two party politics

            The two party system

America has been a two party system for a long time. But, many Americans assume that this has just always been the case, that it is - in fact- exactly what the founding fathers had intended for our great nation.

Yet, this is not at all the case; rather, our founding fathers were terrified of this concept. In fact, back in England the parliament of the time was largely a two party system, not too much unlike our system today. That system was primarily the Tories and the Whigs. According to the Scholastic.com the two parties had; “their view of what government should do and how strong it should be. Tories wanted rule by a strong king. Whigs wanted ordinary people to have more rights and gain more control of their government. In time, as Parliament took greater control, the Whigs and Tories developed into organized parties.” These two parties and their stance probably sound fairly familiar to modern Americans!

Now, we must consider whether or not this was what the American Democratic Republic was really meant to be. I will posit that the answer is, in fact, a resounding no. One of the early American giants, - John Adams- wrote:

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

The concern the founding fathers had was that if two major political parties existed then our constitution would be in danger as “political parties become arranged under its leader”. The focus would then become an extremely polarized interpretation- of the constitution, as well as an extremely polarized nation. Which, again, was a problem they recognized from England!

Upon initial consideration it appears that two parties are the best option because, as we all know, choice can also be problematic. I personally really like that more restaurants have the “coca cola freestyle” but, it is also problematic because among all the carbonated goodness it becomes more difficult to know what to choose. And this is a fairly simple example to say nothing of ten million political parties vying for your undying emotion; all of whom cannot realistically get far.

Those of us more familiar with foreign politics will also recognize that some countries face problems of stalled progress because they have so many different political parties and people become so fed up with each one each new election that they just keep voting new ones into office and not much can ever be accomplished as a result.

 America does, technically, have more than two political parties. But, the other two parties exist as a monopoly over the system. Which is why I think we need to change the system because, as monopolies do economically, so the two party system does politically. A monopoly constricts creativity and ingenuity because competition forces new ideas to constantly be put forward. Which is why I believe Americans deserve more options.

The two party system also creates issues in how we understand our rights as Americans. I am a book worm and watching politics today I am struck by how much Americans are like the Animals in “Animal farm”, - a book by George Orwell, - for those of you who are not familiar I do not mean this as dehumanizing people. What I mean by this is in this allegorical story the animals run the farmer out of the farm and a leader rises up. This leader as this leader, and his crew, ultimately convince the farm animals that the “head animals” have more rights than the rest leading to one quote “all animals are equal some are just more equal than others”. It finally reaches the point that the animals can no longer “read” the “constitution” they wrote and are reliant on the “elite” to more or less tell them what each thing means and its practicality. While I do not think we have reached this point I am concerned that as America becomes more polarized this becomes more and more possible.

With all of this in mind, though I cannot say exactly how we can do this, I am, however, convinced that Americans deserve more than our two party sy

Electoral reform a thought on Politics

So, I finally decided to do one on politics since I find it interesting here are my thoughts on the issue of how we vote in America

Contrary to what many think we don’t live in a democracy America is actually a Democratic Republic! This is significant because our founding fathers knew how dangerous it was when democracies crumbled. In fact, we can look at more recent examples of when democracies with limited checks failed. For example, Hitler’s rise to power. He was democratically elected because of a majority that was angry at other nations for how Germany was unfairly targeted post WWI and voted for the most corrupt leader in history. Our current system was put in place with the hope of guarding against majority mob rule lording their strength over a poor minority. 

So, I will be making suggestions for what we can do to balance our horribly flawed system that so many feel unrepresented by, a system in which neither party seems really concerned at helping to heal the scars our nation holds. It is not the destruction of the Electoral college, but a systematic reform which allows every American citizen a fair shot at having their voices heard.

I propose a system in which each state would split their vote so that any party receiving at least 25% of the popular vote would take one fourth of the State. So, if Illinois, which boasts 21 electoral votes, were to have a Republican win 25% of the votes they would receive 5 of the Electoral votes.

