Growing up evangelical, I was taught that heaven is reserved for all who sincerely believe that Jesus is the Son of God and accept him as Savior through his work on the cross. I memorized the verses that support this doctrine. I was also taught to obey those in authority (oh boy, was I taught that), along with the Scripture to prove it. And I was taught that “good works” are useless – and all applicable verses were duly memorized.... Read more
We think of Jonah as that guy who sat undigested in the belly of a big fish for 3 days. But there’s more to his story. Really, the fish part may have been the high point of his life. And really, there’s something about him that’s very familiar. Jonah’s first couple of screw-ups In the first chapter of Jonah, of course, God commands Jonah to preach against the wicked city of Nineveh. Jonah does not walk, he runs in the... Read more
Recently, we’ve been looking at what Jesus had to say about gaining eternal life. We found that he didn’t always say, “believe in me and pray the Sinner’s Prayer.” In fact, he told his followers clearly that heaven was for those who loved sacrificially. In his words – including the Beatitudes – and miracles, he demonstrated that God wanted faith, not formulas. In short, Jesus was not obsessively focused on doctrine as we often are today. I promised to look... Read more
It’s time to interrogate our idea of grace. We’ve been discussing eternal life and the “formula” that many evangelicals believe is the only ticket to heaven. We’ve seen that when Jesus spoke of heaven, at times his teachings didn’t include the “formula”: Here, Jesus encouraged his followers to emulate a man (the Good Samaritan) of a different religion, and this would bring them eternal life. Here, Jesus tells us that we will be eternally rewarded if we cared for the least... Read more
Last time, I promised to take a look at Jesus’ prerequisites for spending eternity in the presence of God. We’ve already looked at the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ command to “go and do likewise” (i.e. live like the Samaritan – a man of a different religion). The implication here is that God is not as big on theology as on love. A number of readers on Facebook objected to this reading, because after all, “Jesus specifically said that... Read more
We’re on the topic of “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” For me, as for most evangelical and/or conservative Christians, this was the easiest question in the world to answer. “Believe in Jesus as your Savior.” Until my paradigm was challenged. Living overseas for a decade, I traveled to dozens of countries (mostly in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East). The experience was rich and the people were awesome – but my soul became more and more troubled.... Read more
If you’re like me, you’ve read or heard the parable of the Good Samaritan about a million times – but never understood its real message, although it’s been right in front of us all along. I’ve written about this topic before, but it’s time to circle back. I was recently accused of being “selfish” because I “love people without caring about their eternity” – a sentiment I totally understand because I used to be in that camp, but one that... Read more
I spent most of my life as an evangelical. We were all sinners – wretches even – saved by grace in order to bring glory to our Savior. We did that by faithfully accepting as true all we were taught, and then faithfully applying it to our lives (and the lives of others, when possible). When I was with my Conservative Christian Community (CCC), I was home. We assumed that our Bible teachers had a direct line to God. We... Read more
In my previous life as an evangelical Christian, I had what I considered a healthy apprehension about gay folks. It was for the sake of my kids (or so I told myself) that I preferred to avoid discussing “that subject,” and sidestep any acknowledgement of the existence of “those people.” Like so many other awkward issues, it was invisible. Actually, it was more normal in our evangelical world to avoid awkward subjects than to discuss them. In all my years of Christian... Read more
“Did you say you want us to ‘re-think Hamas?'” Yes. As in, recognizing it as a legitimate political party and dropping its label as “terrorist organization.” I know. Your first reaction, if you’re at all familiar with Hamas, is, “are you insane? Of course Hamas is a terrorist organization!” Your next thought might be, “egad, you’re a terrorist too, Kathy!” Now that that’s out of your system, let me ask you a second question: What makes you so sure Hamas is... Read more
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