Hopewit

“It’s quite strange to expect people to conform to your morals because you quoted a book they don’t read” So says Benjamin Sledge in a post called Let’s Stop Pretending Christianity is Actually Relevant, Okay ? He also says that an American survey found that while 75+% of Americans say they’re Christians, 82% of millennials (born after 1990) concede that Christian faith is irrelevant to their lives. What being “Christian” actually means is something I’d be loathe to define. I’ve heard people say that winning a Catholic to Pentecostalism through a “born again” experience constituted “becoming a Christian.” We sing in our churches, “they will know we are Christians by our love,” and in worldwide statistics surrounding different religions, the persons included under “Christian” constitute 32% of the world’s population: 2,300,000,000 people. We are the largest religious denomination by far. Yeh! I wonder what the number would be if we were to include only t...

Walls to keep the badness out . . . or in?? History seen through a glass, darkly. Unfocused. When asked in an interview , “What is the goal of biblical interpretation?” Craig Blomberg (Ph.D.) replied: “[The goal of biblical interpretation is] to approximate as closely as possible the original meaning of a biblical author through the text that he wrote to an original audience, and then to apply it to myself in ways that fit that meaning but take into consideration my contemporary context.” That ought to be easy; it can be stated so simply. But it’s not. First of all, understanding the “original audience” and being adept at applying words geared to that audience in a “contemporary context” presents way too many hoops for even our most learned to jump through safely. Secondly, our reluctance to abandon the conviction that, for instance, Jesus had us 21 st Century followers in mind when he told the story of the prodigal son restricts our thinking, limits interpretation. ...

 The story goes something like this: A grizzled, old recluse became the subject of persistent rumours in his rural neighbourhood, one of which was that he’d stashed away piles of cash in his house and yard over the years. “He never sets foot in the credit union, so it’s gotta be true,” was trumpeted (pun intended) as proof. Not surprisingly, the prospect of “piles of cash” watered the mouths of many and two habitual denizens of the local bar took it into their alcohol-soaked heads one night to make a withdrawal from the old man’s account. They were too drunk to be discrete and forcing the door of his house was therefore a clumsy, noisy undertaking. Their reception was even noisier; the two barrels of a shotgun were enough insurance policy to dispatch the intruders to their eternal rewards—where cash would just flare up and disappear in smoke anyway. I’m sorry. I’ve forgotten the ending. How would you finish the story/parable if you were te...

Eigenheim Mennonite Church (Rosenort) Sanctuary - 1894 “ . . . suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don’t have love, I am nothing at all.” (1 Corinthians 13: 2b, NIRV). So your church is in trouble . . . again. Join the club. Conflict and Disunity might be the inherited middle names of the Bride of Christ ever since Paul and Peter quarreled over the status of non-Jews in the fellowship: meet Mary Conflict Disunity Church —bride of Christ. In order to maintain the inherited reputation of our divisive natures, we’ve had the Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation/Counter Reformation/Radical Reformation, the Crusades. We’ve burned enough heretics at the stake to heat all of Europe for a generation. We’ve hounded people like Galileo into recanting for the audacity of suggesting that the earth spins around the sun. We’ve split ourselves into so many denominations that we’re getting close to the place where there’ll be one for each of us. The a...

This stuff used to cure just about everything . . . It’s common in the democracies to hear someone say, without contradiction, that people should be free to express their opinions without fear of reprisal. At the same time, it’s easy to support this view by pointing out that its opposite—the repression and punishment of expressed, alternate worldviews—is a trademark of tyranny. When we viewed the Soviet Union as a repressive dictatorship, we coined a joke: In the USSR you can say anything . . . once.  We have slander and libel laws, however, that restrict malicious speech and writing. We generally approve the constraint on speech and writing that foster prejudice, discrimination against identifiable minorities. Blabbing state secrets is treason. False advertising is punishable. Racial slurs on the sports field result in suspensions and/or, possibly, a fist in the chops. I don’t mean to argue the merits, the downsides of embedding “free speech” in bills of rights...

“Amira Elghawaby, spokeswoman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the term Islamophobia is commonly used in Canada [ ] to describe the irrational fear or hatred of Muslims that leads to discrimination or actual acts of harassment or violenc e. Phobias are irrational fears, fears that are unreasonable but have become so strongly embedded that they precipitate acting-out or avoidance behaviour as if the feared danger were real. Flight phobics, for instance, will stay at home, avoid traveling to see a family member overseas even though air travel is statistically far safer than auto travel. A young Canadian man will walk into a mosque and shoot 18 people, 6 of whom will die. Many Christians are somewhat fearful about admitting refugees to our country and communities, but if that fear should escalate to “acts of harassment or violence,” according to Elghawaby, the word Islamophobia would apply. A motion in the Canadian parliament to study and propose ...

But a new time is coming. In fact, it is already here. True worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for. (John 4:23) God is spirit . His worshipers must worship him in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) That friend is the Spirit of truth. The world can’t accept him. That’s because the world does not see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you. (John 14:17) But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is still going to happen. (John 16:13) Merriam-Webster lists 13 different uses of spirit , with a number of those carrying sub-meanings. A few that might possibly apply here are: “ an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms;” “a supernatural being or essence: such as Holy Ghost;” “the a...