Given what I post here the title above probably sounds like sacrilege to you. But in many ways being an Evangelical was just easier than taking my spiritual life seriously. I was an Evangelical for twenty-five years so there had … Continue reading I Kinda Miss Being An Evangelical
I have decided as my next project here at RedLetterLiving to take on the topic of Humanism and try to discover how that aligns with the teachings of Jesus. The post below was originally published in my main blog at … Continue reading Humanism And Jesus
This Sunday’s Looking Back is about one of my favorite Christian books and how I viewed its message five years ago.
Continue reading “Favorites Sunday – If God Is Love…”
I don’t like labels but there is a “but” in that statement for me. We need to understand just why the major conflicts arise in our world and then be able to see who is causing them. We can no longer afford a general “Us vs Them” mentality. If that keeps up it will eventually destroy us. Without knowing who “Them” is or what percentage of the population they represent we may just go down in ashes. That is what this post is all about.
Continue reading “MAGA/Evangelicals”
It just struck me in the shower recently that we seem to be living in two distinctively different worlds today that are weirdly occupying the same space in time. That phenomenon is not terribly unusual in the overall scheme of things, but the intensity of it is almost freakish now. The “Us vs Them” mentality seems to have caused a VERY deep chasm between too many of us. That is what this unusually long post a about.
This phenomenon has several different faces. Let’s look at some of them.
Continue reading “It’s Them!!!”Sadly, one of the things I believe the church has become very good at is to take some particular words from the bible and twist them around to more conform to their way of thinking. That is what today’s post is going to be about. Sometimes small alterations make a great deal of difference. For instance, we have about 90 percent of the same genes as cats and more than 98 percent of the same genes as chimpanzees. But those little differences matter a lot. This is also true when it comes to faith. I have been doing some reading in A Church … Continue reading Christian Nationalism
I am beginning to think that the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” is a very appropriate condition in trying to keep informed in the political world today. There is just so much phoniness and lies floating around that world now as … Continue reading Evangelical Christians Fear Knowledge
One of the things that totally baffles me is how people who now say they are Evangelicals but vote in almost direct opposition to those established beliefs. I hate to use the words but due to their hero the only … Continue reading I Am Always Trying To Figure Out The New Evangelicals…
I find myself often complaining when Christian organizations don’t come right out and say that currently labeled “Evangelicals” have kidnapped the true meaning of their religion and have replaced it with their own political version. I search out where someone is speaking out on this topic and here is one of them. You might want to read the whole article if this is of interest to you: “Is Roy Moore a hill on which Evangelicals are prepared to die? As for me and my house, ‘Hell no, we won’t go,’” said Evangelical theologian Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, Associate Professor of … Continue reading Over 300 Christian Theologians Challenge The Corruption Of U.S. Christianity
Britain is becoming an increasingly faithless society, according to a new survey that has found 53% of Britons now describe themselves as having no religion. The proportion is the highest ever, up from 48% in 2015 and 31% in 1983 when the British Social Attitudes survey was begun by the independent National Centre for Social Research. The trend is evident across all age groups but is particularly marked among young people, with 71% of 18-to 24-year-olds surveyed in 2016 saying they had no religion, up from 62% percent the previous year. The majority of older people still have some faith, … Continue reading Having No Religion or Faith..
This post continues with my fundamental beliefs about the Bible. I have not come to these beliefs on a whim. They are the result of many years of thoughtful prayer and study. I am also not trying to prove anyone wrong. Everyone should come to God in their own way. So let’s get on with the final four areas of my view on the Bible. Some words of the Bible have infinitely more significance to our lives than others— The words through Jesus’ lips are the most important. Every other word is secondary at best. This is a major sticking point for some. … Continue reading My View Of The Bible— Part 2 .. What I believe (con’t)
One of the major problems, that is besides their political leanings, is too many evangelical churches preach the “Sit Back and Wait Syndrome”. I know, as I did so myself, that it is too easy to just ignore your Church’s current beliefs in order to preserve your “country club membership”. Taking a stand against something often times means you’re asked to leave as you don’t believe the “right” things. That can be hard on your social life but do you really want to put that ahead of your spiritual life? The “SBAW” syndrome goes something like this: Everyone of us … Continue reading The Sit Back And Wait Syndrome..
The GOP and particularly the Evangelical segment seems to be against so many things. Anything to do with below the belt issues or invented since the Victorian age they are against. You name it and they seem to be against it. There is a simple solution to this. If you are against it then just don’t do it. If you believe it is wrong to eat meat then don’t do it, but don’t expect everyone to follow suit. If you think it is wrong to date and especially marry a person from another race then don’t do it, but don’t … Continue reading Well Then Don’t…
Almost ten years ago I started my first blog called RedLetterLiving. It was about living by the words of Jesus. I was concerned that even though Christianity was founded on the idea that Jesus was the Christ few current Christian denominations seemed to put much weight on his actual words. Little did I know that this study would go on for six years before I had fully answered my initial questions to at least my own satisfaction. I’m not sure when the organization Red Letter Christians was started but I think it was about that same timeframe. Two much more famous … Continue reading The Teachings of Jesus Are Very Hard To Follow..
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since our American culture is now almost totally geared around consumer spending. We simply can’t keep the paradigm going if we spend less this year than we did last. It seems that houses today MUST have master suites with at least 150 square foot closets and 200 square foot bathrooms. The general rule is that the family now needs 1,000 square foot of house for every member. Two kids = 4,000 SF minimum. But a point of this post is one of the items that kind of sneaked up on me was that … Continue reading More & More.. and then the Chinese Way..
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 