Any discussion of Catholic and Protestant relations usually ends up focusing on a short list of issues: the Pope, Mary, justification, and, of course, purgatory.… [Read more…] about Why would Catholics and Protestants argue over this?
Christian Issues
Pastor: "He should have killed you. At least you'd have died a virgin."
I got this letter in:
Hi, John.
I became acquainted with your writing a couple of months ago and love it. I so wish I could travel back in time and hear your voice in my head while I was growing up, instead of the hard-core fundy “you’re going to hell” soundtrack of my early life.… [Read more…] about Pastor: "He should have killed you. At least you'd have died a virgin."
A Bible-based "hotline" that's no help at all.
The meme above crossed my Internet path today. I was going to print it out and hang it on my refrigerator next to my plumber’s name and number—except then I realized that while my plumber can actually help me, this list of Bible verses is more likely to hurt rather than to help me or anyone else.
Let’s take a look at the actual Biblical text behind these “hotlines”:
Worry Hotline ….. 1 Peter 5:7
1 Peter 5:7 reads:
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
This is fine for what it is. But it does nothing to address any real issue in anyone’s life. “Stressed about your job, your spouse, your money, your kids, your health? No worries: God cares for you!” Comfort fail.
Fear Hotline ….. Isaiah 41:10
Isaiah 41:10 reads:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
This Old Testament verse certainly sounds good. And I do think that God can provide such encouragement to us. But that’s not the message being delivered here. This is written to the nation of Israel, not to individual Christians. Appropriating God’s words to Israel as a personal antidote against fear is Biblically dishonest. It’s either disingenuous or ignorant to pull a Bible verse entirely out of its context and then use it to convey your own thoughts and feelings.
Temptation Hotline ….. 1 Corinthians 10:13,… [Read more…] about A Bible-based "hotline" that's no help at all.
Seven ways Christians fail to be Christian
Since I’m a Christian, I’m not exactly thrilled about writing this. But it wouldn’t be honest not to admit that we Christians too often blow it in these seven ways:… [Read more…] about Seven ways Christians fail to be Christian
The American Family Association and the KKK
The American Family Association (AFA) is in a tizzy because the U.S. Army listed them as a hate group in a training presentation. The Army identified the AFA as a hate group based on information from the Southern Poverty Law Center.… [Read more…] about The American Family Association and the KKK
Christians opposing the shameful "Values Voter Summit"
Here’s a snapshot of the speakers at yesterday’s NALT Christians press conference, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., as a “prebuttal” to the shameful (and for some reason illiterately named) Values Voter Summit, which starts today. From left to right are:… [Read more…] about Christians opposing the shameful "Values Voter Summit"
Romans 1:26-27: A Clobber Passage That Should Lose Its Wallop
Whenever I’m debating with someone who authoritatively declares that the Bible condemns homosexuality, and who cites the infamous Romans 1:26-27 as proof, I almost always offer this rejoinder: “What do you make of the vocative at the beginning of Romans 2?”
The question is admittedly pretentious on my part but I’ve found it effective, because those often most eager to wield the Bible as an authoritative weapon are also often those who have read it only in translation, and not very closely at that.
But it’s not an idle question.
Anyone who has engaged the issue of sexuality and the Bible has at some point contended with Romans 1:26-27: “For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (NRSV)
Sounds pretty bad, and indeed, so does the entire last half of the first chapter of Romans. Who, broadly, is being described here? Most agree it’s the Gentiles, and most agree that what is being represented here is boilerplate, Hellenistic Jewish material that attacks the Gentiles. But the condemnatory nature of the verses from 1:18-32 also fits awkwardly, if at all, with the spirit of the rest of the epistle, which goes from talking about the “uprightness of God” in the early verses to… [Read more…] about Romans 1:26-27: A Clobber Passage That Should Lose Its Wallop
Of Cakes and Christians
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Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of being a friend to sinners and to drunkards and to despised tax collectors. He made gallons of wine at a wedding. He treated women of ill-repute with respect. He made a Samaritan–a member of the neighboring race and sworn enemies of the Jews–the hero of one of his most profound parables. He praised a Gentile Roman Centurion–part of the occupying imperial force–for having great faith. He touched lepers. He spoke forgiveness and grace to those who beat and crucified him.
His followers continued the trend: Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch who was barred from Jewish temple worship. Peter participated in a religious revival among the Samaritans and then a Holy Ghost outpouring in the home of a Roman Centurion. Paul poured out his life traveling the highways and byways of the Roman Empire with a vision of Jews and pagan Gentiles together becoming the people of God; his fellow countrymen tried repeatedly to kill him because of it.
Last week I heard about two separate instances of Christian bakers–one in Oregon and one in Colorado–refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. In both cases, the bakers had turned away gay customers more than once, citing their Christian faith as the reason (the baker in Colorado will, however, happily make a cake for a dog wedding). In both cases, the actions of the cake-bakers brought public disapproval and official anti-discrimination investigations upon them. In… [Read more…] about Of Cakes and Christians
When Bad Christians Happen to Good People
For years before I (suddenly and out of nowhere) became a Christian, my wife Catherine and I used to study and practice Zen. One morning we were walking toward our car after a night spent sitting zazen at a Zen center with a dozen or so other would-be Buddhas. (Zazen is Zen meditation: you sit; you close your eyes; you try to disconnect from your thoughts; you try like crazy not to sneeze, cough or itch; you endeavor not to panic about the fact that after about a half-hour your whole lower body is so asleep you wouldn’t flinch if your thigh suddenly got harpooned.)
As we were approaching our car, we saw that a guy who had just pinned a flyer to our dashboard was now doing the same to the car parked behind ours. He gave us a friendly wave. “I hope you don’t mind me leaving one of these on your car,” he said cheerily.
I unlocked the passenger side door so that Cat could get in. “No problem,” I said. But what he apparently somehow heard me say instead was, “Please come over and talk to us.”
“It’s for a nearby church,” he said, coming over to talk to us. He was maybe thirty, fit, and clean-shaven, sporting an orange baseball cap, a winning smile, and a slight gleam in his eye that was somewhere between a little too friendly and crazy. “It’s called Calvary Chapel. Ever heard of it?”
“I haven’t,” I said. I closed Cat inside the car. Tucked under my arm was my zafu, the round pillow Zenners use to sit upon whilst trying to merge with The Great… [Read more…] about When Bad Christians Happen to Good People
To Pro-Lifers Who Believe Adoption is Always the Answer
A couple of posts back, Unfundamentalist Christian Aliza Worthington (who is so unfundamentally Christian that she is, in fact, Jewish), recently published here An Open Letter to Pro-Lifers, in which she shared the basis for her conviction that if she became pregnant the choices facing her should be hers and hers alone. The core of her argument was this:… [Read more…] about To Pro-Lifers Who Believe Adoption is Always the Answer