Linkathon 8/29
by
BrianD
·
August 28, 2012
- The New York Times profiles former pastor-turned-atheist Jerry DeWitt.
- “This past Thursday I experienced one of the saddest events in my thirty years of Christian ministry. I conducted a funeral service and nobody came. “
- “Itâs just astonishing to us how long this campaign has gone on with no discussion of whatâs happening to poor people.”
- “As blasphemous as it sounds, âthe gospelâ is not the answer to every question. Â Itâs not enough. “
- “Thoughtful satire, witty snark and timely sarcasm can be powerful forces, but it seems that in todayâs uber-connected and politically charged climate these tactics serve mostly to galvanizing communities already in agreement in order to be a force against the enemy and they do very little to help build bridges of reconciliation, relationships and commonality.”
- “The disciplines of community expose our selfishness, vanity, impatience, entitlement and our brokenness. Rather than face this exposure it’s easier to withdraw and live with the illusion that we’re awesome loving people. “
- “So what can we say when we are called upon to present the reasons why we believe?”
- ” Here is a sane response to the recent kerfuffle (which is much ado about not very much) about the existence of Jesus.”
- “why is the complementarian/egalitarian debate such a significant bone of contention in parachurch cobelligerent organisations whose stated purpose is to set aside issues which divide at a church level but which do not seem to impact directly upon the gospel?”
- “Yet there are also great joys associated with teaching evolutionary biology in a Christian setting, and in this post I reflect primarily on these as a counter-balance to the more frequent stories of conflict and struggle.”
- “Metropolitan Jonah, by most accounts the highest-ranking, evangelical-friendly archpriest in North America’s Eastern Orthodox Church, resigned under duress in July.”
- “Science educator and former TV host Bill Nye has struck out against creationism in a new video, calling the worldview “untenable” and “inconsistent.””
- “Reaganâs caricatures did not fit the working poor that I knew. “
- “I have survived, will continue to survive, only because He is. His love rises sure as the morning. His grace is saving me every single day.” (HT)
#2….the funeral where no one came…wow. I realize how busy I get and how often I just want people to get out of my way so I can finish what needs to be done on any given day. This was a great reminder to have patience with people and to hear what is really happening in their lives…
This is really, really good stuff.
Welcome back, BrianD!
RE #4 – I usually really like Thabiti, and I think I know what he means, but that post just didn’t come out right. THE GOSPEL is the answer. I think Thabiti is arguing against people who just use the term “the gospel”, rather than people who actually apply the Gospel to their circumstances. Again, it didn’t come out right.
All I’m going to say about the sad departure of Met. JONAH is this: American Orthodoxy is experiencing some bumps in the road because of the huge influx of evangelical (and other Protestant) converts. The zealous converts want to whip the old ethnic Orthodox into shape and the cradle Orthodox are a little resentful and resistant.
Hi, I am going to post this here to address this because my recent post was not allowed at the other blog…
Supposedly, PhxP blog has a new change and moderation for this supposed reason:
“It has worked in silencing Michael”
…”your tough-guy act worked on them.”
I will only speak for myself, I began supportive of that blogger’s family and their reconciliation. I remain of the opinion that any religious leader alleged of abuse be vetted by his affiliating organization and have directly called upon the one in question to act.
What I have objected to is the way this place was savaged and betrayed after the blogger was welcomed here, encouraged to seek a hearing with the affiliating organization, and when the rest of the participants here did not unquestioningly support the blogger, that blogger became a uniquely abusive person who more than earned my repeted calls that he be moderated and ultimately banned due to his behavior, not his cause.
Simply stated, this place is a safer and more free place without the repeated vitriol aimed at a generally good affiliation of churches with a few bad actors. I am glad that members and pastors from those churches can feel welcomed here to interact as equals to all who participate and I am simply exhausted of that other blogger’s lack of class in how he deals with his cause.
..and as Forest Gump used to say,
“That’s all I have to say about that.”
Xenia,
I was hoping you would address that…and would welcome expansion on what you already said.
The Gospel IS the answer to everything. I don’t even need to read the linked article to see why some guy thinks it isn’t.
I agree with Thabiti… The Gospel isn’t “the” answer to most of my day in, day out circumstances except in a very roundabout way.
Love topic 4
“TheGospe”l is not “the answer, so what’s the question?”
The world is created to be complex, and life is complex, and often a mystery, outcomes are rarely as we plan and learning to be gracious means learning to be flexible and live in tension with unanswered questions and injustice.
Trust and confidence in the eternal God of love requires us to struggle through the imponderables
Gman,
The less we talk about that situation the better off we all are.
I have a good relationship with him and I support his cause, maybe now more than ever.
