Monday, March 9, 2015
434 - First Things First
Spirituality Column #434
March 10, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
What an encouragement it was to open a recent Friday Wall Street Journal and find its diverse “Houses of Worship” column dedicated to Richard John Neuhaus and the 25th anniversary of First Things magazine.
I’m a longtime First Things subscriber. My Christian mentor and dearest of friends Russ Blowers, who died in 2007, first put me on to the conservative theological and cultural journal when I was new in my walk with Christ. We shared its articles often.
The name First Things comes from the Christian faith imperative of “keeping first things first” – keeping the glory and love of God, the primacy of Jesus, and the presence of the Holy Spirit at the forefront of all human endeavor. Sure, we should – we must – love God, love others, find comfort in the Holy Spirit, seek peace in the truth of Jesus, recognize the glory of God, pray, go to church and read, study and know the Bible.
But to help thoughtful Christians understand this crazy world, nothing beats First Things.
Neuhaus was a Catholic priest who converted from Lutheranism in 1990, the year he started First Things. His 1984 book The Naked Public Square came during that year’s presidential campaign and took aim not at the secular, progressive left but at the fundamentalist Christian right which he saw as dangerously defining Christianity away from America’s traditional and unique democratic society and into a potentially theocratic morass of separatist, freedom-squelching Christian contradictions.
It’s a little counter-intuitive, but I see his point. The one thing I never, ever want the government to ask me or anyone else is “What kind of Christian are you?” Not if government has the power to tell me, “You’re the wrong kind of Christian.” That doctrinal / political dynamic is why Sunni and Shiite Muslims are murdering each other – along with countless Christians and other non-Muslims – around the world.
Lest Evangelicals doubt Neuhaus’s bona fides, in 1994 he joined Chuck Colson and several religious scholars to pen the treatise “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission of the Third Millenium.” A brilliant work.
Neuhaus died in 2009. He was an unapologetic proponent of the idea that “the strongest argument for individual human rights is the Judeo-Christian tradition’s foundational conviction – that we are made in the image of God.”
Those are the words of Neuhaus biographer Randy Boyagoda, who penned the WSJ column. First Things is not a light read, and I guarantee you’ll not agree with everything in its pages. I don’t. Even its wonderful editor Rusty Reno doesn’t.
But for sure, it will make you think. And that’s a blessing.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) also likes the Friday WSJ’s terrific crossword puzzle. For more on today’s topic, see FirstThings.com.
March 10, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
First Things First
By Bob WaltersWhat an encouragement it was to open a recent Friday Wall Street Journal and find its diverse “Houses of Worship” column dedicated to Richard John Neuhaus and the 25th anniversary of First Things magazine.
I’m a longtime First Things subscriber. My Christian mentor and dearest of friends Russ Blowers, who died in 2007, first put me on to the conservative theological and cultural journal when I was new in my walk with Christ. We shared its articles often.
The name First Things comes from the Christian faith imperative of “keeping first things first” – keeping the glory and love of God, the primacy of Jesus, and the presence of the Holy Spirit at the forefront of all human endeavor. Sure, we should – we must – love God, love others, find comfort in the Holy Spirit, seek peace in the truth of Jesus, recognize the glory of God, pray, go to church and read, study and know the Bible.
But to help thoughtful Christians understand this crazy world, nothing beats First Things.
Neuhaus was a Catholic priest who converted from Lutheranism in 1990, the year he started First Things. His 1984 book The Naked Public Square came during that year’s presidential campaign and took aim not at the secular, progressive left but at the fundamentalist Christian right which he saw as dangerously defining Christianity away from America’s traditional and unique democratic society and into a potentially theocratic morass of separatist, freedom-squelching Christian contradictions.
It’s a little counter-intuitive, but I see his point. The one thing I never, ever want the government to ask me or anyone else is “What kind of Christian are you?” Not if government has the power to tell me, “You’re the wrong kind of Christian.” That doctrinal / political dynamic is why Sunni and Shiite Muslims are murdering each other – along with countless Christians and other non-Muslims – around the world.
Lest Evangelicals doubt Neuhaus’s bona fides, in 1994 he joined Chuck Colson and several religious scholars to pen the treatise “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission of the Third Millenium.” A brilliant work.
Neuhaus died in 2009. He was an unapologetic proponent of the idea that “the strongest argument for individual human rights is the Judeo-Christian tradition’s foundational conviction – that we are made in the image of God.”
Those are the words of Neuhaus biographer Randy Boyagoda, who penned the WSJ column. First Things is not a light read, and I guarantee you’ll not agree with everything in its pages. I don’t. Even its wonderful editor Rusty Reno doesn’t.
But for sure, it will make you think. And that’s a blessing.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) also likes the Friday WSJ’s terrific crossword puzzle. For more on today’s topic, see FirstThings.com.
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