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’Til Death Do Us Part
What a beautiful idea in Wesley Hill’s cover story: vowed siblinghood. As a lifelong celibate single, I, too, find the thought of such friendships, perhaps even including adelphopoiesis ceremonies, enormously appealing. Perhaps that would answer the persistent loneliness so many people in the church, both single and married, seem to know.
Alice Morgan Charlottesville, Virginia
In my mid 20s, I sensed a call to celibacy and to living solely for God. I finally agreed to it if God would provide intimate friends of both genders. But Christians often don’t know what to do with people like me. I’d like to have more friendships with married people. And as Kate Shellnutt commented, many people try to get all their emotional needs met by their spouse. I could never understand the idea of cutting off friends after marriage.
But I suspect that many of us lack deep friendships because we are unwilling to be open and transparent with others. We want to be strong and independent. Both result from sin. Happily, in heaven, we won’t have these issues. We won’t be thought of as being gay or weird, but can enjoy intimate friendship forever with those we couldn’t get to know here on earth.
Dan LaRue Lebanon, Pennsylvania
I Didn’t Marry My Best Friend
I appreciated Kate Shellnutt’s article on marriage and friendship. Perhaps best friend is one of those word combinations that has lost some of its power and meaning with time and overuse. To me, best has always implied one thing: that because of its quality, it stands alone. Many years ago, I asked God to give me a “best friend.” Instead the Lord, in his wisdom, gave me many wonderful friends, as well as a husband. To call any one of my friends “the best” didn’t seem quite right. As I look back, my husband wasn’t really my best friend when we married, but over time he has become the friend I count on and value above all others.
Carol Josefson Decatur, Illinois
The Midlife Church Crisis
In the Her.meneutics column, writer Michelle Van Loon fairly assesses that churches cannot neglect any age groups. But what about maturity in the life of a Christian? What about church as consumer culture—“if they don’t have what’s feeding me, I’m going to stay home”? There’s a difference between empty nesters as a mission field and Christians pulling back from church rather than leading ministry to reach the people to whom they relate and understand.
Amanda Kahle Richards Facebook
We had a similar experience to Van Loon’s when we attended a new church that had a contemporary and a traditional service. Since we attend a contemporary service at home, we decided to go to that one. On the way in, a woman in her 30s with her children and husband stopped us to say, “I think you’re in the wrong service. This is for younger people.”
I tried to explain that we attend a similar service at home. I love most contemporary Christian music. I don’t think she got what I was trying to say.
Will we return to that church? Maybe she should have said, “I think you’re in the wrong church.”
David Vohar Fredericksburg, Virginia
It’s All Gift
“The Midlife Church Crisis” irritated me. But just when my temper was ready to explode, I turned the page to “It’s All Gift.” Columnist Andrew Wilson gets it. Our work is all about the spiritual gifts that God has given us to steward. I get frustrated when I feel forced into a ministry I am not suited for, just because of the age of my family. I am equally frustrated when I know people who are gifted in certain areas of ministry, but feel that their duty is now done. It’s as if being a disciple is not a lifelong commitment. Thank you for balancing these viewpoints.
Bekki Holzkamm Hettinger, North Dakota
Open Question
In answering, “Should Christians resist greater government surveillance?” Rachael Jackson errs by writing, “Jesus, after all, was executed as a threat to the Roman government of Palestine.”
Although the Romans carried out the act, it was the Pharisees and Sadducees who consistently sent spies to follow Jesus to find reasons to persecute him. It was the chief priests and elders who urged the crowd to call for Jesus to be crucified when Pilate wanted to release him (Matt. 27:11–26). Jesus was not a threat to the Romans, but rather to the Jewish hierarchy.
Walter S. Hamerslough Professor Emeritus, La Sierra University Lafayette, Colorado
Capitalism and the Common Good
Kevin Brown’s article is in many ways admirable. However, some could easily come away with the impression that Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE) has a very simplistic (and unbiblical) view of the market.
At IFWE, we aim to analyze these issues first and foremost through the lens of Scripture. Our goal is to provide a biblical perspective on work and economics that not only shows our place in creation but acknowledges the fact that the Fall permeates reality to the deepest level.
We agree with Brown that externalities can occur, and that human interaction is subject to unintended consequences. We also say that everyone who participates in the market is fallen and capable of horrible evil. As Christians, what do we want for people who live in the poorest and most oppressed places on the planet? We want them to thrive, to wake up each morning and be able to provide for themselves and their families, and to unleash their God-given gifts on the world.
IFWE’s book For the Least of These looks on the role of markets in alleviating poverty. In addition, our book due out in 2015 will bring together essays by theologians and economists on capitalism and free trade.
Hugh Whelchel Executive Director Institute for Faith, Work & Economics McLean, Virginia
Market Matters
“Capitalism and the Common Good” and “The New Puritans” were encouraging but did not tackle the scale of change that is needed. Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is one of the key theses on why capitalism thrived more in countries that embraced the Protestant Reformation, particularly Calvin’s version. However, toward the end of the book, he recognized that if capitalism became detached from the Christian ethos, the managers of capitalism would become “specialists without spirit” or mere ciphers of their companies without a moral compass to guide them. Growth and profit are held above the common good.
Thankfully, economists and business leaders—as well as Anglican bishops with business backgrounds—are beginning to explore a new expression of capitalism that seeks to reduce the pay differentials to more reasonable ratios between the lowest and highest paid employees. I would also like to see large businesses, as part of their corporate social responsibility, commit to giving 1 percent of profits to nonprofits working with the poor.
If every reader of CT wrote to those companies in which they or their ministry hold shares, we would begin to see change. At present, company law in both the UK and the United States only focuses on returns to shareholders and ignores responsibility to the wider community in which those companies flourish.
Communism and modern market capitalism are both dinosaurs. It’s just that one died before the other.
David Parish Work Place Associate, London Institute of Contemporary Christianity London
Net Gain
Responses from the Web.
“The cover stories on friendship in this month’s @CTmagazine are stellar. Challenging my assumptions in more ways than one.” Trevin Wax @TrevinWax
“I became a believer in 1981 at an InterVarsity meeting on a small campus. Would I have met God somewhere else if the group did not exist? Sure. However, that was a God-ordained moment.” Dennis Preston, CT online comment. The Exchange: “InterVarsity ‘Derecognized’ at California State University’s 23 Campuses,” by Ed Stetzer.
“Communists tried to wipe out Chinese Christianity and only managed to make it stronger. What you are experiencing is certainly discrimination, and I’m very sorry for that. But as you so eloquently point out, the gospel will prevail, it always does.” Bill Holston, Tishharrisonwarren.com. “The Wrong Kind of Christian,” by Tish Harrison Warren.
“Thanks @MargotStarbuck for advocating finding the right reasons for self-acceptance in this body-conscious world.” Julie Jung-Kim @JulieJungKim Her.meneutics: “Bringing Booty Back,” by Margot Starbuck.
“If you were to look at what’s been available specifically for women at the average Christian bookstore, you’d think all women are supposed to get married and start having babies as soon as they leave their teens.” Amy Beth, Facebook. “Put Down That Pink Bible,” by Sharon Hodde Miller.