This would be significant because it would force both parties to cooperate with each state because they can’t just rely on that state voting like it always has. Rather, it now stands a chance of losing a substantial amount of ground and their candidate might just have more trouble making 270.

As a further attempt at this systemic reform, an area on the ballot should be included where you can vote for your first and second choice for president. For example, perhaps you are a Democrat who doesn’t like Hillary, but you definitely don’t want Trump as President. However, you’re worried, if you vote 3rd party, your vote will not count.  Under this reform, you can vote for Gary Johnson, who now would have a better chance since people will feel their vote is more significant. But, suppose he doesn’t make 25% in your state, you can still vote for Hillary as your second choice.

A further advantage of this system is, if it takes less to take a decent percentage of a state, it encourages more people to vote, creates a higher incentive for independents, for example, to finally go out and cast their vote. Lastly, it gives everybody a bigger voice. This would force both major parties to actually address the tough issues that exist more than they currently do because they cannot rely on taking a state. Perhaps we can see the day when more people have their voice heard without fear of being silenced by the system.

When there's no joy in the Desert

“Come on, buck up and just pray,” or “surely you’re in sin if you feel this way. Either that or you just aren’t focusing on God.” “If you are not joyful, then you are sinning.”

 These words reverberate through chapels and churches, Christian homes and conversations. They are plastered on t-shirts, hung on walls, and peppy phrases are placed on coffee mugs, sometimes called “coffee cup verses”.

But what do these words really mean? And what message are we sending out in our sanitized Christianese? I grew up in a Christian background that, in one way or another, seemed to ignore the reality of mental health through either making illness a god and condition from which there is no escape, or in denying it as anything other than sin and disobedience.

As someone who truly wrestles with self-esteem, in times where I am deep in the valley of brokenness and feel no motivation, the last thing that I need to hear is, “Buck up, what are you doing wrong?” I promise you that in those moments I am praying, I am in the Scriptures, and I am working to resist sin and live out my faith. Yet, despite my best efforts, these moments come.

What happens when the Church tells the broken that it is their fault, and that their attitude just needs to change? I’ll tell you. People become even more broken. And many, as I have witnessed, leave the Church because frankly, the world often - though not always - is more open to them. They have walks to de-stigmatize mental health, like the NAMI walk, they have organizations, counselors, and support groups that try to walk through the storms with the broken. So does the Church, at its best. But sadly, I’ve experienced an evangelicalism that says, “Psychology is demonic,” and claims that taking care of people’s mental health is a “sin”.

 This model does not help the church, indeed, it helps no one. It sets up boundaries to the cross, to healings, that many can never even approach. Rather, Sacred Scripture tells us:

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,’ (Matthew 25:37–40, ESV).

So, we see that Jesus calls his disciples; that is,you and me, to go minister to the broken, the poor, the outcast, and call them to God for, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrew 4:15). Jesus understands despair, for he endured it when he went to the cross (see Hebrews 12:1–2), He understands temptations like the passage above, and with both in mind, we are called to proclaim the gospel and be ministers of healing and reconciliation. But, we need to remember that great people of faith, even in the Bible, had moments of brokenness and depression. Consider Job and David, and even Jesus going to the cross. Their sadness and anxiety were not based on sin but based on humanity, for even Jesus took on flesh, and though without sin, he understands our struggles even while calling us to healing. In the case of Job, his depression was not due to sin but due to the fall (see Genesis 3) and due to hard things happening in life.

Even people who are often considered “giants” in Christian history have experienced "dark nights". This includes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of “The Cost of Discipleship”, as well as Martin Luther who shortly after the Reformation, upon seeing all the pride and division, fell into a deep depression, even thinking that God was nowhere to be found. And, of course, St. John of the Cross who wrote “Dark Nights of the Soul.”

