I came across the Wikipedia article on the Rebellion of Münster recently, and was surprised to learn that the city was taken by Anabaptists by force in 1534. The Anabaptist theocracy lasted less than a year and a half, after which it was overthrown quite violently. The leaders were tortured to death, and their bodies were put on display in the town for the next 50 years in hanging cages that remain in place five centuries later.

After the rebellion, two kinds of Anabaptism became distinct from one another:

The Münster Rebellion was a turning point for the Anabaptist movement. It never again had the opportunity of assuming political importance, the civil powers naturally adopting the most stringent measures to suppress an agitation whose avowed object was to suppress them. It is difficult to trace the subsequent history of the group as a religious body. The fact that, after the Münster insurrection the very name Anabaptist was proscribed in Europe, is a source of twofold confusion. However, the Batenburgers under Jan van Batenburg preserved the violent millenialist stream of Anabaptism seen at Münster. They were polygamous and believed force was justified against anyone not in their sect. Not surprisingly their movement went deep underground after the supression of Münster with members posing as Catholics or Lutherans as necessary.

For those who opposed the use of force, differentiating themselves from the Münster rebels became of utmost importance. Many nonresistant Anabaptists found leaders in Menno Simons and the brother Obbe and Dirk Philips, Dutch Anabaptist leaders who repudiated the distinctive doctrines of the Münster Anabaptists. This group eventually became known as the Mennonites after Simons. They rejected any use of violence, preached a faith based on love of enemy and compassion and never aimed at any social or political revolution. link

It’s interesting that I’ve never heard of the violent, polygamous Anabaptists, despite hearing a good deal about the peaceful Anabaptists who influenced later movements such as the Mennonites.

I think there’s an important message here: the way we pursue our aims determines how history will remember us. The way of violence does not lead to long-term change; it is the path of desperation rather than the path of wisdom.

In Matthew 12, Jesus first establishes himself as superior to and exempt from sabbath rules. He then travels around healing people, and Matthew takes a moment to apply an Isaiac vision to Jesus’ ministry:

Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.

In his name the nations will put their hope.” Matthew 12:15-21

The original quotation from Isaiah reads:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.

In his law the islands will put their hope.” Isaiah 42:1-4

In both renderings, the establishment of justice is mentioned twice as a primary task of the chosen servant of God. It’s clear that this justice is not brought about by Saddam-like force or coercion: “A bruised reeed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he wil not snuff out.”

It should therefore be a primary concern of God’s people to establish justice, and see that justice is indeed done where it has ostensibly been established. In case we need some help looking for causes in which we can work for justice, here’s a starter list:

• The imprisonment and death sentence of Cory Maye
• Basing school funding on local property values (i.e. rich kids get better public schools)
• Racial profiling in traffic stops

I think it’s tempting (for conservatives especially) to see the establishment of God’s justice as something that will have to wait until the parousia. In a sense, there are elements of God’s justice that will not see fulfillment in this life. Jeremiah complained:

You are always righteous, O LORD,
when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease? Jeremiah 12:1

In another sense, though, we can do something about the injustice in the world. We may not be directly establishing God’s justice, but I don’t know that there’s really a difference between justice brought about by God directly and justice brought about by those seeking to do God’s will.

What do you think?

I live in the ‘hood. I love it. Affordable housing, good bus service, and lots of useful businesses.

Some of the businesses aren’t just useful, they’re incredibly creative. One that I’ve wanted to highlight for a long time is Triple Cheap Junk Hauling and Barbershop. Yes, a combination junk hauling service and barbarshop. Now, you might think that these businesses simply share a storefront, from which both services are made available. But this is an entirely mobile operation:

The front half is a barbershop; the back half is a truck bed for hauling junk. Make your own mullet joke.

Another creative business combination (photos courtesy of A9’s drive-bys) is the bridal shop down the street. It’s right next to an auto parts store (Schuck’s). Guess which business makes copies of keys?

That’s right. The bridal shop, not the auto parts store, is the business that makes keys. They also do tuxedos, so if you need to look sharp and give others access to your property, they’ve got you covered.

Yesterday we went hiking near Denny Creek, at Exit 47 off if I-90. The trail was called Annette Lake Trail, though we didn’t make it to any lakes.

The snow on the ground and on the trees was spectacular. The trail was completely covered in snow, in some places up to five or six feet deep. My toes eventually got cold, so we turned back after two miles, for a four-mile round-trip, but it was still a good workout. And the views were breathtaking.

There was an outhouse in the parking lot, and for some reason the door (which was quite solid) had a number of bullet holes in it. None of them penetrated all the way through the door (which I’m sure was a relief for the person inside at the time of the shooting), but they were about the size of a nickel.

Now, when we arrived at the parking lot, I saw lots of snow and open space and thought what all males behind the wheel think in a situation like this: donuts! I slammed on the gas, but to no avail: the snow was tightly packed, and we got stuck. Rather than delay our hike, we decided to dig out later (which took about 30 minutes when we got back to the car).

