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Christian Issues

When God Plays Favorites

by Alex Camire in Christian Issues

Let’s just admit it – we all have our favorites. It isn’t that difficult, then, to believe that God has favorites too. Consider that one of the main narratives of the Bible, as a whole, is preoccupied with the notion that the Israelites are God’s chosen people, God’s “favorites,” so to speak. Favoritism is sort of a harmless construct, but it can affect a lot, particularly when the stakes are high.

Over the last year or so, I’ve tried to limit my direct criticisms of the president and his administration. I have, generally, erred on the side of limiting my sound that would contribute to the raging noise on the subject that has seemingly overtaken all news media in the most exhausting way. But, for the moment, I must be vocal.

Over the course of the current presidency, and the election cycle that lead up to it, there have been a number of Christian leaders who have insisted directly, or passively implied, that Donald Trump was chosen by God to lead our nation. Even one of the pastors at my own church (the church I left a week after the election) went so far as to post to Facebook that Trump’s win “was a total miracle of the Lord,” implying that God’s “favor” was upon him. These beliefs, while benign in and of themselves, can lead to malignant consequences – issues we are seeing played out currently. 

This favoritism is not new, but has been a hallmark of the religious right since its inception in the 1970s. In 1973, two landmark decisions occurred that would shape the… [Read more…] about When God Plays Favorites

Closets, Then and Now, Open and Closed

by Marguerite Sheehan in Christian Issues

I grew up in a large Victorian house in a small city in Western Massachusetts. I had, and thankfully still have, seven siblings. We span fourteen years, so it was not long that we all lived together in that house. During my growing up years, the house was filled to the brim with children, my parents, sometimes my grandmother, an aunt or two, and a cat that we called Mother.

I have lots of memories of that house and that city. And now, lo! I live in a Victorian-era parsonage. It seems like old times when our grandkids sleep over and when the house is filled with visitors. But I do wonder, where are my siblings?

The part of the “growing up house” that is on my mind today is the many closets. Some Victorian houses are short on closets, but ours was rich. They were not “walk in” but some of them were “sit in.” In the back of the closets were bureaus and it was possible for a small to middle size child to push aside the coats or dresses and climb up on the bureau top and finally find a place to be alone. Quiet. If there was a light in the closet or if you had a flashlight you could read, and for a short while no one knew where you were. I loved being closeted in those days. Every kid needs a tiny space of their own.

Even I, who is sometimes short on getting irony, know that the closet of my youth is strangely similar and very different from the closet of the rest of my life. For a long time now I have not wanted to be “in the closet” and have pushed my way out of many.… [Read more…] about Closets, Then and Now, Open and Closed

The Earth Is the Holy Land

by Darrell Lackey in Christian Issues

Last month, the United States moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. What are we to make of this move? While members of the Trump administration, in their nice clothes and bright smiles, stood with Israeli officials, just across the way over fifty Palestinians, including children, were killed.

But what are their lives worth, when “biblical prophecy” is being fulfilled? Yes, you read correctly. I know, crazy, but this is where we are as a nation. This is what happens when fundamentalism with its dispensationalism helps elect this type of president and then has his ear.

Remember, Vice President Pence is a dispensationalist along with a majority of rank-and-file fundamentalists/evangelicals. Of course, Trump could care less and has no idea what these people are even talking about. He’s just shoring up their support — doing something they wanted.

Where this links to current events is the dispensational view of Israel and physical geography, the land. Kim Riddlebarger in his book about amillennialism writes:
“We have seen how dispensationalists are committed to a literal interpretation of Bible prophecy. They insist that Old Testament prophesies regarding national Israel will be fulfilled by the modern state of Israel…”
And he quotes Hal Lindsey:
“I believe God’s purpose for Israel and His purpose for the church are so distinct and mutually exclusive that they cannot be on the earth at the same time during the seven-year tribulation.”
These notions of… [Read more…] about The Earth Is the Holy Land

A Kind of “Love” I Can Live With

by Stephen Schmidt in Christian Issues

I so wanted to rip their heads off. To yell at them, to show them how stupid they were being.

There are all these little private chat groups on Facebook, and if you’ve got any media-chatty or politically active friends, you’ve probably been sucked into some of them. This one was an alumni group from the Christian university I attended. And the discussion was — surprise, surprise — about the president and his recent policies.

