In all of this, the fundamental problem is a failure to relate; to know and be known and embrace the Other. Yet this is the first thing Jesus does as His coming is announced in the gospel of John. Jesus leaves His home, comes to unwell and broken people, people who are wholly unlike Him in order to usher in healing and reconciliation. The Apostle Paul understand this, calling Christians to be ministers – not of doctrine, politics, rights, rightness, division, or anything else, but reconciliation.
When the church recaptures her message of reconciliation (not power, control, or domination), she will regain a hearing in the public square and become a avenue for healing. And when that happens, preachers, once again, will be able to preach.
The Sin of Racism Made Ferguson Escalate So Quickly
What would repentance look like in practice? Are you calling for church services with people on their knees or a call to action or something else?
It would look like a strike force of people ready to move in as soon as a racialized incident happens within a city. Just as there are trauma teams that can come in on the heels of terrorist activity or disasters, we need racial response teams to move in before we start killing and shooting and hating each other. Imagine every city having two leading white pastors, two leading black pastors, Hispanic pastors, making up a reconciliation force. That would be a way to show we take this seriously. We want to be reconciled. When this kind of thing happens we ask the questions together.
Ninety percent of all American churches are 90 percent racially homogenous. That’s a number Michael Emerson and Christian Smith arrived at based on historical analysis, a national survey and hundreds of face-to-face interviews in their 2000 book, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America.
It’s a number that still holds true more than a decade later, according to Christena Cleveland, a researcher, consultant and social psychologist who teaches at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn.
She says the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who referred to 11 a.m. Sunday morning as the most segregated hour in America, hold true, as well.
Why is President Obama still allowing covert operations in Cuba? [Actual title has an obscenity… Tim]
If President Obama’s goal is to help Cubans have a better future, then he should stop the silliness, pull back the spies, get the U.S. government out of the way, and let the American people — in business, academia, culture, even tourists — take the lead.
But, I want the unkissed girls out there to know something. I don’t regret a single non-kissed moment of my teen years. I don’t regret a single non-sexual moment. If you haven’t been kissed or haven’t had a boyfriend, good. Don’t worry about that. Focus on loving Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Wait for God to do what He will do.
Despite what movies and magazines will tell you, the point of life is not to be paired up with another person. I don’t know what God has planned for you or your relationships. But, I can tell you, as a girl who wasn’t kissed until her second year of college, that you aren’t weird or out of step if you are waiting or haven’t had the opportunity.
Garrison had heard people in Disciples of Christ churches say that they were the only constitute members of the kingdom of God and there were no Christians in the denominations. Garrison could not understand how members of a unity movement could display such a sectarian attitude. He provided three marks to know if one was infected with the virus of sectarianism.
- You might be a sectarian if you are incapable of appreciating and rejoicing over all the good that is being done in the world outside the religious body with which you claim identification.
- You might be a sectarian if you have abandoned the quest for truth and are resting satisfied with what has been gained.
- You might be a sectarian if you cannot recognize the image of Christ in those who are not in your party.
New York Times defends Rick Perry
The New York Times’ editorial board is telling readers that they have plenty of reasons to be upset with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but the veto that led to his indictment is not one of them.
10 Tricks to Appear Smart During Meetings
- Draw a Venn diagram
- Translate percentage metrics into fractions
- Encourage everyone to “take a step back”
- Nod continuously while pretending to take notes
- Repeat the last thing the engineer said, but very very slowly
- Ask “Will this scale?” no matter what it is
- Pace around the room
- Ask the presenter to go back a slide
- Step out for a phone call
- Make fun of yourself
Groom fakes his own death to get out of wedding
Apparently getting cold feet and unable to face the conversation himself, Tucker decided to fake his own death to get out of the engagement. Where it gets really sociopathic, however, is that he called Lanchester himself, assuming a fake voice and pretending to be his father, to tell his fiancee that he was dead.