"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Cor. 1:25)
I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Perhaps some of you have seen this. I saw it for the first time the other day. For me, this says it all when it comes to the post-modern drivel that is peddled as Christianity today. This is a raw and powerful clip, and it causes me to stop, think, and pray. Almighty God, You have called Your Church to witness that in Christ You have reconciled the world to Yourself. Grant that by your Holy Spirit we may proclaim the good news of Your salvation so that all who hear it may receive this gift; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Edited on: March 26th, 2008 7:01 pm
Comments:
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 27th, 2008 at 3:11 am by Andy Monro
I saw the episode of "ER" that this clip comes from. Your post inspired me to write something here.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 27th, 2008 at 10:47 am by s gibson
Please resend many of us did not get the clip in our emails and therefore did not understand the subject. Thank you Andy Monro
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 27th, 2008 at 10:37 pm by Rev. William M. Cwirla
Is that request to me or to Andy?
Thanks, Andy. I didn't know this was an ER episode. On several occasions, ER had a way of nailing the God dimension of life and death that is rare on television today. I recall a marvelous scene of a nun praying with a man who just died and addressing him as the nurses and doctors looked on at a distance, "My dear brother in Christ."
I have used that in my own practice as well.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 28th, 2008 at 7:29 am by mark
From the Anchoress: http://theanchoressonline.com/
...at West Hill on the faith's holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The words "Jesus Christ" will be excised from what the congregation sings and replaced with "Glorious hope."
Thus, it will be hope that is declared to be resurrected - an expression of renewal of optimism and the human spirit - but not Jesus, contrary to Christianity's central tenet about the return to life on Easter morning of the crucified divine son of God.
[...]
There is no authoritative Big-Godism, as Rev. Gretta Vosper, West Hill's minister for the past 10 years, puts it. No petitionary prayers ("Dear God, step into the world and do good things about global warming and the poor"). No miracles-performing magic Jesus given birth by a virgin and coming back to life. No references to salvation, Christianity's teaching of the final victory over death through belief in Jesus's death as an atonement for sin and the omnipotent love of God. For that matter, no omnipotent God, or god.
Do you know why these "progressive" Christians want to "progress" right through the tenets of Christianity into the grim world of neither-faith-nor-reason but self-actualizing instinct and "hopeful" feelings? Why they want Jesus with no Christ, God with a small g and all that? Can you take a guess?
If you said "it is the logical culmination of baby-boomer narcissism and that generations' tireless effort to deconstruct the universe and put itself at the center of all things" then ding, ding, ding! You win the daily double!
And of course, we see the same sort of thing happening in the LCMS today. It can't be about who God is and what He has done in Christ, it must be about me, glorious me. With the end being that I can then spend eternity wrapped in myself, in curvatus se.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 28th, 2008 at 7:43 am by Rev. William M. Cwirla
You are on to the danger. The self curved inward. Original sin. Push Christ from the middle. No more crucified Jesus. No more blood. No more redemption.
The devil grins at such preaching.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: March 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am by mark
I think the paradigm for Christian growth is me coming to a greater understanding of my sin, repenting and knowing I am forgiven in Christ. I think a byproduct of that process is Christian growth.
There are byproducts to sin. When we abandon the liturgy, with its focus on who God is and what He has done, there are byproducts. When we abandon traditional hymns with their strong doctrinal content, there are byproducts. We don't think that there are, but there are huge byproducts. People may not think that there is an effect from singing about Christ loves me as opposed to I love Christ, but there is.
Luther wrote: "As early as 1527, Luther sensed that the Reformed denial of the real presence portended a full-blown rejection of all the other articles of faith, so that the overall state of today's Reformed Protestantism is but the inevitable end product of Zwingli's naïve rationalism." Stephenson, John R. Eschatology. Fort Wayne, IN: The Luther Academy. 1993 Pp. xiii, 149 p.8 Luther saw that if you reject the real presence, then the method by which you deny the real presence works with every doctrine or Scripture and you use that method to deny other doctrines as well.
People don't seem to see that what they believe might have greater applicability than there current situation. The scene in the video that you posted is the product of decades of wrong thinking. And the real horror is to spend an eternity in curvatus se.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: April 03rd, 2008 at 7:59 am by Heidi
I was wishing for another chaplain a few days ago. We had to call a chaplain in at 4 AM a couple of days ago, to baptize a dying baby. It was wonderful that he came quickly and did baptize the boy, but I wished that he could have talked to the parents a little more. Instead, after the baptism he went off talking about unimportant things and gave the parents a hard time for not being married. They needed some comfort, and to know that taking the baby off of life support was ok (we can tell them all their options, but so many parents put off making that decision because of guilt and fear...) and they needed to know that their little boy was safe in the death of Christ. They needed to hear about grace, not law.
I miss one of the nuns at St. Jude. She spent almost all day up on the oncology floor and she would have those difficult conversations with families, and she always pointed to Christ.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: April 03rd, 2008 at 9:10 am by Rev. William M. Cwirla
May God raise up more of those nuns.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: April 03rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm by TJ
Wish I could see what you were referring to.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: April 03rd, 2008 at 5:32 pm by TJ
You must be talking about the woman and her "God is only love" speach. She obviously doesn't know the real God. He is love, for sure, but He is also righteous and wants repentance for our bad actions. This guy is definitely hurting and looking for real answers.
Re: I Want a Real Chaplain
Posted On: April 03rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm by joani
I saw the episode as well. Even before this episode, I was disapointed that they had to use a woman chaplan. And a new age one to boot! I did not expect anything but that drivel after knowing this chaplains character.