult” attack.)

Cult Alarms

But Xenos sets off the “cult” alarm more than most, it seems.  It mystifies many. But not me. I’ve been in Xenos since before the beginning, and I know—really know—the answer.

I’ll “tell all” in my next blog—the inside story on why Xenos is always in cult-trouble.

“Think outside The Box!” they say—but crawl back “inside The Box” after brainstorming (we belong there).

How about living outside The Box instead? It’s…interesting. We’re living in a motel now while they fix our “box” — our home — after the fire. (Click to enlarge the pictures!)

Motels are a blast, especially with younger kids…

But have you ever tried to live in a motel? It isn’t all it’s cranked-up to be.

At Central Teaching Sean gave a short testimony about “joy in the midst of adversity.”

Listen to Sean’s Testimony:

He went back into the burning house to get the one thing he always planned to get in a fire (“you need to plan these things, you know,” he said) and guess what it was? His study Bible! (And, secondarily, the dumb cat, which he couldn’t find.)

But Sean said he was able to rejoice through it all. (“There’s been so many nice people!” he said.) And when he saw the motel we were going to live in and the pool and surround-sound Theater Room, “If I’d known it would be like this, I would’ve set fire to the house long ago!” (“Don’t talk like that around the insurance adjuster,” I reminded him.)

But Sean doesn’t have to deal with a bustling, growing ministry, so he doesn’t appreciate the difficulties of Church Without Walls like I do:

On the other hand, I’m a temperamental complainer—even more so than Sean (half my age!)—so maybe he’s right and I’m the one with problems?

I’m not really roughing it, like when Jesus: “the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Did he sleep standing up?)

Actually, we’re doing pretty good: there’s a regular traffic pattern of NeoXenos drifters streaming through the place…

We have prayer meetings in the lobby (it gets the businessmen’s attention), leaders’ meetings in the whirlpool, discipleship in my “Jesus Saves Van”, Cell Groups in the big Home Theater Room (with surround-sound), and of course High Schoolers tearing-up the swimming pool. It’s a revolution on-the-road!

Actually, I highly recommend it for any Christian cult! (Isn’t it great that “cult” article isn’t coming out now?)

And it sure beats living by a railroad track in late November like I did at age 22. (Let’s leave that alone.)

Remember when Moses met the Burning Bush, and it turned out to be God? Well it happened again the other night in Stow, Ohio, but it was my house on fire, like the Burning Bush. And the Lord was there in a big way, too! (No joke!)

We didn’t didn’t get the dramatic opportunity to save mankind like Moses, but we did get “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.” (Phil.4:7). And I’m OK with that. Sean, Connor and I huddled together and watched the home burn, and we had a real sense of gratitude and peace.

Which is amazing, because a tempest swirled around us. Five fire trucks descended on our home, sirens blaring and huge spotlights blasting the bedroom windows up and down the street. (Firemen want an audience, I think; is there any other reason to use sirens at 1 am on a residential street?)

About 20 firemen brushed back and forth past our little 3-person huddle. Firemen are really aggressive, like football players. Get out of the way or get mowed-down! They jostled us, and we tried to get out of the way, but with so many running across my little front yard, it was useless–we were bumped everywhere.

Everyone has a job, so they just attacked our house like charging NFL players, but with axes, sledgehammers, chainsaws, pikes…and then, three hoses uncoiled, straightened, and blasted the flames. Oh, I was relieved, until chunks of roof flew away.  (I pictured the Civil Rights movement and those brave, poor people blasted by fire hoses.)

They squeezed the fire between two groups: one fighting down into the flames from the roof, the other fighting up into the flames from Connor’s room. Others kept bringing more tools, like spotlights or heaters, probes (?), pumps and weird things.

They chopped and ripped away the roof and ceilings, then the chimney came out of the house somehow and lay on the grass (happened so quick I missed it).

The original Burning Bush wouldn’t be fazed by their hoses, but mine died–and now it just stinks: there’s the difference between me and Moses, I guess.

