August 31, 2009 by iMonk
First read the story of Christian protestors at a Marilyn Manson concert. (Slow…be patient)
Then, savor the irony: If you read Manson’s biography, he’s the product of Christian parenting and fundamentalist education.
Marilyn Manson was born as Brian Hugh Warner in Canton, Ohio, the son of Barb Wyer and Hugh Jack Warner. His father was a Roman Catholic and his mother was an Episcopalian. According to his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, …He was raised in his mother’s religion. Warner attended Heritage Christian School from first grade to tenth grade.
Instead of owning up to one of the unfortunate possible results of fundamentalism, Christians are protesting and denouncing Manson.
So, imagine through the magic of the Internet Monk Research Department, you are able to place an ad on a website that will be read by everyone who attended the Manson concert and saw the protestors.
What would your ad say? (Limit: 350 words)
August 30, 2009 by iMonk
Not a piece on atheism, but an honest recounting of doubt and faith in my life. From 2002.
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”- Mark 9:24
Let’s start with bugs.
Bugs have always….well…bugged me. They bite me. Wasps hate me. Mosquitoes swarm around me. Gnats head for my ears and eyes like some bad remake of “The Birds.” There are a thousand varieties of bugs that all seem dedicated to devouring me. When I was a kid, my friends called me “bug eyes” because of this curse. Now, I can go for a walk and look up to see a swarm of bugs like a cloud over my head.
Is this right? I mean, even if there is a curse on creation, didn’t mosquitoes always drink blood? Aren’t they designed that way? So why would God make the little bloodsuckers? Why make wasps that sting? Why make me in such a way that bugs want to appropriate my body for their own purposes? Sure, the wonders of biology speak of intelligent design, but wasn’t there some way to do this to the glory of God without eating, stinging and killing me?
It’s one of those thoughts that hit me a few dozen times a day. One of those thoughts that make me wonder if God is real, or if I am a fool to believe that God created and runs this universe of mosquitoes and gnats. [Continue reading]
August 29, 2009 by iMonk
I received two letters this week from friends/readers asking for input and advice on relating to atheists in their workplace/families. It brought to mind a number of things I’ve been wanting to say about evangelicals and their take on atheism.
When I was growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist church, the face of atheism was Madalyn Murray O’Hair. I knew three things about O’Hair: she had taken prayer and the Bible out of our public schools, she was trying to get religious programs off of television and she was a weirdo.
For years, O’Hair provided the face of atheism to America: an angry, ranting, God-hating, bitter old woman who wanted to force her bitterness on the rest of the country. The way to defeat O’Hair was simple: Christians needed to sign a lot of petitions and vote the right way when elections came around.
It was safe to say that few people wanted to be like Mrs. O’Hair, no matter what their case against God and religion happened to be. [Continue reading]
August 29, 2009 by iMonk
This week: Pushing the theological diversity envelope. Should I let my enemies have a shot at me? Comments to a family whose son has become an atheist.
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August 28, 2009 by iMonk
And so it begins. I don’t know if Kentucky is the first Baptist State Convention to see the handwriting on the wall, but I am very, very proud of our executive board for stepping up to the plate and starting the process of saying, essentially, “we are ready to make changes to see more resources, more money and more people sent to the nations via the International Mission Board.” And that’s what this means and we all know it. Less of the “Great Denomination” model at the national and the state convention level. I work for one of those state entities mentioned in that link, and I know what any loss of state funding might mean for us. But I also know that we are all part of the big picture of what Jesus left us to do, and it’s not about protecting our air conditioning or convention provided vehicle. I predict that every state convention will be sending 5-10% more to the national missions boards in the future. If both the national convention and the state conventions can work together to reload our Gospel train with resources, this could be some of the greatest days for the SBC.
And btw, the fact that the GCR meetings are available on Vimeo is another good sign. Welcome to the real world, SBC business meetings. And Baptist Press, too bad we won’t have to listen to you tell us what’s going on.
