Blogging: A Personal Diary!

Over the last ten years I've kept personal diaries. It helps me record events in my life... what I think about them at the time and challenges I face both internally and in my "world."  I used these diaries more as a way of processing thought.  I've decided to do the same through blogging. In fact, these are my personal thought processes and were not written to indict or be a commentary on any "person" particular. I am interested in all forms of cultural architecture and have opinions too. What bothers me is that some have read my blog and have thought I was writing about them personally or a particular situation... which is just not true. I do write about ideologies I disagree with. I don't write people I may be upset personally with - because I really don't get upset by people. I try not to post anything online that would be a detriment to my relationships with my friends, peers, or family. What a paradox... I am still puzzled by the "protocol" of all these new digital forums and how people read into things.  Let me just say this "the views and opinions expressed here are not representative of the staff or management of the church world or profession I serve."  These views are opinions of my own... I know they are not politically correct, could kill me professionally (I wish), and come from a "post-modern" cultural understanding. I am a post-modern thinker.  I'm abstract, eclectic, and love exploring new things and options toward problem solving.  I am against all forms of heirarchy, uniformity, standardization, and censorship.  I value "dissent."  I am Post-modern American. 

Sorry if you don't get that but it's not my job to be an interpreter for my friends in the modern world culture as to what "post-modern" language and culture means. I know who I am. I have given room for each of you who read my blogs to leave comments...  and your opinion does matter. I believe in dissent. I believe in the Universe Next Door!  I may not share your perspectives, your views, ideology, or theology - and that's okay.  Maybe relativism is okay.... The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. It's all about permission, honor, respect, and personal boundaries... not assuming you have the right to "assert in yourself or opinions" into each other's personal space without asking permission.  I live in a house "not like yours."  I share a theological view which some would consider "Left" of center. I believe in an inerrant, infallible God just not an interpretation or view of the bible that makes infallible "oracles" of God in the pulpit.  The radical reformation ended Papal rule and I haven't been informed that there will be a return to any seat of the anti-christ spirits that prevails in many churches today.  Jesus is still the head of his church the last I checked - not us. Thank God!  

Let's look at this way, there is...

Place

   I grew up in an age of social revolution.  The generation I grew up with was interested in socio-economic change, political change, cultural change. It's mantra was "We can change the world."  Michael Jackson rightly penned the word's of our generation "We can make the world a better place."  So social justice, equality, and economic opportunity to lift up everyone's chances for a better world has always been something we have been committed to.  However, there has always been a resistance to relinquishing power by my parents generation (those born 1930 through 1940 +/- , the world war II generation).  I find it rather ridiculous that anyone over the age of 70 has not gotten out of the way, settled down and enjoyed their retirement.  Instead you have an older generation still trying to be politicians, business leaders, senior ministers, bishops, educators, TV prognosticators, etc. while a whole new generations could be taking vacant job positions, forging ahead, and creating the glocal civilization they want to live in.  After all, each generation has a right to recreate the world they live in.

    However, my generation which is now entering the 50's is still being told by the 70+ crowd to sit down and shut up - they're not done yet.  I don't mean to be disrespectful (even though the 70+ crowd is) but isn't it time for you to grace the doorways of our national nursing homes so we can take our place. You had your time, you are not going to retain power, you're nearing the end of life - you need to give up your addiction to power and let the younger generations - your grandchildren refashion the world you left them.  The world they are apart of is alien to your World War II era.  There are no more boggie men for you to fight.  No commies, no more Cathedral of Tommrow's to be built, no heirarchies, no more Saddams to be killed and certainly no more bombs needed.  In fact, despite your own alarms, the 21st century will be called a "Leaderless Revolution."  Something "Moderns" will not get because they haven't even recognized that the "Post-modern" culture is here.  Change has come. Modernism has ended and it's time for the rapture of "modernistic thinking" and/or "heirarchical leaders"  (which still has it's head in the clouds) to go ahead and be caught into the air.  Jesus has come to create a "place" for me - your time is up.  No more King Eddies needed.

(See.http://www.christianpost.com/news/video-of-bishop-eddie-long-being-crowned-king-leaves-viewers-confused-68423)

     So when you die, you don't have to worry about your legacy - my generation will ensure that it is rewritten. We get to be revisionist too... something you should be concerned about especially when leaving an impression on those of us you've trampled on. When you die, you'll join the thousands of voices who once thought their theologies, political views, individual lives, and personal histories were important but now serve as the fertilization of grassy lawns of their respective graveyards.  What we all think as important - which was not important to the generation that preceded us will be forgotten. Our place, our lives, our thoughts, our ways are a vapor.  Fushia Pickett, Judson Cornwall, Glen Foster, John Gimenez, Derek Prince, Kathryn Kulman, Oral Roberts, Jesse Winley, Martin Luther King, the Kennedy Brothers, Whitney Houston, and many others are dead and so will we be soon. So, Jesus promised "He goes to prepare a place for us."  So what place has he prepared for us - Heaven, Hell,  a place in life or the academy awards?  What place will we have in history?  Let me just make it clear, I don't believe Jesus intended to die to make us the next American Idol or a famous Bishop in an Episcopalian church system. One of the pastors I once served said to me, "Mike, I once thought I'd like to be a John Wesley or Charles G. Finney but I'm not."  I'm glad he said that.  I'm glad he thaught me that it was just okay to be myself.  I'm not Reverend, Bishop, or seeking to become a charismatic infallible pope.  My parents named me "Mike Berry."  I'm happy to be what they called me, "their son."  I'm happy to be what my wife calls me "her husband."  I'm happy to be what my kids call me - "Dad."  what more is there to be in this life.  I have a "place" given to me by Jesus.

