Faith: December 2007 Archives
Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works: Some things I learned from 2007
Some thoughts worth pondering at year's end about God and life and friendship and happiness.
OneNewsNow.com: Pastor Joel Osteen speaks out on Mormonism
Pastor Joel is just okie-dokie with it. "'I believe they are [true Christians].'... When asked about specifics of the Mormon faith, such as the gold tablets allegedly found by Joseph Smith with the so-called 'new revelation' from God, and the belief that humans can become gods, Osteen said he did not know enough about the religion's beliefs to comment."
No Blog of Significance: Why I Choose to Remain a Southern Baptist
Despite his sense that "[w]e sometimes seem to hold one another more accountable for things that are not actually sins than we do for real sins," Dan Paden has a list of 10 reasons he's sticking with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Soli Deo Gloria: 13 Evangelistic Phrases That Produce False Conversions
Are our evangelistic efforts presenting a fatally distorted picture of the gospel? Jay Wingard says, "We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions."
WORLD Magazine: Oh, for a thousand tongues
Today was the 300th birthday of Charles Wesley, one of the greatest hymn writers in the English-speaking world. Considered a co-founder of Methodism alongside his older brother John, Wesley's hymns are known and loved across denominational boundaries. My favorite Wesley hymn is one I didn't learn until college: "And Can It Be That I Should Gain?"
Hot Air: Larry O'Donnell admits he's afraid to criticize Islam publicly
In an interview with Romney apologist Hugh Hewitt, O'Donnell acknowledges that, for some odd reason, he's more at ease with criticizing Mormonism than Mohammedanism: "HH: 'Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?' LO'D: 'Oh, well, I'm afraid of what the...that's where I'm really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I'm afraid for my life if I do.'"
The Huffington Post: Lawrence O'Donnell Loses His Ever-Loving Mind on McLaughlin
That's Jason Linkins' opinion, not mine. O'Donnell is not someone I'd agree with much of the time, but he's right about Mormonism, pointing out that in 1978, when Mitt Romney was 30, the Mormon Church disavowed its previous position excluding blacks from the Mormon priesthood.
Christianpost.com: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism -- the New American Religion
Are these the fundamentals of the American faith? "1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. 2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. 3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. 5. Good people go to heaven when they die." (Via Crunchy Con.)
oldSpeak: Interview with Frank Schaeffer
John Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, and an associate of Francis Schaeffer, interviews Frank Schaeffer about Crazy for God, his account of growing up in the Schaeffer family. Via Michael Spencer, who calls it the best interview his seen with Frank Schaeffer.
YouTube: The origins of the Book of Mormon
Since Mitt Romney is talking about his faith, we will, too. Here's the true story of Joseph Smith, the golden plates, the seerstones, credulous Martin Harris and his skeptical wife Lucy. (NB: It's from an episode of South Park, so there's a single, mild vulgarity at the very end.)
