Tchaikovsky and

Last night I watched dance with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, my daughter-in-law on stage, my son in the pit. It was an all Balanchin program:

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra
PAUL HINDEMITH Theme with Four Variations for String Orchestra and Piano
BACH Double Violin Concerto in D Minor

I suppose it is OK to have heard the Bach, but Tchaik! No way - he was another of those miserable folk whose life is unacceptable to some. They say they love sinners - but I say they do not know who or what they are talking about.

I am first an evangelist. I also happen to be a lot of other things. But so what. I am known by my Saviour who understands the Law of Requisite Variety - Only variety can absorb variety. My God knows how to save in all sorts of situations and is not dependent on either good or bad Law.

I expect there are many who might sympathize with the Evangelical Manifesto that some are looking at this week but who would consider that all that beautiful young flesh and its lithe and supple coordination on stage, whether male or female, should be more fully covered.

They too - bound by their own conceit and prejudice - do not know to what extent their God has gone to rejoice in his own - who delights not in the strength of any man's legs (look for me somewhere in the later psalms) - but who makes his people a joy in the dance, and knows the discipline needed to grow a company of dancers who praise with the best member that they have (look for me somewhere in the earlier psalms and the middle of Jeremiah).

How can you be an evangelist and reject the Evangelical Manifesto? Well -it is .... too many syllables. John Hobbins gives a few notes here. I have captured a few random thoughts below, each one following a sound bite in italics from the Manifesto. Words do not escape words.

live the way he taught, and believe as he believed.
I would say live the way he teaches and believe as he directs now. As he said himself by the pen of his Evangelist John, I have many things to teach you but you cannot bear them now. The Spirit ... will take what is mine and give it to you and will teach you all things. (Look for me in the farewell discourse John 16ish and don't rubbish me with your interpretation.)

Christian faithfulness and moral integrity
Morals had to get in there - didn't they. It is sufficient that faithfulness to the Spirit, in the Spirit, by the death of Christ determines action and thought. The Law and the so called Christian judgment of behaviour cannot take precedence or become an add-on to faithfulness. The letter kills and has no power to make alive. Of course moral integrity will follow commitment to Christ - but not your idea of it.

his attitude toward the total truthfulness and supreme authority of the Bible
Jesus attitude towards the supreme authority of the Bible - what!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Bible did not exist in the days of this child of the dust on the earth. You mean the Bible as I, my tradition, a failed Christendom used to preach (witness the treatment of the Jews by the Church, the appalling attitude to and abuse of power with respect to sex - not to mention slavery and ownership of women) . This is the Bible and the preachers who knew nothing about the love of God as it expressed itself in someone different from themselves and their cultural tradition. This is the Bible of the abusing power mongers whose own desires they could not manage or comprehend and who preach Christ without knowing the power of his crucifixion for them.

yet our first allegiance is always to a higher loyalty and to standards that call all other standards into question

Here it is in their own electronic letters - standards we have that no one else has. When you live with these, I will start listening to you. The first is that you not reject those who come to the Church for blessing. Though they are believing in Christ, you reject them. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Fair enough if you refuse your blessing to those who have rejected you and your version of Christ or Church. But to those who say they are Christ's - don't you trust your own risen Saviour to correct them to agree with you? Or maybe you aren't so sure of your standards after all.

“good news” by definition, is overwhelmingly positive, and always positive before it is negative.

Now that takes the cake - I would be better off, eh, if I had never heard your good news. Some Evangelism that is. It is no wonder that my children have nothing to do with 'religion'. Let your Saviour do His job - get out of His Way - for surely He is coming to judge the earth - and it will be with righteousness - not of your making.