Is Church Really Church?

I don’t have the time to do a full overview of this topic, but I had some good thoughts and wanted to share. As I’ve been growing in my faith and trying to continually understand this whole Christianity thing, the church services I attend (my background is evangelical protestantism) have felt less and less like church to me. It’s started to feel more like going to a concert and then a lecture, an event of propaganda attempting to make you feel one way and believe certain things. Maybe my problem has to do with that the church service seems so disconnected from life. I feel that I have been trying to integrate all of my life together, so that I am undivided or whole in whatever time or place I find myself in.

Saturday I helped some Continue reading →

A Modern Parable

A man was walking downtown one day, and as he was going along his way, he was attacked, beaten badly and robbed. The assailants fled the scene and, unfortunately for the man, no one had witnessed the incident, so there was presently no one to help the man and call for further assistance.

The man lay on the ground unable to move because of his injuries. He believed that he was in real danger of expiring due to either his external or internal wounds. However, soon he could see someone walking towards him down the street. It was a priest! “Thank God!” thought the man, “He’ll certainly help me, I am surely saved now.” Yet as the priest drew near he passed by the man as if he had not noticed him.

The man was in a state of disbelief and Continue reading →

Discrimination of Technology

There is something that I’ve noticed over time which has bothered me. It has recently been brought to my attention again. Perhaps I could call it the discrimination of technology.

An unbelievable amount of technological advance has been made in the past century and a half. This has afforded many modern conveniences and been useful and helpful in many ways. A few examples that I will focus on are cars, computers, the internet, and cell phones (let’s not even get into health care). Vehicles have allowed us to quickly and practically travel relatively great distances in a short amount of time. Of course, railroads had achieved the same accomplishment a half century earlier, however now with small vehicles, individual people could own one Continue reading →

The Focus of Christianity

It has been said that the center/focus of the protestant worship service is the preaching, while in the roman (catholic) tradition the center/focus is on the Eucharist (communion). I wonder if this comes from the legacy of Luther and a reaction to problems in the Roman church. Luther himself did not want to split the church, but merely reform it’s doctrine and practices. However, since then the church has split and doctrine has become the primary focus of protestantism. Traditionally there have always been different thoughts and ideas about the specifics of doctrine; the problem of making doctrine central is that now those with differing ideas won’t fellowship with each other. This has caused protestantism to fracture in to thousands of Continue reading →

On Evolution vs. Creation

I have recently sat in on a couple of lectures / discussions on creation (and/or intelligent design) verses evolution. While I have felt that this is a rather old debate, it’s one which obviously hasn’t gone away. For that reason I have decided to post a few thoughts on the matter. I feel it is one of those things where people misunderstand and really don’t get the whole thing. That I find frustrating because it leads people to say dumb things and/or make moot points. It clouds and further confuses the whole issue, and can be counterproductive. The main problem is that it’s not really about science, though everyone seems to think it is. The issue is really a matter of belief and faith. Most everyone it seems, comes to the table with Continue reading →

Criticism Guidelines

I always second guess myself after I’ve written something critical. I think that I’m wrong and/or I didn’t say the right thing, etc…

I’ve noticed typically people are good at acting out of their frustration and anger, but poor at expressing why they are upset. I want to try and be the opposite. I feel that it’s not good if something is bugging you, to just hold it in a harbor it against the other person(s). Often times the other person doesn’t realize it, and if/when you start acting upset, they may have no idea what’s wrong. (There are times when something may be bugging you and you realize it shouldn’t. In that case the answer is to just get over it.) So for the times when things need to be shared, I thought I would state the two Continue reading →

Why Don’t Intelligent People Believe in Christianity?

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul tells them, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” (1:18) It’s true, if you take a step back and look at it, it is crazy—claiming to follow an executed criminal, and saying that he’s not actually dead. And that’s just the beginning: we claim his was mother was a virgin and that he lives in us, etc. All of this are things that doesn’t happen. I don’t believe that faith is anti-intellectual, however mere logic won’t lead one to Christ.

In the modern era, when science and reason became the bastions of truth (as opposed to the church), the church at first fought against them. However, after a certain amount of time, some Christians believed that science and Continue reading →

Thanksgiving

“On October 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued a “Thanksgiving Proclamation” that made the last Thursday in November a national holiday. (Before that, the president had to make an annual proclamation naming the day when Thanksgiving was going to be held.) President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to the Thursday before last (the reason was to make the Christmas shopping season longer and thus stimulate the economy). In 1941 congress passed an official proclamation naming Thanksgiving a legal holiday to be observed, from that date forward, on the fourth Thursday in November.”

It is interesting to me that Lincoln set up Thanksgiving in the middle of the Civil War. It seems to me that Lincoln is trying to put a positive spin on the Continue reading →

Homelessness Illegal

I was listening to NPR today, and a woman made the statement that, “Being homeless is illegal in the U.S.” and beyond that it is a crime to be poor in this country. I would agree, that is virtually is. Apparently, she had eventually been arrested for failing to pay tickets resulting from her sleeping in her car. “You can’t sleep in a car, you can’t sit on the side walk, you can’t loiter…” She also talked about the social and systemic stigmata of being poor, and about barriers to getting ahead when one is starting from behind. I don’t know that I have much of a point, other than the fact that it doesn’t seem right.

My Theology

Letter to those who believe in the God of the Bible, but who are not living accordingly

(This is an excerpt from a longer letter I wrote to a friend. Please keep in mind that because of this, the beginning and ending may seem a bit abrupt.)

It would be easier, at least perhaps in a way, if none of us had ever known of Christ and christianity. We could go on doing whatever we wanted, and though we wouldn’t always be happy, we wouldn’t experience the guilt and haunting of knowing we’re not walking in the path of truth. But we have this knowledge, and can’t escape it, though it seems you would prefer to.

I know that you’ve spoken of you dislike people who talk of their blatant disbelief and ridicule of christianity. However, in my Continue reading →