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Beyond Ashes: Progressive Thoughts
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Thomas Jefferson at one point called Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, "The first corrupter of the teachings of Jesus," for a reason. Paul was an interesting Character in the Bible who's letters created a sad cornerstone for our current modern-day Christianity. "Sad" mainly because Paul actually...
A little clarification on my child-free status and how I do not like children. :P
Do you like children? I sure don't.
I go with 'rats' as a good example. No one ever questions why a person doesn't want rats around.. they're dirty, they carry disease, they make noise, they chew everything up...
Sometimes when I speak on these things of intolerance (see the previous blog entry I had written), I worry that people assume I’m not taking a look at the other side of the fence. Sadly, I am all too aware that the grass is not all too much greener over here than it is over there. I see it on a...
I’ll never understand a person’s need to be so negative. Perhaps it is bred of stagnancy? People who go unchallenged never grow, remain stagnant; this isn’t healthy. The ability of the mind and psyche itself to adapt and change must be nurtured, not beaten off with a stick.
So Difference, as...
Did you know that Mary Magdalene wasn't a prostitute? Many people do know this but I'd say an equal number, if not greater, have no clue about the origins of this particular religion/christian myth. The view of Mary Magdalene as a fallen woman actually originated not in scripture of any kind...
Often, the topic of inter-faith dating comes up in Christian conversation. It is far from an uncommon topic. People are always curious to know if they "can" date a non-believer or a believer of a different faith, and Christians (mostly mainline and conservative Christians) are always more than...
I think that when I die, God is going to ask me what I learned, and whom I learned it from. Did I search the far corners of this world of His for knowledge? Did I share what I learned with others? Did I open my mind to knowledge from every source, ...every person? -- He's going to want to know...
Pluralism Sunday is coming up on the first sunday in May (for 2010 that would be the 2nd of May). It's an event / day sponsored by the CPC (The Center for Progressive Christianity). I myself am a part of a church affiliated with TCPC so I'm personally looking forward to May 2 as Pluralism...
The early followers of Jesus, in the days prior to the emerging-Orthodox crack-down which proclaimed all other views other than their own to be heresy (burning books, criminalizing ideas, and killing people in the process), did not know the story of Jesus as we now know it today in the gospels...
Prayer
Disclaimer: This is quite a long section. Before I write a single word, I wanted to point out that Prayer is complicated, and simple, and personal -- all at the same time. I would never try to boil prayer down to "This is right," and "This is wrong" for everyone. This is more solely my...
Continued from Part 1.
A Case Study
Somewhere in mid-2009, I observed a conversation on one of my many internet forums, this one Christian-only in nature. A middle-aged strongly-convicted Christian woman is talking about a situation at her workplace. She explains that her physical...
Divorce
Divorce. Ugh.
Does God hate divorce?
Oh, Probably. Divorce either results from poor decision making (when choosing a spouse), lack of commitment (cheating, or frivolous divorce where the couple really didn't try to make the marriage work), abuse (Not cool under any...
"Can we ever really know?" (What's true, Who's right; when it comes to the Bible, why everyone differs on fundamental questions of [Christian] faith)
We can't.
Here, try this: The Bible was NOT divinely inspired. Prove me wrong.... you can't. Just like I can't really prove you wrong if you...
Christianity is not a religion of Fatalism. Fatalism means being a slave to a series of pre-destined things (a "plan" if you will) that are going to happen regardless of what we say, do, act, think, feel, and so on.
Basically, we are toy trains on a track, unable to divert from the chosen...
Thought I'd jump into something hefty this morning.. I'm just in a heavy-thought kinda mood I suppose ;)
Is Abortion mentioned in the Bible?
Not really, no. But something that is mentioned is the death of a child in-utero, in the book of Exodus. It states [Exodus 21:22] "When people who are...
Cross-posted from Livejournal:
I suppose people will slowly get sick of all my "Progressive thoughts / Progressive Christianity" posts. I used to avoid posting too many at once because I know people mostly come to journals not to get plastered with religious writings, but to just see people's...
Someone posted this on the TCPC Facebook page, and I made the response that follows. Someone mentioned to me that my comment was very helpful to them, and I'm always honored when people believe something I've said has helped them or inspired them in some small way. So I decided to transcribe it...
I wanted to get the second part to this out, since it's related to the other article on Hell I just posted. This particular article is also featured on the TCPC website. Eventually I will hopefully have all of my articles up on TCPC's website.
Hell as Spiritual Abuse
I wanted to talk...
Hell
There are three most common words used to indicate Hell in the Bible. I'm going to outline them below:
Sheol
Sheol is a Hebrew and Greek word which is often translated as "Hell", but we fail to capture the true meaning of the word through this English equivalent. Sheol is...
The Divinity of Jesus?
Was Jesus a historical person?
Please review the document previously posted on "Historical Jesus".
Do all Christians believe Jesus was Divine?
No. There is a movement of Christians, all be it smaller than the mainstream, who have come to accept a...