Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 - Review

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 by Garrison Keillor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Garrison Keillor is an excellent storyteller and writer. He knows how to compellingly paint a scene and depict a person or a community with all their foibles and qualities.

Sadly, he also has an anti-Christian perspective. He makes you feel so good about rejecting basic truths. He weaves in some deep truth with lots of lies.

Here's what he gets right. He vividly describes temptations to sin. Pious Christians can learn something from this, as we tend to avoid admitting the reality of it. And he shows how people can respond to sinners graciously. Pious Christians often want to condemn and reject scandalous sin, getting as far away from it as possible, when we need to find our way to communal forgiveness and acceptance of outsiders and sinners, as they take a better and more godly path.

Here's what he gets wrong. His conclusion is that sin is normal and we shouldn't be so revulsed by it. Shame and a guilty conscience is always a bad thing. The church and its leadership are misguided in how to handle sin. The solution to sin isn't the cross of Jesus, but people who accept and love you for who you are.

Keillor gets all this across without ever being preachy, just telling a compelling story that is deeply true to life. This makes it all the more insidious. He appeals to common experience to argue for the truth of his assertions. A cranky, fundamentalist father. A sexual temptation. A first job that launches you into the world. An out of wedlock pregnancy leading to a marriage. "This is my life, my family," thinks the reader. But in the end, his solution is not God's grace in Jesus, but other people who won't condemn you.

I cried at some points, the story was so good. I read a lot out loud to my wife and kids. But I had to edit out the R-rated sentences. (Don't give this book to your kids. Ironically, one of my kids gave it to me for Christmas, without having read it all!) Keillor knows what it is to be human, and he's been influenced by Christianity, but he misses the main point of life: to pursue righteousness according to God's Word. He understands grace on a horizontal level - person to person and within a community. But he doesn't seem to think God has any grace or relevance for us in this life.

5 stars for writing. 1 star for message.

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Genuine Christian Fellowship

Genuine Christian fellowship takes trust and courage.

You have to sort out over time if someone is really for you, or just fighting the latest internet controversy and you are their stand in adversary.  Are they just sounding off their own opinions, or are they truly concerned for your welfare?

Some are always keen to offer "faithful wounds from a friend."  Yet we need to offer positive and encouraging words to our Christian brothers and sisters.  Genuine fellowship isn't there with the mere presence of critique or rebuke.

But it should be present sometimes.  If you feel you can NEVER offer a word of concern or warning or disagreement to a church member, you haven't yet reached genuine fellowship.  (This is true in marriage, too, especially from wife to husband.)

The Spirit of Christ is bigger than the current "issue."  If you can't remain Christian brothers, and disagree about Ukraine, or eating out on Sundays, or whether homeschooling or a Christian school is preferable, then something is dreadfully wrong.

In our fellowship time at church today, I received and gave a mild criticism or two, and I noted there was a total lack of offense on my part and theirs.  It was wonderful to note a sense of trust and respect to be willing to say and hear such things without freaking out about it.

If you don't have that sense in your church and with your Christian friends, seek it out.  It is a deep blessing from the Lord.

An Author for Women (and Men) to Read

I'm not thoroughly versed in books recently published for women, but just rediscovered Elizabeth Elliot.

Open to correction, but I think she's the best author for Christian women in the last 50 years.

She is straightforward, doesn't pander to sentimentality, and gives sound doctrine and exhortation for the anxious, distressed, or suffering soul.

This is an excellent introduction to her if you haven't read her before.  Short devotions that quickly give you the main message of her life to the world.

Her best known book recounts the missionary effort of a group of young couples, in which her husband and most of the men were martyred.

This led her to produce some excellent teaching on God's providence in suffering.

She also has some very good books on the particular virtues godly men and women.

She had a radio program for years, always opening with this Scripture: "You are loved with an everlasting love, that's what the Bible says, and underneath are the everlasting arms."

Let us not always be caught up with current controversies and social media food fights over the latest issue.  CS Lewis urged us to read old books as often as we read current ones.  We do far better to pick up Elliot from 20 or 40 years ago, instead of the latest Beth Moore offering.  Especially on the issue of men's and women's roles, it is extremely enlightening to read what the previous generation or two thought.

Paul, Provocation, and Persistent Persuasion - Acts 19

There's no doubt about it.  Paul was a provocative figure in the New Testament.  Wherever he went, arguments erupted in synagogues, riots started, and he occasionally got stoned for blasphemy.

