By: Katy Drage Lines on April 5, 2018
“The Bible is clear on this.” How many times have you heard that statement, or one similar to it? Growing up in a church that took the Bible literally, it was common to hear, “just read the Bible and you’ll understand.” I heard these declarations in light of women preaching, leading communion, or baptizing (we…
By: Jennifer Williamson on April 5, 2018
A few years back I was at a conference for American missionaries serving in France. One of the keynote speakers was the Director of the National Council of French Evangelicals (NCFE) and he was asked to teach about how missionaries could best be of service to the Kingdom of God in France—a large topic to…
By: Mary Walker on April 5, 2018
Affirming persons requires granting them respect, and that includes respect for their autonomy, their relationality, and their well-being.[1] In his book, Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community, Andrew Marin sought to build bridges between the LGBTQ community and fundamentalist Christians. Marin asked open-ended questions in order to start the dialog…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
Throughout the ages, Christianity has continually attempted to define marriage, relationships, and God’s role and expectations of both. Within each culture, denomination, and era, what used to be acceptable at one time might not be acceptable today. For instance, polygamy was widely practiced among many of the patriarchs in the Bible but is now considered…
By: Greg on April 4, 2018
“In recent years, cheating has got so out of control that, three years ago, in a small Chinese town in Hubei province, a group of gaokao (University entrance exam) invigilators found themselves under siege as enraged parents and students trapped them in their office and threw rocks at the windows, shouting, “We want fairness! Let…
By: Jim Sabella on April 4, 2018
Allow me to begin this post by stating that I don’t ever remember feeling so uncomfortable writing publically about a particular subject or subjects. This does not mean that I am not willing to engage. On the contrary, engagement is critical for me as a person, leader, student, and Christian. I am an undeterred seeker of…
By: Lynda Gittens on April 4, 2018
http://www.truthfollower.com/2015/08/woman-is-gods-finest-and-beautiful.html Author Adrian Thatcher wrote his book, God, Sex, and Gender: An Introduction, for three reasons. They are: 1. “To introduce students and general readers to the exhilaration of thinking theologically about sex, sexuality, sexual relationships, and gender roles. 2. To introduce students and general readers to a comprehensive and consistent theological understanding of…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
First of all, I thought it was interesting and rather bold (and to many, offensive) that the UK version of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion has a cover with a middle finger in place of the “i” in Mind of the title. I guess those Brits can handle…
By: Jay Forseth on April 3, 2018
Our small town in Columbus, Montana has a population of 1800, with about 25% of souls attending church on a Sunday morning (nearly 50% attend on Christmas and Easter). We have more dogs/cats than addresses. There are 9 churches in our town, with nearly the same number of casinos. More people attend our Friday night…
By: Chris Pritchett on April 3, 2018
In his book, “The Righteous Mind,” Jonathan Haidt offers his findings in moral psychology that seek to explain why some people are “liberals” while others are “conservative.” Or to put it another way, “Why is everyone who disagrees with me so stupid?” According to Haidt, it is not because some of us used pure reason…
By: Jason Turbeville on March 31, 2018
In writing his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion Johnathan Haidt dismisses the old cliche, “It is not polite to discuss politics and religion”. In bringing these two topics to the forum he asks a very good question. Why are people so divided by these two topics? It does…
By: Mike on March 30, 2018
Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion is a frustrating read for people who are unwilling to consider radically opposing points of view. The Righteous Mind is an evolutionary biased book that says humans have “primate minds with a hivish overlay” and that life is simply a game.…
By: Kyle Chalko on March 29, 2018
Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind lays forth a convincing argument for why people choose emotional heart decision or judgments, and then quickly use their head and reasoning to back up what they’ve already decided. This has been written about before within other topics such as Emotional Intelligence and Begin with Why, but Haidt applies…
By: Trisha Welstad on March 24, 2018
In Bad Religion, Ross Douthat has written a fascinating version of what’s gone wrong in American religion over the last seventy years. He reveals through an historic account, the drift of the Christian church from the doctrinal pillars it once knew to pop versions of spirituality primarily outside the walls of church buildings. Of course…
By: Jason Turbeville on March 24, 2018
I was extremely interested in getting to Ross Douthat’s book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics for one reason, I agree with him. A little about me first, I grew up going to many different churches, Methodist, Episcopalian, Non Denominational, and Baptist, and the one thing I remember about religion growing up was,…
By: Kyle Chalko on March 24, 2018
Ross Douthat in His book Bad Religion[1] clearly informs us of how America has become, as the subtitle says, a nation of heretics. Douthat walks us through American history, explaining how Going America started with an overwhelmingly Christian background, and experienced two great revivals and saw God in many places along the way, and yet…
By: Greg on March 23, 2018
“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” said Pat Robertson. He also said, “Many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many were homosexuals –…
By: Mark Petersen on March 22, 2018
Ross Douthat’s book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, brings further context to this semester’s focus on how we’ve arrived here – a postmodern, disconnected, do-it-yourself faith constructed in our own image – a heretical, even shameful, deviation from orthodoxy. Begin with Bebbington’s foundational review on British evangelicalism, continue with Weber’s Protestant…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on March 22, 2018
“I concentrate on a new goal: reclaiming the word love. My goal is to explore how Christ’s love manifests itself in believer’s lives, and in turn, how to best express that love to the rest.”[1] These are the words of author Andrew Marin in his book Love is an Orientation. Marin who identifies as a…
By: Jean Ollis on March 22, 2018
Ross Douthat, a Catholic convert at 17, writes the compelling text Bad Religion, How We Became a Nation of Heretics (heretics defined as a person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted) in which he challenges the reader to feel safe and empowered to be political without being partisan. Much like author…
