Last night I went to hear these guys discuss the question “Missional: Has It Been Shrink-Wrapped Too?”
(This was not intended to be an all-male panel but for whatever reason, two of the five scheduled panelists didn’t make it, including the female one)
I went because I love hearing Spencer; also because this up/rooted meeting was a doable distance from where I live – about 25 minutes’ drive. Many of them are at least an hour’s drive away. Last night Mike Clawson announced that a city of Chicago up/rooted group is starting up next month. This will be a big help to people who find it hard to get to the meetings in the far suburbs, which has been the majority of them until now.
I love how good-natured Spencer is and how much he doesn’t care about.
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The Barna Group has a new article up called A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity. It begins
As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago.
I thought it was very interesting – thanks Jim and Ben for e-mailing it to me!
Posted in General Conversation | 16 Comments »I’m also posting this on Friendly Christian today
What would it be like to be an atheist at a Christian college? If you want to know, read the blog Leaving Eden. The author of it is at Wheaton College and is an atheist.
Last week it felt very lonely:
I walked across campus today after a conversation that signaled the end of another friendship. Thinking, this is what it feels like to be alone. It sucks.
If Jesus was the friend of non-religious people, shouldn’t Christians be too? Why does admitting to being an atheist end this person’s friendships with Christians?
Posted in General Conversation | 19 Comments »We saw the movie Across The Universe on Saturday. I thought it was a very interesting artistic representation of the Vietnam era. If you haven’t seen trailers, virtually all the sound track is Beatles songs.
My favorite provocative image was young US soldiers in Vietnam carrying a huge statue of liberty on their shoulders and singing “It’s too heavy” (I forgot what song that was from). It was powerfully ironic that what was supposed to bring freedom turned into a burden too heavy to bear, that all fell on the shoulders of these young men, involuntarily drafted.
The drafting into the army scene was excellently done, I thought. And the ‘strawberry fields’ scene, which juxtaposed war images with someone creating violent art (in red – with strawberries and red paint) because he was upset. And “let it be” sung to a backdrop of riots and funerals was very powerful.
It’s had mixed reviews. For me the best scenes in it made it well worth seeing. It made me think about what it must have been like to live in those times.
Posted in General Conversation | 4 Comments »The editor of the section of the local newspaper which has been publishing my dialog with Rev. Lueking sent me this poem yesterday.
The Journey
by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
I watched this a few weeks ago. I don’t usually watch this sort of movie but I liked the trailer.
The movie follows Bourne as he tries to find out the truth about himself. He has a lot of memory loss but flashbacks and other people are helping him find out. He has to do this while keeping hidden because some people are trying to kill him.
He is highly trained and is trying to find out who trained him, where and why. One aspect of the movie which fascinated me is how people spin the truth. At one point he’s told that he signed up for the training voluntarily. Evidently the person in charge of his training is very comfortable that that’s the ‘whole truth’. While it’s true he did sign up voluntarily, it transpires that he didn’t realize what he was signing up for.
The training is part of a secret operation/program; the people who run it believe in it but at the same time they’re making every effort to keep it secret. Proving they know others would not approve. Here again the issue of truth is raised: is it true that this program is needed and is a good thing? Or not?
Posted in General Conversation | 4 Comments »The September edition of Next Wave includes an article I wrote, called How did Christianity become an excuse to be mean? Or, Why I resigned from the doctrine police
Posted in General Conversation | 8 Comments »I ran across this news story recently: Local pastor was known sex offender
A Romeoville Southern Baptist congregation allowed a convicted child sex offender to preach for the last few years — despite his past, and a warning from his previous church that he might still be dangerous, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Some more details
In 1996, Jeff Hannah was sentenced to nine years in prison for having sexual relations with four underage girls — ages 15 to 17 — while a married youth minister at Crossroads Church in Libertyville.
Hannah was paroled in 2001 and joined the First Baptist Church of Romeoville, where his new wife was a member. Soon after, the pastor moved on, and church members — aware of Hannah’s crimes — asked him to step into the pulpit until a replacement was hired, according to church members, Hannah and others.
Hannah served in that role for three years and ever since has been a fill-in preacher, teacher and music minister at the church.
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