I wanted to yell at them and tell them Jesus opposed everything they stood for. All their nationalistic pride, their anti-immigrant hostility, their anti-equality, anti-LGBTQ rights positions. Their dismantling of social safety nets for our seniors and the poor, for children. Their lifting safeguards that prevent poisoning our water and destroying our planet. Couldn’t they see how unholy they were being?

If I could, I’d probably strip their voting rights away. I’d silence their ugly voices. I’d make it so they couldn’t do harm to people, to the planet, to our country.

Yeah. Until I thought about it for two more seconds. I can’t drag Jesus into my arguments — even when I feel it is so clearly justified — because they can too. We each read and hear what we want to see and hear. The Bible, the Gospels, Jesus, only speak to us where we are, what we’re willing or able to accept right now. When people try to quote Jesus at me to prove me wrong, I almost always think they’re misunderstanding him. And, of course, that’s what they think when I do it to… [Read more…] about A Kind of “Love” I Can Live With

Patheos Removes Blog of Christian Whistleblower

by in Christian Issues

[Edited 1 Aug 2018 to more accurately reflect the time frames of Joe Gregory’s and Michael McKinney’s involvement with BN Media.]

Last Tuesday, Warren Throckmorton announced that his blog had been abruptly removed from Patheos.

Dr. Throckmorton is a longtime Patheos blogger, and it was there that he wrote important posts about the scandals involving Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, K.P. Yohannan, and Gospel for Asia. Driscoll and Yohannan both have blogs that continue to be hosted by Patheos.

In place of Dr. Throckmorton’s blog, Patheos now serves up a 410 error code, which means that “the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged.”

The only reason Dr. Throckmorton was given for this action was that his blog no longer meets the “strategic objectives” of Patheos. In an email subsequently sent out to some Patheos bloggers, Director of Content Phil Fox Rose says that “We’re sorry the lack of details allows for speculation,” but fails to offer any details that might end such speculation, other than that Dr. Throckmorton did not meet their “expectations.”

Patheos is a private company and is free to choose who they want to host on their site. But it’s not difficult to discover why Dr. Throckmorton’s relentless reporting on the scandals of evangelicalism didn’t fit the ideology (or the “strategic objectives”) of the owners of… [Read more…] about Patheos Removes Blog of Christian Whistleblower

Practicing Love Is Far More Important Than Believing Doctrine

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

Dr. Albert Schweitzer was an amazing man. He was a renowned theological scholar, a concert pianist, and a medical doctor. The second half of his career was devoted to serving a medical mission in Lambarene, Africa. He could not get missionary support because his theology was suspect, so he performed concerts in order to raise money to support his work.

In the first half of his career as a theological scholar he wrote several books, one of which launched a major theological movement that has now went through several phases. The title of the book describes the movement, The Quest for the Historical Jesus.

The late Fred Craddock, who taught at Candler School of Theology for a number of years, tells about the time he first read the book. He was in his early twenties, just getting started in his theological career. He thought Schweitzer’s Christology was woefully lacking.

Fred was in Knoxville and read in the news that Schweitzer was going to be in Cleveland, Ohio to give a concert at a church dedicating a new organ. The article reported that there would be refreshments afterward and that Schweitzer would be around for conversation. Fred was so passionate about his views of Jesus that he bought a Greyhound bus ticket to Cleveland, hoping to have an opportunity to drill Schweitzer with questions on his doctrine of Christ. He reminds me of myself in my twenties.

After the concert, Fred was one of the first persons to get a seat in the Fellowship Hall. He plopped… [Read more…] about Practicing Love Is Far More Important Than Believing Doctrine

If God Wants to Save Us, Why Isn’t Salvation Simple?

by Randal Rauser in Christian Issues

I know what you’re thinking: salvation is simple! After all, just look at John 3:16: God loved the world so much he sent his Son so that whoever believes in him will be saved. Surely that is simple, right?

It might seem so, but the closer you look, the more that initial veneer of simplicity dissolves into an unsettling complexity.
What do you need to believe to be saved?
Let’s start with this question: what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

At first blush, Paul appears to provide a simple answer to that question in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV) So believe Jesus is Lord and God raised him back to life: that’s what you need to believe to be saved.

Simple? Actually, no, it isn’t.

Here’s the problem: there are many groups outside of historic, orthodox Christianity that affirm those two claims. Mormons, for example, profess to believe that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. Does that mean that Mormons are saved?

