The Census & Signs of Western Decline

Census figures in Memphis represent a modest decline in two-parent households since 2000, when 38.4 percent of Memphis kids lived in them. They also depict a sharp contrast between the city and the rest of Shelby County, with 69.7 percent of the 76,774 Shelby County children living outside Memphis city limits residing in two-parent households. National figures from the 2010 Census aren't available yet, but statewide, 58 percent of Tennessee's nearly 1.5 million children are in two-parent homes. Researchers and area officials say the trend toward single-parent homes is highly worrisome, but not new or limited to Memphis. Many of Memphis' most difficult problems are rooted in the growing prevalence of single-parent households in the poverty-stricken inner city, said Eugene K. Cashman Jr., president and CEO of the Urban Child Institute. “The most critical years for brain development are from conception to age 3, “Cashman said. "Being in a single-family home is a stressful environment," he said. "There's undoubtedly less resources. There's less time to touch, talk, read and play with them." The educational disadvantages translate into a less-equipped workforce, which leads to diminished economic development and a continuing cycle of poverty, Cashman said. More here.

The Western Mind, Heart, & Belly pt1

This is the first video blog in the series "The Westerm Mind, Heart, & Belly".

Welcome to the Orthamerica video blog

Some Differences Between East and West

The schism between the east and the west is a complex subject and should not be limited to political relations between the bishops and emperors but should emphasize the cultivating factors of the cultures at large and how the cultures infected the doctrines of both sides. One major difference between the western church (Roman Catholic) and the Eastern Church (Eastern Orthodox) is the manner of which theology is organized, taught and digested. Today, the Orthodox Church refers to nearly all western theology as scholasticism. Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos explains scholasticism as such in Orthodox Spirituality: A brief introduction:

“Scholastic theology tried to understand logically the Revelation of God and conform to philosophical methodology. Characteristic of such an approach is the saying of Anselm [Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093-1109, one of the first after the Norman Conquest and destruction of the Old English Orthodox Church]: “I believe so as to understand.” The Scholastics acknowledged God at the outset and then endeavoured to prove His existence by logical arguments and rational categories. In the Orthodox Church, as expressed by the Holy Fathers, faith is God revealing Himself to man. Read more…

Consumerism & Contentment?

I was born on the communist island of Cuba in 1962, right in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis. It was a time when the island’s communist leadership had begun to take all private property from individuals and make them the property of the state. The new found profits were then distributed among the new elite within the communist party. All of this was done with the motto “everyone equal.” History has shown us that some were more equal than others. In any case, the drive for equality proved to be huge enough to hypnotize the population into acquiescence. The dream sold by the communists and bought by the people was one wherein everyone would be equally able to consume to the point of contentment. Obviously, that never happened. What has happened is that the Cuban economy is ruins and the people live low on the global poverty level. The dream of consuming to point of contentment became a nightmare.

As a reward for disagreeing with the new system, my parents and their children (myself included) were exiled from the Island nation. We settled in the U. S. where a totally different paradigm ruled. The American dream appeared to be one wherein a person could, if they desired work hard enough, consume one’s way into contentment. Consuming was for all intents and purposes the new path to salvation, it was that thing which would make all other things right. Now, this was obviously too crude to state outright, but it was nevertheless the reality for just about everyone I knew. And thus, consume we did. Unfortunately, it never produced the much sought after contentment, and left us with a great deal of debt. It did not take very long to figure out that something was very wrong!

The American dream has not always been to consume ourselves into contentment, nevertheless, it is not difficult to show that this has been our nation’s underlying goal since WWII; consuming has been our gospel. Nevertheless, it seems that the era of hoping for salvation through consumption may be drawing to a close. One need not have a degree in economics to note that the shifts in our prosperity are monumental, and everyone realizes something is severely wrong!

We may be entering into the most gospel hungry era in the history of our nation. Are the preachers of our nation ready for this? Are the churches ready to come out from under the yoke of consumerism, or is our gospel too contaminated with the gospel of the past 50 years? It is time that we take the words of our Lord seriously; there is no other gospel than that of Christ. There is no contentment except that which is found in the death of this world and the birth of the world to come.

Repent (metanoeo: redirect your understanding) for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (within reach).

Mat 4: 17

A New Era

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

These words were uttered by King David upon hearing of the death of King Saul. He remembered the former reign of Saul and lamented the end of an era. Of course, we now know that greater and more glorious days were close at hand. However, David had no way of knowing that even more glorious days were awaiting him. It is always this way when there is a change of eras.

However, when we compare the change that occurred between Saul’s administration and David’s, it seems insignificant in comparison to the change of an entire epoch. The last great epoch change occurred with the beginning of the modern era. Most scholars assign the birth of the modern era to the creation of the Guttenberg press. If you will recall, it was in the 16^th century that both the renaissance and the reformation came into full flower. The world would never be the same after these events. The worldview, morality, and politics of the western world took a completely new direction in the modern era. Natural science became the launching pad for the modern worldview, morality became centered on the individual’s desires & freedoms, and politics took on a democratic style.

Modernity however, has for all intents and purposes crashed and burned. No one of consequence believes that we will “science” our way, or “individualize” our way out of our very real problems. Humanity is broken, our system of thought is broken, politics is broken, and most are aware enough to recognize it.

In other words, we are living in a time of epoch change. A friend and colleague recently commented that the events of 911 would go down in the annals of history as the nail on the coffin of modernity. It is here however that the Christian stands while others fall. We know that the best is yet to come; how, when, and where may all be a mystery, but the fact is that the gates of hell will never prevail the church. The most glorious days of the church are yet to come.

What then is the church to do with modernity? Are we to throw it into the junk heap of history? No; at least not all of it. There has been much good that has come from modernity, education on mass, scientific advance in areas of medicine, the suppression of despotism of all sorts. The gospel has moved forward in many ways, and these good things should be preserved.

The task at hand is not merely one of deconstruction, or undoing the errors of modernity, but it is also one of reconstruction; by that I mean retaining the best of both pre-modernity (mystery, philosophy, revelation, corporate culture) and modernity, all the while looking to see where the Lord is taking His people. In short, the church must strive towards a full blown worldview that incorporates the fullness of truth, the fullness of pre-modern Orthodoxy, medieval Catholicity, and modern Evangelicalism.

An Orthodox Anglican Conversation

It is not often that a discussion between two historic expressions of Christianity result in a pleasant conclusion. Here is one that does. In this conversation, several important topics such as conservatism/liberalism and ideology, Augustinianism and Pelagianism, higher criticism and the patrisitcs are discussed. This conversation highlights many important themes must be addressed and sorted out for the future American church.