“It’s Your Time”: the Latest Refuse from Joel Osteen

It has been said, “Never judge a book by it’s cover.”  Yet even alone, some book covers cause so much difficulty they require special notice.  After all, many more people are influenced by the cover of books as they glance over a bookstores wares than who actually read them.  Last week (November 3, 2009), a “new” installment of the tripe that Joel Osteen calls “truth” graced the shelves of bookstores across the country.  Having written two best-sellers that are essentially carbon copies of one another, any wise entrepeneur would make the third attempt to repackage the same refuse and sell it yet again.

Speaking Creatively

Creationists and evolutionists are interesting groups of people.  It would seem that both sides of this debate are so passionate that the sound of the blood pumping in their ears prevents them from really hearing the other side very clearly.  Oh, I know, it is all about “intelligent conversation,” but if we are honest there are too many times that both sides are at fault for giving in to subjectivity.

A friend sent me a link to the following article just today.  While there are plenty of issues that I have no doubt will be hot points for debate, there is an excellent sentiment in the tone of the article as well as the challenge to discussion at the end.  The author, Alan Dowd, suggests that his fellow creations speak respectfully, humbly (yet boldly), intelligently, and personally.  He is quick to acknowledge that the debate, as much as we want to say is completely academic, is of such concern on both sides of the table that it is sincerely difficult to have apart from emotional context.

Click here for the full text of the article.  Then come back here and comment until your heart’s content.

Paul Washer on the Scandal of the Gospel

If you want to know what Christianity is, take a look at this:

Chris Rosebraugh does a critique of this lecture on his program, Fighting for the Faith.

Dear Rob Bell…

Because I have had people ask me if I have ever actually gone to the source to see if what I am writing about Rob Bell is true and reliable regarding his theology, I attempted to contact him via his author page at Zondervan’ website:

Customer (Aaron Gardner)	09/29/2009 04:14 PM
Dear Mr. Bell, I have one simple yes or no question for you: do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? Thanks for your time, Aaron

Why I Criticize Christian Leaders: Part 2

Every story has at least two sides.  In part 1 I shared the dutiful reasons for my criticisms.  Here is the other side of that story.

I have been on a journey of faith for most of my life.  It has been difficult to say when that journey actually started, partly because it had so many eventful stops that have taken me in different directions along the way.  Years ago I read The Pilgrim’s Regress by CS Lewis and it was in that reading that I was comforted to know that I was not alone.  Although my journey has really not taken me too far from Christianity, it has led me down paths where I have had the honor of rubbing shoulders with people who have challenged me to think very differently about my own faith and who have instilled in me the value of being open to criticism and self-examination.