Many Christians believe the answer is no: Mormons aren’t saved. The reason is that while they may accept the claims of Romans 10:9, they also accept many other claims that are incompatible with orthodox Christianity. For example, Mormon theology asserts that God was once a human being who evolved to become God and that human beings can themselves become gods.… [Read more…] about If God Wants to Save Us, Why Isn’t Salvation Simple?

More Guilt? Yes, Please! How Our Church Has Co-Opted Shame and Disguised It as Guilt

by Selina Mullin in Christian Issues

Have you ever heard the phrase “near-enemy” used before? No? Well, a near-enemy is when two things look very similar but are intrinsically different. I first read the phrase in a Louise Penny book, where she wrote about a woman who appeared compassionate and caring, but in fact wanted others to be totally helpless so they would need her. The woman seemed to have good intentions, but she was, in fact, hurting others so that she could receive gratitude from them. A near-enemy appears to be one thing while in reality it is another; it masquerades as a more noble version of itself.

Shame, in my opinion, is the near-enemy of guilt. Shame is a debilitating sense of humiliation or sadness; it immobilizes us and disintegrates our confidence. Guilt, on the other hand, is a pro-social reaction to how our actions affect others. Guilt helps us make our way through the world — it is the internal compass of our decision making.
Our churches have co-opted shame and parade it as guilt.
Here is an example. When I was little, I was told that to have a sexual thought in my mind was just as bad as if I committed the act (see Purity Culture). That’s an idea with a biblical basis (see Matt. 5:28). So, every time I had an even remotely sexual thought, I felt ashamed of myself. I was ashamed of my body, of my mind, and genuinely believed I was a bad person because of it.

Logically, this idea is absolutely ridiculous! Natural responses to stimuli from the world around us… [Read more…] about More Guilt? Yes, Please! How Our Church Has Co-Opted Shame and Disguised It as Guilt

Doubts Are a Serious Problem

by Jacob Turnquist in Christian Issues

Being raised in a religious community, I was given a particular understanding of what faith was. Primarily, faith was the amount of certainty one placed in the supernatural. From my Protestant tradition, the most important form the supernatural took was the Bible. So, faith was often equated with how much certainty one placed on the inerrancy of the Bible. Faith was also defined by one’s certainty of “things unseen” — not simply stating that there were things unseen, but that they took a particular form derived from a particular reading of the Bible.

The consequence of measuring faith by one’s certainty is that it defines its opposite as doubt. The more someone doubts the Bible’s claims about the supernatural, the less faith they have — the fewer the doubts, the “stronger” the faith. This so-called strong faith was valued in my communities growing up. Those with strong faiths led in my churches, Christian schools, missionary trips, and social groups. They were role models to be praised and emulated.

An expression of doubt indicated that someone had a weaker faith, that they were “struggling.” And, because the Christian faith was the source of morality, a weak faith would lead to “backsliding” into immoral behavior. Doubts lead to sin, and so they were condemned as a sin. And, as such, doubts were seen as the work of Satan.

A person who expressed doubt was treated with the appearance of love and… [Read more…] about Doubts Are a Serious Problem

Fox News Christians

by Darrell Lackey in Christian Issues

It has long perplexed me. How is this possible? What manner of cognitive dissonance is capable of such amazing mental gymnastics? What devilry, what witchcraft is afoot here? Here there be demons for sure, but where? It was like listening to one’s kind and sweet Grandmother talking about kittens and rainbows who suddenly shouts out an expletive. Then it finally dawned on me: this used to be me!

Not only was I a rabid 1980s Moral Majority Republican who actively campaigned for local Republican candidates, I was a 1990s consumer of right-wing talk radio. When, in the late 90s, Fox News debuted, I became a several-hours-per-day viewing addict. Other than occasional movies and sports, it was what I primarily watched in the evenings.

I lived in an echo chamber, a bubble of noisy, white, male, patriotic anger. Who was I angry with? Liberals. Feminists. Democrats. Hillary. Muslims. Obama. Immigrants. Environmentalists. Hillary. College professors. Atheists. Anyone who dared disrespect the flag or America. Hillary. Anyone I didn’t think supported law enforcement or the military. Hillary. Anyone I didn’t think supported the Second Amendment and gun rights. Did I say “Hillary”?

While this echo chamber was a combination of fundamentalist/evangelical books/ministries, conservative talk radio, and right-wing websites, the largest of these funnels was Fox News. Fox News had the biggest soap box and the loudest megaphone. And I loved it. At last, some media out there who… [Read more…] about Fox News Christians