So far as I know, the Orthodox Church never moves a feast to the nearest Sunday to improve attendance. The feast of Transfiguration actually falls on Sunday this year.
Dumbfounded
We are currently in a time, perhaps unprecedented, when talk about all kinds of sexual behavior is pervasive, even inescapable. And we Christians who value purity are very much on the outside, expressing beliefs that the culture can’t even understand. There’s little likelihood that, if we could only find the right way to say it, we’d win people over; I found that out with the pro-life issue. It’s the beliefs themselves that they reject, and changing the words won’t fool them.
Prof. David Bradshaw in Healing Humanity: Confronting our Moral Crisis
“Evangelical”
What I mean by “evangelical” is people who believe in the personal aspect of what it means to be a follower of Christ. That includes the way that we understand the Bible, the way that we understand the need to be born again.
Russell Moore, interviewed by Tish Harrison Warren.
Sorry, Mr. Moore, but your definition doesn’t define. I’m an American exvangelical, now (Eastern) Orthodox, and I believe in the personal aspect of what it means to be a follower of Christ, including a way of understanding the Bible and a way of understanding the need to be born again.
FotF Heresy?
While Christianity teaches that all people sin and fall short of the glory of God, [Focus on the Family’s] The Daily Citizen promotes heresy: only liberals sin. Reports about Democrats violating their own COVID restrictions (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Governor Gavin Newsom) are a regular feature. Only libs engage in political violence (“12-Year-Old Boy Assaulted by Woman for Pro-Trump Sign, Police Say”).
How evangelical media ministry Focus on the Family fueled lies and insurrectionists
The Yeshua invitation
I’m less and less interested in what I used to call myself, and more and more interested in the self God made. I spent a life time trying to accept myself ‘just as I am’, and suddenly in middle age I am challenged to be more, to deepen. That’s been the Yeshua invitation.
…
I want to be with the wildest god more often. I don’t want to gaze over the fence at my neighbour’s field and bitch about it. I don’t want to let envy, pride or even malice rule the house. This means not resting on my laurels but actively grinding out an upgrade on my behaviour. Job shows me not to get caught up with the tittle tattle of what my ‘advisors’ may have to say about the state of my life. It shows me to listen deep before and after I pray. I don’t want Him to be ornamental in my words but the root system.
Job has also taught me something about the need for grief.
Martin Shaw, (who’s definitely one-of-a-kind)
Making it to the Crack of Doom
The most astounding aspect of Frodo’s tale is the simple fact that, when all was said and done, he was standing where he was supposed to be[, at the Crack of Doom]. He had not quit.
…
I have been in ordained ministry for over 43 years. Over that time, I have seen a host of Christians come and go. When I preside at the funeral of a believer (which I have done hundreds of times), I am always struck by the simple fact of completion. “I have finished the race,” St. Paul said. (2Tim. 4:7) That is no mean feat.
The most striking feature of the Twelve Apostles is their steadfastness. The gospels are filled with reminders that they frequently misunderstood Christ. They argued with Him. They tried to dissuade Him from His most important work. They complained. They jockeyed with each other for preferment and attention. Peter denied Him. Only Judas despaired. Of the others, all but one died as martyrs.
Fr. Stephen Freeman, Frodo’s Last Lesson
Christian films
When writing my films, I felt this need to wrap everything up nicely, even when most situations in my life had not. I felt the pressure to give all the answers, when so often the questions in my world had none. I felt the pull to censor my characters’ language and actions, when my own experience and behavior has very often been anything but family-friendly. In looking at this disconnect, I began to realize I, and many other well-intentioned Christian filmmakers, weren’t being entirely honest about ourselves (humanity), the world or even God in the stories we told. And if I know anything about God, he really likes honesty.
Nathan Clarkson, Why I Won’t Make Another Christian Film
Cautionary note: Clarkson is using “Christian” in the parochial sense of “Evangelical.” There’s no demand for pat answers and pulled punches in much other Christianity because most others don’t demand their own insular culture industry.
May I assume there are disproportionately few Evangelical Terrence Malick fans?
(Be it remembered: 60 years ago, moviegoing was still an Evangelical taboo, though the taboo was quickly eroding. Drinking alcohol is another taboo that is no more. I’ve never understood how Evangelicals can watch taboos become licenses without recognizing that the taboo was never “biblical” in the first place.)
We are in the grip of a grim, despairing rebellion against reality that imagines itself to be the engine of moral progress.
The end of the world as we know it is not the end of the world.
You can read most of my more impromptu stuff here (cathartic venting) and here (the only social medium I frequent, because people there are quirky, pleasant and real). Both should work in your RSS aggregator, like Feedly or Reeder, should you want to make a habit of it. I’m even playing around a bit here, but uncertain whether I’ll persist.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 