When people are struggling with psychological problems, yes, let us point them to healing and resting in Christ; but, let us also minister to them in their pain, not by telling them it’s their fault, but by bringing them to the Cross and Empty Tomb where healing can come, and that it is in God’s will where they can find rest and abundant grace. I will leave you with one last verse to consider, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

May the peace of Christ be with you all.

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Isn't there room for brokenness?

I hear this statement all the time "But we are the broken ministering to the broken." Having attended an Evangelical Christian university for a year and been involved in two ministry groups on said campus, prior to attending the community college, I heard this constantly. Honestly I even began to believe but recently, with my study into the early church- and indeed seeing more of the breadth of Sacred Scripture- this question has regained significance to me.
 
       Some might say "Why? Don't we know we are broken people? After all didn't the fall mar us?"
But, this bring up a far more profound question on sin and its origin that I will not detail in this post, never the less, there is another aspect to this. "Is there room for the broken". Of course there is the church is indeed the place where we find grace, in the gospel, sacraments, and community, and we are all sinners in need of his unending grace yet an issue that is at the fore front of my monster fed 1 am typing spree is that we are obssesed with our brokenness, we own it like it is a part of us.

  But here is the thing we are called to transformation by God's work in us (Romans 8), and Jesus said "who the son sets free is free indeed" so how can we be so obsessed with our brokenness and why do we identify with it, especially when this brokenness is sin? But even when it is depression or some other like struggle is Jesus not our sabbath rest? He says that he is the Lord of the Sabbath

    "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 Esv) 

 In the next chapter Jesus declares himself Lord of the Sabbath he is our rest he is the one to whom we bring our brokenness and we share it in the community of the church and in him, though it may be slow there is a renewing work as we trust that "he who has begun a great work in you will carry it to completion" (See Philippians 1:6 for full verse). This is my concern that in much of some segments of evangelicalism we have found so much comfort in "grace" and our brokenness that we do not hear our saviors call to newness of life. And others fall into the error of having no grace for those in need. Neither of these, however, are to be done alone it is true that churches are filled with broken people, and as long as we are all still human, I expect this to remain but we go through this life of brokenness together as a community. 

So, while I don't think the phrase is entirely wrong we must be careful when saying it because though we come broken we are constantly renewed "the old has died the new has come.." and in baptism we died and are brought back to life (Romans 6). This brokenness that is part of being human should NOT define us lest we should be guilty of what Dietritch Bonhoeffer warned about 

        “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” (Cost of Discipleship).

      This is to say when we say "I am broken" as an excuse and or as a comfort the question becomes "Am I using this to my own harm in 'justifying the sin but not the sinner'". Realistically God's radical grace is made manifest in that he works through us broken people but that, though we come to him broken, he is constantly transforming us, as we adhere to his will, and pruning us (John 15 and 2 Timothy 2:20-21). We come to him broken striving to, by his grace, live for him as he -God- does the heavy lifting of transforming us though broken we may come to him we have Christ in us as the hope of glory (see Colossians 1:26-27). In Short while I would say "yes there is room for brokenness" I would say but we should not take comfort in that as a "destination" but as a journey into God's healing hand of transformation though we will likely never be perfect until the final day God is our rest and let us rest assured that, as stated before, he is our Sabbath rest and we have Christ in us as the hope of Glory. 

    I will end with one last quote keeping in mind that God meets us in our brokenness "He loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way". 

“Are you a sinner? Do not become discouraged, and come to Church to put forward repentance. Have you sinned? Then tell God, ‘I have sinned.’ What manner of toil is this, what prescribed course of life, what affliction? What manner of difficulty is it to make one statement, ‘I have sinned’? Perhaps if you do not call yourself a sinner, you do not have the devil as an accuser? Anticipate this and snatch the honor away from him, because it is his purpose to accuse. Therefore, why do you not prevent him, and why do you not tell your sin and wipe it out, since you know that you have such an accuser who cannot remain silent? Have you sinned? Come to Church. Tell God, ‘I have sinned.’ I do not demand anything else of you than this. Holy Scripture states, ‘Be the first one to tell of your transgressions, so you may be justified.’ Admit the sin to annul it. This requires neither labor nor a circuit of words, nor monetary expenditure, nor anything else whatsoever such as these. Say one word, think carefully about the sin and say, ‘I have sinned.'”+ St. John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving, Homily 2

May the peace of Christ be with you. 

