http://www.fluidfaith.org a conversation about the future of faith Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:07:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just went back to visit the Christianity Today poll that was up the other day. Interesting. Not scientific, of course. Proves nothing. But it might suggest a few of my friends aren't as alone as they feel.Share This Article http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/07/11/obama-leads-among-evangelicals/ In a July 4th weekend column for the Parade magazine that comes in your Sunday paper, John McCain offers the following definition of patriotism: "It is putting the country first ... before anything." Uh-oh. Senator McCain may not realize it, but he just excluded me. And most other Christians ... right? ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/07/10/john-mccain-says-im-not-a-patriot/ My friend David Underwood posted these quotes yesterday: "There is a great need to stress the importance of maintaining freedom of speech in the kingdom of God. Intolerance is dangerous to the future growth of the church. Most of us have an aversion to anything except what we ourselves believe and ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/07/09/things-i-love-about-harding-university-4-freedom-of-speech/ A few miscellaneous theological reflections from my recent surfing through the web-world. Thoughts about Shane Claiborne and the politics of being followers of Jesus in the world's only contemporary empire. Musings on homosexuality from Walter Wink. And apparently megachurch isn't just for christians anymore.... Shane Claiborne and the rich young ruler ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/07/03/theology-thursday-enemies-of-the-state-with-an-eschatological-vocation/ It's Tuesday and everybody needs a bit of distraction. So, here's one to pass a few minutes of the day. Falling Sand GameShare This Article http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/07/01/timewaster-falling-sand/ 19 years is a long time to put up with anybody. It's downright miraculous if the person you're putting up with is me! Angela and I celebrate our anniversary today. And as we were talking about it we realized that when our year-long dating life is included, Angela has now had ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/30/feats-of-strength-and-other-19-year-miracles/ I went to church yesterday morning. Maybe you did too. The air was cool; the sermon was warm. The songs were comforting and upbeat. We sat in our air conditioned building and reminded ourselves of God's love and his persistent promise of unending blessings. We felt blessed and optimistic. Meanwhile, ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/30/wake-up-call-while-you-were-sleeping/ My buddy Mark Elrod -- and my alma mater, Harding University -- were both mentioned in a NY Times article today about folks changing their Facebook name to include the middle name Hussein. The movement is hardly a mass one, and it has taken place mostly online, the digital equivalent ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/28/is-your-middle-name-hussein-also/ Why are acts of kindness supposed to be random? What if they were intentional instead? Not manipulative or fueled by some ulterior motive. No not that!! Just less random. More consistent. I wonder what would happen. Share This Article http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/09/marginal-thoughts-stop-being-so-random/ Are we worshiping an invented character? Well, N.T. Wright suspects that many of us are ... The longer you look at Jesus, the more you will want to serve him in his world. That is, of course, if it's the real Jesus you're looking at. Plenty of people in the church ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/06/marginal-thoughts-jesus-makes-me-uncomfortable/ Yesterday a friend of mine described a preacher we know as being "a true gospel preacher." His point was that this particular minister was uniquely gifted in the area of sharing plainly the grace of God's forgiveness to us as sinners. He gets the point of God's love across to ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/06/02/can-you-find-the-gospel-in-the-gospels/ I had an experience today that tuned my heart to the unique grief suffered by those women who've lost a husband. Grief like this has been on my heart a lot lately ... and other kinds of grief as well. Like the deep, incurable loss my grandparents experienced when their ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/03/31/comfort-in-the-midst-of-grief/ I have college friends with tattoos. I have college friends who write reminders on their hands. Aaahh, the best of both worlds ... Share This Article http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/23/note-to-self-why-cant-you-be-this-creative/ In my Sunday morning Bible class this past week I mentioned a passage from Simon Winchester's excellent little book on the great San Francisco earthquake called A Crack in the Edge of the World. He makes a salient observation about the changing nature of our worldview -- and the death ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/23/sometimes-a-tectonic-shift-is-just-seismic-activity-or-why-gay-people-dont-cause-earthquakes/ You'll have to forgive me. I had another one of those thoughts today. You see, I was looking forward to the lunar eclipse tonight. Had plans to go out with friends to watch the spectacular event. It was going to be really cool. But no. The meteorologists conspired against me. Or ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/21/prayers-we-dont-pray/ I was not able to make it over to the nearby campus of Harding University last night. I would've loved to attend the Islam in America presentation that Harding hosted, but unfortunately I had a prior commitment. Mark Elrod has full coverage of the event. There have been some really ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/18/things-i-love-about-harding-university-3-interfaith-dialogue/ Early this morning I came across a recent Time magazine interview about heaven with N.T. Wright. He says some things that remind me a lot of my own upbringing in the Churches of Christ, especially clarifying ideas about the "waiting place" (pick your preferred term) between death and resurrection. But he ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/18/getting-heaven-wright/ Justin Baeder has tagged me in the 1-2-3 meme. I've been reading quite a bit on Bonhoeffer lately, so here's page 123 from Cost of Discipleship which was sitting on the top of my stack: "To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, the very earth belongs. Those who now possess it ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/17/1-2-3-meme-deitrich-bonhoeffer/ I was mostly poking fun at Mike Huckabee in my Sunday post about his reducing all laws to the Big Ten. But I will say that I am rather unsettled by the language that the Baptist-Republican continues to use in his presidential campaign. Language that seems to reflect a viewpoint commonly ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/12/theocracy-the-worst-of-all-governments/ I just saw a clip of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaking today at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA (the church of the late Jerry Falwell) in which Huckabee offers an interesting commentary on law and morality: “Frankly, we really don’t need a lot of law if we are people ... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2008/02/10/ten-laws-no-more/