    I have a family, a wonderful family history, a place to live (along the beautiful Chesapeake Bay), a wonderful faith community, a great group of friends (from around the world), two great dogs, and plenty to eat and share with those in need. What more can ask for?  In this place....  now I have the opportunity to give others, to help them find their place whether that be a nursing home, assisted living, a grave yard, college campus, a good school, youth group, or a market place or glocal ministry.  Jesus has a place for you... I would like to help you find it.  My future place will be at Third Haven god-willing in about 40+/- years where my family worshipped for over 150 years.  I hope you will take comfort in this scripture "For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong."  What more could we ask for?  

    

Unity Is Not Uniformity!

Over the last few years, I've come to recognize that there is a steady and growing movement within our culture to silence dissent.  Never once do I find in scripture the word "uniformity."  In fact, the scriptures teach in Romans 12: 1-2 Do not be "CONFORMED" but be transformed...  I Corinthians 12 outlines the diversity of the body. A foot cannot be a hand. A head cannot be a heart.  We all have different functions, different callings, and gifts that differ.  This diversity, in fact, underlies, the Apostle Paul's perspective which says, "We know in part, prophecy in part, and see through a glass darkly. In other words, no person has a corner on truth.  

It's also rather strange how many people are proclaiming themselves as some oracle of God.  They see themselves as God appointed "word" police.  You can't say that, you shouldn't say this, because you might offend someone. John 6:60-61 gives us some interesting thought, "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?"  Jesus didn't concern himself with being politically correct. It's also important to recognize that those who charged him with being a "dissenter" were the religious who demanded conformity to their religious traditions.

Throughout the last few months I've become quite alarmed by people telling me I have no right to blog about my opinions, views, or perspectives.  I didn't know that blogging was censored.  Let me state very clearly, "I will not stop writing, I will not stop fighting, I will not stop deconstructing, or fighting for the rights of liberty of conscience, freedom of worship, and dissent."  This is what America was built on. You and I have been ". . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . ." (Declaration of Independence)  This governmental philosophy is uniquely American. The concept of Man's rights being unalienable is based solely upon the belief in their Divine origin... which means I don't have to agree with you, share your political views, or your interpretation of scripture, worldview, or view of the future.  I can be a democrat (which I'm not), I can love Obama or Newt, and I can give voice to anything and everything you may disagree with... because I am a "person" - not a slave. I am free - not living under Tyrants... and I refuse to live under Christian Tyrants who have made themselves self-appointed spokesmans for God.  I find it especially abhorrent that some "Religious" people  find it okay to demand religious conformity, oppose anyone who dissents or stands up to them and then do exactly what II Pet. 2:10 says "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." (Unless they are republican of course).

This is the same crowd that will tell us to sit down and shut up, try to censor our voices, and try to cut off our influence with others in order to maintain their control over the kind of culture they want.  Instead of the divine right of kings, they think there is a divine right for apostles... who also coronate themselves as Bishops or Kings. Whatever happened to Jesus' words  You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you (Mark 10:42-43a).  

During the Vietnam War, (and My Dad gave his life for this country during this war) "EVERY day in every way,  as things were getting worse and worse. They were, that is, in the angry eyes of those who disapproved of U.S. policy in Viet Nam. As they see it, the very expression of their dissent was getting more dangerous. So it was that to Senator J. William Fulbright, General Westmoreland's report to Congress signaled nothing less than an onslaught of official repression that might silence dissenters altogether by branding them traitors."  Which means "MY DAD fought for my right to dissent... and stand up against "Suppression" in the face of politicians who just wanted to silence American rights while fighting to stop the communist.  That's a paradox.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843724,00.html#ixzz1mGwpZ1j1  

You have no rights to police my opinions, my views, or try to censor them. I don't have to agree with you politically, live according to your doctrinal views, or be defined as a Christian or not a Christian just because I don't share your fundamentalist views. I am "Free"... who the son has set free - is free indeed. - and you know the beauty of all this is - you're free to disagree too!  Be dissenter... !   William Penn, the cultural architect of our nation, fought for our right to be dissenters.  Thank God I don't agree with the majority most of the time!  Unity is a "code" word for  modern's who espouse "Uniformity" as God's way. I didn't know that the culture of  "Modernist" would fight to maintain their hold as the post-modern world ushers in a new age of "Quaker" values.  Wow. Thank God for that. 