One of the best views was in a powerline right-of-way:

Great hike. Other than the knee-deep snow near the top that swallowed and froze our feet, everything was perfect. Amy described it better here.

Thanks to a tip from d0ngle over at the WordPress support forums, which I finally found today in my Rojo account, the comment error is gone.

It turns out that the version of Scripturizer Remix I was using was causing the error. I’m not sure why, and I don’t know if future versions of Scripturizer will cause the error, but I’ve deactivated it for now and have notified some others who had the same problem.

I’m glad to have my site working properly again.

Jesse and Elaine and Amy and I were discussing church today over lunch, and we talked about the Christian Year and liturgy as a possible source of renewal in our small church groups.

I suggested that we might benefit from Robert Webber’s Complete Library of Christian Worship, an eight-volume set that probably covers just about everything when it comes to Christian worship. I looked it up on Amazon, though, and it starts at $215 used. Never mind.

But I think we could find a lot of the same resources online if we took the time to look them up. The “Christian Year” spirituality materials are generally quite old, not copyrighted, and available for free.

But why do we worship in the first place? Understanding this question is crucial to doing church correctly.

I think we worship because God is sad, and God needs us to cheer him up every Sunday. If we do a good job, God is happy. If we do a bad job, God stays sad, and might even get mad at us. So we’d better get it right.

The purpose of evangelism, therefore, is to get more people to come to church and worship, so God will be even happier. If we don’t evangelize, there won’t be as many people to sing and cheer God up, so he’ll be sad.

Or not. If that’s not why we gather each week, why do we? What should we put into it? What should we seek to gain from it? How much effort and expense should we put forth? What kind of variety should we have?

I do not watch American Idol. Amy does. And I sometimes overhear the entire show.

Last night, the women performed for America, and we missed it. My favorites, based on their initial auditions, are Paris Bennett and Kellie Pickler. They’re both really nice, and have great voices.

Tonight the men performed, and I saw the whole show. The main theme for me was the match/mismatch between performer and song. More than anything else, song selection was the make or break factor.

For example, Sway Penala is talented, but chose a weird falsetto song that I didn’t really like, because you couldn’t relaly get a feel for his sound. He did nail a high note, though, and finished well.

David Radford seems talented, but like he was born about 60 years too late. How much room is there for another Harry Connick Jr.? No one listens to that kind of stuff, or if they do, they’re happy listening to Harry Connick Jr. sing it, and don’t want to hear it from anyone else.

Bucky Covington did a decent job, but man, he’s weird looking. Good luck to him. Lynyrd Skynyrd was a good choice for him - the song felt like he was really into it, and it showcased his talent.

Chris Daughtry stole the show with “Dead or Alive.” Simon even said as much. He picked a song that people actually enjoy listening to today, one that really shows off his talent and is in the right genre for him. And he nailed it. And you gotta love the Safeway sideburns.

Kevin Covais is just too young. He still has that awkward-phase look, which he will likely grow out of like we all do. But he’s not Idol material yet.

Gedeon McKinney did a decent job and picked a recognizeable song, but I thought his stage presence was a bit lacking, and the song (”You know you make me want to SHOUT!”) didn’t really show off his voice.

Will Makar is another guy with talent who just picked a weird song that didn’t match him. Jackson 5? No.

Elliott Yamin got rave reviews from Simon (”We’ve had five seasons, and you’re possibly the best male vocalist we’ve ever had”), but picked a song in which the pitch is constantly wavering, so you can’t tell if he’s staying on key or not. I thought it was decent, but not impressive.

Bobby Bennett did Barry Manilow’s “Copa Cabana,” which was dreadful. Note to self: Never, ever cover Barry Manilow on American Idol. Or other music that no one likes. Simon characterized the performance as “a complete nightmare,” which was probably going too far, but it wasn’t great.

Ace Young picked “Father Figure,” a George Michael song, which he performed pretty well. He definitely has the best look of any of the guys, with the hair and the stubble and all. He was trying a little too hard to be sexy, though, and had some weird facial expressions during his song. The judges liked him more than I did.

Taylor Hicks picked a song that was a good match for him, and nailed it pretty well. He’s what you’d call really southern, and he bent his knees and bounced up and down a bit. But he’s, as Simon said, interesting.

My vote is going for Chris Daughtry, who I think did a fantastic job on a song that was demanding and entertaining.

Does anyone know of a list of voting phone numbers? I assumed the numbers would be on the AI website, but they want to make sure you watch, so they only put them on the show.

Righteousness, righteousness
Is what I long for.
Righteousness
Is what I need.
Righteousness, righteousness
Is what you want from me.
–Sonic Flood, Holiness (on their debut album)

I’m at one of those points where I don’t have a lot to say yet. Just questions.

Why does righteousness disappear when not replenished, like water in a flowerpot?

Why do you forgive, O God, and give us the option of returning to you?