As some of you know from past posts (years ago now) I’ve written a new book about evangelicals. It’s called “The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church.” It won’t publish until May 1, but I’ve been re-connecting with some of my sources and friends from when I was a religion reporter at The Dallas Morning News. One of them is George Mason, the senior pastor at Dallas’ Wilshire Baptist Church. George spoke at the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta.
For those of you who don’t know a lot about Baptists, the Southern Baptist Convention was taken over by ultra-conservatives, some say fundamentalists, a couple of decades ago. A lot of Texas Baptists opposed that takeover. George has been a leader in the alternative Baptist convention called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
I asked to see his remarks at the Atlanta meeting. I’ve always admired George and know that he is fearless in being willing to think through hard questions. Read the rest of this entry »
02-20-2008 |
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I also posted this on Friendly Christian today
A few years ago I realized acceptance is essential to living a happy life. It also occurred to me that acceptance may be simpler for atheists.
When Christians encounter personal suffering or tragedy, there’s always a ‘why’ question that has to be dealt with, namely:
“Why did God, who is all-powerful and claims to love me, allow this to happen?”
When atheists encounter personal suffering or tragedy (any type which isn’t directly caused by another human), it’s ‘just the way it is’. There’s no person behind it to ask ‘why?’ to.
I think this makes such things easier to accept (not easy, but easier) than if God is in the picture. What do you think?
10-29-2007 |
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