Christianity Today Spews Heresy…
by: Rev. DanWho needs to read the article when the headline contains such rampant lies and heresy?
The ACLU Is Not Evil
And neither are many people with whom we disagree.
Time to start a massive campaign against Christianity Today. To think… the guy who wrote the article, and the Editor, and the Publisher, and the Advertisers, and the Subscribers, and the Liberals, and the Courts, and so on all think they’re Christians. Pssshaw!
C’mon Sofyst, let’s go throw eggs at ‘em or something.
Christiandom (and possibly the nation) would not be in such a mess if more people could view their faith and the world this way. It is refreshing to see this in a magazine that relies on a consumer base that consists of the very people that he is criticizing.
I think it’s pretty spot on, until the last few paragraphs where he degrades the entire article by repeating the “screechy hatefulness emanating from many on the secular Left” garbage. Yes, it’s a stab at getting the braindead “christian” populace to consider the reality of the ACLU’s value, but he also regurgitates the same lame “whiny liberal left” bullshit.
Squeaky wheels get the grease. The secular Left probably “screeches” the loudest because their palms are less well lubricated with dirty money. You’re not going to stand up and make a motion for censure when your pockets (or your campaign’s coffers) are lined with kickbacks from the corruption in power (or the moneybags which support the current empowered corruption). Perhaps it is tiring and grating to hear the cries of foulplay and corruption, but it’s even more tiring to repeatedly cry out like a voice in the desert and have your pleas for mercy, justice, truth, transparency, and freedom ignored.
I guess Jesus was a pretty whiny, screechy liberal… y’know with that turning over the tables in the temple and whatnot… and constantly saying “you religious weenies are corrupt.” (TOTDT Paraphrase Translation) But I digress… why bring the Bible into any of these conversations about Christianity? I guess it’s time to take up the time-honored christian tradition of just declaring that the Bible supports any random position we feel the need to coerce other people to believe or buy into.
Damn, I am a master of tangents.
But the ACLU is not evil. And neither are the people who run it. People aren’t evil. People can’t be inherently evil. People are inherently sinful. The ACLU is just an organization run by sinful people in a sinful world that seeks democratic justice, but doesn’t seek the One who created justice.
Dan, it seems to me that your comments are the ones that are off. Can you find any Biblical support for your argument that all people who disagree with Christians are evil? How can this be, since even so many Christians disagree with each other?
Tidy, I think you’ve forgotten to put on your special Outchurched Decoder Glasses… ;)
Sorry, Dan, but I don’t want any “outchurched decoder glasses”. I don’t want to be like anything or anyone in the world. I only desire to be like Jesus. Yes, I think a lot of people in a lot of churches are not interpreting the Bible correctly, and/or they are not living the Bible. But I don’t think that is a good enough reason to condemn the entire institution. I try to live my life according to the Bible. I don’t always succeed. But Jesus is my reason for living, so I try.
> I don’t want to be like anything or anyone in the world.
> I only desire to be like Jesus.
I’ve thought or said similar things myself in the past, and can definitely empathize with the existential angst that comes from trying to ignore the reality around you to focus on the “reality” of the Biblical story. It’s a tough row to hoe, you have my sincere wishes for a speedy recovery.
The content of Outchurched will likely not be to your liking, or may be difficult to understand if you’re unwilling to participate in dialog with anybody other than Jesus. Personally, I wonder why anybody unwilling to engage in culture around them would bother to look at some site on the internet and take the time to comment. Nonetheless, good luck to you.
You misinterpreted my comment, Dan. See, all I said was that I don’t want to be “similar to” the world. But just because I don’t want to be like the world, does not mean I don’t want to know about the world, and about how people think. See, no matter how much I don’t want to be like the world, I still live in the world. And I enjoy learning about the people around me and how they think. I commented because I want to know a little bit about how you think. If you’d be open to such a discussion, you might be surprised to discover that we probably have more in common than you think.
You told me I needed “outchurched decoder glasses”. To me, that implies that I should view everything through Outchurched, maybe even believe in things the way Outchurched believes them. But I don’t. I try to view everything through the Bible, because everything comes from God, and everything we know about God is revealed to us in the Bible. Through the Bible, God tells us everything from how we came to exist (He created us) to why we are the way we are (we are sinful creatures, given to temptation and fallen from God), to how we can return to God’s presence (through Jesus). Everything is explained in the Bible. So I can’t “agree” to view the world through anything else.
I’m sorry if my beliefs don’t suit your website. But I owe too much to Jesus to see the world any other way.
I truly believe I understand what you’re saying, and I assert that you’re misinterpreting.
