What Are Your “Banned Questions” About Christians?

I’ve really enjoyed working the last couple of years on a new book series called the “Banned Questions” series. The first book, Banned Questions About the Bible, came out in early 2011 and the second, Banned Questions About Jesus, was just recently published.

Aside from taking on provocative and challenging theological material, at the heart of the series is a spirit of collaboration. Though I created and edit the books, I invite more than a dozen other writers to contribute to each volume. The idea is that, rather than persuading people to see things my way, I’d rather present a number of viewpoints and invite readers to decide for themselves what they believe.

I’m now working on the third book in the series, Banned Questions About Christians, and I want to expand the conversation further, and begin it earlier. To this end, I’ve created an online page where anyone can add their own “Banned Questions” about Christians or Christianity, and they can also vote on the list of questions to help sort out which ones are most interesting to the public. Though the final list of fifty questions likely will not come verbatim from this list, it will heavily influence what ultimately goes into the book.

As a teaser, I thought I’d list the current top five questions posted to the list. These are unedited, taken directly from the content posted by participants:

#1 Can you be GLBTQ and be a Christian? A minister?
More and more denominations and christian communities are welcoming GLBTQ people, as well as Ordaining GLBTQ as ministers. Is this really possible?

#2 What is Prosperity Gospel? Where did it come from?
Preachers like Joel Osteen preach about Jesus wanting us to be rich. Where does this belief come from? Wasn’t Jesus poor? Didn’t he tell rich people to give everything away?

#3 Blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus? Really?
Historically Christians feel compelled to make Jesus look and dress like they do. Why? Do Christians do anything similar today?

#4 Do Christians not believe in science?
Do all Christians not believe in science? Can a scientist be a Christian? Have there been famous scientists that were Christians?

#5 Why so many different names for leaders of church?
Why are there so many different names for people who lead churches? Is it “pastor”, “priest”, “father”, “bishop”, “brother”, “Reverend”, “sister”, ‘mother” Is one better than the other? Which one is “correct” (if any)?

Do you have a burning question about Christians or the Christian faith you’ve always wondered about but have been afraid to ask? Would you like to help determine what questions make it into the next book? CLICK HERE to visit the growing conversation, and to add your voice to the mix.

Thanks for taking part in this fun little experiment, and stay tuned for more details as the list gets closer to being finalized.