Graeme Codrington writes for Jim Wallis and Sojourners

This was originally posted on 28 March 2008

Every now and again, I make a connection with one of my heroes. Sometimes it’s attending a live event with them (I usually find a way to get them to sign a copy of their books for me – I collect signed books!). I have had the privilege of organising a few of these events. I have also shared a platform with some of them. Sometimes it’s a bit more random – I have bumped into a few people in the weirdest places on my travels.

I have long been an admirer of Jim Wallis, and his work with Sojourners. It was a real privilege to be asked to contribute to a series of blog entries about the Iraq War, leading up to the 5th anniversary of the start of the war. My entry has now been posted here – and reproduced below. Read the whole series here.
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Blue Like Jazz

Originall posted on 1 June 2005

I am busy reading “Blue Like Jazz”, by Donald Miller (Nelson, 2003, ISBN: 0785263 705) (buy it at Kalahari.net or Amazon.com). The subtitle, “nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality” hints at the style – its collection of stories and reflections on experience of a person trying to understand what it really means to be a question on the 21st century.

He explains the title as follows: “I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But sometimes you have to watch somebody loves something before you can love it yourself. But I was outside the Baghdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw the men playing the saxophone. I stood there for 15 minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody loves something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before in the of this happened.”

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Bible verses on gun sights

This story is a bit old, but I only picked up on it recently. In January this year, it emerged that a Michigan company, Trijicon who provides sights for high powered rifles and guns in America, had been putting Bible verses onto the sights provided to the American military. It has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army. Read the story here – including a video.

The picture I saw (included in this post), referenced John 8:12, where Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” I also saw 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The company believes this is part of an evangelistic mindset. Besides the standard, “Honesty, integrity, quality, teamwork, etc” of their corporate values, they also have a value of “Morality” which they define as: “We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals.” They achieve this by manufacturing and selling sights for rifles with Bible verses on them??

Might there be other Biblical verses they could consider including on their products? Maybe Luke 6:31: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Or maybe John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” What about Romans 14:19: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” Or Psalms 11:5: “The soul of the Lord hates… those who love violence.”

The fact that these sights are used in a Muslim nation by a military that specifically does not act in the name of any religion just adds fuel to this fire. The sights are also fitted to guns supplied to soldiers of the militaries of those Muslim nations, supported by the USA. Two years ago, it emerged that some US soldiers were using a Quran as a target in firing practice. Now this story. No wonder the Muslim nations still hark back to Crusades! Shooting Muslims with Jesus rifles – that’s not even a metaphor for Crusade!

The Director of Sales and Marketing for Trijicon, Tom Munsen, said that the verses had “always been on their sights, and there was nothing wrong or illegal in adding them”. Really? Is he serious? This is a self avowed Christian company on a Christian mission. And they see “nothing wrong” in helping people to kill other people more effectively?

Within a week of this story breaking, Trijicon had agreed to remove the verses from the sights supplied to the US military.

I am almost speechless at this story. It is SO wrong and SO many levels that I don’t know where to begin. I’ll just leave you to decide how to respond…

Taking the Bible Literally

First posted on 15 Feb , 2008

On Sunday, the preacher at our church spoke of forgiveness, and used the wonderful interaction between Peter and Jesus recorded in Matthew 18:21-35. It was a good sermon, but it also sparked another thought about how we choose to interpret the Bible (and an afterthought about Scotland making it legal to marry your mother-in-law).

Because of the nature of what I say (and how I say it), I am often accused of abandoning the Christian faith altogther. Nothing could be further from the truth, but that doesn’t deter my detractors. Anyway, I am finding that the most common “root” concern that people seem to have with my approach comes down to one thing: how we treat the Bible.

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Some Thoughts on Hell

Originally posted on 15 August, 2008

Some time ago I skim-read Brian McLaren’s The Last Word and the Word After That (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). This past week, I have gone back to it, and am devouring it in depth. It is a story-based reflection on the issue of salvation, with specific reference to hell. It really has got me thinking, and has helped to clarify some questions (see previous post at this blog), if not entirely provide adequate answers.

I think a key part of the problem with our understanding of what it means to be saved, and the issue of hell, the life hereafter and “eternal life”, is that the historical church has created such strong camps/entrenched positions. I don’t find any of them convincing or coherent. And none of the traditional positions gives a “unifying theory of everything” – a consistent and coherent explanation of the whole of the Biblical witness. I find that I have sympathy (and concerns) with every position, from exclusivism (that everyone not personally, consciously, individually “born again” will be excluded from heaven), or inclusivism (that some will be saved through Jesus without ever knowing the name of Jesus), to conditionalism (that hell does not last forever – after a period of conscious punishment, the damned in hell are annihilated) or universalism (that everyone will ultimately be reconciled to God through Jesus, with hell ultimately being empty).

The key to understanding the importance of the issue of hell, is not actually the concept of hell itself, but rather the God to which that concept points. “God loves you – like the greatest father’s unconditional love – and has a wonderful plan for your life, and if you don’t love God back and cooperate with God’s plans in exactly the way He wants you to, God will torture you with unimaginable abuse, forever!” Yes?

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