How Can One Recover From Near or Actual Trump-Worship?
I know of, and know personally, a LOT of white professing Christians for whom the emotional and...
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Category: Religion – Good And Bad
The Love Off-Switch – Say “Abortion” and You Don’t Have to Love Your Neighbors!
It’s true. I’m not making this up. I watch them and listen to them. They in practice...
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Vice President Mike Pence is a Very Dangerous Kind of Christian – He Sells His Soul for Power
His professed Christian moral values are NOT the values he holds most dear. There’s...
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God’s Wisdom: That We Make the Invisible Church VISIBLE.
We can see “First Church”, standing on the corner. And we call it “a church” or “my...
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It’s Not Foreigners, Atheists and Gays Who Must Turn! 2 Chronicles 7:14
In this Scripture it’s NOT the foreigners and unbelievers who have to “turn”! WHO ARE WE TALKING...
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NO RELIGIOUS BULLIES. We Must “Lift Our VOICES” – While We Lay Down Our SWORDS.
“Declare to my people … their sins.” Jesus, Isaiah, the prophets, the apostles...
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7 Signs of a Healthy, Christ-Following Christian Faith
Unhealthy, dangerous forms of “Christianity” seem epidemic today. Are there healthy forms? Here,...
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The Faith is Despised Because of You, Roy Moore (GOP Senate Candidate, AL)
Here are short excerpts from articles from mainstream press sources shaming evangelicals for...
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We Must Speak Up. “Lift your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their sins.”
God requires it of the prophet. He MUST speak out about what he sees going on. Shout it aloud, do...
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The “Sin Problem” in Gun Violence – Not Working Together to Reduce It!
“It’s not a gun problem; it’s a sin problem.” Certain Christians respond...
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Jesus Pushes Us to Judge Our OWN Lives – Not Other People’s
Jesus was a highly respected teacher of morality and of the spiritual life. So, logically...
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Christians & Churches Should Not Enforce the Bible on Us.
Here’s another example of the misunderstanding and misuse of Scripture by the...
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Spiritual Tune-up: Don’t Ignore JESUS
There is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself or his early followers taught that...
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The Moral Priorities of Jesus – What Did Jesus Teach?
He said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do what I say?” Maybe...
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New American Bad Bible – Not What Jesus Wants (Pt-2)
These sayings may have a Biblical sound to them. But they are not Biblical. They set aside the...
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New American Bad Bible – Not What Jesus Wants (Pt-1)
These sayings may have a Biblical sound to them. But they are not Biblical. Setting aside the...
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Kingdom Manifesto – Sermon on the Mount Summarized
It might be a good project for each of us – to try to summarize the Sermon on the Mount...
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War on Christmas? The Real Issue Is How CHRISTIANS Behave.
It’s about Christ – so it’s really a holiday (holy day) for any who love Christ. How could we...
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Two Types of Religion – Authority vs Love
Seems to me there are obviously two primary modes for religious practice in this world. That...
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Have We Been Actually Voting for Contempt and Hate? Are You On One of The Lists?
Sadly, our votes and elections are, whatever our motives, putting lots of people in positions of...
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Turn the Other Cheek MEANS Resist Them Non-Violently
I. THE PROBLEM: Jesus says to turn the other cheek. [See a summary of this post.] Is it ever...
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The Quiet Places in Our Lives Make Our Public Activity Safer
Contemplation and Public Action The public good is most in danger when the voluntary visits to...
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German Christians Sold Out to Power and Glory
[A Review of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, by Charles Marsh, 2014] This book is...
Read MoreChrist Asks Us to Choose His Way, Not Caesar’s.
. . . switch sides from Caesar’s way to Jesus’ way – before it is too late.* – Brian McLaren “Caesar’s way” stands for secular, temporal government or authority. The usage derives from Jesus’ saying, when asked about...
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Freedom From Fear – Comes From Your Faith, Not Your Government
[See also: What if We Are Persecuted?!] No government can ever guarantee that you or I will have...
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Prophets MUST Improvise, In and For Our Cities – a review of “Resurrection City” by Peter Goodwin Heltzel
The prophet’s task is to “reorder” and “refashion” the urban environment to be more just and...
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Young People Changing the World: Activism and Prayer – “Occupy Spirituality” by Bucko & Fox
I am very pleased with this book (“Occupy Spirituality“). It is a conversation...
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What If Christians Are Persecuted Here? Advice from the Bible.
Some American Christians worry that we are being persecuted and that our freedom of religion is...
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People Who Take the Bible Seriously are America’s Problem & Blessing (with 2 Rules of Interpretation)
Frankie Schaeffer grew up in modern, politically radical, Americanized “Christianity”....
Read More“Emergent Evangelical” – Can I Be Both?
A friend recently asked what it means that I use “emergent evangelical” as my religious affiliation on FaceBook. So here’s a look at what the phrase means to me. I. “Evangelicals” Today...
