culture

Dear church, hold on like never before in 2024

Lisa Spencer3 Comments

I did something in 2023 that I’ve not done before: followed a 365 chronological Bible reading plan. Honestly, in all of my years of Bible reading I’ve never been successful following a plan (well except in seminary where I pretty much had to). When I started in January, I had already read the first few chapters so I got a good start. I was motivated to keep at it. There were days I fell behind but then was able to catch up. I enjoyed it so much, I’m doing it again in 2024.

Needless to say, Revelation is the last book to be tackled. Because of dispensationalism’s vast influence on American evangelicalism, like many Christians, I believed the book should be read as chronological and as literal as possible. Woven into this interpretation was a pretribulational rapture and 7-year tribulation period.

Some years ago, I began to see that perhaps that was not the best interpretive approach for this book considering its apocalyptic genre and rich symbolism. It does speak to literal events, but not in the manner that has been made popular such as in the Left Behind series. I explain more about that here and here, if you’re interested. Greg Beale’s commentary was a game changer!

Update: it was suggested to me that the reference to the Left Behind series was a bit uncharitable and lends to a belief that Left Behind is a portrait of what all dispensationalists believe about the end times. Having studied at DTS, I recognize that this is not the case and there are definitely areas where some dispensationalists would disagree about how end times are portrayed in that series. Though at a minimum, all dispensationalists adhere to a futurist framework that interprets events in a chronological order and sees a 7 year tribulation period. At best, the Left Behind series is a pop-level rendering of what dispensationalists interpretations yielded even though they don’t fall into the sensational category. My point is that I’ve come to see things differently than the futurist, literal method that has a framework of a chronological order, rapture and 7 year tribulation period. 

Someone recently recommended to me Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation by Dennis Johnson, professor emeritus of practical theology at Westminster Seminary California. It’s very clear in the opening pages, that Johnson’s approach is very much like Beale, and in line with my shift. I was gripped from the beginning as he explains in a very user friendly way what this book is about. Continue reading →

We are all human afterall

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Well it’s been several months since I’ve written but nothing like a controversial movie to draw me back to the keyboard. I initially had no interest in seeing it, Barbie the Movie. The thought of it just struck me as lame and trite. And seeing ladies going out in droves decked out in pick was even more of a turnoff, to be honest.

Then the negative reviews came: it was a feminist screed that made men look like morons. Ok, I definitely don’t want to see that. It’s not that I don’t have any interest related to feminism (or rather women given full validity for who they are and what they bring to the table). That certainly shouldn’t come at the expense of bashing or belittling males.  No thanks.

But then I saw something interesting, from pastors I respect, none the less–commentary that suggested maybe something was missed in the easy target of pro-feminism. But it was reading this review from Amy Peeler, aptly named, Neither Ken nor Barbie, that piqued my interest. Now that I’ve actually seen the movie, I don’t think I could write a better review or rather a better interpretation of it. Because really, every review and commentary can get the facts about a movie right, but not necessarily interpret it’s meaning according to what it was intended to convey.

Now in full disclosure, I have not read any interview with Greta Gerwig  and what she intended. But Peeler does note that there is an explicit nod to the Genesis narrative, but reversed to make a point about men and women’s interdependence on one another.  Let me expound on this a bit to convey an important message I believe the movie was making. Continue reading →

Freedom that’s really free

Lisa Spencer1 Comment

There has been a lot of mention of freedom in recent years. There are those who tout the concept in relation to liberation of black people as if the shackles of slavery and Jim Crow still pull weight on the flourishing of black and brown people. They’ll speak of the persistent oppression that must be exorcised and prescribe remedies for this to happen: equitable policies, reparations, just policing, etc. They will conclude this is a freedom worth fighting for.

Then there is the freedom granted to us Americans in our Constitution, particular the freedom of Christian expression and to live in a pluralistic society without encumbrances  to Christianity.  Some will even argue that this freedom was packaged in our Christian founding as a nation and we shouldn’t relent to preserve it under the rubric of promoting a moral and just society. They will conclude this a freedom worth fighting for.

