Thanks again to everyone who has blogged and commented here. And to those who have linked here and said it’s a site worth reading/visiting. That meant a lot to me.
The closing of this blog is a change. What hasn’t changed at all is my belief in, and commitment to, respectful engagement with people whose views differ from mine.
Off The Map shares that commitment - it’s a big part of why I got involved. I’m staying involved because respect for ‘outsiders’ is inherent in The Practicing Church, Off The Map’s focus going forward. It has to be - I don’t see how anyone who has read about Jesus touching the leper or having dinner with Zaccheus can seriously call themselves a follower of Jesus if they don’t seek to do likewise.
I hope I’ll continue to have respectful conversations in various places online after this blog is closed, in which I listen and learn. I hope you all will too.
I enjoyed reading Salon’s excerpt from Kevin Roose’s new book, The Unlikely Disciple
I’m here in Florida with a group of students from Liberty University, the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s “Bible Boot Camp” for young evangelicals. But I’m not a young evangelical — not even close. Two months ago, I transferred to Liberty from Brown, a school whose overall social climate, according to Falwellian standards at least, is only a notch or two above Sodom and Gomorrah. I had a secular liberal upbringing and I’ve always considered myself pretty ambivalent about God, but I decided to enroll at Liberty for a semester to learn about my conservative Christian peers and find out whether any common ground existed between my world and theirs. Since then, I’ve been living undercover in an all-male dorm (Liberty’s 46-page code of conduct, called “The Liberty Way,” prohibits all but the most innocent gender mingling), taking courses like young-earth creationism and Evangelism 101, and getting a first-hand look at the other side of the much-hyped “God Divide.” And when March rolled around, I decided to do what many Christian college students do over spring break: take a mission trip.
Kevin also has a blog with interesting information such as the latest on whether Liberty University bookstore will sell his book and what he learned about Jerry Falwell from being at Liberty.
At the end of March Off The Map will be closing the Conversation at the Edge, Justice and Compassion and eBay Atheist blogs to new posts. They’ll stay open a little longer than that for comments.
We appreciate everyone who has blogged for us on these three blogs and participated in the comments conversations. We’ll keep the existing content up even though the blogs are being closed.
What I’ve been up to today…
Esther needs to dress up as a character from the 1920s on Friday for a school field trip. She chose Aimee McPherson.
We went to a thrift shop and bought a sleeveless white dress, a scarf and a sheet. Esther made a cross to go on the front of the [...]
I’m not against religion per se, but I am against religious beliefs that are harmful to people.
I would definitely put the Pope’s belief-based ban on condom use in that category, especially in countries hit hard by AIDS and HIV. He might allow married couples to use condoms when one of them has AIDS but he’s [...]
I like the look of this new site. “Life is a rich, weird, difficult experience. So join us as we go on the spiritual and artistic journey that is SoulPancake.”
Do you think this is a good move? Is he supporting immoral research? As I understand it, Bush vetoed funding the stem cell research Obama has just approved because he considered it immoral.
Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells
President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for [...]