Read MoreAbortion Numbers Trend Downward Under Universal Health Care
We can support policies that actually tend to reduce abortions in the short run. Or we can adopt a political strategy of taking over every branch of government with like-minded politicians so we can (try to) use the long arm of...
Read MoreHealthcare, A Culture That Encourages Abortion, and Pro-Lifers Who Don’t Step Up to the Plate
Here’s my wife Connie’s response to a relative who thinks Obama loves to see babies die, and argues that almost all abortions are done for the convenience of the mother. We could rant about this for a long time, but I think...
Read MoreAbortion and Social Justice – Douglas W Kmiec
Douglas W. Kmiec is a prominent Republican and committed Roman Catholic. He was head of the Office of Legal Counsel for Presidents Reagan and the first Bush. He became notorious for coming out in support of then-Senator...
Read MoreObama at Ebenezer Baptist – Crucial Moral Values for America (as in: Love Your Neighbor)
In January of 2008 Barack Obama gave a powerful speech (sermon) on the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr. for America today. This was at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King was raised and his father was the pastor....
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John Paul II: Private Prayer and the Dangers of Public Life
For decades he resisted Nazi, then Communist, oppression. How did he cope? Connie and I recently...
Read MoreObama’s Perspective on Faith in Christ is Biblical
Here’s Obama on the significance of the Gospel: In an interview with Christianity Today magazine, Obama said this about his decision to accept Christ, What was intellectual and what was emotional joined, and the belief in...
Read MoreChristians! Please Let’s Not Parrot Shallow and Insulting Hypocrites.
Did you see the recent comment from “Donna”? It stirred me up! Come on people! Christian integrity and humility should compel you to allow that those who voted for Obama are NOT thereby proven to be ignorant or...
Read MoreScott Kleeb on Abortion: “The ideal number … is zero.”
The ideal number for me as a Catholic is zero … and there are plenty of people I’d be willing to work with if they want to get down to … that ideal number which is zero. Just below there’s a video clip (2...
Read MoreDamaged by False Prophets? Let’s Do It Better From Here On.
I. Young Adult Attitudes Toward American Christianity In the aftermath of the Religious Right’s ascendancy, it is not an accident that “antihomosexual” is the number one perception of Christians in America, followed closely by...
Read MoreEmail – She Is Eager to Scare Us All!
Scary Email I received an anonymous forwarded email the other day that combined a bit of good spiritual advice with a lot of classic Republico-Christian fear-mongering. Actually, it wasn’t totally anonymous. It was signed...
Read MoreUnbelievers’ View of Christians – A Big Problem With Fruit
How does “the world” see us? Recently I wrote about David Kinnaman’s treatment of that in his book, unChristian, based on an extensive research project by The Barna Group. Remember, Kinnaman is writing from...
Read MoreThey Will Know We Are Christians By Our Self-Infatuation?!
The Barna Group exists to provide statistical information to Christian churches and ministries, to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States. We accomplish these outcomes by providing vision,...
Read MoreObama and Abortion
The Matthew 25 Network has a very helpful page for Christians who want to know the truth about Senator Barack Obama as against the flood of lies we have all experienced. As promised, here’s a lengthy excerpt from that...
Read MoreDon’t Forward Lying Emails About Public Figures – It’s UnChristian
I. Waves of Slander I don’t have statistics, but we all know there’s a lot of falsehood circulating freely online. An email arrives with frightening accusations or innuendos and the reader gets frightened (as was...
Read MoreAmerican Repentance – Will the Church be “Left Behind?”
If America “repents” – if America is repenting right now – is the Bush-devoted wing of American Christianity going to be “left behind”? “Repent”, you know, means to re-evaluate,...
Read MoreSimplistic, Useless Sermons – Why Does It Happen?
Drew Smith, ordained Baptist minister, wrote recently about shallow sermonizing (at his blog , Wilderness Preacher, and at EthicsDaily.com.) It’s dangerous for me to complain about useless sermons, since I deliver a...
Read MoreFalse Prophets: Two Key Signs
Obery Hendricks, in The Politics of Jesus, Doubleday, 2006, also comes down to two basic criteria, but I think they are much more on target than my old standards. And, come to think of it, they are more ethically based.
Read MoreReligion in Government 20 Years Ago
When I spend 10 minutes stretching my back on my inversion table I often read poetry or old cartoon books. This is from Tom Toles’ Mr. Gazoo: A Cartoon History of the Reagan Era, 1987. Ronald Reagan (runninng up the steps...
Read MoreAmerican Baptist Bill of Rights
Here is the key part of “The American Baptist Bill of Rights,” unanimously approved at the 1939 annual sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Northern Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention....
Read MoreSen. Mark Christensen – a Christian Outlook
Well, maybe. At least a somewhat religious outlook. These are quotes from our new state Senator (NE LD 44), Mark Christensen, elected from Imperial – from an article in the Lincoln Journal Star. “I’m quite at...
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