The New York Times recently included an article about The Lord’s Gym, a fitness center which specifically caters to Christians. (You can also read the article here)
What bothers me about this is that the Christians quoted in the article state or imply several false stereotypes about other fitness centers. Here’s what the owner said
“Many people want to have a quality atmosphere that’s not involved in the meat-market setting, that’s serious about workouts,” Dr. Sorchy said. “People want something truly family-friendly, and want to have a team of folks they can trust.”
I’ve belonged to Gottlieb Health and Fitness Center for a few years and it’s all of those things even though it’s not ‘Christian’ per se.
Not only that, the reasons given why Christians go bother me too Read the rest of this entry »
06-12-2008 |
18 Comments »Do you remember Josh and Karlene’s request for atheist conversation partners that I posted a few months ago?
Elizabeth is a classmate of Josh and Karlene. She teamed up with Amy, one of the respondents to Josh and Karlene’s request, to do the same project Josh and Karlene were doing. I just interviewed Amy and Elizabeth over on our ebay atheist blog about how the project went. Go check it out!
05-21-2008 |
No Comments »I posted some of these a while ago. If you haven’t watched any before, here’s part 1, for context.
11-23-2007 |
3 Comments »
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 |
15 Comments »From the recent Christianity Today article: Interview with a Pharisee and a Christian
Christian hopes for conversion can be a deal breaker in interfaith friendships.
Yet a few Christians and Jews have found a way to be friends despite this Christian hope (Romans 11:25ff). Among them are R. T. Kendall and Rabbi David Rosen. In their book, The Christian and the Pharisee (Warner Faith), they model a warm friendship as they “debate the road to heaven.” Christianity Today editor in chief David Neff interviewed them about the book and their unique relationship.
The article is an interview with R.T. Kendall and David Rosen. What do you think of how they interact with each other?
(I found out about this from the Keep Believing blog.)
10-18-2007 |
15 Comments »Debbie posted this comment on An atheist in Christian college today.
I have served in Christian ministry for over 20 years and have been a pastor’s wife for nearly 10 of those. I am now separated and awaiting divorce. During my time of healing over the past 2 years of separation, therapy, and abuse at the hands of my so-called “Christian” friends, I found one very special friend. She is an atheist, and a very convicted one. At first meeting, you would have thought a pastor’s wife and an atheist would have little in common. She remains my closest friend, my greatest support, and my most valued support-sister. And it has NOTHING to do with religion - which we agree to disagree on. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk religion - we do. We just don’t try to sell each other anything. We just listen, and support. It’s a beautiful relationship. When I say “praise God,” she smiles for me. When she gets angry and says screw God, I give her a shoulder to rest on.
Just love keeps us connected. Isn’t that what Jesus really asked us to do anyway? He doesn’t need anyone to advertise His name - God, if we think we need to do that for Him we must have a tiny God who is incapable and we myst think very highly of ourselves!
I love my girlfriend. She is an atheist. I am a Christian. We have much to share and offer each other.
10-07-2007 |
3 Comments »A new online friend, Bill, invited me to guest post today on his blog, Friendly Christian.
Bill recently ran across Hemant’s story and website, Friendly Atheist. Bill decided he’d like to follow Hemant’s lead and he renamed his blog the Friendly Christian. Hemant mentioned Bill’s blog and a number of atheists went to check it out. Since then, Bill has had a number of atheist visitors and active Christian-atheist conversation on his blog.
This is what I posted on Bill’s blog today.
I’m curious about how differently Christians and atheists (evidently) see the world. The other day Gods Gal was saying she can’t look at the world outside without seeing evidence of God. hoverfrog, writerdd and siamang responded that when they look at the world outside they don’t see God at all. (That conversation is in comments #49-#52 on What If…)
Why do we see things so differently?
Here’s the tricky part. :-) See if you can answer these questions without offending those who see differently from you.
08-22-2007 |
30 Comments »I don’t read many Christian books these days. However, I have been reading The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the question for political power is destroying the church by Gregory Boyd, because Jim asked me what I thought of it.
The premise of the book is fairly simple. The author defines all kingdoms of this world as ‘power over’ kingdoms. In a ‘power over’ kingdom those in power control human behavior by their ability to inflict pain on those who defy their authority. He then says Jesus came to establish a different kind of kingdom: a ‘power under’ kingdom in which greatness is defined by serving and sacrificing for others. Read the rest of this entry »
02-12-2007 |
16 Comments »