By: gfesadmin on February 21, 2013
In “Consuming Religion,” Vincent J. Miller argues that the problem with a consumer culture and structure isn’t with belief but in its praxis. Nobody would argue that child exploitation for cheap products is good. A majority of folks active within Christianity can tell you what correct belief is, but that belief hasn’t trickled down to…
By: gfesadmin on February 16, 2013
After reading Douthat’s book: Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, I am compelled to ask if the ‘bad religion’ of American Christianity is bad only for America? Has it left just America in a crisis? In the wake of globalization, I believe this same version of Christianity has reached the urban shores…
By: Joy Mindo on February 15, 2013
The openness of Ross Douthat explains how America became a nation of heretics gives me a good understanding of the decline of Christianity. Although is difficult to relate to the American experience of Christianity through the years there are segments that many African Christians can relate. For many years, the evangelical main line churches…
By: gfesadmin on February 15, 2013
Maybe it is just me, but there seems to be a pungent sense amongst ministers today, and indeed in times past, with those preparing for the professional ministry and those who are already well seasoned, that we mostly focus on those things that divide instead of what unites us. In pursuing our various customized agendas,…
By: gfesadmin on February 15, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr_5wDmX3kY Oprahdoxy…is it as bad as Douthat imagines? Has it turned U.S. Christians into throngs of heretics? In the book Bad Religion: How we Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic journalist, writes a synopsis of the history of Christianity in its various forms and denominations from the 1950’s to the present.…
By: gfesadmin on February 15, 2013
Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics is aserious review of the present condition of Christianity in America. Christianity which once had significant influence on American life and history has fallen from those heights. It has now come face to face with its enemy. Douthat points out that the enemy is not any external…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
Ross Douthat in his book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics does an excellent job of explaining the scope of American Christianity over the last century. He delves into the complex reasons of the ebb and flow of various branches of American Christianity (Mainline Protestantism, Catholicism, and Evangelicalism) and their intersections. He…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
Different Phases The title caught me. I resonated with it immediately, thinking of others – then realization sat in. He was talking about me. Ross Douthat in Bad Religion holds the premise that through the ages, a “core orthodoxy” has held the church together and allowed her to weather the storms of heresy. However, today…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
I remember going to Dodger Stadium when I was in Junior High School to hear Billy Graham speak. The stadium was packed out. We sat in folding chairs in right field. He shared a dynamic and stirring message. George Beverly Shea in his baritone voice sang “How Great Thou Art” and I will never forget…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
A few weeks ago during the super bowl, a crowd of friends and family members came together to watch the big game at our house. Not long into the game, the Super Bowl was no longer what everyone was excited about. Rather, everyone was now excited about seeing some of the knew commercials during the…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
This last year the youtube video “I hate religion, but love Jesus” travelled on the internet like a virus. Most of us have seen the video. Jefferson Bethke who produced this video is a guy from our city, Tacoma. He said he was inspired by the book by Tim Keller called The Prodigal God. I…
By: gfesadmin on February 14, 2013
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt…
By: gfesadmin on February 11, 2013
December 15th 2013, a 25-year-old woman went to see a doctor at an emergency center in Cologne, Germany. She told the doctor that she was at a party on Friday night, and that at one point she went blank, not remembering anything until coming to on a bench in a different part of the city…
By: gfesadmin on February 9, 2013
… but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13) The question of the last post will be the beginning of the new. At the end of my first look at Karl Polanyi’s epochal book “The Great Transformation” I asked: What is a freedom worth…
By: gfesadmin on February 8, 2013
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The United States presidential election in 2012 focused on two distinct different views about the national economy. The United…
By: gfesadmin on February 8, 2013
Flow with the culture is the subliminal message tagged in our minds by advertisement everywhere. However, there are some things about today’s culture that I am not too sure if I am totally on board with its approach like retribution. Basically, retribution takes place in America through taxation when funds are divided out indirectly through…
By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
I have spent two full days with over 100 grass roots frontline church planters in the city of Patna in Bihar. They came from five regions of the State and radius of about 300 Kilometers from the rural areas where they are ministering. Bihar has been historically known as the Graveyard of Missionaries where many…
By: Joy Mindo on February 7, 2013
This week, the CEO of Coca Cola company made a statement that capitalism must evolve. The way the market economy has been developed over the centuries has not changed. The poor are still being affected by the policies of the lassie faire. This book was written when Africa was being colonized by European powers.…
By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
I am 63 years old and in all those years I have never heard so much of Abraham Lincoln as I have in the last decade. From both sides of the political spectrum, candidates and incumbents alike have called upon Lincoln’s shadow in hopes of justification for their views and/or policies. It is sometimes amusing…
By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
In 2005 during the height of the real estate boom here in the states, my wife and I found ourselves looking for a home. With seminary coming to an end and two ministry job offers hanging in the air a move was inevitable. Our first option was taking a Sr. Pastor role at a church…
