I am going to be taking a break from the daily blog until after Thanksgiving. But come back daily for an excerpt from my book “Bring’em Back Alive”.   In the book of Jude, we read words that could have been written in last month’s Christianity Today: In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts. These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit! (Jude 1:18-19) As I noted in Bad Christians, we believers love to talk about multiplication (church growth) but we really only seem to understand division. The Bible offers no excuses for being part of any division within the church. Paul makes a succinct point (he tended to do that) about division in the church at Crete: But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies
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Earl Wilson once said that “one way to get high blood pressure is to go mountain climbing over molehills”. If the following story were Jeopardy categories it would go something like this… “Let’s go with ridiculous church and state objections for $50, Alex.”  And then you would follow up with this category. “I’ll take spectacular over reactions for $100, Alex.” Ding – ding – ding. It’s the DAILY DOUBLE! In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta this year, a marching band at C.D. Hylton High School in Prince William County decided to prepare a Georgia themed show.  One of the fun songs they chose was ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’ by the Charlie Daniels Band. Alert readers are probably already rolling their eyes in anticipation of where this is going. You got it. A local newspaper published a letter by a Woodbridge resident who wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events because of the separation of church and state.
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If you have been breathlessly following this daily blog you know that we have been addressing Pat Robertson and the whole Intelligent Design debate. The controversy has inflamed the bloggers (that sounds painful) to a category 4 or maybe 5 fury. A cursory run through some websites reveals two primary points. First, this is a master plan of Christianity to get thinly veiled “Creationism” into the public schools and turn the brains of unsuspecting children into mush. I am disappointed that I was not invited to this meeting. The second point is that Christians are stupid. If you type the phrase “stupid Christians” into Google you get 9,930 returns. That is a boatload of stupid Christians. I have developed a desire to communicate and help restore people who have been wounded by the church and  by those in the church. So I will often visit websites of those who have issues with Christians. Here are some titles from blogs and websites
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Yesterday I gently asked Pat Robertson to resign from the prophet gig. His poorly thought out musings on how disaster might strike Dover, Pennsylvania was regrettable. Now Pat has become the rallying point for those who are looking to make Intelligent Design a right wing Christian Trojan horse to sneak “religion” into the schools.   I have read the works of authors on both sides of the argument. Let me just say that these people have really big brains. William Dembski is a leading proponent of the Intelligent Design movement. He notes that “Intelligence leaves behind a characteristic signature”. May I suggest that the level of discourse recently has left a characteristic signature and it is not intelligence. How about this lovely little shot from a writer I often enjoy and generally respect. Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald wrote, “At the same time voters in Dover were standing up for common sense the Kansas Board of Education was voting to
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I am pretty sure that the host of the now controversial 700 Club would view my advice like a telemarketer calling during dinner. But I hope that Pat Robertson takes a phone call from someone who can remind him of his responsibility to the body of Christ. I know that my faith is offensive to some. When I go to some websites it seems that evangelical Christians are more than offensive. I find out that such Christians are dangerous and stupid. I object to that characterization strongly. I don’t think I’m dangerous. One website has a series of “enemy” links with the Republican National Committee described as the “the home of all that is evil”. Pat Robertson’s 700 Club is listed there as well. Pat Robertson has stirred up the media and the bloggers again with his declaration about Dover, Pennsylvania. The television host commented on an election that dumped the entire school board. The citizens of Dover ousted the board members who had favored adding
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This little planet can be depressing at times. I picked up a magazine this week and came across three quotes that made me realize how desperate we are for a little hope. The first quote was an odd mix of funny and sad. Country singer Kenny Chesney had a very short lived and well publicized marriage to actress Renee Zellweger. His description of the pain he was feeling was like a parody of a bad country song. You know what I am talking about. Songs like My Girl Ran Off With My Best Friend and I Sure Do Miss Him. Chesney compared the pain of losing that relationship to “having someone come in and take the big-screen TV off the wall during the big game, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Uhhhhh. Okay. Perhaps we have found a key to the breakdown of this marriage. I don’t want to make light of a broken covenant but what a shallow
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This may be a disappointment to you if you came here expecting George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on television. But increasingly we have become a society that uses polarizing words instead of words that allow and engage conversation. So class…if you will take out your pencils and pads…today’s word is proselytise. I was surprised to see that proselytise is used as a synonym for brainwashing at an online thesaurus site. The actual definition listed by dictionary.com is:    1.  To induce someone to convert to one’s own religious faith.   2.  To convert (a person) from one belief, doctrine, cause, or faith to another. I had never paid a lot of attention to the use of the word.  I knew it was generally a perjorative when used to refer to Christians. But as I read the definitions it became clear to me that I need to gently challenge this word. As an evangelical Christian (perhaps  evangelical will be a future “bad word” topic) I do not feel
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