None of this was wrong for Paul to do.  Many think that just by being provocative, one is against the Spirit of Christ, who was always gentle and kind.  Wrong.  He knew when to flip tables in the temple, and double down on criticism of religious leaders when they pushed back against Him.

But in Acts 19 we see a different and important side of Saul of Tarsus.  Two things stand out.

One, he wanted to go into a theater of rioting angry Artemis worshipers and persuade them of the Gospel.  But his friends convince him against it.  There are times to hold back, when the audience is so ragingly against you, that it would be no use.  Paul accepts this, and lets others speak for him.

Two, when the town clerk addresses the angry crowd, he says Paul and his group are not blasphemers against Artemis (19:38).  Now, he may have been partially ignorant.  I'm sure Paul asserted at some point that Artemis was not a real goddess.  But the point is that Paul was not KNOWN for blaspheming Artemis.  He provoked by declaring a new God, calling for allegiance to Him, and let people figure out that this meant they shouldn't buy Artemis statues anymore (19:26-27).

There is a time to punch holes in the inconsistent worldview of the ungodly, as Van Tilian apologists love to do.  But Paul doesn't seem to have been emphasizing that, in Ephesus.

Showing people how wrong they are isn't always the best way to provoke them to consider the Gospel.  Sometimes simply proclaiming the truth of Jesus, and letting them sort it out over time is better.

Now, I know I'm overdoing this a bit, given verses 26-27.  Demetrius accuses Paul of saying their idols are nothing, that gods made with hands are useless.  My point is, if Paul had been provoking like this in spades as the hallmark of his ministry, the town clerk would probably have known.

Does Paul make the same point against idols on Mars Hill (Acts 17)?  Yes, he does.  But he first credits them for being religious, and after says God will overlook this ignorance, before coming to the climax of the resurrection of Jesus.

People today in the West don't have idols of gold and silver, usually.  But they do idolize their body, identity, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.  It's right to critique these things, and point out they are worshiping the wrong thing.  But a Christian should keep his main rhetorical focus on Christ Jesus as risen Lord and true Savior.

Giving Sunday Rest

"Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, maybe refreshed" (Exodus 23:12).

Although I've done it several times in a pinch, the general rule should be that Christians do not go to restaurants or grocery stores on Sundays.  Most think it's a pharisaical and legalistic add-on to the fourth commandment, but there are plenty of Scriptures like Exodus 23:12 that make it clear: don't make others work for you on the Sabbath.  That includes grocery store clerks and waitresses at restaurants.

There are two basic arguments I've heard against this.  First, "God wants ME to rest, so why should I prepare my own meal when someone else can do it who is willing?"  This is just ignorance of our Exodus 23:12 text (also Deuteronomy 5:14).  Sure, your servant will do whatever you pay him to do, whenever.  But the point of the text is to command you not to ask it of him.  You must rest, and you must give others rest.

Second and more compelling, Colossians 2:16: "Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath."  But I believe this refers to Judaizers insisting Christians obey the whole Old Testament ceremonial law.  If the seventh day of rest is abolished with the rest of the ceremonial law, why is it in the 10 commandments, and why do you go to church on Sundays?  Why was it established in the first few pages of the Bible (Genesis 2:2-3), way before Moses?  Sabbath rest is a sign of our ultimate rest in glory (Hebrews 4:8-10), and until we have that, we should observe a sabbath.

It's become something of a punchline in the evangelical world that the fourth commandment isn't about whether or not we go out to eat on Sundays.  But that's a cop out.  I beg to differ.  Of course the Sabbath is about more than this.  But it's included.

Saturdays are for house work and preparing for Sundays.  The old school pattern for Saturdays of mowing the lawn, washing the cars, getting groceries, vacuuming, extra cooking, and a Saturday night bath for the kids in preparation for Sunday was a very good one.  It parallels God telling Israel to gather twice as much manna on the sixth day, in preparation for the seventh (Exodus 16:22-30).  The goal should be to help yourself and others to rest the next day.

We shouldn't freak out if plans suddenly change, or someone's "ox is in a ditch," and we have to do some work or go to a store.  God understands (Matthew 12:1-8).  But we should plan for going to worship and fellowship with His people, not going to stores on Sundays.