__________________ [Continue reading]
August 28, 2009 by iMonk
UPDATE: Dr. George has an article at Christianity Today this week: What Baptists Can Learn From Calvin.
As a student at Southern Seminary in the early 80’s, I was blessed beyond measure to have a young, brilliant and engaging church history professor named Dr. Timothy George. I’ve long admired Dr. George and his teaching on the Reformation ranks as some of the most formative teaching I ever received. His books and talks bear all the marks of a true Christian statesman, scholar and ecumenist. He ranks among the foremost Baptist historians in the world.
Today Dr. George continues to serve as the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham and a senior editor of Christianity Today. He is a participant in the project known as Evangelicals and Catholics Together and also serves on the International Baptist-Catholic Dialogue team.
I recently wrote Dr. George and asked for his comments on this question: “How can Baptists respond to Catholic and Orthodox Christians who challenge our view of the Lord’s Supper as having no deeper historical/Biblical roots than Zwingli?”
Dr. George was kind enough to send along this reply. I’m deeply appreciative of his generosity. [Continue reading]
August 27, 2009 by iMonk
No snark intended here Catholic and Orthodox friends. Just a story worth telling.
I know this doesn’t happen….but this time it did.
I’ve been teaching Ethiopian Orthodox students for most of two decades here at our ministry. We have about 20 of them a year and I get all of them who stay through graduation in my Bible survey class.
I’ve met only a handful- far less than ten- who seemed to relate to their faith as anything other than an expression of Ethiopian culture. Ethiopian Orthodoxy is coptic, very ancient, tied in deeply to the stories Ethiopians believe about the beginnings of their nation. They are very loyal to their culture, but I’ve only met a handful that could have a handful about what their faith meant to them.
Until this year. I’ve got a very vocal young lady in my advanced Bible class. She’s kept things interesting. [Continue reading]
August 27, 2009 by iMonk
For the past couple of years, the term “Gospel centered” has become ubiquitous in the blogosphere. And as the use of this term has become more and more common, I’ve become less and less certain that its meaning is simply….being Gospel centered.
I’m not saying that it means something other than Gospel centered or something less than Gospel centered, but I am suspicious that it might mean more than just Gospel centered.
I’m sure I’ve used the term many times. I don’t know any way to use it other than to mean….we’re centered on the Gospel. But as I think about how the term is now evolving and how it is being used in various quarters, I think we may need a clarification.
So anyone who considers themselves qualified may write me in the comments or via email and help me here. Does Gospel centered have some fine print? Should those of us who occasionally use the term be aware of exactly what flag we are waving?
Specifically, here are my questions: [Continue reading]
August 26, 2009 by iMonk
A few weeks ago, IM reader Chris Giammona made it possible for 20 IM readers to receive a free copy of Andrew Marin’s significant and helpful book, Love Is An Orientation. As a condition for receiving the book, each reader agreed to write a brief response. Here are the first five of those responses. The name of each writer appears at the end of their review. One paragraph was moderated because of a formatting issue.
My three main responses:
Christians and non-Christian Gays:
God loves every human he has made. What he wants most is not for gays and lesbians to become heterosexual, but for them to choose a relationship with himself through Jesus. For us as conservative Christians, this means acting in a way that encourages all people to pursue a relationship with God, rather than defending God’s moral law. Frankly, it’s a lot easier and more comforting for me to defend moral laws. I think this is because, deep down, I don’t think the Holy Spirit can do the defending.
Christians and Gay Christians:
A Christian’s spiritual journey towards a deeper relationship with God is a personal journey that requires a community to support and encourage it. The path of that journey is different for everyone. Straight Christians tend to judge the gay Christian journey by how heterosexual the person is becoming. But God may be more interested in another area of growth for many years. Gays need room to attend church, be in Bible studies, and be loved and accepted while they are still gay. They need room to be Christians while still gay. They need to have a community of fellow believers, straight and gay, that allows them to talk and think about what their same-sex attraction means in their spiritual journey. This doesn’t mean “accepting” homosexuality. It means accepting that we are all sinners seeking wholeness in whatever way the Holy Spirit works in us. [Continue reading]
August 25, 2009 by iMonk
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming; for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness.”