May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.  - President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Can the Church in America Lead The Way?

      Over the last year I have been working on a prayer project which has morphed into America For Jesus 2012 in Philadelphia.  The general vision has been developed around the idea that America is divided - culturally, racially, spiritually, economically, socially, and politically.  After thirty years of research on this issue I've concluded that this division began in the midst of the English Civil wars and the introduction of slavery as an institution in this country.  With the planting of the cross in Cape Henry, the English Cavaliers sought to colonize the south in order to preserve their "Wealthy" lifestyles that they enjoyed in England but were losing to the English puritans.  In order to preserve their lifestyle of large estates they needed servants - who they thought would be the First Nations people.  Unfortunate for them, the native populations resisted the colonization, dispossession of their lands, and conversion to Christianity in the face of a gun mentality of the Cavaliers.  Despite the claims that America's English colonialism was a Christian mission - it really was designed to Christianize the First Nations people so that they could bring them into forced labor. They would not be satisfied till they put Pocohanas in an English dress, cut her hair to their liking, and taught how to speak with a proper English accent. Thus began the divisions and Pocohanas was brought to her death.

       In my final conversations with Dr. Peter Marshall and recently with David Manuel, authors of the book "The Light and The Glory," I've raised the question as to why 'King Phillips' War' was not presented as an "unrighteous" move of the puritans of New England.  New England's puritans were not interested in toleration, inclusion, or views which challenged their calvinism. They killed the Natives, hung the Quakers, ran out the Baptist, and charged people with witchcraft when they disagreed with their vision of a city on a hill. After all puritanism was about purifying.  So my question was where is the righteous root.

       I found it in Philadelphia.  William Penn, who many believe is the real cultural architect of our nation, came to the shores of America seeking a place of refuge where persecuted Christian groups could practice their faith with liberty of conscience and freedom of worship.  In England, the National Church leaders demanded conformity.  The entanglement of the government and church polity did not allow liberty of conscience or freedom of worship. If you didn't conform you went to jail or you were killed.  These are the people who forced the puritan's out of England into Amsterdam and then to the shores of America. But the puritan's were just as intolerant as England with William Penn's faith - Quakerism.  So William Penn took the opportunity and the king was very happy to rid England of his Quaker problem and other dissident groups by granting him a colony named Pennsylvania.  

       William Penn, was a revolutionary just as all his faithful friends in Quakerism. They believed there was "that of God in every person."  Man was not totally depraved. God created humanity, breathed the breath of life in him, and the light of God was within him - even after his fall.  Romans 1 explains that there is something in every person, it's called conscience, that bears witness to God.  So this inward light in every person was to be regarded, nudged forward by our testimonies, and treat others as you would want to be treated. Quakers believed in "honoring one another."  There were not male, female, Gentile, or Jew - all were one in Christ.  So they sought to build a culture of honor.   In fact, William Penn came to America and met with the natives with no weapons in his hands.  He came to honor them, purchase their lands, and not invoke a sense of "his rights" as the proprietary leader. He wanted to be inclusive and give them the same rights as he sought for his fellow Quakers and other friends of faith. This is what America is about!  Liberty and justice for all. However, this vision was lost.  The English would not have it their own country nor did they intend for it to happen here. Thus the Revolution!

         So all division began in our country over class warfare, rich against the poor, white against the First Nations, the Africans (who were defined 3/4 human), and political division over the right of the individual vs right of communities.  There are those who want to nullify the right of dissent. Quakers fought for the right of dissent.  Today, The right and left demand conformity and "political correctness." What ever happened to free speech? Many people are scolded because they have an opinion that differs - with the right or left.  Then, to top it all off - today we still have slavery - in fact we have more slaves in America today than we had before the civil war. But abortion and the policing of other peple's sexuality is more important than ending slavery for good. Did you know that corporations own people for $90.  They are domestic workers, field workers, nannies, and sex slaves.  While the religious right is fighting gays, abortion, birth control issues and claiming their religious rights are being denied - they are seeking the rights of others to be denied.  Yet,  200,000+ 9 to 12 year old kids are being abducted off the streets of America and exported as slaves overseas... and now what will the vision of this Philadelphia event be about... Christian triumphalism or "coming to each other with hands free of weapons" and "trying what love will do"?  

          So far, all I've witnessed is people positioning themselves for a place on the program - or trying to define the program. Is a program that important or asking God to forgive us more important.  Can you imagine Bishops, pastors, church leaders of all races, liberal and conservative coming in brokenness, tender-heartedness, forgiving one another, crying and humbling themselves and becoming one body?  What will this event be all about?  I hope we can all overcome the iniquity that runs in us and return to the old ancient reliable paths given to us by William Penn. See Jeremiah 6:16  Is it possible to "Try what Love Will do?"