Category: Everything Else

Misc things that sprout in my mind

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A Small Closure….

RJ Walters

We have filled a small corner of our mosaic of church history so I will soon be moving on to discuss some of the early theologians of the church. I am certainly not done talking about the ordinary people who made up the beginnings of the church but I wanted to try to have a small closure for now.  I couldn’t find a better quote about that than this one from Harvey Cox in The Future of Faith: In the last few decades however, all these assumptions have proven erroneous. The following are now evident. First, there never was a … Continue reading A Small Closure….

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On The Road Again…..

RJ Walters

Mesa Verde National Park Yes, starting today my wife and I are on the road again. This time we will be traveling by car to the great State of Colorado. The majority of our time will be spent at Mesa Verde National Park so expect many photos in the next few weeks. We will be staying at the park lodge for six days of R&R, casual exploring and photographing nature. Although they don’t, on purpose, provide any television they do have wi-fi in the lodge, but not the rooms, so I can send the daily posts as always. We will … Continue reading On The Road Again…..

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Hospitality….

RJ Walters

Hospitality was a very important thing to the early Christians. They put it above beliefs in their understanding of Jesus. I will use a quote from Diane Butler Bass’ book Christianity After Religionto illustrate this point: Not offering hospitality was a much greater failure than not believing that Jesus was truly God and truly human. Early Christians judged ethical failings as the most serious breach of community, even as they accepted a significant amount of theological diversity in their midst.  Hospitality to these early followers meant following Jesus’ command to love one another. But just what did they mean by … Continue reading Hospitality….

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Subverted Loyalty….

RJ Walters

In this post lets revisit one of the quotes from Robin Myers’ book entitled The Underground Church – Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus. Empires seldom worry about religious beliefs that have no real effect on the loyalty of their subjects. But when that loyalty is subverted or replaced, those beliefs must be investigated and the believers crushed… It would take time  before People of the Way came up on the Roman radar screen. I think the Roman emperors thought that when the executed to primary leader of this rag-tag group that would drive them into oblivion but of course the opposite was actually true. … Continue reading Subverted Loyalty….

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On The Road….Again

RJ Walters

I wanted to let you know that starting tomorrow I will be doing a series of “On The Road” posts here.  For those of you who are not familiar with them they will be end-of-day posts about our trip to Washington DC and Baltimore.  Except for a one day trip in 1998 this will be the first time we have taken a tour bus. This will be a six day trip. Of course the first and last day of the trip will mainly be sitting in a hopefully comfortable air-conditioned bus and letting someone else do the driving for a change. I … Continue reading On The Road….Again

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About My Sources…

RJ Walters

This post is about some of my sources of info for the study I am presently undertaking on church history and how we got to where we are today. I have read scores of books on church history the last few years and continue reading them for this study. I have mentioned already there is one that influenced me greatly and it is one of the reasons I am doing this study. That book by Harvey Cox and is entitled Future of Faith. Here is a small bio of him found from Wikipedia: Harvey Gallagher Cox, Jr. (born May 19, 1929 … Continue reading About My Sources…

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Living Too Long….

RJ Walters

I only fear that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me –  Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson is not alone in this subject of dread.  I personally have already seen this too many times in my life and since I leave no heirs to care for me I dread that I too will live too long.  Those that I love sometimes have a very bitter end to their existence. They wither completely away before that last heart beat. They are a shell of what they once were before the Lord takes them. Then there … Continue reading Living Too Long….

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Employer Paid Healthcare is Complicated…

RJ Walters

We in the U.S. have chosen to get our health insurance primarily through our employers.  But that proves to be a very complicated process. The rest of the world has chosen their government to provide for their healthcare through their tax dollars. Employer Paid Healthcare is Complicated: If our employer is small he is likely unable to afford the going insurance rates. Therefore those employees are pretty much own their own. If our employer is a religious based institution they will likely exclude things that other might  be covered for. If our employer is having some financial problems they will … Continue reading Employer Paid Healthcare is Complicated…

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The Practice of Exclusion…

RJ Walters

I have been thinking lately about the words of Jesus and how he interacted with those he came across. Except for some of those in the religious establishment I couldn’t find any instance where he chose to automatically exclude from his saving grace or the wisdom of his teachings. He treated men and women pretty much the same; he welcomed all to his ministry. The poor and marginalized seemed to be special targets for him to reach out. He just wasn’t one to exclude anyone, even tax collectors and Roman soldiers. The sick and the lame were often the center of … Continue reading The Practice of Exclusion…

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Defining Evangelicals…

RJ Walters

I have had a Sojourners membership for a number of years now and enjoy the monthly magazine. One reason is that it shows me that I am not alone out there in believing what I do about Christianity.  Jim Wallis, who is the editor-in-chief of the magazine always has an editorial at the beginning of each issue.  This month is was about how the word “evangelical” means to the world in general.  In the editorial Jim opens with the following words: Here we go again. Presidential elections are coming, and the role of ‘evangelicals’ is predictably becoming a hot political … Continue reading Defining Evangelicals…

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Fire Insurance???

RJ Walters

Here is an extended quote from the second chapter of James for our discussion today: You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is … Continue reading Fire Insurance???

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The Cost of Healthcare….

RJ Walters

Now that I am finally a Medicare beneficiary I want to take a look back at the trip to get here. I will also be looking at how we do our healthcare relative to the rest of the industrial world. Let’s begin this journey. I have learned from experience that healthcare needs definitely increase as you get older.  I joke that I think my warranty expired when I turned sixty.  I am sure that I have been to the doctor more in the last five years than I had for the previous sixty combined. When I started out my adult … Continue reading The Cost of Healthcare….

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Today’s Church Building, What Would Jesus Do……

RJ Walters

I got to thinking recently about what did Jesus teach us about where we were supposed to come together to worship God. As I have mentioned before there is actually almost nothing in the Bible about this topic. But I can take the many other words of Jesus and postulate what he would likely say if he had addressed this area.  Here is what I think Jesus would say. The ideal church building would be in someone’s home. If the group is too large for that then it would be in a rented facility that is used for other purposes … Continue reading Today’s Church Building, What Would Jesus Do……

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I Don’t Care To Know Anything More About God….

RJ Walters

The title to this post certainly sounds like an ultra pompous statement doesn’t it?  But this is indeed what some Christians are saying when they cling to the “Sola Scriptura” doctrine. To say that God has nothing else to teach us besides what is contained the documents that were collected more than sixteen hundred years ago is depriving them of much needed help in living in the world today.  In that regard I feel deeply sorry for those that stubbornly cling to the concept of “Sola Scriptura”. They are depriving themselves of lessons God has been teaching the rest of … Continue reading I Don’t Care To Know Anything More About God….

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If God Is Love (Part 5)

RJ Walters

This is a continuation of my discussions of the book entitled “When God Is Love” by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland. Here is the quote for today: Working to make the world a more gracious place wasn’t a priority in the churches of my childhood. Some of this negligence was a result of apolcalyptic interpretations in which the world was doomed and damned anyway. One man insisted we shouldn’t work for peace in the Middle East because we were simply postponing Armageddon and the return of Christ. However, the primary reason the church didn’t have time to change the world … Continue reading If God Is Love (Part 5)