Was Jesus Violent in the Temple?
When we read this passage in context, we can see that, while Jesus was aggressive when he drove out the animals, we cannot use this passage as justification for violence.
Can We Trade Sexual Morality for Church Growth?
If we withhold what our faith teaches about a theology of the body, of marriage, of what it means to be created male and female, we will breed nothing but cynicism from those who will rightly conclude that we see them not as sinners in need of good news but as a marketing niche to be exploited by telling them what they want to hear.
Transgender Transformation: Johnny Weir and a Brave New America
We’ve long debated whether America is a Christian nation. I think it is increasingly clear: America has strong roots in the Christian tradition, but modern America is pagan. It worships the body even as it strips it of any fixed identity.
What Should I Do When My Kid Says, “I’m Not Going to Church”?
Interestingly, Peterson reminds us that in this season we are invited to become more honest about our own faith with our kids in response to these kinds of pushbacks. He quips, “No parent is required to mount an advertising campaign on behalf of the Deity.” Rather than talking up how great God is or how great it is to be a Christian, let’s live out our faith journey honestly in front of and alongside our kids. This fits squarely within our Sticky Faith research findings that young people with parents who share about their own faith journeys tend to stick with faith after high school.
A Case Against Ceremonial Prayer
Jesus said when you pray, you should pray something like this: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But that’s not how ceremonial prayer functions in the U.S. Most opening prayers are merely part of the great compartmentalization of life in the Western world. We want a slice of spirituality with important public events. But once we’re done with it, like an appetizer, we move on to the main course–the real reason we gathered. And more often than not, the main course has nothing to do with the appetizer.
Be More Specific Than “Points” or “Things”
So instead of saying that the apostle Paul “makes three points,” say, “gives three reasons” or “shows three ways” or whatever. The craft of communicating with speech and writing requires words, so if that’s your craft, you’ll want to develop your ability to use words well.
Among Westerners, the data showed that Americans were often the most unusual, leading the researchers to conclude that “American participants are exceptional even within the unusual population of Westerners—outliers among outliers.”
Given the data, they concluded that social scientists could not possibly have picked a worse population from which to draw broad generalizations. Researchers had been doing the equivalent of studying penguins while believing that they were learning insights applicable to all birds.
Cocaine use in Britain so high it has contaminated drinking water, report shows
Experts from the Drinking Water Inspectorate found supplies contained benzoylecgonine, the metabolised form of the drug that appears once it has passed through the body. It is the same compound that is looked for in urine-based drug tests for cocaine.
Canadian Man Faces Fines For Patching Up Potholes
“Pothole vigilante” Mike Defazio of New Brunswick, Canada, may have to pay fines to the city for patching up the potholes that his city couldn’t be bothered to fix.
Tim, I’d like to comment in this forum on the “Can we trade sexual morality for church growth?” past. The author is certainly correct in his thesis that biblical teachings must not be crassly traded away for numerical growth. But he misses an important aspect of Christianity’s stance toward current sexual ethics. Before we take a hard and fast position as Christians on matters of sexuality we would do well to make sure we are accurately understanding the Bible and fairly applying it to today. For example many conservative Christians love to quote Leviticus 18 about himosexual anal intercourse being an abomination. But how many of these Christians even know that Leviticus 18 also forbids heterosexual intercourse during menstruation as an abomination? Evangelical Christianity today is very selective in what biblical statements about sex are emphasized and which are considered too obscure to be mentioned. In Leviticus 18 either both sexual practices are still abominations today or neither are. There is no rational basis to contend that one is an abomination today but the other is not. Churches of Christ have a poor track record on identifying sexual sin. It wasn’t that long ago that we almost uniformly described millions of married folks as adulterers because we declared that the Bible required us to see them as still married in God’s sight to their first spouse. Sometimes contemporary sexuality forces us to reexamine our premises regarding the Bible and sexuality. That can be a good thing.
Umm a guy dressing up as a woman is not transgender… thats transvestism. I couldn’t finish reading that link – the lack of understanding of LGBTQI issues was seriously embarrassing. And hurtful to those who know transgender people.