Linkathon!
The dream of the Rood…what happens when Christendom collapses?
Evangelical conspiracy theorists at the Corn Palace…
Get your copy of the “God Bless The U.S.A. Bible” …because Greenwood hasn’t had a hit in decades…
A weak attempt to explain away the exevangelical movement…
What we get wrong about being a good Samaritan…
White evangelical pastors hesitant to preach vaccines…
The evangelical lefts laboratory…
Do we really believe church is necessary?
How American Christendom weakens American Christianity…
How will the church respond to the Covid calamity in India?
Spiritual disciplines for the spiritually exhausted…
The eugenics roots of evangelical family values…
More later…
The book on Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted looks excellent. I just ordered it.
It does seem to be a good resource…
It seems to meld well with another resource I use a lot in our church, Peter Scazzero’s “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.” His book is helping remove a lot of gracelessness and legalism within our church body.
The Corn Palace-a fitting place for the “My Pillow Guy” and Metaxes. The only more fitting place might have been a Spam factory!
Eugenics…
YES!!! I feel better after seeing that link. As soon as I saw the word…Eugenics… in the Evangelical historical context, I thought of James Dobson. I had no idea of the content but the mental image was triggered on sight of the link.
This makes me feel vindicated…like…I’m almost not crazy…for noticing Dobson had a eugenics connection in his early years. The same guy who warned us of the slippery slope of impending free sex and death. Glad to see somebody else thought something was off with Dodson’s messaging.
Doctrine article is a thought provoking read. But….
Since doctrine means different things to different people, i think i prefer “Christian absolutes” …… FWIW…….
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00338-y
The Dobson and eugenics article was interesting, but it yet again brushes aside God’s words that the marriage bed is the only one undefiled. As the father of an 11 year old boy and 9 year old daughter, what do I tell them, and how much? Purity culture itself seems weird, but are we to just ignore God and give in to the world because that’s what kids do?
I’ve loved raising my kids, but the tween years are about to get real.
So, as a pastor, I’ve not made one mention to any church member whether a person should get a vaccine or not. And at this point, I don’t have any plans to employ the pulpit for that topic. Am I failing at my ecclesiastical responsibilities? My that is that getting the vaccine is a matter of conscience as it is not mandated as law. In such areas of life, I my have my own opinions, but I’m not going to preach those opinions of people are free to do otherwise. Why would I pit one portion of the body against the other?
*my thought
Not too crazy about the word “Christendom,” but if ” it” collapses that means we are at the end of this morality play. The Lord returns, declares the end and takes over….. The sheep and goats get herded to their assigned destinations and the lion and lamb become friends…
Anything wrong with that?
TNV
It’s not a binary choice though. That was the message I heard for years.
..follow our teachings or you’ll be like those animals..
I concluded the messages I heard (Gothard / Dobson / etc.) was actually their personal fetish.
I’m convinced youth can be encouraged to avoid sexuality when young, and seek the best for their families, should they marry. As for the remainder of Purity teachings, it belongs in the dumpster.
As a side note, from childhood I knew my Mama ..a nurse..dispised the post WW II mental health system. Her views influenced my thinking of old hospitals as hell holes. I now look at the old practices as eugenics equivalent, regardless of it’s motives or objectives.
Christendom has collapsed in the West.
That doesn’t mean Jesus is coming back soon…He is lord over all the other compass points as well.
Point taken, Michael…..
Where is the Faith flourishing today? ? ?
Em,
Africa, China, Korea, parts of South America…places where they don’t confuse their country with the kingdom of God…
It’s my personal belief that in ten years time the American church will lose another 50% of members and be as irrelevant here as it is in Europe…
You may be right, Michael. It seems that we morphed from the pursuit of happiness to it is my right to BE happy….. sigh
A society, self absorbed, finds the unseen God of Christianity irrelevant.
However, after this life comes judgement and without humility – reliance on God’s redemption – we have no leg to stand on…..
I ramble… sorry
Em,
I don’t think that’s the problem.
I think the advent of the internet and sites like this exposed the dirty underbelly of it all and people found out that they weren’t alone in having suffered at the hand of the church.
There have been no attempts to reform .
Heap on top of that the demand to adhere to a certain political platform and its leaders…and most have had enough.
Many faceted trend, Michael, no doubt… 🙆