Always Reforming

Have you ever watched The Voice ?  It's okay, for what it is.  Occasionally they find a vocalist or two who could really make it on the radio, but they mostly find amateur musicians who haven't made it for a reason.  It is a family show (sort of), but it's still surprising how open to spirituality, even Christianity, it is.  Spirituality is mentioned with some regularity, even to the point that classic hymns have been sung by contestants.  This openness reflects a general attitude of tolerance and positivity, as they also do their best to include at least one audition by a homosexual each season. This open platform has led an inordinate number of worship pastors/worship leaders to audition on the show.  If I remember correctly, there were at least three who auditioned this season, a couple of them making it onto the show, and one making it to the live shows.  It seems that every season there are at least a couple of worship pastors auditioning in an...

I have always identified first and foremost as a Christian, and I think that is the way it ought be, but I have never had a problem with identifying with a particular subset of Christianity.  I tend to resist any title that bears the name of a man (have you ever read 1 Corinthians?!), but I do not resist denominationalism per se.  Such titles can be useful for practical purposes.  Let's call them a necessary evil. I have always called myself a Reformed Presbyterian.  As I get older, I realize that I am probably less of a Presbyterian than I had once thought (at least that's what Presbyterians tell me).  I'm not nearly as much of a "Confessional" person as most conservative Presbyterians are, I guess.  I still firmly believe in the Presbyterian form of government, though, I suppose not in all of the particulars of how most current conservative Presbyterian denominations operate that system.  Nonetheless I still have no trouble calling myself Presbyte...

If you're a football fan, or even if you're not, you've probably heard of Aaron Hernandez, the troubled tight end from the New England Patriots.  After years of trouble with the law he finally found himself serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd.  His recent suicide came as somewhat of a shock, considering that he had just been acquitted in a separate murder case.  Perhaps the most surprising detail of the reports is that he had "John 3:16" (it's not clear if he had the actual verse or just the address) scrawled on his forehead.  Here are my reflections on the tragic ending of this unfortunate tale. 1) Football isn't that important.   I love football.  I probably (okay, definitely) love it too much, but being good at football doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want.  Being a professional athlete does not render one above the law.  Hernandez seems to have discovered that immutable reality altogether too late.  He wa...

The world is full of false Gospels.  For many years the Prosperity Gospel dominated the public persona of Christianity, but another false Gospel is slowly supplanting it.  We can call this the Motivational Gospel .  It's much like the prosperity Gospel, but it places heavy emphasis on effort.  In many ways it is more difficult to discern from the true Gospel.  Whereas the Prosperity Gospel promises health and wealth in return for financial donations to specific people/organizations (I hesitate to call them churches), the Motivational Gospel assures the believer that God is there to help him achieve his goals if he is willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears.  It sounds so much more genuine than the garbage peddled by Prosperity Gospel "preachers," but it is still severely lacking. This Gospel is very popular right now.  Why should we flee from it? 1) It is false .  Simply put, this is not the Gospel that the Apostles preached.  They c...

My Facebook feed was recently lit up with the news of the conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy of Hank Hanegraaf, known best as the "Bible Answer Man."  Such a defection evoked one blogger to say that Hanegraaf had " left the faith ."  Is that the case?  Did Hank Hanegraaf really leave the Christian faith? Or have Evangelicals, particularly American Evangelicals, defined the gates of the Kingdom even more narrowly than God Himself has? I have lately struggled with defining the boundaries of Christianity.  The Bible makes it clear that practice and doctrine are both important when it comes to recognizing who is truly within the realms of orthodoxy, but how much must one believe to be considered a Christian brother?  Are we going to condemn millions of sincere Christians who have been under the tutelage of poor teachers?  I have difficulty with such a broad condemnation, and yet, ignorance is certainly an obstacle to true faith. I was raised with a pretty sim...

So, America sent some missiles  to Syria in retaliation for their alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians.  Maybe you've heard.  We can all agree that the use of sarin gas is horrific and cruel, though, of course, so is war in general.  The question that has agitated and divided the American public is whether or not we were justified in retaliating against a regime that has not actually committed any acts of aggression against our own country or citizens.  Are we called to police the world?  Do we have a moral duty to protect the weak throughout the world?  Should we interfere with civil wars overseas?  I don't know.  I'm just a 27-year-old blogger (okay, wannabe blogger) who has never been in the military or the government.  There's a reason I don't make decisions like this. Having a social media profile doesn't make me or anyone else an expert at foreign policy.  I don't know what our foreign policy, but here's what I do...

What would happen if you could never read your Bible ever again?  What would you do if reading the Bible suddenly became illegal and Bibles were confiscated as contraband?  What would you do if you were deprived of the Word of God?   We humans tend to undervalue that to which we have constant access.  Most Americans have the Internet in their hands.  We can travel around the world in a matter of days.  We can communicate with people around the world instantly.  These possibilities are simply amazing, yet we take them for granted.  We get so used to the novelties of life--technology, food, transportation, etc.--that we take for granted those things for which others would, quite literally, die.   Familiarity breeds contempt, they say, and divine revelation is no exception.  The number of copies of the Bible in existence is difficult to fathom, and yet, even Christians, those who claim to love and follow Jesus Christ, fail to appreciate...