And while there can be merit (not to mention some challenges) in each of these “freedom” fights, I am struck by the freedom spoken of in Scripture, particularly in the book of Galatians.

It is for freedom that Christ set you free…(Gal. 5:1)

We would do a disservice to this simple passage by imposing the above categories as if Paul is making room for our contemporary concerns. Rather, his statement must be considered in the context of what he is addressing in this book. And I think it’s pretty important in light of these temporal areas that seem to get so much attention today. Because, if we’re not careful, we’ll allow the  the freedom that referenced here rises far above. Continue reading →

Because its really about people supremacy

Lisa Spencer4 Comments

While scrolling through Twitter yesterday, I got wind of the kerfuffle in Los Angeles where City Council president, Nury Martinez, was caught on tape in a private meeting where she and her colleagues used racial slurs towards the black son of a fellow council member.  She apparently felt comfortable in the presence of her colleagues to say what she really thought. You can read more about that here (pardon some language). Update: the context was a meeting about redistricting that would diminish the voting power of black residents, according to this article. I understand she has now resigned as president of City Council but still remains on.

To be honest, it really didn’t surprise me. My family moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 1969 when I was 5. Growing up in that area (predominantly Inglewood), I observed a lot of tensions between Blacks and Latinos. Stereotypes, segregation of the two groups, and even hostility was not that uncommon.  I moved to Boston 1n 1994,  just a few years into the start of my professional career. So I really wasn’t that aware of the inner workings of city infrastructure, particularly among social or political coalitions. But from what I witnessed as a teenager and young adult, I can imagine how these kind of attitudes would spill over into the social and political infrastructure of the city. I would have thought that dynamic would have changed by now but maybe not.

In fact, observing some threads on Twitter from those with more first hand knowledge of the dynamics there, I saw allegations of power structures among Latinos who were in positions to orchestrate elevating their group and creating barriers for others, namely Blacks. How much this is true, I cannot say. But the charges obviously resonated with several people who believed that Latinos who held the purse strings, so to speak, made it difficult for other groups. Again, I’m just observing the charges made, not affirming them. Continue reading →

Tribe, tongue and nation means more than race

Lisa Spencer4 Comments

Anyone who has followed this blog knows I typically write about theological topics and cultural engagement. This is one of those rare posts where I will talk about what I do for a living. For the past three years, I have served as Executive Director of a nonprofit arts and culture organization whose mission is to celebrate ethnic and cultural heritages from around the globe. Our mission is prominently seen in our annual festival in May that brings many different cultures together for performances throughout the day that shows the various art forms from around the globe, including martial arts demonstrations. Dozens of vendor booths are present with cuisine, crafts, and cultural displays. It’s like a “It’s a Small World” festival and one of the largest in this area. There is no preference or prominence of one group over the other. You’ll see displays from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and everywhere in between.

Because our goal is to highlight different cultures, we also have culturally specific events for Lunar New Year and Hispanic Heritage Month. Recently, we added an event for Nowruz (Persian New Year), a significant celebration in Iran and Afghanistan and we’re gearing up for a celebration of African cultures in collaboration with another arts organization later this year. So you can imagine that with our festival and the other events, people and their cultures are identified with a national heritage, i.e., cultural heritages that come from a particular region that has certain customs and cuisines.

I’m trying to imagine what it would be like if we categorized the different groups according to skin color and use the black/white binary or even black, white, or brown people. Of course, it’s easy to speak of Europeans as white or Africans as black. But but what does that mean for the distinct nationalities and their accompanying cultures? How do you distinguish the Italians from the Germans from the Greeks if everyone is just white? And where do the Middle Easterner’s fit into this categorization? And if a person is just black, what does that say about the black person from Ghana vs. the black person from Brazil or the Caribbean who have completely different cultures? The ethnicities would get erased. Continue reading →