I’m wondering who else is going to Deep Shift (Brian McLaren’s event to further explore/apply ideas in his latest book Everything Must Change).
The Deep Shift tour begins tomorrow in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here’s a detailed interview with Brian from The Charlotte Observer. The tour won’t be in my area until early April.
I found out late last year, to my surprise, that the “Chicago” event is going to take place only a mile from my house. I’m going to go. I’ve also offered to help.
I know Nick is attending the first Deep Shift event (in fact he’s leading a group discussion there). I’ll be interested to see what he says about it.
Posted in General Conversation | 8 Comments »The January meeting of city up/rooted was on Monday. About 10 people were there including 3 who hadn’t been before. It’s neat to have new people show up. Some of them said they had wanted to come before but this was the first meeting they could attend.
Nick, an atheist, and Anachim, an Emergent Jewish Rabbi, were back. I was glad I wasn’t the only not-Christian in the group. Not because the Christians have been other than welcoming to those of us who aren’t. Rather, because I like the diversity and challenge of friendly conversation between people whose beliefs are different.
After introductions we talked about ‘practising’ which was partly because I’d asked Rebecca if we could. I’ve been thinking lately about how Off The Map is practice-based rather than belief-based and how glad I am about that. It’s in practising that I often find common ground with people whose beliefs are different.
There was talk about the value of practising in small ways – a smile, saying ‘hi’. I liked that because it was so like Doable Evangelism and OAs.
Read the rest of this news item »
I met Josh and Karlene Clark at Off The Map Live last year. They’re good friends of Rachel, who co-hosts our Justice and Compassion blog.
Josh and Karlene asked if I’d post this request for them:
We are seminary students who have been given an assignment in one of our classes to have a series of conversations with others who do not share our Christian faith. The purpose of these conversations is NOT to convert anyone, but to practice talking about traditional elements of our Christian faith in ways that make sense, and even more importantly, listening to others about their beliefs and experiences. We are also interested in talking about the different assumptions atheists and Christians have about the “Christian message.” It is an exercise in friendly dialog across differences in belief, and for open, honest, and safe dialog together.
So we are asking for two conversation partners who would be willing to spend about an hour a week for the next 12 weeks talking on the phone or chatting online, who are not Christian and are interested in this type of friendly conversations with us.
Josh and Karlene
If you have questions about the assignment feel free to ask here.
Updated to add contact information: you can e-mail Karlene at singamiga(at)yahoo(dot)com and Josh at joshclark17(at)mail(dot)com
Posted in Comments from others | 6 Comments »Amy sent me this the other day:
I want to suggest a topic for discussion: the way atheists are portrayed in the media. After seeing “The Bucket List” (which I really did like) I’m getting tired of movies portraying atheists as rude, callous people. The same thing happened in “This Christmas”. The only non-Christian in the family was the drug dealing, distant son. “Dogma” treats unbelievers like they’re stupid. Not all nonbelievers are like that.
I liked all three of these movies, but I would like to see a movie that includes a NICE atheist every now and then.
That’s my opinion. I’d love to hear what others think.
I’d love to also. As well as commenting on atheists in movies, feel free to comment on other types of movie stereotyping too.
I’m guessing it’s not just atheists who have opinions about how they’re portrayed in movies.
Posted in Comments from others | 17 Comments »(Also check out the Friday video on ChurchRater: taking Jesus hostage)
Posted in Videos | 2 Comments »Claudia asked the following questions in a comment on the Church Rater blog post Beth and Traci and the looks on their faces .
Beth suggested we bring Claudia’s questions over here. I thought that was a great idea. I think it’s neat when people who aren’t Christians ask friendly curious questions of Christians in order to understand Christians better.
Posted in Comments from others | 8 Comments »I would love to hear more about your process of mulling/studying/struggling/etc. – are there guidelines you tend to follow, or patterns you recognize that lead you to read a given [Bible] passage in a certain way? Or do you trust to some instinct or divine guidance or feeling to let you know at what point God’s really speaking directly to you through the book?
And another question for the group at large – again, hoping this doesn’t come off as confrontational, it’s just really, really interesting: Can any work OTHER than the Bible be divinely inspired?
Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. NPR’s Talk of the Nation was about this question: “Abortion has been legal for 35 years, yet it still seems hard for women to talk about their abortions. Why?”
From NPR’s site you can listen to the recorded program or read comments posted by women who have had abortions.
Yesterday on the program they were taking calls and had two guests with them who interacted with the callers. I don’t know the usual format of this program – I’ve never listened before but the topic caught my attention. I really wanted to hear what people other than conservative Christians would say about why it’s hard to talk about having had an abortion.
Read the rest of this news item »
Amy Black sent me an online interview recently. (You can read all our online interviews here).
The purpose of this interview is to give you the opportunity to listen to Amy as she shares her thoughts and opinions with you. We don’t require Amy to defend what she says or prove she’s correct. We don’t consider doing so ‘part of the interview’.
I’d like to post more online interviews. If you’d like to send one in, you can find the instructions and questions here.
What screen name do you post under — so we know you when we see you?
Amy Black
Would you like to share any of the following so we can know you better: your age range, whether you’re married or single, have children, what kind of work you do, what area of the U.S. (or other country) you live in?
I’m a young adult attending college in the southern United States.
Read the rest of this news item »
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
– Martin Luther King Jr
text and video of the entire speech
Posted in General Conversation | 4 Comments »