Why I hate most Modern Christian Art

   

“Be-reshit bara Elohim Et Ha sha- mayim Ve’et ha’eretz,” (Genesis 1:1).

Most of my readers probably have this verse memorized in English, and it is one of the few that I have memorized in Hebrew. But what does this verse have to do with my rant today? Well, as the advertisements for new, hip Christian movies boisterously bounded off the walls, and Christian small groups danced at the creative genius of the new gospel movie, my mind was consumed with the indignation of voices echoing inside my mind. I wanted to scream, “Silence! When did we start selling the gospel?”

Now, before one says, “But you can not judge what you have not watched,” I will say I have seen countless Christian movies, and it pains me to say that even though we worship a God of creation- as demonstrated in Genesis — we seem hell-bound on selling a beautifully packaged gospel, free from any real burdens and profound depth. We paint an imaginary world that is alien to the world that we live in, and decry the attempts of atheist directors’ detail of boisterously uneducated Christians as we paint atheists the same way wantonly.

God is a God of creation, a God of beauty, so much so that the Earth testifies about Him (Romans 1). Jesus even declares, while he is being praised as “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” that if the crowd were only quiet enough, they could hear even the rocks praise him. So, this leads to the first part of my annoyance with Christian Art: the theology of it.

If art is worship, our worship should be beautiful; and if our God is Holy, our art should be Holy, not the same old blatantly, poorly done, theft of the art from the unregenerate. You have to realize that when “our art” is a rehashed Christian universalist version of “Groundhog’s Day” or a cheesy Jesus-infused Romantic comedy, we have a problem. Because not only are we being lazy, we are also not fully worshiping God for who He is. Now, I am not saying that our art has to be Scripture-heavy. One of my favorite bands is Twenty One Pilots, and I have quickly realized that their songs, “A Car, a Torch, and a Death”, “Taxi Cab”, “Addict with a Pen”, and “March to the Sea” proclaim more gospel truth than many contemporary “Christian” songs. These songs come from a band of two Christian kids writing music for everyone and naturally lacing their music with the gospel. Art doesn’t “become Christian” simply because we put Jeremiah 29:11 on it. It becomes Christian when we proclaim the gospel unaltered and without the theft of non-Christian property. In fact, I’m 99% sure that this is technically theft, which is a sin, think about it like this: Martin Luther once said, “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

Our art becomes Christian when we do all things for His glory. The gospel is shared when we live it out. And our art should be the best we can do, because we proclaim a living God. We don’t need to paint trees to say “Jesus,” because Nature announces Him without our help (Romans 1).

My second and last reason, for now, is that modern Christian Art creates a commercialized gospel by which we can make a profit from preaching Christ crucified, and that should be obviously wrong, as it also encourages faulty work, because the more we produce, the more money we make. Think about it like this. Bach, arguably one of the greatest classical composers ever known died with an entire library of theological books. The Christian artist infuses their art with the faith when they are, as C.S. Lewis once described himself, theologians first when they are creative as God is creative, and when it is not about money, but rather about God and when their entire life is enraptured by the redeeming work of Christ.

May the Peace of Christ be with you.

Ash Wednesday reflection

   It is that time of year, a time of fasting and penitence where we are called to reflect on our faith, and our lives and we prepare to, in a sense continue this journey with Christ up to his passion and, ultimately, his resurrection. As the time fast approaches, and I think of my first year on the Church calander I've been left reflecting on my faith, and on where I am at right now. Life, seems to be a never ending rush as every moment blazes on past us but earlier today in the mists of it all I found myself thinking about the cross that will soon be imposed on my forehead....betwixt my eyes.

