slacktivist - Page 5 of 703 - "Test everything; hold fast to what is good."

Every ‘Ten Commandments’ is a Sectarian Choice — An Establishment Of Religion

April 27, 2018 By Fred Clark

Any numbering of the Ten Commandments must be explicitly sectarian. Every representation of the commandments that lists them in ten divisions, even without numbers attached, constitutes a sectarian preference. One specific sect is being commended and elevated, all others are being rejected. Read more

LBCF, No. 182: ‘Growing Pains’

April 27, 2018 By Fred Clark

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Kirk Cameron is an actor. Kirk Cameron is not good at acting. I suspect this is partly a theological problem and so I recommend a theological solution: Shakespeare. Read more

‘If no one asks, then no one answers’

April 26, 2018 By Fred Clark

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“Others in the room balked. One longtime leader of an evangelical umbrella group said that he had already received calls from donors for merely attending the meeting, and that asking them to repent for racism would be seen as too political.” Plus ca change … Read more

A Modest Proposal Regarding Prayer Breakfasts

April 25, 2018 By Fred Clark

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Get rid of prayer breakfasts. No one will miss them when they’re gone, and religion and politics would both be better off for their absence. Read more

‘A kind of resentful nostalgia’

April 24, 2018 By Fred Clark

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Graham’s phrase is a near-bullseye that helps us to locate the actual center. I think, in other words, that we’re not seeing “a kind of resentful nostalgia” but, rather, a kind of nostalgic resentment. Resentment is the core, the essence of the spirituality of the 81 percent. Read more

The ‘Weird’ Fringe is the Biggest Part of White Evangelicalism

April 23, 2018 By Fred Clark

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The main stream of mainstream evangelicalism was once, as George Marsden put it, people “who like Billy Graham.” Today, “mainstream” evangelicalism is merely a tiny, weird slice of the evangelical world, consisting of leaders-without-followers and people who like George Marsden. Read more

Sunday favorites

April 22, 2018 By Fred Clark

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“Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Read more

LBCF, No. 181: ‘Meet the Steeles’

April 20, 2018 By Fred Clark

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Brad Johnson is a far better actor than Jerry Jenkins is a writer. Casting a capable actor here means that the Rayford Steele in the movie is a different character entirely than the Rayford Steele in the book. Read more

The blurry line between ‘fixer’ and ‘blackmailer’

April 19, 2018 By Fred Clark

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My advice for hiring a fixer is not to. It ain’t easy finding someone you can trust absolutely to be absolutely untrustworthy to everyone else. If you’re hiring a fixer, you’re essentially agreeing to hire your own blackmailer. Read more

The driving of the droves continues apace

April 18, 2018 By Fred Clark

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The droves are, yet again, on the move. Young people always leave churches “in droves.” Droves are apparently the preferred mode of departure for younger generations leaving their religious upbringing. Read more