The man was a good Christian. Any of us would be quite pleased to have his reputation for faith and Christian charity. He was part of a study group I led, and we were discussing witnessing. “I’m afraid to put a fish symbol on my car,” he said. “I might do something that’s not Christlike,…
One of the key foundations of my participatory Bible study method is my firm belief that individual Christians can and should study the Bible for themselves. I believe this study will depend on the work of experts in many cases, and that it should be accountable within a church community, but the individual, under the…
I called to congratulate a friend and former student who was just ordained a full elder in the United Methodist Church at annual conference, and he said, tongue-in-cheek, “Yes, I feel much more powerful now!” So since some of the comments here (from PamBG [her comment], Diane R. [her comment] and Peter Kirk [his comment])…
There’s an article here. Looks pretty neutral.
Update (5/27/08): Before you conclude that I’m a deist and that I don’t believe in any miracles at all, please read the discussion in the comments, where, to put it briefly I affirm both healing miracles and the bodily resurrection of Jesus. These are things I accept by faith, however, whilst doubting one’s ability to…
One interesting privilege I had during the Brownsville Revival here in Pensacola was meeting groups going to and from the revival. At the time I was a member of Pine Forest United Methodist Church, and groups would stay in the Family Life Center there in order to be in range to get to the revival…
In some much earlier discussions on health care, which I never really completed in any satisfactory manner, I was discussing Alexander Schmemann’s book For the Life of the World with Mark Olson of Pseudo-Polymath. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a copy of the book so as to discuss it intelligently. I sent off for one via…
I want to recommend another sermon from the senior pastor at our new church, Pensacola First UMC, Dr. Wesley Wachob. I should note that they usually post audio from a different service than the one I attend, and he doesn’t follow a precise written text, so there may be some difference. There were two reasons…
Several discussions have led me to think about this question over the last few days. There is a significant group of scientists who think that the inevitable result of scientific knowledge is a loss of faith or a turn to atheism. On the other side of the line there is a significant group of fundamentalist…
. . . but on target. I refer to this post on Pursuing Holiness. My own preference is that churches and religious organizations define marriage for their own constituents, and the state simply define households. Laura’s words about free speech destroying human rights committees are also on target.