• Amazing Fact #1: Jesus rescued my family at 1 am Easter morning–about the same time he resurrected from the grave, Israel time…what an Easter anniversary! Coincidence? No matter–we’re very thankful no matter what.
• Amazing Fact #2: Dar and I discuss, “How will we pay for the extra costs? How will we get such-and-such?” Prayer. Literally minutes later relief arrives: our amazing brothers and sisters showed up with clothes, emergency cash, necessities of all kind, and a bottle of vintage Bordeaux!
• Amazing Fact #3: That Saturday AM I teach about revolutionary living, like Jesus, who said, “…the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” I show the photo below and said (jokingly), if Dar and I end up living in something like this, without a home, that’s perfectly fine. (With caveats, as stipulated below.) Less than 24 hours later, we’re living homeless, in our van!

Colors

Before dawn, two carpenters were the last to leave. We talked about Easter and our families. They told me about a house they boarded-up last week where a little boy died in the flames.

The firemen could not find the boy in time.  Little kids hide when they’re really scared, like in a fire. Our little dog Gizmo did the same thing, and I couldn’t find her, then the lieutenant yelled at me to stay out of the house. Connor was in tears about Gizmo, but when I got back in there I found her shivering in our closet, like a little kid would do.

”The atmosphere is different when someone dies like that,” one said.

It was Resurrection Sunday: Easter.

It was dark and cold, clear, and dotted stars yielded to colors stretching from the East. I cried a little, relieved, but mostly just shared things deep inside with the Lord, and speechless: so nice it is just to know him, even if Connor died in the fire.

Connor almost died, but now he was safe with Gizmo at Kyle’s apartment. I watched my barely-adult son walk away, his little brother’s hand in his grip. He inserted calm, grownup words in-between Connor’s high-pitch chattering. Connor would much rather go home with Kyle than come to a motel, he said.

Dawn: it all streamed through my heart in clipped pictures, and it was calm inside. I was ready for sleep, and it was so quiet outside. Beautiful colors. Resurrection.

A renewal of interest in sacred space is growing  among the Gen-X and Millenial kids from Christian homes. They’re so bored with Church, and who can blame them? It seems their parents never led them into The Revolution, the way one of them tells it:

“My church tossed out windows all together. Instead the walls are grey, with strange modern designs on the canvas walls. We have chairs like those in movie theaters, minus the cup holders. The lights are typical stage lights, during the service they spot light worship leaders. In fact, the entire focus is the stage rather than the upward feel of a cathedral. It seems sometimes that everything is revolving around the stage, instead of God.” — Architecture and Faith—Photo Contest in Relevant Magazine (for Gen-X/Millenial readers).

But then she discovered The Sublime while visiting a cathedral:

“A sense of holiness hung thick in the air, my steps echoed as I walked forward. Flecks of every color caught my eye. They hung like colorful stars on the towering columns. My gaze drifted from the floor slowly upward, my neck craning. There before me was Jesus, shining in all His stained glass glory.”

Ahh! I would’ve freaked-out and run! You’re in a dark place, and suddenly, there’s “Jesus shining in all His…glory!” (But it’s only his stained-glass-glory. WHEW! Heart, settle down now...)

It isn’t nice to be so irreverent about other people’s beliefs like this, I know, I know. Well, maybe I was born that way, I’m sorry! I just can’t get to it. (And kids, whatever you do, don’t try this at home!)

Is The Sublime in any way connected to The Revolution? Does The Sublime mean anything to anyone, really? What’s the difference between The Sublime and The Sublime One worshiped in Buddhism?

Sublime means, “of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.”  It also means something that “changes directly into vapor when heated,” but as a Chemistry term. “Changes into vapor” is a good term for the Cathedral experience.

I love art. The architecture in the picture above is absolutely stunning. I would love to own a mansion like that (maybe). But isn’t it fair to distinguish between art and spiritual life? Art is sublime, but spiritual life is Joy. Art is beautiful, and nice, but spiritual life is Revolution.

The Sublime is the product of human genius; The Revolution is God’s genius.

No doubt I’m an outspoken and brusque, sometimes-grumpy old man. Fine. I can live with that (exaggerated though it is).

