(Does that sound religious to you? Some days everything sounds religious to me. In the Big R way, I mean.)

I’m so delighted to be engaged with your group and honored that you would read my book and understand it so well. Your kindness humbles me.

An old friend from Dallas, Ben Beard, alerted me to this discussion. I laughed aloud at Headless Unicorn’s story of the preacher. Wise words.

And I nodded when I read Quiclime’s comment about “There’s Power in the Blood.” A longtime friend died last night and all morning another old hymn has been running through my mind. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.”

Sorry I’m rambling. Your comments have overwhelmed me with too many thoughts. They’ve reminded me once again how much I adore evangelicals and other full hearted Christians.

I’ll read on this afternoon.

Thank you. Thank you.

OK, that’s freaking hysterical…

This Sunday, I’m preaching on it’s been 19 days since the election and Hell still has not vomited up the damned and the dead do not walk the Earth. We have a bigger problem. Our Sunday School program sucks.

LOL!!!

I am working on a post on how politics has gotten in the way of the gospel. Do you mind if I use your quote?

Tell me about it. My writing partner (a burned-out country preacher-man) has had to do his “DON’T GO STUPID ON ME!” sermon three Sundays in a row. Apparently “Obama won” on top of everything else triggered a major End of the World scare in his area (”Obama IS The Antichrist!” variant), and he’s had to knock some sense into his congregation’s heads. Like last Sunday’s sermon summary, in his own words:

“The Sunday before the election, I preached on voting your conscience, but make sure you vote.

“Last Sunday, I preached on, Obama ain’t the enemy. Engage worldviews in a respectful, godly manner. It’s what Christ would do.

“This Sunday, I’m preaching on it’s been 19 days since the election and Hell still has not vomited up the damned and the dead do not walk the Earth. We have a bigger problem. Our Sunday School program sucks.”

Seriously though, the question here is precisely the content of the ‘Christian viewpoint’. Systems of thought such as Evangelicalism can easily become archaic when they are removed from the authentic experience that initiated them. Archaic, not in the sense of being old (many old ways of thinking are quite relevant in modern times), but in the sense of being ‘geriatric’, losing power and purpose. That is the point of this post, as I see it. The evangelical churches have drifted from their roots. That is why iMonk is looking for a ‘Jesus-shaped’ spirituality, because Jesus revealed a new way of thinking and living that has had the power to constantly renew itself. To oppose that to ‘rationality’ as an abstract concept isn’t very helpful, because many forms of rationality, including much modern atheism, are also ‘archaic’ in the sense of having lost their original power and relevance, even if they are not historically very old.