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return" we are called to recollect to that ancient story of our ancestors in the garden who, for the promise that they could become "like God" brought sin into the world. And with it death, and we are reminded that all passes away, that each moment is fleeting but among this call to reflection on, deeper still, I think anyway, has grabbed hold of my consciousness.

That cross, that will soon find its place between my eyes, kind of anyway, reminds me of my savior who died for me, who came into the world to make me..us whole. And the cross causes me to think that as I repent, and pray I need to remember to keep my eyes on the "author and perfecter of our faith" which brings me to the point

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3


 "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."- Hebrews 4:14-16 

That cross will serve as reminder of Christ and that he is the great high priest and perfecter of our faith, as well as that I am temporal, living only for a moment. So, for those of us who will be going to recieve the ash cross today, let us repent and remember our great high priest, and approach him in humility, and love as we enter this season. Let us keep our eyes fixed on him today and evermore. Taking the time out of the chaos, to reflect on him, and our lives remembering the short time we have.  

I am linking here access to a passage from St. Clements epistle to the Corinthians on repentance: https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/114/repentence__an_opportunity_for_mercy_____st._clement_of_rome.html

                            May the Peace of Christ be with you, and may you have a blessed ash Wednesday. 

About me and this Blog

   So, pretty much as soon as I started this up I had people ask me why I named this blog "Crossing the Phoenix" that is a very good question. So, at the suggestion of others I am going to introduce my self, and explain why I came up with this name.

To begin with, I will explain my journey, for those of you who do not know I am a currently a sophomore at a local community college, I intend on transferring somewhere and majoring in Psychology- might be a topic here or there- and or something relating to theology/ministry. But, as of now I'm just working on getting my associates degree. I am almost there too!

                                              FAITH JOURNEY 
I was raised in a nominal Jewish family,had a Bar Mitzvah, and attended Hebrew school Tuesday nights and Sunday morning, a slight conflict since I became a Christian when I was 10, until after my Bar Mitzvah I would have kept going but I had problems with a few people there.

At any rate, shortly after coming to the faith, I started attending Awana at a local baptist church and then after going there for a few months I was invited by a family friend to attend a small Charismatic church the young christian that I was saw no problem with it, though it was a bit awkward at first as I was the only non Hispanic person there (On the plus side I learned a lot of Spanish).  I was attended that church for 7 years when I started to question some of their beliefs, I was invited by a friend to go to his youth group and from there started attending that church -which was the same one I went to for Awana- it was also where I got to know my Girlfriend :-D, at any rate the more I studied the Scripture, the more things I saw as wrong with my old "bible and nothing but the bible" church (Long story that I don't want to cover here). Anyway, I started attending the Baptist church, and started diving into books about the Christian faith written by other Christians, and found my way into considering Calvinism, went to a lutheran church and was introduced the the Liturgy and Sacraments (these will likely come up in posts), and started having deep discussions with other Christians. Before I knew it I started to read the Early church, and see things in Scripture I had never seen before which leads into the name.

                                         Crossing the Phoenix 
So, why the name? Well, in Greek mythology the phoenix was a bird that would die and rise again (did I mention I like history and mythology?) So, it's not hard to see why the phoenix eventually came to represent the resurrection of Christ thus, the blog ultimately says "crossing the resurrection". I chose this title because my blogs will largely focus on Scripture and the Early church and after all our faith is a faith based on the resurrection and our future resurrection. (see 1 Corinthians 15) So, now that you know a bit more I hope you enjoy, learn a bit, and that the facebook page can be a place of open discussion.

                                May the peace of Christ be with you.

P.s.; If you can help a friend of mine out for going to study abroad it'd be appreciated.
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gofundme.com%2F5cb7w4&h=bAQEjGiHA&s=1