In my defense, “brusque” don’t harm nobody when a ship is sinking.

And do I swear, the Christian ship is sinking. Like the Titatnic: big, bloated, supposedly unsinkable. That’s the American church. And it’s filled with an elitist clientele wining and dining on the upper decks while Leonardo De Caprio’s class (the brusque ones) live far below-deck with the rats.

There are advantages to a below-deck view: you can see the big gash along the ship’s bottom, and water is gushing in by the ton. (But nobody in the upper decks will listen…)

It’s really not a melodramatic point, because I can’t find anyone truly alarmed about the growing irrelevance of the Gospel.  Yes, many Christians are aware of the steep decline in Christian strength, effectiveness, attraction, impact, adherents, attendance, or whatever measures it. But nobody is alarmed!

In the movie Titanic, moments before certain death, the rich and powerful still wined and dined in the ballrooms, although it was a sad party…

Who is alarmed?

When someone is alarmed–like when a ship is sinking–they take action. Serious action. (Maybe they sound brusque?)

So now there’s a plethora of Christian books hitting the market that attempt to raise alarm, but they only whisper. One reviewer summarized it well:

There is no shortage of books promoting a different model of church. Think of titles like Missional Church, Purpose-Driven Church, Organic Church, Total Church, Deliberate Church, Vintage Church, Equipping Church, Not Your Grandfather’s Church, We’re Cooler Than Our Parents Church, or, a recent favorite, We Want to Be Faithful to the Gospel AND Have the World Love Us Church. — Johnathon Leerman, reviewing Vibrant Church.

Then Leerman summarizes their impact:

They don’t try to revolutionize church as we know it. They don’t talk about earthquake-sized epistemological shifts in our cultural tectonic plates, and then call for a whole new theology of ecclesial life and mission. No, they simply want to strengthen and to equip the church. That’s it.

There you go. The Titanic is sinking, and the million-dollar answer is: “strengthen and equip it!”

Why bother?

Ditch “Church”

Here’s where I’m surely outspoken, and perhaps crazy. (Or crazy like a fox!)

I say, “Jump for your lives!” Put another way, “Women and children first! There aren’t enough lifeboats!” Put another way, “Get off the Titanic! It’s sinking, foo!”

Church is the most glaring example of a word which never belonged in the Christian vocabulary. The Bible uses the Greek word Ecclesia, not Church. Ecclesia was a common term meaning “an assembly”, like a High School assembly or a town meeting.

Why stigmatize Christian gatherings with “Church” when the Bible uses “Assembly” to label our gatherings ? By choosing Ecclesia, doesn’t God mean for His people to gather in a non-threatening, common assembly (like an “ecclesia” used to mean)?

More important, “Church” carries the stench of cultural and historical baggage which we simply can’t afford to ally ourselves with anymore. (Never should’ve allied ourselves with Church history anyway–it’s the history of Europe, not Christianity!) This baggage effectively blocks large numbers of people from attending any Christian gathering.

“Hey, do you want to come to my church?” What answer would you get? “Hell NO!”

A Different Invitation

“Hey, do you wanna come to our Hangout?” Now there’s an interesting proposal. (Not sure what it means, but it is interesting!)

Truthfully, the “hangout” invitation is far more compatible with God’s invitation we read in the Bible. His intention was to name us the Ecclesia — “a gathering”, or “hangout.”

What is the advantage of the C-word anyway? Does anyone really know? Beyond stigmatizing Christian gatherings, does it do anyone any good?

But this proposal is far too radical, too revolutionary, and definitely too cool for the established Church to consider, I think. If we dropped the C-word from our vocabulary and used Hangout instead, isn’t that surefire proof we’re a cult after all? Some would agree.

These are the titles we should be seeing in Christian bookstores: Missional Hangout, Purpose-Driven Hangout, Organic Hangout, Total Hangout, Deliberate Hangout, Vintage Hangout, Equipping Hangout, Not Your Grandfather’s Hangout… (I would drop “We’re Cooler Than Our Parents Hangout, or, “We Want to Be Faithful to the Gospel AND Have the World Love Us Hangout.”)