Recently in Christianity Category

Colbert offers his very funny take on the Pope's offer to the Anglicans (he even gives us a very succinct history lesson of the original break between the churches). He has as his guest Episcopal priest, Father Randall Balmer, (author of God in the White House and Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America) to offer him the chance to join the "winning side." Blamer wasn't too interested, too many negatives and not enough positives (like the gospel) coming out of Rome.

(via)

BTW, Colbert has a new iPhone/iTouch app of his WORD videos for only a buck.

Too bad I didn't see this before I posted a link to the Hitchens article. Hitchens and Wilson on their press tour plugging the Collision documentary were on the Laura Ingraham Show, Fox and Friends and the Joy Behar Show. Here's a clip of the Behar show, you can watch the whole segment here:

Here's Fox and Friends (you have to sit through their other segments first):

And you can listen to Ingraham here.

You have to give him props for taking on all comers. It's not surprising that he hasn't been convinced by the arguments of his Christian opponents. Who has ever been argued into the kingdom of God?

I haven't yet run into an argument that has made me want to change my mind. After all, a believing religious person, however brilliant or however good in debate, is compelled to stick fairly closely to a "script" that is known in advance, and known to me, too. However, I have discovered that the so-called Christian right is much less monolithic, and very much more polite and hospitable, than I would once have thought, or than most liberals believe. I haven't been asked to Bob Jones University yet, but I have been invited to Jerry Falwell's old Liberty University campus in Virginia, even though we haven't yet agreed on the terms.

Wilson isn't one of those evasive Christians who mumble apologetically about how some of the Bible stories are really just "metaphors." He is willing to maintain very staunchly that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and that his sacrifice redeems our state of sin, which in turn is the outcome of our rebellion against God. He doesn't waffle when asked why God allows so much evil and suffering--of course he "allows" it since it is the inescapable state of rebellious sinners. I much prefer this sincerity to the vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing.

And as to the Christian right being less monolithic than he thought, I'm surprised that wasn't obvious by the number of Protestant denominations and how much we argue with each other. Case in point.

The article was way too short, I would have really appreciated hearing about what he thought of his debates with other religions (Muslims and Jews). And hearing more about the various types of debates he's had with other denominations. I guess I'll have to wait for the follow up to his book.

The Vatican has just made it easier for Anglican churches to join the Roman Catholic Church:

The Vatican said it will make it far easier for disgruntled Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, in one of Rome's most sweeping gestures to a Protestant church since the Reformation.

A newly created set of canon laws, known as an "Apostolic Constitution," will clear the way for entire congregations of Anglican faithful to join the Catholic Church. That represents a potentially serious threat to the already fragile world-wide communion of national Anglican churches, which has about 77 million members globally.

[....]

The Apostolic Constitution calls for the creation of new church structures, called Personal Ordinariates, that will operate under local Catholic dioceses and be administered by former Anglican clergy.

I guess this could give conservative Anglican congregations leverage in their fight over gay bishops and ordaining women, they could threaten to join the Catholic church if their demands aren't met. But there are some pretty substantial differences in doctrine that they'll have to overcome first (the doctrine of justification comes to mind :-) and the problem of a celibate priesthood (dispensations to married non-Catholic priests are currently granted but not on such a wide scale).

Still, the Rev. Jack Leo Iker, who leads the group that broke from the Episcopal Church of Fort Worth, said the Catholic proposal is likely to get a mixed reception.

"Not all Anglo-Catholics can accept certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do they believe that they must first convert to Rome in order to be truly catholic Christians," the Rev. Iker said.

How absolutely outrageous that something like this is happening. Torturing and killing children by Christians? What is being done in the name of Christ is a sin and one day these "pastors" will pay for it:

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

The Mount Zion Lighthouse -- also named by three other families as the accuser of their children -- is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.

"We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody," he explained.

When this insanity is finally denounced and rejected, it will be Christianity that is blamed even though greed appears to be what is worshiped in these churches not Christ. And yet these kids will associate the name of Christ with torture. How incredibly sad is that?

Please join me in praying first and foremost that these tortures and killings will end and that these kids will understand that the depravity of man is overcome by the cross and that Jesus came to save us from acts like these, not to have them committed in his name. That the love of Christ for his people should have been preached in the churches, not superstition. One day I pray they learn the difference between true Christianity and the counterfeit they (and their parents) were given.

(via iwestminster)