We want to do our own thing, so lets do it with grace and much hope for resolution for all.
I’m off to work for awhile…still sick as a dog, but getting a bit better.
Michael, the OCA is one of the several Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. It has Russian roots. The other jurisdiction with Russian roots is ROCOR (The Russian Church Abroad.) The OCA is the more liberal of the two. (In the Orthodox world, just having pews can be considered “liberal.”) The OCA has suffered some financial scandals in the past and Met JONAH was elected Metropolitan because he was and is a breath of fresh air, not part of anybody’s good old boy’s club. We all shouted Axios! (Worthy!) He was conservative on social issues but he was (apparently) a poor administrator. And he ruffled the feathers of the other bishops who are not so socially conservative. He has many fans who are quite upset at the turn of events. He’s very popular among the converts as he himself is a convert from Anglicanism. He’s a good friend of a good friend and I like Met. JONAH although I have never met him.
My little parish is ROCOR, by the way. Very conservative.
Ugh, I read the “Gospel” article and it’s worse than I thought. What a faithless bit of twaddle. Lord have mercy.
What the GOSPEL does in each and every situation is remind us that God loves us and He loves the world and that His Son has been sent to us so we are not alone no matter what the situation is and that Christ has defeated our enemy Satan and everything is going to turn out for the best in the end. The Gospel tells us that death has been defeated and that if we have faith in Christ we need not fear it.
Amen Xenia! Anything else is just advice. The Gospel is 100% effective.
I wrote my #12 as carefully as I could but I’m sure many EO would not agree with what I wrote so take my opinions with a grain of salt, please!
All right, Linkathon is back! All is good now.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/madonna-sued-for-promoting-homosexuality-during-concert-in-russia-80254/
#10 – sometimes i think Christians should just ignore the challenge that the godless element in the world of science uses to shoot down The Faith (they think) – evolution theory? science is science and, IMO, evolution, in the light of the myriad of wonders of creation – which grow more amazing as knowledge grows – is kind of like an anatomy class sidetracked picking lint out of the cadaver’s navel … just sayin … cuz i can đ
I read the Bill Nye article earlier in the week on Yahoo, and I was sort of surprised at how aggressive it was towards Christianity. It basically equated teaching your children Creationism with abuse. One of the comments (yahoo comments are always crazy) said that Christians are the Taliban of the West.
trying to think back (too lazy to go there) … “the monkey trial” … who threw the first rock? Darwin? those who grabbed onto Darwin (it’s always somebody using somebody that creates the troubles IMO) ?
for the life of me i can’t understand why men of reason don’t reason together …
i’m not a scientist … but i do know the meaning of the word ‘theory’ – is evolution a good theory? i guess so – for ‘them’
does it disprove the infallibility of our Scriptures? no, it doesn’t; it conflicts
it cannot even disprove an interpretation of a 6 day act of God bringing our world into existence because a theory by definition, simply cannot be the final word (scientifically speaking)
i, myself, think evolution, if anything, proves a Creator – shows a pattern and, therefore, a designer
IMO – there’s knee jerk nut cases on both sides of this controversy – it’s just that our nuts look like nuts and their nuts look like professors
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/29/cience-guy-bill-nye-says-creationism-hurts-kids/?test=latestnews
I”m inclined to cut Anyabwile a little slack on this. I do think he could have gone further because the thing he seems to be aiming for is to say he’s tired of hearing “gospel” used as a codeword for a variety of shibboleths that are, to put it mildly doctrinal issues of third-rate importance for historic Christianity. These third-rate shibboleths have, however, proven to be crucial to certain parachurch and not-quite-denominational entities that throw around “gospel-_______________” with a profligacy matched only by Pentecostals using “spirit”.
…or the word “anointed”
#9 – Courtesy of Wikipedia: đ đ “Complementarianism is a theological view held by some in Christianity and other world religions, such as Islam,[1] that men and women have different but complementary roles”
“Egalitarianism (from French Ă©gal, meaning “equal”) is a trend of thought that favors equality among living entities.”
“Co-belligerence is the waging of a war in cooperation against a common enemy without a formal treaty of military alliance.”
the above may or may not include pertinent elaborations
just trying to be helpful đ
there has to be an easier way to say some things, #9 being one of them IMHO
too many Ems on this thread … will somebody please say something about something?
i’m trying to break myself of this habit … it’s too easy, sitting here, already in typing mode, to just say something cuz i can đ
shibboleth… my gosh I haven’t seen this word since my days on CARM. I think the man who used this handle may have been Amish. A nice guy I knew a bit offline. This will only make sense to Xenia! đ
Yep!
The Bill Nye link doesn’t work.
Sorry. Here’s the official link: