I cannot bear the thought of my mother living through the rapture and then spending eternity in hell. She has gone through so much pain and so many horrible experiences and is still a good person. Although she loses her temper, swears, and does many things that displease the Lord, I still hold tightly to the hope of her believing. More Here...

By Sharon at SheWorships

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my lover among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He has taken me to the banquet hall,
and his banner over me is love.

- Song of Solomon 2:3-4

In 2005 an author named Ayelet Waldman became the center of a huge controversy after publishing an article in the New York Times entitled “Truly, Madly, Guiltily” in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children. Immediately, Waldman came under tremendous attack from angry mothers everywhere. The backlash was so intense that Waldman eventually appeared on Oprah to defend herself. Since then, Waldman has written an entire book on the topic, Bad Mother, that elaborates on the controversial subject, as well as detailing further “maternal crimes.”

In general terms, Waldman and I do not have a whole lot in common. Our moral ideologies are rather remote, but on this particular point I believe Waldman is on to something. More Here...

Before a couple of Saturday’s ago, to me this topic seemed rather obvious, but after watching some of the Glenn Beck show on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial I had to re-evaluate my assumptions so I’ve decided to write a primer on how to spot American civil religion and how Christians can avoid it in their speech.

Before I begin my primer let me be clear, both Democrats and Republicans do this. I was often disgusted by statements that I interpret as civil religion by Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. What Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin did last Saturday, however, was one of the purest examples of it I’ve witnessed in a long time and so I’ll take advantage of this claimed “crossroads of our history” (see Palin’s speech below) to share with your my primer on the subject.

1. Any statement that identifies the USA as God’s unique instrument for the salvation of the world is by definition blasphemous and idolatrous for a Christian to make. In most cases “salvation” is understood in terms of some of our national values such as prosperity and personal liberty. You might find my language about this strong, but these are precisely the terms the book of Revelation uses to describe similar activities done by the Romans or other nations that usurp Christ’s unique role in human history.

2. American Civil Religious speech is almost always self-righteous and moralistic. I transcribed Sarah Palin’s conclusion to her speech.

“We will always come through, we will never give up and we shall endure because we live by that moral strength that we call grace. Although we’ve often skirted a precipice a providential hand has always guided us to a better future. And I know that many of us today we are worried about what we face. Sometimes our challenges just seem insurmountable, but here together at the crossroads of our history may this day be the change point. Look around you you’re not alone. You are Americans! (applause)”

This is the bread and butter of American civil religious speech. “God favors us because of our inherent moral superiority and on the basis of this God will protect us and lead us all to a glorious future.” Palin goes as far here as to redefine “grace” as a “moral strength we (meaning Americans) live by”. This is an appropriation a Protestant buzzword which to me refers not to our moral strength but rather to God’s generosity shown towards the morally undeserving. Sarah Palin’s choice of words here is an attempt to appropriate Christian terminology in the service of another agenda.

3. American civil religion is almost always syncretistic. Many have noted that this seems to be Glenn Beck’s attempt to become the point leader for the religious right yet some prominent evangelicals have pointed out that in their opinion Glenn Beck’s commitment to the Latter Day Saints church requires that his understanding of God differ significantly from that of Christians who hold to historic Christian beliefs as identified in the ecumenical creeds. His goal is to avoid religious particularism while simultaneously attempting to harness religious allegiance and zealotry in the cause of a particular political agenda. American civil religion hopes to benefit from religious enthusiasm by sidestepping clear religious thinking.

No primer is complete without also giving some positive guidance. How can Christians speak about God on a public stage without succumbing to the adulterous (again, read Revelation chapters 17 and 18) temptations of indulging in American civil religion?

It is appropriate for Christians to publicly thank God for blessings our country has received.

It is appropriate to ask God’s forgiveness for ways our country has failed to do justice or protect the poor and the weak.

It is appropriate for us to ask God’s blessing for our country based on his generosity rather than our moral performance or presumed national birthright.

Perhaps the simplest test of determining if our mention of God in the context of our political process is appropriate would be to imagine this mention in the context of another nation. Would we be uncomfortable if a Canadian were making similar assertions?

One of the most significant and notable aspects of early Christianity within the diverse Roman context was the transnational nature of this new faith. Christianity wasn’t the religion of any particular ethnic group but gathered for itself peoples from every tribe, language and nation. American civil religion attempts to appropriate even this aspect of Christianity by pointing to America’s immigrant heritage yet it does so by substituting American citizenship for citizenship within the body of Christ.

It is appropriate for Christians to love their nation, to serve their country, and to seek the shalom of their city. It is not appropriate for us to confuse our national citizenship with our citizenship in the kingdom of God nor to attempt to confuse these two things by appropriating Christian terminology in the service of political zealotry.

Crazy Pastor Jesse talks about his visit to Heaven in the clip above (found at Christian Nightmares).

The clip reminded me of snippet from a chapter called “Jesus® Will Make You Weird” from Jesus Needs New PR–you know, when Jesus Needs New PR was going to be a book.

Just remember, I wrote this like three years ago… More Here...

The Bible is great for stories like turning water into wine, healing the sick, and feeding the hungry, but where did Jesus preach about being a Christian in your cubicle?

The workplace is where we spend most of our days, and for some of us, our nights. It can a friendly or frightening place that requires just as much anointing as Sunday morning.

Being a Christian coworker is a daily challenge especially when working with difficult people. What does it mean to be a Christian coworker? How can we rely on God's promises to redeem us from the rote minutiae of office space?

I've struggled with living out my faith at work. I've stumbled--and fell, multiple times. Now, I work for my church part-time and they hold us to a great standard that works while I'm there, but seems to fade when I step outside the doors. More Here...

Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I started the biblical counseling course at my church the other day, the reading list is a hefty 14 books I think. It is important to note that we are a very Reformed, Presbyterian church. I opened the first book which was written by a very well known exponent of biblical counseling. I got through a few chapters and to be honest, it was abhorrent to me, it read like Freudian secular psychology en-couched in Reformed theology. The author seemed content to carry on with what the world was teaching and adding nice Reformed-words like "God's sovereignty", "elect" and "irresistible" every few sentences. I found it seemed content to let man is searching for personal growth, or self-fulfillment, which is realistically only secondary to learning how to praise God. In fact all fulfillment and growth is found when we are praising God.

I find that many people say they are saved, but if their hearts are not changed, and they live lives that are not God-centered. Counseling first and foremost has to begin from the notion of sin. This is the fundamental difference between secular psychology and Christian theology, secularity assumes that man is not good or bad, but rather neutral gaia entities and lacking any meaning, while Christian theology asserts that man is a sinful creature. Biblical Counseling has to be distinct from secular psychology because it requires reconciliation to God, and submission, essentially diminishing in stature, while secular psychology consists of boosting in self-confidence and increasing self-esteem. Both are polar opposite medicines in the answer to pain and suffering in the world. More Here...

After about twelve years of struggling in my faith, God finally showed himself in an undeniable way. It all started when my cat went missing.

I went out looking for him, and to my horror I found he had been killed, probably by my neighbor's dog. This was a very traumatic event for me. I had nightmares about it for weeks.

Finally one night I just couldn't take it anymore. On one hand, if I went to sleep I would have nightmares, but if I stayed awake I would only think about what was giving me nightmares. Either way I would be tormented with the memories.

So I talked to my younger brother about it. He told me to think about one of my friends. So I did. More Here...

Certainly, they are within their rights to.  The Bible speaks to meat eating at a few different points, always emphasizing that eating meat is permissible for Christians.  To argue for a form of Christian vegetarianism, as I do, cannot mean to argue that eating meat is a sin.  Rather, Christian vegetarianism may be seen as a high point of discipleship, a discipline to which some are called even as many ignore or reject it as a calling.  So the question becomes, why do I feel called to abstain from eating meat? 

First, the most fundamental task for anyone who claims to follow Jesus is to live as though Jesus is lord.  The Bible describes what society was like before human rebellion and what it will be like after Christ's victory is manifested, and in both descriptions the eating of meat is notably absent.  In Genesis, Adam and Eve live peaceably with the animals, but are given vegetation and fruit and every green thing to eat, and it is not until Genesis 9, after the flood, that God gives permission to eat meat.  And the prophets envision God's future by observing that the lion will lay down with the lamb, the wolf with the goat, and "the lion will eat hay like the ox."  Vegetarianism in the Bible is thus a sort of shorthand for the peaceableness between humanity and creation only present when "the right God is worshiped rightly", whereas in this time between the times creation is characterized by strife and violence.  Life requires death to continue living, but this isn't how it was meant to be. More Here...

Wow.

Much gratitude to @hughlh for sending this picture to me.

Of course, I am a loving caring person who likes to be cautious and strategic in coming out -- until the ball really gets rolling; then it's unpredictable. So I have some first steps planned. Already a small group knows, and my first major step is to talk with a certain professor and come up with a plan to do it in a smart way.

So some of my immediate questions include:

What buttons should I be wanting to push while at seminary?

While I was mostly out in college, I still "laid low" and only did some minor activism and did not ever present at school. I tried to make my approach work in the framework of how things worked there, and it succeeded. We managed to get a support group for LGBT students going. I changed a lot of opinions and opened minds. However, I had been there for two years before coming out, so people had some respect for me as a smart person. But with Seminary, I am only there two years, and I want to be mostly out by the end of this semester. What buttons do I push? More Here...

By Matthew at Jesus Needs New PR

According to The Daily Beast…

We’ll believe it when we hear it from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli Defense Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak tells Haaretz that his government is willing to split Jerusalem, a reversal for a regime that had previously insisted that Jerusalem “remain the undivided capital of Israel.” Barak says, “West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. The Arab neighborhoods, in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live, will be theirs. There will be a special regime in place along with agreed upon arrangements in the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David.”

?Uh oh.

No doubt the biblical prophesy peeps are jumping up and down about this! I’m betting that John Hagee has already contacted his publisher with a new book idea, possibly called It’s Once Again the End of the World As We Know It–and I’m Excited To Sell You This Book!

And uh, is it an accident that I found this news from a website called The Daily (Mark of the) BEAST. I think not. It’s a sign!

Here’s what’s going to happen… More Here...

By Dave Burchett

Jeffrey Zaslow wrote an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal detailing how the younger generation places less value on the advice of their elders. 

When Amy Turek informed her parents that she wanted to have a destination wedding—on the beach in South Carolina—they gave her their best advice.

“They told me, Don’t do it. It’s too inconvenient for guests, too ‘vacationy,’ too selfish.”

Her parents and other older relatives “were actually horrified,” says Ms. Turek, who is 28 years old and lives in Wheaton, Ill. Ms. Turek disregarded her elders’ advice and is getting married later this month by the ocean.

“The older generations totally mean well,” she says, “but they’re giving advice based on things they did in the past, when times were different.”

We do totally mean well you young whippersnappers! Totally! I have to admit that I was amused as I read this article. More Here...

By Sharon at SheWorships

It’s hard to believe but I have been blogging for over 4 years now! Crazy, huh? And during those 4 years I have been extremely blessed to have gracious and thoughtful commenters. I like to think it’s because my arguments are so compelling and sympathetically written, but it’s probably because most of my blog readers are my friends! Regardless of the reason, I count myself fortunate for the general absence of vitriolic criticism in the comments section. When I look at other blogs and articles online, even the most seemingly benign ones, they are often met with scathing critiques.

My blog being an exception, the general tone of comments sections is a sign of the times. According to a 2008 study conducted by the Mental Health Foundation, anger is rampant in our culture: “Almost a third of us (32 percent) have a close friend or family member who has trouble controlling their anger. More than a quarter (28 percent) of us worry about how angry we sometimes feel; and one in five (20 percent) of us say we have ended a relationship or friendship with someone because of how they behaved when angry.”

While these statistics are readily apparent in the people around us (last week I saw a guy actually get out of his car to yell at someone who cut him off!), the numbers are evidenced by my own life as well. More Here...