Some of my friends on Facebook have been sharing ten books that had an impact on them, so I thought I’d get in on the trend. I nearly didn’t, because the truth is that I find it hard to finish a book.
Social media has been ablaze lately with Christians tearing strips off Victoria Osteen for saying that when we worship God and when we do good, we’re not really doing anything for God, but we’re doing it for ourselves. My take is this: Osteen is actually right, and people are taking a certain glee in misunderstanding her because, well, she’s Victoria Osteen.
Suppose you awoke one day and found yourself in a relatively technologically advanced society in which there were some very poor people. You did not consent to be in this position, but here you are. You ask around among some people with reasonably well-paying jobs (that is, people like you), and they all tell you the same thing: They didn’t intend for there to be any very poor people. They all just woke up and found themselves here.
Spoiler: God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, making him reject Moses’ pleas to let the Israelite slaves go free.
So I have this problem with Christian pat answers.
I recently watched a clip of footage from a conference where a panel of experts (or so I assume) was addressing pastoral, moral and theological questions. This question was basically: My brother isn’t a Christian. He doesn’t believe that there’s any such thing as sin, so we don’t need to be saved from it. What should I say to him?
Listen to the answer for yourself:
If you kill yourself, then the only reason you did it is that one day you made a choice to do it. Are things really that simple?
Popular Christian blogger Matt Walsh has been getting a bit of flack lately. In a blog entry that was, in my view, a pretty bad idea, he offered what he took to be a correction to the many messages of sorrow about the recent death by suicide of actor Robin Williams. People have been drawing attention to Robin’s struggles with substance abuse and, more prominently in people’s comments, with the mental illness that is depression. I think it’s right to draw attention to this, and for Robin’s sad passing to be a reminder to us all how debilitating depression can be, and to reach out and help those who battle it. Sometimes you know about it, a lot of the time you won’t. Checkout the latest carbofix reviews.
New Zealand’s suicide rate is down. But there’s an unhappy story here about our elderly.
Figures for the year ending 30 June 2014 show that our overall suicide rate is at its lowest since the year ending 30 June 2008. Whether it’s the overall economic environment and direction, hopelessness / hopefulness about jobs or more personal scenarios: Family hardship (or an improvement therein), relationship status, or (hopefully!) improvement in the shape of mental health services, this is encouraging. Mental health and suicide has been thrust into the limelight recently, and that’s a brilliant thing.
Do you have the right to an opinion?
Many months ago I was in a discussion that ended with two people disagreeing and the other one saying something to the effect of “well, this is my opinion and I have a right to it.” I didn’t say this at the time because I was happy for the discussion to end, but my thought was: That’s the problem here. The problem is that you think you have the right to think what you think, whatever that happens to be. You don’t. That’s right, you do not have the right to an opinion, whatever that opinion might be.
Some people attribute storms and floods in the UK to divine judgement for same-sex marriage. Some people attribute an earthquake in Haiti to an alleged pact with the Devil.
I’m a little more circumspect, but I chuckle at the fact that St Matthew’s-in-the-city, that notorious peddler of crap billboards and liberal theology (and yes, liberal theology is crap) now has its building under threat by crap from the heavens.
I guess God is giving a little something back.
Thus saith the LORD
Glenn Peoples
PS, again, liberal theology is crap, as are St Matthew-in-the-city’s attention-seeking billboards. If you find that mean, it is probably not a sound investment spending any time telling me so. Also, yes I agree it is a shame that such a nice building is being damaged.
Why are we all suddenly going to Sam Harris for insight on Gaza?
Intelligent Design advocacy groups are doing it. Some of my Christian friends on Facebook are doing it. People are gleefully quoting some recent comments from Sam Harris about why he doesn’t criticise Israel but is sharply critical of Hamas. Here’s the snippet being passed around like reefer at a Green party conference: