Friday, June 24, 2011

What I learned in Seminary:A New Series

So, I intend to read each paper I wrote in Seminary and from them summarize each class I took in Seminary, a post a piece.
Hopefully my readers will enjoy these insights into these last 4 formative years preparing to be a pastor.
Peace,
Chris

Monday, June 20, 2011

Citizenship

Last night I had a dream that the Federal Government was reviewing my productivity as a citizen in compliance with the “New DREAM Act.” Specifically, they were judging if I was a productive pastor—and in the review decided I needed to take an additional 20 hours of continuing education. If I did not comply with this decision they would strip me of my citizenship and throw me out of the country.
Kind of a strange dream, but it has brought up a few questions:
1. What would America look like if we judged citizenship based on economic productivity instead of place of birth?
2. What is the value of religious leaders for a country? Is there any way my being a pastor is valuable in capitalist system (other than being a purveyor of the opiate of the masses of course… that’s a joke)
3. What should make a citizen? Specifically I’m thinking of the book Starship Troopers (not the movie) which features a society in which the only people who are granted citizenship are those who have fought in their country’s military.
4. How can we become more gracious as a society toward non-citizens?