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Sex Symbols Who Speak In Tongues
From Charisma News. Also Katy Perry and Megan Fox on Speaking in Tongues. The irony of course is that the title to the piece is link bait. So what is being promoted? Sex vs outrage aren’t terrible dissimilar in terms of attraction.
Is this an example of bounded set vs center set systems? See previous posts on Rubric for Mapping Systems and Bounded Set, center set
Shibboleths can work both ways. Speaking in Tongues for some communities has been a verification of authenticity for the presence of the Holy Spirit. Negative, behavioral shibboleths of course abound.
Scott McKnight does some Perception Clean-up on Pharisees
It’s time to revisit the Pharisees, in part because their story needs to be told so we don’t forget and in part because some like to use the “Pharisee” in ways that concern me. It is a standard procedure to say “Pharisee” and mean “legalist, bigot, hypocrite, or picayune meddler into other people’s religious business.” Look at any dictionary. But this is in and of itself a caricature and stereotype, for no one (I hope) would think that all Pharisees have always been religious bigots. Such language spells danger down the road in ways that might surprise us. Even more, we have tended to download anger or extreme disagreement with others onto this term “Pharisee.” So, when I call someone a Pharisee I do not mean anything nice or even charitable. Which, in and of itself is dangerous because no group (well, there are exceptions) is always wrong and always bad.
Jesus and the Pharisees got into it with one another at a deep, deep level because (1) both were committed to the revelation of God in the Torah, but (2) they differed radically on how to interpret that Torah. Let this be clear, though: they did not differ that it was the Word of God, they did not differ on the importance of Abraham, Moses, David or the Prophets. They differed, and you will know this if you know about The Jesus Creed, because Jesus thought the Torah should be interpreted in light of Deut 6:4-9 and Leviticus 19:18 (Love God, Love others). It is simplistic to talk like this, but it is essentially on target to say that Jesus thought the Torah was about loving God and loving others, and the Pharisees saw the Torah more as a comprehensive listing of God’s will.
Posted in Daily Links and Notes
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Dutch Racism in the Soccer Stadium
The Dutch have a history of tolerance on lots of issues but obviously need work on this.
Posted in Daily Links and Notes
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New Voices in Bible Belt Publishing
Thank you Danny Fast for this piece. “Jesus is getting a makeover by new publishers”
Christian orthodoxy in America has never been this monolithic, but the Bible Belt probably was more. Of course everyone wants to know “where will this go?”
This population is obviously well represented in some Christian bloggers but I think is mostly a Bible Belt phenomenon. It doesn’t necessarily track as well in California or the East Coast.
Posted in Daily Links and Notes
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The place and time (in a career) for positive AND negative feedback
Very helpful article on this in the Harvard Business Review.
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Theodicy and the God of the Tsunami
Comment on Rachel Held Evan’s posting about the God of Love
These questions are old, hard and multi-layered. They involve:
1. Agency: Did God “cause” this storm, earthquake, virus, cell mutation, car accident, war? Does “allow” feel any differently?
2. Taking Sides: Germans prayed for the Allied bombings to stop. The massacre at the Red Sea left many Egyptian families fatherless and likely destitute. OT prophets who cried out for justice understood Assyrian and Babylonian conquest to be God’s judgment against Israel, which despite covenant failure were likely still morally superior to their conquerors. We must assume these conquest involved the expected amount of slaughter, rape, theft and slavery. Continue reading
Posted in Saved Blog Comments
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Youth from the Evangelical Greenhouse Critique Their Nursery
A second article came through today on young evangelicals reconsidering the oral tradition which they inherited. This piece from Patrol on “The cult of virginity“, a bunch of good comments too. It’s interesting because there often aren’t a lot of comments on the Patrol blog, but this piece drew response.
The first article was on publishing in Nashville being shaken up by the young and doubtful evangelicals.
An observation and an illustration
Sometimes we pursue these conversations with the self importance of imagining our prescriptions and standards will dictate the behavior of others. That’s usually not the case, especially when it comes to a drive as strong as sex at a time in our lives when we have little self-knowledge or self-awareness.
What we hope we may do is offer guidance and wisdom that will bring life to those who care to listen to us. Maybe that thought can govern our conversation.