1) “You need Outchurched Decoder Goggles” was intended as a cheeky way to express “you’ve apparently missed the boat as to the intention and meaning of my post.” I think you misunderstood sarcastic/facetious commentary and interpreted it literally. I can understand how you might render it otherwise, but I think the tone of my writing here has a sarcastic, jaded bent. (Unlike my rose-colored-glasses pie-in-the-sky mega-happy-for-another-sunshiny-day-self, but hey, that’s my own personal problem.)
2) I understand Christian dogma, I assure you, and really don’t need to hear it repeated. I empathize with the situation you’re in/the position/stance you’re taking, because I’ve been there myself, I’ve taken it myself. Personally, I view that thinking/ mindset/ worldview to be a restaining trap. Mileage varies. I prefer the rational, examined life to the christian one. In my view of things they’re exclusive experiences. Again, mileage varies.
I mean you no disrepect, but I’m not interested in hearing the “same old crap” regurgitated by someone I’m assuming to be a well-meaning and well-intentioned person. This particular highway doesn’t need any more paving.
3) I think this blog overall (and the podcast) are a hell of a huge dosage of “what I think.” I think if one spent a bit of time reading the content here one would get the overall gist, and that it’d be very clear that we’re not suggesting that everybody should think like us (I’m “royal ‘we’ing” at the moment). We’ve stated repeatedly, in the podcast and elsewhere, that “if you think like us you’re probably going to Hell.”
If we’re headin’ for FurnaceLand, then the blog and podcast have shown us that we’re probably not going alone.
I’m personally going quite merrily.
“I think being a cynic is the only rational stance to take in a contemporary society. I would call it quite a compliment to be called an arch-cynic; that almost sounds important.” –Frank Zappa, after being labelled an arch-cynic in an NME interview
Alright. How about we just agree to disagree? It’s clear that we have two very different perspectives. But I hope you don’t mind my presence here, as I am very curious as to how you think.
Maybe you are both full of crap, eh? What would be nice to hear from the mouths of more believers is “I don’t know, nor do I know enough to say that you are wrong.” This simple statement would avoid the arrogant statement that I hear so often: “we’ll have to agree to disagree” which means, “you are wrong and someday you will realize it…and until then don’t bother having a rational argument with me about it because I am so right that I can not even discuss the possibility that I am wrong.”
Lets be honest about how much we do not and cannot know. Jesus left us no tidy doctrines, and from his sermons and parables, he intended this consequence.
Dude, when am I ever not full of crap?
Do you WANT to argue? Because I can… it just seems to me that it would be pointless. You are very set in your beliefs, fine. We can argue, but you won’t change my beliefs, and I don’t think I will change your beliefs. So what’s the point?
I am here to learn. I am willing to rationally discuss why I believe what I believe, and why you believe what you believe, if you are open to such a discussion. I don’t have all the answers, and I’ll never claim to have all the answers. I’m still learning. But I will never admit that my Jesus is wrong.
> Do you WANT to argue? Because I can… it just seems to me
> that it would be pointless.
You’re trying to pick fights by being clueless and posting tripe. I’m on the cusp of automatically flagging any comment you leave as spam.
> You are very set in your beliefs, fine. We can argue, but you
> won’t change my beliefs, and I don’t think I will change your
> beliefs.
I have known Grasty for over ten years, and asserting that he’s ignorantly set in his beliefs is flat wrong. In fact, you’ve got it completely backwards… you’re set in your own willful ignorance.
> I am here to learn. I am willing to rationally discuss why
> I believe what I believe, and why you believe what you
> believe, if you are open to such a discussion.
Just as I’m unwilling to discuss what racists believe with them, I’m very unwilling to have a discussion with you about what you believe until you remove your head from your anus.
> But I will never admit that my Jesus is wrong.
And that’s exactly Grasty’s point. This genre of statement is what has driven caring, thoughtful, intelligent folk like Grasty out of church, and is exactly why I refuse to wear the “Christian” label.
Ironically, you’ve just admitted that your Jesus is wrong. Semantics, yes… but I think it’s more than a mere slip or error,
You can shove the self-righteous “agree to disagree” bullshit.
Do I sense a lot of drama ;-) Just kidding.
Lets just ask ourselves… does this really profit the kingdom of heaven… and bring glory to Christ? if not… why bother getting heated.
Im speaking from very recent experience. :-)
Just a thought.
> Do I sense a lot of drama ;-) Just kidding.
Do I sense dumbfucks? ;-) Just kidding.
Let’s just ask ourselves… are we profitting FairyLand and bringing Glory to the Flying Spaghetti Monster?