Last year, I wrote a scathing theological rejoinder to Piper Calvinism and it’s “theology of glory”: see linked: What American Calvinists Don’t Tell You About God’s Glory.
Today, upon reflection and after an intense conversation on Facebook, I came to a realization; Emergent/Emerging/Missional Christians are wrong about God’s glory as well. A friend on facebook posted a link about a “Missional” Christian who wrote about “20 Ways To Smoke Cigars To the Glory of God”. Now, theologically, for me, this is a problem. How can you call yourself glorifying God if you are intentionally filling your body as a temple of YHWH with toxins? Yes, the same holds true for fatty foods and fast foods, and that is a struggle for a lot of people, including myself. But recognizing that eating unhealthy foods as struggle is part of recognizing God’s victory in Jesus over sin. In other words, seeing yourself in a struggle to begin with DOES NOT equal an endorsement of that behavior (eating junk food) as such. In contrast, this post, and other posts like these that I have read from emergent folks, usually read like this: There is something that people don’t like, but we do like, so, why don’t we just paint it as giving God the glory and silence other folks as “legalists.”
Now, I find it hilarious that people would call me a “legalist” but okay, come, let us reason together. One man’s legalism is another man’s anarchism; it just depends on where you stand. From my perspective, the theological thrust of the New Testament (and I would say the Hebrew Bible to, but for the sake of simplicity) is that human beings are the temple of the Living, One True God, and as such, cigar smoking is just unwise. From my personal experience, with a family who’s history is tied up with Big Tobacco, I don’t see how the industry or the act in any way glorifies God.
Here’s where I stand when it comes to the glory of God. If smoking cigars glorifies God, why don’t you smoke your cigars and your cigarettes in front of children? That’s how you will know if you are teaching what God’s glory is. You don’t smoke cigars to the glory of God; you do it for personal pleasure. Stop using God’s glory as a rubber stamp on everything you desire; it’s an injustice to Scripture and to YHWH.
Here I stand.
Instead of killing them with second-hand smoke we just kill them with fast food and an unhealthy life-style. Both are bad and a stand needs to be made in both areas, society love concocting their ‘lesser of two evils’. As I recall the Bible says some things about gluttony but nothing about Newports or Swishers.
Allen,
When people smoke, they are intentionally placing poison into their system. There are no health benefits at all to cigars or cigarettes. Hamburgers are consumed for nutrition. It’s common sense, they are not the same thing.
Hamburgers are not consumed for nutrition – there isn’t any in a hamburger. They are consumed for the fat high, which along with the sugar hit from a soft drink is right up there with nicotine in terms of the reason we buy them (and addictiveness).
Matt,
Stop lying to yourself. Hamburgers have protein and have nutritional health value. I prefer turkey burgers and black bean burgers if that makes you happy. Beef isn’t that bad either.
Very thoughtful post and powerful conclusion. I especially like the rhetorical question in your final paragraph:
“If smoking cigars glorifies God, why don’t you smoke your cigars and your cigarettes in front of children?”
This reminds me of something Rabbi Irving Greenberg said:
“The Holocaust confronts us with unanswerable questions. But let us agree to one principle: no statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of the burning children.”
Indeed. I concur with the sentiments.
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