My Religion, Unplugged (Intro)
I know many of my friends use Facebook for catching up with old friends, sharing pictures, and just general light-hearted conversation. It is a great tool for rekindling old friendships, sharing news of you and your family, but I also love taking the social networking aspect of it farther. I write blogs (or Notes in FB lingo) of things I am thinking about, pondering, struggling with, or just want to write down.
As anyone who truly knows me will realize, I am not afraid of being open and honest about anything. I welcome open, honest, lively discussions and the mutual exchange of information, knowledge, opinions and ideas. It is how we grow as people. I know sometimes I may say things that ruffle feathers, or worse. It is not my intention to offend anyone. To have an honest discussion though, you have to be authentic and genuine, you can't tip toe around your true beliefs. You can't go to the extreme either of just being provocative. In modern lingo, you have to be "real."
So, with that in mind, I am going to repost some of my older blogs on the topic of religion from the past and perhaps revise them or provide some additional commentary. I don't know if anyone actually reads these notes, but I do welcome comments, remarks and replies. It is simply a chance to share ideas.
These notes were unique for me, I dropped the wall so many of us put around our religion. Sometimes peer pressure keeps us in check and we are fearful of speaking up and people realizing we might be different. We have a constant pressure in our society to fit in and not make waves. Others truly feel the need to constantly make waves, just for the sake of conflict; or to put others in their place.
Last year I read a wonderful book called "I'm Fine With God, it's Christians I Can't Stand..." by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. Now, the title may be off putting to some, but the authors are Christians themselves, having read several of their works I know them to be very caring, committed Christians who simply felt the need to speak out on some issues facing the church today.
The book deals in a light-hearted fashion with some of the bigger dilemmas facing the Christian faith, and churches today. The authors address 10 core issues they have struggled with over the years, but to me it boiled down to a simpler few.
The Holier Than Thou Complex (The new Pharisees of the 21st century)
The Prosperity Gospel Churches (God is interested in your salvation, not your bank account)
The Cultural Christian Problem (Church as a Country Club and Social Center, not a place of worship)
Things That Don't Really Matter (in the grand scheme of things)
Rather than write one mammoth blog, on all four topics, I am going to tackle each one on it's own. Over the next week or so, I will post each section. I am not writing these to offend anyone, but to stimulate discussion and invite other viewpoints and, with any luck, it might inspire some form of change in some, perhaps even in me.
As anyone who truly knows me will realize, I am not afraid of being open and honest about anything. I welcome open, honest, lively discussions and the mutual exchange of information, knowledge, opinions and ideas. It is how we grow as people. I know sometimes I may say things that ruffle feathers, or worse. It is not my intention to offend anyone. To have an honest discussion though, you have to be authentic and genuine, you can't tip toe around your true beliefs. You can't go to the extreme either of just being provocative. In modern lingo, you have to be "real."
So, with that in mind, I am going to repost some of my older blogs on the topic of religion from the past and perhaps revise them or provide some additional commentary. I don't know if anyone actually reads these notes, but I do welcome comments, remarks and replies. It is simply a chance to share ideas.
These notes were unique for me, I dropped the wall so many of us put around our religion. Sometimes peer pressure keeps us in check and we are fearful of speaking up and people realizing we might be different. We have a constant pressure in our society to fit in and not make waves. Others truly feel the need to constantly make waves, just for the sake of conflict; or to put others in their place.
Last year I read a wonderful book called "I'm Fine With God, it's Christians I Can't Stand..." by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. Now, the title may be off putting to some, but the authors are Christians themselves, having read several of their works I know them to be very caring, committed Christians who simply felt the need to speak out on some issues facing the church today.
The book deals in a light-hearted fashion with some of the bigger dilemmas facing the Christian faith, and churches today. The authors address 10 core issues they have struggled with over the years, but to me it boiled down to a simpler few.
The Holier Than Thou Complex (The new Pharisees of the 21st century)
The Prosperity Gospel Churches (God is interested in your salvation, not your bank account)
The Cultural Christian Problem (Church as a Country Club and Social Center, not a place of worship)
Things That Don't Really Matter (in the grand scheme of things)
Rather than write one mammoth blog, on all four topics, I am going to tackle each one on it's own. Over the next week or so, I will post each section. I am not writing these to offend anyone, but to stimulate discussion and invite other viewpoints and, with any luck, it might inspire some form of change in some, perhaps even in me.
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