Category Archives: culture

I pretty much stopped calling myself a Christian in most contexts a while back. It’s because of my experiences here in USA and in Europe that I began calling myself a “follower of Jesus.”

The whole issue of the testimony of the church is one that is near and dear to the hearts of some of my friends and me… a new book is out which addresses the issue…

I heard an interview last night driving from DC. Some of the author’s ideas are that Christianity is seen in America by unbelieving folks as:

1. Judgemental
2. Sheltered (not in the world)
3. Too Political (should we have national flags in churches??? or photos of presidents??? am I against Romney or Huckaby because they are so outspoken about ?)
4. Anti-Homosexual (I think they mean the people not the act)
5. There were more but i can’t remember them…

This is a link to a generous sample of the book, click here…

I think this is some important material for those of us who are followers of Jesus to be aware of… how can we possibly present Jesus to folks without understanding them???

rough film, yes… film
it does not glorify drugs, it shows the lengths men will go to to be rich, to have power, it shows that all men are screwed up, even those who are faced with the task of law enforcement, they too are screwed up people… even the one guy who wound not steal money, he was faced with the fact that he had put his job before his family and finally realized he was no better… is any man any better?
This film shows the truths of Romans 1, 2, and 7…
interestingly a rendition of Amazing Grace is playing when the gangster is cornered outside a church…
its also a film about influence, how men influence one another…
at the end the bad guy stood alone, older, alone, on the street outside the gate of the prison he had just spent fifteen years in… no one to greet him, he was alone…

I almost called this post “an extremist on extremists,” but…

I heard people in Iraq call leaders in the US “Christian extremists,” just as leaders here [USA] speak of “Muslim extremists.” Everyone is delaring war and asking for God’s blessing. One beautiful Iraqi mother threw her hands in the air and said, “Your country is declaring war in the name of God and asking God’s blessing, and that is the same thing my country is doing. What kind of God is this? What has happened to the God of love, to the Prince of Peace?” Her question haunts me.

– Shane Claiborne in The Irresistible Revolution, p.218-219

I read this on Veterans Day but decided to wait a couples of days to post. When I read this I was reminded of the story I heard from the war in Yugoslavia when priests would bless tanks going to battle on both sides of the fron as Serbs fought Croats… how does one make sense of such? how?

Christian Humanism

point 4 – The Christian Humanist asserts the rightful place of reason – that Christian theology is rational and the Bible is its main text; with the Story, the Gospel as a rational foundation for knowledge [I hope I have not interpreted him too much].

point 5 – Christian Humanism provides guidelines for Christian Identity which includes education (providing wisdom, not skills – an understanding of Truth – embracing difference while being tolerant of difference – patriotic, but critically – science and technology should serve the common good not themselves… Christianity Identity includes embodied in the world but transcendent in ideals…

point 2

Christian Humanists stand in contrast and opposition to that which dehumanizes people.

SO, I went to these two lectures sponsored by the local university. The speaker was from S. Africa. The second lecture was titled “Christian Humanism against Fundamentalism and Secularism.”

In his talk the speaker (more on him later) gave a manifesto. One point of the manifesto is that a Christian Humanist believes that

Christians are humans first and Christians by choice.

more to come.