The Great Commission
And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Churches and mission organizations (including the one in which I have spent …
My latest Worldview and You column pointed to parents’ responsibilities, both to set a sound example for their children and also to teach them well in the faith. Obviously this is a challenge. Obviously also it would be great if the church could step in and help parents be more effective in training up their children. Some churches are doing it well. None would claim they’re doing it perfectly.
Most churches major on the message of living the Christian life. Few make it a …
This post continues my attempt, begun last month, to gain a sense of person-ness in our dealings with each other–to see each other as real human beings, even where we disagree deeply. Larry Tanner’s story follows:
My journey to atheism has been long and complicated. My title indicates that I “became” an atheist, but the truth is I always was an atheist to some extent. I only needed to recognize and embrace it. I grew up in a Jewish household, but my family …
“Stephen” commented on my introductory post, Finally–A Blog For You!,
Maybe this website should be renamed “the rationalizing Christian”. That’s not the same as the “thinking” Christian, but the name seems to fit based my first impression. When we talk about “thinking” we generally consider that our thinking falls out on a spectrum between good and bad thinking. Certain values come into play to make that evaluation. One important one (my evaluation) is that we don’t rationalize. I’m using rationalizing to mean defend our …
Commenter Fleegman has come to the conclusion that
All I’m saying is – as you agreed – the primary motivation for Christians [to oppose SSM] is accepted Christian dogma on the subject. Since this is irrelevant as far as the law is concerned, you have to come up with secular reasons.
There are at least four errors here related to “dogma:”
An error concerning what dogma is An internal contradiction in Fleegman’s thinking A further misconception about Christian thinking Bigotry
The fourth error may …
Early in December I invited atheists and skeptics to tell their stories here, the idea being that if we see each other as real people, we are much more likely—even on the Internet!—to treat each other as real people.
Ron P. sent me an email with this. I appreciate him sharing this with us.
BEGIN I suppose I will start at the beginning. I grew up in a nominally Christian home in a fairly typical middle class American household, where weekly church attendance was …
I have often wondered what it would do for a church to bring in an atheist, skeptic or believer in some other religion for the purpose of hearing from them. I’ve found that my motivation to study and to learn always increases when I hear other viewpoints. I think the same could happen in a church. There are risks associated with it, but I think they’re manageable and I think the exercise might be worth it, at least in some settings.
I’ve been opening up …
A couple weeks ago I invited atheists and skeptics to share their stories here, in hopes that it would help us see one another as human beings, and treat each other that way. Ray Ingles took the opportunity first, and I just left a comment there wondering how it went from his perspective.
A couple others have written me with their stories to post, and I’m planning to do that, but I’m going to wait until after Christmas. I would have liked …
Last week I invited atheist and skeptical readers to tell their non-faith stories. The idea was that if we had some idea of the person behind the discussion, we might have a better shot at really treating one another as humans.
Ray Ingles sent me this. There are others, which I’ll post here at the rate of no more than two per week.
It should be obvious enough that Ray Ingles’ views do not represent mine, or Christianity in general.
BEGIN
My parents were …
"The New Atheists claim to be the party of reason.... The problem is, they're not very good at it." — Discover the provocative ebook True Reason: Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism.