Category: Uncategorized
Redefining Conversion
This is a reblog from my friend and colleague in the Utica Presbytery, Rev. Herb Swanson. Herb is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lowville, NY. He previously spent 25 years working in Thailand where he was fostering greater understanding and dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism.
Here is an excerpt:
That’s worth thinking about—being a follower of Jesus but not a Christian. That’s what Paul was. Peter and the other disciples all died before there was a Christian religion. They followed Jesus while remaining devout, practicing Jews. One of the things that seems to be happening in our increasingly secular society is that small groups of followers of Jesus are reinventing the church in ways that make more sense in the 21st century than do traditional churches. Maybe something we should be aiming for is to be more Christ-like and less Christian. Worth a thought.
12 Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening
Lifted from Facebook via Gary, my “step-uncle-in-law”:
Add your thoughts here… (optional)
Thank You
Today, I’d like to take the DeLorean back to 1998 and share with you this recently rediscovered gem from my college years. Sadly, the religiously self-involved 19 year old version of me was unable to appreciate how deep this song is. If you’re in college now, you’re too young to remember when this came out.
Martin Luther King on Endorsing a Candidate
The link below connects you to a document preserved electronically by the King Center. It is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. responding to multiple requests that he endorse candidates in the 1960 election. Dr. King refused all such requests.
He writes:
The role that is mine in the emerging social order of the south and America demands that I remain non-partisan. This devoid of partisan political attachments, I am free to be critical of both parties when necessary.
He continues:
The best antidote to degeneration of conflict of opinion into maliciousness and violence is statesmanlike, firm, expressions of the moral issues giving active support to proper resolution.
This is not the time to look back, but to look forward. I am full of hope for the future because of the goodwill and concern shown by so many people in Georgia and all over the country.
Now let us use this period for genuine negotiations so that Atlanta can take a step forward toward the society of “wisdom, justice and moderation” which the seal of the state of Georgia and the Constitution of the United States promised.
Click here to read the entire document. Click and drag to move the page.
“I Am A Convinced Universalist”
William Barclay on Universalism:
I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe.
Thus far, I have been unable to find any thoughts by Reginald Barclay on the topic of universalism.
Is America Indispensable or The Only Hope of the Earth?
Reblog from Patheos.com.
Here is a selective excerpt:
There is no doubt in my mind that both Romney and Obama described America in such religious and exceptionalist terms because they are trying to win the election. As a nation we want to believe that we are special–a source of categorical good in the world. We want to believe that we are the greatest nation in the world, but more than that, that we are making the world a better place…
…My concerns about such glowing descriptions of America is that they assume things about our nation that may or may not be true. And such assumptions keep us from looking at the state of our union with sober judgement and consequently from seeing our weaknesses and failures. As Christians, we ought to hope that America would be a source of good in the world. But it is the height of hubris to assume that we are the greatest nation in the world. As Christians, we ought to be concerned primarily with God’s judgments over and against the judgments of others. And further, we should be very careful in presuming to speak for [God].
Hopping Hadrian's Wall 