No element of the evangelical liturgy is as clearly Biblical as the call to worship. It is deeply rooted in Biblical language, Biblical history and Biblical theology.
God’s call is fundamental to the general announcement of salvation and the specific work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. God’s call creates, gathers and identifies. It invests an ordinary gathering with the significance of the people of God entering into the presence and purpose of God in worship.
The call to worship is a re-enacting of fundamental and highly significant aspects of the life of the individual and corporate people of God. We are called to God, called to worship, called to mission and called to present attentiveness to the Word and its work among us. We are called to think of God and to hear his commands and invitations. [Continue reading]
August 25, 2009 by iMonk
August 24, 2009 by iMonk
NOTE: This is part of a series of questions I did last year with Lutheran friend Josh Strodtbeck on how the sovereignty of God enters into issues of tragedy using the Lutheran theological framework. Very relevant to our discussion this week. If you want all of these – 5 posts- then search “Strodtbeck” in the IM search engine.
Here’s the last in our “Lutheran Theology and God’s Sovereignty Series.” I appreciate all the work Josh put into this and the good comments from those of you involved in the discussion.
How would Lutheran theology speak about God’s role in a tragedy like the I-35 Bridge collapse? Would you say God ordained it for his glory?
The important thing to remember in any question like this is that questions don’t happen in a vacuum, and neither is theology something floating around in a platonic realm of ideals. Generally, these questions are posed to pastors by real people, so what we always have is a pastoral situation. Even if you’re just a layman, you still have to deal with the person. But this is complex, so you’re going to get a long answer.
Abstractly, in the “ultimate reasons” sense, I don’t have any satisfying answer. Luther’s idea of being a theologian of the cross, which he develops in his Heidelberg Disputation, is hugely influential in the Lutheran tradition. You could probably add the theological part of the Disputation to the Confessions and no one would object. [Continue reading]
August 24, 2009 by iMonk
Our friend Michael Patton at Credo House, Renewing the Mind Ministries and The Theology Program has an announcement at his site that may be of interest to some of the IM audience.
“I have designed a theological toolbar to lead you to all the best and most trustworthy sites on the web.
Included:
* Online Bibles Sites
* Bible Study Software
* Christian History
* Theological Sites
* Built in MP3 with the entire Theology Program fed into it.
* Easy to access RSS feed to the must read Theological Blogs (IM included of course)
* Google search engine
* and more…
It is very clean. Check it out.”
This is a useful tool and your downloads will also help support Michael’s ministry. Check out the dates for the next Theology Program term. At $100 a course, it’s a great way to learn theology.
August 23, 2009 by iMonk
In most Protestant and evangelical worship services there is some kind of a transition from non-worship time to worship time. Though this is among the least essential elements of worship, this “prelude” serves a number of helpful functions.
Protestants have an uneven record on treating a worship space/time as a time of focused, prayerful response to God. The more Catholic side of the aisle tends to respect and honor the practice of reverent silence, while evangelicals often not only eschew it, but to occasionally oppose it by encouraging worshipers to socialize and talk to one another.
I’ll never forget an Episcopal friend’s reaction, more than 30 years ago, to the decorum in our Baptist church on Sunday evening. He was horrified at what he interpreted as a complete lack of respect for the idea of worship. I was puzzled as to why anyone wouldn’t see the value of “fellowship” between Christians before the worship service began.
The “prelude” is the signal for a more focused response to worship to begin. The congregation should be instructed to consider the prelude the first movement of worship, with an accompanying change in behavior and mindset. [Continue reading]
August 23, 2009 by iMonk
Introduction
1) The Worship Setting
2) The Tools
3) The Leaders
4) The Congregation
5) The Prelude
6. The Call To Worship
Remember that there will be 23 posts in this series. There is also a “Church” category here at IM, and also a “Baptists” category.
